“How do you do, Mr. Lowry,” she whispered back.
More staring.
“And her sister Miss Elisa,” Poppy continued.
Lowry turned to Elisa and bowed politely over her hand as well. “Such a pleasure, Miss Elisa.” He smiled at her, and Elisa beamed back at him with that sweet expression she often wore.
“It’s nice to meet nice people,” she said. “No matter how it happens.”
Lowry’s smile widened further and he said, sounding delighted, “Very well stated, Miss Elisa!”
“Well,” Poppy said. “I fear we must return to Pencliff Towers, where we are all staying for the summer. Perhaps we will have the good fortune to run into you again, Mr. Lowry.”
“I do hope so,” he said.
The driver wheeled the carriage up then, and Officer Lowry jumped into action. “Oh, allow me!” The young officer immediately offered a hand to help first Elisa, then Elowen into the coach.
“Thank you, sir,” Elowen said once everyone had boarded (Carlos helped Poppy in, which was good, since she’d grow old waiting for Lowry to tear his worshipful gaze away from Elowen).
“Thank you,” he echoed, as the coach drove away.
On the ride back, Elowen had a dreamy expression on her face, until Elisa asked, “Are you going to marry him?”
Elowen sat bolt upright. “Elisa! I don’t even know him!”
“I think you should marry him,” Elisa reiterated.
“There’s usually more to the process,” Poppy said. “Though I do have to say he seemed…”
“Struck,” Carlos supplied, with a sly grin. He and Poppy shared the backward facing seat, since she didn’t want to crowd the sisters (and she wanted to see Elowen’s face).
“I was trying to avoid a pun.”
“No avoiding that one. One couldn’t have asked for a more direct meeting.”
“Just think,” Poppy told Elowen. “If we’d talked a little less, we’d have been in that carriage before he ever came out of the inn, and you’d never have met him at all.”
“Oh, no,” Elowen breathed in dismay.
“But since you have, I suppose we can come up with reasons to return to town. You think he was with the navy? I didn’t recognize the uniform he wore.”
“He’s a Customs agent,” Carlos informed them. “Riding officers patrol a section of the coastline. He must be rather a new one, judging by the crispness of his uniform.”
“Hmmm.” Poppy wondered if the young, impressionable Lowry was representative of the agents in Cornwall—he didn’t seem like the sort to intimidate a smuggler.
They reached Pencliff Towers and Elowen floated off toward the house, her sister in tow.
“Damn,” Carlos murmured after Elowen was out of earshot. “I don’t think I’ve ever before witnessed two people falling in love so instantly. Do you think they have a chance?”
“There’s a lot more to love than gazing into each other’s eyes,” Poppy said. “Though they do seem to have that part sorted.”
“It’s never simple,” he agreed.
“He’ll have a family to convince. And she and her sister don’t live here. And there’s a dowry to be thought of…”
“You are the opposite of a romantic, Miss St George.”
“Someone has to keep their feet on the ground.”
