Rearranging his clothes, he turned to leave. He was almost to the connecting door when he thought he heard her whisper. “Stay.”
He held his breath, straining to hear. But there was only silence. He had probably imagined the soft-spoken word out of his own desires.
He left, closing the door on his foolishness.
CHAPTER 22
“WOULD YOU LIKE TO GOto Cremorne Gardens tomorrow? I read there’s going to be a balloon ascent.” Colin asked the next morning over breakfast, looking up from the newspaper he was perusing.
Abigail’s head snapped up and her eyes widened in anticipation. “Oh, I would love that!”
“A balloon ascent, you say?” Piped Elizabeth, entering the breakfast room. “That sounds like jolly good fun. May I go too?”
Colin frowned. From what he had heard, Cremorne was really not the place for a young lady. The gardens were notoriously rowdy.
“I don’t know Elizabeth. An outing to Cremorne is not the most proper pastime for a young lady.”
“Oh, fiddle-faddle. It will be quite proper if we go as a family. What is the harm? I only want to see the balloon ascend into the air. Can you imagine such a thing?”
“We shall ask your mother, dear. I agree with Colin on this one.”
At that moment the countess arrived at the dining room, her chair being pushed by Wang.
“Mum! Colin and Abigail are planning to go to Cremorne tomorrow to watch a balloon ascent. Could I come too?”
The countess’s eyes turned dreamy. “Cremorne. I remember going there many years ago.”
“Is that so? Then it can not be improper that I go too.” Elizabeth said, latching on to that snippet of information to make her case.
Her mother looked at her with a troubled expression. “I don’t know Liz. The gardens in my time were much more tame than what I hear they are now.”
“Please! It is just a garden. I want to watch a big balloon ascend into the sky. Can you imagine how spectacular it would be to see the city from up there in the sky?”
“But you are not ascending, dear. You will just be watching someone else ascend.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Did you see a balloon when you went?”
