“Oh.” Robert tensed. “Of course, my lady.”
He bent his arm, allowing Lady Marina to rest her hand in the crook of his elbow. It felt strange after having walked in the same way with Miss Brooke. It felt wrong, somehow. Lady Marina was somewhat shorter than Miss Brooke, her hands slightly smaller, but that was not why it felt odd. It just felt traitorous somehow—he wanted to walk with Miss Brooke, and he was not sure who he betrayed more: Lady Marina, Miss Brooke, or himself.
Dash it,he thought despairingly as Miss Brooke stood up, making her way towards the doors. She and her cousin were much closer to the door than he was—she would be out in the street before he had a chance to say anything to her.
As her party joined the line of guests moving to the door, she turned around. She was three or four people ahead of him—close enough for him to see her gray-blue eyes fasten on his.
He held her gaze, wishing that he could convey a message to her—an apology, a thanks and a wish to talk, all at once. But her party was moving to the door, and she turned around and he had to look away as his mother’s hand tightened on his arm, steadying herself in the press of people. He gazed after Miss Brooke, and, despite not having said a word to her, he felt better. He had seen her, and that was enough. He would talk to her again soon.
Chapter 15
“This is diverting!” Caroline’s voice exclaimed, as she drew in a gasp for breath. Sarah turned around and looked at her cousin, blinking confusedly. She had been striding along the pavement with her cousin, so lost in thought—recalling the concert and the duke the previous night and how he had stared at her as she neared the door at the Assembly Rooms—that she had forgotten where she was.
“Yes,” she agreed dreamily. “Most diverting.”
“You sound fatigued,” Caroline said with a grin. “I am, too. I wonder if it was wise to have a picnic today,” she added, looking up at the sky. “But then, it is such a lovely day! We could not postpone it since it might rain again tomorrow.”
“Quite so,” Sarah replied. She gazed up at the sky. Sunshine, bright and intense, poured down on them from a blue sky. Here and there, she occasionally spotted puffs of white cloud, drifting across, moved by a breeze somewhere in the blue heavens.
It was a beautiful day. Just right for a picnic.
She and Caroline had hurried ahead of the rest of the guests, striding down the road to the Royal Crescent to be there in time to prepare.
“We have an awful lot of guests,” Sarah added, looking around. The entire house-party had decided to attend the picnic, which was around twenty people.
“Oh, that will all be well,” Caroline said lightly. “We have enough rugs. And our cook has been making hampers since yesterday morning. I am certain we shall be well-fed.”
“That is good,” Sarah agreed with a lift of the lips. She was hungry, having picked at her breakfast, aware of the scrutiny of the duchess and Lady Marina across the table from her. Their disapproval of her had seared across the space of the breakfast-room and Sarah had eaten as much as she could bear to and then hurried out.
“Almost there. Now, is not that a sight to stare at?”
Sarah nodded. She stared across the gap of the open lawn towards the Royal Crescent. It was the first building she had taken note of as they rolled into Bath, and it drew her attention every bit as much as it had then now that she saw it up close.
The building—it was one row of terraced houses, not a single building, though it looked like one—was a perfect arc, the fronts of the houses richly adorned with columns and pediments. It was easy to imagine that the building was from a bygone era; the same era as the Roman Baths that she had seen just days before. Sarah stared up at it in awe, for a moment imagining that she had traveled more than a thousand years back in time.
“It’s impressive,” Caroline commented, then returned to her brisk, down-to-earth self. “The butler said that he had come down earlier with the blankets and baskets. Can you spot him?” she asked Sarah.
“There.” Sarah tilted her head, indicating a tall man in a black jacket, standing under a tree. She squinted—she could just make out a pile of what might have been picnic-baskets beside him. Caroline squinted in the direction she indicated and nodded.
“There he is. We ought to go and instruct him as to where they should be. Edward should be here any minute with the guests! Let us make haste.”
Sarah walked briskly with Caroline across the lawn, holding onto her bonnet. She had chosen a patterned muslin gown—white with a design of leaves on it—and her bonnet was white, tied under her chin with a white ribbon. She hurried with Caroline, who wore a daffodil-colored gown with a bonnet with ocher ribbons.
Mr. Edgehill received his instruction from Caroline and started unloading baskets from the pile, positioning them atregular intervals on the lawn. Sarah stared across the grounds. She could see coaches starting to arrive at the spot where Caroline and herself had been left by their coachman. One of them must belong to the duke.
She watched as people started to alight from the coaches. Her eyes were drawn to a tall man in a dark coat and top hat. He reached up to help a lady out of the coach, and a child and she grinned. It was the duke! He had brought Henry with him.
“Good. Everything is in full swing, just in time,” Caroline commented from beside her, grinning. Some of Caroline’s reddish hair curled onto her brow, her nose lightly dusted with freckles from days spent in the sunshine in Bath.
Sarah watched as the duke approached. Henry walked with the dark-clad Mrs. Wellman, but she could see that he was impatient and wanting to run.
Sarah’s heart sank. The duchess, the duke’s mother, walked close by beside Lord and Lady Bardwell, and Lady Marina was with them. She would not have a chance to see the duke while they picnicked.
“Shall we take a seat?” Caroline asked, gesturing to the rugs that the butler had laid out. There was room for five people on each of the blankets, and Sarah was sure that their party would be Caroline, Edward and herself, and probably James and Victoria. The duke would be forced to sit with his mother and Lady Marina.
She sat down beside Caroline, and then smiled to see Edward approaching, hurrying to join them. His gray top-hat tilted as he ran, and he reached up a hand to adjust it.
“A fine day! Just the thing for a picnic.” He grinned at Caroline. “A fine notion, sweetling.”
