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‘Chicken, thank you, and might we have some tea brought to the parlour? Doctor Burnett has arrived.’
‘Has he now?’ Betty’s eyes grew round. ‘Quite a bit of a to do going on in St Albans about him, you know. When I was there the tongues were wagging nineteen to the dozen...’
Elise blinked, then asked apprehensively, ‘Why, what has he done?’
‘Nothing, so far as I know...apart from breaking a few hearts since he arrived in the neighbourhood.’ She gave Elise a slow wink. ‘But he is a rather strapping handsome sort, isn’t he? And a bachelor.’ She pulled a knowing face, crossing her arms under her ample bust so the animals dangled below her armpits. ‘The vicar’s girls have been hoping he’ll come over for tea with them and their mama. That saucy Victoria was saying she’d break a leg if necessary to get him there. I think she was funning. Well, seems you two young ladies have beaten them all to it and not yet a week back from town, are you.’
‘He seems very pleasant.’ Elise smiled. ‘Might we have that tea quite soon? I’m not sure how long Dr Burnett is able to stay.’
‘Seeing as it’s him, I’ll break out the box of raisin gingerbread I was saving for you all for Sunday after church.’ Mrs Francis ambled off towards the kitchen.
The mention of gossip in St Albans had made Elise’s heart resume pounding. She fingered the parchment in her pocket and was suddenly compelled to open the letter and quickly read it. If it contained the news she was dreading, she felt certain her aunt Dolly’s missive would also distress her father. Since they’d returned home she’d noticed he seemed more tired and frail than usual. She was suddenly very glad that the doctor had come unexpectedly because he might sound her father’s chest before leaving...
A loud rat-a-tat brought her head up sharply and with a quiet imprecation Elise thrust the letter back whence it came and marched towards the front of the house. Days went by when no soul came near nor by their front gate, she thought, as she turned the doorknob. Yet today, of all days, three knocks in the space of one hour...
‘Are you going to invite me in, Elise?’
Elise snapped together her softly parted lips, finally conquering her astonishment and shaking some sense into herself. ‘Yes...of course...I’m sorry...I was not expecting to see you...’ she breathed.
Quickly she stood aside to allow Alex Blackthorne’s large frame entry into the cottage. They faced one another in the narrow corridor, a sunbeam filtering through a high window, crowning her head with glints of gold. Quickly Elise pushed stray tendrils back behind her ears, wishing she’d not lain on her bed, crumpling her hair and clothes when reading earlier. Had she known he was on his way she’d have taken care with her appearance. But she’d not imagined he’d turn up out of the blue without first sending word to warn of his arrival.
‘Why didn’t you write and let me know you were coming?’
A sardonic smile conveyed better than words that there’d been no time to do so, and when Elise allowed herself a moment to study him she saw a fine film of dust on his rugged features as though he had travelled very fast without a stop. ‘Have you brought bad news?’ she whispered.
‘I suppose that depends on how you take what I have to say.’ Alex replied wryly.
‘What have you come to say?’ Elise murmured in a barely audible voice.
Alex looked about the hallway at the three doors leading off it. ‘Is there somewhere more suitable for us to talk?’
The initial shock of seeing him had rendered her speechless, hence his need to prompt her to invite him inside. Once again he’d had to remind her of expected niceties. Her unintentional, yet reprehensible, lack of hospitality reminded Elise just how different were their circumstances.
Unkempt as he was from his journey, his bearing retained the unmistakable stamp of affluence and breeding. In her cotton clothes and rustic surroundings Elise was sure he saw before him a spinster who had attended fashionable town venues, garbed in the modest finery her father had scrimped to buy her, so she might catch a husband.
And, of course, it was the truth. A family of her own to cherish was no less appealing to Elise than to Beatrice, and had she attracted a suitor she could love, and trust to reciprocate her loyalty and affection... As she glanced at the handsome man just a hand span away from her, she was assailed by a wounding insight.
Her chin inched up. ‘I should like to introduce you to my father,’ she said proudly. ‘We have another guest. The doctor is here.’ Elise suddenly remembered the fellow’s presence.
