“Oh,” I couldn’t help the smile in my voice. “I can see that quite clearly.”
“My parents thought it would be best if I did.”
“You are very kind.”
She groaned. “How do I keep landing myself in these positions where I am forced to be unwillingly kind to you?”
I turned to study her, wondering how she could be so different from the woman who’d cared for me. “I didn’t realize you were unwilling during our time together in the croft.”
Miss Blackwell’s frown disappeared when her jaw dropped open. Her foot caught on a tree root or a stone and she tumbled forward. I reached back to steady her by her arm, but she pulled away. “I’m all right.”
Her face was flushed and she wouldn’t meet my eye.
“Are you certain?” I asked. Something seemed wrong. Had I mentioned something I shouldn’t? Charlie was far ahead of us and out of earshot.
“I’ve been walking this path from the time I was seventeen, so yes, I’m certain.”
We walked several more feet in silence. “I came outside hoping to find Harriet.”
“Well, then. I suppose it is a good thing you found me and my family instead.”
“I didn’t mind. Your brother is endearing, and of course I’ve always respected your father.”
“And apparently my mother already dotes on you.”
“She does?”
“You didn’t notice?”
“She did seem quite pleased to see me, although I have no idea why.”
“She listens to my father as much, or I suppose, even more than anyone else does.”
I couldn’t help my chuckle. As long as the two of us didn’t discuss Harriet, Miss Blackwell was pleasant enough. “Your father is a giant of a man. He shaped me more than my own father did.”
Charlie turned around without stopping and waved for us to walk quicker. I had kept up with her marching pace for a moment, but we’d slowed significantly since then.
Miss Blackwell sighed, but she didn’t quicken her pace. “Charlie is pleased you’ve offered to join him. It is lonely to be the only one his age. It seems you have now enraptured the whole of the Blackwell clan.”
Was that a compliment? From Miss Blackwell?
“The whole of it?” I raised my eyebrows at her, knowing her response would be negative, even though I still couldn’t understand exactly why. I wasn’t usually a person people disliked.
Her eyes went to the sky. “I don’t doubt you were a good soldier. Perhaps you are even a good man, although that hasbeen harder to discover. But I don’t want you distracting Harriet.”
“Why do you see me as only a distraction for her? Perhaps you are keeping her from her best chance at happiness.”
She snorted.
That smarted.
“Have you seen her since breakfast this morning?” I asked, even though she was the last person I should try to get help from.
“She went into town with her family. I don’t think she will be back until it is time to dress for dinner.”
She was in town? I’d been biding my time for good weather so we would have a chance to speak privately and the moment that was possible she’d gone into town? “Just her family?”
She tipped her head as if she were trying to remember. “No, I believe both your lieutenant friends and the Howards joined them.”
