“Oh, that had nothing to do with heights. I have a secret passion for staring at the back of the Duke of Ettrick’s head. That evening was a rare opportunity for me.”
Lily laughed. “It does make me feel better about my quirk to know that you have one of your own.”
“The thought of you in a hot air balloon—even a fictional one—was enough to give me spasms.” He delivered this dramatic statement in a dry, droll tone that had Lily grinning. “But enough about my oddity. Is there anything else you learned about yourself while you were away?”
Lily was aware of him studying her profile when she finally said, “I didn’t miss the city as much as I thought I would. Other than my family, I mean. I missed them. But the city itself not at all. Except perhaps, for the hot chocolates you can get at the Clarendon Hotel.”
“You can order the ingredients for that by post.”
Lily chuckled. “My one want easily remedied then.”
“You truly prefer the countryside to the city?”
“I’m as surprised as anyone, believe me. But there’s something about the peaceful mornings, the slow afternoons. And I never realized how much the city stinks until I returned. There are too many people, too muchnoise.” She glanced over at him. “I’m sorry—I’m complaining again.”
“Of all the people I know, you complain the least.”
“Then most of your acquaintances must be curmudgeonly indeed, for I feel I grumble all the time.”
Bradford shook his head, smiling. “I never heard you complain once, not even when Rebecca was sick upon your shoes.”
“Believe me, I was wailing on the inside. I dearly love shoes.”
He was staring at her again—she’d noticed he did that sometimes. Lily self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said, “Forgive me—I’ve been prattling on about matters of little consequence when you doubtless have questions prepared for me.”
Every day, he asked her something as part of his investigation. It was the least she could do to answer him honestly, considering what she’d done.
“I have many questions today, but the first is, how did you come to the decision to do what you did—to take employment somewhere far away?”
There were several moments filled only with the sound of the wind shivering the leaves of the trees they walked beneath. It was one of her favorite things about Bradford—though he might ask her difficult questions, he never rushed her to answer.
She finally said, “You know what happened to my family—we’ve spoken of that before.”
Bradford nodded.
“It was the worst of both worlds—too noble to take on work, too poor to eat. So I thought about what I might do to help my sisters, something more than simply finding things within the house to sell.” She adjusted her shawl more firmly around her shoulders, stopped in the pathway, and faced him. “Do you know the problem with selling one’s things?”
“What is that?”
“After the creditors ravage the place, there’s only as much left to sell as you were clever enough to hide. It pains me to admit it, but at the time, none of us were all that clever. I don’t think we had to be before that, you see.”
“So you thought you’d take a position.”
Lily nodded. “My first idea was to become a companion for the elderly. I thought I’d write to some of the elegant, aging dowagers with whom our family is connected. Claire was completely against it—she put a firm end to that idea as soon as I brought it up. I was angry at the time, but now I know she was right to do so.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it would have sunk our family permanently if I’d done such a thing publicly.”
Lily looked out over the small pond they were strolling past. Several swans dotted the surface, winding elegantly through the draping branches of a weeping willow that kissed the water. Near the shore, a duck wiggled itself free of water, then promptly waded back in.
She continued, “Claire was stronger in that aspect—she always held the belief that our poverty wouldn’t last. She believed that we would eventually be free of it somehow, that we just had to survive long enough and keep our reputations safe in the meantime.”
Lily shook her head, the pale blue ribbons of her expensive bonnet fluttering with the motion.
“You didn’t believe that?”
“No.” She gave a self-deprecating huff of a laugh. “I thought that William was dead, and if not dead, that he was ignoring us on purpose.”
