“Can we not discuss something else?” she asked. She didn’t want her brother to think she was a weak, simpering miss. She could handle hard things. So why did her heart ache at that thought?
It was a moment later when Lord Kendal stepped into the room. He was dressed in buff trousers, a blue jacket and his dark hair was swept forward.
When his eyes landed on her, he stopped and bowed. “Lady Octavia,” he greeted.
She dropped into a curtsy. “Lord Kendal,” she responded. “I just learned that we are to go on a carriage ride through Hyde Park.”
“Yes, and I am looking forward to it,” Lord Kendal said.
“Are you?” she asked boldly.
Lord Kendal looked surprised by her question. “I am,” he replied. “Are you not?”
Octavia wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the carriage ride. If she had to be honest with herself, she felt a sense of excitement at the prospect of spending time with Lord Kendal. He was a man that she wanted to know better. He had a way about him that made her feel safe.
Knowing he was still waiting for a response, she said, “I suppose I am.”
Lord Kendal didn’t look convinced by her words but he offered his arm anyways. “Shall we depart, then?” he asked. “My curricle is out front.”
She approached him and placed her hand on his arm. “Thank you, my lord.”
They didn’t speak as they departed from the townhouse. As he went to assist her into the curricle, the sound of a peacock wailing could be heard in the distance.
Lord Kendal turned his head towards the gardens. “I must assume that is Freddy.”
“Most likely,” Octavia replied. “He is a rather vocal peacock.”
“I feel as if I should thank him for running my brother out of the gardens, thus keeping him far away from you.”
Octavia grinned. “You wish to thank a peacock?” she asked in an amused voice. “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”
The tip of Freddy’s feathers could be seen as he walked along the gate, no doubt strutting around to impress the female peacocks.
Lord Kendal turned back to face her. “Why did you get a peacock as a pet?”
“I just wanted something exotic, something different than what most ladies have as a pet,” Octavia explained.
“Well, you definitely succeeded at that,” Lord Kendal said.
“I did, but I didn’t realize how ornery male peacocks are. And Freddy…” Her voice trailed off. “He is a terror on two legs.”
“If he is such a terror, why do you keep him around?” Lord Kendal asked.
Octavia was taken aback. That was a fair question, but she didn’t have the answer to it. Why did she keep Freddy, despite the bird clearly tormenting her whenever she stepped foot in the gardens? It wasn’t just for the feathers that the servants collected for her.
She met his gaze and admitted, “I don’t rightly know why I keep Freddy.”
“I have a theory,” Lord Kendal said. “You may claim thatyou don’t like him. Hate him, even. But I do think it is a good thing that you have kept him. It proves to me that you don’t give up on anyone when it is difficult, especially an ornery peacock.” He hesitated. “Am I wrong?”
“You aren’t wrong, but I feel as if you are giving me far too much credit,” she said. “I always try to find the best in people, but Freddy is different. He is just a peacock.”
“Yet he protected you when you were being harassed by my brother.”
Octavia shook her head, causing the curls that framed her face to sway back and forth. “No, Freddy was just protecting the gardens from intruders. It had nothing to do with me.”
Lord Kendal held his hand up to assist her into the curricle. “We shall have to agree to disagree on this, but I think there was more to it than that.”
After she stepped into the curricle, Lord Kendal came around the other side and sat on the bench next to her. He reached for the reins and merged the curricle into traffic.
