“Next week on your free day, I should think,” Isadora answered her tightly. “If the weather holds.”
The hall clock struck nine.
She counted the chimes with her heart climbing. He had left at ten, last time. An hour to dress and decide whether or not she was to go through with her little espionage plan after her husband. “Come on. Bed.”
“You said after your chapter,” Sophia pouted.
“I said no such thing, and you can’t even see the book from down there. Up.”
Sophia got up in stages, sighing like an elderly woman. “Could you carry me, please?” she asked, arms already raised.
“Come on then.” Isadora hauled her up and got a sleepy cheek pressed against her shoulder for her trouble.
“You smell like the garden,” the little girl mumbled, already half gone. “The wall part. Where the oranges are…I’m so happy you’re here, Izzie, the house was such a bore without you.”
Oh, the adorable little girl she was.
After she’d taken her to her rooms, which were about as spacious as Isadora’s own, she rang for Nurse, kissed the small fair head, and went to her own chambers.
By the time the clock struck ten, Isadora had already made up her mind that she would follow Nicholas if he showed any signs of leaving. In fact, although she had made it known to Anna she would be retiring, she had not gotten ready for bed, instead getting dressed up in her old riding habit. Then she waited.
It didn’t take long. Almost as soon as Nicholas came upstairs, he descended again, a carriage already pulling up on the gravel.
Isadora followed, sending for a mare to be called round. Far easier for her to follow on a horse than in a carriage, and italso meant that no one else would know where she was going. Besides, it wasn’t yet that late, and although it was perhaps unusual for a lady to ride at night, she did not mind being considered eccentric.
Not when it would provide her answers.
It took them very little time to reach the outskirts of York, whereupon she found herself with considerably more traffic. With the other carriages moving about the way they were, it was difficult to keep up with the box emblazoned with the Winchester crest. Evidently, he had a specific place in mind.
Not for the first time this past day, she wondered if he might be seeing someone else—a widow, perhaps, or an opera dancer he had taken a liking to. It was not unusual for a gentleman to have a mistress, she knew—she had even heard her aunt and uncle arguing over it more than once. And if she had thought about it in advance of her wedding, she might have even considered such a thing inevitable. But now, at the consideration, her breath hurt in her throat, like swallowing glass.
She looked away for an instant to blink away the thought, and when she looked back up, the crest was nowhere to be seen. She scanned the crush of carriages, gnawing her bottom lip. Vanished. A coach and four did not simply vanish. Where could he have gone?
Very little about this quarter of York felt familiar to her, though a few signages reminded her of a route her Uncle Vernon would take them through on their way to his favorite food place.Dismounting by an alley, she tied her mare to a lamppost, tiptoeing above several heads in the near distance and scanning the crowd. One of the parked carriages looked familiar, but before she could get any closer, a strange figure planted itself in her path.
“I knew you would come,” he exclaimed.
Isadora jolted back, peering through the darkness to see who this new assailant might be. He was of perhaps average height, average build; then the hat came off, and the gaslight lit the face beneath.
Nathaniel?
Her heart gave a lurch, but it was more panic than any warmer feeling. What was he doing here? And where on earth had Nicholas disappeared?
Then again, perhaps it was fortunate he was not here to see this.
“Mr. Windham…” she said tightly. “I was not expecting to see you here.”
“Oh, leave the formalities. It isNathanielto you.” He gestured at a swinging sign across the street. “And I requested you meet me, if you recall.”
Mrs. Ellwood’s Tea Gardens.Clear as day. Except, this place had seemingly been abandoned and barricaded off over a year ago by the looks.
Once again, her heart lurched in her throat, and this time she thought she might be sick from the force of the sensation.
“That was not—” she stammered, then stopped. “I… I didn’t come here to see you.”
“Then who did you come to see?” He squinted at her, then swung his gaze to the tavern occupying the alley behind her. “You know only lightskirts pass through those doors, Isadora. It’s no place for a lady.”
Indignation rose hot in her chest. “Nothing about this area is fit for a lady, yet you requested I meet you here.”
