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Isaac knew Tuppence far better than she realised but couldn’t confess his long-standing interest in her without betraying his true feelings for her. Their relationship, and that is what he felt was forming between them, was far too new for bold statements of affection yet.
As they stood in mute silence, Isaac watched the changing emotions on her face. He read every one of them, he suspected rather accurately. She was afraid, and painfully aware of the poor condition of the house she had lived in. She was using it to put a distance between them that he objected to.
“I know your family have been a part of this village for many years. I know that all the farmers in the area speak very highly of you and your family. My father respected yours when they were alive. I also know that you have had many problems to face over the last few years but have weathered all of them with a quiet capability that is impressive.” Isaac stepped closer.
Tuppence, feeling a little chastised, smiled sadly. “I didn’t realise that you even knew we existed.”
“We are neighbours, Tuppence. Of course I knew you existed.”
But you quite clearly had no idea I was alive until recently.
Shaking off all doubts, Isaac strode across the room with long strides that didn’t give Tuppence the time to move away. Planting himself firmly before her, he looked deeply into her eyes and said: “Despite our differences, Tuppence, we face many of the same problems. We both have farms to run and have lost close family members. We can get through this so long as we stick together.”
Tuppence looked sceptically at him. “Are you telling me that you have been outside at ten o’clock at night dragging bales of hay across your stable yard?”
Isaac mentally swore. “Well, no, not personally.”
“Have you been shepherding a flock of sheep across a field in the middle of a storm because a fence blew down and your sheep ventured into neighbouring fields?”
“Ah, no.”
“Have you been up all night during lambing season and so tired that you forgot the last time you had something to eat, or slept properly?”
“Tuppence.” Isaac wished that he hadn’t even mentioned their similarities.
Or lack thereof.
“All right, so there are a lot of differences,” he conceded with a rueful grimace.
“A lot?” Tuppence lifted her brows and struggled not to smile at him. She wasn’t angry with him now that she had made her point. Whatever annoyance she had felt moments ago had disappeared and was replaced with a new softness that left her staring at him with a somewhat bemused smile on her face. The abashed, somewhat boyish version of Isaac before her was a facet of him she hadn’t expected to see. While he was still a Lord, to her he was just Isaac Chester, a rather affable gentleman who had been put in his place but took it with a humble alacrity that was enchanting.
Adorable. That’s what he is.
Isaac scratched his chin. “Look, let’s gather up what you need so we can leave. I don’t want the carriage out there unattended any longer than it must be. When you are ready, we will search the outbuildings and then go home.”
“I have a spare set of keys for the doors,” Tuppence sighed, looking down at the keys in her palm. “I changed the locks on the doors when I lost my keys in town the other week.”
Isaac squinted at her. “You lost them? Did you stop to talk to someone, or might you have misplaced them?”
“Well, I am not sure.” Tuppence contemplated the day in question when she had locked the farm up, gone to town, but then realised that at some point during the day she had lost her keys to the house. “I don’t know. They were in my basket when I left for town but weren’t there when I returned later that day. I have no idea where I misplaced them but had to change the locks when I got back.”
“Did you speak to anyone in town?”
“No.”
“What?” Tuppence demanded when she saw the thoughtful look on his face.
“Nothing.”
“Isaac.” Tuppence was blocking the doorway he wanted to get through but didn’t step out of the way. Nor did she apologise for being bold enough to call him by his first name. If he didn’t chastise her for it, or demand she used his formal name then she could see nothing wrong with it, especially when they were alone like this. Folding her arms, she lifted a brow at him. “You are thinking. I don’t like it.”
Isaac snorted a laugh. He was thrilled that she was finally starting to relax around him. He sensed that this Tuppence was the real her, and he adored it. “If we stop to consider all the strange events you have experienced of late, the loss of the keys in town might be significant. I am not saying for definite that it is, just that it might be. We will tell Sir Reginald when we get home and see what he thinks about it.”
“The keys won’t do the intruder any good because I changed all the locks when I got back.”
“Did you break in through the front door?” Isaac demanded, wondering if Tuppence had caused the damage to the door jamb.
“No, I left my bed chamber window open before I went to town, and climbed back in through there,” Tuppence replied.
