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“It means that you have to be very careful where you go from now on, and who with,” he declared quietly, thinking about the man on the towpath.
“Well, with Adelaide in bed at the moment I am not likely to be going anywhere,” she sighed. “Would you like to stay for tea?”
He nodded and took a seat while she rang for a maid.
“I need to go and speak with the flower seller again, I think,” he murmured as he flicked the card with his finger. “May I keep this for a while?”
“Yes, of course,” she replied hesitantly.
“What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I don’t think it is from the same person,” she replied quietly as collected one of the original set of cards she had received and took a seat beside him. She held up two cards side-by-side so he could compare them. “The handwriting is different, look.”
He frowned at the difference, and mentally cursed. She either had two admirers now, or her original admirer had help.
Admirers, he mused in disgust. They are
more like sinister stalkers than admirers.
“I just don’t understand what is going on,” she burst out. She hated to feel so helpless; so much at the mercy of someone she couldn’t even see. Being subjected to her father’s dictates was one thing, but at least she sat in his study while he dictated her life. The unknown sender of the cards and flowers was preventing her from going where she wanted, when she wanted, and she didn’t even know who it was.
“Do you think they are following me?” She asked, almost dreading his answer.
“You are a beautiful woman, Ursula,” Trenton argued, unwilling to frighten her too much by admitting that he rather suspected she was. “You have an admirer, that’s all. He has sent you several arrangements of flowers and, well, several cards with flowery prose on them. There is nothing sinister to it, really, now is there?” He hated to sound so reasonable, especially when his concern had just grown considerably.
“I am not beautiful enough to warrant this level of dedication,” she snorted in disbelief. “You cannot ignore the fact that since I have been here, my bedroom has been broken into and I have been knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant. Why, I have lived in Yorkshire all of my life and haven’t even had one of these events happen before. Now, within a month of my arrival in London, chaos ensues.”
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Trenton smiled. “Then you shouldn’t be so darned attractive,” he mused wryly.
Ursula rolled her eyes. “I am being serious here,” she replied, but couldn’t withhold her smile.
Determined to keep her mind on her concerns, and off just how handsome Trenton looked this morning, she stood and began to march up and down in front of the fireplace. “Something odd is going on. In addition to the flowers. Did you see how that Sinnerton man kept staring at me at dinner the other night? It was far beyond the pale. There isn’t just that, but there is Brampton to consider. Everywhere I go, Brampton appears.”
Trenton’s ears pricked up at that and he speared her with a look. “Brampton turns up everywhere you go? Really? Everywhere?”
Ursula stopped pacing and looked at him. She lifted her hand and picked off her fingers in a manner very similar to her fathers. “I went to the Smythe’s ball last week. Brampton turned up within ten minutes of me being there and remained within twenty feet of me all evening. He sways from being so charming it is almost creepy, to almost being angry with me for something. In addition to that, your fiancé always appears as well. Now, I am not saying that there is anything going on between them, you understand, but Barbarella has made it clear that she hates our association.”
“Has she said something to you?” Trenton growled in outrage.
Ursula hesitated. “Not really. Well, apart from a few insulting looks and a snide remark or two. She hasn’t openly scornful of me, but then Adelaide is always nearby. I don’t think she dare take on someone as estimable as Adelaide.”
“Quite,” Trenton agreed. He moved to stand before her. “There is just one thing I should like to make perfectly clear right here and now, Ursula,” he said bluntly.
She felt her stomach drop to her toes. Her heart yearned for him to take her into his arms again but her head warned her it would be folly to allow him such liberties. Logic aside, she didn’t move when he cupped her face and looked deeply into her eyes.
“I am not, never have been, nor do I ever intend to be, engaged to Barbarella Somersby,” he murmured.
She stared at him in shocked surprise as her heart leapt for joy. Words failed her. She read the pure honesty in his eyes and knew that he was telling her the truth.
“But the rumours,” she protested weakly.
“Are something Barbarella herself put about, darling. I have never offered for Barbarella. She deserves someone like Brampton, which is why you undoubtedly always see them together.”
Ursula slumped with relief but just had to seek clarification. “But several people have told me that you are to marry next summer. It is all over the ballrooms and everything.”
“That’s quite correct,” Trenton replied with an air of mystery.
When he didn’t expand, or provide her with details, her delight waned rapidly. She studied the carpet in a quest to stem the second bout of tears that loomed.
