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‘After yesterday, I thought you two girls were not on friendly terms.’
‘I wish to make up,’ Rose said earnestly.
‘Very well. It is Sunday, after all. I suppose we must all do our Christian duty.’ With a look that spoke volumes about her expectations of his behaviour, Lady Thetford nodded in Adam’s direction and swept off down the aisle on her husband’s arm.
‘Miss Tatton.’ It was Sarah, right by her elbow.
‘Lady Sarah.’ Rose took one look at her face and swallowed her apprehension and anger, with the other woman. She was in distress, not plotting more mischief.
‘I must speak to you. Both of you.’
‘Outside, then.’ Adam offered an arm to each and they made their way out of the church. ‘Well? Are you satisfied now, Sarah?’ he demanded as soon as they were around the corner and into a side street. ‘Miss Tatton had lost her memory. If you had stopped, just for a moment, to talk to her, you would have been able to help. Now you have distressed her parents and thrown her into turmoil while she is still recovering.’
‘I’m sorry.’ All the fight seemed to have gone out of Lady Sarah. ‘I was sorry the moment I spoke to your parents, Catherine. But I was so angry with…’ She looked at Adam. ‘With Adam, my brother. And Gideon was dead and Justin is wounded and they wouldn’t let me near him. And Tom—I thought for a while I’d lost him, too.’
She drew a deep breath and visibly got control of herself. ‘I saw Justin this morning. He is going to be all right. And we talked about Gideon and how he died so bravely and that you were both with him. And Justin told me you brought him back here, to this church, and didn’t leave him out there in that awful place. I won’t make any more trouble for you.’
‘You had better come with us.’ Adam turned and walked back to the church entrance. ‘You can’t go wandering about Brussels by yourself.’
‘I’ll be all right, it isn’t far and I must get back to Tom.’ She stood on tiptoe and kissed Adam’s cheek, a sudden glimmer of her old smile back on her face. ‘I don’t want to be a gooseberry and you seem to have courting to do.’ She took half a dozen steps away and then turned. ‘I promise I won’t make a scandal, tell anyone about you,’ she said earnestly, waved her hand and hurried off.
She had forgotten to keep h
er voice down. Her clear words seemed to echo off the stones, cut through the clear summer air. Heads turned.
‘Do you think anyone heard what she said?’ Rose made a business of putting up her parasol.
‘Probably not.’ Adam looked round at the slowly dispersing crowd. ‘Or if they did, it wouldn’t make any sense and they’ll think they misheard. I can only hope she’ll not try to be any more help, or I may end up strangling the chit.’ He shook his head. ‘You know, I can’t help liking my little half-sister and I never thought I’d hear myself admit that. At least the news about Randall is good.’
*
Flint took Rose’s arm and made for the steep side street leading up to the Parc. He sensed she was unsettled after that encounter with Sarah and that she was nervous of the attention they were attracting. Enough people knew him, knew who he was, for gossip to start about his courtship of a viscount’s daughter. He was ready for it, but he doubted Rose was. Had she ever been the object of gossip in her life? He doubted it. He had, and he knew what they would be saying now.
What is Lord Thetford’s daughter doing with Earl Randall’s bastard brother? Surely she was flirting with that nice young Haslam who was killed? I don’t recall seeing her after the supper dance at the Duchess’s ball. Did you see them with his half-sister Lady Sarah just now? What has happened that Thetford would countenance such an escort?
And they would put two and two together and make three or eight and some—and it would only need a few of them—might arrive at something like four.
He had to hope that she was not pregnant, that their courtship could be prolonged to the point where all gossip would die away. And yet… And yet the thought of Rose carrying his child filled him with a sort of wonderful terror. A child to be loved, one with both parents, a child with Rose’s eyes.
‘Mind that loose paving slab.’ He guided Rose with the upper level of his consciousness on the footpath, on watching for pickpockets or loose horses or any of the other myriad hazards of city life, and the deeper level wrestling with unfamiliar hopes.
‘I feel much better now,’ she confided. Her hand was tucked firmly into the crook of his elbow and she looked up at him with a smile from under the brim of her bonnet. ‘Lady Sarah will be no danger to us, your brother is recovering and attending church is behind me now. It will be easier from now on, I am certain.’
I am not. Easier, when she is still so unsettled, when we are about to stir up the whisperers? ‘That is a most provoking bonnet, Miss Tatton.’ Flirt, don’t worry her with your doubts.
‘In what way, Major?’ She was being circumspect now they were nearing the Parc with its promenading crowds. ‘Bonnets may be frivolous or expensive or dowdy, but provoking?’
‘I can see very little of your face.’ He leaned down and murmured, ‘And I certainly cannot kiss you.’
As he hoped, Rose laughed. ‘Wretch, putting me to the blush here of all places.’ He felt her stiffen. ‘Mrs Harrison and her daughters are going to stop.’
Flint saluted and allowed Rose to introduce him to the Harrisons, Mama and three very pretty daughters rather younger than Rose.
‘Major Flint.’ Mrs Harrison smiled and nodded. She obviously had no idea who he was. ‘You escaped the battle without serious injury, I trust? Our own dear Charles is still laid up with a nasty bullet wound in the leg, but regaining his strength daily. He is in the Rifles, you know.’ She did not pause for him to answer, but turned to Rose. ‘And you, my dear, I declare we haven’t seen you since the Duchess’s ball. It was so affecting, seeing all those brave officers leave like that. Mind you, I thought it did the Duchess no credit, the way she ran around trying to make people stay.’
‘I…I left before that, Mrs Harrison. I found it difficult to witness.’ Flint watched with some concern as Rose bit her lip and seemed to falter, then breathed out as she smiled and confessed, ‘I have been such a coward. It was all so awful I have been at home ever since. I was not well and then Mama would not allow me to go out with all the men on the streets—such dreadful sights.’
‘But now you are quite recovered again, I can tell. Excellent, my dear.’
