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CHAPTER20
The congregation was quiet and stagnant the following day in church, as though everyone knew of the activity which had taken place among its parishioners the evening before and were focused on keeping the secret tightly sealed behind motionless lips. Mr. Ainsworth sat near the back. Pippa had nearly sunk to the floor when she saw him enter the building but forced herself to remain as though nothing were amiss. If he’d not recognized her last night as the woman he’d spoken to outside the Burkes’ home, she did not intend to notify him of that detail.
Her best course of action was to pretend as though nothing were wrong and she had decidedly not whacked this stranger over the head with a dried branch of driftwood just a few hours before.
Mr. Robinson stood at his pulpit and preached to a crowd who did not seem to be paying him the least heed. Pippa tried to focus on the vicar and his words, but her attention was drawn continually to the man in a tall, black hat sitting in the row just behind her, all the way on the end of the pew. If she turned to speak to Elinor, she could see him in her peripheral vision. But she did not need to see William to feel his attention prickling her skin or recall the nearness of his lips when they’d hidden in the cove.
Pippa had very nearly leaned forward and kissed William last night. She sat on the hard pew and tried to recall what had stopped her. She really should have done it, if only to know what it felt like.
When the sermon came to an end, the congregation rose and meandered out to the churchyard in a slow progression like a herd of lazy cows. Pippa’s eagerness made the crawl all the more painful. She followed James out of the pew to make their way toward the door just behind Mabel, the rest of their family following.
William stood from his seat, his hands resting casually before him, holding his hat. He watched her walk past him closely, and Pippa forced her eyes to remain anywhere but William’s face for fear that if she were to meet his eyes, she would not be able to move another step. The question had plagued her mind over and over again since leaving him on the beach the evening before, and she was eager to ask it of him, to discover what William felt for her.
Mabel laughed at something just behind her, but Pippa kept her gaze on the floor. They passed into the walkway, and Pippa’s eyes finally lifted just in time to land on Mr. Ainsworth. She froze.
He peered at her through a pair of confused, gray eyes. Was he connecting that she was the woman with the nearly-lethal driftwood from the beach the evening before? She delivered a quick smile to put him from that line of thought. Surely a woman who knocked him over the head would not be able to smile at him in a church the following morning.
Well, she had done just that a moment ago, but surely Mr. Ainsworth would not believe her capable of such.
Pippa had ascertained that the man looked whole and well, thus appeasing some of her concern, and now she needed to flee. She would make it her business to avoid William in the churchyard. Mr. Ainsworth would not make the connection between them if she did not lead him to it.
Dropping her gaze to the floor once more, Pippa followed James’s hurried steps toward the back door where Mr. Robinson stood to greet all his parishioners.
Her muffled steps slid over the stone floor, and she paused when she noticed a stone in the far back corner of the church, just beyond Mr. Ainsworth’s feet, that sat a bit ajar, as though someone had pried it loose and hadn’t replaced it properly. That was odd.
“Pip, have you inquired with the Burkes about dinner this evening?” Mabel asked, leaning forward and lowering her voice.
Pippa looked over her shoulder into her sister’s familiar dark navy eyes. “I haven’t had the opportunity yet. Did you not send round a note?”
Mabel’s lips pressed together. “I will go find Edith and speak with her now. I should have written a note, but I didn’t want to give them ample time to devise their excuse.”
Suppressing her smile, Pippa stepped past the vicar and into the churchyard, moving to the side to allow Mabel to pass. The sun was covered, blanketed by gray clouds that filled the sky in every direction. A chill swept over her body, and she wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling her spencer jacket tightly over her shoulders.
“You are avoiding me,” William’s deep voice said just behind her.
Pippa worked to maintain a neutral expression despite the jumping in her heart. “I did not think it wise to bring attention to our relationship.”
“We have a relationship then?”
She could hear the smile in his voice.
“Yes. I should like to think that you are my friend. Are you not?”
He stepped around to face her, his chin jutting forward as he looked up at the gray clouds and feigned rumination. “Friends,” he said, as though tasting the word and determining his opinion on the flavor. “I’m not quite sure that is an appropriate label for what we are.”
“Why is that?”
The Hoskins passed near them, and they both quieted and smiled at the couple, waiting until they were not within listening range before continuing. “Well, Roger is my friend, and I do not typically find myself gazing at his lips when he speaks.”
Heat bled up Pippa’s cheeks, and her gaze sought Roger of its own accord. He stood on the other side of the churchyard speaking to Mr. Burke and Lily, Mac just beside her.
“Is that all?” she asked, unable to help herself. It was a dangerous game she was playing, but that only made it all the more fun.
“I also don’t imagine the feel of Roger’s hand holding mine.”
“Really? Why not?”
William’s steady gaze beat down on her, the sunshine that was missing from this chilly afternoon. “I think he would find it odd.”
