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“What was the affair about?” asked Tom.
“From the taunting, I gathered that the taller one had compared the other’s new hat to an antique chimney pot.”
And so the young man had to skewer him, Teresa thought. Of course that made sense. None. At all.
“Would that be a matter of honor?” Tom asked. “Don’t seem so to me.”
“Well, I didn’t see the hat,” replied Lord Macklin.
Teresa burst out laughing. “Imbéciles,” she said. Their blank looks made her snort. “I don’t suppose you tried to stop them from hurting each other.”
“You can’t interfere in a duel,” said Tom.
“Can’t? I certainly would,” she replied.
Lord Macklin gave her a half smile. “When they noticed me watching, they all ran off.”
“That is something at least.”
“I did worry that one of the combatants might stab himself in the leg with a saber.”
“You should have taken them away.”
They both looked genuinely shocked. “He couldn’t do that,” said Tom.
“Because it would be a great insult?” asked Teresa.
Tom nodded as the earl said, “And I hadn’t the assurance or presence of mind at that age to intervene. I would now, as you say.”
His gaze swept over her like warm sunshine after a chill. A sharp yearning filled Teresa. Was it really so impossible? Immediately, a flood of memories assured her that it was. Hadn’t she learned? Shaking her head, she turned away, and suppressed her emotions, as she knew so well how to do. She would simply make sure she was never alone with him again. “We are wasting time,” she said. “We are here to look for Maria.”
“Right,” said Tom. “Where to next, my lord?”
As if he was the only one to ask. As if no one else could possibly be in charge.
“We will drive out through a different gate and continue our inquiries on the other side of the park,” the earl replied.
He spoke with an air of command that was so familiar to Teresa. He didn’t ask for other opinions. The idea didn’t occur. Teresa wondered what it would be like to be a wealthy, high-born man whose orders were obeyed with deference? Did they even notice the bowing and scraping, the way people jumped to comply? Or was it simply the nature of their world, the atmosphere in which they moved?
They returned to the carriage and drove on, passing more lovely vistas. Teresa drank them in. It had been a long time since she’d walked in a forest, and who knew when she would again. Wild landscapes were not part of her life now. True, commented a cutting inner voice. Nor were many unpleasant things that she’d endured and regretted.
She gave herself a mental shake. She would speak to Mr. Dolan as soon as she got home and engage him to remove the cobbles. Then she would plant a raft of flowers in her small space, and she would be very grateful to have them.
They continued their stop-and-start journey, with no luck in their inquiries until they reached a small inn on the far side of Richmond. There, the innkeeper remembered Maria when shown her likeness. “Yes, my lord,” he said to Lord Macklin. “She was here with a fashionable gentleman like yourself.”
This earned the man a raised brow from the earl.
“That is, not exactly like,” added the innkeeper, clearly sensitive to the reactions of his customers. “But well dressed, with fine boots and a fancy coat with a deal of capes.”
“He was driving himself?”
“Yes, my lord. One of them high-perch phaetons. Back wheels up to here.” The man held a hand above his shoulder.
“He had a blue waistcoat with yellow stripes,” piped up the young ostler. “Bright as bright. Never seen nothing like it.”
“Did he?” The earl looked thoughtful, as if this meant something.
“What about Maria?” Tom exhibited the sketch again.
