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“Well,” Alan said slowly. “I suppose this is where we part.”
“I suppose so.”
They said their farewells, and Harry waited just a moment longer, watching the place where the young woman had disappeared into the crowd. After a long moment, he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. She had been beautiful and young. He imagined that she was some sheltered housemaid, probably a sweet and innocent girl. It wasbestfor girls like her to be wary of rakes and to push them away like she had him.
He ought to return home, like he’d said. Harry swallowed hard. What was it that Alan had suggested, though? Do better tomorrow?
The young woman couldn’t have gone very far with the crowd so thick, andsurely, he ought to make amends somehow. Should he not? For causing her to drop her basket. Harry tried to silence that traitorous part of himself thatknewhe was secretly hoping to charm the young lady.
Charm her and learn how such a beautiful creature ever became something as lowly as a maid or farmgirl. He would just set his course in the same direction and see if fortune might favour him. That was all.
Chapter 3
Liliane had never looked especially imposing. Once, she and Eleanor had decided to act out a play themselves, and Liliane’s attempts to look angry had sent Eleanor into peals of laughter.
“My dearest Lily,” she had said. “I don’t mean to laugh, but you look so…so…even in anger, you look pretty.”
Liliane had been slightly offended that her best impression of an angry, haughty queen was deemed insufficient, but after practicing the same expression before a mirror, she had been forced to concede that Eleanor was right. When Liliane was vexed, she wrinkled her nose and brow and looked more like a small child trying to coax sweets from the cook rather than a furious woman.
Perhaps, she wasn’t quite furious. Vexed, certainly.
“Why couldn’t you just look at where you were going?” she muttered to herself.
If Liliane had not been so worried that hemightbe one of theton, she might’ve asked him that. Admittedly, she didn’tknowif the man who’d unceremoniously knocked the basket from her arm was one of theton, but the more she thought about him and his appearance, the more she suspected that he was.
He was a handsome man, so handsome that when their eyes met, Liliane had found herself shaken to her core. She found herself in the grasp of feelings that she didn’t entirely understand. Everything inside her seemed to grow tight and warm, and the look of awe and hunger in that man’s blue eyes had sent the most curious and delightful shiver up her spine.
He was well-groomed and had good teeth, which spoke of a man with means. And his clothing had been of good quality. His coat was deep blue in colour with golden buttons, and when he’d knelt to aid her, she had seen the fine weave of his waistcoat.
He evensmelledlike one of theton. Despite all the other smells of the market, Liliane had caught the distinctive scent of Bay Rum cologne. The familiar, earthy scent had caught her unaware. The Earl of Lyndon, her own grandfather, wore the same fragrance.
Gentlemen weren’t supposed to be in the tiny village of Everleigh, which was nestled neatly between her father’s estate and the country estate belonging to the Duke of Gillingham. Her heart seemed to beat a little faster in her chest. His Grace was an older man. He had a son, but everyone knew he was a rake who spent more time abroad—in America mostly—than he did at home.
“He didn’t call me by name,” Liliane muttered, trying to reassure herself. “If he recognised me, he surely would have.”
She bit the inside of her cheek and picked at her fingernails. It was sort of silly, wasn’t it? For her to worry about him recognisingherwhen she had not the faintest idea of whohewas. If hedidknow, though….
If he had recognised her, he would realise that there was a problem. He’d want to know why Liliane Ward was dressed like a servant and unaccompanied at the market. He would want to speak to her father, and when he learned that her father was away, that gentleman would summon him home. And Liliane wasn’t sure she would be able to lie well enough to satisfy both her father and the gentleman at the market.
The truth—that every time her father left, Liliane’s stepmother made her live as a servant and abused her—sounded outlandish to her own ears, but Liliane couldn’t think of any feasible explanation for her present appearance that would not be even more suspect.
No, only Eleanor knew the truth of what was happening on the estate, and Lilianehad tomake sure things remained that way. She couldn’t have some well-meaning member of thetoncoming to call and tearing her world apart. As bad as her stepmother’s treatment of her was, Liliane knew there would be consequences—for her stepmother and stepsisters, for her father, and for herself—if the truth came out.
She drew a shuddering breath and swung the basket a little as she walked. “He didn’t recognise me,” she whispered. “I just have to work through it logically.”
Talking helped with that. Liliane had gotten very good at talking to herself and sorting through her thoughts. Shehadto be. With the exception of Addie, most of the servants were unwilling to give a moment’s thought to Liliane. They were too afraid of Henrietta, who was so eager to dismiss her staff for even the smallest error.
“He didn’t call after me, which would seem to indicate he doesn’t know who I am,” Liliane said, “and I didn’t recognise him. Weprobablyhave not met before.”
It was possible that they had, of course, but surely, Liliane would’ve remembered a man like that. He’d beensohandsome. Her chest fluttered. In that brief second where she had touched him and shoved his arm away, she had felt the muscles concealed by his coat.
Oh,if hewasone of theton, she had touched him. So boldly, too! Liliane shivered, the realisation not entirely unwelcome.
Mew!
Liliane halted at the unexpected sound. It was high-pitched and distressed. Perhaps a bird? She frowned and looked around, searching for a fallen nest or a trapped animal.
“Hello?” she asked gently. “Are you there?”
