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“Oh,” Helena mentinednonchalantly. “She must not be of our class then, or if she is, she is an ingénueor a recluse.”
Anger sparked in his breast. Why did Helena have to put everyone down so cruelly—even people she did not know? She must have taken his silene as agreement, so she slyly added,“For shame, Isaac, are you not more mature to take on an ingénue?”
“I never said that, Miss Follet,” he said as he was given the price and paidthe coins. Again—she chose to disregard propriety and use his given name in public.
He took the soft cloth bag and made to leave but Helena’s shrewd look stopped him in his pace. He mentally cursed. “Miss Follet?”
“Not an ingénue, or a recluse, so I can only assume this lady is a widow.” Helena fixed her glove. “I am happy that you might have found amusement somewhere, and I am sure she is lovely, but a second-hand wife? Truly Isaac?”
Her tone was polite and had the merry lilt that sounded as if she were jesting, but Isaac hardly found it funny. And moreover, people were listening in. Her actions were utterly unacceptable. To make sure people were not misconstruing their interaction for something more, he made sure to keep two feet of space between them and his tone formal.
“Pardon me, Miss Follet but I must be going.” He tipped his hat. “Good day to you.”
He stepped out of the store and sucked in a deep breath to soothe the burn of anger in his chest. Helena was bitter—he could both see and hear it in her voice while she insulted the woman he was seeing. Now, he had left her with a bad taste in her mouth because he had not given her a yay or a nay about his love interest.
And now she will have to swallow her words.
He got into the carriage and directed it to his home. God’s blood, the woman was infuriating. It was only the intervention of divine mercies thatshe had not brought up the letters she had sent him, or his unsent replies. He dropped the bag on the seat and rubbed his forehead hard.
Slumping in the seat, he closed his eyes, and Louisa’s gentle face and warm smile came up behind his eyelids. She was what he needed to banish all this rancor from his system; to make all this ugliness to go away and find some peace—Louisa and her sweet gentle kisses.
