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“What is the matter with you?” the man demanded.
“Why? What did I say?”
Mathilda grabbed the back of her dress and tried to pull Amelia up the path with her. “I can see by the look on your face that you are displeased, and I intend no offense,” Amelia said to the man. “But we mean only to walk. Surely you won’t deny us that small pleasure. Rest assured we will leave this sacred land of yours intact and find a public path, but in the meantime, I’m afraid I cannot give you leave to command us.”
“What the devil?” he muttered. And then he sighed. “Fine.” He took a sudden step forward, and while Amelia wouldn’t say it was particularly menacing, she caught Mathilda’s hand, and turned, running in the opposite direction, away from him, up the river path. “Alice! Alice, come!” she called over her shoulder.
When they’d gone a dozen feet or so, she turned back to see Alice trotting after them without urgency. The man had disappeared again, presumably up the path to the house.
She pressed her fingertips to her cheeks.
“Who was he?” Mathilda asked.
“That, my dear, was the Grim Reaper in the flesh.”
Mathilda gasped.
Amelia looked at the route that went up to the house. “Shall we go and see?”
Mathilda’s eyes widened even more. “Yes,” she whispered.
So it was that they did retrace their steps, back up the incline to the footpath outside Hollyfield’s walls.
Amelia reasoned they had nothing to fear. He wasn’t a ghost or a soul snatcher, but an inconceivably rude caretaker who had told her she could not be on what she was almost certain was a public path.
She would bring this to Beck’s attention and see to it that it wasmadea public path.
Also, wasn’t it good manners to address strangers with deference? How could he be certain she wasn’t a princess?
They returned to the gate. This time, they grabbed onto the bars and pressed closer to see inside. Alas, there was nothing to see but a mess of an overgrown garden. “Not only is he a menace, but he’s a horrible caretaker, isn’t he?”
“It looks very bad,” Mathilda agreed. Amelia craned her neck to try and see something of interest. There was nothing. “Oh well. Shall we?” She reached for Mathilda’s hand.
They turned back to Iddesleigh House, Alice scampering ahead.
At least she had something interesting to write to Justine.
JUSTINSIDETHEWALLS, Joshua stood with his back to the wall. Merlin, who had been patiently waiting for his master to return, was at attention, his gaze fixed on the fish. In other words, he was useless to Joshua, oblivious to the troubles at the gate, guarding absolutely nothing but the fish he wanted.
Joshua cocked his head, listening as the woman and her daughter moved away. He wasn’t entirely sure what had kept them from inviting themselves in under some misbegotten “theory” that the house was public property, too. And neither was he entirely clear as to why he was hiding.
Whowasshe? A nursemaid? A farm woman? Where had they come from? She looked vaguely familiar to him. Was she the farm woman who had so stupidly been standing in the road a few days ago? That would certainly explain things. He would ask Butler if he knew of a mad woman who wandered around the countryside with no discernible destination, and...
And dear God, that described him.
Except that Joshua wasnotmad. He was...disgruntled. Disappointed? Unbearable, that’s what he was. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that he’d become unpleasant. Hell, he could hardly abide his own company.
But he wasnotmad.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LILAHADNEVERseen Lady Iddesleigh with a disposition other than cheerful until today. When last they’d met, the lady had been smiling and happy to have such an esteemed guest as the princess and had urged Lila to take her time in London.
Today, she looked harried. She had faint new lines that creased her brow.
Over tea, they reviewed the plans for the ball. The guest list was very long—Lila was employing a different approach for Princess Amelia than what she’d employed for her sister. Justine despised large crowds. Amelia thrived in them.
Blythe was clearly distracted. At one point, she stood up and went to the window and gestured for Lila to join her.
