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Oh, please! No! I may have been entirely wrong!Julia thought, and she was more than a little grateful when Mr. Tatford came to the rescue. "Would it not break your dear papa's heart if you were to spoil the surprise?" he asked, gripping a gentle hold of Chelsea's forearm and urging her back into their small social group. "I imagine if he has purchased it for you, he will wish for it to be a Christmas surprise."
The sound of scoffing from behind her made Julia look around just in time to see the earl trying to hide his amusement. Though she raised an eyebrow at him, she thought it best not to question in front of her friend, who was clearly already distraught at the purchase of the painting and not knowing where it was going to end up.
"You know, I think I have had rather enough of looking at paintings," Lord Sutthers stated, stepping up beside Julia to place his hand upon the small of her back once more. "Perhaps the two of you lovely ladies might accompany my brother and me for one of the sleigh rides I saw being offered on the academy grounds?"
Julia's heart thrilled with delight at the idea and even Chelsea looked intrigued with the idea. Julia knew one thing that would make it all too delicious for her friend to resist and so she asked, "Do you think we can give your parents the slip to do so?"
Both girls glanced over at the couple and Julia breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw that they had been distracted by a man with an exquisitely intricate moustache and round metal-rimmed spectacles. If Julia had to guess, she would have said he was one of the professors of the academy.
"I think if we hurry now while they are talking, we should well be able to," Chelsea responded and Julia was pleased that the idea of a sleigh ride with Mr. Tatford had been able to overwhelm whatever upset the purchase of the painting had caused in her friend's mind.
"In that case, will you do me the honour, Miss Julia?" Lord Sutthers asked, offering her his elbow even as his brother did the same with Chelsea.
When they made it out into the forecourt where the sleigh ride circuit began, Julia was surprised to find that there was not a queue for them.
"Clearly the chill has put people off," Lord Sutthers suggested as though he had read her mind. She nodded in agreement and found herself already beginning to shiver. In response to it, the earl pulled her closer and added, "Do not worry. I shall keep you warm."
It was only a matter of minutes before the first sleigh arrived, empty save for the driver who was hunched down in his scarf beneath his top hat.
"Do you have room for four, good sir?" Lord Sutthers asked and when the man nodded, he removed several coins from the purse at his belt and handed them to the driver.
"Thank you, my lord," the driver said with clear gratitude and he was about to climb down from his bench when Lord Sutthers shook his head and gestured him to stay right where he was.
"Allow me," Lord Sutthers announced, and he opened up the door of the sleigh before holding out his hand to Julia to help her up into it.
"Thank you, my lord."
Even through the thickness of her gloves and the bitterness of the weather, she could feel the warmth of his touch against her own as he helped her up into the sleigh and then climbed in behind her.
"There are fur blankets beneath the seats, my lord," the driver explained over his shoulder while they waited for Chelsea and her own Tatford to clamber in and sit opposite them, their backs to the driver.
"Thank you, sir," Lord Sutthers said in return and a moment later he had pulled a thick fur blanket from beneath the bench and sat down at Julia's side, throwing the blanket over them both. Once Chelsea and Mr. Tatford had done the same on the other side and the sleigh door was firmly shut and locked behind them, the driver whipped the horses and they began to move through the snow at a steady pace.
Leaving the well-lit area of the forecourt, the sleigh driver began to guide them through the grounds of the academy from the wider paths that cut through manicured lawns, down the longer and more windy paths that carried them through rose gardens and the odd orchard, around a large pond or two.
In fact, Julia found that the grounds of the academy in mid-December were wonderfully magical, all awash with snow and lantern light, the smallest dash of green or red or even yellow still trying to poke through from the nature that now seemed to lie dormant beneath all of the ice.
An owl hooted somewhere in the distance and it was closely followed by the raucous cries of a fox. Although she was no longer scared of the sounds as she might have been when she was a child, Julia found herself all too willing to lean into Lord Sutthers upon hearing them.
Shivering as she was, she was surprised when the earl wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer, allowing her to lean against him. Beneath the blanket, she felt him reach for her hand on her lap and when he held it, she felt a deep breath erupt from her parted lips, her breath escaping in a thick white cloud before her.
Perhaps if Chelsea and Mr. Tatford had not been sitting in a similar position opposite them, Julia might have felt more self-conscious or even uncomfortable, but even as they passed other sleighs whose passengers gave no doubt as to the fact they were judging the Tatford brothers in very familiar expressions, Julia realised she was quite comfortable indeed.
She was so comfortable in fact that for a moment she felt emboldened and she could not stop herself from blurting, "Lord Sutthers, I feel there is something I must tell you."
The earl twisted slightly beside her in order to look her in the eye. His smile was warm and his gaze filled with expectation.
I should just be honest with him right here and now,she thought, knowing that doing so in front of her best friend and his brother would mean that he could not get too angry with her for not being truthful from the beginning. But when she opened her mouth to begin, she found she could not say the words.
"Is something the matter, Miss Julia?" he asked, his gaze darkening slightly, and the way his hand squeezed hers more tightly made her more determined than ever that this was definitely not the time for her to reveal all. The beauty of the evening was far too wonderful for her to ruin right now.
"Lord Sutthers, I wish to thank you for making this evening so magical," she announced with a smile and watched his gaze soften, looking quite relieved.
"The only person to have made this evening magical is you, Miss Julia," he assured her, and she was even more surprised when he sweetly pressed his lips against her cheek.
Chapter 16
The morning after the exhibition, Gabriel was approached by his younger brother with the most shocking of announcements. "Brother, I have decided that I am going to ask Miss Chelsea Walker for her hand in marriage."
