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“Percy!” Fanny shouted, making him jump. “I didn’t see you there. May I come to the library? I would like to show you something.”
Percy tried to respond, but he suddenly felt so small, so insignificant, that no words came to his mouth. Jealousy rolled inside him in waves, crashing against his breaking heart. She was merely trying to distract him. She was trying to make him forget the things he had just heard. Percy turned away from the window without a response.
Everything outside fell silent too, until he heard the telltale rustling of skirts across the grass. She was coming anyway. Percy rubbed his head and tightened his jaw, unwilling to relent to her charming laugh and breathtaking lilac smells.
“Percy?” Her voice echoed through the house a short minute later. Her feet clicked across the floors and then she said his name again, closer this time. “Percy…did you hear me?”
She was in the room now, only a few feet away from him.
“Yes,” he replied curtly. “I heard every word exchanged between you andMr. Gregory.”
“Percy,” she sighed. “I know you do not like him. But he is a very kind man. You may not like it, but I just wished to—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” His heart pounded in defense of his emotions, pushing away the vulnerable ones. “Return to him. I am sure he is eager to bestow every happiness upon you at this very moment. I fear I am not capable of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I wish to be left alone.”
Fanny was quiet for several seconds. The clock on the wall ticked through an eternity before she released a huffed breath. “Very well.”
Her voice was full of hurt, and for a moment Percy regretted how he had acted. He hadn’t spoken so harshly to her for weeks. But before he could speak another word, he heard Fanny leave the room and close the door forcefully behind her.
Percy exhaled long and slow, squeezing his eyes shut in frustration. Guilt pooled in his stomach. He could have at least allowed her an explanation. But the thought of Fanny caring for someone else, another man, above him made his heart quake with sadness. It hurt to think that she planned to steal from him, deceiving him into caring for her so he would trust her before she committed the crime. The notion that she was stealing the harp refused to leave his mind.
He couldn’t hide his feelings from himself any longer—he was falling in love with her. However unexpected and seemingly impossible it was, he worried that there was no way to reverse it. But Fanny would never love him. Anything she did was just an act.
Then Percy opened his eyes, enveloped in the same blackness as before, wishing for yet another thing he could never have.
CHAPTER10
Fanny’s throat was in a tight knot as she moved toward the main doors of the house. She gripped a straw basket in one hand and held the other pressed against her chest.Don’t you dare cry, she demanded to herself. But her tears were stinging on the edges of her eyes.
What had she done wrong? Percy acted as if nothing had changed between them since that first time she had found him in the library. He was so very confusing. What might he have overheard from the window? She had merely been speaking with Mr. Gregory about the gardens. She had planned to make a large bouquet from the lilac bush as a surprise for Percy, but worried that the bush would appear much too sparse. The thought of surprising Percy with a gift had made the sacrifice of the beauty of the garden worth the cost. Why had he been so aloof toward her?
After fetching her reticule, Fanny stepped out the door, greeted instantly by soft breezes and sweet summer smells—contradictory to the tumult of confusion pounding within her. Adjusting the basket on her arm, she tied her bonnet securely at her chin and walked with brisk steps in the direction of the village. She had come to enjoy these walks. Long and tiring as they were, they allowed her time to think and reflect. She hadn’t planned to go to the village today, but it seemed to be the perfect solution to puzzling out what to do with the perplexing man she called her husband.
Her cheeks flushed and her breath quickened as she walked faster, realizing that she was not in the mood to think of Percy just now. She didn’t enjoy the effects he was having on her heart. She hardly knew what had endeared him to her, but love was a strange thing. And she didn’t need to know. She only knew that she was falling, and she doubted Percy planned to catch her.
After nearly an hour, Fanny saw the tiny street shops and market stands come into view. Her legs ached with the uphill climb to the cobblestone path of the village. There seemed to be fewer people there than usual, dotting the streets with the occasional top hat or parasol. The song of blended voices and laughter played softer today, broken and lonely. Fanny hadn’t come with a specific purpose in mind, so deciding that it would be best to return withsomething,she turned in the direction of the bakery.
A group of children crowded in a circle around a large trunk caught her eye. Giggles broke through the group. A stout man with spectacles and a shiny bald head smiled down at them.
Fanny walked toward them, head tilted to the side. She couldn’t see what was inside the trunk. Although she was short, she was relieved to find that she was taller than all of the children. She stuck her head through a gap in the circle and gasped. A tattered blanket was draped inside the trunk, lid open. Pacing inside were five kittens.
Fanny put a hand to her mouth, watching the tiny faces and button noses in adoration. An idea struck her and set her heart pounding.
“Sir!” She turned to the man supervising the group of children. His eyebrows rose at the urgency of her tone, but she couldn’t help it. “May I have one of your kittens?”
He smiled, but she noticed his gaze falter when he saw her. Fanny’s eyes shifted to the children, two of which were staring quite obviously at the right side of her face. She tried to ignore it, lifting her chin with a smile.
“Take your pick, miss,” the man said.
She stepped past a boy with messy, pale hair and bent over the trunk. She surveyed the kittens with a deliberate eye. The colors were mostly the same among all of them—grey and white. The same colors as Percy’s childhood kitten. She suppressed a squeal of excitement. Two of the kittens had lain down in the corner, nestling their heads into one anothers’ fur. Two of them batted at a strap hanging over the edge of the trunk, reaching up with their paws.
And then there was the one—grey ears and pink nose, stretched out on its belly, scratching with purpose at the tatters of the blanket, chewing on a long string of fabric. Fanny chuckled. It was the perfect choice. Percy could benefit from another lively spirit in his house.
“This one.” Fanny pointed at the kitten of her choice, giddy at the thought of Percy’s reaction to the surprise. Surely he would forgive any reason he had to snub her today. She paid the man for the kitten and a few minutes later she was walking away from the corner, the tiny kitten secured in the straw basket on her arm. It had already taken to scratching at the weave, pulling away tiny strips of wood.
