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He ran a hand over his face. Dear Lord, what had happened to her? And how was he going to handle this revelation?
Quickly, he exited the room, making sure that he wasn’t seen. When he was in his own room, he sat down upon the bed, glad that Mr Giles wasn’t here. He needed to think, and he didn’t want to make small talk at the moment.
He took a deep breath. He still had no clear proof that she was lying about who she was. Just because she had the trunk of a woman named Minnie Reeves and was carrying a gift from Minnie for her grandmother didn’t prove that shewasMinnie. But he was forced to admit to himself that it was highly likely that she was.
He took another deep breath. He couldn’t confront her about it. The only possible way he would know about Minnie Reeves was if he had been through her trunk. She would know instantly that he had been snooping through her possessions. And she would be quite justifiably furious with him. It was a betrayal of trust. He felt bad that he had done it, even though it had proved his misgivings about her had been justified.
He stood up, gazing out the window at the maelstrom swirling outside. It was all such a complicated mess. One part of him knew that he should simply keep his distance from her entirely. The woman was lying about who she was. She could be a confidence woman.
Perhaps she had deliberately sought a relationship with him to gain his trust. Perhaps she was acting the part of the innocent ingenue to lower his defences. Perhaps she was planning to rob him blind before they got to Bradford.
Her whole persona could be an act, he thought in despair. He had heard of people who did such things. They got on public stagecoaches in order to calculatingly fleece the other passengers of their possessions, pretending to be someone they weren’t. They were often so convincing that they could have made a living treading the boards as actors or actresses. It was often hard to spot them, which was why people were very wary.
His heart hit the ground.Was she a confidence woman?He just didn’t know anymore.
He kept staring out at the storm. His heart told him that she wasn’t. At the very least, he knew that her body wasn’t lying. He had been with many women, and he knew genuine passion when he encountered it. The woman sitting below was as attracted to him as he was to her. He would bet his last gold coin on it.
But other than that, he couldn’t say. Everything about her was a contradiction. It was either a highly sophisticated act, or she genuinely was an upper-class lady on the run from her life, pretending to be a working-class woman to escape detection. But without her telling him which of those stories was true, how could he know?
I must stay away from her, he thought.Now more than ever.
He should never have become embroiled with her. He knew it was a mistake right from the beginning. Whether she was Delia Parker or Minnie Reeves, or someone else entirely, she was trouble.
***
Delia’s heart lurched when Ambrose finally walked into the room. She had been sitting with the others on tenterhooks waiting for him to descend so that they could order the evening meal.
“There you are at last,” said Mr Hawkins. “It is about time, Mr Hartfield! I am so hungry I could eat a horse.”
“There’s plenty in the stables to choose from if you like,” quipped Mr Giles. “Probably better to eat one than bed down in the hay with them. I speak from experience.”
Everyone laughed.
Ambrose sat down without speaking. A dark mood seemed to be enshrouding him. She knew that he was probably still miffed at her for refusing to become his mistress. Delia took a deep breath, trying not to look at him, but of course, that was impossible. Her eyes were drawn to him as always.
Covertly, she gazed at him. His mouth was set in a firm line, and his dark eyes were shooting furious sparks. But even more than that, he was deliberately avoiding looking at her. Not once did he glance in her direction.
Quickly, she looked away, feeling stung. She knew she should be grateful. She had told him to leave her alone, and he was doing it. But she didn’t feel grateful. In fact, she felt even more miserable than she had before.
The barmaid arrived, asking for their orders for dinner. After she left, she glanced at Ambrose again. He still wouldn’t look at her.
But then, quite suddenly, he did. A quick look that was filled with such fury that she gasped. It was almost as if he had reached across the table and slapped her soundly across the face.
“Are you looking forward to the meal…Miss Parker?”His voice was filled with coldness.
Delia blanched. “Very much,” she said in a stiff voice. “Thank you.”
He nodded curtly before turning away, engaging Miss Tilney in conversation. She had been rebuffed. He was ignoring her entirely. Delia sat back, letting the conversation wash around her, not hearing a thing.
It hurt. It hurt very much. Even though she had told him to leave her alone, she had thought that he would still be friendly towards her. But it seemed she was wrong. Ambrose Hartfield was taking what she had said very seriously indeed.
Her eyes stung with tears. She knew that it was all for the best. But that didn’t stop it from hurting. It seemed she had been right about him all along. For if he could turn his attention away from her as quickly as that, then it really hadn’t been genuine at all. Hewasa rogue, just as she suspected.
Chapter 31
Delia sat back in her chair as the barmaid cleared the dinner plates from the table. She was so upset by Ambrose’s pointed rebuff of her that she had barely been able to eat a thing. She had merely picked at her meal, which Sister Mary Majella noticed, gazing at her with a worried expression on her kind face.
“Are you feeling sickly, Miss Parker?” asked the nun. “You ate like a sparrow.”
