Chapter 6 #2
Miss Tate stood slightly behind him on his right in a dark-blue coat and matching bonnet.
She glanced between us, not smiling but not frowning either, simply assessing the way we greeted each other.
Perhaps I should have found some way to make my approval of his appearance less obvious, but his eyes seemed to be doing the same thing to me, and we were supposed to be engaged.
Two engaged people could let their eyes roam over each other when they met, couldn’t they?
My lips lifted in a hesitant smile. He narrowed one eye and then gave me a broad and charming smile back.
Mary closed the door behind them and excused herself to help Mama.
“Good afternoon, Anna.” David’s smile curved up at the corners when he used my Christian name. If he’d been anyone else, I would think it was because he was devilishly happy to have bypassed weeks of courting in order to use it. But this was David. He’d been calling me Anna ever since we’d met.
“Good afternoon, David.” His smile broadened at my use of his name, and I struggled not to express a nervous laugh. What a strange thing a pretend engagement was.
“Is your mother at home?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to tell him she would be here any moment, but before I could, Mama reached the top of the stairs. She had removed her apron and tidied a few strands of hair, but she was obviously not ready for a walk in the frigid March air.
“I just need Mary to fetch my coat,” Mama said, smiling at David as though he were her own personal rescuer. Which, in fact, he was. She descended. “I was so pleased to be invited on a walk. Some people complain of the cold in the winter, but I have always found it refreshing.”
David’s charming smile fell upon Mama, and the color in her cheeks heightened.
“I’m happy to hear that. I don’t know many people who share your love of winter air, but Anna mentioned a detailed list of things she expected me to do now that we are engaged, and walking was first on it.
” His eyes found mine. “I look forward to obliging her every wish.”
I was suddenly roasting in all my winter clothing.
Exactly how thorough did he plan to be with that list?
And when would he execute it? Was he considering kissing me because of what I’d said?
I hadn’t actually asked for those things—only said they were what engaged couples would be expected to do.
Mother made a noise—a half laugh and half squeal—reminiscent of a six-year-old girl opening a Christmas present.
I shook my head and gave David a stern look, forcing myself not to think about what it would be like to be held in his arms again.
Mama was going to be heartbroken when she found out this wasn’t real, and his teasing wasn’t helping.
Mary brought Mama’s coat, and David helped her put it on.
I kept my eyes off them. I couldn’t take any more of Mama’s ecstatic looks.
Instead, I smiled at Miss Tate. Her eyes were wary, but she gifted me a smile in return.
Perhaps the two of us could become friends.
Her words yesterday had been said to protect David, a feeling I could definitely understand.
I still very much wanted to get to know her.
I hoped David’s plan could somehow miraculously work.
David opened the door of the cottage and motioned for Mama and his sister to take the lead.
After they passed through the door, he held an arm out toward me.
“Shall we?” I took it. His warmth immediately permeated the sleeve of my coat, even with the chilling breeze cooling my face.
If all he did was compliment me and walk arm in arm with me, he would be fulfilling the promise from his note.
“Where will we be walking?” Mama asked. “It has been too long since I have explored this area. I hardly know what is nearby.”
“I was thinking of showing Julia in what manner I found Anna a few days ago,” David said, his mischievous smile lines showing how pleased he was to be torturing me at my expense.
I stopped walking, which brought everyone else to a standstill. “We won’t be doing that.”
“We won’t?” He was all innocence and boyish charm. “I hate to disappoint Julia.”
“I don’t mind,” came Miss Tate’s firm yet quiet reply. “We should do what Miss Anna prefers.”
All three of them looked expectantly at me. The oak tree was my most typical walk, other than making the trek to the Mortensens’ small home, but I didn’t think we would make it all the way to the Tates’ lands with Mama in tow.
I let out a large breath. “All right, we may go to the tree. There is a nice hill nearby as well, with a lookout. You can see for miles.”
“Can you see Tate Hall from there?” Mama asked.
“I don’t believe so,” David replied. He sounded uncertain, but we both knew we couldn’t.
I loved that vista, and if I had been able to see Lord Murphy’s estate, it would have tainted it.
“Anna and I will lead, seeing as we know the way.” We walked around the pair of them and strode down the path leading to the oak tree.
I tipped my head toward David once I was fairly certain we were far enough ahead that we wouldn’t be heard. “Surely you won’t tell them in what condition you found me.”
He pulled his head back in mock incredulity. “I won’t?”
“No,” I hissed. “It wouldn’t be gentlemanly of you.”
“And you think I’m a gentleman?”
“I truly hope you are since you hold my reputation in your hands.”
His hold tightened on my arm, and from the corner of my eye, I caught his smile fading into a line.
He swallowed and turned to me. “I do. And I’ve tossed and turned, wondering if I made the right decision.
That I overstepped my place is certain, and I can live with that if it helps you, but if this agreement causes you any harm, I would not forgive myself. ”
“I didn’t know Lord Murphy was your father when I agreed to it. I don’t know how you expect to keep this quiet. As soon as one person knows of your engagement, everyone will know of it.”
“You overestimate my position. My father has never included me in his social circle, and I haven’t seen him in years.
My older brother, Garrett, is the only one he spends time with anymore.
True, people here in Breckenridge will hear of it, but I hope to contain the information to this little corner of the world.
Almost no one travels outside of it, and no one keeps correspondence with my father. ”
“Except your family, I presume. Won’t Miss Tate write of it?”
“My sister writes to Garrett but never to Father. And Garrett will not tell him. The three of us are the least likely to send information to our father. If news reaches him, it won’t be from his family.”
“And if it reaches him in some other way?”
David’s lips pressed together in thought, but he didn’t answer.
“You must not feel obligated to me. I will not force you into . . .” What was I trying to say?
Or rather, I knew what I was trying to say.
I simply couldn’t say it. This conversation was more uncomfortable than having tea with Mr. Green.
I gritted my teeth and sighed. “In your position, your family must hope for a much better match for you.”
His smile came back, but it was a grim sort of thing, barely comparable to his earlier smile.
“I wouldn’t feel obligated—quite the opposite.
If he ever found out, we would end the engagement immediately.
” He kept his eyes forward. “I saw your reaction when you heard who my father is. And even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t allow him anywhere near you. ”
“Was he very terrible to you when you were a child?” I asked, knowing that at a minimum, Lord Murphy hadn’t bothered to clothe David properly.
The cords in David’s neck tightened. “He was.”
Chasms of unspoken words filled that short sentence. How much prying would a temporary fiancée be allowed?
“Was he the same with your sister?”
He shook his head. “Not the same. But—” He paused. “He wasn’t kind to any of us.”
“From what little I know of him, it sounds as though he’s never been kind to anyone.”
“I think he believes he is kind to Julia and Garrett. Or at least, he believes he has acted without reproach toward them.” He looked back toward his sister. “But I don’t think you’ll find she agrees with him.”
“I’m sorry.”
He placed his hand over mine. “You are the last person who should feel the need to say that to me. From the first moment we met, you helped me.”
That summer blurred into a stream of memories with him, and I couldn’t remember which of my memories were the first ones. “When did we first meet?”
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head.
“It isn’t a happy story. You found me with a young hound.”
Oh, that story. I did remember. It was near the beginning of my visit.
I had happened upon David—not this confident young man in his prime but the poor child with ragged clothes and words that only left his mouth if dragged—holding a dying pup.
It was the first time I’d learned to hate Lord Murphy.
The poor thing had been injured past the point of recovery, and it hadn’t been an accident. “That poor little thing.”
His voice was soft. “So, you do remember.”
“I do. I forgot that was the first time we met.”
“Do you remember what song you sang to her?”
My face grew unbearably hot. “I sang? I have the most unfortunate voice. I must have been too young to realize it then.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I’m fairly certain you knew it. But you sang anyway. I even remember the song. Well, the gist of it. Something about being poor and needy and yet the child of a king.”