Chapter 24
EVELYN BLACKWELL
Captain Calder outshot everyone but Papa before the morning was declared a success. We had no certain winner, since I’d outshot Captain Calder once and he had bested me once. Papa and Captain Calder stopped before either had missed.
I needed to leave Captain Calder’s vicinity as soon as possible.
He was dealing with all our secrets much better than I was at the moment.
But I didn’t want to walk up to the top of the terrace alone.
I needed someone to distract me. Mr. Howard caught my eye, but I wasn’t in the mood for any more shameless flirting.
I strode over to Lieutenant Davis and held out my arm. “Will you escort me back?”
“Me?” he asked. When I nodded he snuck a glance in Captain Calder’s direction, and then turned to me with a puzzled smile and agreed.
Why would he do that? Why should it matter to Captain Calder who I walked with? The two of us really shouldn’t have been so casual with each other in the drawing room or spent time alone in Applewood.
We left the rest of the party behind to clean up and discuss plans for the next time we would shoot. Just as we reached the path, Papa called out to Lieutenant Davis, “Don’t forget to wear your uniform tonight.”
Davis paused and gave Papa a short bow.
Wonderful.
It was bad enough I had to deal with Captain Calder’s forearms all morning, but now I was going to have to spend the evening with him in uniform? The world could be poignantly cruel sometimes.
I tried to think of something to talk about as we headed toward the terrace—anything to distract me from the earnest way Captain Calder had called me an angel. But nothing, absolutely nothing, came to mind.
“You know,” Lieutenant Davis said, a strange lilt in his voice, “when Calder first arrived, I could have sworn it looked as though the two of you had met before.”
I missed a step. It did not go unnoticed.
Davis turned to me, still walking, only now taking his strides sideways. “I knew it.” His grin was a self-satisfied one. On anyone else it would have been irritating, but on the quiet lieutenant it was endearing. “We all knew about you, even if he never told us your name.”
Exactly how many people had Captain Calder told about that night? “You did?”
“Well, it was hard not to know. He’d speak of you when he was delirious.”
I blinked, no longer certain I understood what Lieutenant Davis was speaking about. He hadn’t been sick again, had he? I would have known. “When was he delirious?”
The lieutenant’s face fell slightly. “Perhaps I should have let him be the one to explain that to you. He . . . well, he gets sick sometimes. But he’s healthy.” He muttered a curse under his breath. “I really shouldn’t be the one telling you this.”
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant. He has told me of his Walcheren Fever. But I don’t understand how it pertains to me.”
“Oh, that’s good, then.” He smiled in relief and his steps quickened again. “That’s how we all learned of you. The mysterious owner of the glove.”
The mysterious owner of the glove? What the heavens was Davis speaking of?
Captain Calder couldn’t have spoken about me, not if those bouts of his had come during their time of service together.
He leaned forward, a delightful smile on his face as if he was a man who just unearthed a treasure.
“The woman,” he turned sideways again, his solid form somehow suddenly light on his feet, “who promised to wait for him, no matter how long it took for him to make something of himself.”
I stuttered to a stop, a tight pit forming in my stomach.
There was only one woman he’d spoken of when he was delirious, and it certainly hadn’t been me.
May.
Was she real, then? I hadn’t simply heard him wrong.
She wasn’t someone his fever had dreamed up.
She was real and the man who’d called me an angel and showed me the sky through his childhood home had been dreaming of her for years.
How could she be real? If he was in love with this May, then why was he here trying to court Hattie?
Davis turned to me with his eyebrows furrowed.
I tried to muster a smile but it was impossible. “I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake. I haven’t known Captain Calder for very long. If I looked as though I recognized him, perhaps that was because Papa had spoken about him so often.”
Lieutenant Davis blinked, studied my face, and then blinked again. “Are you in earnest?”
“I am.”
His face fell and all of his natural heaviness returned. “I’d thought for certain. His excitement about coming to the house party, and then you were here . . . ” he trailed off. “And the other night after that lout Howard questioned you . . . ”
“Lieutenant?” I asked after a few seconds had passed in bewildered silence.
“Hmm? Yes?” he answered distractingly.
“Does the name May mean anything to you?”
“May?”
“Yes?”
“To me, no. But Calder has a younger sister named May.”
All the air in my lungs released with a puff of disbelief. “His sister?” I repeated.
“Yes. He hasn’t seen her in over seven years, though. She lives in America with his father and brother. A stepmother as well.”
His sister? I knew he had siblings. He’d mentioned Arthur at Applewood, but why hadn’t I thought to ask his sister’s name?
And how had I been so horribly mistaken that night in the croft? He’d called out for her, and when he had, it was with so much despair. I closed my eyes and tried to picture that night in its entirety. I could feel Lieutenant Davis’s eyes on me, but he said nothing, only waited patiently.
When he reached for me and kissed me it was long after calling out for May. And he hadn’t said her name then. He hadn’t said anyone’s name. He’d been thinking of two completely different women. I’d been the one to confuse them.
One of them was his sister, and the other?
Davis had just revealed her. The mysterious owner of the glove.
“Can I ask you one more thing?” I turned to the lieutenant. He watched me with curious eyes.
“It depends. I’d rather not betray my friend’s confidence more than I already have.”
“This is related to something you’ve already told me. And don’t worry, I know how to keep a secret.” I thought of Matilda and her elopement plans. “Perhaps too well. How long has he known this woman with the glove?” I asked before giving him a chance to stop me.
Davis rubbed his hand underneath his chin. “I don’t know for certain, but it was before Walcheren, so at least six years.”
Six years.
Captain Calder had been desperate to get to this house party, but the lieutenant was wrong—it wasn’t me he’d been longing to see.
Heaven’s above, how could I have been such a fool?
I reached for Lieutenant Davis’s arm to steady me. He caught my hand and held it tight against his elbow.
Captain Calder had come here to propose to my cousin.
He hadn’t been thinking of another woman when he’d kissed me—that soft kiss had been meant for Hattie.
Hattie, who we had hoped would find a suitor during these three weeks.
Why hadn’t she told us she already had one?
Why, over the course of six long years, had she never thought to mention she’d sent a man off to war with a glove and a promise?
If they’d met in the past two years, I would have understood it.
I hadn’t proved myself to be particularly trustworthy when Matilda left.
But this happened at a time when we still had full faith in each other—when we had shared everything.
Or at least I had thought so.
Somehow she’d kept Captain Calder a secret from me, her parents, her sister—everyone.
And after being separated by war for six long years, I’d completely misunderstood one of the best men I’d ever had the privilege of meeting.
I had put every ounce of my overzealous effort into making certain they never had a chance to be alone together.
I was, without a doubt, a most reprehensible creature.
Laughter sounded behind us, a sound so foreign to me in that moment it took me longer than it should have to understand what I was hearing.
I cursed softly. It would only take a few minutes before the men finished cleaning and came up behind us.
I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t face Captain Calder.
He would read . . . something in my face.
If the concern emanating from Lieutenant Davis was an accurate measure, I must look a fright.
I pulled on Davis’s arm and we continued our return.
Lieutenant Davis sneaked glances at me now and again but he said nothing. I’d been right in choosing the quietest of the men to escort me back. Neither of us spoke another word as we climbed the terrace.
I didn’t care what I looked like. I’d ruined the Pryor family reputation by keeping Matilda’s elopement a secret and now I was standing in the way of Hattie’s chance at happiness—a happiness that, according to Lieutenant Davis, she had put on hold for the past six years.
I excused myself the moment we reached the upper gardens. Lieutenant Davis pulled his elbow into his side, trapping me, but not with excessive force—just enough for me to look at him for the first time since he’d spoken of the woman with the glove.
His eyes searched mine. “I hope I didn’t say anything to upset you.”
“You didn’t,” I assured him with a smile. “I’m very grateful.”
“May I say one more thing, even if perhaps it is imprudent of me?”
That hadn’t stopped him earlier. “Of course. I would be disappointed in anything less.”
“I don’t know who that woman is, but when I see the way he is with you, I wish she was you. He deserves to be that happy.”
Blast. My smile faltered in a shaky manner he was certain not to miss. But he was wrong. Dead wrong. He hadn’t heard the despondent way Captain Calder had asked about Hattie’s feelings for Brookhouse.
“I don’t think I’ve made him very happy at all.” My eyes slid to where Hattie sat. “Quite the opposite, actually.”
Lieutenant Davis frowned and searched my face again as if he wanted to say something, but after a moment of indecision he simply gave me a bow.