Observations
Chapter eleven
“It’ll no doubt be a cold winter,” Grandma Edie remarked with a shiver over breakfast the next morning. “I can feel it in my bones.”
“Do you want more tea?” Juliet asked, concerned as always with her grandmother’s well-being. “It’ll warm you. Or perhaps we should stoke the fire and—”
With a warm smile, Grandma Edie patted her hand. “You’re a darling girl. But you don’t need to worry about me. I enjoy complaining about the weather.” Her eyes twinkled. “It’s good fun.”
Her parents as well as Troy and even Christopher laughed, exchanging meaningful glances as they reached for their own cups. “Perhaps this weather is the perfect excuse,” Christopher chuckled, wiggling his brows at her, “to drink more tea.”
While the others continued their conversation, Juliet paused. Frowning at Christopher across the table, she could not shake the feeling that his words held a hidden meaning. But what could it be?
“How is your sister, dear boy?” Grandma Edie asked, her gaze shifting to Christopher as she wrapped both her hands around her teacup.
Out of the corner of her eye, Juliet saw her brother tense. His gaze fell to his plate, and he barely moved as he listened to his friend’s reply.
“She is still in mourning, of course,” Christopher explained as his gaze darted to Troy before returning to Grandma Edie.
“Her husband’s passing was quite…unexpected,” Juliet’s father remarked with a disapproving note. She did not know how Lord Hayward had found his grave, but from the bits and pieces she had overheard, it had been a rather scandalous affair.
Christopher nodded. “I believe it came as quite the shock to her. She never expected to find herself a widow so soon.”
Juliet watched as her brother’s hand tensed upon the teacup and feared the delicate porcelain cup would not survive such pressure for long.
Only too well did Juliet remember the day of Nora’s wedding.
Excitement had been in the air, and she recalled her sisters’ flushed faces as they had hurried to ready themselves for the special event.
Only Troy had been absent, nowhere to be found.
She had thought it odd but had been too preoccupied to dwell upon it.
Only later that night, after he had failed to appear at Nora’s wedding, had she found him in the library, slumped in a chair by the fire, an empty bottle of brandy on the floor beside him.
Troy had never known that she had seen him that night. Neither did he know she suspected that Nora had broken his heart that day by marrying another.
Sighing, Juliet reached for her tea and took a sip, only to flinch when the sickeningly sweet liquid ran over her tongue. It tasted as though the entire sugar pot had been dumped in—
Her eyes flew up and met Christopher’s, barely contained glee written all over his face. Again, he wiggled his brows at her, a wide grin upon his face.
Closing her eyes, Juliet could not help the smile that came to her own. Of course, she ought to have known. How often had he played this trick on her when they had been younger? She ought to consider herself lucky that he had used sugar instead of salt this time.
“Juliet, would you care to go riding with me after breakfast?” Christopher asked across the table, drawing all eyes to them.
Juliet’s mouth fell open, uncomfortable with the sudden attention. More so, she wondered if the others could see how she felt about Christopher. Had Troy said anything to their parents about the day before? She had wanted to speak to him but had been unable to muster the courage.
“I’m afraid I cannot,” Juliet replied, unsettled by the slight tremor in her voice.
“Grandmother and I always take a stroll through the gardens this time of day.” She smiled at the old woman.
“But perhaps you would like to accompany us.” Perhaps it would be wiser not to meet Christopher alone.
After what had almost happened the day before, Juliet felt rather uncertain at the thought of being alone with him.
“Honestly, my dear,” Grandma Edie said with a tired smile, “I don’t feel quite up to it today. I think I’ll stay here and rest a little if you don’t mind.”
Juliet turned concerned eyes to her grandmother. “Are you well? Do you feel ill?”
“Oh, I am perfectly fine, my dear. Only tired.” She chuckled impishly.
“One of the downsides of advanced age. I do not recommend it.” She looked across the table at Christopher.
“You go riding with our dear boy. I assure you, you will have much more fun with Christopher than sitting by my bedside, worrying as you are wont to do.” Grinning, she patted Juliet’s hand. “Truly, I insist.”
Juliet nodded, then cast a careful look across the table at Christopher.
The look in his eyes made her inhale a shuddering breath.
Why, she could not say. He simply did not remind her of Kit, her childhood friend, at that moment.
No, here and now, he was Christopher, a man she hardly knew.
“Very well,” she agreed reluctantly, surprised as well as a bit annoyed by her grandmother’s sudden decision to remain indoors.
In fact, Juliet could not recall her grandmother ever having felt too tired for a stroll.
As frail and weak as she often seemed, Juliet knew what hidden strength remained in the old woman.
Did she have to choose today of all days to be tired?
Swallowing hard, Juliet forced her gaze from Christopher and looked toward her brother.
“Troy, would you like to accompany us? It is such a beautiful day.” Her voice trembled, and when she cast another glance at Christopher, she could see by the look on his face that he knew precisely what she was doing.
Heat surged to her face, and Juliet fixed her eyes upon her brother.
Troy cleared his throat, finally lifting his eyes from the plate before him. “As much as I would like to,” he said, his voice hard and strangely controlled, “there are things regarding the autumn ball that I need to see to.”
Disappointed, Juliet nodded. Then her eyes swept around the table once more and, rather belatedly, she realized that someone was missing. “What about Keir?” she asked, not daring to look at Christopher. “Has he not risen yet? Perhaps he would like to accompany us?”
Beside her, her grandmother chuckled. “Oh, he has risen. At the crack of dawn, in fact. I sent him on a little errand, but don’t worry he shall be back shortly.”
Everyone at the table frowned. “An errand?” Juliet’s father asked, a somewhat suspicious expression coming to his face. “Mother, what are you planning now?”
With a rather innocent look upon her face, Grandma Edie shook her head. “I do not know what you’re talking about.” Then she rose from the table, waving every offer of assistance away, and headed out of the breakfast parlor. “Do not worry about me. I shall do what old ladies do these days.”
Again, Juliet saw her father roll his eyes. “I wonder what that is,” he remarked, exchanging a meaningful look with her mother. “I doubt she was referring to the rest she proclaimed she needed.”
With a smile, Juliet’s mother grasped her husband’s hand. “You know how she is. There is no use in worrying about it.”
Her father sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”
As though Grandma Edie’s departure had given them all leave to return to their own activities, the breakfast table emptied, and one by one all the Whickertons disappeared until only Juliet and Christopher remained.
With her eyes downcast, Juliet slowly rose to her feet, well aware that Christopher was slowly rounding the table toward her. “If I did not know any better,” he said quietly, a tense note mingling with the humor in his voice, “I would think you were afraid to be alone with me.”
Tense laughter fell from Juliet’s lips as she forced her eyes up.
“Oh, don’t be silly. I was simply thinking that…
” She faltered for a moment, for her heart seemed to trip in her chest as Christopher’s dark eyes looked down into hers.
“That…That they would like to join us.” She swallowed.
“Troy spends too much time locked away, always busy with one thing or another. It’s been a long time since I last saw him smile. ”
A knowing expression came to Christopher’s face, and he nodded. “He seems…burdened,” he remarked with a deep sigh.
“You see it as well?”
Christopher nodded.
“I wish I knew what to do for him,” Juliet replied, relieved to have something to say. Indeed, with each word that was spoken, she felt herself begin to relax, reminded of the ease that had once existed between them.
An odd expression came to Christopher’s face, and for a moment, she could not help but think that he believed Troy’s subdued state of mind to be his fault. But how could that be possible? Christopher had not even been on English soil these past few years.
“Shall we be on our way then?” he asked abruptly, willing a smile onto his face that seemed tense. “Only if you wish, of course.”
Juliet nodded, her thoughts now directed toward cheering Christopher up. Something was clearly on his mind, a burden he appeared to have been carrying around with him for some time. Would he confide in her? she wondered. Was that not what friends did?