Chapter 10 #3
Anthony took her hand in his before they went inside the house. “Would you like to go riding again tomorrow? I have time in the morning?”
Alice nodded her assent, her mind too busy reevaluating Anthony for her to show better manners.
Anthony opened up the saddlebag hanging on his horse and took out a parcel wrapped in brown paper. “I have this for you. I thought it might come in useful if you feel the need to unwind in my stables again. You might not want to open it around your aunt.”
“Thank you,” said Alice, raising her eyebrows. “I think.”
“You will like it,” Anthony assured her. “I have business to attend to, but I shall see you tomorrow.”
His gaze lingered on her a moment longer than strictly necessary before he rode away, leaving Alice feeling strangely bereft until she remembered the package in her hands.
She hurried into the house, grateful not to bump into her aunt, who at the very least would have told her off for running up the stairs two at a time as she sought the sanctuary of her bedchamber.
She closed the door behind her loud enough to startle Duchess who was asleep on the bed and glared at her mistress.
“Sorry!” Alice said to the indignant cat as she opened the parcel on her dressing table.
Inside was a set of clothing and a pair of boots.
Men’s boots. Unfolding the items and placing them on the bed, it amounted to a shirt, a waistcoat, a stable jacket, breeches, stockings, and the boots - an entire uniform for a stable boy in what looked to be roughly her size.
A folded piece of paper lay in the discarded wrapping.
Alice opened it to find a note from Anthony.
‘With your hair tied back and wearing these, you’ll make a very fine stable hand next time you feel the need to clean out my stalls. A.’
Alice put her hand over her mouth and laughed.
Only Anthony would come up with such a ridiculous yet thoughtful plan.
Imagine her disguising herself as a boy working in the stables just so she could shovel some horse muck!
Not even she was desperate enough to spend time with the horses to resort to that.
She held the breeches up in front of her.
They looked like they would fit . . . But no.
It was a very funny joke, but she would never seriously disguise herself in this, as tempting as it might be.
What if she were discovered? She suspected neither Aunt Jane nor Henry would be too pleased and if they found out it was all Anthony’s idea, he would doubtless be in more trouble than her!
It was very unlikely that she would be discovered though. Certainly no one would suspect who she was if she were dressed so differently . . .
She put the breeches back down and began folding everything up again.
Being with the horses had been lovely, but it couldn’t become a regular occurrence.
She packed everything back up and placed the parcel carefully at the back of her armoire where it was almost completely hidden.
It would be quite safe there until she could return it to Anthony.
Alice was very thoughtful that afternoon, to the point that her aunt worried she was unwell. Alice reassured Aunt Jane that she was fine, but was glad when it was decided it would be best for them to leave the calls they were going to make that day.
Alone in the library with ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Alice soon gave up on reading and allowed her mind to wander to Anthony and what she had discovered about him.
His character had been fixed in her mind for so long, it was …
peculiar to discover that so much of what she believed was simply not the case.
She was having to reassess everything. What was true?
Presumably, his interactions with her were, but maybe not a lot of what she had heard from her brother.
Was she cross with Henry for the lies he had told her, she pondered. No, she could not be. He was just helping his friend, and she understood why Sarah and Charlie had to be kept a secret.
It seemed that Anthony had behaved with remarkable honour and generosity. He certainly had not been forced to seek out Sarah, and in fact, he had gone against his father and mother’s wishes by doing so. These were not the actions of the selfish rake she had believed him to be.
And had she ever actually witnessed him drunk? Probably not now that she took the time to think about it. Merry, certainly, but never properly drunk. She had definitely seen her brother in worse states than Anthony she now realised.
Similarly, he flirted with plenty of women, she had witnessed that a number of times, but never anything improper. And it was hardly surprising that he received a lot of female attention. He was good looking and charming.
Come to think of it, she did not even believe he was all that fond of playing the card games she had heard so many young men winning and, more often, losing large amounts at.
What did she actually know about Anthony Worthing and what had she made up out of rumours and misunderstandings?