He was the only friend she had in this world, and in order to be a good friend, he had to find a balance between being present for her and keeping his distance.
Friend. Hell and damnation.
CHAPTER 22 - The vanishing Duke and Riding Lessons
DALE WAS AVOIDING HER. There was no other way to rationalize it. Though she’d tried her hardest to do so as she lay in bed trying to sleep. In the past five days, she had rarely seen him. He was always present during dinners, but even that had become a very formal affair, with servants present and very stilted and meaningless conversation. Oh, he was always polite, but the easy friendliness of the first days had evaporated. She could sense it, and it hurt.
She wanted—needed—more. But what could she do? She really had no cause to complain. He was housing her, giving her all his consideration and protection. The rest of her wardrobe had continued to arrive. The servants catered to all her needs. She had full use of the house and gardens, and he checked in with her every day to make sure she was well and had everything she needed.
He had even hired a detective to investigate her case. It had been a delicate matter because, of course, they couldn’t tell the guy the whole truth, at least not yet. Dale, displaying his usual resourcefulness, had sent him to investigate the nearby villages for anything or anyone out of the ordinary and had managed to give enough instructions to convey to the detective what they were looking for without revealing what they couldn’t.
He was so capable and masterful. He took care of things and people and effectively managed everything and everyone around him. He was doing more for her than anyone had ever done in her adult life, even though she was a stranger to him. She should be a good guest and be as unobtrusive as possible. She would not act clingy or needy. She absolutely refused to be that person!
She was trying to do just that. She had taken to wandering the house, taking pictures and trying to learn all the ins and outs. She talked to the housekeeper and offered assistance, to which the housekeeper had replied, horrified, that she would never dream of putting a guest to work.
When she had tried to do small things for herself, like making the bed or picking up her own messes, the housekeeper had inquired if the maids were not doing the job to her satisfaction and what could they do to improve. She even offered to talk to the maids in question. She had to assure Mrs Simmonds that everyone was doing a phenomenal job, and if she did things for herself, it was out of habit and wanting to be useful, not because anything was deficient.
That put Ms Simmonds at ease, but unfortunately left Livvy with nothing to do and too much time on her hands. She was not used to being idle. She had worked nonstop since she was eighteen. What could she do to pass the time?
She jumped out of bed and sat down at the cute little writing desk in her room. It was stocked with pens, pencils, papers and everything one could need. She started to write a list of things she could do, starting tomorrow:
Exercise. (She had downloaded and saved several of her favorite workout videos on her phone, because she didn’t know what the Wi-Fi situation was going to be.) Ha!
Explore the area where Dale had found her. (Maybe she could find a time portal or some such thing that would explain how she had ended up here and would take her back.)
Read. (She had seen the library in her wanderings and there had to be thousands of books there. She loved to read, surely she could find something interesting)
Ride! (She could learn to ride a horse. That had the advantage of being both fun and practical, and this house had plenty of horses and grooms who could teach her.)
Travel and sightsee (Not too far, just to the nearby villages and towns. Oxford wasn’t far away, maybe even London?)
She would do exactly what she had planned to do in England. Explore and sightsee, she would just do it in a different century. And this could be even more fun. Now that the shock had passed, she realized she had a rare opportunity to glimpse first hand what other people only learn about in history books.
Yep, the list was a good start. It made her feel good to have a plan. With that settled, she returned to bed and finally fell asleep.
The next morning, she got up bright and early and set out to do as she had planned. She would start with a riding lesson.
