It was so totally unexpected that she almost panicked to find an answer.She waved one languid arm.“Oh, just to relieve the monotony, you know.Life in the country can be confoundedly dull.”
“That is true,” he said with unexpected fervour.
“Yet you do not strike me as much of a Town man.”
“I’m sure I don’t.Which is your preference?”
She sipped her sherry and considered.“I believe I like to keep moving.”
He smiled as though he agreed.He had a singularly sweet smile, at once boyish and appreciative, quite without malice.
“Tell me about your life, Mr.De’Ath,” she said lightly.“Do you have an occupation, or do you ride your ancestral acres at leisure?”
“I have been known to ride my acres,” he said.“But my life has been extraordinarily dull.I would rather learn about yours.Did you like being married?”
“No,” she said before she realized that both the question and the answer were outrageous.
“Because you were only eighteen?”
“The fault was naturally mine,” she said cynically.
“Do you have children?”
“No.”Perhaps that would have made it all more bearable.“But I have several stepdaughters, all but one of them married with children of their own.Which makes me a grandmother, so they tell me.”
His gaze was uncomfortably penetrating, so she was quite glad that the inn servants bustled in with their meal.With perfect courtesy, Mr.De’Ath conducted her to the table and held her chair for her before seating himself.When the soup and side-dishes had been served, she waved the servants away.
“So, what have you done in your life, Mr.De’Ath?”she said.
He seemed to be ready for her this time, for he answered entertainingly and fluently.He had, apparently, stayed in a gypsy encampment and danced at a wedding there.He had learned how to lay bricks and dig ditches.He had watched a prize fight and spent the night in the stable of an inn called the Duck and Spoon, because all the rooms were occupied by inebriated young gentlemen.He had sung questionable drinking songs with some farm labourers on market day and run away from the local watchmen.He had met a missionary clergyman on his way to Africa and had almost gone with him just for the adventure.
“Why didn’t you?”Tabitha asked, fascinated.
The spellbinding light of fun faded from his eyes.“Oh, responsibilities, you know?And I don’t think I would make a very good missionary.I would almost certainly be more interested in novel heathen beliefs than my own.But I am glad to count the clergyman amongst my new friends.”
“Then this was recently?”she asked, surprised.She made a discovery.“It wasallrecently!You, sir, have slipped your leash.”
He grinned, for all the world like a shy but mischievous schoolboy caught with his hand in the biscuit barrel.She knew a sudden urge to go with him as he followed his nose from place to place, seeing the world anew through his ever-curious perspective.
And then it came to her exactly what kind of leash he was escaping.The same one that had confined her for four years.
“Mr.De’Ath, are you married?”
She was annoyed with herself as soon as she had asked.She did not want to know if she was entertaining someone else’s husband.He wore no rings of any kind.
But he shook his head, and his surprise seemed genuine.For some reason, she found it suddenly difficult to meet his warm, still-smiling gaze.Caught up in the humour of his tales, she had almost forgotten that she was dining alone with a uniquely attractive young man.But she was aware of him now.Far too aware.
Had he made her laugh to seduce her?It was a novel approach, but she found it difficult to attribute such calculation to him.The chief entertainment of his stories had been his own joy in each new character, each new situation.
A pity.I would not mind being seduced by such a man...
Yes, I would!I am known here, and I am a bare fifteen miles from Sark Park...
“Is something troubling you?”
His question took her by complete surprise.She pushed her half-eaten cherry pie away from her and let her eyelids droop.
“Good Lord, no,” she drawled.“Very little ever troubles me.”
