He should and would.Gloria was a brilliant matchmaker.Excellent work.She should go home, bake herself a cake, eat the whole thing.
“It’s best we follow protocol.I wouldn’t wish to add unnecessary scandal to your troubles.”He added something in French that turned Désirée’s cheeks pink.
“Come back soon,” she said with a laugh.“Both of you.”
They bid their leave and climbed back into the carriage.Soon they were back on the road.
Gloria did not bother to ask how the meeting had gone.The answer was obvious.C’est l’amour.
Gloria was thrilled at Désirée’s positive reception.Mostly thrilled.Only an unprofessional matchmaker would feel a tiny pinch of envy.
She sent Mr.Pringle a covert glance from the corner of her eye.
She needed a man that was his complete opposite.He was adventurous, fearless, worldly.Gloria didn’t require any of that.It made him dangerous.Besides, he was a client.
Well, an ex-client.He’d found his future Madame Pringle in the space of an hour.
“Come along, Madge,” she said the moment the wheels of the chariot came to a stop before her house.“Let’s not keep Mr.Pringle.”
She scrambled down without waiting for his aid and hurried back inside her cottage.She tossed her bonnet on the chair beside the adventure books and kept on walking past the kitchen, past her private observatory, and into her bedchamber.
She came to a stop in front of the old wooden trunk and flipped up the lid.
“Paris,” Madge said behind her.“Last time you packed it, it was for Paris.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”Gloria began yanking items from the trunk.“That was weeks ago.”
Madge opened the armoire.“Where are we going now?”
“Venice,” Gloria said decisively.“We will have pasta at an outdoor café and spend the afternoon in a private gondola.”
Madge nodded.“I’ll pack the parasols.It is important to protect oneself from the elements.”
No matter how many times they played this game, packing a trunk for a holiday they would never take, Madge had not once asked why Gloria bothered.
She didn’t have to.She had been there when Gloria’s faith in adventure had been destroyed.
Six years ago, Gloria had experienced her one and only London season.It had been a smashing success.She’d been betrothed by her fifth ball.When her suitor set off to make his fortune and never came home, Father had told her not to worry.She was still young.There was plenty of time.
Fatheralwayssaid not to worry.
He was an experienced Navy Captain.He never worried about anything.He taught Gloria the stars so that she could learn to navigate as well as he could.Then he sailed off to war.That was the last she saw him.
The Crown provided handsomely in such cases.Gloria did not want money.She wanted her father.And Mother… never recovered.Laudanum was the only thing that got her through the night, until one morning she didn’t wake up at all.
And then Gloria was alone.
So, no.She would not be traveling.Or entrusting her heart to anyone who did.All it could lead to was grief and loss.
With a sigh, she closed the lid on her trunk and locked her dreams inside.
Chapter 5
Gloria shoved a hunk of hair out of her eyes and replaced the final fastening on her orrery.This time, when she activated the mechanism, the tiny solar system rotated the planets without a strange grinding sound every time Venus passed Mars.
Flushed with satisfaction, she pushed to her feet and brushed the wrinkles from her skirts.Or tried to.As usual, her wrinkle situation was hopeless.Not that it mattered.She was in a comfortable old housedress in her comfortable old house tinkering with her comfortable old orrery.Things were exactly as they should be.
Her next sky-walk wasn’t for another month.Mr.Pringle was off signing a bilingual wedding contract.Gloria did not have to take a single step out of her cottage if she didn’t wish to.
