"No!" Jane said involuntarily, turning a flaming face to the group.
"Did you ride all this way after us to take me walking, sir?" Honor asked. "I must confess myself flattered.Though your timing could be better.I am awaiting my dinner, and I am starved."
"No, I did not ride all this way merely to show you the wonders of an obscure English village,"Sedgeworthsaid, giving her a significant look. "Fairfax has some unfinished business with your cousin."
"Oh," said Honor, seating herself at the table and looking up eagerly at Fairfax. "Do you, my lord? Let us hear it, then. It must be important if you have come after us all this way. Does it concern the carriage? I must compliment you on it. We have not felt the least bit shaken about in it. Have we, Jane?"
"Miss Jamieson,"Sedgeworthsaid."Our walk?"
"Ah, yes," Honor said. "Do you come too, Jane? Perhaps a walk will help you work up an appetite. Jane is not hungry, you know, my lord, although it is well into the afternoon already and she had no breakfast. Is that not foolish? One would almost think she was not enjoying the journey or wishing to return to London. But how foolish of me! Of course, if you have caught up with us so soon, you must not have stopped for luncheon yourselves. Shall I call a servant so that you may order something too?" She smiled dazzlingly at the two gentlemen. Jane was examining her hands.
Sedgeworthcrossed the room purposefully to pick up Honor's discarded bonnet from a table in one corner. He held it out to her. "Do you wish me to put it on for you?" heasked,all politeness.
"No, thank you," said Honor. "Gracious, you are so eager to be gone with me,sir, thatI almost begin to tremble for my safety. Perhaps I should sit here until Lord Fairfax has finished his business with Jane so that she may come as a chaperone."
She was tying the ribbon on her bonnet into a bow beneath her chin as she spoke. She looked provocatively atSedgeworth, but the look seemed to assure her that it was time she moved. She smiled mischievously at Jane and triumphantly at Fairfax, and swept from the room.
"Honor,"Sedgeworthsaid as they stepped from the inn into the cobbledstableyard, "was that a foretaste of the way you plan to behave if and when we are wed?"
"Yes," she said, grasping his arm tightly and smiling into his face. "Don't you think it was enormous fun, Joseph, to see their faces? I thought Lord Fairfax turned a decided shade of purple, or was I deceived by the shadows of the room? And Jane must have been counting the hairs on the backs of her hands. She was certainly concentrating on them hard enough."
"Could you not feel the tension in the room?"Sedgeworthasked. "Yet you must stay and tease them into thinking you have about as much intelligence and sensibility as that fencepost over there."
She giggled and did a little jig by his side. "Oh, Joseph," she said, "I shall be returning with you and will have a whole week left at Templeton Hall to enslave you and make sure you do not change your mind."
"If you were wise, my girl," he said feelingly, "you would travel as far away from me as you can for the next week and hide so that I will forget what a troublesome imp you are until after I have made my offer and it is too late to withdraw honorably."
"You are teasing me," she said. "But you are a little bit serious too, are you not, Joseph? I am so glad. I will lead you a merry dance, I promise, but I want to know that there are limits beyond which I dare not push you. And there are, are there not?"
"I shall probably develop the routine of beating you once a week whether you deserve it or not," he said, "just to keep you within the bounds of decency."
She giggled. "How did you persuade him to come?" she asked. "He looked so very solemn and handsome when he burst into the room, Joseph, that I could almost have wished that it were me he was pursuing. What a waste of good looks, alas! But he is too dull for me."
"I am afraid you are going to just have to get used to my very ordinary looks, my dear,"Sedgeworthsaid, patting her hand. "And I do not want you even flirting with all the handsome devils you will meet on our travels, or I shall take you back to my much-neglected home and lock you up there for the rest of our lives. Understood?"
"Understood, Joseph," she said meekly. "I shall cast down my eyes demurely whenever I suspect that a gentleman approaching might be handsome. And everyone will comment on what a sweet little mouse of a wife you have. Of course, I might see nothing but floors for the next twenty years, but you are worth the sacrifice."
"Ah, I see I am taming the shrew already,"Sedgeworthsaid. "Let us try this laneway out into the country, Honor. It looks more attractive than the village street."
"Oh yes," she agreed with some enthusiasm."And far more secluded.Once we have turned that bend, you will be able to kiss me, Joseph. How delightful. And I thought I would have to wait a whole week!"
Fairfax shut the door behind Honor andSedgeworthand stood with his back against it. Jane looked up slowly from her hands.
"Jane," he said quietly, "why did you not tell me?"
"About what?" she asked foolishly.
"Why did you not tell me that your betrothal to Sedge is at an end?" he asked. "I did not know until he told me sohimselfthis morning after you had left."
"I did not have an opportunity to do so," she said. "Last night did not seem the appropriate time, and I did not see you this morning."
"Last night," he said. "Jane, will you ever forgive me? I behaved abominably. Not so much in telling you to leave. I had to do that for my own protection and yours.But making those stupid accusations.I have been insanely jealous of you with my children. They have both grown fond of you. Claire will sometimes come to you rather than me, especially when she is tired and needs to be held. And Amy has learned to smile and become a young child again when she is with you. Last night I was badly frightened when I discovered her missing. I suppose I had to take out my frustration on someone. And you were there in my path. I am sorry, Jane."
She was examining the palm of one hand, tracing the lines with a finger of the other hand. "I understood," she said. "I was a little upset, but I was not angry with you. Indeed, you had reason to be angry with me."
"And do you understand why I had to send you away?" he asked.
Her finger moved in a circular pattern around her palm before she looked up at him.
