“I could never afford you.” She laughed softly.
“Ah,” he said, “but I would not exact payment in coin. Youcanafford the payment I would demand, in abundance. In superabundance. Ma’am.”
Her knees almost buckled. And there was surely not as much air on this side of the island as there was on the other.
The corners of his mouth lifted in that wicked half smile of his, and he offered one hand to help her into the boat.
They were on the other shore and he was handing her out of the boat when she became aware that Sophia and Lady Trentham were strolling toward the lake from the direction of the house. Sophia was carrying the baby, bundled up warmly in a blanket.
Whatever would shethink?
But whatever she thought, she was smiling as she called out to them.
“You have been to the island,” she said. “It is the perfect morning to be outdoors, is it not?”
She looked more searchingly at Agnes as she came closer with Lady Trentham. The viscount was putting the boat away in the boathouse.
If only one were able to control one’s blushes!
“I have never been there before,” Agnes said. “The little temple is more beautiful than one expects, is it not? The stained glass makes the light inside quite magical. Or perhapsmysticalwould be a more appropriate word.”
“Sir Benedict rowed Samantha and me over there a couple of weeks ago,” Lady Trentham said. “I agree with you, Mrs. Keeping. And that stained glass window gives me ideas forourpark.”
“Dora has gone home?” Agnes asked.
“She praised me and scolded me in equal measure.” Sophia laughed. “By some miracle I played all the notes of last week’s piece correctly, but I played with wooden fingers. It is the very worst censure your sister can possibly deal out to one of her pupils, Agnes, and it is quite devastating when she does it. And thoroughly deserved on this occasion. I have not been practicing as conscientiously as I ought.”
She lifted a corner of the blanket and smiled at her son’s sleeping face.
“She would not stay for a cup of coffee,” she continued, “and Gwen and I decided to come out without stopping for one either. The sunshine was too inviting.”
Viscount Ponsonby came out of the boathouse, and all eyes turned his way.
They had not exchanged a word in the boat on the way across. Agnes did not know whether he was finished with her now or whether he would renew his addresses. There was less than a week remaining....
She had a sudden premonition of how she was going to feel on the day all the guests left Middlebury Park. Her stomach seemed to sink like a leaden weight all the way to the soles of her shoes, leaving nausea and near panic behind in its place.
He smiled.
“I was not in the m-mood for writing letters after all,” he said. “It was too late to g-go with everyone else, and there was no one in sight in the house except for a few f-footmen, who did not look as if they would enjoy being engaged in c-conversation. I took myself off to the v-village to see if Mrs. Keeping would take p-pity on me, and she did.”
“Come up to the house and have coffee with us,” Sophia said, smiling at Agnes.
“But you have just come outside,” Agnes protested.
“Not so,” Lady Trentham told them. “We walked through the formal gardens before coming down here.”
“Come,” Sophia said.
Being sociable was the last thing Agnes felt like doing, but none of the alternatives appealed to her either. Dora would be back home and would expect to know where her sister had been. And even if she could get away from Dora after a brief explanation and retreat to her room, she would have her thoughts to contend with again, and they would not be happy company for a while.
“Thank you,” she said.
“And now I face a dilemma,” Viscount Ponsonby said. “Three l-ladies and only two arms to offer.”
Sophia laughed.
“How a child who is not yet two months old can weigh a ton, I do not know,” she said, “but that is precisely what Thomasdoesweigh. Here, my lord, you may carry him to the house, and we three will find our way unassisted.”
