“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” he said absently. “I’ll just have a little talk with him.”
It was one thing to flirt with Jane right under his nose, quite another to drive his sister to tears. MacPherson had made an enemy.
“You know…” Hannah hesitated for a long moment, then finallypressed on. “You shouldn’t be minding who Jane flirts with. She doesn’t like you anymore.”
Eli winced.
“Thank you, Hannah. I’ve gathered.”
“You could try apologizing to her.”
“I’m the one helping you withyourproblem,” he reminded her. “Let’s not upend things.” Eli withdrew his arm and rose to his feet, bending to kiss his sister atop her head. “And I have tried apologizing. It’s not so simple.”
“You really shouldn’t have proposed to Cecily.”
Eli froze in his path to the door.
He hadn’t confided his feelings to anyone. It was too much of a mess to sort out. And besides, who would he tell? No one could know that he’d only proposed to Cecily because he’d compromised her, unless he wanted to shatter her reputation.
But Hannah stared right through him. Well, she always had been a clever child.
“No,” he agreed with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have. But one can’t take back the past.”
“Did everyone enjoy the opening day?” asked Mr. Linden over their meal that evening. The cook had prepared an impressive array of spring greens and small carrots, roast chestnuts, bread and butter, a joint of beef, chicken, poached eels, and several cheeses. “Are you feeling better now, Jane? You looked well this morning.”
“I’m much better,” she assured him. “It was a lovely day.”
She was able to make conversation without blushing or stammering, which was a marked improvement over last night. She could even look at Eli for short periods of time, so long as she didn’t let herself linger.
When she lingered, her thoughts grew confusing. She recalled the way she’d had him trapped on the balcony this morning, the thrill it had given her to reduce him to helplessness without lifting a finger. It made her long for a moment alone with him. But then she thought of what had happened later—the look of grief on Eli’s face when that young man’s parents had found him—and all she wanted to do was take him into her arms and help shoulder the burdens he carried.
Pure foolishness.If she let her passions run away with her, it would only end in heartbreak. Eli would return to a dangerous life at sea, just as he had before, and she would be left to wonder what became of him.
She’d already known the pain of losing her parents. She wouldn’t chase after a man whose safety could never be assured.
“I’d still feel better if you go straight to bed after the meal.” Uncle Bertie looked at her so gravely she felt a touch of guilt at deceiving him the night before. Turning to Mr. Linden, he added, “That’s how my poor brother passed, you know. Took a chill one morning, and within a few days he and his wife were gone.”
“Our parents caught typhus, Uncle Bertie,” Jane reminded him.
“It started with a chill, though.”
“Do you know what I was thinking?” Mr. Linden had a certain talent for keeping the subject on its proper course. “It might be nice to go to Bath again. It was so healthful. Do you remember that summer that you and Cecily came along with Doris and me? How long has it been now?”
“Seven years,” answered Eli. Everyone looked at him. “That was the summer Miss Bishop and Edmund came to stay at Ashlow Park and we first made their acquaintance.”
Well. He remembered.
Does he think back on it fondly, or with regret?Jane couldn’t recall the early days of their friendship without a touch of embarrassment overthe way she’d clung to Eli. She’d been like a lost puppy, using any excuse to trail after him. But if Eli had found it tedious to spend his entire summer with a sixteen-year-old girl, he’d been too kind to give any sign.
“Seven years,” Mr. Linden echoed. “I’d say a return visit is in order. What if we dashed down for a week or two after Ascot? What do you say, Bishop? Would you like to come along and take the waters with us?”
Bertie hesitated, with a regretful look to Jane and Edmund.
“You needn’t worry about us,” Jane assured him. “I can manage our social calendar for a little while if you’d like to go.” It would probably do him good to have some time alone with the Lindens.
But Cecily jumped in before her father could reply, her voice crisp. “How could you manage the social calendar when you haven’t asked what I have planned? We’re already promised at half a dozen events in June, and Papa was supposed to sit with us for our family portrait on the fourteenth.”
The disappointment in Mr. Linden’s eyes was quickly concealed, but Jane had seen it.
