The carriage would be more comfortable, but they clearly needed to be alone together, as lovers do.
As lovers do.
Her love was hopeless, and once they returned to Town, she might never see Kynaston again. She could have this little time.
“I’ll return with Kynaston,” Ariana said. “We’ll not be far behind.”
She’d truly forgotten until that moment that she’d stolen the curricle bar.
Chapter 17
Outside, the horn was blowing and in the inn hall someone was yelling that the Derby coach was about to leave. “All aboard!”
There was still time. Time to confess her crime and for the bar to be retrieved. She said nothing. She wanted to be with Kynaston as much as Norris wanted to be with Phyllis, and this could be her last opportunity.
When the door closed, he looked at her. “You should have gone with them.”
“And played gooseberry?”
“I’m very much in favor of gooseberries.”
“I think your sister has proven you can trust her to be sensible.” She returned to her seat on the settle, which put her closer to him. “In any case, thank you.”
“For allowing your brother to put my sister at risk? What of your urgency? He could kill himself in the hunting season.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps he’ll be more careful. He’sfound his one true love. I can’t try to force him to marry another.”
“You could have urged them to continue their elopement.”
“No. A horrid way to marry. You could let them marry in church next week.”
“No. I’ll see proof of constancy, especially from your brother.”
“He’s changing. It’s astonished me, but it’s so. I quite expect to soon find him with his nose in a book.”
That twitched a smile on his stern lips.
“Can you bear this?” she asked him. “In good humor, for Phyllis’s sake? I think she wants family around her, and you are the only family she has.”
“Leaving aside her mother.”
“That bothers you? It seems natural to me.”
“Anabelle abandoned Phyllis when she was only a few months old!”
“For love. It seems you in turn abandoned her.”
“When she was fourteen, and I left her with her reliable governess, who turns out to have been a regular bluestocking!”
“Mrs. Manners?” Ariana asked.
“I only hired her a few weeks ago. As soon as I returned, Miss Armstrong left to find more demanding pupils. Manners was to help Phyllis prepare for society. A sensible woman, or so I thought.”
“What’s she done?” Ariana asked, slightly amused by his air of grievance.
“Says she’s going to marry Tom North! What about mourning?”
“Perhaps she’s mourned long enough and, like your stepmother, deserves more life.” She meant it about him as much as anyone.
