He flinched as if she had delivered a blow to his body and whipped back around.
“I will not speak of it,” he said, his voice shaking.
“Would a magistrate be interested to hear of it?” Owen’s question seemed to strike a nerve all the more, for Lord Haroldson would not sit still now. His fidgeting with the reins made the horse restless beneath him, moving back and forth.
“I will not be questioned in this manner!”
“What if my husband has no intention of paying you?” Diana asked, alighting on an idea. “If he does not pay you, would you tell us then what your deal was?”
“He will pay me. It will not come to that. I am sure of it.” He shook himself, like a dog shedding water, before turning the horse back down the driveway. “If you would excuse me, Your Grace, I must be going.”
“If you change your mind, come back to the house,” Diana said firmly. “The magistrate and I will be interested to hear of your business. It might be the only way you can get your money.”
There was something in Lord Haroldson’s manner that hesitated as if he considered it for a moment.
“When will the duke return?”
“This Friday.”
“Then I will be back then to discuss terms,” he said with a firm nod. “It will not come to it, Your Grace, of that I have to be certain.” With those final words, he urged the horse forward again. This time, the horse cantered away, leaving Diana and Owen behind in the carriage.
“He seems to have faith in my husband,” Diana whispered as she leaned on the carriage bench beside Owen.
“Or hope that he will not risk being turned over to a magistrate.”
***
“Why here?” Owen asked as he pulled the cart up alongside a field.
“It’s where they work now,” Jessie explained as she began to clamber down from the cart and pointed into the field ahead.
Owen went to follow her. Despite his agreement, he didn’t like the idea of letting Jessie wander the fields alone.
“Mr Arnold, please, I can do this alone.”
“Where even are these labourers?” he asked, gesturing to the field that appeared ploughed, ready for sowing seeds. She pointed behind him. He turned to see a group of men ploughing another field, adjacent to the one they had stopped beside. “I should come with you.”
“No, Mr Arnold. These men won’t like being asked questions by a stranger, certainly one that works for the duke. Please, let me go alone.”
Owen eventually nodded, reluctantly though, and turned in the seat of the cart to watch the maid make her way across the field, heading straight for the men. As she approached, she called and waved out. The men quickly stopped working and went to meet her. As they talked, Owen shifted repeatedly in his seat, fiddling with the horses’ reins just so he had something to do.
It reminded him of what had happened the day before, when he and Diana had chased after Lord Haroldson, trying to discover what business he’d had with the duke. At that moment, Owen realized just how much Diana had grown in confidence over these last few weeks.
She still had a shyness to her, coupled with an almost gentle approach to whoever she spoke to, but yesterday, she had not been afraid to speak her mind and talk openly with Lord Haroldson. It made Owen picture the latest painting he had completed of her, laying on the bed with fairy wings intact.
“She is as she always should have been,” he said quietly to himself, thrilled to see her come into her own at last. As he waited for Jessie, his eyes repeatedly flicking over the men’s faces as they spoke to her, fear began to settle in his stomach.
If they couldn’t find something to link the duke to these fires, then it was just possible that the duke would spend more and more time at home. Owen feared what would happen to Diana then. Would she revert to how she had been before when he first knew her, nervous to speak to anyone?
A call in the distance alerted his attention, and he looked up to see Jessie was returning to him, worrying her lip between her teeth over and over again.
“What did they say?” he asked as she clambered back up into the cart.
“Let’s move on, first, I need to think on what they said.”
He did as she asked, though he kept looking back to her from the horses, impatient to hear what she had learned.
“Are we to go the whole way in silence?” he asked eventually with a gentle voice, urging her on.
