“How did you evade him a second time?” Sophia asked.
“I hid his boots.” She finished the bite of her cake as her friends giggled. “I put them behind the pillows on the bed. It took him hours to find them. He did eventually catch up to the troupe and me. He was so angry, and we argued, and then he kissed me.”
“What?!”
She nodded. “And not just any kiss. I practically melted into the ground at the passion in it. I never thought it possible that he held all that inside. And that was the beginning of the end for my heart.”
She went on to chronicle how Miles had met Mr. Marlow’s niece and they discovered that he did indeed reside in his aunt’s house in Weymouth Bay. And how she convinced Miles to accompany her to find the man. And how they had been set upon by highwaymen. Susanna left out plenty of intimate details of course and the fact that she had been the target of the highwaymen. She just didn’t know how to tell her friends the shameful details about her affair with Stuart.
“As I sat in the road cradling Miles’s unconscious form, the man who saved us introduced himself, Mr. James Marlow.”
“No,” Charlotte gasped. All four ladies sat forward with surprise written across their features.
Susanna nodded. “He offered to take us to his home and call for a doctor.”
“Stop,” Ellie interjected. “Since we all know that Hawksridge is fine. First, I must know what Mr. Marlow looks like.”
“He is rather tall, but not so tall as Hawksridge and Weston. He has fine features, piercing blue eyes like the sky in summer, dark brown hair and beard with just enough silver threaded through to make him look distinguished but not too old.”
Ellie sighed. “Just as I pictured, except without the beard.” She wrinkled her nose.
Charlotte laughed. “You haven’t seen Hawksridge yet. He is sporting a beard these days as well.”
Susanna twisted to face her. “What? He hasn’t had Roberts shave it off already?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Daniel teased him about it a few nights ago but he said he planned to keep it. It does make them easier to tell apart.”
Susanna didn’t know how to feel about that. They had been home for a week now. She had been torn between being relieved that Miles had stayed away and being incredibly angry that he hadn’t tried to see her, especially after his declaration shouted through the door at the hotel that he didn’t want to be free of her. Blast it! She hated feeling this way. She had gotten exactly what she wanted, hadn’t she? So why did she feel so wretched?
“So here is the worst of it,” she said. “When Miles suffered the injuries to his head, he woke up and could not remember a thing, not even his own name.”
“Goodness!” Olivia gasped. “What more could have happened?”
“I had told Mr. Marlow that we were married so that I could stay in the room with Miles and watch over him. And when Miles woke, I let him believe the same.”
“Susanna, how could you?” Ellie said.
“I know I should have said something, at least to Miles, right away but you should have seen him. He was so lost and it seemed to bring him comfort to know he had someone. Everything else I told him about his life was true, I swear. And we spent so much time together, taking walks, playing cards or chess and talking endlessly about nothing at all. He was so sweet and loving and affectionate and the whole thing felt like we were a husband and wife on holiday at the seaside.” She buried her face in her hands. “I wanted the lie to be true so badly.”
Olivia put an arm around her shoulders. “Dear, you just got carried away.”
Susanna raised her head back up. “I quite lost my heart. And I kept telling myself I would find the right time to tell him but then Weston showed up looking for us and the minute Miles saw him his memories returned. It was horrible to see the horror grow on his face as he realized that the woman he had been making love to all week was not his wife.
“He was so cold and angry. He said that we must get married because he had compromised me. That I had forced him into this situation.” She lost her composure and a huge lump of sadness blocked her throat for a moment. “He said he never wanted to fall in love, that I had trapped him.”
Susanna wiped at her eyes. “I yelled back that I would never marry someone who refused to love me back. That I deserved more than that. And then the next morning I ran again. Back to the circus. I traveled to Brighton with them and my plan formed as we sailed over the water. Something about the sea air clarified my pain. So, that night, I performed with the troupe, for the king and all the society that was in Brighton. I was Titania, Queen of the Fairies.”
“You didn’t!” breathed Ellie.
Her friends all held expressions of utter shock, except Charlotte. Susanna raised an eyebrow. “Charlotte, why are you the only one who doesn’t look appalled at my behavior?”
“Because I have heard this part. From my husband and Hawksridge.”
“You have? What did he say?” Susanna desperately needed to know what Hawksridge’s reaction had been.
Charlotte looked her straight in the eye. “Perhaps, it would be better if I told you a part of this tale that you do not know. About what Hawksridge did.”
“What he did?”
