Mr Seymour regarded her with interest and no little surprise. Alice wondered if he was mentally reassessing Alfie, as well he ought. Though she liked Mr Seymour a good deal, she believed he thought Alfie a good-natured young fool and could not help but enjoy watching him reconsider his first impression.
“You told me he ran with a rough crowd, but you cannot mean that young shaver is a hardened gambler?”
Alice attempted to look shocked when, in truth, she ought to have nodded and agreed it was entirely true. Alfie had been playing games of chance since he’d learned how to add up, and when your survival depended on the turn of the cards, you got clever fast or went hungry. “Oh, no. Not that, but he’s… well, he’s rather good, is all. I should not like to send you off to play him without being prepared for that.”
This was true. Alfie relished a good opponent, and she did not want Aubrey pulling his punches because he felt Alfie was not his social equal, or out of financial considerations. She wanted to beat him fair and square and hopefully win back some of the money she was about to put into his hands.
“Well, that is good of you. Consider me forewarned and forearmed,” he said amiably. “Now, shall you take tea with us? Della and Vinnie are home and—”
Alice shook her head. She did not wish to see Vinnie for reasons she was not entirely certain of. Yet no matter how many times she told herself that the diamonds had been in the hands of a monster who could well afford to lose them, and that she had not realised she had been stealing from Vinnie, theknowledge still sat uncomfortably in her chest, poking irritably at her lazy conscience.
“Thank you for the invitation, but I only came to deliver Alfie’s message and to return this to you.”
She reached into her reticule and pulled out the carefully wrapped brooch. She handed the little tissue paper parcel to him with a good deal of reluctance, which she hoped he could not read in her eyes.
“Ah,” he said softly, as he took it from her. “This is a wonderful gift, Miss Marwick, but I feel I am robbing you of something you loved too.”
Well, that’s because you are, she thought with some asperity, before chiding herself. He was being kind, and she was a thief and a liar.
“Easy come, easy go,” she said, with far more equanimity than she was feeling. The urge to snatch the parcel from his grasp and run away with it was nigh on irresistible, but she pasted a smile to her face and gritted her teeth. “Now, then. My duty is done, so if you’ll excuse me. I shall return home.”
“Oh, no. I cannot have you come all this way and return alone too. Please, just wait whilst I fetch my coat and hat,” he implored her, and so earnestly she had no choice but to wait for him, even though she didn’t want him to escort her home.Liar.
To her surprise, he really did hurry off and fetch his coat and hat, instead of hailing a servant to do his bidding. He returned a few moments later, no doubt having secured the brooch somewhere safe first, she thought sadly. Not that it would be hard for Alfie to enter this house in the dead of night, to steal through its darkened rooms, and take back what was his.
Alice shivered. Temptation was one thing, but dirtying one's own doorstep was an idiocy of which she would never be guilty. Besides, the brooch was back where it belonged. She’d done a good deed, for once in her life.
Mr Seymour escorted her to the front door and out into the frosty January morning. He smiled and held out his arm to her. “May I? It’s rather icy underfoot.”
Alice returned his smile cautiously, an odd frisson of excitement shivering beneath her skin as she placed her hand upon his arm. She told herself she could feel nothing of him, no sense of the flesh and blood man beneath the layers of wool and starched linen, but her heart was unconvinced. Her heart sensed the power lurking beneath the civilised exterior, the strength that men took for granted, and that Alfie rather envied, for all his speed and cleverness. There had been many times, dangerous times, when Alfie could have done with that masculine force.
Nonsense, Alice thought crossly. Neither she nor Alfie needed a thing, not muscle, and certainly not a man to lean on. Yet there was something tantalising about having him so close, at the curiosity she felt as she wondered what it might be like, to have someone to rely on, to prop her up when Alfie was all out of bravado and Alice felt small and afraid.
“Have you lived in Little Valentine very long?”
Alice glanced up, disconcerted to find Aubrey watching her. How green his eyes were, like looking up at the canopy of a forest, yet today the trees were stark and skeletal against a white sky, reminding her it was an illusion. This man was not her friend, would never be Alfie’s friend, no matter how much she regretted that.
“Not long,” she replied evasively. “This is the first time you’ve been here for a while too, I understand.”
He nodded. “Gee-Gee—that is, Grandmama—hasn’t been here for a long time. Hawkney is not pleased, for he doesn’t like her being so far from town, from her doctor and her old cronies, but if you ask me, she seems to be thriving.”
“That’s certainly the impression I’ve been given. She’s involved herself in the Venturesome Ladies' club and she’s become quite indispensable.”
He laughed then, a deliciously deep and rumbling sound that made Alice look up at him again, drew her eyes to his mouth where they lingered. Were his lips soft, like hers? The thought came out of nowhere, startling her, a situation worsened as Aubrey glanced down and noticed her watching him. Blushing furiously, she stared at her feet and determined to keep doing so until she reached her front door.
“I think that is a rather kind observation,” he said, his voice full of gentle amusement. “I suspect my dreadful relation is meddling to her heart’s content and driving everyone distracted.”
Alice smiled despite her discomfort. “Oh no, not distracted. She’s keeping us all on our toes. I think everyone rather adores her.”
“I’m glad. She is worthy of adoration, despite her wicked ways and her sharp tongue.”
They walked in silence for a while, though Alice was rivetingly aware of the large body beside her. He was so much bigger than she was, solid and robust in a way she was not, and… and was he watching her? She felt certain he was, could feel the warmth of his gaze upon her cheek though she kept her eyes downcast.
Yet Alice did not play meek and mild with any proficiency, and inevitably she raised her head once more.
“That’s better. I was worrying I had offended you.”
Alice slanted a look at him, too easily charmed by the lopsided smile she encountered. She shook her head. “No. How could you? I only feel bad for making you walk out in the cold. There was really no need.”
