“Good day to you, Ella.” Ruby dropped Walter’s collar.
“Are you having a picnic?”
“We are,” Ruby said.
“We can join you then, as we are to picnic too!”
“No, Ella. Your family will not wish to join us. Call Walter to your side, and he will leave.”
Miss Chen had now calmed down enough to pat the dog, which was not helping her cause to get him to leave. Shooting Ella’s family a look, she noted they were nearly upon them.
“Good day to you, Miss Knight.”
Ella dropped into a curtsey at Mr. Howarth’s words. The Deville party was all now standing beside their blanket, smiling. Mrs. Chen and Miss Kent were rising to curtsey. Adam was grabbing for his crutches. Mr. Winston, still agile at his advanced age, had risen and bowed.
“Please, sit, there is no need for any of you to rise,” Mr. Howarth said. “We must apologize for Walter’s bad manners, and us for interrupting your picnic.”
He was smiling. Not huge like the other Deville brothers did, but equally as disturbing. In fact, just looking at him made something flutter inside her. It was an odd reaction, this continual fluttering and breathlessness she felt around him. She didn’t like it at all, and had never in her life experienced such a feeling around a man before.
“Shall we have our picnic with Ruby, Papa?”
Dear Lord, no.
“Ella, that will not be possible,” Ruby rushed to say.
“Do you know, I think that sounds like a grand idea,” Lady Raine said at the same time. “My belly is huge, and my feet swollen, I have no wish to walk another step.” She grabbed her husband’s hand and let him lower her to Ruby’s blanket.
“Oh no, really—”
“Relax,” a deep voice whispered in her ear. “We are well mannered, Miss Knight.”
She spun to face Mr. Howarth, who was inches from her. “You cannot be serious? This is not right. You and your family cannot be seen sitting with us.” The words had come out as a furious hiss, but then who wouldn’t hiss when presented with all these people of noble birth wanting to share a picnic with them… who were of not-noble birth and different nationalities.
“What a snob you are, Miss Knight.”
“I am a realist.”
“Ella, help Uncle Daniel spread out the blanket,” Mr. Howarth said with his eyes still locked on Ruby’s.
“I—” Her eyes clenched shut. This was a disaster. Mrs. Chen’s English was terrible, and she was always saying something she shouldn’t. What if she mentioned what had happened last night? Miss Kent was terrified of men, mainly noblemen, due, Ruby thought, to some ill treatment she had received at the hands of one.
She would simply go stiff as a board and not speak, her face losing all color. Shooting her a look, Ruby noted she was indeed pale now.
“Will you introduce us to your companions, Miss Knight?”
She opened her eyes, and Mr. Howarth was still there, with a gentle smile on his face.
“I… ah, of course.” Ruby ran her hands down the skirts of her old dress. It was the one she wore on her day off. She then patted her hair, which was not pulled back in a tight bun or tucked under a bonnet, but in a loose knot. Her bonnet lay beside her on the blanket.
“Mrs. Chen, Miss Kent, Mr. Winston, and my brother, Mr. Adam Knight.”
“I’ve wanted to meet you,” Ella said, wedging herself between Mr. Winston and Adam. “I told Ruby that was important, as we are friends and I would like to be your friend too.”
Ruby inhaled deeply and swallowed back the tears. Children often held no bias.
“This is my cousin, Lord Raine, and his wife, Lady Raine,” Mr. Howarth said. “These are Lady Abigail, Mr. Dillinger, and this is their son, Master Tobias, and I am Mr. Howarth.”
Ruby stepped off the blanket to the rear, not entirely sure she wouldn’t flee if the moment presented itself. After last night’s escapades and now this, she wasn’t entirely sure that her heart wouldn’t give out any moment.
