Prue nodded. “We’ve been quite busy with people knocking on our door to ask after you since you saved Miss Little.”
“Well then, let’s hope with my return to health my popularity wanes quickly,” Evie said.
“I love being popular,” Prue said regaining her feet. “Now, you are all caught up, and it is time for you to get up those stairs, wash, and put on the dress I have set aside for you to travel in.”
“I feel like while I slept my life has slipped from my control,” Evie muttered.
“Excellent. It will do you good to feel that way. Now move.”
She did as her sister asked because she was too tired to argue. Besides, a long carriage ride would give Evie time to work out how long it would take to repay their debt to Lord Hamilton. She feared it would be many years.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“And Evangeline isnow well?”
“I have not seen her,” Anthony said to Toby as they wandered through the grounds of the Hamptons’ large estate.
House parties were not something he usually attended, but he’d come to this one because here Evie would be safe, and here she could finish her recovery.
“It’s nice to get out of London,” Jamie said.
The gardens here were extensive and tended by five gardeners. You could walk them for hours and not see everything. Lakes were stocked with trout for fishing, and parties went out daily to ride over the hundreds of acres of land.
But it was the huge conservatory that Hampton had built to cantilever over the water that intrigued Anthony. It offered a spectacular view of the night sky through the large telescope erected inside. An avid star gazer, Hampton had told Anthony he must view it before he left.
He, Toby, and Jamie had arrived this morning. His aunts had left a few days earlier and were visiting with Harriet, whom he would see tomorrow. But the person he most needed to see was Evie.
It had been two weeks since she’d saved Miss Little, and while her family had told him she was well, he wanted to see that for himself.
“I cannot believe she just plunged into the water?” Jamie said.
“As I told you the last two times we discussed this, yes, she did, and in her dress.”
Jamie whistled. “I’ve been thinking if you are not actually going to wed her, I may ask for her hand, as she seems the perfect wife to me.”
The flash of rage Anthony felt at his friend’s words was instant.Mine,he wanted to roar.
Damn bloody woman! She’d worked her way inside him, and he wasn’t sure how to get her out again. Anthony had panicked when he’d heard she was ill, fearing Prudence was lying to him and she was worse than they were leading him to believe.
“Anthony?”
“Sorry, what did you say?” He looked at Toby.
“What’s wrong?” Jamie asked.
“Nothing.”
“There is definitely something,” Toby said. “You’re changing, my friend.”
“No, I’m not,” Anthony said, feeling a stab of panic at the words because he’d felt like that was exactly what was happening to him.
“You are. You’ve lost some of your hard edges—”
“I have lost nothing,” he cut Jamie off. “I went to Hugh’s two nights ago and gambled until dawn.” And he’d hated it and wanted to go home because Mr. Renee was not there.
“Society no longer speaks of you in fearful whispers,” Toby said. “I wouldn’t go so far as saying you’re a respected member yet, but you’re on the way.”
“I—”
