“I’ll just step inside and let my family know where I’m going.”
“Shall I meet you at the front of the manor?”
“That would be rather rude of me.” She laughed. “Come along.”
He followed her into a pair of open doors and into a parlor where Viscount Lynwood sat with a child of approximately a year upon his lap. Beside him sat a blonde woman sipping her tea and across was a younger woman with red hair. Miss Cordelia quickly introduced her sister-in-law and younger sister, Adriana.
It was nice to put a face with a name. “Ah, Miss Adriana, I’ve heard of you, and now we meet.”
“Do tell me that Larisa will be visiting this summer.”
“There are plans for her to do so, but I do not have a specific date as of yet.”
“I cannot wait to see her. Bocka Morrow is quite dull, and I would enjoy being able to visit with my friend.”
“Lord Bentford would like me to accompany him into Bocka Morrow as he is unfamiliar with the village,” Miss Cordelia announced.
“If you are going to be inThe Hourglass, could you please pick me up some of the cream that Brighid prepares for sunburn. I am all out,” Miss Adriana asked.
“If you would not spend so much time near the sea without your bonnet and parasol, you wouldn’t become sunburned,” Lynwood warned.
“You may pick it up yourself,” Lady Lynwood insisted. “Cordelia’s maid has a free day so you shall be her chaperone.”
“I cannot walk into Bocka Morrow today,” Miss Adriana argued.
“Why?” Lynwood asked. “Have you made other plans?”
Miss Adriana bit her bottom lip. “Not exactly. I was going to walk along the beach, as I do every afternoon.”
“You’ll still be walking except it will be into Bocka Morrow,” Lynwood informed her.
“Very well,” Miss Adriana sighed as she stood.
Cordelia would rather not haveher younger sister along, but Adam hadn’t really given them a choice.
As they stepped from the manor, Adriana turned to the path away from the road.
“Where are you going?” Cordelia asked, though her stomach tightened with suspicion as she awaited her sister’s response.
Adriana turned with a sheepish smile. “I thought we’d take the path along the sea.”
“No,” Cordelia answered without hesitation. Adriana knew she hated that path and never took it and for good reason. “The tide is coming in and that path disappears.”
“Very well,” Adriana blew out. “We’ll walk along the very boring road.” With her chin and nose in the air, Adriana marched ahead of them.
“My sister is still drawn to the sea. She walks there every day,” Cordelia confessed. One would think that after nearly drowning, it would be Adriana who wished to be away from water more than Cordelia.
“Some people enjoy the sea. It’s calming,” Bentford offered.
“Perhaps for some, to others it is unsettling.”
“My sister, Larisa, bemoans the fact that we don’t live so close to the water and wished that she could take up residence at Nightshade Manor.”
“It’s no wonder the two are friends,” Cordelia laughed. “There is another reason why Adriana likes to walk along the sea,” she finally admitted once Adriana was too far ahead of them to hear. “She is hoping to see a mermaid or merman, like the one who rescued her.”
“Has she?” Bentford asked with a chuckle.
“She claims to have seen mermaids, but not the one she’s looked for,” Cordelia assured him. “I’ve seen several dolphins, however. I do enjoy watching them frolic in the waves.”
