“May I send word to Mr. Cole about our departure and where he can write to us if he wishes?”
“Certainly,” her father said, and to his credit, he didn’t look the least bothered about his offspring having driven them to close their store and flee London.
Standing, she went over to him and kissed his cheek, glancing at her sisters’ subdued expressions and noting the crumpled newspapers in a pile beside her father’s elbow. Apparently, he wasn’t going to share them today. At least, not with her.
Heading for their study, she sat down to write to Jeremy, wishing she could have spoken to him instead. As she set pen to paper, an awful thought crossed her mind.What if he’d already caught wind of the scandal — if it could be called such — and no longer wanted to be associated with her?
After all, in his profession, he must be above reproach. The taint of having supposedly made the future Duchess of Pelham become ill might follow Amity beyond the fleeting notoriety of the sordid gossip rags. She might become known as thepoison purveyor of chocolates,or some such ridiculous moniker. Perhaps she should leave Jeremy alone.
In the end, Amity decided to let it be his decision whether to resume contact with her. She wrote to him of their departure to Coggeshall, an unremarkable town in the heart of Essex, with the open invitation to write to her or even to visit.
And then she began to pack her personal belongings.
***
HENRY DESCENDED FROMhis carriage and bounded across the pavement, his fingers on the door handle before he saw the notice on the shop window. The door did not open as usual with the welcoming tinkle of the bell. Looking through the window, he saw no pretty Rare-Foure sisters inside to greet him.
Drawing back, he read the message written in a no-nonsense script and hanging by a blue ribbon facing outward, against the glass:
Thank you for your custom. We are going on a brief holiday.
The remainder of our confections are for sale next door at Asprey’s.
Please excuse any inconvenience.
Frowning, he felt a twist in his gut accompanying the suspicion this was not a planned trip. Moreover, the unexpected shop closing didn’t bode well for the Rare-Foures’ bank account. He reread the message and hurried next door to the jewelry store, not to buy the remaining chocolates but to find out if the clerk at Asprey’s knew anything more.
Chapter Nineteen
Coggeshall, Essex County
Amity snapped closedMiss Eliza Leslie’sLady’s New-Receipt Book. She’d been reading the American woman’s recipe for chocolate cake over and over without taking in a word of it. Despite it being a favorite of their cook’s and indubitably filled with good sense, the book could not hold her attention. It had been five days since the disaster at the duke’s home, and still, Amity could vividly recall Lady Madeleine’s harsh words and the duke’s look of embarrassment and disappointment.
Standing, she left the sunny window seat and decided to take a walk outside. Luckily, the weather was holding fine after a rainy spell over the prior two days. The sunshine and a long walk would undoubtedly improve her mood.
Thus, five minutes later, draped in her lightweight plum-colored cloak, she was strolling toward the River Blackwater, keeping her mind clear of thoughts of the nobility and London as much as possible. The grouse were rustling in the long grasses. Her father was not a hunter, nor did anyone else use their land, so they had an abundance of birds on the property, as well as foxes and deer.
