Lord Owen Burnley
He did not imagine his small missive could make matters worse. However, the following day, he received an angry note in return:
Lord Burnley,
I know not what you can be thinking by contacting me thusly. You certainly and intentionally did play a pivotal role in the unjust incarceration of my brother. Given that fact, it is beyond the pale for you to believe I would wish to be in your company. Furthermore, why on earth would you invite me to go riding?
Sincerely,
Lady Adelia Smythe
He would be entirely honest with her, for he had nothing more to lose:
Dearest Adelia,
Because I miss you.
Truthfully,
Owen
Not long after his courier delivered his note, Owen received one in return:
Lord Burnley,
I shall be in Hyde Park at the Grosvenor Gate on the morrow at eleven o’clock if the weather is fine. I intend to ride down to the Serpentine and along Rotten Row.
Lady Adelia Smythe
He couldn’t help smiling when he received her latest missive. While the thrill of anticipation colored all his thoughts and actions with a joyful glow, he could get nothing serious done until he saw her. True, she hadn’t been exactly welcoming, but she hadn’t dismissed him out of hand, either.
Arriving early, he waited, standing alongside his horse at Grosvenor Gate on the east side of the park by quarter to eleven. He teetered between assuredness she would arrive at any instant and fear she had only said it to taunt him and would not show up at all.
Suddenly, Owen saw her, sitting tall and straight in a navy-blue riding habit, with a mounted footman a few yards behind her gelding. He nearly clapped his gloved hands with excitement. Instead, he whipped off his right glove in preparation for taking her hand in his. However, he never got the chance as she neither stopped nor dismounted.
Adelia rode right past him, acknowledged him with a nod, and turned her horse onto the southerly diagonal path toward the Serpentine and Rotten Row.
The devil!Dragging his glove on quickly, he mounted and caught up in a few trotting paces.
“Lady Adelia, it is good to see you.”
She nodded again.
Ah, this was like their early encounters. He would have to work harder to draw her voice from her lovely lips.
“The weather turned out to be fine, after all.”
Turning in her saddle, she said in a clipped tone, “Not in Newgate.”
It was as if she had slapped him.
“Is the weather different on that street than here?” Feeling irritated at her incivility, he couldn’t help baiting her.
“One cannot tell since there are so few windows in the jail, and the exercise yard is so small, one can barely see the sky.”
So, she had been there already?He winced at the idea of her in such a coarse place. Then, another thought alarmed him.
“You didn’t go alone, did you?”
