“Luckily, Mr. Russell said they will all hatch quite nicely. In short, Miss Rare-Foure, things are looking rosy.” He cocked his head to the constant noise in the front, the bell tinkling, Charlotte laughing, Amity explaining what was in the chocolates. “I know your shop is busy, but do you think your sisters would mind if you escape with me for a few hours?”
“When?” she asked.
“Now,” he urged. “After all, they don’t want you in the front with the customers, anyway. Not the glowering toffee-maker who lurks back here, stirring her bubbling potions.”
“You make me sound like a witch.” But she smiled.
“Say yes. The weather is fine,” he added.
“It is,” she agreed, feeling like the most agreeable woman in the world.Why had she ever been short-tempered and crabby?She doubted she would ever glower again.
“Will you take a walk with me?” he persisted.
“Somewhere in particular?” she asked.
“Perhaps.
In a few minutes, she had on her favorite blue cloak and was resting her gloved hand upon his arm. They walked south past Marlborough House and its walled gardens, still scarcely believing they’d been part of the event now declared “the fancy-dress ball of the decade.” Crossing The Mall road, with Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace down at the right end, they cut through St. James’s Park and strolled east to the river.
“Do you know yet where we might be going?” he asked.
“Since we’ve passed Whitehall and Scotland Yard, I assume we’re not visiting your chophouse chums.”
“No, definitely not. After dealing with that shifty lot, I think I shall let you help me pick my friends in the future.”
“In fairness, it sounds as though some of them were terribly desperate, and at least the brothers didn’t harm anyone.”
Greer stopped in his tracks and turned to her. “I cannot believe what I’m hearing. You are a changed woman, Miss Rare-Foure, from the one who seemed to have little patience even for nice old ladies trying to buy sweets.”
She covered her mouth as she laughed. It had been the very thing she’d been thinking. But she protested anyway. “They are hardly everniceold ladies. Usually snout-nosed younger ladies seemingly with sticks up the—”
“Beatrice!” he exclaimed looking right and left to see if any could overhear their discourse.
“What?” she asked, starting to walk again, pulling him with her. “Sticks up the back of their corsets was all I was going to say.”
“Hm. In any case, we’re nearly there.”
She decided not to press the issue and ask. After all, they’d spent months trying to achieve goals that ultimately were for naught. Now she was happy simply to float idly along like a leaf on the wind and let things play out as they would.
However, as they approached the recently installed addition to the Embankment, there was no mistaking his destination.
“Cleopatra’s Needle,” she mused. “Of all the sights you want to see in London, this one seems an odd choice when there are so many old and magnificent structures.”
“Older than Ancient Egypt?” he quipped.
“You have a point. But it’s very new for London. Two weeks, isn’t it, since they raised it? You must have noticed in the papers all the controversy. Why, I believe I was reading about it the very first day you entered Rare Confectionery. Strange! Anyway, it’s considered something of an eyesore by many. One editor said, ‘We regret that, in defiance of good taste, it has been decided to erect the obelisk on the Thames Embankment.’” They laughed, staring up at the reddish stone monument.
“What doyouthink?” she asked him.
“As a visitor to your country, I think it impolitic for me to give my opinion first.”
She poked him with her elbow. “You are no longer merely a visitor. You will move into a London townhouse in a week’s time.”And have a wife and maybe children soon after that, she added to herself.
“True, but still, you should tell me your thoughts first.”
She nodded, but nevertheless, they walked the last few yards in silence, approaching the towering obelisk.
At its base, Greer said quietly, “Sixty-nine feet high and six men died to bring it here,” and they craned their necks.
