“I’m hurrying, my lord, because the smell here is one of the worst in all London, save for Smithfield market.”
He chuckled. “I have never minded the smell of manure, but that’s the price you pay for living in London. It seems we have nearly as many horses as people.”
She nodded. “Truly,” she agreed. “I’m on my way to St. James’s Park.”
“This is a little out of your way, isn’t it? From Hanover Square, I mean.”
“I came through Hyde Park. I confess I prefer most of London’s green spaces to the streets.”
He must have given her a curious look, for her cheeks pinkened. She was all but confessing herself a country maid, a female hobnail. It didn’t detract from her appeal at all. He imagined laying her down in the fresh green grass near his ancestral home in Marshfield, seeing wildflowers in her hair, looking up at the blue sky together after swiving to mutual satisfaction.
“For the milk,” she said, and Jasper realized she had continued speaking while he’d gawked at her.
“I beg your pardon, Miss Sudbury, did you say something about milk?”
“My sister and I prefer the milk from the cows at St. James’s to what we can get from the cow keeper’s shop close to home. They water it down.”
“Water it down?” Jasper was trying to follow her speech, but in truth, he’d never given an ounce of thought to the milk in his home. He assumed his kitchen staff purchased good quality.
“Yes, sir. The cow keepers’ shops don’t let the cows graze outside, and they use any matter of foul water to thin the milk. Of course, they skim the cream, too.”
“Skim the cream,” he muttered. He was almost afraid to ask. “Do you milk the cow at St. James’s Park yourself?”
She had started walking again with him beside her, but this made her halt once more and start to laugh. Eventually, she shook her head.
“Do I seem such a bumpkin? The cows’ owners do the milking and will even deliver, which is what I shall pay a lad to do.” She patted her reticule dangling from one wrist. “As you can see, I didn’t brink my pail nor stool.” She started to laugh again.
“Ha ha,Miss Sudbury. You have made your point.” Jasper liked how she fell into good humor so readily, seeming to be not the least self-conscious. “So, you are out for milk? May I accompany you?”
“If your company won’t get my name into the gossip column, I suppose you may.”
Suddenly, he realized what seemed so singular about her compared to the females with whom he might normally have a brief word on the street.
“Where on earth is your lady’s maid?”
“You are going to make me laugh until I cry today, aren’t you, sir? I have no lady’s maid because I amnota lady.”
It was his turn to feel his cheeks heat. “You have no title, to be sure, but you’re not a shop girl either, nor a flower girl, for pity’s sake. Your sister is a countess! Surely, you don’t traipse about London unaccompanied.”
Even the nearly useless Mrs. Zebodar would be better than no one.
“Indeed, I quite often do exactly that,” Miss Sudbury said cheekily.
“Zounds,” he swore under his breath.What was this world coming to?She could fall into the hands of ... well, of someone like himself. Or worse, some sly-boots or Jack nasty-face who might try to lure her into a brothel if she didn’t know better.
In truth, he oughtn’t to walk with her to St. James’s Park, as if they were a couple, but knowing she had no protection, he would do precisely that. If someone with tongue enough for two sets of teeth happened to see them and report it to the papers, so be it.
They fell into step.
“Tell me about something interesting,” she demanded in a familiar and endearing way, and he endeavored to do so for the fifteen-minute walk. Naturally, they took Constitution Hill through Green Park, coming up alongside Buckingham House at one end of St. James’s long, oddly shaped green.
True enough, there were the cows, the milkmaids, the delivery lads, and quite a crowd purchasing fresh milk. He’d been shown something new by this woman in his own backyard.
“Thank you, sir, for the company. Please, go about your business now.”
The vicar’s daughter was dismissing him.
“I think it best if I accompany you home,” Jasper proposed.
