Annabel turned to see Mr. Hudsyn striding toward her, and she drew back.
He stopped. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“What are you doing here?” She clutchedClarissato her chest. The book was thick enough to be used as a weapon if necessary.
“I was on my way to Canterbury”—he pointed to a black carriage waiting by the side of the road—“and when I saw you walking, I thought to offer you a lift.”
She eyed the carriage and took another cautious step backward. “No. Thank you. I’m quite enjoying my walk.”
“Well then, perhaps you’ll allow me to join you?”
The image of him lurking across from Mrs. Taylor’s shop resurfaced in her mind as his black carriage loomed behind him like a waiting cage. She lifted her chin, refusing to show fear.
“Why don’t you tell me what you really want from me?”
He blinked, looking genuinely perplexed. “Have I done something to upset you?”
She eyed his tailored suit. “You are no schoolmaster, are you?”
“You’re right. I’m not. That said, I hope I did not make my teaching inadequacies too obvious. Although, I promise to do better next time.” He smiled, as though desperate to lighten the mood.
“Except, you weren’t there to teach, were you, Mr. Hudsyn, if that is indeed your name? Because why would a finely-dressed gentleman like yourself volunteer to teach a charity class for hard-working women?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she hadn’t finished yet, and she needed to do so before her courage evaporated. “I don’t believe you’re here to offer me a lift to Canterbury but rather to lure me into your expensive carriage, so you may take me where you will. Isn’t that right?”
“What?” He frowned. Then his gaze fell onClarissa, and he let out a short laugh. “It’s true; I am no teacher. But I am no Lovelace either. I have not come to abduct you.”
Her face grew hot with anger. “You—how dare you accuse me of being some type of—of female Quixote?”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it fits. After all, you’re fighting an imaginary battle with an imaginary enemy.”
“You dare to assume that novel reading is making me act irrationally? And therefore, I acquaint you with Lovelace?”
“You accused me of plotting to lure you into my carriage and kidnap you, did you not?”
“And you admitted to not being a teacher, yet you are teaching at the ladies’ college. Is that a coincidence? The same type of coincidence that led you to wander onto my path yesterday. These chance meetings with you seem rather odd. Perhaps they’re not chance encounters after all.”
He placed his fingers on his temples as if their conversation had exhausted his brain. “I agreed to volunteer at the college to help my cousin. She’s a teacher there.” He extended his open palms toward her. “I told you I am visiting my cousin, did I not?”
“You did, but why should she need your help when you are not a teacher?”
“It’s not so much that she needs my help as—” he ran a hand over the cleft in his chin—“the thing is—her husband, my friend—volunteered my services.”
Annabel frowned, trying to decide what to make of his oddly concocted explanation.
“My cousin is married to the brother of Headmistress Thomas. You can verify as much with her if you like.”
She captured her bottom lip as she thought about the headmistress’s words.Mr. Hudsyn is a trusted member of this establishment.She’d been so intent on escaping with her notebook that she hadn’t stopped to consider this. Surely, Headmistress Thomas wouldn’t hire a strange man, who was not even a teacher, to instruct young ladies. Perhaps Mr. Hudsyn spoke the truth. But how did that explain his presence outside Mrs. Taylor’s shop the previous day? Why had he been watching her?
Looking up at him, she sought the truth in his countenance. “I saw you outside Mr. Taylor’s shop yesterday. You said you intended to take the train back home. Instead, you followed me. Why?”
Henry stepped forward, closing the gap between them. “Because—” his soft blue eyes searched her face—“you’re the most interesting woman I have met in a very long time, and—well, the most beautiful too.”
Her cheeks warmed, but she wouldn’t be won over by sweet words alone.
“After our walk yesterday, I didn’t want to leave thinking I might never see you again, so I came to your shop to ask if you’d care to attend the theater with me one day.”
“But you did not ask.”
