She gestured to his table. “Finish that up. I’ll be back soon to take the tray away. Please have your boots off by then, so I can take them, too.”
“My boots?”
“You know who I am. You know where you are. You probably think you can walk to your cousin’s home. But I don’t think you will go out in that weather without boots.”
* * *
“He knows.” Caroline informed the others of Lord Thornhill’s clever musings while they all ate dinner. The meal was always late, due to the work the farm needed and the few hands to do it. “He saw the herd, and guessed the rest. Not why he is here. He has that wrong. But where he is and the family who live here.”
“Thank goodness,” Mrs. Hoover said. “I’ll not have to pretend I have a different name at least.”
“You will. And you, Jason—he’s barely seen you, so I don’t want him seeing you again until it can’t be helped.”
“I won’t even be here.”
“You still think to go?” Mrs. Hoover said. “Surely not, Caro. There’s snow and—”
“No more than four inches, Mum,” Jason said. “Of course I’m still going. I’ll ride a horse and bring another with me.”
“A horse! Amelia can’t come back on a horse!”
“Don’t see why not,” Old Tom said. “Safer than a wagon. Less bumpy, too. She won’t be jostled nearly as much. You take the chestnut mare, Jason. She’s mild enough and sure-footed.”
Mrs. Hoover turned to Caro, exasperated. “We must wait for the weather to clear.”
“Then we contend with either frozen or muddy roads and lanes,” Caro said. “Listen to your husband. He is right. The horse will be safer even then.”
“I don’t like it.” Mrs. Hoover passed around the platter of pheasant again.
“We could just leave her where she is,” Caroline said. “Do you think we should? Let her stay with Aunt Elizabeth and let Lord Thornhill go?”
Mrs. Hoover shook her head. “You be careful with her, Jason. You hear me?”
“I’ll be careful. If she is not doing well on the horse, I’ll hire a carriage. I’ve some coin.”
“Where’d you get coin?” Old Tom asked.
“Never you mind.”
Caroline finished her meal. She drank the rest of her beer, then rose to help Mrs. Hoover clear the table.
“You are not to worry,” Caroline said when they were alone in the kitchen. “Once Amelia is here, it will all settle into place. He’s a gentleman, and there are rules about these things for them. Remember how my father would do things he’d rather not because he was a gentleman, too, and honor counted for more than money?”
“It’s not money we expect from him,” Mrs. Hoover said. “He may be a gentleman by birth, even a lord, but there’s been talk about him in the county since he was a boy and would visit his uncle. Wild doings. He never outgrew that either.” She shook her head and turned to the washbasin. “I hope you are right about all of this.”
“I am doing what my father would have done. Papa isn’t here, so it is left to me. I can’t call him out like a man would, but I can make sure he faces her, and accepts his duty. He will not be able to avoid her this way. He will not be able to put us off, or refuse to receive us, the way he could in London or at his cousin’s house.”
Mrs. Hoover sighed heavily while she lifted a hot kettle from the hearth.
“Say, let me do the washing today,” Caroline said, grabbing an apron off a peg.
“You need to go up and get that tray.”
“I’ll wash and you can get it. You will be getting the better half of the bargain. Bring some water, so we don’t have to take that later. And remove his boots from his chamber.”
Mrs. Hoover gave her a long look, lifted a pail of water, then headed to the stairs.
“Just take the tray and boots and leave,” Caroline said. “Don’t let him draw you into a conversation. He will try to frighten you then. So don’t dawdle.”
