Chapter 7
“You left Dr. Whitaker at the Polkinghornes, Linette?”
“He had his horse. Samson, I think he called him. He’d tethered him to trot behind the carriage, so I had the footman tie him to the gate.” Feeling a bit chagrined under Estelle’s stunned scrutiny, Linette drew her yellow paisley shawl more tightly around her and lifted her chin. “What was I to do? Sit there in thecold with Prudie and wait while he gossiped with Mrs. Polkinghorne? He told her that he had all the time in the world, but I certainly did not. Donovan asked that I help him and I did, and then I came home.”
Estelle leaned back against her pillows, shaking her head. “You must not like Dr. Whitaker at all…either that, or you like him more than you’d ever admit—”
“Enough, Estelle, finish yourbreakfast! I brought it to you instead of Miss Biddle so I might sit with you a while. Would you like me to leave?”
Estelle shook her head, though she still studied Linette closely as she took a bite of toast. Linette ignored her and shifted in her chair to look out the window at the drizzly day, so different than yesterday, and rubbed her temple.
She knew she was as out of sorts as Estellemust think her, because she never snapped at her younger sister. She’d been out of sorts since she’d come home near dusk last night, and rushed into the library to report to Donovan that Dr. Whitaker and Rose Polkinghorne appeared to have sorted out their differences quite nicely, only to find that her brother-in-law hadn’t yet returned from Porthleven.
She’d had no stomach for supper, so she’drun past the dining room where Corie had been occupied with the younger children, and gone straight to her room.
All she’d wanted to do was change into her nightgown and climb into bed and pull the covers over her head.
To shut her eyes tight and go to sleep early so she could forget Mrs. Polkinghorne’s dreadful speculative look when Linette’s gloved fingers had brushed against Adam’s and she’dgasped in surprise.
Not so much because they had touched unexpectedly, but because of the delicious shiver that had shot through her…just like when she’d accepted his assistance from the carriage and taken his hand.
Oh, Lord.Adam.
She didn’t want to think of him as Adam, but Dr. Whitaker! The day would never come when she would call him by his given name, so why even think it?
“Linette, Ithink Dr. Whitaker is very nice…and he was so kind to me about Luther. Don’t you remember?”
Sighing heavily, Linette turned back to Estelle, at once pricked by guilt when she saw her sister looking so pensive. “Of course I remember,” she murmured, a sudden welling of emotion in her chest.
Adam had been so compassionate toward Estelle, so understanding…and truly, he hadn’t been anything but kindto her as well.
Yes, he’d teased her in the carriage…and stared at her overmuch, and paid her far too bold of a compliment that secretly, had thrilled her, but was all of that so terrible as to make her feel like she never wanted to see him or speak to him again? Oh, why wasn’t she leaving for London tomorrow instead of three months away?
Luther’s sudden whimpering pulled Linette abruptly outof her thoughts. The little dog snuggled against Estelle, who had plopped down on her pillows and stared sadly at the ceiling.
“Estelle, are you feeling all right? Should I call for Corie?”
“I’m never going to see Prince Valentin again, am I?”
For a moment, Linette didn’t know what to say, but then she leaned forward in her chair and took Estelle’s hand. “Sweet, you know Donovan told us lastnight that we mustn’t speak his name…or anything else about what you overheard that day—”
“Yes, but I would have liked to thank him!”
Estelle’s plaintive cry cut Linette to the quick. She didn’t understand it all, either, from what little Donovan had told them when he’d gathered her, Corie, and Miss Biddle in Estelle’s room last night as soon as he’d returned home.
All he’d said was that theymust trust him…for their sakes and that of the two strangers who had sailed away that very night, and not speak of them to anyone from that moment onward. Not to each other, nor to any of the household, and especially not to anyone outside of their family.
Miss Biddle had received stark instructions from Donovan as well, to bid the staff to silence about anything they might have heard or risklosing their positions, his uncharacteristic warning attesting to its gravity.
Even now Linette felt a chill at the memory of Donovan’s forbidding voice; she had not heard him speak so grimly since she, Marguerite, and Estelle had been rescued from their cruel abductors six years ago in Roscoff, Brittany. She imagined Adam would receive the same blunt warning, too, when he came that afternoonto check on Estelle’s progress—
“Dr. Whitaker!” Linette blurted aloud, Estelle raising herself on her elbows to stare at her in surprise. To cover for her strange behavior, as disconcerted herself by her outburst, she spoke as sternly as she could muster to her sister. “I understand how you feel, truly, but you promised Donovan that you’d abide by his demand, yes? To trust him that he was doingwhat was best for all of us?”
Relief coursed through Linette as Estelle bobbed her head. “Good. Now no more talk of—”
Linette bit her tongue, catching herself in time just as a knock came at the door, followed by Miss Biddle’s no-nonsense voice.
“Dr. Whitaker is here early today to see you, Estelle. May we enter?”
