Linette’s sharp gasp made Estelle stare at her curiously again, while Linettewished she could magically disappear. Instead she rose from the chair, her spine ramrod straight, adjusting her shawl over her white sprigged muslin gown as she went to open the door.
Adam seemed as surprised to see her, but he recovered to smile warmly at her.
“Good morning, Dr. Whitaker.”
“Miss Easton. I believe Miss Biddle was going to seek you out next—”
“Yes, I was,” the housekeeper saidbriskly. “His Grace asked that you accompany the doctor to visit some of the tinners’ families today…with Prudie, of course. He suggested you go by Arundale’s Kitchen, too, so he can see the mine. His Grace believes it would be a great help for you to introduce him to as many of our folk as possible.”
“Yes, I can’t offer you my gratitude enough for easing my way with Mrs. Polkinghorne. Delightfulwoman, though she kept me rather late. I’m not surprised you decided to head home and leave poor Samson tangled in the gate.”
“Tangled?” Horrified, Linette pressed her hand to her throat. “Oh, dear, I asked the footman to tie him there. I’m so sorry…”
She fell silent, heat burning her cheeks at the teasing in Adam’s hazel eyes, while Estelle’s giggling from the bed propelled her stiffly fromthe room without another word.
***
“I must remember not to tease you, Miss Easton, no, never again. Were you a serious child?”
“I’ve been told so.” Linette sighed inwardly, resigning herself to making the best of a day that promised to be a long one, and which included conversing with Dr. Adam Whitaker. Yet that didn’t mean she would make the same mistake of accepting his assistance outof the carriage or touching his fingers again, oh no! Nor had she worn the blue pelisse that he’d so favored yesterday, but a plain gray coat and matching bonnet she hoped he would find quite dull. “I spent a good deal of time alone—well, as much as one can be alone in a parsonage full of sisters, and read a lot of books—”
“Ah, then, that explains it.”
She bristled, straightening her back againstthe seat opposite him. “Explainswhat, sir?”
“Why you’re so serious all the time. I’ve so rarely seen you smile…and I’ve never heard you laugh. Does she ever laugh, Prudie?”
The young maidservant gasped from her corner of the carriage, clearly astonished that the doctor would have drawn her into the conversation. “Y-yes, sir. She and Miss Estelle laugh all the time—”
“Though hardly of late,given what happened to my sister,” Linette broke in, feeling rather disgruntled that Adam would think her so lacking in humor. “What of you, Dr. Whitaker? Given your fondness for teasing me, I doubt you were ever a serious child—oh, dear, forgive me.”
He’d sobered so suddenly, the lightness in his eyes fading, that Linette recognized at once her mistake. “That was so thoughtless of me. Of courseyou must have been serious. You said you were an orphan—”
“Not entirely true, I must admit,” he said quietly, holding her gaze. “I have an uncle, my late mother’s brother. She died when I was seventeen, and my father might as well be moldering in his grave, as far as I’m concerned. The man is dead to me.”
Linette stared back at him, not knowing what to say, she felt so stunned. Never would shehave imagined Adam sharing something so personal with her, which undeniably touched her.
“Was it an illness? Your mother?”
“No, something worse. A cruel and merciless existence, thanks to my father. I loved her, but I couldn’t save her. She died of a broken heart.”
Again Linette stared at Adam, struck dumb as surely as before, her breath stilled.
To think he had suffered such pain! Never inher life had she felt so wretched as she did now when she thought of how unkindly she’d treated him yesterday: Her refusal to speak to him in the carriage, her leaving him at Mrs. Polkinghorne’s without the courtesy of a goodbye, her fighting so hard not to like him though she realized she was growing to like him very much…
“I’m so sorry, Adam—I-I mean, Dr. Whitaker.”
Her gloved fingers flownto her lips, Linette saw the darkening of Adam’s eyes as surely as it appeared that he’d grown very still now, too.
Strange that the clattering of the carriage wheels sounded suddenly so deafening to her, but no more so than her heartbeat thundering in her ears.
Oh, no, now she’d gone too far! Called the man by his given name though she’d known him mere days…and he wasn’t even a relative orher betrothed or her husband!
“Oh, Lord.” Completely undone by her racing thoughts, Linette ignored Prudie’s stunned look and focused her attention out the window streaked with rain…anything to divert her until she regained her composure. Yet she might have been blind for all she noted of the scenery passing by them, until a sudden hard jolt from the bumpy road made her nearly slip from the seat.
She cried out at the same moment Adam caught her around the waist, his hands strong and sure as he righted her…and did not readily let her go.
“Are you all right?”
