Chapter 9
“I know Donovan and Corie won’t mind, Linette, truly! If they were here and not gone to Helston, we would ask them—but they’re not. I promise we’ll only go out riding for an hour. You know I’m all better now, and Dr. Whitaker confirmed it earlier this week. Please, oh, please! It’s such a beautiful day.”
Worn down by Estelle’s constant pleading, Linette sighed and nodded,her assent greeted by a squeal of delight.
She knew her sister exaggerated. Most likely Donovan and Corie would mind for Estelle to go riding, all of them still so protective of her, but it was the first lovely afternoon after days of rain. It felt like the cold, drizzly weather had lasted for months when it had been just two weeks since she’d last ventured out with Adam—
“No, you’re not goingto think of him!” Linette admonished herself firmly as Estelle ran to her wardrobe for riding clothes, while Luther watched his mistress from his snug spot on the bed. Not after she’d done everything she could to stay so busy since they had gone to the tinners’ cottages that she’d had no time to think of him—though in truth, that had proved impossible.
No matter if she’d been occupied with helpingher father at the church, or visiting the parish poorhouse with Corie to see the orphans, elderly, and infirm, or doing her best to amuse Estelle, who had become increasingly bored with staying indoors, it seemed Adam was never far from her mind. Thankfully Corie had made no mention of any report of indiscretion from Prudie, so at least Linette hadn’t had to talk about him. That godsend hadhelped a lot in her struggle to keep her thoughts focused elsewhere.
Just as Linette did now, needing to change as well into a riding habit. She left Estelle’s room and hurried down the hall, rubbing her temples as if that might help her to dispel any thoughts of Dr. Adam Whitaker from her mind. Heaven help her! Why did it seem that the longer she’d gone without seeing him, the more her thoughtswere drawn to him?
You have bewitched me.
Linette felt her heart flutter and her face grow warm just thinking of his ardent declaration that he’d uttered so unexpectedly, and then seemed to retract not long after with his startling behavior.
One moment so close to kissing her, and then the next turning away.
Another moment drawing from her the truth of her plans about London though she’d saidthey were none of his business, and then holding her hands so tightly that it hurt as he warned her about the man of her dreams becoming her worst nightmare—
“No, no, no!” Linette burst into her room and slammed the door behind her.
Just because Adam’s father had made his wife’s existence a nightmare didn’t mean that would happen to her! Without a doubt Adam’s life had been deeply affected byhis father’s cruelty, and Linette’s heart went out to him even now at what he must have suffered. Yet why would he have professed to her that he wanted to be a part of her plans and that she’d bewitched him, when he clearly hadn’t meant it?
She was a parson’s daughter after all…and he a doctor, neither of them nobility so they weren’t so far apart. True, she’d imagined marrying into a life ofprosperity and position like her older sisters, but she wouldn’t wed anyone if not for love. It didn’t matter to her in the least if the man of her dreams was a duke, or baron, or earl or anything else, just that he was good and kind and caring…
Like Adam.
“Oh, Linette.” Struck by a glaring realization, she sank into a chair next to the wardrobe.
Remorse filled her, and mortification, too.What must he think of her? A snob, she feared, for one. Oh, Lord, why hadn’t she considered it before? She’d had her mind set so firmly upon finding the man of her dreams in London at a glittering ball or assembly that she’d never allowed herself to think he might be here in Cornwall.
She’d said nothing to him when he had told her that she’d bewitched him, her heart racing and her mind in a whirl.He must have thought from her tongue-tied silence that she’d discounted him altogether because he was a doctor…and she had two duchesses for sisters.
Every door in London will open for you. All the eligible gentlemen will flock to dance with you.
Those had been Adam’s very words, and she’d done nothing but reinforce what he must have been thinking.
That she fully imagined meeting the man ofher dreams in London.
That her modest fortune or her sisters’ position in society might help her to find a husband, when she hadn’t meant that at all. Or had she? She was a country parson’s daughter after all, no matter her social connections. Adam must have seen right through what she’d told him when he had said so fiercely that only a scoundrel would marry her for any other reason than love.
“Oh, Linette,” she breathed again, shaking her head. That must have been what happened to his poor mother. Not wed for love at all, but for whatever benefit the marriage had brought to Adam’s father.
Sick at heart, Linette stared outside at the sunny afternoon even as she heard Estelle’s footsteps coming down the hall.
If Adam had fallen in love with her, did he despise her now for spurninghim? So it clearly must have seemed she’d rejected him from everything she’d said…and didn’t say. She could not forget how he had jumped from the carriage without a glance at her or a goodbye. How could he possibly want anything further to do with her?
Add to that she’d once again taken refuge in her room whenever he’d come to check on Estelle’s progress, not wanting to see him. Surely her avoidinghim so deliberately must have supported whatever he imagined she thought of him—
“Linette, you’re not ready!”
Estelle had flung open the door, looking so crestfallen that Linette immediately rose from the chair. The last thing she felt like doing now was going for a ride, but she couldn’t disappoint her sister after she’d already agreed to it.
Yet she wanted to be home before Donovan and Coriereturned from Helston, where they’d gone to finalize some banking affairs. They had so much to think about before their move to Hampshire in just a few days that she didn’t want them to worry.
“Give me a few minutes, Estelle. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
