Chapter 10
“We really shouldn’t interfere,” said Donovan, even as Corie’s exasperated sigh told him he’d voiced what she didn’t want to hear. “They’ll either sort it out or they won’t.”
“Sort it out? When did the course of true love ever run smooth?Ourcourse certainly didn’t! It couldn’t have been rockier—”
“I haven’t forgotten, wife,” Donovan interrupted her, drawing Coriecloser against him as the carriage rumbled and swayed. “Not smooth at all, but I wouldn’t trade a moment of it.” She looked so lovely in her forest green pelisse and beribboned bonnet, he wanted to kiss her soundly. Her sweet red lips never failed to tempt him, but the tension he felt in her slender body told him the matter they’d been discussing was far from done.
“Donovan, you really must speakwith Dr. Whitaker…Adam, I mean, and I’ll speak with Linette. If not for what Prudie shared with me two weeks ago, I might have missed what was happening altogether. We’ve been so busy getting ready for our move, and then there’s the children, always something to do.”
“Yes, very busy,” Donovan agreed, “but I’ve missed nothing. I saw their attraction from the start, especially after our young doctorkissed Linette under the mistletoe. Why else do you think I agreed that she accompany him to visit Mrs. Polkinghorne? Asked her to visit the tinners’ families with him? Better that than hiding in her room, avoiding him. That was telling enough.”
“My handsome husband, the matchmaker!” Corie hugged his arm, making him smile. “First Walker and Marguerite, and now Adam and Linette—”
“Not so fast,my darling wife,” Donovan cut in gently. “She’s been avoiding him like the plague and he’s plainly been out of sorts during his visits to see Estelle, though he’s tried well enough to hide it.”
“Exactly! That’s why we must do something! Prudie admitted she fell asleep during the ride home from Arundale’s Kitchen so we’ve no clue what they must have said to each other—”
“A misunderstanding, I’msure. Speaking at cross-purposes. Remember? The course of true love?”
Corie nodded, looking past Donovan to gaze thoughtfully out the window. “Add to that, Linette’s determination to have her Season after she’s missed several in a row. She’s so busy dreaming of the future that she can’t see the forest for the trees. That poor man is clearly in love with her—oh, Donovan, look, it’s Adam!”
Hedid, following her pointing finger to the crossroad up ahead that led one way to Helston, from where they were returning, another to Porthleven, one to the coastline, and the last toward their home.
Dr. Whitaker had clearly stopped there to give his horse a rest, the splendid beast lathered and tossing its head. Donovan found himself wondering once again how a young doctor just starting out inlife, who dressed conservatively enough, might have come by such a magnificent animal.
A benefactor of some kind? Then he remembered Adam had mentioned an uncle that day they’d been waiting for Linette to join them in the library, his mother’s brother, after he’d said that his parents were dead. He’d given no name, but only that his uncle had paid for his medical studies. Adam had said he intendedto reimburse him over time, which Donovan had found highly commendable.
“Driver, stop up ahead!” he called out to the coachman, the carriage coming to a halt not far from Adam. He sat astride his horse, staring into the distance as if lost in thought, his expression far too grim for such a beautiful afternoon.
“Enjoying a ride, Whitaker?” Donovan called out to him, not surprised that Adam lookedmomentarily startled. Good God, so deep in thought that he hadn’t heard their coach and four approaching? As Adam at once drew his horse closer to the carriage, Corie squeezed Donovan’s arm.
“Ask him to supper tonight!” she hissed so Adam wouldn’t hear her. “That will give him and Linette a chance to talk.”
Donovan nodded, noting the dark smudges beneath Adam’s eyes and the strained look uponhis face. “Damnation, man, no sense in working yourself to death. Or that fine horse of yours, for that matter. Running a race?”
“A ride, as you said, Your Grace. Clearing my head before I see more new patients. I’m on my way back to Porthleven.”
“I’d say Mrs. Polkinghorne’s wagging tongue has done its job too well from the look of you, Whitaker. A good supper is what you need and an eveningamong congenial company to sit and rest. You’re riding back to the manor house with us—”
“Forgive me, sir, but I must decline.”
“Oh my, no, I insist upon it!” Corie piped up, leaning across Donovan. “You must join us, Dr. Whitaker. We leave in only a few days for Hampshire so this is the perfect occasion to thank you for all you’ve done for us. Come!”
She squeezed Donovan’s arm again, his cueto shout out to the coachman, “Drive on!” before Adam could refuse them.
Just as the young doctor seemed to want to do, raising his hand as if he had something else to say to them, but already the carriage had rumbled through the crossroad toward home.
***
“It’s so small inside, Linette. I remember lying on that bed”—Estelle pointed to the modest four-poster in a corner of the one-roomcottage, while a cot was shoved up against an opposite wall—“and the heat of the fire in the hearth where they must have dried my clothes…and Prince Valentin’s, too. He must have been as soaking wet and freezing as I was…”
Linette nodded, remaining silent as Estelle softly recounted what she recalled from that awful day.
“I’ve wondered about this, but he must have already been outside or perhapslooking from that window there when he saw Luther and me in the water…oh, dear.”
Estelle had sunk onto a stool at the rough-hewn table, which made Linette go to her at once and rest her hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“Enough of this, Estelle, it’s clearly distressing you to be here,” she murmured, but her sister shook her head.
