At the crank of the telephone handle, a hollow voice came over the line. Laura asked the exchange for the number Nathaniel had given her. Would he consider this to be important enough for her to call him? Shouting into the mouthpiece, she repeated herrequest.
Moments later, she heard Nathaniel’s voice come on, sounding as if he was on the other side of the world. She had planned to be brief, but hearing his deep voice, her emotions got the better of her. She relayed the contents of the letter in a breathy voice. “The letter was marked urgent!”
There was a pause, and when he spoke it was impossible to judge his tone. “I’ll be home by Saturday evening. Wait a moment.” His voice grew fainter as he spoke to someone with him. “Laura? There’s a vote in the House. I must go. I’m sorry. Sweetheart…” The linecrackled.
“What? I can’t hear you,” Laurayelled.
“…miss you.”
“Oh, Nathaniel, I miss you too,” Laura cried. Had she heard himcorrectly?
The crackling on the line ended, and suddenly his voice was so clear he might have been standing there with her. “I’ll attend to the matter when I return home. Goodbye, sweetheart.”
She hung up the phone, relieved Nathaniel hadn’t expressed anger at her opening his mail. Outside the post office, Theo Mallory leaned against a lamppost smoking a cheroot.
He threw it down and straightened. “Did you settle the matter which had you in such a hurry, my lady?”
“Please don’t concern yourself with my affairs, Mr. Mallory.” Her lips firmed as she beckoned the lad to bring herhorse.
When she took the reins, Mallory came to her side. “Allow me to give you a leg up, Lady Lanyon.”
“Thank you.” It would be a direct snub to refuse him, and with a group of villagers watching she didn’t like to. She placed her booted foot in his clasped hands, and he threw her up. She arranged her skirts over the sidesaddle. “Do you intend to remain in Wolfram long, Mr. Mallory?”
“That depends. I have important business here.” He touched his hand to his hat in what should have been a respectful gesture, but his brown eyes held an overly familiar expression that drew her ire. “Such a picturesque place, Wolfram.”
His smirk made his meaning plain. Her fingers itched to raise her crop to him. She quickly turned her horse’s head and rode toward the causeway. The water was alarmingly close to overflowing onto the road. She rode back to the abbey, relieved that Nathaniel had not seemed concerned about the letter, although it was impossible to be sure. In a few days, he would be home. She tamped down her impatience to seehim.
At the bright prospect, she urged her horse into acanter.
At dusk, wrapped in a warm shawl, Laura walked in the gardens before dinner. The cool evening was a favorite time when the scents of flowers and trees intensified, the birds calling as they nestled in the trees. She went down the steps, skirting around the abbey to the gate leading into the graveyard. After a pause, she entered and walked beneath the magnolia. The grass and weeds needed to be scythed. Some of the old gravestones were almost covered. Laura bent down to read the inscriptions on some of them. She located Nathaniel’s father, but strangely, his mother was not there. Farther down the hill, she discovered the one she admitted to herself she’d come tosee.
Amanda Elizabeth Lanyon. Born: 1868. Died: 1897.
Her soul has now taken flight
To glorious mansions above,
To mingle with angelsof light
And dwell in the kingdom of love.
A posy of dead wildflowers lay beside thegrave.
Could Nathaniel have put them there before he went to London? Was it he who chose the beautiful epitaph? The salt-laden breeze strengthened, stirring the branches above her. She shivered and wrapped her shawl more closely around her shoulders. Strange to feel like an intruder, but she did as she closed thegate.
The sound of voices made Laura pause at the steps. Theo Mallory stood some distance away, his foot resting on the stone seawall. His back to her, he was deep in conversation with one of the grooms. The groom raised his hands, his manner apologetic, his mutterings carried away on thewind.
Mallory straightened. “See that it’s done,” he ordered, his voice loud enough for her tohear.
The groomnodded.
Laura hurried through the gate before they caught sight of her. What brought Mallory here? As she climbed the steps to the front door, a thought made her gasp. Mallory had acted as ifhewas the master ofWolfram.
After dinner, Laura took her usual spot in the library, thinking about what she’d seen. Finally, she rose to search the shelves for a book to make the night seem less long. She discovered a slim volume with a red leather cover. It appeared to be written about a garden, so without opening it, she took it upstairs with her tobed.
Settling against the pillows, she opened the volume and sighed with impatience. It was an old Arabian text translated into English and not at all what she expected. Something made her persevere, and soon the sensual pleasures detailed in the prose made her breath catch in her throat and her face burn. She closed the book as if fire leapt from its pages and gazed again at the title:The Perfumed Garden. She had never known such a book existed; it was so blatant and undeniably arousing. A graphic and beautiful account of sexual love. Intrigued, she opened the silken pages again. She read until the candle guttered, then tossed and turned in the dark for hours as her imagination placed her and Nathaniel into the scenes in thebook.
***
