“How delightful to learn your grandmother and I share the same proclivity for daisies.”
“Which is surprising, but do not tell Leopold I told you what Meemaw’s favorite flowers are. The last thing I want to see is this house blanketed in daisies.”
Camilla crossed her arms over her chest and took to looking grumpy. “Why is it surprising to learn I enjoy daisies?”
“Because Curtistine and Pauline told me that proper ladies prefer roses.”
“And they would be mistaken about that, but returning to your grandmother, as you may suspect by now, it’s difficult for me to resist becoming involved with matchmaking pursuits when I know the match in question is worthy of my attention.”
“Hence the reason Lottie and Edward went traipsing off to Stone and Thomas together earlier,” Owen muttered.
“I had nothing to do with that. Edward merely mentioned he wasn’t certain what essentials he should be picking up and Lottie volunteered to accompany him. The only input I had with that situation was to suggest Bernadette travel with them as chaperone, and then Mr. Timken, after telling me that nothing screams inappropriate chaperone quite like Bernadette does, insisted on accompanying them.” She smiled. “If I’d actually been dabbling in matchmaking with those two, I’d have gone as their chaperone because I’m very good with gently steering conversations in a way that allows a couple to become better acquainted in a seamless fashion.”
“There will be no gently steering any conversations between Meemaw and Leopold.”
“Gentle isn’t what I had in mind, not when Beulah seems to be slightly reluctant to accept the idea that a handsome gentleman might be interested in courting her. She’s already turned slightly contrary about the matter and tried to distract me from extolling all of Leopold’s many stellar attributes when I tracked her down to the kitchen.”
“Meemaw’s very good with distractions.”
“Truer words have never been spoken. Do you know that shesent me the sweetest smile as I was telling her about Leopold’s proficiency with a variety of weapons right before she asked me to fetch her apple dumpling recipe?”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a distraction.”
“It is when she had an ulterior motive in mind—that being the apple pie recipe sticking up in theAsection of her recipe box, just waiting for me to grab hold of it.” Camilla released a bit of a huff. “Thankfully, I noticed before it was too late and suggested she ask Leopold to procure the dumpling recipe instead of me.”
“I’m beginning to get a better understanding why some of the men outside said there was a bone of contention between you and Meemaw, especially when it seems you’ve uncovered the secret of the family recipe.”
“Too right I have, and know that the bone of contention revolved around the fact that, after I mentioned Leopold and the recipe, your grandmother called me a matchmaking menace, snatched her recipe box straight out of my hands, then marched out of the room, probably to hide the box so I couldn’t get the recipe to Leopold.”
Owen frowned. “You don’t seem overly concerned that Meemaw called you a menace.”
“I’m more complimented than concerned because Beulah is a formidable woman, and that she considers me a menace suggests she realizes I’m formidable as well. All that’s left to do now, and with your cooperation of course, is to wear her down and have her come around to the notion that a Chesterfield wedding will certainly be transpiring in the future, but just not one that has me and you as the couple exchanging vows.”
Sixteen
Before Owen could argue the point about an upcoming Chesterfield wedding, or contemplate why Camilla’s insistence that this particular wedding wouldn’t involve them was slightly depressing, which was odd as their supposed forthcoming engagement was merely what she referred to as a clever bit of fiction, she suddenly moved to the window, peered through the glass, sucked in a sharp breath, then turned on her heel and dashed out of the room.
Having no idea what all the dashing was about, but praying it wasn’t because a real threat was knocking on the door, Owen raced after her, almost barreling into Meemaw, who, upon seeing him, thrust what looked to be her recipe box behind her back before she waved him on, saying something about how she wasn’t up to anything, so keep moving.
Wondering how it had come to pass that his life was turning downright peculiar these days, even though he suspected that state was a direct result of Camilla accompanying him to West Virginia, Owen raced through the front door and down the steps.
It didn’t take long to spot Camilla, who was now halfway down the drive, yelling up a storm and flapping her arms about as shecontinued running full tilt ahead, an odd circumstance to be sure because he was relatively certain that a lady who’d once won an award for poise probably didn’t make it a habit to do much flapping, or running for that matter.
Nevertheless, given that Camilla was a rather sensible sort, he doubted she was waving down men with kidnapping on their minds, but having no idea what all the fuss was about, he set his sights in the direction of the flapping, blinking when Gladys zoomed into view, zigzagging through the trees, the zagging evidently a direct result of the two coonhounds chasing her.
Camilla continued charging in the direction of the hounds, waving her arms more frantically than ever in an obvious attempt to distract their attention, which wasn’t the brightest thing for her to do, especially since she apparently thought the hounds posed a threat to Gladys, which meant she should realize they could also pose a threat to her, even though they weren’t vicious sorts, not that she knew that.
Realizing he needed to take charge of the situation before Camilla harmed herself with all the dashing and gesturing about she was doing, Owen let out a whistle that had the coonhounds abandoning their pursuit of Gladys and charging his way.
A blink of an eye after that, Gladys, rather than fleeing to safer, coonhound-free pastures, spun around, released a yip, and bounded, not toward Camilla, but directly after the hounds.
“Don’t just stand there, Owen, catch her,” Camilla yelled as she hitched up the hem of her skirt, changed directions, and began running after a poodle that was clearly in a state of frenzied excitement.
It quickly became evident that Gladys didn’t want to be caught, because the second Owen took off after her, she began bounding about on her spindly legs, yapping up a storm, the yapping turning to flat-out barks when the coonhounds, Cleo and Calamity, began baying.
A second later, all three dogs bounded away, frolicking withone another as they bounded, which suggested all three of them were well on their way to becoming fast friends.
“I take it those dogs weren’t chasing Gladys because they were in need of a snack?” Camilla asked, stopping three feet away from Owen, where she promptly whipped out a handkerchief from the pocket of the apron she was wearing and began, not daintily dabbing, as he’d been expecting, but completely mopping her face with it.
