“He is finishing work on his new house,” Eloise said. “He shall be more than happy to see you. All I’ve heard since he arrived is ‘Rosalind this,’ and ‘Rosalind that,’ and ‘Today must be her wedding day, and by tomorrow she’ll have forgotten I exist.’”
Mrs. Winston laughed. The sound was musical, and it brightened her whole face. “You horrible girl, do not speak of your brother so. He has been grieving.”
The thought, for once, made me soar.
“The house is not far, is it?” Liza asked.
“Shall we all go?” Eloise perked up. “I would love to see the surprise on Charlie’s face when he sees Miss Newbury.”
All eyes looked to Mrs. Winston, whose thin lips flattened as she considered the display we would most certainly cause together. “Oh, all right, get your bonnet and we’ll take her halfway.”
“Halfway?” Eloise whined. “At the very least, three-quarters. You cannot even see his eyeshalfway.” She huffed, disappearing into the house with her mother.
Liza grinned and our eyes met. “He is going to fall over when he sees you.”
My stomach tightened, and I pressed a suddenly cold hand to my burning cheeks.
“Shall we?” Mrs. Winston said with a crisp bow under her chin and a straw hat decorated with wisteria. She stopped beside me, almost my height exactly, and held out her arm to thread through mine as we walked back to the carriage. “Tell me, Miss Newbury, what was it like growing up as the oldest child with three younger brothers?”
Her eyes had turned kind, encouraging even, with a hint of teasing. She knew about me. And wanted to know more. A footman helped us into the carriage, with Liza and Eloise just behind. Once we were situated on our bench, I said, “I learned quickly to peel my bedcovers back before settling in each night.” I narrowed my eyes at her, and she laughed.
“Smart girl.”
“Thank heavens I had Liza next door. I would have never survived.”
Another laugh, and she squeezed my arm. “I do believe Charlie feels similarly about his sisters, but instead of his bed covers, he worried about waking up covered in rouge.”
“He looks rather pretty in red,” Eloise added half seriously as she sat across from me. Then she banged on the roof and we were off. “You do know about his nose, right? It will never go back to the way it was.”
“Eloise!”
“A woman should know what she’s getting into. And, also, while we’re on the subject, he spends a ridiculous amount of time in the water closet every evening.”
“Heaven and earth.” Mrs. Winston clutched her chest.
Eloise prattled on about Charlie’s habits and his temper when she aggravated him, and all the while Liza laughed and grinned at me.
Then, after what seemed like moments later, the carriage rolled to a stop. I peeked out my window at a little house in the distance.
“Come, now. Hurry down. He’ll have seen us by now.” Liza and Eloise, then Mrs. Winston, descended. And slowly, I took my turn.
They watched me with curious gazes as I descended.
I took in the scene, until I found my focus. A figure standing on the right side of the house. Moving closer, I noted three other men working nearby. One of themhadto be ...
“Ros?” Liza touched my arm.
My breaths were coming faster. My heart had long ago bounded free. And there was a tightness in my stomach, a churning that I wanted terribly to cease.
“I cannot stop shaking,” I whispered.
“I think he sees us,” Eloise said, raising her chin.
Just ahead, in his dark-brown overcoat and tight breeches with faded Hessian boots, was Charlie.
Laborers were plastering stones together to form some sort of barrier a short distance from the little house ahead of us, and it seemed he’d been leading their efforts. We were still too far away for me to read his expression, to know if he recognized me from such a distance.
My stomach flipped over. And under. And around. A tremor shook my whole body. Of their own accord, my feet shuffled to a stop.
