“—take whoever is available.” Voices sounded just outside, and the door scraped open against the stone floor.
I jumped up, patting the dust off my skirts and straightening them.
Marlow.
He startled when he saw me. His eyes washed over me, brows knit together. He’d forsaken his top hat. “Geor—M-miss Wood.”
The young stablehand looked between us, then down to his feet.
“On second thought, later, perhaps,” Marlow said to him, and the boy quickly hurried out the door. The stable house quieted once more.
I faced him, unsure of what to do, and wrung my hands together. Again, I felt the instinct in his presence to follow the rules of propriety. To leave before we were seen alone. Before something happened I might regret.
I already had enough regrets.
Marlow’s chest rose, then he exhaled. Perhaps he mulled over the same thoughts.
I surely looked a fearsome sight. Dusty, unkempt, sitting with his horses. I should excuse myself, have Jane rush a cold bath for me, and ready myself for dinner.
But a stronger instinct trumped reason. A desire to stay. To have him pull me close, wrap his arms around me. To hear him say that everything would be well soon, if only I’d be brave and keep trying.
Folly, for if I acted on that instinct, he’d certainly freeze and push me back.
“You left early.” His deep voice rumbled through the space.
I shrugged a shoulder. “Headache.”
Hands behind his back, he took a few aimless steps, closer, as though inspecting the stables. “Better now?”
I nodded. “Just a little out of sorts.”
He stopped a pace away at Flora’s stall and rested a hand on her door, watching her. “I am glad you came here, then.”
I leaned my shoulder against the stall door, facing him. “You know how dearly I love hay barns.”
He squinted. “This is a stable house.”
Details! I waved a hand in the air. “It has the same effect.”
Marlow nodded. “Hay in your hair? Dust and dirt on your hands?” He fought a smile.
I took a deep breath of hay and dust and dirt and fought the urge to cough. “Calming to the soul.”
His gaze bored into mine. His smile faded. “Anything I can do to sort you out?”
Sort me out. My heartbeat flurried within my chest. I wished I could lay every worry, every sorrow at his feet and ask him to carry them all away. “Same old problems, I am afraid. Even a duke cannot fix them.”
He leaned back, still holding onto the stall door. He huffed at my disbelief in his abilities. “Despite two whole outings?”
I tilted my head at him.One. “Hyde Park does not count. Your mother planned that. And we were hardly seen together.”Not that being seen together would do any good. Today had proved that.
He smiled, nodding at my reasoning. Flora shifted in her stall, lifted her head, and then settled again. We watched her together.
“Did someone say something to you?” Marlow asked nonchalantly.
Had he heard something? Had the girls gone to him after I’d shocked them with falsehoods? My cheeks burned, remembering.
“Tell me.” His voice was gentle, but commanding. And this time, I did not chide him for it.
