Chapter Sixteen
Eli crawled outof the carriage and stretched. He needed a walk badly after an entire day traveling. When they stopped at midday, Wil had asked to ride above with the coachman. Before Eli could respond, Rob deemed it safe, and the boy took it as permission. Eli glanced at Fanny to see what she thought, but she and the ladies had scurried off to the privies behind the tavern. Maddy took Wil’s spot in the afternoon. He had been relieved it wasn’t Fanny, certain her presence would have been too great a distraction from his work.
Who are you deluding, Benson?Just knowing she rode in the other carriage caused her to torment your thoughts and shred your concentration all day.
His attraction to Fanny—and he could no longer pretend it didn’t exist—was getting out of hand. He needed to speak to her about his conversation with Clarion. They had settled on a plan, and that should ease her mind. Maybe it would ease his. Even when the stopped for the night, he lost himself in distraction.
“Are you coming?” Maddy stared at Eli quizzically. “I, for one, am looking forward to getting settled in our room.” From the way her eyes kept straying to Brynn Morgan, handing over his mount to a young ostler, Eli suspected it was time with her husband she looked forward to, and the thought heated him.
He spied Fanny heading toward the entrance and trotted over.
“Eli! How was your afternoon? Did you get a lot done?” Fanny asked. The conversation around them centered on arrangements for the night.
“I wonder if I might have a private word,” he said.A word. Of business.
She glanced around at their companions. “Now?”
“I thought perhaps a walk. I certainly need one,” he said.
Lucy, preoccupied with a crying baby, waved them on, and Fanny took his arm, walking in silence until they left the vicinity of the inn. Within moments, they strolled onto a country road lined with hedges alive with birds and lined with wild flowers. On the other side, farm fields stretched along undulating hills, where the sun seemed to rest, its lower edge already sinking beneath them. The peace felt too precious to disturb.
Fanny must have agreed, because several moments passed before she spoke. “You wanted a word, Eli?”
“Yes. I thought you would be reassured to know that Clarion agreed to our plan.”
“We have a plan?” Fanny asked, turning toward him, brows raised.
He ran his hand along the back of his neck. “I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?” Face to face with Fanny anchored at his side, where she held his arm, he found his thoughts scrambled.Just a word, Benson he reminded himself, but the urge to kiss her battered his senses.
“Eli? What is this plan?” she asked.
Yes. The plan.He lowered his arm and took hold of her hand instead. That didn’t help, but he couldn’t make himself let go. “There are two parts. I have Clarion’s permission to return to Manchester. I’ve already petitioned both the ecclesiastical court and the chancery court on your behalf. Clarion believes chancery will hold off on the mortgage until the church court acts on appointing an administrator, giving us time to sell the store.”
She nodded. “I will go with you.”
He didn’t argue; there would be time for that later. Considering how difficult he found it to resist temptation with a herd of family nearby, he could not possibly travel to Manchester alone with her, even if the rest of them permitted it. It would not happen.
A carriage careened down the road, kicking up dust on them, and a farm wagon followed at a distance. He tugged Fanny’s hand and led her through a break in the hedge, sheltering her from the road. She didn’t object. The trust in her eyes—trust he would probably lose when he went to deal with the courts without her—left him feeling like a knight in armor.
“What is the second part?” Fanny asked.
He dropped her hand.Words, Benson. Keep it business.“I described your needs exactly as you gave them to me and put together a budget to make it happen. Clarion agrees. However, it would help if we could find tenants for the dower house. That’s one reason he sent me to London.”
She gazed up at him expectantly. A man could get lost in that gaze.
“I, uh, I’ve been deputized to seek tenants and also to find such a haven for you when I get back.” His eyes never left hers. “In Ashmead. I—that is, the earl and I—thought that best.” He swallowed hard. “Afford…”
She threw her arms around him before he could finish. “Perfect. Just perfect. Thank you.”
He had no words. His hands came up to touch her back, but he stifled the urge to pull her tight against him. He didn’t have to. The woman had done a thorough job of it herself. His wits went begging. He kissed the top of her head and then the side of her brow.
She tipped her head up, her mouth agape in astonishment.
*
He looks asshocked as I am, Fanny thought. Eli dropped his hands as if he had burned them, and Fanny took a step back. Two steps.
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…,” Fanny said.
