“No, the point was for him to fall in love and realize he does want to marry. Which is exactly what he did.”
“He did not.”
“He did so.”
“He did not. But even if he did, I’m not the type of wife his mother intended him to find.”
“Lady Marstede adores you.”
“She liked me as a guest, not as a daughter-in-law.”
Pippa threw up her hands. “I swear, Sadie, you have got the most mixed-up ideas of what people are thinking. Are you sure you can read minds?”
“I’d hardly claim the power and all the trouble that comes with it if I weren’t.”
“You know what?”
Sadie eyed her friend nervously, not liking the smug edge to her voice. “What?”
“I’m changing our earlier bet. When you become a baroness, instead of just helping me open a shop, you have to open a potion shop with me.”
“That’s not a bet, Pippa.”
“It doesn’t matter what the other half of the bet is, because I’m going to win. Just you wait. The baron will be down here begging you to come back before the week is out.”
“Fine, if he asks me to marry him before the week is out, I will open a potion shop with you. But when he doesn’t, you won’t mention him again.”
Just staying in Lamsdel, especially if she continued to work at Ferman’s Exotic Goods, would be full of enough reminders of Nicholas.
Sadie wasn’t sure remaining was the right choice, even if Pippa really was as comfortable with her power as she claimed.
???
Nicholas reached theedges of Lamsdel before realizing he had no idea where to look for Sadie in the village. But he knew how to find Pippa.
He rode directly to the tavern and tied up his horse. This early in the day, the place was nearly empty.
Mrs. Leander, the spitting image of Pippa with two decades tacked on in the form of a few fine silver hairs, stood behind her bar, wiping down mugs. She spotted him and stopped what she was doing immediately. “My lord, what can I do for you today?”
Her confusion was clear. Nicholas rarely visited the tavern, and never at ten in the morning. “I’m looking for—” He paused. Why ask for Pippa and then have to ask her about Sadie? The tavern keeper would know where he could find her daughter’s friend. “—for Miss Winsel. Could you tell me where she lives?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Is something wrong, my lord?”
Mrs. Leander wasn’t about to tell him where to find Sadie, lord or no, without knowing why. She’d have heard that Sadie and Pippa were both working as maids at the manor while it was full of guests. There probably wasn’t a good reason for Nicholas to chase down temporary help.
He couldn’t think of a good excuse, at least.
He fumbled for any excuse and was saved when the back door of the common room opened.
“I’m back, Ma.” Pippa stepped into the room, saw him, and grinned. “I knew it! Sadie didn’t believe me, but I knew it!”
Sadie didn’t believe her? What, exactly, did Pippa know? “Where is she?”
Pippa ignored her mother’s incredulous gaze and grabbed Nicholas by the wrist, pulling him out into the alley behind the tavern. “Since I just had a mind-boggling conversation with Sadie, who has adopted the oddest opinions as fact, I’m going to save you a little time. She thinks you still don’t want to marry, she doesn’t know you are in love with her, and she’s convinced your mother will disapprove.”
After finding her gone and the conversation with his mother, that was exactly what Nicholas feared. “Where is she, Pippa?”
Pippa turned him to the left and shoved him in the small of the back. “Blue building three down, second story.”
