She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she was quite unaware of anything else around her, the soft footstepsapproaching on the grass too quiet to disturb her. So it was that she was taken by surprise when a shadow loomed over her.
“Oh! Oh, Jamie, you startled me! What are you doing here?”
“I needed some fresh air and thought to escort you home.”
“But how did you find me?”
“I tried your friends, and learnt you had left some time ago, but then I was accosted by Henry’s friends at the Angel, who told me how to find you. But why is Henry buried here and not at St Thomas’s? His aunt, I suppose. This must be her parish church. But I beg your pardon. I will not intrude on your grief. I will wait for you at the lych gate.”
“No need to go, Jamie. I am done with grieving for such a wicked, treacherous man. I am soangry, I could push him down the stairs myself if he wasn’t already dead.”
“Oh.” He sat down on the opposite wall, his face surprised but asking no questions.
“Don’t you want to know why?”
“If you want to tell me.”
“Hewageredthe miniature of me at cards — oh, but you know that! And you didn’t tell me. How kind you are.”
“There was no need for you to know,” he said, so gently that it almost made her want to cry again.
“Youwouldn’t do that, would you?” He shook his head. “Do you still have it safe?”
“It is very safe.” He unbuttoned his coat and reached into a waistcoat pocket. “Here it is. I do not like to leave it in a drawer somewhere, so I carry it with me wherever I go. I think there was something else those two imbeciles told you, Georgie, because they kept apologising. Something about how Henry died?”
“Oh, Jamie, I’ve been such a fool! I thought it was just beer and friends and cards that kept him at the Angel for so many hours, but there was a woman.”
“Sally?”
“That’s what I thought, but no, her name was Nancy. She was the chambermaid! How lowering to my pride! And to think I believed him when he said he loved me.”
“Of course he loved you!”
“Do you think so?” she said doubtfully. “Mr Green said he was just playing around with Nancy. What do you suppose that means?”
“I cannot imagine. Flirting, maybe?”
“Men flirt over the dinner table, or at a ball, or in the drawing room, in full view of everyone. No one needs to go into a bedroom to flirt.”
“True. Perhaps kissing, then. Georgie, I cannot believe he was truly unfaithful to you, not when he was so much in love with you.”
“You say that with such certainty, but how can you possibly know?”
“He wasmarriedto you,” he said, with sudden heat. “How could he not love you?”
And then he blushed fiercely, making her wonder just what was in his mind. She was weak, suddenly — weak with surprise, and with a rush of hope. Could he mean what she thought he meant? And then there was fear, of reading too much into words that were only intended as gentle encouragement.
He jumped up, his hat twirling in his hands, not looking at her. “I have intruded too long. I shall wait for you at the lych gate. Take your time.”
But she could not bear to see him leave without knowing what his words meant… if they meant anything at all.
“Jamie…” He stopped, turned, his expression unreadable. “Do you want me to go?” she blurted.
“Go?”
“Move back to Oxford. I will if you want… I can get my tenants out at the next quarter day. And then you can go back toyour quiet life, before I ruined everything for you. I’ll go if you want me to.”
There was a long moment of silence while he stared at her, and she waited, with the terrifying feeling that she had jumped off a cliff and whatever was at the bottom, it was going to be dreadfully painful.
