All of which rather answered lingering questions regarding coincidences.
The rest of the room was frozen in absolute fascination.
“What are youdoinghere?” they said at once, unanimously accusatory.
“Did my mother send you?” they said next, simultaneously.
Andrew took a breath. “Lucinda, why don’t you tell me why you’re here, when you were meant to be at a house party, just as I was.”
“I’m here quite on my own, thank you very much.”
“Without Miss Wright?”
“Of course with Miss Wright! She’s right over there!” As if Miss Wright were an accessory akin to a muff or a pelisse and it would be unthinkable to make a move without her.
“Ho there, Miss Wright,” he said.
“Good evening, Mr. Farraday,” she said, with great irony.
“But that must mean...” Mr. Farraday was working things out.
“We were on our way to the house party, which is where I expected you to be, but I decided to escape from the coaching inn on the South Road in the dead of night and paid a driver to take us to a boardinghouse and this was the first place we came to.”
“You could have come to harm, Lucinda!” He seemed genuinely distressed. “You ought not to have gone by yourself, even if Miss Wright was with you.” It was rather sweet that he thought of her welfare before questioning why on earth she should want to escape.
“That’spreciselywhat Miss Wright told her,” Miss Wright muttered.
“Oh, Andrew, you’re a dear to care.” It was all desperate warmth mingled with agitation. Andrew’s face visibly brightened. “That is, you’re not like Captain Hardy, you’re still young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, but you’re dear in your way.”
Poor dear had no idea that flattery beaded up and rolled right off Captain Hardy.
Andrew cast a startled glance at Captain Hardy, as if it had never occurred to him that someone so elderly could hold any appeal for Lucinda.
“But... you’re a very good sort.” She bit her lip. “Oh, Andrew. It’s just that I... I don’t want to... I don’t think...”
Every breath in the room was held.
But she didn’t say the words.
“Lucinda, you’re atoppinggirl,” he said urgently, hardly poetry, but he said it so fervently and sincerely every older person in the room melted ever so slightly. “A bit prone to speaking before you’ve given it any thought, which can be a bit wounding,” he said, looking a trifle wounded himself. “But you’re so... funny and game, as well.” He said this with a sort of tender exasperation.
She beamed at him, not the least offended. “You know me so well, Andrew. Itisrather nice to see you. You’re looking well. But...” Her pretty brow furrowed. “Why areyouhere?”
“But I don’t want to... that is...”
He stopped.
He’d gone white about the mouth with the sheer terror of honesty.
“Sayit,” Miss Jane Gardner urged in a gleeful hiss from the corner.
Delilah darted a shocked, quelling look her way.
The silence was suddenly painfully suspenseful.
Miss Bevan-Clark bit her lip and clasped her hands tightly together.
Mr. Farraday twisted his kid gloves in his hands.
