“Are you so very certain your life will always be in Pennyroyal Green, then, Miss Sylvaine?”
She abruptly went still. As though he’d pressed a bruise.
Then she smoothed her hands along her apron and matter-of-factly squared her shoulders, visibly tucking herself and her confidences away from him. Her expression was unreadable.
She carried her bucket over to the next nearest headstone that was wearing a little coat of lichen.
He stood, too, and followed her slowly.
He realized his heart had ticked up a notch in anticipation of her answer, which would either devastate or elate him, and by rights, should do neither. It should not matter to him at all.
Very belatedly, very carefully, she replied: “I suppose not.”
She sounded subdued.
His heart gave an unwise leap. If she was engaged to Eversea, this would be the moment to say so. Wouldn’t it?
Unless she was feckless, or coy.
He would swear on his life that she was neither.
Perhaps she was concerned that speaking the word “Eversea” aloud to a Redmond was like holding a crucifix up to a demon.
Had she heard anything about his connection to Fanchette? He’d only been mentioned once in the newspaper this season. And never directly in connection with Miss Tarbell.
“Are you certain you’ll be in Pennyroyal Greenyourwhole life, Mr. Redmond?”
“Someonehas to live in that big house the Redmonds built a century ago.”
She smiled at that. Which was much better.
“Have you ever wanted to see the world beyond Pennyroyal Green?” She was plucking weeds now; his view was the top of her straw hat.
He knelt across from her and set to work on the stone with the little brush.
“After university, I did the usual Grand Tour then came home. I enjoyed it very much.”
“Theworldworld,” she said. “The places across the vast oceans, not just across the channel.”
This sounded both like a challenge and a serious question.
Jacob Eversea had just officially entered the conversation, if Isaiah was not mistaken.
He was suddenly oddly nervous and excited, as if he was confronting the man himself across a chessboard.
“I’ve always felt that Pennyroyal Green is a world unto itself, in many ways.”
She looked up swiftly, her eyes flaring in surprised pleasure.
She dropped her gaze again. “It seems that way to me, too. But I do love hearing about other parts of the world. It makes life here in Pennyroyal Green even more vivid.”
An unworthy, wayward surge of jealousy shortened Isaiah’s breath. With an unendurable clarity he imagined her listening with starry eyes to Jacob nattering on about distant lands, the way Fanchette listened to him go on about his investment group.
“What boy doesn’t dream about that sort of adventure? I confess I have. But I’m my father’s heir. I’ve a duty to our family to uphold. What if something became of me on my journey? In light of this…it seemed to me selfish, perhaps even callous, to leave behind loved ones who would worry about me. Especially since I know I intend to build my life and fortune here in England.”
What the devil was he doing?
He didn’t know. He only knew what he’d just said was both truth.
