Chapter19
A Most Awkward Conversation
Amoment later
Helen’s heart raced as Tom offered his gloved hand.“That’s very kind of you,” she said, stepping up into the hantour and settling into the worn leather squabs.“Will you join me?”
Tom stepped back, his gaze darting to the one in which his brother was about to climb into.When he didn’t see Diana, he bounded into the carriage.“Yes, I suppose I will.Seems Lady Forster is riding with my brother.”
Pressing her bell skirts closer to her thighs to make room for him on the bench seat, Helen watched as he removed his top hat and sat back.“Did you enjoy the tour?”she asked.
He nodded.“Indeed,” he replied.“And you?”
“Very much, as did Bradley.I think he was as enthralled as my father.”
Tom stiffened at the mention of the babe.“He, uh, seems to a be a rather happy baby.”
“Oh, very much.Unless he’s hungry, and then he has no problem voicing his complaint,” she replied.“He’s riding with Mother now and will be asleep before we reach Dashur.”
Tom nodded.“I admit to being rather surprised when we came upon your family in Cairo.”
“The feeling was mutual,” she said.“Of all the places to find others from England...”She allowed the sentence to trail off.“Was Egypt on your original Grand Tour itinerary?”
“It was,” he acknowledged.“Randy insisted we go, but I think David...uh, Penton,” he corrected himself, “He was equally interested.”
Helen dipped her head.“But not you?”
He finally directed his gaze on her and lifted a shoulder.“I admit to ambivalence.I would go anywhere my cousins wish to go.I certainly don’t regret coming here, although...”He used a glove in an attempt to brush some of the desert dust from the knee of his pantaloons.“The sand is certainly troublesome.”
“Isn’t it?”she agreed.“I’m beginning to think all my gowns will have reddish-gold hems by the time we return to England.”
They sat in silence for a moment, and Helen considered whether or not she should bring up the matter of their kiss during the Morganfield’s ball.She was saved from doing so when Tom spoke first.
“Will you go back to London directly from Egypt?”he asked.“When we’re finished with our tour?”
She remembered her mother and Lady Bellingham mentioning their respective itineraries when they were in theriadparlor in Cairo.“My mother wants to go to Rome before we head back to England,” she replied, deciding it wasn’t really a lie since her mother had put voice to such a request.
“Not Greece?”he asked in surprise.
Helen inhaled softly.“Oh, I’m sure she’d like to go to her birthplace,” she replied.“She was born on Mykonos.An island in the Cyclades.”
“Have you been?”
She shook her head.“It hasn’t been safe to travel in the Aegean, what with the war between the Ottomans and Greeks,” she replied.“But...I would like to go.”
“We were in Athens before we came to Egypt,” Tom said before he chuckled softly.“That’s where Randy acquired his wife.”
“Acquired?”Helen repeated, giggling softly.“You make it sound as if he bought her at a shop,” she teased.
He scratched the side of his nose.“Found her in a temple on the Acropolis, is what he did.I don’t know if it was love at first sight or if he merely thought it was his duty to provide protection for her, but they do seem to love one another.”
“Indeed,” Helen agreed.
“Although my younger sister?—”
“You refer to Grace?”she asked.
“Yes,” he said, his expression conveying discomfort.“Before we left on this tour, she had begun to adopt the practice of wearing my younger brother’s breeches, much to my mother’s dismay,” he explained.“So when I first met Diana, and she was wearing them, and I was left wondering what was happening in the world of ladies’ fashion.”
