‘What the devil …’ exclaimed Sir Rowland Kempsey, halting abruptly. ‘You nearly killed me! What on earth do you think you are doing?’
‘Archery. You ought to have been more careful,’ she snapped, rather more shocked than she wished to admit.
‘Me? It is you, madam, who should have the care, placing your target where anyone might step into danger.’
‘But nobody uses that path.’
‘I just did.’ He spoke with heat. Both parties had racing pulses.
‘Well, the gate is barred. How could I guess it would be used?’
‘I came through the gap, the one you use if the strand of brown wool I saw comes from your fishing attire.’
‘Then it is a … a private gap.’ She knew that sounded ridiculous, but she was horrified, imagining what would85have happened if indeed her arrow had struck him, and her perturbation emerged as anger. She glared at him, and he glared back.
‘Females ought not to be allowed to brandish anything more dangerous than a knitting needle,’ he fumed.
‘I could do a lot of damage with a knitting needle,’ she retorted, and then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a long moment she opened them and spoke again, more calmly. ‘I intended no hurt, sir. It was just … unfortunate.’
‘Perhaps a red kerchief tied to the gate might alert me in the future when you take up your bow, Miss Lound.’
‘Yes. Yes, that is a sensible thought.’
‘It ought to have been yours.’
‘Well, it was not, but thank you so very much,’ she said, sarcastically, ‘for providing it for me, a mere woman and thus incapable of “sensible thought”.’
‘That was not my insinuation.’ His voice, like his heart rate, was reverting to something approaching normal. He became aware of her pallor, and the very slight tremor of her hand as she unstrung the bow. ‘I know there was no intent to cause injury and had I appeared a moment later the arrow would have already found its mark in the target.’ She nodded in response. ‘I must be grateful that your aim was initially good enough so that it still hit the target when distracted at the point of release. Are you as good an archer as you are an angler?’
‘I am accounted so, yes, sir,’ she mumbled, feeling now just a little sick. A few inches to the left and—She86must banish the thought from her mind.
‘And I will have the ridiculous plank removed from across the gate. I take it that it was placed there upon the instruction of the late Lord Cradley. It seems excessive in the extreme.’
‘Thank you.’ She did not sound very grateful, but her feelings were jumbled.
‘It is a pleasant walk from the house.’
‘Will you dare come here, sir, when to do so risks life and limb?’ She gave him a very shaky smile. Madeleine Banham would have lowered her lashes and dimpled as she said it, but Mary Lound simply looked unsure, a little shy. He found it peculiarly touching.
‘I think I might, if you use the red warning and promise you will not actually take aim at me.’
‘I … I promise that, Sir Rowland. It … it is rather early for a formal call, and coming through the gap in the hedge implies a degree of informality, to say the least.’
‘It was a thing of impulse, not that I would describe myself as an impulsive man. My brother is applying himself to his Juvenal, and I thought I would take a walk about the park before the heat of the day precluded it. When I found the boundary and then the barred gate, I thought I might see if you and Lady Damerham were at home.’
‘I am certainly at home, sir. Mama had, I believe, a disturbed night, and did not come downstairs early, but no doubt she has done so by now. If you would care to come into the house we would offer you coffee, or87perhaps a glass of brandy to counter the shock of nearly having an arrow go through you.’ She tried to make it sound less serious, but he saw her bite her lip when she had said it.
‘Coffee would suffice, I assure you. I … I spoke intemperately, Miss Lound. I can only …’
‘You were right, sir. I nearly killed you. In such circumstances “intemperance” is justified. I do wish, however, that you did not keep putting me in the wrong whenever we meet.’ This was said more mournfully than resentfully, but there was a thin trace of annoyance. He failed to see how it was his fault that she had been so forthright by the lake, or for simply walking into the garden, but he let it go. She was evidently trying to be placatory, and he had a sense that it was not something she found easy or did very often. He was not a ladies’ man, though he had three younger sisters and had learnt early in life that the female of the species thought in a different way to the male, and was thus frequently incomprehensible to a man. Perhaps she had always had to counter being called ‘only a girl’ by brothers, and assumed that he was the sort of man who thought women should only sew and play the pianoforte, and neither fish nor engage in archery. This was certainly not the case.
She led him round to the front of the house and preceded him into the hall.
‘Let me take your hat and gloves, Sir Rowland. Atlow is cleaning the silver this morning, and it seems harsh to88make him come upstairs to perform a task I can do in moments. He is not young, you see.’
‘Aged retainer? Yes, I understand perfectly, Miss Lound. Thank you.’ He removed his hat and laid his gloves in it as she took it from him. ‘I take it he came with you from Tapley End, since there I found no butler upon my arrival.’
‘Yes, and secretly I think he is the one person pleased to be here. There are far fewer stairs and no long passageways.’ She spoke without realising how much she was saying. ‘Mama may be—’ Mary stopped as Cook came out of the morning room, and a guilty look crossed that dame’s features. She dipped in a curtsey that made her corsets creak.
