Page 144 of A Story of Love

“It was a long time ago.”

His hand tightened painfully. “Did either of them—”

“No, Jeremy. It was nothing like that. Really,” she assured him when he continued to look skeptical. “I left because I’d outgrown Moorcross and it was time to stretch my wings. I needed to go away from here and seek my fortune.”

His jaw worked for a moment, and she feared he might pursue the issue. But he must have sensed her reluctance, so he smiled and said, “So, then. When are you leaving us?”

“I’ll stay until your next service and then leave on the following Monday. There’s no—”

The door to the parlor flew opened and Sarah stood on the threshold, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling.

Jeremy shot to his feet. “Is something wrong, Sarah? The girls—”

“No, no, the girls are all fine,” she said, her gaze fixed on Lori. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there is a visitor for you.”

“A visitor?” Lori and Jeremy said at the same time.

“It is Lord Stand Fast Severn,” Sarah said in an unnaturally high and squeaky voice. She looked from Lori to Jeremy and back again, as if she were struggling with something, and then she burst out in a gleeful voice, “The King of the Rakes is at this very moment in my very own sitting room!”

Chapter 31

“Viscount Severn is here to see Lori?” Jeremy repeated before Lori could respond.

Sarah nodded vigorously. “Yes.” She stuck out her hand and Lori saw there was a card in her palm.

Jeremy turned to Lori, his eyes bulging. “Good Lord, Lori! You know Severn?”

Lori was startled by her brother’s use of the Lord’s name and met his shocked gaze with a guilty shrug. “Yes.”

His eyebrows lowered and she could see that there would be questions—many of them.

But not now.

Lori lurched to her feet. “I will go speak to him.”

“But Lori!”

She stopped and turned at Sarah’s raised voice. “Yes?”

“Er, don’t you want to tidy your hair?”

Lori glanced in the small mirror beside the door and scowled at her reflection. She had a tendency to pluck at her hair absently when she wrote. She looked like she’d come away the loser in a wrestling match with a hedge.

“No, it is fine.”

Her sister-in-law gasped. “Surely you want to change your gown!”

Lori glanced down at herself, as if she’d forgotten what she was wearing. “No, Sarah; Severn can see me as I am.”

“But you are wearing your oldest dress, and it has cherry juice splatters all over it from helping me make jam and—” she broke off when her husband set a hand on her shoulder.

“Sarah, let her be.”

Lori cut Jeremy a quick, grateful look and then strode resolutely down the short hallway.

Only when she reached the staircase and had a moment to herself did she slump against the handrail and exhale the breath she’d been holding.

What in the world was he doing there? And after all this time!