Page 58
“Alas, no. I am only me.”
Only me. “You speak as if you believe your presence to be a disappointment.”
“Well, I am not who you were expecting.”
That was true. In more ways than one. “Miss Brown, I honestly can’t think of anyone I’d rather have stumbled upon out here.” He wasn’t sure why he had said that, except that he felt oddly compelled to honesty. “However, now that I have, I shall leave you.” He would hate to miss the comet, but it couldn’t be helped. “I’ve a fire lit that I must put out, but I shall do so as efficiently as possible and be on my way.”
“Wait!” she called, as if he had already begun his retreat. He had not. “If Lords Harcourt and Marsden are on their way out, it is I who should withdraw.”
“They are not. They told me as much. I just assumed, when I heard someone in the pool, that they’d changed their minds.”
“Changed their minds about what? May I inquire as to what you were doing out here to begin with?”
He smiled at the absurdity of conversing like this, he on land and Miss Brown … not on land. He suddenly wondered, with not a little alarm, what she was wearing beneath the surface of the water.
“Of course, it is none of my affair,” she said. “Disregard the question.”
“I don’t mind answering. I was merely … momentarily distracted. I’m out here watching for the comet.”
“Comet! Is there meant to be a comet tonight?”
“Yes. Did Miss Morgan not tell you about it? I saw you talking to her earlier.”
“She did not, and I marvel at such, for the whole point of my being out here is so I can behold the night sky while taking the waters.”
“I hadn’t thought to try that, but it sounds lovely. A feast for two senses.”
“I told the ladies exactly that. And if you listen for the brook, it’s three senses. Lady Stonely has engaged me to write an account of taking the waters. When I mentioned I thought the experience would be even more enjoyable by starlight, she exhorted me to include an account of such. But Miss Morgan never mentioned anything about a comet.”
“Well, I am on the lookout for it. Or I was. I shall leave you to your privacy.”
“Oh, no, please don’t miss your chance on my account. I …”
“Yes?”
“Lord Marsden, I think it is safe to say that in our recent acquaintance, we have dispensed with formalities. Would you agree?”
“I believe we have done more than dispense with them. We have expunged them entirely. Annihilated them, one might even say.”
She laughed, and he was pleased to have amused her. He was sorry he could not see the crinkles at the sides of her eyes that laughter always conjured. “Indeed, and I’m afraid that is my doing.”
“I believe we shall need a code word after all if you are going to be any more specific in your reference to our annihilation of formalities.”
She laughed again. He was pleased again. He missed the crinkles again.
“I am done referring to it,” she said. “I would, however, like to point out that you are standing with your back to me now. I would like to further propose that you return to your fire but keep yourself angled thusly. I may be hearty, but my endurance has its limits and I must remove myself from this pool soon. This way, you may remain on comet watch, and I will take myself back to my room.”
“I will of course do as you say—I don’t even find it that scandalous; you did rather inflate my expectations with that buildup—but here is a counterproposal. I will remove to the fire and keep my back to it. Then perhaps you would care to join me. Warm yourself before you retire. I shan’t look at you at all.”
He expected her to decline, but she said, “It would be wonderful to see the comet.”
“Well, here is your chance.”
“Which I shall seize so long as I don’t displace you.”
“We are agreed.”
As Simon returned to the fire and set up a chair for her near it and a chair for him on the other side facing away from it, he marveled at how confident, how at ease, he had sounded just then. As if he wasn’t about to conduct a conversation with Miss Brown while she was wearing a soaking wet dress.
