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“I will take you there if I may,” he said. “Perhaps tomorrow?”

She nodded and he looked into her face. For one moment she thought he was going to kiss her, and her heart beat faster. But he did not do so. He turned rather abruptly instead and led the way back through the trees to the summerhouse and the lawn and house beyond.

“I hope,” he said, “you did not have your heart set upon seeing the whole of the formal gardens and the hothouses.”

“I suppose they will still be there on another day,” she said.

The vicar and his family were taking their leave when they arrived back in the drawing room. Stephanie’s mother looked from Stephanie to Bertrand and smiled, while Viscountess Dirkson beside her positively smirked.

The Misses Linford sparkled with high spirits. “We have arranged to take a scenic walk tomorrow to see the prettiest, most ancient church you could possibly imagine,” the youngest of the sisters said. “It is six miles by road, but there are stiles to climb over into fields with paths across them. Mama and Papa are going to come too as chaperones. Papa will call on the vicar while the rest of us go to the inn for refreshments. Will you come too, Lord Watley? And Lady Stephanie?”

It sounded like fun to Stephanie. She loved long walks.

“I am going to take Stephanie to the lake,” Bertrand said.

“Oh,” the eldest Miss Linford said. “Perhaps we should go there instead, then, and leave the walk for another day.”

“It will be very crowded if you do,” the Dowager Duchess of Netherby said. “All the rest of us will be going with Bertrand and Stephanie. But the more the merrier, as the saying goes.”

There was a dismayed silence.

“Maybe it would be best to stick with the original plan, Miss Linford,” Owen said. “I must confess I am looking forward to seeing that church.”

“So am I,” Maria said.

And so it was agreed upon, and the vicar’s family left to walk back home. But oh, how disappointing, Stephanie thought. She had been looking forward to seeing the lake with just Bertrand for company, though she would cheerfully have fallen in with the idea that they join the walk across country. Now, it seemed, she was going to be deprived of both. Though she did enjoy the company of the older people here, she reminded herself. She loved listening to and talking with them. And laughing too. They all had a wonderful sense of humor.

“Good, quick thinking, Louise,” Lady Dirkson said briskly when the marquess and marchioness returned to the drawing room after seeing their luncheon guests on their way. “But Mildred and Thomas and Charles and I accepted an invitation outside church this morning to take coffee with the Reverend and Mrs. Powell tomorrow morning.”

“Justin and I will be taking David to visit the Middletons,” Estelle said. “Abby and Gil and the children will be going with us.”

“Apparently, the little Middleton girls have not stopped pestering their mama since the picnic to invite the children to come and play,” Justin said. “I believe the rest of us were a mere afterthought—a lowering realization.”

“But Gussie and I were particular friends when we were girls,” Estelle said.

“And Clarissa and I are going to call upon the Misses Reid,” the marchioness said. “Their father is an invalid and will not be left alone with anyone else but his daughters. It is a very trying situation for them, but they remain cheerful through it all.”

“And you expressed an interest earlier, Louise, in joining André and Matthew and me on a ride about the farms tomorrow,” the marquess said.

“I have not forgotten,” the dowager said. “I have been missing my horses. And that is in the morning, is it, Marcel? Alas, Bertrand, it seems that after all, none of us will be able to give you and Stephanie our company to the lake.”

And there, Stephanie thought. She had surely just seen the triumvirate in full matchmaking mode. She was not sure whether to be amused or embarrassed. But everyone else had aided and abetted them. There was that feeling again that perhaps by coming here she had trapped herself into something from which she would be unable to extricate herself.

“You must not feel badly about it, Aunt Louise,” Bertrand said. “Perhaps some other time.”

Owen was smirking at her, Stephanie saw, and then waggling his eyebrows when their eyes met.

Oh dear, was this getting too serious too quickly?

But she still had free will, did she not? The power to say no. Assuming, that was, she would be asked a question that required a yes-or-no answer.

You have my word, however, that I will never make you my prisoner, Stephanie. He had said those very words to her at Vauxhall.

I want to set you free so you can freely give yourself to me.

—

After dinner, small tables were set up in the drawing room, and most of the adults settled to an evening of cards. The children were in the nursery. Stephanie watched, but card playing had never been her favorite activity. After a while she went to the conservatory and sat on one of the window seats. She had thought of going up to her room first to fetch her book, but the afternoon visit to the brook had left her feeling mellow, and she chose simply to sit and feast her senses upon the plants surrounding her and those beyond the windows. It was still light outside. She must not stay away from the drawing room for long, however. She would not wish to appear unsociable.