Duncan jogged until he caught up with them. “Having a walk?” he said.
“We’re going exploring!” the boy said.
“And we don’t need company,” Lucy said. “We are perfectly capable of exploring on our own, especially as it seems you have other pursuits to keep you busy.”
Johnny looked from his nanny to Duncan.
“Actually,” Duncan said, “I don’t have any other pursuits this morning. I’d love to join you.”
“No, thank you,” Lucy said at the same time Johnny said, “Hooray!” He reached out and took Duncan’s hand, leading him ahead of Lucy. The boy chattered on about his baby brother and a tower he had built. Duncan nodded and made sounds of interest, all the while searching the ground for signs someone had passed this way the night before. He could feel Lucy’s gaze boring into his back, and he wanted to hunch his shoulders.
Johnny released his hand and ran ahead to try and catch a thrush. Duncan bent down to study the ground and pointed to an imprint in the soft earth. “Footprint,” he said over his shoulder.
Lucy joined him and bent to examine the print. Duncan watched Johnny stare up at the tree where the thrush had flown.
“It’s about my size,” she said. “I don’t think we can be certain this isn’t mine.”
“We’ll walk further,” he said. “Past where we ventured last night.”
“Are you certain you have time for this? You seemed otherwise occupied this morning.”
“Lucy, you have the wrong impression.”
“So Molly wasn’t kissing you behind the staircase?”
“She was, but—”
“Miss Lucy! Come and look at this.”
With a look of contempt at Duncan, Lucy walked quickly to where the boy knelt. She bent over, and Duncan could hear her telling him it was a bird’s nest. The babies had grown up and flown away, and it must have fallen from one of the trees.
“Can I keep it?”
“Of course. We can put it with the sticks and rocks you found.”
“I want to pick flowers for Mama.”
“Good idea. She’d love flowers this morning.”
Duncan listened to them talking, Lucy telling the boy the names of flowers. He wondered how she knew so much about all the plants. If it wasn’t a rose or a daffodil, he had no idea what it might be. A quarter hour later, they had definitely gone further than the night before, and Duncan had spotted another set of footprints. He’d pointed at them, and Lucy nodded, indicating she’d seen them as well.
The garden ended here, and ahead there was a field of wildflowers that bordered the banks of the Thames. Overlooking this, on a small rise, was a summer house, where the family might come for an afternoon to enjoy a picnic or take one of the rowboats stored behind the small structure out on the river.
“Stay where I can see you,” Lucy called to Johnny, who was busy gathering wildflowers for his bouquet.
Duncan had already gone to the house and pushed the door open. There was no lock and no way to prevent someone other than the family entering. The small house was sparsely furnished with a table and chairs and a few cots. Clearly, it was a place to get out of the sun or lie down after a boating excursion. Through a window at the back, he could see several row boats stacked behind the house. Still, the door he had entered through seemed to be the only entrance or exit.
He heard the door behind him creak open and Lucy said, “Looks as though we have found our rendezvous point.”
