“But...” Unfortunately for Annabelle, she did not get to finish that question. The dress designer swished back into the room and took over the removal of the dreaded wedding dress. But the conversation did not stray too far from hermind.
Is she trying to tell me that I can still escape?Annabelle wondered with a flurry of excitement in her chest.Does mother think that I can do it?It was only a small burst of belief but it was enough to bring a smile back to Annabelle’s face, and a genuine one this time.Maybe all hope was not lost afterall...
“Is everything done here?” Otto joined Annabelle and Josephine with the same furrowed, angry eyebrows that he’d had on for days. “Have you decided on thedress?”
“Yes, I have,” Annabelle answered him, almost defiantly. Her mother’s words had boosted her more than Josephine could have hoped for. She watched the weight lift from Annabelle’s shoulders with surprise. Maybe her daughter understood her words more than she first thought. Now she wouldhaveto make it happen. “I have chosen my wedding dress. Now that I am dressed in my own clothing, I think I might go for a walk in thegardens.”
Annabelle gave Otto a daring look. She dared her father to try and enforce even more rules upon her. He parted his lips, wanting to send her to her room where he knew that she would be safe and away from that stable boy, for whom he had no trust whatsoever, but he also did not want to punish this good behaviour. Annabelle had been doing as asked, he could not complain too much aboutthat.
“Fine.” He stepped to one side to let her past. “But stay near the house please, I do not want you near thestables.”
Annabelle nodded with her lips pinned tightly together. There were so many arguments there, so many things that she just needed to say, but she could not. Not now, she had been given her first tiny bit of freedom in days. Maybe her father would not watch her anyway, and she could do what shewanted.
It was crazy for her to even want to see Floyd, knowing that it could only end in heart break, but the temptation was still there burning brightly in herchest.
Josephine kept her eyes firmly fixed on her husband as Annabelle left the room. His words had left her utterly confused and she knew with an absolute certainty that she needed to find out more. Otto had always wanted Annabelle to learn to ride, he had complained to her many a time that his youngest daughter did not seem interested in the horses, so why now would he be telling her to keepaway?
Clearly, in all her time planning and plotting, she must have missed somethingvital.
“The stables?” she asked in a casual, unassuming tone of voice the second that they were alone. “What is happening with the stables? Are we having work done?” She knew that was not the case, of course, but it felt safest to act like she knew nothing atall.
“No, we are not,” Otto answered gruffly. He still had not forgiven his wife for going against him, and he knew that he would not until she apologized. “I do not want Annabelle straying that far away from thehouse.”
There was no way that was the full truth of it, Josephine knew that there had to be more. She just had to push that a little bit harder for it. “It is safe, is itnot?”
Otto glared at his wife out the corner of his eye. He did not want to tell her the truth because he did not want to encourage her silly notions that Lord Ashdown was the wrong person for Annabelle to marry, but he needed to say something. Her sharp, keen eye could sense that there was a lot more to what he had toldher.
“It is safe for us, but not for Annabelle,” he lied. “There is a stable boy who has taken a liking to her. I believe that he wishes to ruinher.”
“Oh.” Josephine did not know what to say to that, she had not been expecting it at all. “Does Annabelle know aboutthis?”
Otto sighed, grateful that Josephine had bought his story, which in his mind was not too far from the truth. “I have tried to warn her, but she does not think I know what I am talking about. If anything, my warning has only made her intrigued. I have seen her wandering by the stables to get the attention of this young man. I suppose I am worried that it will end up going badly and she will be ruined. We do not want her to end up unmarried, dowe?”
“No, of course not.” Josephine was stunned. How had all of this been happening without her knowledge? She truly had gotten wrapped up in herself that she had become blind to everything else. “That would beterrible.”
But still there was something about Otto’s words that did not quite ring true. If that was the case, then surely this man would no longer work for the Hathaway family? Otto would not stand for it, he was too proud and powerful aman.
Josephine knew that she would have to investigate for herself, and while Annabelle was outside, she had the perfect chance. “Well, thank you for sharing that with me. I shall keep an eye out for any untowardbehaviour.”
“I have it under control already...” Otto tried to intervene, but Josephine continued to talk as if she had not heardhim.
“I am sure you have lots to do, and with this wedding to plan, so do I.” She gave her husband what she hoped was a genuine smile. Josephine did not want him to suspect a thing. “I shall see you later atdinner.”
Otto remained where he was for a couple of seconds, struck by his wife’s attitude towards what he had just told her. It seemed like something she should have been more concerned about. Unless she had decided to trust him. Maybe now she realized that he knew just what he was doing,finally.
Yes, that had to be it. After all, what else could itbe?
