“Thank you. Then shall we go?”
The smile spread so wide across her face, it felt like a flower opening up to the sun. “Yes, oh yes, let us go.”
In the entrance hall, Molly called, “Miss Audrey, I have your valise and reticule.”
“Thank you. You didn’t forget your own, did you?”
The other woman laughed. “No, miss. I have sandwiches in there and your writing paper and a book or two.”
“I noticed that the footman could barely lift your trunks into the boot,” Robert said.
“I only took what was necessary,” Audrey insisted. “I am starting a new life, sir. There are things a woman must have.” She was rattling on a bit, and she kept listening for her father’s study door to open, but it didn’t. “Excuse me.” She went to it and knocked, opening it without waiting for a reply. “Father?”
“I’m busy,” he called in a gruff voice. “Be on your way if you’re going.”
She lifted her chin. “I’m going. Good-bye, Father.”
When he said nothing, she closed the door again. Neither Robert nor Molly made a sound. Audrey felt embarrassed more than anything, by how little she meant to her own father. Then the anger set in, as she realized that her success couldproveto him that she’d made the right decision. But in the end, what he thought didn’t really matter. He’d treated her like a servant, not a daughter. Let him hire someone else.
“Good-bye, Mrs. Blake,” said the housekeeper. “Do enjoy your new home.”
Audrey hadn’t even realized she’d arrived. “Thank you so much for everything, Mrs. Gibbs. And to all the other servants, too.”
Robert put her hand on his arm. “May I escort you to the carriage?”
“You may.” She could have done it herself, but it would have taken longer. And she was impressed that he remembered to tell her where the stairs began. People often forgot the most obvious things when dealing with a blind person.
Outside, the breeze was almost warm, for autumn, and she inhaled deeply. This might be the last time she ever smelled these scents, if her relationship with her family didn’t improve. But she wasn’t going to think that way. Molly told her that the coachman had already lowered the step. Audrey found it, and Robert held her hand as she stepped up inside.
“Molly,” Robert said, “take the rear seat with your mistress, and I’ll sit across.”
“Facing backward?” Audrey teased. “How chivalrous.”
“I do have my moments.”
She felt a flash of excitement as the door closed, and soon the carriage jerked into motion. “Oh, you have my horse?”
“Tied to the back, on the opposite corner from mine,” he assured her.
“Then I’m ready.”
It was time to head into the unknown.
7
As the morning went on, Robert kept expecting the carriage ride to grow monotonous, but it never did. He couldn’t stop watching Audrey’s face. Molly would excitedly describe a thatched-roof cottage or a stone bridge, and it was as if he could see the wonder of the world reflected in Audrey’s expression. Molly had obviously spent much of her life in this capacity, and she was good at spotting the tiniest details, from a spotted dog lying beside a child fishing on a riverbank, to the ruins of an old stone wall, “which was surely part of a castle,” Molly would insist. Audrey laughed as if this was a game they’d long played.
Audrey must have been nervous before the journey, and maybe that was why they’d quarreled, but once on their way she seemed only full of eagerness and excitement—and relief. When he’d mentioned they’d left her village behind, she’d sagged back against the bench and looked almost bewildered.
“He really let me go,” she’d murmured. “I had feared …”
But her words had trailed off, and he hadn’t pressed for more. He well knew what she feared: a scene, some reason to involve the law. But Robert and his earldom had won the day.
It was amazing to think that the daughter of a baron had never been beyond her own village, never been to London. Part of him wanted to give her some of those experiences—and then he had to rein himself in. He was escorting her to her new home, making sure she was settled, and then his debt to Blake would be repaid.
But would it? he wondered. Would these feelings of guilt finally give him some peace?
“You must think our excitement rather silly, Robert,” Audrey said, “especially when you’ve seen so much of the world.”
