“What is the matter, Harold? Does such a beautiful, confident, and wealthy woman frighten you?”
Elijah saw his cousin’s Adam’s apple jump as though he was gulping past a sudden lump in his throat. “They say that after her husband died, she continued his work. They say she is a practitioner of the dark arts.”
Elijah scoffed, biting back open laughter with a glance towards the woodland when he realised that Lady Belmont had disappeared,though he could still hear her calling in the distance and guessed he would likely see her again before their ride was done. Especially if her dog continued to flit in and out of the woodland. He could certainly see how the dog had got his name.
“Are you saying she is a witch?” Elijah laughed openly then, unable to stop himself at the ridiculousness of what Harold had just said.
“Do not laugh at such things,” Harold advised, shaking his head. “The doctors in London and others all across the country refuse to have her name uttered in their presence, and for good reason! Her practises are often dangerous. Though the women talk of her very highly.”
This time, Harold scoffed as though anything women spoke highly of was utterly ridiculous unless a man backed it up. Elijah opened his mouth to point out that they had known a few very smart women in their time, but before he could do so, he started coughing. Knowing all too well what he would find in the palm of his hand when he removed it, he grabbed his handkerchief from his pocket and quickly wiped it away before his cousin could see.
Perhaps she could help me,Elijah thought absentmindedly, though he quickly forced the thought away. Nobody could help him now.
Shoving his bloodied handkerchief back into his pocket, he gripped his reins again and glanced over his shoulder, seeing that Lady Belmont had appeared again though her dog was finally walking calmly at her side. She looked quite content, her basket filled with flowers and plants, and Elijah wondered whether they were related to the ‘dark arts’ that Harold had mentioned. Again, he laughed a little under his breath.
Then he turned to Harold and sighed. “Come. We should continue before Lady Belmont starts believing we are watching her.”
Harold smirked at that and nodded his agreement. He turned his horse and began to lead the way back towards the manor,saying over his shoulder, “Your father would be pleased to hear you are using your head and not your member for once.”
“I’m sure I don’t quite know what you mean.”
At that, Harold looked over his shoulder again and his eyes darkened, scowling deeply. “We both know you caused quite a stir in London. Let’s not pretend otherwise.”
“Then let us not pretend otherwise that you have not been sent to keep an eye on me,” Elijah said, and Harold looked a little stunned. Elijah did not allow him to attempt to protest before he tightened his grip on the reins and spurred Tempest on. Racing past Harold and his horse, Majesty, he yelled over his shoulder, “And to do that, you’ve got to try and keep up!”
Chapter 3
It took only a day for Melissa to receive a letter from Daisy letting her know that Lord Spurnrose had arrived at his new residence at the Vextons’ old estate, now the Spurnrose Estate, she supposed. And two days after that, after responding with a letter that gave no hint as to what she intended to do with such information, she was not surprised to have Daisy at her door again.
Standing in her entryway with her best friend, barely having got her over the threshold, she gritted her teeth as Daisy said, “We ought to walk over to Lord Spurnrose’s estate and make his acquaintance. After all, it is the neighbourly thing to do.”
She stood before Melissa with a smug smile, her gloved hands clasped regally before her, dressed in all her finery as though she wished to give the new nobleman an amazing first impression. Melissa, on the other hand, was wearing one of her more worn dresses, her hands stained with ink and still smelling of the herbs she had been looking at to stretch into one of her journals earlier that morning.
“Perhaps you might be better off going without me?” Melissa asked, wiping her hands on her apron. “I am not exactly dressed for visiting.”
Daisy looked her quickly up and down. “You are glorious as always, you silly mare!”
Melissa blushed a little. Though she did not quite see it, everybody always liked to insist that she was quite beautiful, yet another reason she liked to keep herself out of the public eye. She had never really been one for liking the compliments that always seemed to fall at her feet until people learned the truth of her nature.
She would hate to give their new neighbour the wrong impression. Biting her lip, she decided it was best not to mention to her friend that she had actually already seen the man. At least, she thought it had been him upon the hillock overlooking the woodland bordering their two estates, along with a man with ashen blond hair and a pallid complexion whom she thought she recognised as a nobleman she had already made the acquaintance of at some point during her years in Oxfordshire.
She had seen them both out of the corner of her eye while she had been wandering after Flit and had decided it best not to pay them any mind. The last thing she wanted was to enter into another awkward conversation after the one she had already shared with Daisy that morning.
“I am really quite busy, Daisy,” Melissa protested, seeing that the excitement remained potent in her friend’s hazel gaze. “I still have herbs to hang to dry, my garden to tend to, and several other things on my list.”
The expression on her friend’s face suggested there was no way she would take no for an answer, and when Daisy grabbed her by the forearm, yanking her around to undo her apron, Melissa knew she had been right.
“I am not going to let you pass this opportunity up, Mel,” Daisy said, throwing the apron towards Betty, who loyally hung back at the edge of the entryway, waiting to be needed. Melissa cringed at the disrespectful nature of her friend’s shoving the apron at her maid as though it was all she was good for. Daisy had never quite understood Melissa’s close relationship with her maid, how they were more friends and companions than servant and employer. It was the way her father had always been with his servants, and she had adopted the nature happily, hating how some of thetontreated the people who did practically everything for them.
Offering her maid an apologetic look on her friend’s behalf, to which Betty returned an almost imperceptible nod of understanding, Melissa turned to her friend, who was busily fussing about the bits of herb and flower petals that stuck in the seams of her gown and hair.
“I will honestly never understand how you manage to get in such a mess,” Daisy exclaimed, picking an entire daisy head out of Melissa’s nest of curls.
“And I shall never understand how you do not,” Melissa countered with laughter. Daisy scowled back at her and shook her head, looking as though she could think of nothing worse than allowing herself to become unkempt. “If I do not go out in public, I do not need to worry about my appearance. Perhaps I ought to just remain here, and you go alone.”
“No! Never. I could not go alone!” Daisy protested. “And you could never allow me to do so either. What would Anthony think? What would…”
Melissa cringed, imagining all too well what she was about to say.What would Thomas think?It had been so long since she had been forced to concern herself with things like that, and though she could see where her friend was coming from, she loathed it. She had never been one for agreeing with the silly rules that most of the ton liked to set in place, especially when it came to what women were and were not allowed to do.If I listened to their rules, I would not be where I am today.
