Page 363 of From Rakes to Riches

She knew that that was only part of the truth. His writing would have revealed a need to be gone, and there had been none. But she could hardly accuse her future husband of lying once again. After all, how could she trust her own judgment where he was concerned?

In silence they drove out of the park, then turned away from the street leading back to their homes. Victoria frowned and looked up at him but felt foolish asking where they were going. After all, he’d only offered her a ride.

Gradually the buildings grew closer together, bland brick buildings of commerce rather than the pleasing architecture of the West End of London. They finally came to a stop before a building with a sign proclaiming Southern Railway. A boy camebounding out of the door to steady their horses, as if he’d been waiting for Lord Thurlow.

Victoria could hold her tongue no longer. “My lord?”

He set the carriage brake and glanced at her absently. Had he forgotten she was even there?

“Miss Shelby, I must deliver some important papers. I’ll be but a moment.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he had already dropped to the street, a leather satchel under his arm. He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared inside.

Victoria glanced over her shoulder at the maid, who was looking around them with wide eyes. Victoria gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. It was not that the street was in a decaying neighborhood of London, but it was obviously an industrial area, where few women were seen, to judge by the stares she received from passersby. Even Lord Thurlow’s sleek white horses looked like something out of a fairy tale compared to the draft horses pulling heavy carts through the streets. Men in plain tweed coats and trousers tipped their hats as they walked by. One man, without a coat to hide his shirt and suspenders, whistled as he looked over the horses.

“Liedy, whot a fine matched pair they is,” he said.

What was she to say to that? “Thank you, sir.”

More and more she was feeling as if Lord Thurlow had forgotten her. He should have at least invited her inside to wait, away from the dust and noise of the streets!

The door finally swung open, and he emerged. She saw the surprise on his face before he tucked it away.

Hehadforgotten her. After all, he must have had this errand planned, and taking her for a ride fulfilled two purposes for this trip. How convenient for him.

The horse admirer hurried on his way, and Victoria noticed that even the little boy holding the horses seemed relieved atHis Lordship’s presence. Lord Thurlow swung up, and as the carriage tilted beneath his weight, she gripped the rail behind the bench. To her shock, his hips grazed her as he sat down, pinning her hand between him and the rail. Blushing furiously, she yanked hard to free herself. Lord Thurlow shifted and eyed her beneath one raised eyebrow.

“Miss Shelby, have you ever ridden on a train?” he asked as he flicked the reins to guide the carriage into traffic.

“I have not,” she said tightly.

“It is an exciting experience.”

“I’ve heard it is very loud and very dirty.”

He shrugged. “Perhaps. But the railway is England’s future. Haven’t you noticed how in just the past few years, the price of coal sharply dropped and food from outlying farms became fresher?”

She stared at him. “No, my lord, I have not.”

“Of course, of course, your father would have dealt with such things.”

She lifted her chin. “The prices must have already lowered since I began overseeing our household purchases less than a year ago.”

He studied her intently, and she wished he would watch the traffic instead.

“I had not forgotten your recent accomplishments,” he said in a lower voice. “I admire you for them.”

She wished it wasn’t so easy to be distracted just looking at him. She wanted to stay angry. “I was not looking for admiration as I kept food on our table.”

“Of course not. But the railway will make everything easier, not just travel. It’s a new era, where men who control the flow of goods and services control industry—and the future of our country.”

She stared at him in confusion. He sounded like a little boy obsessed by the roar of a passing train. Memories flooded back of the detailed observations he’d written every time he discovered a new frog or snake. Had trains become his new interest? Many peers became railway shareholders, of course, or so her father had once tried to explain to her. But how many delivered their own paperwork? Lord Thurlow was such a puzzle to her.

They drove in silence for several blocks, until the streets began to widen, and the carriages turned elegant.

“Miss Shelby,” Lord Thurlow said, “would you do me the honor of accompanying me to a luncheon next Wednesday? I would call for you at one o’clock. There will be several couples in attendance, so you will not feel so alone should the other gentlemen and I have business to discuss.”

Her entrance into society had begun. Her stomach seemed to turn over as she remembered every dreadful luncheon she’d ever attended—and there had been many. But she had never been to theton’sevents. Her mother had once resented that she herself could not break into theton, and had thought to do so with her daughters. Victoria and her sisters had been expected to shine at parties, to eventually marry well, and the pressure had weighed on her.

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