Page 58 of The Rules of Courtship
Chapter Twenty-One
Rule #21: Never try to hide your true feelings from your family…mothers always seem to know
Ruth saw Willowbrook come into view through the small, dirty carriage window and leaned back in her seat. The journey had been much more pleasant this time. Lady Helena’s face was still green from the motion, but she had only needed to stop once.
“If you go directly to your chamber, I will see about a pot of tea,” Ruth said gently.
“No, darling.” Lady Helena lifted a hand to stave off the subject. “Anna will see to me. You can visit your horse.”
Rosaline would not know if Ruth spent an hour inside before greeting her, of course, but she was eager to go to the stables all the same. Ruth smiled widely. As though she would choose ahorseover her mother. “She can wait. I would like to see you comfortably settled first.”
Lady Helena’s bright eyes searched for her. They glanced to the window before closing again. “You are the kindest of daughters,but it is not necessary. Does Oliver intend to come directly to speak to your father?”
A fissure of unease wound its way through Ruth. “I asked him to wait until tomorrow.”
“Strange, then. I thought I saw him nearing the house just now. Must have been a groom.”
Ruth lurched for the window, searching the gravel drive that spread out before the house and seeing a rider slow his horse just before the stone steps. Oliver’s form was unmistakable, the familiar wide shoulders and perfect posture as he commanded his horse to slow. But why had he come early?
“You will allow me to escape to my room immediately now, I suppose,” Lady Helena said with a whisper of a smile.
Ruth’s lips flattened. “I do not know what you find to be so amusing. If Oliver is here a day early, then he likely does not bear good news.”
“Or the man is so besotted with you, he could hardly wait until tomorrow.”
If only that was the case, but Ruth knew better. Theirs was an arrangement borne out of a need to save her reputation and nothing more. She questioned whether she could manage being married to a man she loved with the knowledge he had only wed her from obligation, but it stung. Could love grow in time? Perhaps. But it was a risk she was afraid to take.
Sucking in air through her teeth, she watched the house disappear from view as the carriage curved around the road to pull up in front. Her heart raced, her fingers shaky with anticipation. There was no denying how she felt.
Oliver removed his hat and bowed when the women exited the carriage. He gave them a smile, but his eyes were tight. Ruth knew immediately she had been correct. Something was not quite right.
“Did you have a pleasant journey?” he asked, approaching them.
“It was slow,” Lady Helena answered, “but far better than our ride to Rocklin.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
“Is there…” Ruth searched for the right words. Oliver’s fingers kneaded the edge of his hat, and he would soon ruin it if she did not find a way to cease his fidgeting. “Have you come to speak to my father?”
Oliver looked sharply at her. If she was not mistaken, she detected anguish and fear, not the lovelorn look of a man coming to confess his adoration and appreciation for the woman he had recently become engaged to. Pain sliced through her swiftly, but she did her best to cover it. If the idea of meeting with her father was truly so terrible, he needn’t go through with it.
“Or would you prefer we ride?” she asked, quickly providing him an alternative.
Oliver swallowed, his throat bobbing. “I had hoped it would be your immediate objective, and that I could take advantage of the fact to ride out with you. If you have no plans to do so, however?—”
“It was the first thing on my list,” she said, looking to Lady Helena to corroborate her claim.
Her stepmother smiled at him. “Would you like to wait inside while Ruth changes?”
“I will wait in the stables, if that is acceptable.”
“Of course,” Lady Helena said kindly, her voice warmer than it had been in the carriage.
“I will dress with haste,” Ruth told him.
“No need.” He gave a half-smile. “I could spend all day with those horses.”
Yes, she knew that. All the same, Ruth hurried inside. She found Sarah unpacking her trunk and was glad the servants had been able to travel faster than she and her stepmother, because her riding habit was already hung and airing. She was dressed inrecord time, her hair smoothed and put up again, her hat secured to her head.
