Page 23 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke
Hal’s carriage, Thea noted, had plain doors and looked like a vehicle that had covered a great many miles in thecourse of a long life.Drage, their butler, would turn his nose up if that arrived outside the house on Chesterfield Street.
But the horses were good, she noted with interest, and the coachman and groom looked as though they knew their business.Perhaps Hal liked to spend his money on his horses and neglected other refinements such as his clothes or a smart carriage.
Then it was time for final hugs and kisses and thanks from her, and last-minute advice on the journey from Godmama.
Thea turned to find Hal waiting.‘I will be just behind all the way,’ he told her.‘I will not stay at the same inns, but find accommodation nearby and I will send a note to say where you can find me.But should our paths cross, it would be discreet if we pretend not to know each other.’
‘Yes, I understand.One never knows whom one will encounter on a main coaching route.But we will have a chance to say goodbye properly before we arrive in London, I hope,’ Thea said.
‘I doubt it,’ Hal said.‘Better if we say our farewells now, Lady Thea.It has been a great pleasure.’
She could read nothing in his smile, but then why should she?They had met as house guests, become friendly, shared a rather shocking scrape and taken a long country ride.
Had shared a moment of awareness beside a lake, been intimately entangled, chaperoned only by a spider… Had become friends.
Now they were parting, she for the Season, he for whatever minor landowners did on their estates at this time of year.
‘Goodbye, Mr Forrest.’She held out her hand, her gloves still in the other.
Hal took it, turned it and raised it to his lips, pressed a kiss into her palm, closed her fingers over it and released her.
It was over in a moment and Thea found herself, somehow, outside, standing beside the open carriage door.The groom handed her in, closed the door, said something to the coachman and the carriage began to move.Thea dropped the window glass and leaned out to wave to Godmama, then raised it again and stared rather blankly at the back of the coachman in front of her.
‘You dropped your gloves, my lady.’
Thea blinked and realised that the maid was beside her.‘Thank you.’She pulled the thin kid over her fingers, over her hands, sealing in that kiss.What had that meant?Gentlemen did not kiss hands like that, not any more…
‘Are you a good traveller, Jennie?’she asked as they turned out of the gates between the flanking lodges.
‘I don’t know, my lady.I’ve never been in anything except Pa’s cart,’ the maid said brightly.‘I expect I am, though.I mean, this is lovely, isn’t it?Ever so smooth—it sways just like those rocking cradles.’
‘Very smooth,’ Thea agreed when the two of them were thrown together as the wheels hit a deep pothole.
‘Ooh, my lady!’Jennie said with a giggle.
At least she was cheerful and bright, unlike Maunday, Thea thought.She set herself to enjoy the journey seen through the maid’s wide eyes and not to allow her mind to spin, filled with ridiculous speculation.
* * *
The first night was spent at Stilton after a journey of seven hours, including a leisurely stop for luncheon and the regular change of horses.Thea had taken pains not to look around for Hal’s carriage as they went, but just as she was alighting outside the Bell in Stilton, she saw it turn into the yard of the Angel opposite across the wide street.
The Bell was the most famous of Stilton’s inns and somewheretravellers would stop to purchase the celebrated cheese from the landlord.Now he came bustling out of his front door, wreathed in smiles to welcome a lady arriving in such an elegant equipage.
He had the perfect suite of rooms for Lady Thea, he assured her, ushering her inside.A fine bedchamber, a room for her maid and a private parlour where she could take her dinner quite undisturbed.Her men would be accommodated in comfort in rooms above the stables and at what hour would it please her to take her dinner?
Finally able to get a word in edgeways, Thea ordered a meal for eight o’clock and hot water immediately and was pleased to approve the rooms.
‘Very nice, my lady,’ Jennie conceded when the door closed on the landlord.‘But you are right at the front overlooking the street.I’ll wager it will be noisy in the night with folks coming and going.’
‘That’s the way of it with inns, and the better they are, the busier they are,’ Thea told her.‘One becomes resigned.So long as the bed is comfortable, one just has to stick one’s head under the pillow.’
They washed then dined together.Jennie was very stiff and nervous at first, but relaxed as she realised that her table manners were perfectly adequate.
The maid was stifling yawns by the time they had finished and she rang for the waiter to clear the table, so Thea locked the door, changed into her nightgown and sent Jennie off to bed as soon as her hair was unpinned.
She was tired and she ached a little, because however luxurious a carriage and careful the coachman, a long day sitting took its toll.But she was not, she realised, sleepy.She was too restless for that.
Thea looked at the bed, which certainly appeared comfortableenough.Jennie had tested the sheets and pronounced them spotless and dry, and a chambermaid had come while they were eating to slide a warming pan between them, but she knew she would only toss and turn.
