“Your Grace,” she said demurely in that strange accent of hers once she saw that she had been caught, though she didn’t seem embarrassed by the fact.
“Miss Jones,” he greeted her, deciding that he could spare a moment to learn more from a friend of Elizabeth’s. “I apologize for the fact that we have not yet before met, despite the fact that we share some mutual acquaintances.”
“Primarily Elizabeth,” she said, and it seemed to Gabriel that this woman was somehow able to read beyond what a person said and into his inner thoughts — which was ridiculous, but she certainly seemed more insightful than most.
“Perhaps you can help me, Miss Jones,” he said.
“I can try.”
“As you well know, Lady Elizabeth and I have been spending time together as of late. What do you suppose she would say were we to officially court?”
Miss Jones said nothing for a moment, instead tilting her head to the side as she looked at him.
“I do not believe I am the one of whom you should be asking such a question,” she said with the slightest of smiles.
“Does she feel anything toward me?” he asked, attempting to infuse his voice with an air of nonchalance, though he knew he was opening himself up to extreme vulnerability in front of this woman, a woman he hardly knew. But he felt he could trust her, for some strange reason.
“Of course she does,” Miss Jones said, before a wicked smile across her face. “Everyone feels some sort of emotion for those they have become close with. I doubt Elizabeth would continue to spend much time with you if she feltnothing.”
He nodded, knowing her words to be true yet unsure of what to do with them.
“Elizabeth…” she continued with some hesitation, as though she was unsure of whether to say anything that might betray their friendship. “As much as she tries to portray otherwise, she looks at everything with both her heart and her mind — they work in concert, so you must appeal to both of them.”
“Understood, Miss Jones," he said with a smile and a mock salute before he turned and followed Elizabeth out the garden doors.
CHAPTER17
Gabriel found the scent of lilies nearly overwhelming as he strode through the gardens in search of Elizabeth. He knew she would come here. Did she realize, as he did the moment he walked through the doors, that they were in the very same building where they had discovered one another all those years ago?
Likely. She was not one to miss such details.
He rounded a wall to spy her in the distance. She was sitting on the marble border of a small water feature, her light blue gown flowing around her, making it seem as though she were meant to be part of the tableau surrounding her.
On this late spring day, the sun was just beginning to set, casting a brilliant light of pink and gold, glistening off the reddish hues of her hair as he neared. Clearly not expecting anyone else in the gardens at this early hour of the party, she had removed her gloves and was trailing her fingertips through the water of the fountain next to her, leaving ripples behind them as they moved through.
Gabriel stood there, taking it all in, not wanting to say anything to startle her and ruin the moment. After a couple of minutes, however, she must have sensed his presence, for her head jerked up and she looked around her until her eyes finally came to rest upon him, causing them to narrow.
“How long have you been standing there?” she asked, her voice, despite its accusatory tone, calling to him from across the courtyard as he began to walk toward her once more.
“Just for a moment,” he said before coming to stand before her. As she began to rise, he reached a hand down, and she reluctantly allowed her fingers to wrap around his. He paused, reveling in their touch, before he gently pulled her to her feet.
“You followed me?” she asked resignedly, and he slowly smiled.
“I knew where to find you. Do you recognize these gardens?”
She turned her face away from him, he knew to hide her blush.
“I suppose I do,” she said, shrugging her shoulder as though it was of no consequence. “I have been to Lord and Lady Holderness’ a time or two before.”
“I remember these gardens well,” he said with a sigh, wandering away from her around the stone courtyard, slowly circling the fountain within the middle of it. “I made one of my finest discoveries here on a night long ago.”
She snorted, so unlike her usual polite tendencies.
“‘One of,’ being the pivotal point of that sentence,” she said, but he shook his head as he watched her while she continued to move.
“No, that night was myveryfinest discovery,” he said. “A discovery I lost but continue to search for, with no avail.”
“On that note, there is something of which I would like to speak to you,” she said, holding a finger in the air, but he quickly rounded the corner and took that very finger within the palm of his hand, before curling his own fingers around hers.