Page 25 of The Nature of a Lady
“Really?” Perhaps she oughtn’t to have sounded so happy about it. It made Mabena roll her eyes and storm ahead. But the kitten let Libby pick it up and cuddle it under her chin. So it was worth it.
8
The wind whispered in his ear, luring his feet toward the shore. Oliver would have obeyed it even if he hadn’t been on the path already, his gaze set on Enyon’s familiar form down at the water. “Ahoy!” he called when close enough that there was a prayer his friend would hear him.
Enyon straightened, turned, and lifted a hand in greeting. At his feet rested the little one-man gig he always used for a bit of pleasure rowing, which meant he hadn’t been running all the way to another island, just about Tresco, or perhaps over to Bryher to visit his sister. Given the fine mist that had been falling all day, Oliver was a bit surprised he’d been out at all. Enyon had always preferred a sunny day for his errands, when one was to be had.
“And what brings the good vicar down here twelve hours before his next sermon?” Enyon grinned at him, wiping a hand over his face to rid it of the mist.
Oliver lifted his brows. “I’ll have you know I’ve finished my sermon. Mostly.”
His friend chuckled, then nodded toward his gig. “Help me carry it up?”
Rather than waste words on an answer, Oliver grabbed an end. Thelarger craft were kept anchored in the quay, but the locals tended to store their smaller boats well above the waterline overnight.
At Enyon’s grunt, they lifted it in tandem. “What does bring you here though? You’re usually not to be peeled away from your desk on a Saturday evening.”
Sermons were not his favorite part of his job and required by far the most effort, perhaps because he spent far more time visiting parishioners and contemplating what truths he might work into a sermonsomedaythan crafting one for that week. But after the last few days, he wasn’t all that concerned with whether he bored the congregation to tears. “I’ve been trying to catch you up since Wednesday.”
“Ah. Sorry. You knew I had to make that overnight trip to the mainland on Thursday, didn’t you?”
Oliver blinked against the mist and moved for the boathouse used by half a dozen families. “I’d forgot, honestly. I’ve been a bit distracted, worrying over Beth.” He wouldn’t confess it to just anyone. But this was Enyon.
They slid the gig into its spot in the boathouse. When Oliver turned, he found his friend’s face lined with a concern to match his own. “About what? Is she still plotting how to go to London for the Season?”
“No, nothing like that.” He’d already decided when he sought Enyon out that he’d tell him everything he knew. But even so, he couldn’t quite put into words what he felt in his heart. “Did you hear Benna’s back?”
“Aye, Mam mentioned that she saw her at her parents’ the other day, trussed up like a Christmas goose—her words, not mine. Does that have something to do with Beth?”
Though he shrugged, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it did, despite the fact that Mabena hadn’t admitted as much. Why else, though, would she appear out of the blue? “She says that her employer just wanted a holiday. But...” He dragged in a deep breath, trying to keep thoughts of Benna and Lady Elizabeth from crowding out what really needed to be said. “But Beth ... she’s not on St. Mary’s, En.Mrs. Pepper said she thought she’d come home. But obviously she hasn’t. She’s justgone. Has been for over two weeks now.”
“What?” Enyon took his hat off and ran a hand over his hair in one practiced motion, putting the cap back on with the next. “What do you mean, gone?”
Oliver made apoofmotion with his fingers. “Gone. Vanished. No one’s seen her, nor theNaiad.” And though he could well imagine her hidingherselffor weeks on end, how and where was she hiding her sloop?
“And you’re not banging on the constable’s door? Organizing a search?”
He’d considered it. But ... “She left me a letter, indicating she was vanishing on purpose. Told me not to worry.”
“Likely.”
“Right?” He shook his head and buried his hands in his trouser pockets to keep them from mirroring Enyon’s hat-swipe motion. “I don’t know what I’m to do. She’s my baby sister. She isn’t supposed to do this sort of thing.”
Enyon’s snort at least had a bit of amusement in it this time. He motioned Oliver to follow him, though surprisingly, he didn’t head for the cozy, dry cottage he’d let for himself last year, after his second sister and her brood moved back into their parents’ house when her husband took a job on the mainland. He turned instead toward the beach.
Talk about a true friend. Oliver breathed in the damp air, relishing the mist on his face and the shift of sand and pebbles under his feet. It soothed him as nothing else could.
“Sisters,” Enyon drawled after a long moment, “apparently think they’resupposedto do whatever will cause us the most disquiet. If you ask me, the Lord ought to have made us humans to be capable of only producing one gender of offspring each. Boys could have brothers, girls could have sisters. Nice and tidy.”
Laughter stole its way from Oliver’s throat. “I suppose He didn’t mean for our lives to be so tidy. Even so, abittidier just now wouldn’tgo awry. I can’t...”Lose her. But he couldn’t say it. Putting words to the fear lent it credence. Gave it weight.
He wouldn’t give that fear any more weight than he already had, just by thinking of it.
Enyon didn’t ask him to finish his sentence. “Do you think she took the ferry? There’s a world of possibilities as to where she is if she did.”
He couldn’t discount the possibility. She could have sailed toward Tresco just to make sure no one was watching, stowed the boat somewhere, and then secreted her way back to Hugh Town. “I spoke with the captain, and he didn’t remember seeing her. But you know Beth. When she doesn’t want to be noticed, she isn’t.”
Enyon chuckled. “Oh yes, I’m well aware.”
