Page 85 of The Nature of a Lady
God?It seemed silly to pray for a cat. Wasn’t it? But her prayer for Mamm-wynn had been answered, and Oliver claimed he prayed for his plants. Surely a kitten was no worse, so she finished her silent request.Please keep Darling calm and help him adjust to coming here. I don’t want tolose him.
She lifted the lid of the wicker basket, and Darling scrambled out—directly into her arms. Grinning, she stood again, letting him put his front paws on her shoulder as usual and being rewarded with his loud purr.
“This section here is the local history,” Oliver was saying to Sheridan, motioning toward a shelf. He must have been in the garden already this morning—the cuff of his sleeve, though rolled up to his elbow, had a dusting of rich brown soil upon it that made her smile.And she’d caught a lovely whiff of green things on him when he’d been standing at her side.
Bram was at her side now, looking even grumpier than he usually did of a morning. “Stop.”
She lifted her brows. “Stop what?”
“Looking at him like that. I won’t have it.” He’d folded his arms forbiddingly across his chest—which may have looked a bit more intimidating if he weren’t still clutching a dainty, blue-sprigged teacup.
And if her heart weren’t still feeling bold and strong from the conversation she and Mabena had enjoyed on the sail from St. Mary’s. It had begun with Mabena officially resigning as her maid and then asking if she might keep staying with her as a friend, and from there ... well, from there it had been like what she’d always dreamed of finding with a friend. Laughter over Casek and Oliver, worry over the mystery, a bit of moaning over the interruption to her nature-watching plans. And the gentle reminder from Mabena that Libby always had a choice. They came with consequences—but they were still her choices to make.
She could stay here, despite Bram’s disapproval and the risk of Mama’s disappointment and censure. It would come with a cost. But she could do it. She could take her summer, even if she ended up having to stay with the Moons. She could see Mamm-wynn back on her feet. She could enjoy the neighbors she already wished were her own.
She could spend the days with Oliver. Which was her brother’s primary objection, and she met it now with a sigh. “Brother dearest, you need a new pastime. May I recommend rowing or sailing? Plenty of opportunity for that around here, and I daresay it’ll be a far sight more entertaining than worrying over me.”
He grunted, which was about what she’d expected from him at this hour. She was frankly surprised he’d put a few entire sentences together already. But he could be rather eloquent with his expressions. Now, for instance, he narrowed his eyes at where Mabena and Casek were laughing together by the globe and then turned a questioning look on Libby.
She smiled. “I’m afraid my lady’s maid has given me her notice. It seems she intends to stay here and marry.” Though she said it quietly enough that Casek wouldn’t hear. Mabena probably meant to let him chase her awhile yet.
A sudden crash drew her gaze back to Oliver and Sheridan, where the guest had somehow managed to drop an entire stack of books onto the floor. Odd, since he wasn’t usually clumsy. But then, he was darting a mortified gaze even now toward the door while he bent to retrieve the tomes.
Libby peered around her brother and saw that Beth had appeared in the doorway, looking like a very different person from the one who had raced past them on the road into Old Grimsby. Instead of the utilitarian braid, she’d brushed her hair into a simple, elegant chignon. The trousers and man’s shirt had been exchanged for a day dress in pale blue that perfectly complemented her complexion. She couldn’t have spent more than five minutes on her appearance after she’d checked on her grandmother, yet she looked more put together than Libby felt after an hour of Mabena’s ministrations.
She almost felt a twinge of jealousy. For half a second. Then she was just glad that this young lady she didn’t know had come home, and that it looked as though she meant to stay for a while, if she was changing back into what must be her normal attire.
Oliver accepted a few of the books that Sheridan thrust at him and put them back on the shelf. “How was Mamm-wynn, Beth?”
“Sleeping, it seems. Could I borrow you for a moment, Ollie? I’d like to hear what happened to her. And perhaps Benna can—Casek Wearne?” She frowned, having not looked to her cousin until that moment. “What are you doing here?”
“Gloating,” his lips said, though the hand he had on Mabena’s back said,Courtingfar more loudly.
Beth’s frown only deepened. “Hadn’t you better be getting home and cleaned up so you can go to school?”
“School?” Back on his feet with a stack of books helter-skelter in his arms, Sheridan quirked a brow toward Casek.
Mabena smiled. “He’s the headmaster.” Only a dunce could have missed the pride in her tone.
Beth was apparently no dunce. She blinked, opened her mouth, closed it again. “It seems I missed quite a bit while I was ... on holiday.”
“Mm.” Mabena’s smile turned to narrowed eyes and pursed lips. “Just a tad. You’ve had Charlotte Wight and Lady Emily Scofield looking for you on St. Mary’s—”
“Emily was here?” Beth lurched a step into the room, eyes wide. With panic, or regret? Libby couldn’t quite tell.
“And will be again, we hear, as of Friday. But we can talk more about that in a moment.” Mabena gave her cousin a strange look before turning to Casek. “Let me see you out, dearovim, and then—”
“No.” He said it easily, but he had a statue-like quality just now. Like his feet were made of granite and weren’t about to budge. The smile he sent to Beth looked anything but casual. “I have a few questions for your cousin that I mean to ask before she vanishes again.”
Beth’s chin ratcheted up. “I’m not going anywhere. Not with Mamm-wynn ill. Though I can’t think what business you would have withme, Casek Wearne.”
“I think you can.”
“Johnnie Rosedew.” Libby nearly clapped a hand over her mouth after she said it. Why had she spoken? It must be Darling’s fault with that purring-induced confidence.
Sheridan fumbled the books again. What had gotten into him? Though he winced as they hit the floor, he didn’t bend to scoop them up this time.
Oliver cleared his throat and took a step toward the door. He sent Libby an apologetic look. “Do excuse us for a moment, my lords. My lady. We’ll not bore you with our family business. Beth, Casek, Benna—the garden, I think.”
