Page 46 of A Winter By the Sea
Ahead of her on Glen Lane, Emily spied the duke in a heavy coat and hat, again out taking the air.
Noticing her, he raised a hand in acknowledgment, and Emily returned the gesture, glad to no longer be alone.
He smiled as he drew nearer. “Miss Summers, we meet again. What brings you out today? Taking the sea air, as am I?”
“I went to the library, Your Royal Highness.”
“Ah, yes, I met the man. Wallis, was it? He gave us a long print of Sidmouth.”
Guilt rose at his assumption that she’d been to Wallis’s library. Remembering Mr. Wallis’s plea that she remind the duke of his patronage, Emily felt another stab of disloyaltyfor having visited his competitor’s establishment. She decided not to correct the duke.
Instead she said, “Mr. Wallis told me how pleased he was to meet you. And to be appointed bookseller to Your Royal Highnesses. He was exceedingly honored.”
“That’s right.” The duke nodded. “I shall have to visit his library one of these days.” He looked at the slim stack of pages in her hands.
“That doesn’t look like a book. Did you find nothing interesting to read there?”
“Oh. I ... Not today. But I have borrowed many wonderful books from Mr. Wallis in the past.”
“Good, good.”
He looked over her head and his eyes narrowed. “I say, who is that?”
Emily turned and her nerves jangled. The woman who’d been following her had turned up Glen Lane as well.
As she walked closer, Emily recognized her with a jolt. The fortune-teller.
Where was she going? Surely no one at Westmount or Woolbrook had invited her to come and tell their fortunes.
In the brighter light of day, Emily better saw the old woman’s face. Her eyes, once again in a vague, trancelike stare, were heavily lined with kohl.
Emily hoped the woman would continue past them without a word, as she had the time she, Viola, and Mrs. Denby had encountered her.
Instead, the woman stopped dead when she reached the duke, and turned her strange eyes on him with no change in expression. Did she even know who he was?
Before Emily could think how to prevent her from speaking to Prince Edward, the woman cracked open her wrinkled lips and said, “This year two members of the royal family will die.”
Apparently she did know who he was.
Emily’s stomach twisted. She wanted to apologize to him, to dosomething, but then the woman turned her eerie stare to Emily and said, “And you, my pretty, shall break your heart. Lose it ... utterly.”
For a moment Emily stared in dismay and shivered, much as she had upon first encountering the woman. Then anger flared at her presumption and disrespect. Emily opened her mouth to tell the woman to go on her way, but the fortune-teller turned of her own accord and slowly retreated the way she had come.
How very odd, Emily thought, watching her go.
Once the woman had walked away, the duke exclaimed, “Quelle horreur!Who was that?”
“I don’t know her name. She is rumored to be a fortune-teller.”
“Horrors,” he repeated. “Perhaps it is a good thing my family came to this healthful place, then.” He glanced at Emily, then hesitated. “Is she ... often correct?”
“I don’t know that either,” Emily replied. “I have only been warned to stay away from her.”
He drew a long breath. “Well, I would not give her predictions much credence. After all, my father the king has long been ill, so predicting his death does not require supernatural powers. And as far as a second death?” He shrugged. “The royal family is a large one. And none of my older brothers enjoy good health. The Prince Regent is grossly overweight, and the Dukes of York and Clarence are heavy drinkers. Thankfully, my wife has recovered well from childbirth, and our daughter and I are both perfectly hale.” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his nose. “Apart from a trifling cold.”
He pocketed the handkerchief and looked again at Emily.“And as for what she said about you, it does not take a great deal of imagination to predict a young lady might have her heart broken, now does it?”
“No, I ... suppose not.” She shivered again, and this time he noticed.
