Page 36 of A Lady’s Fairytale Come True
She looked up at him and noted how wonderful he appeared. She still did not know whether she ought to trust him, but she could not ignore him.
He gazed at her even though she had worn one of her typical dresses. It was among her nicer clothing but was far from the grand gowns she had worn to Lady Kirby’s home. And yet the earl seemed unbothered.
“Miss Digby, I should like it if we take a walk. Does that suit you?” he enquired.
“Indeed, my lord, I should like that very much,” she replied.
The earl led her through the house and back to the entrance. Once outside, they began to walk the grounds.
The air was fresh and clean and Olivia felt as though she was seeing England for the first time. It was so different form the crowded, gas-lit streets of her own neighbourhood that she wondered how she could ever have lived away from this brightness and refreshment.
“You spoke with my grandmother, then?” he enquired.
“Indeed, my lord. And I should like for us to continue in our courtship, as I stated in my letter. I do worry, however. As you know, my father does not approve and it pains me to go against his will,” she confessed.
“Then why have you chosen to?” he asked.
Olivia glanced up at him briefly, considering her answer.
“Because I believe that this is something that ought to be pursued,” she told him.
Wondering if she was being even more foolish than she knew, Olivia considered that she had allowed her mind to change rather quickly abut this entire situation. It seemed as though the earl had as well. He had gone from insulting her to begging her in the space of a day.
She had gone from despising him to accepting him in even less time. Was she still being simple? Was this another mistake she was making?
“Would you like to see the gardens?” the earl asked.
Olivia nodded.
“I thank you again for giving me another chance to show you who I am and that I am not that terrible louse that I displayed upon our first day of spending time with one another. I do not think I shall ever be able to apologise enough for how I acted,” he remarked with a remorseful sigh.
“I know. You have told me the reasons and while it does not change the rudeness you showed, I can at least understand that it was not your character and that you had a reason for behaving as such a boar,” she told him.
The earl laughed at this and Olivia looked up, embarrassed that she might have done something wrong.
“You do speak your opinion rather boldly, Miss Digby. I must say that it is utterly refreshing. You are nothing like the young women I have met in society who are always prim and proper in the most boring of ways,” he laughed.
Olivia tried to hide her smile and looked away. She was glad that she could keep him entertained as well as prove herself to be unique. Knowing very little about what it was to be in society, she knew she was taking a risk of showing herself to be ill-mannered, but it seemed he did not mind so much.
In fact, she wanted to know exactly what he thought about it. “Do you not mind that I am ill-versed in the manners of noble society?” she asked him straightforwardly.
“Not in the least. As I said, it is refreshing. And not knowing the manners of society does not mean that you yourself have no manners. Indeed, you have an honesty, a virtuous honesty, that is painfully lacking in the world around us,” he told her.
“You believe so?”
“In every way, Miss Digby.”
Olivia felt her heart warm. He saw her bluntness as a virtue rather than something to be hidden, as proper young women might have been instructed to do.
“Now, here are the gardens,” he announced as they turned the corner to the rear of the estate.
Olivia had never seen anything quite so beautiful in all her life. She was amazed at the colours and shapes and the even cutting of the topiaries. She had not even known that all these flowers existed, and yet here they were before her.
“This is astonishing,” she managed to say, although she felt quite breathless looking at the immense beauty of the garden. It was easily ten times the size of her house. Maybe more. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
“You like it?” the earl asked.
“I have never seen anything like it. I wish I could spend all my days out here, among this beauty,” she answered.
