Page 18 of Choosing Her Earl at Last
“How sad.” Louisa frowned in understanding of the Lady Mary’s loss. “So, the first part of the riddle,‘Forget not thy lady love’,but it does not appear to answer the second stanza unless he fell in love with her or she with him while waking.”
Emmeline shook her head. “This flower does not, but this one does,” Emmeline replied, picking up another nosegay, this timeof pansies. “There is a legend about a girl who awakens to fall in love with the first face she sees.”
Louisa laughed. “It does look like a face, does it not?”
“Indeed.” Rebecca beamed. “Keep going!”
“Forget not thy lady love, whose heart was won upon first waking…,” Emmeline repeated, pleased to have found the first two clues, “…her glove a token of grace and beauty, upon which I have sworn my fidelity.” Her eyes scanned the assembled assortment of flowers. “Glove! Foxglove!”
She lifted a stem of the flower from its place among a myriad of roses. “Hmm,” she mused as she took in the colors of the surrounding flowers. “Pink for grace, burgundy for beauty, and yellow for fidelity,” she mused as she plucked a rose of each color from the stall.
“Yes! You did it!” Rebecca clapped her hands together in excitement.
The shop owner smiled, nodding her head in approval. “When Mr. Hardy came to me and told me of your game, I was not certain that anyone would come to claim their prize, but surprise me you have.” The shop owner reached behind her stall and emerged with a beautiful bouquet of roses wrapped in paper and string. “Your prize, my lady.”
Emmeline laughed in delight, handing the shopkeeper the flowers that she had pulled from the stall in her excitement to solve the riddle. “I thank you for your kindness.”
Emmeline pulled a coin from her reticule, but the shop owner shook her head. “Mr. Hardy has already delivered payment, and he arranged for these as well.” The shopkeeper handed the nosegay of forget-me-nots to Louisa and the pansies to Rebecca. “A gift of cheerful devotion for the ladies.”
All three women beamed with delight. What had started out as a most troubling experience had ended with joy. As the three ladies turned to leave, Emmeline caught sight of the laundry maid watching them from behind a neighboring stall. Reaching out, she grabbed Louisa’s arm. Louisa, seeing the concerned look on Emmeline’s face, followed her gaze. “A curious lass, is she not?”
“Indeed.” Emmeline nodded, her mind unsettled. She turned to ask Rebecca a question about the girl, only to find her sister had already moved on down the line of stalls. Turning back toward the maid, she found that the girl had disappeared into the crowd of market goers. “Louisa?” she asked, her brows lifted in question.
Louisa shook her head. “I did not see where she went.”
“I am concerned for Rebecca’s association with this woman,” Emmeline admitted.
Louisa’s eyes held a similar suspicion. “Perhaps their friendship is not as innocent as your sister would have you believe.”
“Or worse, that Rebecca has no notion of the girl’s intentions at all,” Emmeline mused, a need to protect her younger sister hastening her steps to follow behind Rebecca’s retreating back.
As they left the market, Emmeline could not shake the uneasy feeling that they had not seen the last of the curious laundry maid, and that there was more than curiosity surrounding the girl’s peculiar behavior.
Chapter 8
Colin burst through the door of Michael’s study, his enthusiasm filling the room with excited energy. “I have received formal permission from Miss Rebecca’s guardian, her father’s heir, to court her with the end goal of marriage!”
Michael sighed, laying the letter that he had been reading aside. He lifted his eyes to Colin’s face, attempting to hide the frustration that he felt about the interruption. Young people in love could be quite exhausting when one did not share their enthusiasm. Michael’s silence and demeanor did not discourage Colin as he ploughed through the room to stand in front of Michael’s desk.
“Will you accompany me as chaperone and companion to the Vauxhall Gardens? I am still not certain of my reception with her sister, and it would be most advantageous to have you there as a …” Colin paused, thinking his words over carefully so as not to offer offense.
“As a shield against the marchioness’s ire,” Michael supplied, his brow arched in judgment.
“Indeed.” Colin nodded, relieved that he had not been forced to say something ungallant about the family of the woman he intended to marry.
Michael rolled his eyes and stood to pour them both a drink from the carafe on his side table. “As this is now a formal courtship, will not Miss Rebecca’s mother be in attendance to serve as chaperone to her daughter?”
“I do not know, but I am not certain that her mother is any fonder of me than the sister,” Colin confided.
“She agreed to your paying call to Miss Rebecca, did she not?”
“She did.” Colin nodded.
“That is more than she ever gave me,” Michael informed him.
Colin winced at the reference to the pain that Michael had endured at the hands of the Frampton family. “I am sorry for that, truly I am, but I will not let the past dictate mine and Rebecca’s future.”
Seeing that there was no deterring Colin from his course, Michael reluctantly agreed. “I will attend with you, if for no other reason than to protect you from yourself.”
