Page 10 of A Sense of Turmoil
‘No, Luke.’ She glanced up at him, her shuttered expression making it impossible for him to interpret her thoughts. ‘Nothing lasts forever.’
Luke looked away from her, aware that she must be thinking about his grandmother’s passing. Did she sense his inner turmoil? Was instinct warring with duty? Was this her way of forcing his hand? Luke chased the thought away. She was not that manipulative.
‘My mother called to see me last week. My father has been appointed to the deanship at the cathedral and my presence is required at the installation ceremony.’
‘Why? I thought your family had disowned its black sheep, which tells me all I need to know about their Christian understanding, or lack thereof.’
‘That’s the very question that I asked Mama—about the necessity for me to be there, I mean—but I didn’t receive a satisfactory response.’
‘Shall you go?’
‘I said that I would, subject to her ladyship’s state of health on the day. I made that proviso plain.’ She plucked at a stem of grass and ran it through her fingers, frowning and distracted. ‘I just wish I knew why it’s necessary for me to be there. My father is plotting something, I just know it.’
‘Would you like me to come with you?’ he surprised himself by asking.
She shot him an astonished look. ‘Good heavens no! Thank you, but that would raise unnecessary speculation. I am perfectly capable of facing my family alone, even if I feel uneasy about this sudden olive branch. It might be nothing, of course. Perhaps Papa just wants to show the world that his family is united.’
‘You think there is more to it than that?’
‘I am sure there is.’ Flora let out an exaggerated sigh. ‘I thought Papa had washed his hands of me, but I clearly got that wrong. He is up to something, I can sense it.’
‘Of course.’
He looked away from her, disappointed by the veiled reference to her supposed sixth sense. If she noticed the brittleness that had overtaken the previous ease between them, then she made no comment upon it, and contented herself with strolling on in silence. She was one of the few females of his acquaintance who was comfortable with silences, and didn’t feel a pressing need to fill them with unnecessary chatter. In the end, it was he who spoke first.
‘How are you?’ he asked simply.
‘What do you mean? As you can see, I am perfectly well.’
‘What I mean is that we are all concerned about Grandmamma, but you have more daily contact with her than anyone, and I know you are fond of her.’
‘Inordinately so.’ Flora expelled a long breath. ‘She is one of the kindest, cleverest, most complex people of my acquaintance. She has shown me more affection, in her unique manner, in the time I have been here with you than the rest of my family put together managed for all the years before that. I shall miss her more than I can tell you, but hopefully the time is not upon us quite yet.’
Luke touched her arm. ‘She thinks very highly of you too.’
Flora smiled and the melancholy left her eyes. ‘Don’t let on that it occasionally shows. She would be mortified.’
They both laughed and were comfortable with one another again.
‘Tell me about Boston,’ she said. ‘Perhaps that is what I shall do when I have the freedom of choice. Roam the world and see exotic places, at least until my funds run out. It would be lovely to do something irresponsible for once in my life.’
‘There is nothing particularly exotic about Boston. Perhaps if I had taken the time to travel west it would have been a different story, but Bostonian society is every bit as refined and regulated as it is here in England.’
‘How disappointing. I had images in my head of you facing gun-wielding outlaws and rescuing the damsel in distress.’
Luke laughed. ‘You have a lively imagination.’
‘I assume the matrons with daughters of marriageable age were every bit as keen to attract your interest as they are on this side of the Atlantic.’
Luke shrugged. ‘I didn’t spend much time socialising.’
‘The Flemings did not introduce you to their acquaintances?’
‘Actually, no. Or at least only very occasionally. I didn’t show any great desire to while away my time in ballrooms, and they respected my need to get to grips with the family’s interests in that city.’
‘Well, they do answer to you.’
‘My first instinct was to sell up. I don’t like having large investments in places where I can’t keep a close eye on them. But George persuaded me that I would regret curtailing such a profitable enterprise.’
