Page 40 of The Rules of Courtship
“Thank you, Sarah,” she said dismissively. Her maid understood and scurried away. “What could be so urgent?” Ruth hissed quietly.
Oliver glanced down the corridor, his eyes dark and shadowed but obviously concerned. Fear suddenly gripped her. He would not be here without just cause. The man was far too careful for anything else. If he had waited for Sarah in order to approach Ruth, he was aware of how a visit at this time of night would be received.
It was madness.
“I wanted to speak to you,” he said.
Her heart thudded, the sound so loud she was certain it echoed off the walls in her bedchamber. They couldn’t walk anywhere together, so she only had one other choice. Pulling the door open further, she stepped back. “Then I think you had best come in.”
Oliver only hesitated briefly before he stepped into the room and closed the door behind himself. His green eyes tracked herwith uncertainty, which was strange, since she was the one in the dark.
“What is so urgent?” she asked.
“I did not like the way we left things.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “This could not wait until the morning?”
Oliver’s brow furrowed. “Forgive me, Ruth. I thought you were upset with me. It bothered me.” He put his arms out in a helpless gesture that tugged at her. “I didn’t mean anything by this. I wanted to be certain you were…thatwewere…”
“I was not upset,” she lied. Of course, she had been embarrassed, but that wasn’t something she wished to discuss with him. She was hurt by the way he had ignored her, but again, that felt childish to complain about. How would she explain? She was growing hot, and the room was too cool to blame her red cheeks on anything but embarrassment.
“Ruth—”
“Truly. If you don’t wish to speak to me, that is your choice.” She tried to look unbothered.
“My father is ill,” he said, his voice deep and soft, hiding the pain.
She drew in a sharp breath. “He’s been found?”
“My uncles are en route to retrieve him right now. Mr. Harding wrote to Samuel, asking him to inform me. My father took ill months ago and has been looked after by a family in Thistledale, but they had no notion of who he was, and he wasn’t coherent enough to inform them. Now that he’s awakened, they think he can be moved. I expect they’ve tired of nursing a strange man who has enough family to do the job properly.”
“Oh, Oliver.” She took a step toward him, her hand resting on his arm. “Forgive my selfishness. I assumed you were avoiding me because of something I had done. I didn’t realizeyou were distracted with grief.” Surely he had endured enough heartache for the year.
“Iwasavoiding you, Ruth.”
She straightened, her hand dropping from his arm as she crossed it over her chest. “Oh.”
“I knew you would see through me. I have barely been keeping myself together, and I feared you would undo it all. It’s no excuse, but I’ve needed to keep pretending. With you, I cannot pretend.”
Ruth shook her head, her heart thudding. As far as reasons went, this one made her pulse increase. “What of Samuel?”
“He’s acting like a nursemaid, but I know he means well.” Oliver shrugged, the gesture so helpless. “Perhaps I have been misguided, but I had hoped to avoid dwelling on this when there is nothing I can do at present about the situation.”
“You do not wish to go to your father?” she asked.
“I would not be much help on the road, if I even could find them, and Samuel reminded me that waiting in my empty house will drive me mad. Here, at least, there are distractions.”
“Do youwantto be distracted?” she asked.
His lips curved up on the end softly. “It sounds superior to brooding alone in a quiet house.”
Ruth put aside her hurt and sought understanding. “Then I will do my best to help distract you,” she said, though the words seemed to come out much softer than she had intended. Looking up into his green eyes, she felt the strong urge to lean forward and embrace him. The man had endured such loss and heartache, and now this? Yet he remained standing there, strong and quiet, an example of steadfastness and humility.
The magnitude of their current situation fell over her with swift realization. They were alone in her bedchamber at night, and a witness had seen them. It had been Sarah, whom Ruth believed she could trust, but that did not change the significance of their current circumstances.
“We should not be alone,” she said.
Oliver swallowed. “We are like brother and sister, are we not? I believe those are the words you used only days ago.”
