Page 54 of The Scholar's Key
Elizabeth shrugged coyly, her eyes taking on a twinkle. “Any will do, of course. While the most eligible man in Bath at the moment is Lord Stephen, Percy here has already claimed him.”
“I have notyet,” Percy chimed in with more conviction than she had meant to express, before shooting back the water in nearly one gulp, practically choking on the taste of it. “Ugh,” she said as her cousins stared at her with wide eyes.
“What does it taste like?” Elizabeth asked.
“Like…” Percy wrinkled her nose as she sought a way to describe it. “Water that an egg has been boiled in. With iron and salt added to it.”
Elizabeth tilted her glass up to her lips and took a small sip, wrinkling her nose at it.
“It is not pleasant.”
“No,” Percy agreed.
“Think of your gentleman,” Rebecca urged her, and Elizabeth took a breath and continued on her glass.
“So,” Percy said nonchalantly – for really, the answer did not particularly matter, she was just making conversation– “which gentleman has caught your interest?”
“Actually, Percy, I wanted to speak to you about that,” Elizabeth said, leaning in. “It is your friend, Mr. Rowley.”
“Mr. Rowley?” she said, raising her eyebrows, annoyed at the twisting pain in her stomach at Elizabeth’s revelation. “Why would you have any interest in him?”
“Well, he—”
She was interrupted, however, when their mothers joined them.
“Are you young ladies ready for the waters?” Percy’s mother asked, looking between them, and Percy nodded resolutely. She had been looking forward to this part of it.
“We are.”
“Come, then, time to change.”
They led the three ladies out of the Pump Room, and before long they were dressed in their bathing garments, each a long cotton dress of dark colors, Percy’s a midnight blue she particularly liked, even if the fabric was rather itching her skin.
“Why, this is lovely,” Percy said when they reached the water of The Queen’s Bath, where only women were allowed, starting down the stairs as the warmth of it wove its way into the fabric of her gown and caressed her skin.
They were surrounded by marble pillars and busts, and she could see the attraction of spending time in such a place, even if her mother had secretly told her before they left that she had no belief that these waters actually worked any wonders – she had far more trust in the waters of the sea. But Percy’s aunt was convinced, and so here they were.
Percy laughed as her cousins joined her and their heads bobbed above the water, as did the other ladies who dotted the small pool. Percy pushed herself backward as she stretched out her arms and feet, although the cotton dress considerably weighed her down.
She couldn’t help that her mind continued to wander to Noah and Elizabeth’s interest in him. She could hardly see anything in common between the two of them. Not thatsheand Noah were very similar and they did get on rather well, but still…
“Elizabeth,” she said, paddling closer to her cousin, lowering her voice so that their mothers didn’t hear, “what were you saying about Mr. Rowley?”
“Oh, only that his brother is an earl. I know I am not nearly high-born enough to capture an earl myself, but he is his brother, and you never know what could happen,” she said, smiling dreamily.
“So you want him because he has the potential of becoming an earl one day?”
“Well, yes,” Elizabeth said, her eyes wide that Percy would think to question such a thing. “Isn’t that why anyone marries?”
She wasn’t wrong, and yet somehow the thought of it caused a great deal of disturbance within Percy. She wanted to tell Elizabeth exactly what she thought, that she was using a good man who had far more depth to him besides his familial connections, but she knew if she questioned it, she would only bring attention to herself.
“Actually, Percy, if you could put in a good word…”
Percy stopped listening as her gaze was caught on a woman on the other side of the small pool. She recognized her. The dark hair, the heavily made-up face—then the woman turned and just about caught her eye. Mrs. MacNall. What was she doing here? Well, likely the same thing Percy was. She didn’t want the woman to see her, didn’t want her to question why they might be in the same location once more. She hoped that Mrs. MacNall wouldn’t remember her, but she couldn’t risk it, not with her nosy aunt and cousins nearby. So just before Mrs. MacNall spotted her, Percy did the only thing she could think of – she dunked herself under the water.
CHAPTER20
“Why would you do such a thing?”
