Page 17 of The Secret of Drulea Cottage
As Briony returned to her own seat, she blinked at the other woman’s boldness. First Dr. Sherwin and now Mr. Burgess? Does she intend to flirt with every unmarried man in town?
I suppose John Burgess is a good-looking fellow. His sky-blue eyes and flaming hair look nice together, and he’s pretty muscular. But he’s probably ten years older than I am, and Mistress Mendes looks even younger than me.
“He’s a widower with a young son. He lives on a farm a few miles south o’ here.”
Briony waited for the light to fade from Mistress Mendes’s eyes at the mention of a child. However, the woman’s happy expression remained in place.
“Oh, is he? And he’s not courting anyone now?”
“Nay, he’s unspoken fer.”
Her impossibly large smile grew even larger. She almost looked a little unhinged in her glee. “Thank you for telling me. Do you think you could—”
Briony stood, not wanting to hear whatever this strange woman was going to ask. If it involved matchmaking, she wasn’t the person to talk to anyway. “I better get going to help yer brother. Is he awake?”
Mistress Mendes’s lips shifted into a pout, but she nodded. “Aye, he is. I suppose I’ll talk with you later, then, Briony. May I call you Briony? I’d very much like to, and it would be wonderful if you called me Lucia!”
“Uh, sure. Goodbye, Lucia.” Briony turned and walked to Mr. Mendes’s room as quickly as she could without making it obvious she was fleeing.Are all Portuguese people so brazen? What have I signed myself up fer?
When Briony knocked on the man’s door, she heard a soft “enter” and went inside. To her surprise, another person was already in the room, a man she had no desire to see again.
I almost forgot Captain Costa is in Everton too.His presence was just as formidable as before, perhaps even more so now that Briony could see him clearly in the morning light. He was much bulkier than Mr. Mendes, and Briony couldn’t suppress a small gulp.
When the captain saw her, irritation shot across his face before he masked it behind a neutral expression.Or perhaps that’s just what I thought I saw.
He rose from his seat and said, “Good morning, senhorita. I understand I have you to thank for helping my friend here when he first arrived. I’m most grateful for your service.”
Briony frowned, unsure how to respond to such a different greeting from the one he gave the first time they met. There was a smile on his face, but Briony didn’t like the look in his dark eyes.
“Don’ think anything o’ it,” she said after a moment. “Anyone in my place would have done likewise.”
She was certain he noticed the terse quality of her tone, but Briony wasn’t going to suddenly be friendly just because he told her good morning. His behavior on the ship had left a strong impression that wouldn’t be smoothed away that easily.
“That may be so, but still, know that if you need anything, I’m at your disposal,” he pressed.
Briony raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t reply. After a few awkward seconds, Captain Costa bowed and said, “I shall leave you both, then.”
He went out the door without a sound, and as soon as he was gone, Mr. Mendes fixed Briony with a probing look. “Is something wrong?”
“Nay, I’m just here to take you fer a walk. Dr. Sherwin wants me to start walking with you every day to help you recover.”
Mr. Mendes didn’t react to this news. He was still staring at her as though he was looking for something. “What was that between you and Captain Costa?”
“We met earlier. He just did na leave a good first impression.”
A wrinkle formed on the man’s forehead as he took in her words. “So you would say first impressions are important, then?”
She shrugged. “I suppose they can be.”
“Hmm. Let me ask you a question, then, to see what you would do: You want to show your gratitude to a beautiful woman who has just saved your life, but she has ‘better things to do.’ Would you persist in thanking her or honor her wishes to leave her alone?”
Briony flushed with shame. She had been so caught up thinking he was flirting with her when he had only wanted to thank her.Stupid, stupid! O’ course that was it! He would na flirt with me…
Did he call me “beautiful” just now?Briony’s face reddened even more. Other than Adaira and her mother, he was the first person to describe her that way.
She looked at Mr. Mendes and tried to speak, but she found herself completely tongue-tied.
“I suppose I should just be glad fate has given me another chance to see her. And she’ll be helping me again, so she must be kinder than her first impression implied.”
