Page 65 of Gambling with the Earl
“Just outside, in the garden.” Rosalind twisted a strand of golden hair between her fingers.
“Alone?”
Her sister bit down on her lip, a telling trait. “Not exactly.”
Kitty folded her arms and rested against the doorway, weariness battling her intrigue. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening? Why have people been drinking mead in the parlour?”
Rosalind’s gaze went behind Kitty, who turned to find Lizzie standing in the kitchen doorway.
“Can I tell her now?” beseeched Rosalind.
“Go on then.” Lizzie wiped her hands on her long apron, a smile lighting up her face. “Miss Katherine, it’s such good news.”
“We were celebrating.” Rosalind folded her hands behind her back. “Although it wasn’t the happiest of celebrations, dear Kitty, because you weren’t there.”
“You mean, this was before yesterday?” Kitty tried to make sense of it.
Rosalind nodded. “It has been a most wonderful week.”
Kitty sat down on a hard kitchen chair and crossed her ankles, waiting to hear more. Lizzie bustled forwards.
“Can I get you a glass of water? You look ever so pale, Miss Katherine.”
“I’m fine.” Kitty waved her attentions away clumsily. She had grown unaccustomed to such niceties.
Rosalind perched on the edge of a seat and then stood up again, too excited to be still.
“I can’t keep it from you a moment longer. Kitty, I’m engaged to be married.” Her face was alight with joy.
The words made no sense to her. Kitty repeated them, looking for some hidden meaning. “Engaged to be married? To whom?”
Rosalind nodded happily. “To Richard Erkine.”
Kitty rubbed at her temples, trying to understand. The Erkines owned farmlands at the other side of the river and usually sat behind herself and Rosalind at chapel. Mrs Erkine was a stout woman with a kind smile, her husband was polite and well-presented.
“He’s been learning his lessons with a cousin in Dun Holme. He came back to Rossfarne while you were away,” Rosalind explained, eager for a reaction.
Of course. Mrs Erkine had been a regular caller to Shoreston when Mother was alive. Kitty cast her mind back to that golden-hued time and recalled a plump-cheeked young boy, just a couple of years older than Rosalind.
Richard Erkine.
The last time she saw Richard Erkine, he’d been playing hide and seek in the stable yard with her sister. The two of them had been good friends when they were young, she rememberednow. Lizzie would bake honey cakes especially for his visits, then make a great show of chasing the pair of them out of the kitchen.
“But Rosalind, you’re too young to be married,” she exclaimed, her mind struggling to adjust to this new information.
Her sister pressed her lips together. “Kitty, you mustn’t be so disapproving. Of course, we won’t be married right away. But Richard and I have known one another all our lives. And anyway, you don’t know the best news yet.”
“The best news is that Miss Rosalind is happy,” Lizzie said, with a pointed look in Kitty’s direction.
“I’m very happy, but I also know how my sister frets,” Rosalind declared. “The best news is that the Erkines have offered to buy some of our land.”
Kitty frowned. How could so much have happened in her absence? “But are they offering a decent price?”
“Why should they not? And anyway, the land is just going to waste. We haven’t had anyone to work the fields for years.”
Kitty couldn’t deny it. The fields of Shoreston had once yielded a decent crop, but years of neglect had left the land barren. She placed her elbows on the kitchen table, trying to make sense of it. “Why would the Erkines show us such kindness?” She bit back the word “charity.”
Rosalind leaned forward and took hold of her hands. “Because their son is in love with me?” she offered, blushing despite the ease of her words. “Because they are decent people. Because they actually do want the land for themselves.” She paused. “People do nice things, sometimes, Kitty.”
