Page 19 of My Favorite Mistake
Or maybe the only man who’d ever really broken her heart was about to do it again.
“Fanny.” Nick’s eyes were beseeching. “There must be something I can do to make it up to you.”
Even in her muddled state, Fanny’s overactive imagination promptly supplied her with a variety of interesting suggestions. After all, her interlude with Nick in that copse of trees had been the most scintillating hour of her life.
And the man had atwin? She’d never participated in such a depraved act before. But Fanny had quite a few ideas for how she could puttwoNick Cradducks to good use…
Someone hailed Nat, and his face split into a foppish grin.
Fanny sighed as the salacious visions dancing through her mind crumbled to dust. He had to go and ruin it. Nathaniel Cradduck might be passing handsome, but he seemed to have the temperament of a Sussex Spaniel and about the same amount of carnal appeal. He was fine and good in theory, but in practice, Fanny found she didn’t much want him.
His brother, on the other hand…
“Please, Fanny?” Nick murmured, his eyes molten.
Deciding, she nodded crisply. “All right, Nick. I’ll hear what you have to say.”
CHAPTER6
She led Nick into the shade of the same oak tree where she’d spoken to Becky and Billy. She settled on the grass, and Nick sat cross-legged facing her.
“So,” she said, unsure where to begin.
“So,” he echoed, and they lapsed into silence.
Talking about what had happened in the church still felt a little too raw. So, after a moment, Fanny asked, “How did you find me?”
“I tried to track you down sixteen years ago. Once it became clear you were gone and you weren’t coming back, I went to Faversham and managed to find your parents’ house.”
Fanny blinked at him. “I didn’t know that. What happened?”
“Your father tried to shoot me, is what happened. Fortunately, his first shot missed, and he shook his fist so hard while he was cursing after me that he managed to dump the rest of his shot in the mud. And may I say that your sister has a very colorful vocabulary.”
Fanny couldn’t bite down her smile. “Course she does. She’s a Price girl, not some mouse.”
The corner of his mouth turned up as well. “No, indeed. In any case, I had a feeling that the time wasn’t right—”
Fanny groaned. “Not another one of yourfeelings.”
“—but about two months ago, that changed. I can’t explain how, but I just… knew my time had come. I went back to Faversham, but this time, I visited the local inn. I managed to strike up a conversation with the barman and mentioned I had an acquaintance from the area. As soon as I mentioned your name, everyone in the pub started waxing on about how you were the pride of Faversham, lady’s maid to the most fashionable woman in all of England, the Countess of Ardingly.” He shook his head. “’Twas so simple, I’m embarrassed I didn’t think to do it sooner.”
Fanny huffed. She still hadn’t made up her mind whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he’d thought to do it at all.
Nick continued, “Being a horse trainer, I’d heard of Lord Ardingly.” He gave a low whistle. “That man breeds some of the finest horseflesh in all of Europe. I immediately gave notice to Lord Finnemore. I’d hoped I could get hired on as a trainer, but I’d’ve taken a job mucking stalls if that was the only way to be near you. But when I heard he was searching for a new head trainer…” Nick stared out across the green fields that surrounded them. “It felt like fate. And I knew the time was right for me to ask you for another chance.”
They lapsed into silence again. Fanny plucked a blade of grass and smoothed it, trying to decide what on earth she had to say to this man.
“Ya might’ve sent me a note,” were the words that rose, unbidden, to her mouth. “Before the wedding, I mean.”
Nick’s eyes were sad. “Sarah’s water broke that morning, just as we were heading out the door to go to church. She’d already moved into my parents’ house, ya see. It was all just chaos, trying to figure out what to do with the baby coming a month early.”
“Well.” Fanny crossed her arms. How annoying, that he had a reasonable explanation. “You might’ve saidsomethingthere in the church, so I could’ve had some clue that it wasn’t what it seemed. But I remember it as clear as if it happened yesterday—you wouldn’t so much as look at me!”
Nick shook his head, the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I know it will come as a shock, but that was the only time I committed that level of sacrilege. I wasn’t sure how best to go about it. The one thing I remember was feeling it would be disrespectful to be making eyes at one gal while I was supposedly marrying a different one.”
“Humph.” Fanny slouched down. “And you couldn’t say something afterward?”
“If I’d had any idea you were going to flee in the night, believe me, I would’ve.” Nick’s voice, usually so flippant, so aloof, shook with feeling. “Sarah may not have been my wife, but she was my sister by marriage. And that was my nephew she was struggling to bring into the world. But I would’ve told my da to go and fetch the midwife himself, would’ve excused myself from the family vigil outside her bedroom, if I’d had any notion that was the last time I was going to see you for so long. You cannot imagine what I felt when I stepped outside the next morning and saw that parasol snapped in two. I knew at once that I’d ruined everything. I—” He broke off, gazing out over the field while he struggled to compose himself.
