Page 37 of A Sense of Turmoil
Yardley looked at her with renewed interest and the elevation of one brow. ‘Well said again, Miss Latimer. Are you staying in Salisbury for a few days?’
‘We were hoping to persuade her,’ her father said, looking at Flora with something like desperation in his expression.
‘I thought it was a fixed arrangement,’ the bishop said, frowning.
‘I regret to say, gentlemen, that I must return to Swindon, and must do so now if I am to catch my train. Congratulations again, Father. It was a pleasure to meet you, sir,’ she added to a stunned-looking Yardley. ‘But now…’
‘Flora, don’t go just yet.’ Her father grabbed her arm.
‘Release me,’ she said softly but with steel in her tone.
‘I just want to—’
‘Ah, Flora, well met.’
Flora glanced up and felt a combination of surprise and relief surge through her. As saviours went, Archie was the last person she would have expected to find at such a gathering. ‘Lord Felsham. I was not aware that you were here today.’
‘A last minute decision,’ he said, winking at her. ‘I was about to leave. I have a carriage outside. Can I escort you to the railway station?’
Flora could have kissed him, and still very well might.
‘Who is this gentleman?’ her father asked, screwing up his eyes in suspicion.
‘You are not acquainted with the Marquess of Felsham?’ The bishop looked surprised but made the introductions. For once, her father was stunned into silence. Yardley, who hadn’t appeared that interested in Flora, now looked thunderous.
Two minutes later, Flora had been extricated from a situation that had been in danger of growing into a dispute. She bade her bemused mother and sisters a hasty farewell and left the bishop’s drawing room at Archie’s side, slowing her pace to match his. All conversations stalled and Flora felt dozens of pairs of eyes boring into her retreating back.
‘I have heard of making grand entrances,’ she said to Archie, her cheeks blazing, ‘but a grand exit is something else entirely.’
Archie grasped her elbow and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘You will be the talk of Salisbury,’ he replied, chuckling.
‘That is what concerns me. My father will never forgive me for defying him again.’
Archie appeared surprised. ‘And that concerns you?’
‘I suppose it no longer should. Anyway, I was not aware that you were intimate with the bishop, or that you would be attending here today,’ she said, sending him a suspicious sideways glance.
‘There is a lot about me that you don’t know,’ Archie replied, chuckling. ‘I was at the investiture but loitered at the back. I didn’t need to see what was going on and might actually have dozed off.’
Flora laughed, perfectly sure that he had. ‘I hope you don’t snore.’
‘Care to find out?’
She laughed again. She couldn’t seem to help herself. ‘Behave!’
‘I try.’ He let out a long breath. ‘Believe me, I try.’
‘Why were you really here?’ She climbed into the cab that awaited them outside the cathedral, nodding to Archie’s man Pawson as he opened the door for her.
‘I had a feeling that you might need rescuing.’ He grinned as he struggled into the conveyance and sat across from her as it moved off with a jolt that caused him to wince. ‘And it seems I was in the right of it.’
‘Thank you. I would have got out of it, but probably not without creating a scene.’
‘I can see that you are fighting mad. Do you want to tell me what happened?’
Flora let out a long breath. ‘I rather think that my father bought his promotion on the back of promises he had no right to make on my behalf. My mother tried to make me commit to staying for a few days. I told her it would be impossible since I cannot be spared from the countess’s side at this vital time. But it seems she did not pass that message on to my father. She was probably frightened to. He can fly into a rage if he does not get his way. She probably hoped that I would change my mind when I got here, which goes to show how little she understands me.’
‘This is all about the bishop’s indolent nephew?’
