Page 51 of Lady Audacious
‘Facing realities,’ she grinned back.
He had come in his curricle again, and had left it directly outside for all the world to see, with Harris holding the horses’ heads. Reuben did not believe in subterfuge, it seemed—or indeed subtlety.
‘Are you attempting to advertise your presence?’ she asked, wondering if Miss Farquhar had mentioned her previous day’s visit. Was this his way of countering her claims to his affections? And if so, at what cost to Odile’s reputation? She was even more unsure why her mind would insist upon going off on a dozen different tangents simultaneously, none of which was particularly relevant. All that mattered to her was finding out the truth about her family, and she was already a step closer to achieving that ambition, thanks to Reuben’s help.
‘Does it bother you?’
‘I am still considering the matter,’ she replied, smiling as he handed her onto the seat. He walked round to the other side and the conveyance dipped beneath his weight as he climbed up beside her. ‘But I have reached a conclusion about the gardens. The poisonous plants—there are far too many of them.’ She looked at him without attempting to hide her increasing concern. ‘Do you think that Mr Smythe was in the business of making poisons, and if so, do you think my parents were helping him?’
‘What I think is that it’s too soon to draw conclusions. There could be any number of explanations. Perhaps those plants are the types that naturally reseed themselves, and left unattended they have simply spread.’
‘Perhaps, but somebody had to have planted them in the first place. If my parents were doing something underhand for whatever reason, it would account for the elaborate screen of secrecy regarding my schooling, which was paid for by someone whose identity was carefully concealed. And now my inheritance, the origins of which are equally baffling.’ She felt increasingly dejected. ‘I don’t think I can accept Fox’s Reach if its gift was founded on something dishonest.’
‘You have a habit of leaping to conclusions.’
‘Wouldn’t you, in my situation?’
‘I would be curious, but I hope I would also be sensible enough to realise that life doesn’t offer too many opportunities for advancement and turning this one down wouldn’t change the past. Principles are all well and good in their place, but they don’t pay the rent. Even if your parents were guilty of something, you are not, and they, or someone close to them, went to considerable lengths to protect you. Anyway, the alternative to accepting your inheritance is, presumably, returning to that teaching academy of yours for the rest of your days.’
Odile shuddered. ‘You have made your point.’
‘Good,’ he said, imbuing the one word with considerable satisfaction.
Odile fell silent, mulling over what he had just said. He was right. Even if her parents had been pulled into something unsavoury, she had been presented with an opportunity to make recompense, if only by helping those less fortunate than herself, and that was what she would most assuredly do.
Feeling at one with her conscience, she lifted her face to greet a gentle breeze and enjoyed the rest of the short ride into Amberley without feeling the need to make conversation. An easy silence spread between Odile and her handsome companion, with whom she felt a natural affinity; a situation that she adjured herself not to become too accustomed to. It would only end in heartbreak when he decided to marry a lady from his own ranks, at which point their temporary association would come to an end.
‘Here we are.’ He pulled the curricle to a halt in the mews beside the Portcullis, where a groom came running to take charge of it.
‘Ah, so this is the place to come for information,’ she said, glancing up at the tavern’s solid walls with blackened beams running horizontally across them and a sign of a portcullis swinging from a bracket. The windows were open and even at this early hour the place appeared to be doing a brisk trade.
‘Apparently so,’ he replied, grinning as he helped her down.
‘Don’t pretend you are not a frequent visitor yourself, since I shall not believe you.’
‘I have to show my face from time to time, so as not to appear to be above my company,’ he said cheerfully.
‘How tiresome to be such a slave to duty.’
He grinned boyishly at her as he secured her hand in the crook of his arm and they set off on foot towards market square. ‘You have no idea.’
‘We are attracting a great deal of attention,’ she said after they had progressed a few hundred yards and every head they passed turned in their direction with differing degrees of curiosity.
‘Why shouldn’t people enjoy looking at you?’
‘Ridiculous man! You know very well that I would pass completely unnoticed in a crowd. It is only because I am with you that I have suddenly become so fascinating. No one will be able to understand your interest in my affairs and speculation will abound. The Portcullis will be alive with gossip before the day is out, which I dare say will increase the landlord’s profits.’
‘You have a very practical turn of mind, Miss Aspen.’
‘Born of necessity, Lord Amberley.’
The market square was busy but a path appeared to clear magically in front of them in whichever direction they turned, as though Reuben couldn’t be expected to lower himself to shoulder his way through crowds.
‘Don’t you ever get tired of it?’ Odile asked.
‘What? People being subservient, I take it you mean?’ He leaned towards her, the brim of his hat touching the top of her head as he lowered his voice. ‘I will let you into a little secret. I seldom get to do this sort of thing.’
‘And probably find it the most terrible ordeal, which places me even more in your debt.’
