Page 39 of A Sense of Paradise
That, she was ashamed to admit, had been her primary purpose in coming to England. Maurice’s running off to this country had conveniently provided her with the excuse to pursue her heart’s desire.
‘I am obliged for the tea and the excellent cake,’ Louis said, setting his cup aside and standing. ‘But now, ladies, if you will excuse me, I must make haste or I will miss my train.’
Miss Latimer stood also. ‘Then don’t let us detain you. We will leave you with Miss Garnier to make your farewells. Polly will show you to your room when you are ready,’ she added, addressing the comment to Eloise. ‘Come and find us in the garden when you are ready and we shall be at leisure to get to know one another better.’
Left alone with Louis Eloise suddenly felt very isolated, but somehow resisted the urge to beg him to stay. She was unsure what to say to him, a situation that had never arisen before.
‘I must go,’ he said, kissing her on each cheek.
Without another word and without giving her an opportunity to respond, he strode from the cottage, reclaimed his curricle and drove away without looking back.
‘What did I do?’ Eloise muttered, before turning towards the stairs and climbing them in search of the maid called Polly.
‘Ah, there you are, miss.’
A very pretty girl in a maid’s uniform appeared on the landing and showed Eloise into a delightful room with a wide-ranging view of the gardens. She could see a lovely grey horse and a cob turned out in a paddock together, and Miss Latimer’s gardens were laid out below her like an orderly patchwork quilt.
‘I hope you have everything you need, ma’am. The bathroom is the last door on the right,’ Polly said.
‘Thank you. This is charming and far nicer than the room that I had at the tavern. I am sure I shall be very comfortable.’
‘Right you are then. I shall leave you to get settled.’
Unaccustomed to being waited upon, Eloise was delighted to discover that Polly had already unpacked her clothing and hung it in the armoire. With nothing to do, she sat on the window seat to admire the view and took a moment to consider Louis’s strange behaviour. He often criticised what he described as her reckless streak, but had never shown his disapproval quite to blatantly before. She was disappointed. He knew how much she yearned for Archie, how convinced she had been that he would be delighted to see her and so keen to help her that he would offer them both his hospitality at Felsham Hall. How wrong she had been. Even so, she wasn’t yet ready to concede defeat.
Eloise swiped at an errant tear, stood up and went down to join Miss Latimer.
Melanie was playing with a little girl on the lawns. Was Miss Latimer a widow or was the child the result of a tryst with the gentleman who owned this cottage? Her name and manner suggested otherwise but Melanie was too young to be the mother.
‘Ah, there you are.’ Miss Latimer had been on her knees, attending to herbs herself without wearing gloves. She really was most unconventional. Eloise liked that about her, even though she didn’t want to like anything about the woman whom she was becoming increasingly convinced was her rival for Archie’s affections. ‘I did not intend to dirty my hands but I simply cannot abide any weeds that have the temerity to encroach upon my precious herbs.’ She got to her feet, produced a handkerchief and wiped her fingers on it. ‘I see you are wondering about little Alice. She is Polly’s daughter.’
‘Oh.’ Eloise found it hard to disguise her surprise. ‘Excuse me, but I didn’t realise Polly was married.’
‘She is not.’ Miss Latimer laughed. ‘There, I have shocked you. You didn’t realise that we English are so liberally inclined. Well, in truth the vast majority of us are not, but I hope that I at least am a little more enlightened. Polly was seduced by her former employer, who then turned her out when he discovered her condition. It makes me so cross. My father, a religious man, would condemn her even though none of it is her fault, whilst the man responsible escapes all censure.’
‘You took her and her child into your household, which makes you by far the more compassionate.’ Eloise made the concession grudgingly, wondering why such a paragon of virtue would appeal to a man of Archie’s eclectic tastes.
‘Archie recommended her to me, actually. He heard of her plight and guessed that I would want to help her, which I didn’t hesitate to do. Polly provides exemplary service and has given me no reason to regret my decision.’
They strolled together down the length of the garden and stopped at the paddock rails. The grey gelding trotted up to them and Miss Latimer produced a carrot from her pocket.
‘He’s beautiful.’
‘And he knows it.’ Miss Latimer smiled. ‘He was a gift on my one-and-twentieth birthday from the Earl of Swindon. I was employed as companion to his grandmother, until her death, and came to know the entire family well.’ She chuckled. ‘I was there when Archie returned from the dead. I shall never forget that day and the joy it gave his friends to see him again.’
‘I saw you at the earl’s wedding. I was outside the church.’
‘I know. I saw you as well.’ She smiled. ‘You are difficult to miss, being so attractive.’
Eloise blushed. The more they talked, the harder it became for her to find something to dislike about Miss Latimer. Apart from anything else, not many ladies would take a comparative stranger into their home for no obvious reason other than to be helpful.
‘Thank you for the compliment,’ Eloise said. ‘I was curious to see Archie, which is what took me there. I had written but he didn’t respond. I expect he was too busy. Anyway, I have to say I am astonished by the improvements in his movement. None of the doctors he saw in France were able to give him much hope of ever walking unaided, which thoroughly depressed him. Are the improvements really your doing?’
‘To some extent they may be.’ The cob had joined them at the fence and Miss Latimer produced a second carrot. ‘Hello, Mabel,’ she said, patting the mare’s chunky neck. ‘Of course I have not forgotten you.’
The horses lost interest when they realised there were no more treats to be had and returned to their grazing, tails swishing to ward off the flies. The ladies resumed their leisurely stroll.
‘Miss Latimer, I—’
