Page 43 of Rival to Resist
Mr. Yorke fetched drinks and fairings for both of them, his progress slowed by a number of people who stopped him for short conversation.
Caroline and Eliza watched from the edge of the party as the rope wrestling continued and a few children began toengage in sack racing, hopping and tumbling over with shrieks of laughter. The atmosphere of joy and merriment was contagious, and Caroline found her cheeks beginning to ache from smiling as she sipped her drink.
Jory hopped over in his sack until he stood in front of Mr. Yorke. “Come, sir! I wager I can beat ’ee.”
“Oh ho!” Mr. Yorke said. “Do you, now?”
“Aye,” he said proudly. “I be the fastest sack racer inallTrelowen.”
“Faster than Ruan?”
He nodded.
“And Mrs. Penrose?”
He nodded again, a hint of offense in his eyes that this should even be a question.
“I was quite good in my day, you know,” Eliza said with a little lift of her chin and an enigmatic smile.
Jory looked doubtful.
“I was,” Eliza insisted. “I was beat but once—and that only because Jonathan Davies knocked me over on purpose. He knew he could not have otherwise beat me.”
Caroline’s gaze slipped to Mr. Yorke, who met hers with shared laughter in his own. Mrs. Penrose had clearly held onto the grudge.
“You had better show him, Eliza,” Caroline said.
“Oh, no,” Eliza protested with a laugh. “I could not. I am old now.” And yet, she looked tempted all the same.
“I’d give ’ee a ’ead start, ma’am,” Jory offered.
“A head start,” Eliza said with offense that was only half pretended. “When I win, I win fair and square, I will have you know.”
Mr. Yorke turned around and called out to someone a dozen feet away. The man looked around, grabbed something near his feet, and tossed a pile of sacks to Mr. Yorke.
“There is only one way to settle this.” He threw one sack over his shoulder and handed one to Eliza.
She hesitated.
“She be afeared, sir,” Jory said in a low voice.
Caroline took the sack and put it on her friend’s lap. “You cannot back down from such an insult to your character, Eliza. I insist you teach young Jory a lesson.”
Eliza laughed and held up the sack, looking at it thoughtfully.
“Will it do?” Mr. Yorke asked.
Eliza let it fall to her lap with her hands, then looked at Caroline. “I will race if you will.”
Both Jory and Mr. Yorke’s eyes widened with intrigue, and Mr. Yorke all too readily extended the last sack he held to Caroline.
She stared at it for a moment, thinking what it would be like to hop and laugh with as much unfettered enjoyment as she had seen others do.
She shook her head. It was one thing for a woman of Eliza’s current situation to engage in such entertainment; it was quite another matter for Caroline to do so.
“Did you not promise to enjoy yourself if I did?” Eliza prompted.
“My enjoyment will be in watchingyouteach this young man what it feels like to lose.” She winked at Jory.
