Page 97 of Trouble

‘You’ll be back?’ he said to her in an undertone, as if he already knew the answer.

‘I don’t know,’ Emily said quietly in reply.

‘Well,’ said Aster, ‘the best of luck to you, then. Terrible governess – slightly better friend.’

He gripped Emily’s elbow briefly and then let it go.

‘I don’t think these stockings match either,’ said Oliver, appearing once more, looking exactly the same as he had done previously, ‘but I suppose it will be hard to tell, when they are covered in the viscera of your enemies.’

Emily didn’t laugh. She just nodded, and walked out and around to the stables with her heart in her mouth and her hands unable to keep still. She was so eager to get away before the captain returned that it felt almost as ifhewere her enemy – as if her life depended on outpacing him, on preventing any further punishment via the look of disappointment on his face. It was worse than if hehadcalled for the constable to come and clap her in irons.

She wasn’t running away this time. Not really. There was a difference between fleeing for the exit and knowing when the time had come to politely excuse yourself from somebody’s life and shut the door behind you.

Grace came rushing around the corner as she was climbing into the gig.

‘You aren’t leaving? Aster said .?.?. I thought I wouldn’t catch you, and .?.?.’

Emily stepped back onto the ground and allowed Grace to cannon into her, a tiny missile comprised of hair and ribbon and lace. When Grace threw her arms around Emily’s waist, Emily pulled her close and allowed herself a brief, bright moment of fierce, uncomplicated love.

‘You were my favourite,’ Grace said into her shoulder.

Emily looked up past her at the sky and blinked, very hard, to keep her tears at bay.

She cleared her throat.

‘I would say “be good”,’ she said, ‘but you hardly need to be told. So perhaps be a little bad, all right? Just for me.’

When Grace finally let go and stepped away, Emily climbed up into the gig next to Oliver and tried not to look back.

She failed.

As they reached the end of the drive, she twisted in her seat and watched Grace waving her off with all her might. She kept waving until they crested the hill and Fairmont slipped out of sight.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Oliver was apparently attempting to cheer her up.

He would not stop talking to her about the fights he’d been in; there had not been many of them, and he had rarely prevailed, but from the way he told the stories, he had clearly cast himself as some sort of avenging knight, taking up arms over any and all perceived slights. Most of these battles had taken place at the Rose and Crown, and were fought over spilled drinks or ill-advised comments, and in all of them Oliver seemed to be the one at fault in the first instance.

‘And then I said to him,’ he was saying now, as they ascended up the last small hillock before they began their true approach to the village, ‘that I had never evenmethis sister, but that if I ever did, I would be certain to tell her that she was just as handsome as her brother, although hopefully in possession of better hair and a more reasonable temper—’

‘Oliver,’ Emily said, ‘would you mind if we were just .?.?. quiet?’

Oliver considered this.

‘Yes, actually, I would. So anyway, he hit me with alit candle,of all things, and the wax was warm so it just bent in half, and I am always unable to stop myself from hysterical laughter once it has begun .?.?.’

Emily tried to block him out with sheer force of will, and focus on the sound of the horse snorting amiably and the wheels trundling beneath her. She didn’t want to think about everything she was leaving behind. She was going home to Amy. That had always been the only thing that truly mattered.

‘Oh, hang on,’ Oliver said suddenly, pulling the horse to a stop. ‘The dramatics continue. What is goingonwith you today? You are absolutely exuding spectacle – I almost feel I should take notes.’

Emily had no idea what he was talking about until she swivelled around in her seat and saw what he had seen: Captain Edwards, on horseback, galloping towards them at full speed, with his head down and his horse’s mane whipping dramatically in the wind.

Before, she had not been able to look at him. Now, she could not look away.

When he reached them, he pulled up so suddenly that the horse reared, and Oliver gave a bark of disbelieving laughter.

‘What is it now?’ he called to Captain Edwards. ‘Brigands at the house? Another mysterious visitor? Has Emily received a letter informing her that she’s inherited half the county?’