Page 54 of To Know Miss May

Livvy tried to keep her expression unchanged, despite August’s lie to her father. Obviously, August did not wish for Mr. Cuff’s position behind the tree to be discovered. Was it because of the letter he’d delivered?

“Blast,” Father murmured. “’E needs to be workin’ on clearin’ the pathway up the Mount.” He rubbed his jaw, then glanced again to August. “Would ye mind stayin’ with me daugh’er for a moment? Keep ’er company ’til I return? I should only be a moment.”

August’s jaw twitched, but he nodded all the same.

Livvy, however, was not so easily convinced. “Father, I need to be goin’ anyway. I can just leave these ’ere—”

She made to leave the basket on the grass, but Father shook his head.

“Nonsense. Ye must keep ’em pastries safe ’til I return.” He sent a lingering look at August, then turned on his heel and left the two of them alone.

Livvy stared after Father, dumbfounded. Keep the pastries safe? From what, the squirrels?

With a sigh, she turned back to August, though when she saw the grimace written across his features, she wished she would have kept her gaze averted.

He tried to wipe his expression clean, but it was too late. Livvy had seen how he’d really felt about being forced to be with her.

Instead of trying to make sense of when he wanted to be with her and when he didn’t, Livvy shifted to the side, as if allowing him passage. “Ye can leave. I know ye be busy workin’.”

But August shook his head. “No, that be all right. I be ’appy to stay with ye.”

The words sounded as stinted and rehearsed as an inexperienced playactor reciting Shakespeare. “It’s fine, sir. Ye can go. I’ll not tell me father that ye left.”

Again, he refused. “I don’t mind stayin’ with ye.”

She dropped her chin and looked up at him through doubtful eyes. “Mr. Moon, ye don’t ’ave to stay ’ere just ’cause me father asked it of ye.”

A flicker of disbelief flashed in his eyes—she hadn’t imagined it, she was sure of it—before he drew a deep breath. “I know,” he said softly, then he placed a smile on his lips that looked far more sincere than before. “Truthfully, I wish to stay ’ere and speak with ye.”

“Ye do?”

His smile returned, and Livvy’s heart softened. “I do. I enjoy our friendship.”

Friendship. Livvy’s heart took a step back, shifting into its rightful place. There was the truth of the matter. They were simply friends and nothing more. But then, why did his eyes linger on her? Why did he smile so warmly whenever he spoke with her? Was she simply imagining the admiration she’d seen before, dreaming up this entire scenario?

Doubt slipped beneath her defenses like a cloud of smoke, preventing her from seeing clearly, and the same issue that continued to pop up into the back of her mind like a specter rose again.

She knew it would never go away unless she faced it and discovered the truth of the matter—that the ghost was simply a figment of her imagination…or that the specter, that her fears, were true.

“Miss May? Be somethin’ wrong?”

Livvy stared up at August. He must have noticed the conflict within her playing out on her face. She never had been good at hiding her emotions.

“Yes,” she replied. “Well, no.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”

She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith

August’s chest pressed against his lungs, his breathing nearly stopping. Something was wrong. Had Miss May discovered his and her father’s subterfuge?

“Ye can tell me,” he said, attempting nonchalance, though his legs felt as weak as a sapling’s branch.

She looked away. “I just wanted to let ye know that ye don’t need to be me friend ’cause o’ what I said.”

August paused. So she didn’t know? But then, to what was she referring? “Forgive me. I ain’t certain what ye be talkin’ about.”