‘Hmm?’ She sounded preoccupied. ‘Oh, new stockings for the boys. I’ve given up on Oliver’s.’
‘Redbourne’s, then?’
‘Yes. I thought I might buy us something nice for tea, too. You’re obviously invited, only...’
‘James isn’t?’
‘I’m afraid I wouldn’t dare.’ She made an apologetic face. ‘Once Nancy makes up her mind about a person, there’s not much anyone else can do about it.’
‘It’s strange. I’ve tried asking what she’s got against him, but he won’t say a word.’
‘I’m sure it’s all a big misunderstanding. I can’t imagine him doing anything hurtful.’
‘Neither can I. And speaking of James...’ Sebastian raised a hand as they entered the shop.
‘You again?’ His old friend looked up from a ledger book and grinned. ‘I thought you were out for the day?’
‘Stockings.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I need them for the boys,’ Henrietta interjected. ‘I’ll just be a moment.’
‘So...’ James gave Sebastian a subtle nudge in the ribs as Henrietta walked across to a different counter. ‘Still just friends?’
‘Trying to be. It’s not easy, but it’s all she wants.’
‘Ah. Well, I’m not the man to give advice about unrequited affection, I’m afraid, although spending so much time with her might not be the best thing for your sanity.’
‘I know. Only I’m not sure leaving would do me any good either. And I made a promise.’
‘To her?’
‘To one of her nephews. So...’ He spread his hands out in a futile gesture. ‘I can’t go anywhere, sane or not.’
‘All done.’ Henrietta came back with a full basket and a smile. ‘I’m glad we bumped into you, Mr Redbourne. Sebastian told me you’ve been helping him look for David.’
‘Yes. I only wish we’d had more success.’
‘You still tried and I’m grateful.’
‘Well then...’ Sebastian found himself offering his arm, vaguely irritated by the way she was smiling at his friend. ‘We’d better get back to Belles.’
‘And I’d better get back to work.’ James lifted an eyebrow before smiling at Henrietta. ‘Good day, Miss Gardiner.’
‘Mr Redbourne.’
Henrietta gave Sebastian a quizzical look as they stepped back on to the pavement. ‘Are you in a hurry?’
‘Me? No, but I thought you might want to check up on your new assistant. What does she call herself again? Belinda?’
‘Yes... Wait! How do you know that’s not her real name?’
‘Bel-linda?’
‘Oh... All right, it’s not.’
‘Belinda Smith, by any chance?’
‘No.’ Her lips twitched. ‘Belinda Carr. And she’s doing very well in the shop. As for the baking...she’s learning.’
‘As bad as that?’
She lifted her shoulders as if she were trying to be charitable. ‘She’s doing her best, but it might take a while. Nancy and I are taking turns to give her lessons, but we haven’t had much success so far. I don’t think she’s ever set foot in a kitchen before, let alone prepared any food.’ A small giggle escaped her. ‘You should have seen her face the first time she saw the rolling pin. I think she thought Nancy was about to attack her.’
‘Knowing Miss MacQueen, that’s surely a reasonable assumption?’
‘Nancy wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
‘I beg to differ. She tipped me off a sofa, remember?’
‘Only because she thought you were a burglar.’
‘A burglar who takes a nap on the job?’
‘She probably didn’t have time to consider that. What I mean is that Nancy wouldn’t hurt a fly unless the fly deserved it. Which she thought you did at the time.’
‘True.’ He chuckled. ‘Fortunately Belinda seems to have got off to a better start. I suppose there’s no point in my telling you she might be a fugitive?’
‘She’s not a fugitive. She says she hasn’t broken any laws.’
‘And you believe her?’
‘Yes. She’s obviously in some kind of trouble, but if she doesn’t want to tell us the details then I’m sure she has good reasons and I know Anna would think the same. Everyone deserves a second chance.’
‘That’s very trusting of you.’ He gave her a sidelong glance as they approached Belles. ‘But then I suppose you’d understand more than most.’
‘What do you mean?’ She froze mid-step.
‘About second chances...’ He could have kicked himself for the words. ‘I mean because Anna trusted you.’
‘Why wouldn’t Anna have trusted me?’ She pulled her hand away from his arm, twisting sharply to face him.
‘No reason.’ He cleared his throat when she continued to stare. ‘Just a turn of phrase.’
‘A turn of phrase...’ She seemed to go very still as she repeated the words. Which was curious because she was already still, but there seemed to be a new tension about her, too, suddenly, as if she were suppressing some powerful emotion. ‘Then tell me this...’ Her voice was clipped now. ‘What did you mean about understanding?’
‘Pardon?’ He had an urgent desire to escape from the conversation.
‘Ten minutes ago when I didn’t want to walk past my old shop, you said that you understood, but I never told you why I left. So what do you understand?’
‘I heard a rumour, that’s all.’
‘What kind of rumour?’
Sebastian glanced at the pavement, vaguely wishing a chasm might open up beneath his feet, big enough for him to hide in. ‘Something about you and the owner’s son.’
‘Something such as?’
He groaned inwardly. Really, it didn’t have to be a chasm. A reasonable-sized hole would suffice. ‘All right. I heard that you were caught in some kind of indiscretion and that his mother accused you of being a fortune hunter and threw you out without references. Which is what I meant about Anna giving you a second chance, but I wasn’t condemning you. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as it sounded and you must have been very young when it happened.’
‘So you’re not condemning me?’ She lifted a finger and poked him hard in the chest, her whole body shaking as if she were cold. ‘How generous of you, especially in the light of such overwhelming evidence as gossip and speculation.’
‘I didn’t say—’
‘You’ve said quite enough! Forgive me if I don’t care to listen to any more. Good day!’
‘Hen—’
‘I said good day!’
‘Damn it.’ He took a few seconds to vent his feelings before following inside, but there was already no sign of her. He judged by the sound of stomping footsteps, however, that she was already halfway up the stairs.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Nancy jumped out from behind the counter, blocking his way as he went in pursuit.
‘I need to talk to Henrietta.’
‘Why? What did you do?’
‘I said the wrong thing, obviously.’
‘About?’
‘About what happened, what she was accused of doing at the dressmaker’s.’
‘You mentioned that?’ Nancy looked appalled. ‘Why?’
‘I didn’t intend to mention it. We just happened to walk that way by accident and it came up and...please—’ he gestured towards the staircase ‘—let me talk to her.’
‘No. In case it isn’t already obvious, she doesn’t want to talk to you.’
‘I need to apologise.’
‘You need to do more than that.’ Nancy’s eyes flashed. ‘Didn’t it ever occur to you that the rumours you’ve heard weren’t true?’
‘I told her I was sure it wasn’t as bad as it sounded and—’ He stopped talking, struck with t
he distinct impression that Miss MacQueen was about to throw a fist at his head.
‘If that’s the best you can do, then you should turn around and leave right now.’ From the sound of it, her teeth were gritted. ‘If you weren’t Anna’s brother, I’d throw you out myself. Henrietta never set her cap at Roy Willerby. He was besotted with her! Only she wasn’t good enough for his mother so once the old bat found out, she gave Henrietta her marching orders. Without references, too, just to make it look as though it was all her fault.
‘And do you know what else?’ Nancy advanced a few steps towards him, standing on her tiptoes to speak into his face. ‘Even after his mother threw her out, Mr Willerby still wanted to marry her. She could have married him just to spite his mother and to have a place to live, too! But she didn’t because she didn’t care about him that way. Instead, she searched and searched for a job until finally your sister was smart enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. Unlike some people I could mention.’
‘I see.’ Sebastian felt his gut clench at the accusation. It was a fair one. He hadn’t necessarily assumed that Henrietta was guilty, just that there had been some grain of truth in the rumours...
‘Look...’ Nancy’s expression relented a tiny bit. ‘You seem—seemed—different. You’ve been a lot of help with the boys and as far as I can tell you’ve behaved decently, too. Most men take one look at her and their minds go straight to one thing, and because she’s a shop girl they think they can get it, too. That’s why she doesn’t like compliments, in case you were still wondering. She’s learnt her lesson about men the hard way. So if that’s all you’re after—’
‘It’s not,’ he interrupted her. ‘We’re friends.’
‘Are you sure? Because I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. You may be helping her with the boys, but maybe it’s time you started thinking about your intentions, too.’
‘My intentions?’ Sebastian ran a hand over his jaw. The whole situation struck him as ludicrous. Here he was, standing in his own family’s shop, being challenged by a woman younger than him, barring his way with an expression as ferocious as Boudicca herself. As for the matter of intentions, Henrietta had made it very clear that anything besides friendship was out of the question, so unless she’d changed her mind... And what had Miss MacQueen just said? The way you two look at each other, not the way he looked at her...
‘In any case...’ Nancy continued as the shop door opened to admit an elderly couple ‘...you can go and do your thinking elsewhere. She doesn’t want to speak with you at the moment.’
Sebastian bowed his head, feigning agreement before darting past the counter and up the stairs before Nancy could let out as much as a squeak of protest. He wouldn’t have long, he knew, but if he could just find Henrietta before Miss MacQueen found him... Had she changed her mind? His pulse quickened at the thought. Because if she had, then he’d be more than happy to oblige. And he couldn’t wait another minute to find out...
Chapter Thirteen
Sebastian reached the landing in less than three seconds. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Henrietta in the parlour so he carried on up to the next floor, the one he was least acquainted with. Despite growing up above the shop, he’d never spent a great deal of time in either of the two bedrooms—his own sleeping arrangements being a truckle bed in the parlour—but the staircase was still familiar enough for him not to feel strange about going there. Which, in retrospect, was probably a mistake, but then discretion had never been one of his strong suits.
‘I’m sor—’
He skidded to a halt, stopped in his tracks by the sight of Henrietta standing just inside her bedroom door, the grey gown she’d been wearing that morning draped over a chair while her yellow shop dress was only halfway over her hips.
‘What—?’ She jerked her head up at the sound of his voice, her expression turning swiftly from anger to shock to anger again before she reached a hand out and slammed the door in his face. Fortunately, his nose was far enough away this time not to suffer injury, although he had a feeling she wouldn’t have hesitated if it hadn’t been. She might actually have preferred it.
Double damn. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the wood. That hadn’t been supposed to happen. He’d come to apologise, not to ogle, to tell her he wasn’t like the other men Miss MacQueen had mentioned, but he had a horrible sinking feeling that he’d just lost the moral high ground on that one. Still, since it had happened, he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret it either—and he definitely wasn’t going to forget it any time soon.
Not only had she been half dressed, but her undergarments had been in a state of considerable disarray, in all the right places in his opinion. The way her breasts had been popping out of her chemise as she’d bent over had made the view nothing short of mesmerising. It was probably fortunate that he’d had only a few short seconds to appreciate it since his body had come dangerously close to combusting as it was. He had a feeling the memory alone was going to heat his blood for some time to come.
He was still leaning against the door, wondering what to do next, when it opened again abruptly, sending him toppling forwards into the room and on top of a now fully clad Henrietta, knocking her off balance like a domino and sending them both stumbling towards the bed.
‘Wait!’ It was a foolish thing for him to say, Sebastian thought, even as the word left his mouth. Wait? It wasn’t as if there was anything she—or he—could do to arrest their fall, though he made a valiant attempt to minimise injury none the less, curling one arm behind her back and managing to twist them both sideways so that they landed side by side rather than with his full weight on top of her.
‘Sorry.’ It was his second useless word in a row, he realised, staring into her eyes, which he couldn’t help but do since their noses were only an inch apart and their bodies were even closer, pressed intimately together with his arm squashed between her breast and the mattress. ‘I was leaning against the door.’
‘I noticed.’ She skewered him with a look though her cheeks were flaming red.
‘I didn’t know you were changing your clothes.’ He felt an additional need to explain. ‘Are you all right?’
‘It’s a mattress.’
‘Good point. Here, let me...’ He shuffled his body backwards, trying not to notice the soft weight of her breast against his arm, and stood up, offering her a hand which she pointedly ignored.
He coughed, racking his brains to remember why he’d gone up there in the first place. ‘I really am sorry.’
‘So you said.’ She rolled herself to a sitting position.
‘Not just about that—about all of it. That’s why I’m here, to apologise. Don’t blame Nancy.’ He held a hand up as she opened her mouth. ‘I waited until she was distracted. She’ll probably be here to throw books at me any second.’
‘I would never blame Nancy.’ She didn’t smile at the joke. ‘You shouldn’t have followed me.’
‘You’re right, but I wanted to explain. I should never have listened to gossip.’
‘No, you shouldn’t have.’ She turned her face away with quiet dignity. ‘I trusted you. I thought we were friends.’
‘We are.’
‘Friends don’t think things like that about each other. They’re supposed to know each other better!’
‘I didn’t think about it, not really. It didn’t matter to me what happened.’
‘It matters to me!’
‘I know. I’m not explaining myself well. What I mean is that I knew it wasn’t who you were. Are.’ He paused. ‘Nancy says it was the other way round and Mr Willerby was in love with you.’
She gave a short laugh. ‘No, he only thought that he was.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘Because we never had a single real conversation. All he ever did was stare at me and tell me how pretty I was. He never asked me a si
ngle question about where I came from or what I liked to do. It was as though I was just another mannequin in the shop window.’
‘If his mother was the owner, then she ought to have done something to stop him.’
‘She blamed me.’ Henrietta pressed her lips together tight and then sighed. ‘And maybe I wasn’t entirely blameless. Maybe I was friendlier than I ought to have been, but I thought I was being polite. No one ever told me that smiling was a bad thing!’
‘It’s not. It wasn’t your fault.’ He reached for her hand, but she stood up, stalking across the room away from him.
‘Yes, it was! Because I didn’t learn my lesson even then. I kept on smiling because I was young and foolish and flattered by compliments. Anna tried to warn me it could get me into more trouble, but I didn’t listen. I didn’t understand that my appearance was all most men ever saw or cared about. I didn’t realise that they’d take a smile for a promise either.’
He tensed. ‘What do you mean?’
She looked back at him, her jaw muscles clenched tight. ‘Do you remember what I told you about the Earl’s friend, Mr Hoxley? He came to the shop a few times to see me. He was handsome and charming and I liked him better than any man I’d ever met before. I knew he was a gentleman, but I was still naive enough to believe in daydreams and I thought he truly liked me, too.’
‘What happened?’ Sebastian heard his voice darken. Hearing another man described as handsome and charming was bad enough, but he had a feeling he was about to get even angrier.
‘One day he invited me to meet him alone. He said he had something important to ask me and stupidly I believed him. I even lied to Anna about where I was going. I felt terrible about it, but I was so excited. I thought that he wanted to marry me like Mr Willerby, only it turned out he had much baser motives. It never occurred to me that he meant to seduce me, but fortunately a lady, the Earl’s grandmother, in fact, intervened. She made his intentions very clear.’
‘I see.’ He was clenching his fists, Sebastian realised, so hard he could feel his fingernails digging into his palms.
Unexpectedly Wed to the Officer--A Historical Romance Award Winning Author Page 11