So he poked her then, and she turned to him, a smile already on her face when before she surely would have hit him.
"What is it that has your thoughts?" he asked.
Her smile faltered slightly, and he felt a pang of dread at what she might say next.
"It's nothing really," she said, "It's only that there is so much to think about."
Alec watched her face, not really certain what she meant."
"So much to think about?"
The light of the late spring day glanced off of her milky white skin underneath her hat, and Alec wanted to reach up, take her hat and let the sun hit her full in the face just so he could see the way it made her eyes light up. But instead he stood there, her arm politely in his as they waited for the carriage to be brought round.
"Yes, there is quite a lot to think on that I had not considered previously, and now it's as though I need to catch up."
Alec raised an eyebrow.
"Such as?"
"Children," she said flatly, turning to him, and Alec took an involuntary step away from her, which just brought her with him as he held onto her arm.
"Children?" he said, not enjoying how his voice fluctuated.
"Yes, children," she said, and then her voice grew soft and sad, "Do you not want children, Alec?"
"Oh, it's not that. Of course, I want children. It's just that they're so dirty," he finally decided on saying when in fact he was feeling every kind of repulsion known to him. "Have you ever seen a dirty nappie?"
Sarah laughed, a sparkling sound amongst the cacophony of the daily business of the port town.
"Have you?" she countered, and now Alec, too, had to laugh.
"I can only imagine the horror," he said, which had his wife laughing with greater force.
"But I've never thought of children. What if we've created one? Have you thought of that?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"I find that highly unlikely," he said, even though the same thought had come to his mind in a moment of panic on the ship.
Sarah poked him as he had done to her just moments before.
"That's what everyone thinks until all of a sudden you're with child."
Alec turned to look at her fully.
"What has brought on this sudden talk of children?" he said, and he caught the way her eyes moved to the left just as he asked the question.
"Nothing," she said, innocently enough, but he knew something brewed beneath her statement.
He decided to leave it at that and let his wife have her thoughts to occupy her. They had a private suite on board the vessel that would take them to Liverpool, and he planned to use it to the greatest extent that he could. They may have been married for over four years, but this would be the wedding trip they had never had. And he would make the most of it.
"Emily. If we have a girl, I would like to name her Emily," he heard himself say and felt Sarah's eyes upon him.
"I think Emily would be a fine name," she said, and then they both stood on the steps in silence.
The carriage came round with Nathan at the box, but this time, Nora was suspiciously absent.
"She's gone on ahead with Father and Jane to secure the quarters on the ship," Nathan said as he jumped down. "I'm to escort you to the docks, my lord and lady," he said with a flourishing bow.
"Well, see to it that the way is not bumpy, lowly servant, or I shall have your head," Alec said in as gruff a manner as he could manage, but Nathan only laughed at him, pulling open the door to the carriage.
Alec reached for Sarah's hand to help her step up to the carriage, but his wife was oddly missing when he turned around. Panic seized him instantly, and all thought fled his mind even as the breath stopped in his lungs. But then he saw her, just a few steps from him at the edge of the steps of The Owl and Fork Inn, leaning ever so slightly to the side as if to see around something.
"Sarah?" he called, but she did not respond.
He looked at Nathan, who only raised his eyebrows and shook his head.
Alec moved in the direction of his wife, carefully touching her elbow when he reached her to gain her attention. She jumped as if he had startled her, a hand flying to her throat.
"Oh, sorry," she said, and he saw the confusion in her eyes even as she shook her head to clear it, "I thought I saw someone."
Alec looked beyond her but all he saw was an old, crippled dark skinned man carrying a sack over one shoulder, shuffling off into the distance. He looked back at Sarah.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
And Sarah nodded. "Quite fine."
He took her arm as they went back to the waiting carriage.
"Are you ready for this journey, my wife?" he asked her, and she looked up at him and smiled.
"Always," she said as she took his hand.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
London, England
June 1815
She watched the carriages moving, counted the beats as the wheels passed in front of her. She heard the switch of the reigns and the staccato of the horses' hooves as her own breath mixed with the sound of it all, her heart thumping in time. She was ready to make another try at it when the hand descended on her shoulder, snatching her back.
"You'll get yourself killed if you do it that way," said a voice far above her head, a voice that sounded oddly like that of a refined lady.
Ginny looked up, shielding her eyes with a grimy hand as the sunlight blinded her. But as her eyes adjusted, she saw it was not only a lady that had grabbed her, but a lady with a right fine gentleman hanging onto her arm. Ginny backed up, shaking her shoulder from the woman's grasp.
"And what do ye know of it?" she said, turning to move away, but the woman grabbed her again.
Ginny shook hard to break the woman's grasp, but the woman was stronger than any lady Ginny had ever met.
"I know a thing or two more than you do, and if you'd like to not end up dead, you'll listen to what I have to say."
Ginny stopped moving, feeling an odd sense of respect growing inside of her for this lady.
"A lady like you don't know nothing on it," Ginny said, but her fight was quickly replaced with suspicion.
She didn't know who this lady or her gentleman friend was, but there was something about her that Ginny thought was familiar like. So she stopped trying to break loose and listened to the woman.
The lady carried a parasol made of finer silk than Ginny had ever snitched and wondered where she'd gotten it and if she perhaps would be able to steal some for herself one day. That would make her a pretty farthing or two even. She could eat like a queen for a whole day. The thought had her salivating. But the lady handed the parasol to the gentleman and grabbing handfuls of her fine skirt, squatted to the same level as Ginny.
Ginny took a step back, having never had a lady, genteel or otherwise, squat down to her level. The girl looked at the lady, at the woman's clean, golden hair all done up with pretty ribbons and a little square hat that sat in the middle of her head like some kind of crown. At least, that's how Ginny saw it. When Ginny tried to see the color of the woman's eyes, it was then that she noticed the lady was not looking at her. Ginny turned in the direction of the lady's gaze to find she was looking at the traffic just as Ginny had been doing.
"Hackneys are the key to this, you know," the lady said, and Ginnny swung around to look at her, mesmerized by the little brackets that formed around her mouth when she spoke.
"Hackneys?" Ginny heard herself say, not really believing that she was speaking with a real lady or that the lady was talking about dodging hackneys with her. This was a lady that Ginny would have cut the purse from as soon as looked at her. And here she was speaking to her. Helping her really.
Ginny looked back at the stream of traffic.
"Hackneys are not as well sprung as the carriages of finer households. You know how to tell the difference, right? In the colors they bare?"
Ginny nodded quickly.
"I learned that a while back, but
'ow's it you know that?" Ginny asked, but she didn't take her eyes off of the traffic, so engrossed was she with the lady's words.
"Oh, there was a time when it was necessary," the lady said, her words drifting as she studied the movement before her. "There!" she said, and Ginny jumped with the force of it. But even as she jumped she saw what the lady meant.
It was a hackney, bouncing along with the traffic, but as it moved, she saw the space. There was at least a two beat space between it and the other carriages as it tried to keep up on shoddy springs.
"There's a space," Ginny whispered, and the lady stood up.
"There is, indeed," the lady said.
Ginny watched the hack roll by and saw the distinct clearing left by its wobbling progression. She would be sure to escape unhindered through a hole that size if the need ever arose to quickly lose the authorities that always seemed to plague her.
"Well, what kind of luck do ye need to find one of them to cut through in this 'ere traffic?" Ginny said, pointing to the traffic as the lady stood.
"I wouldn't count on luck, my friend," the lady said, as she retrieved her parasol from the handsome gentleman, "Luck is nothing by which to judge a man or a lady. Intelligence is much more the thing."
And with that, the woman strolled away on the arm of the gentleman, and Ginny was sure she would never again meet such a remarkable lady.
~
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A Countess Most Daring:
Book Three of the Spy Series
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Thank you for reading For Love of the Earl: Book Two of the Spy Series. Please consider leaving an honest review where you purchased this book.
Other books by Jessie Clever:
Inevitably a Duchess: A Spy Series Novella
Son of a Duke: Book One of the Spy Series
A Countess Most Daring: Book Three of the Spy Series
To Save a Viscount: Book Four of the Spy Series
Shake Down Your Ashes
For Love of the Earl Page 20