“She won’t force you if you return.”
“I don’t trust her any longer, James.”
“Cherry, she is sorry for it, all of it. She thought she was arranging a wonderful match for you.”
Cherry sighed. “I know and forgive her, but first I have something here that I must accomplish. Go home, James.”
Freddy and the twins had been listening to the exchange with rapt interest, but at this juncture Freddy stuck in, “Shall I throw him off the premises now, Miss Cherry?”
“No. We had better take him into tea and forget about the ride for now.” Cherry laughed and then looked up at Dartford. “And by the way, wherever did you get that dapple? He is a prime one, isn’t he?”
“I must say,” Freddy agreed with a nod. “Miss Cherry is right on that. He is magnificent.”
“Isn’t he though? Picked him up in Northumberland last month. That’s what took me so long getting back to London—wanted to bring him along slowly. And while I was attending to the business of horseflesh you were raking up scrapes all over town and then vanishing in the middle of the night. Need some taming, you do, Cherry my girl.”
“Do I? Perhaps I just need purpose.”
“And have you that here?” he asked, his brow up.
Francine slipped her hand into Cherry’s, and Cherry smiled. “I do.”
<
~ Eighteen ~
THANKS TO JAMES, her secret was out. Freddy and the twins had demanded over tea to be told the ‘truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’ Cherry had complied, even telling them that a kindly gentleman had given her a ride to her nanny’s.
They were understandably shocked, thrilled, flabbergasted, and totally enthralled. Francine hugged Cherry and said, “My poor, poor Miss Cherry … having to go through all that. You are so very brave.”
Felix had nodded. “Aye, knew it from the start, a right ’un.”
Tea had been consumed and the tray laden with delectables cleared during the lively discussion that ensued, and it was with some regret that James stood up and announced, “Well, then, as you won’t return with me, I shall set myself up at the local inn.”
As it turned out that was precisely what he did, and he became a constant and most welcome visitor at Bromley.
Once Freddy established that no danger to his precious Miss Cherry existed, he was very willing to fall under James’ easy charm, and the two became fast friends. The twins found they too, enjoyed the newcomer, for he was certainly lively.
Three days had passed since Sky had left for London, and Cherry would have been devastatingly heartsick had she not both James and Freddy to pick up her spirits with their antics.
James, however, knew her very well, and he was not fooled by her false air of merriness. They were sitting on the stone bench by the duck pond watching the twins feed the ducks when he asked, suddenly serious, “What is it, Cherry? Why so blue-deviled?”
“Not so,” she answered quickly, too quickly.
“This is me you are talking to, my child,” he responded on a superior note. “Can’t fool me.”
“Child indeed!” She attempted to divert the subject.
“I have eight months on you and a vast deal more experience, and besides, I am a man.” He put up his hand to halt the tirade he could see she was about to let loose on him. “That’s right, superior, my dear, in every way, as you are but a woman.”
His teasing was mitigated with a brotherly kiss dropped on her nose. “Now, tell me, what has you so low?”
“Naught,” she answered quietly. She had always confided in James. She had told him about her first kiss and every kiss after that, much to his jibes and lectures. She had told him about every scrape and lark she had ever kicked up, including all her notorious adventures in London. She had never held back before. But how could she tell him that she was in love with Sky and had broken all the rules …?
“Indeed?” He was taken aback and slightly hurt by her reticence.
“It is just so very difficult to speak about …” She allowed the sentence to trail off. Something kept her in check. She couldn’t speak about her feelings for Sky and have James tease in his usual fashion. This was not larking—this was something else altogether.
“Is it?” He prompted her to go on. “Try one word at a time. One sentence following another. It often works.”