Lady Bess

The gentlemen alighted from their carriages and turned to help the ladies.

Fleet, who was on horseback, saw to his own horse, loosened the girth of the saddle, saw an urchin, and called to him. The boy appeared eagerly, and Fleet flipped him a coin, saying, “What’s your name, son?”

“Jem. M’father is the farmer that works this spot of land. We let the Gypsies put up here, and me and m’brothers help the flash coveys sech as yerself with yer horses.”

Fleet laughed and flipped him another coin. “Here you go then, and there will be another one when I return if you look after my horse.”

“Oi will, sir, that oi will, ye can count on it,” the boy said, grinning wide as he pocketed the coins. “Would ye be wanting me to water him for ye? The stream is just over there.” He pointed to a narrow rocky stream that wound through the field, and Fleet agreed to it before he turned to Bess.

“Well done, Fleet,” Bess complimented him, and he beamed. She turned and, finding the earl frowning, laughed to ask, “What is it, my lord? Don’t you want to see a performing bear?”

“What I want,” he said on a low whisper as he bent to her ear, “is probably not something I should say to ye.”

She felt a shiver of excitement rush through her. Heat burned her cheeks, and her eyelashes fluttered with a will of their own. She looked into his blues and surprised herself with her daring. “Really, my lord, but I find I wish I knew just what it is you want.”

“Och, lass, I am a cad for even thinking of ye the way I think of ye. Saying it would make me a blackguard.”

“Bess, come on!” Robby shouted. “Donna won’t budge without you, and we shouldn’t dawdle here. The bear awaits!”

Fleetwood, used to falling in with Robby’s plans since their school days, agreed, saying, “It is a rare kick-up, rare!”

“Frippery fellows,” Bess declared on a short laugh. “You be careful that bear doesn’t see his next meal in you two.”

Donna and Bess fell into step as Robby and Fleet hurried on ahead, supposedly to find and save them a good vantage point from which to view this performing bear.

The earl chuckled as he escorted them and said, “After the bear, what would you ladies enjoy seeing?”

“The fortune teller,” Bess answered at once.

They reached a row of booths with brightly painted awnings. One in particular sported dolls of various types and sizes and caught Bess’s attention. Robby had at this moment returned to take his wife in hand and pull her along to where he said Fleet was holding a bench for them all.

Bess, however, slowed to a stop at the ‘doll’ booth, with the earl hovering protectively at her side.

She found and held up a china doll. “Isn’t she pretty?” she exclaimed.

“Very, but not nearly as—” he started.

She put up a hand and giggled. “Don’t say it.” Shaking her head, she added, “It is much too pat.”

“Monkey!” He chastised her and took her hand. “Do ye want it? Shall I purchase it for ye, m’sweet?”

She was genuinely horrified. “Oh no, please do not—I will be terribly uncomfortable if you offer to purchase everything I find pretty, for I like a great many things.”

He laughed. “Absurd lass, canna I not give ye a small gift?”

She lowered her gaze again, and he shook his head and gave her a half smile. “Never mind. Coom along then, for ye will enjoy the bear—from what I can see, he is putting on a bit of a show!”

He took her hand to lead her, and she allowed it. She knew she shouldn’t. She knew she was past falling for him, that she was in already far too deep to easily climb out of the all-encompassing love that flooded every fiber of her being. Her question, always her question: could he love her back, or would his resistance to such a far-reaching emotion make him walk away?

The performing bear turned out to be beyond even what Robby thought it would be. Bess and Donna clapped hands and oohed and aahed, but Bess turned to find his lordship’s eyes not on the bear but on her. A rush of emotion surged through her, and she thought in that moment that he might, just might be starting to care for her more than he would admit.

Perhaps she could encourage him over the edge? It certainly wouldn’t be easy, for she could also see him attempting to put up a wall every single time she thought she might be making headway.

The performing bear show was done, and as they walked past a row of booths holding many intriguing items for sale, Robby and Fleet were engrossed in some argument or other. Donna was busy advising them that they were both off on the subject when Bess spied a table nearby and moved to it to allow her gloved finger to touch a lovely cameo.

“Do ye want it, and doona tell me I canna buy it for ye. ’Tis the veriest nothing.” The earl’s voice in her ear made her tremble.

She turned her head partially, enough to find his blue eyes intent with something she dared not name. “You really must not. This is even more unsuitable for you to purchase for me than the doll. You must see that? Now do stop, or I shan’t be able to look at anything in your presence. Besides, my lord, I have enough pin money to pay for it should I want it.”