‘It is very remote.’ Morgan watched her out of the corner of his eye. He had to wonder what he had to do to get her to open up and talk to him. ‘There is just you and I here, Sissy. You can talk to me. I promise that I won’t judge you.’
‘We have to move there,’ Sissy told him. ‘Mr Lauden has decided to sell up. Have you not heard?’
‘I did indeed,’ Morgan replied honestly. ‘Mother told me.’
‘I thought she would.’ Sissy wasn’t angry, though. Alicia had already warned her that she had to tell her son.
‘That is what I wanted to talk to you about,’ he replied carefully.
Sissy lifted her brows at him. ‘Your mother? Is she – well?’
‘Yes, she is fine,’ Morgan sighed impatiently. ‘I meant the house. I want to talk to you about Farmer Martin’s cottage.’
While he was delighted that she had agreed to take this walk with him, Morgan now wondered if it had really been such a good idea. As they meandered down the path he became acutely aware of several curious gazes upon them. Women in the gardens of the terrace cottages running alongside the riverbank turned to stare. Several children playing in the fields beside the houses stopped to watch them. A farmer on the opposite bank kept throwing curious looks their way. In fact, now that he came to look around the riverside, Morgan realised that it wasn’t the quietest place to take a walk with Sissy.
Still, it is too late to return now. People will think it is odd.
Besides, Morgan didn’t see why he should be worried about other people being rude enough to stare at them. It wasn’t unusual for anybody to take a walk.
‘Oh?’ In that moment, Sissy looked up and saw Morgan looking around them. She turned to see what had caught his eye and realised just how much attention they had drawn. With her cheeks aflame, Sissy tried to remove her hand from his arm only for Morgan to place his hand upon hers, stopping her.
‘Don’t,’ he murmured.
Sissy felt so guilty, but for the life of her couldn’t decide why. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.
‘People are curious because they don’t see you out and about very often,’ he murmured soothingly because he knew exactly why she was worried.
‘How do you know it is me they are looking at? You are the Lord after all. It is highly unusual of you to walk down the riverside, isn’t it?’ Sissy countered without thinking about how brash her bold statement was.
Morgan grinned. For once, he had received a natural response from her that wasn’t guarded or restrained by social restrictions or her shyness. It was wonderful and gave him hope that he might, after everything, be able to get to know the woman she was, not the woman she presented to the world.
‘Maybe it is me they are staring at then. Or, maybe, they are wondering what we are talking about,’ he murmured with a wink.
‘I am sorry to put you under so much scrutiny,’ she replied dryly. She was a little shocked that she was behaving like this with him, so open and carefree.
‘Do I look as if I am bothered by it? They are just being nosy, that’s all,’ Morgan replied.
‘This is going to be talked about,’ Sissy moaned. ‘I knew it was a bad idea.’
‘But you came anyway,’ he countered.
‘The thought a walk in the sunshine would be nice,’ she replied honestly.
‘So it didn’t have anything to do with me.’ Morgan tried not to sound too disgruntled.
Sissy blinked at him and felt her cheeks flood with colour. ‘If I objected to your company I wouldn’t have accepted your offer. I would have waited for you to leave and then asked Norma to walk with me.’
‘But it wouldn’t have been half as much fun, would it?’ Morgan countered.
Sissy didn’t smile as he expected her to. Instead, she stopped in the middle of the path and frowned at him. ‘Is that what this is? Are you entertaining yourself with the impoverished miss just to show the locals that there is no ill feeling between us after what happened the other day? Do you find drawing the attention of the gossips entertaining?’
She had to wonder if he had any idea just how much whispering she would face in the next day or so for today, but doubted it seeing as Morgan didn’t frequent the village shops.
‘Of course not. I just don’t care what people gossip about, and neither should you. If you allow the judgement of others to bother you too much, they will control your life and that is not for anybody to do,’ Morgan retorted. ‘I am sorry for what happened the other day. Like mother has told you, Arthur, the man driving the curricle, is no longer an acquaintance of mine. His behaviour was completely abhorrent. But I don’t see why I should be judged for it.’
‘People will judge you because you were there,’ Sissy replied.
‘Well, that is their problem. I have apologised to you,’ he prompted.