Page 12 of A Well-Trained Lady

Unable to refuse my curiosity, I glanced at Augustus. His expression was steeled, but the uncertainty in his eyes was still distinguishable. “To be sure,” he said, his dull tone contradicting his affirmation.

After a brief pause, I covered my hurt with a forced laugh. “Your cousin does seem most overjoyed by our reacquaintance, does he not?” I sent him a wry smile, knowing full well how to pull him from his melancholy, though I wasn’t certain I wished to. “I hardly believed Ruth when she made mention of it, but you have become somber.”

Ruth’s expression filled with contrition. “I … well, I did mention it, Augi, but—”

I gave a dismissive wave of my hand. “Oh, Ruth, do not fret. It was imperative that your cousin should grow up at some point, and I fear such a thing requires a less mischievous temperament.”

Augustus appraised my features before his mouth curved upward on one side. “Mischievous? I believe your memory escapes you.”

My heart lifted as it always had when we used to tease one another, and I looked to Ruth. “Did he not taunt me mercilessly with his boyish tactics during his visits to Blacksley?”

Ruth tightened her lips together, her eyes now alight with glee, and she nodded.

Augustus shifted in his seat to face me more fully, resting his arm on the back of the bench. “What boyish tactics are you referring to exactly?”

I lifted a brow at him, ignoring the accelerated pounding of my heart and the warmth of his hand so near my bare neck. “You rubbed mud in my hair, put frogs down my frock, and hung my favorite doll from a tree.”

“That was before our truce.”

“And what of the time you took me fishing?”

He gave a half-hearted shrug. “What of it?”

My mouth opened in disbelief at his blatant oversight. “The way you bashed that fish with a rock is still seared into my memory.”

He began to shake with laughter, and I resisted the strangely familiar urge to join him. “The blame there should not fall entirely on me. You had to have realized that fish must first die if they are to be eaten?”

I pierced him with my most unamused stare, waiting for him to appear sufficiently contrite.

After a moment he filled his cheeks with air and released it slowly through his mouth, resuming a more appropriate demeanor. “Forgive me. I never meant to distress you.”

“Not even the time you nearly shot me with an arrow?”

He removed his arm from the back of the bench and pointed a lighthearted finger at me. “That was an accident, and I apologized.”

“Or the time you carried on as though William Morris, the pig man’s son, was fond of me—writing me those horrendous love letters?”

His lips squeezed shut, and he placed his clenched hand atop them to conceal his growing amusement. “Not an accident, I admit, but they were not horrendous. I heard you telling Ruth how well-written you thought them.”

My mouth parted. “You spied on us?”

He paused, then dipped his chin in mock contrition. “I now see that admitting it does not help my plight.”

I took in Ruth’s contented expression, unable to conceal my pleasure. “After everything I suffered at your cousin’s hands, I’m beginning to wonder at my decision to come along.” My intention was to tease, but the smile melted from Augustus’s lips. Time seemed to stop at seeing him so altered in countenance. Yet why should I be bothered that his conscience was pricked by my words? The guilt was not mine but his own. “Luckily for him,” I said, unable to prevent myself from righting the situation, “I have always been willing to overlook his troublesome ways.”

The corners of his lips curved upward again, though the smile lacked its previous radiance.

Unsure how to proceed in the ensuing silence, I focused on Ruth. “Tell me of Fairhaven. I long to know everything about it.”

She beamed back at me, needing no further insistence to fill the quiet. “Fairhaven must be one of the finest houses in all of England.” Ruth paused. “Well, to be completely honest, I don’t believe that would be a fair assessment, as I have not visited many houses outside of Dorset.” Her brows pulled low. “In truth, I haven’t visited many houses within Dorset either. Yet I have seen a great many from the outside, and Fairhaven, though not as large as some, is equally beautiful. Not to mention that the countryside gets more mesmerizing the closer you get to the coast. Do you not agree, Augi?”

Augustus nodded in my periphery.

Ruth leaned forward. “Do you think we could take Bella to the seaside?”

“If she desires it.”

Ruth reached out and touched my knee. “Would you like that?”