Page 22 of A Well-Trained Lady

I met his gaze. “Is it?”

He pressed his lips together, and lowered the rose. “Forgive me. I will not press upon you further.” Sadness once again settled over his countenance. “But might I say, one last time, how truly sorry I am for everything? Had it been my choice, things would have been very different.” He held my gaze a torturous moment, then he turned from me.

Panic surged through my whole body as he walked away from me. “Mr. Brundage,” I called, unable to stop myself.

He glanced over his shoulder.

My heart was pounding, and my will turned traitorous. “Are you giving up that easily?”

He considered me a moment. “I was under the impression that is what you desired of me.”

“Do you know nothing of women, Mr. Brundage?” My chest was abuzz from nerves.

He hesitated, but then started back toward me. “I’m beginning to think I do not understand them at all.”

“Not every declaration a woman gives, especially ones pronounced in anger, should be considered irrevocable. As readily as a lady is to set her mind upon something, with a little persuasion, she yet may change it.”

Augustus now stood before me, and ever-so-slowly he lifted the rose again.

I swallowed, wondering what I had just gotten myself into. But certainly there was not so much wrong with allowing some semblance of a rapport with Augustus. After all, he had saved me from a visit to Sandson, and he did seem sincere in his desire to make things right between us. In truth, it seemed heartless not to allow for it as long as I made my intentions clear. I quirked a brow at him. “A token of friendship?”

A curious smile touched Augustus’s features. “If you will receive it as that.”

Careful not to prick my finger on the thorns, I took hold of the rose. “I would like nothing better.”

He did not relinquish it immediately, his hand situated just below mine on the stem. “Truly?”

“Truly.” With my acknowledgment he released his hold, and I lifted the rose to smell it, glancing up at him as I did so.

Augustus’s smile was radiant.

“What has the two of you looking so excited?” Ruth asked, walking toward us.

I lowered my hand, the rose dangling at my side. “We were discussing our friendship.”

“Oh.” Ruth glanced between us with a perplexed expression. “And what has been decided?”

Augustus’s eyes flickered to me. “That we are to once again be friends.”

Ruth scrunched up her nose, causing a deep line to form across the bridge of it. “And at what point were the two of you not friends?”

“We have always been friends.” I glanced at Augustus for confirmation, and he cautiously nodded his agreement. “We were only in need of talking through a few things.”

Ruth looked a touch hesitant. “I suppose those things are to stay between the two of you?”

Before I could decide upon an appropriate response, Augustus stepped forward and placed a hand around Ruth’s shoulder. “Yes. At least for now.”

“It’s just as well. Why burden myself when you have begun to work it all out? So long as you do, of course. For I can’t imagine anything that could cause a rift between the two of you.”

Eight years without so much as one word from him seemed an adequate refutation, but I suppressed my comment. “Well, we are on our way to bridging it.”

Chapter Seven

“The grounds were quite simple, but there was a pleasing quality about them.” I watched Leah in the reflection, twisting a strand of hair and pinning it into place. “And though I long to be convincing Lord Thorton of our compatibility”—my eyes settled on the rose—“Fairhaven is certainly preferable to Sandson Hall.”

Leah did not respond, but adjusted a few last golden curls before making quick work of weaving a ribbon through it. “Finished.”

I leaned in close to the looking glass, inspecting my coiffure from each angle. “Well done, as usual.”