Page 8 of A Well-Trained Lady

“The Leavitts have written,” Papa said abruptly, disregarding my question.

I lifted my brow. “Oh?” I carefully handed him his tea.

“It seems Mrs. Leavitt is not well enough to travel to Dorset at this time.”

My chest tightened, and I took a seat with my own cup in hand. “But Leah said the coach will be here any moment to retrieve me.”

“Yes … well … I have secured you another invitation for the time being.”

“Another invitation?” I attempted to conceal my bewilderment. “Where to?”

Papa pulled his pocket watch out and studied it.

“Papa?”

When his eyes lifted, there was a peculiar flicker that left me unsettled. I raised my cup of tea to my lips, hoping it would calm the sudden churning in my stomach.

A knock splintered through the silence and Harriston stepped inside. “A Mr. Brundage and Miss Seton have arrived, my lord.”

My gaze shot to Papa so quickly that the warm liquid I was attempting to swallow was instead inhaled. I sought to pull in a breath, but the attempt was in vain, and a fit of coughs seized me.

“Are you well, Arabella?” Papa asked. I had just enough sense to nod.

“Is she choking?” Ruth’s voice only heightened my state of dread, realizing she and Augustus had been shown into the room.

Papa stood, and started toward me. “I believe she has just swallowed wrong.”

I held up a hand toward him, gesturing for him to stop. “A mo—ment,” I choked out in a throaty voice, rising to stagger toward the window. My coughing continued and my chest burned, making it impossible to right the rhythm of my breath.

“Lift your arms.” Augustus’s voice was humiliatingly close, and I refused to glance in his direction. After eight years without so much as a word from him, to have him find me in such a state was too much to suffer.

“I’m … well,” I said through more coughs.

“Still just as stubborn, I see.” There was amusement in his voice.

I contemplated piercing him with a scowl for teasing me in my distress, but it would not serve my purpose with a reddened face and tears streaming down my cheeks. Finally, out of sheer desperation, I lifted my arms to shoulder height. Augustus stepped behind me and took hold of my wrists, lifting them until they were straight overhead. Though his proximity did little to ease me, within moments my coughing ceased and bit by bit my breathing regulated.

Without a word, he released my wrists.

I lowered my hands to wipe at my eyes, unwilling to lift my gaze to his. “Thank you.”

Papa gave a loud clap of his hands. “Well done. I shall need to remember that trick.”

Augustus dispelled the heat engulfing my back by moving to a more suitable distance. “My father always claimed lifting your arms above your head like that opens up the chest cavity to allow for more air. Though I’m not sure of the truth in it, it has always seemed to work.”

“Well I’m glad you thought of it.” Ruth moved to my side. “That was awfully frightening to witness. And to think, if you’d not been here, who knows what could have happened.”

I straightened in exasperation. “A moment or two longer and I could have righted myself.” I compensated for the heat that now pooled in my cheeks by offering a tight laugh.

Ruth nodded, though it was obvious she was not convinced.

Without thinking, I glanced at Augustus. My breath nearly caught a second time at the striking man that stood before me. How tall he now was—though I was certain Lord Thorton was taller yet—and his hair had grown darker, a soft golden brown that nearly matched the undertones of his tanned skin. But his honey-brown eyes were the same, as was his delightfully irritating grin. “After eight years, how does it feel to suddenly reappear and be deemed my hero, Mr. Brundage?”

He only laughed, but the familiar sound, though now deeper, somehow set me at ease. No. It could not. Not after his neglect. I fortified the wall around my heart, assuring it would be impenetrable to his disingenuous charms.

“Can you believe, after all this time, we are together again?” Ruth’s question pulled me from my thoughts. “We shall have such a grand time these next few weeks.”

My stomach knotted, and I glanced toward Papa.