Page 60 of An Unusual Wager

She bobbed a curtsy and made to hurry away, but he’d stopped her. “Don’t leave on my account.”

She’d hesitated. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t think anyone would be about so early.” She had a soft, country burr to her voice, and she was very pretty, with curling dark hair and a heart-shaped face…just like Kitty’s.

“I like to sit here and read when I can’t sleep,” he’d said, which had been more than he’d ever told anyone else.

She dimpled at him. “I’d do the same myself if I weren’t supposed to do so many chores before the family’s up.”

He was surprised. “You can read?”

She nodded. “My ma taught me when I was a little girl. She said it’d stand me in good stead later in life. She wants more for me than just being a housemaid.” Her voice dropped. “I think she fancies me being a housekeeper one day, and for that you need to be good at your reading and reckoning.”

He put his book down as this was much more interesting. The holidays had been long and boring so far, and he was missing the companionship of his friends at school. “A good ambition…so what’s your name?”

“Mary…sir.” It seemed she was conscious she should be addressing him respectfully.

He grinned at her. “No need to call me sir. My name’s Jonnie.”

Her eyes widened, presumably as she now realized who he was. She bobbed another curtsy. “I’m really sorry, Master Jonathan. I didn’t mean to be rude and disrespectful. I’ve not been here long, so I didn’t know as it was you.” So someone had told her his name.

He shook his head. “You’re not being disrespectful.” He got up from his window seat. “And to show you that, I’ll help you lay the fire. I’m very good at that. My nursemaid taught me how when I was just a little boy and I often laid the nursery fire for her.”

She backed up a step, clutching her basket of fire materials closer. “I can’t let you do that. It’s not right you should do it. Not with you being His Lordship’s son.”

He went to the fire. “Why not? Don’t I benefit from the fire when it’s lit? It gets quite chilly in here even in the summer, and my mother likes to sit in here after luncheon sometimes. She lets me set light to it. I might as well lay it as well.”

And so had begun their friendship.

Mary was two years older than he was, but that mattered nothing. She was a country girl from one of the bigger farms and had tales that made him laugh of misbehaving cows and contrary pigs and chickens. He enjoyed her company and, very soon, on her half day off, they were meeting in secret to go walking in the woods where no one would tell her off for fraternizing with the nobility when she shouldn’t be.

And one thing had inevitably led to another.

He’d fallen in love with her, and she with him. They’d discovered one another’s bodies in a mossy clearing under dappling sunlight, as two young people should. And he’d been happier than he’d ever been.

Until.

He snatched himself out of his reverie as it was heading to a place of nightmare where he didn’t want to go.

In the distance he could just make out the shapes of deer grazing near the wood where he and Mary had… No. Wrong direction again. He must think of something else entirely.

Luckily for him it must have been approaching luncheon, for footsteps sounded on the gravel and Kitty’s laughter carried to him. She was not a girl to ever miss a meal. Perhaps she was another, much better, reminder of that time, one he could hold close and allow himself to enjoy.

She ran across the gravel, kissed him on the cheek, and sat down on one of the spare chairs. “You’re out here, and I was in there in Grandmama’s stuffy old rooms playing draughts with her. You lucky thing. I wish I was already grown up. So much easier if I didn’t have to always do as I’m told. Grandmama was on fine form today and understood everything we told her. For now. I daresay she’ll have forgotten it all by tomorrow, though and Verity and I will have to go up there and repeat it.”

He smiled, glad of the distraction. “And if you do, it won’t be a chore, will it? For you love our grandmama.”

“I do.” Kitty nodded firmly. “Very much, but I do wish she was like she was today every day. So unfair that I didn’t know her when she was younger.”

“One of the perils of having a grandmother,” Jonnie said. “They are almost always old.” He indicated one of the spare seats. “Why don’t you sit down and let me look at you? You’re so like a little whirlwind it’s hard to focus on you.”

For answer, she laughed and leaned over to throw her arms around him, completely missing his wince. And only then did she sit down. “And I love you, too. I miss you so much when you’re in London. I wish…” She hesitated.

“What do you wish?”

“That you and Verity would stay here forever. I already love her dearly. She’s been so kind to me. Just like you, but better than you for she is here, and you hardly ever are.”

Did he want that? Was it possible?

He smiled. “How about next year, when you’re seventeen, you come up to stay in London with me?” Would that even work? Although, no one but Walter knew about Kitty’s existence and her illegitimacy. It might be possible to hide her origins and give her a proper season.

Kitty’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not at all sure I would like that, you know. Not after living here. Verity says London is all houses and paved streets and hardly any grass and no wide-open spaces like here at all. The best you have is Hyde Park, she says. And I don’t think that sounds a very nice place to be. She says it gets crowded and everyone is looking at everyone else and criticizing them. She says that’s why people go there. Because they want to be looked at. I shouldn’t like that at all.”

He shrugged, which didn’t hurt quite so much as the last time he’d done so. Still hurt quite a lot though. “She may well be right. But for now, I’m here at Luxborough, and I have no intention of going anywhere else at the moment. You can rest assured of that.”

She leaned in for another kiss. “Do you promise?”

He nodded. “I promise.”