Page 9 of The Ruin of Miss Amelia Burrowes

Chapter 4

After a night spent tossing and turning and a morning filled with growing dread, Amelia had regretfully dressed in her best blue carriage gown, trimmed with rosettes of the same color, and a matching bonnet and taken up her station in one of the chairs in the downstairs receiving room of the townhouse her father had taken for the Season. She hoped the small amount of Pear’s Almond Bloom she’d applied to her face helped hide her haggard look. It would not do for Lord Ainsley to believe her drooping appearance was due to sleeplessness caused by him. Even if it was true.

There’d been so much upheaval last evening that she’d lain awake going over every moment until the wee hours. First there’d been Mr. Burke’s introduction and subsequent kiss in the library. Then Lord Ainsley’s startling appearance. Who would’ve thought he would materialize after such a long time, at the very worst moment, then offer to take her driving as though his absence during the last ten years had never occurred? But the worst had been Mr. Burke’s reaction to the outing with Lord Ainsley. Mama had calmed him, apparently, but he’d protested loudly on the way home, until Amelia was left at her doorstep with a terrible headache.

So today she was determined to tell Lord Ainsley, in no uncertain terms, that she would not jeopardize her possible future with Mr. Burke just to satisfy his curiosity about her. That was all it must be. That she remembered their budding romance all those years ago did not mean he did, certainly not when he’d left without a word to her. She’d been devastated, waiting day after day for him to arrive at the townhouse to speak to her father about a formal courtship. Night after night, she’d searched each entertainment for him, until finally she’d overheard two gentlemen talking about Lord Ainsley and learned that he’d left for Italy the previous week.

Somehow, she’d gotten through that horrible evening, although once she’d returned home, she’d cried until dawn.

Never again would she cry over this man. She’d send him off with a large flea in his ear this very afternoon, marry Mr. Burke, and be content with her lot. Hopefully, her life would be better than it had been so far, if she worked at pleasing her husband. Not the marriage she’d imagined having all those years ago, but at least she’d be a wife and respectable again.

The front door opening brought her up out of the chair, her stomach quivering. A murmur of voices in the corridor, and her mouth went as dry as if she’d swallowed cotton. She clutched the strings of her reticule, steeling herself.

Their butler appeared in the doorway. “Lord Ainsley, miss.”

Suddenly the butler was gone, and he was there, tall and handsome as ever. Dressed impeccably in pale trousers and an excellently cut walnut brown coat, wide at the shoulders and impossibly narrow at the waist, his lordship could’ve just stepped out of a bandbox.

“Miss Burrowes, good afternoon.” He smiled and bowed, his gaze taking her in from top to toe.

“Good afternoon, my lord.” Hoping he couldn’t see her trembling, she curtsied and nodded toward the door. “Shall we go? I am certain you have more pressing things to attend to this afternoon than an outing with me.”

“None that I can think of.” His gray eyes twinkled as he offered his arm. “But I will take the hint. Let us be off.”

After handing her into his curricle, a sleek black and yellow vehicle, pulled by a matched pair of grays, he jumped aboard and took the ribbons with very sure hands.

“Are they always this tiny?” The vehicle seemed too small to carry them both. Perched on the seat with the top back and no sides to hold her in, Amelia expected to be ejected from the carriage as soon as they hit a rut or bump in the road. She clutched what little of the side there was in a death grip.

“This is the standard size for a curricle, Miss Burrowes.” The wretch smiled as he started the team. “I believe I detect a lack of confidence in my ability to drive this rig.”

“Oh, dear.” Amelia gritted her teeth as they turned the corner at a trot. She clung to the side as best she could, but even the slight speed made her dizzy. “It is not my lack of confidence in your driving, my lord, but my lack of faith in my ability to stay in my seat.”

“You have never ridden in a curricle before?” He chuckled and adjusted the reins.

Wretched man.

“Never.” And never would again once they returned home.

“Then I am delighted to be the one to introduce you to the pleasures of a brisk ride.” He grinned at her as they sped through the gates of Hyde Park. As soon as they rolled onto the dirt bridle path, he did something with the ribbons and the horses picked up their pace.

The grass, trees, and flowers along the path became a colorful blur as Amelia held onto her bonnet with one hand and the curricle with the other. The wind rushed over her face, which actually felt exquisite. Still, she feared they would come to mischief any second.

After an interminable time, he slowed the horses again, this time to a sedate walk, and turned to her. “Did you enjoy your first curricle ride, Miss Burrowes?”

On the tip of her tongue to tell him it had been horrible, thank you very much, she glanced at him and stopped, arrested by the hopeful look on his face. He really wished to have pleased her. Something inside her shifted, and she smiled back at him. “It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, my lord.”

“I wanted to come here before the fashionable hour just so we could take the path at a good clip. One cannot do that when so many people are about.”

Amelia glanced around and, true enough, only a handful of walkers and one gentleman on horseback were in evidence. Fewer people to recognize her as well. Had that also been on Lord Ainsley’s mind?

“There is an offshoot of the path up ahead. I thought we might stop a moment.” He steered the willing horses toward a smaller opening in the trees and suddenly they were inside a bower of greenery, quite secluded, where he slowed the horses until they stopped.

Her pulse raced. Why had he brought her here? Had he finally heard the stories the ton whispered about her and thought he could take advantage of her lack of reputation? The memory of their kiss beneath the cherry tree surfaced, and her resolve suddenly faltered. Would she indeed allow him the liberty again?

“Miss Burrowes, first, I would like to apologize most abjectly for the way I treated you, going away without a word all those years ago.”

Of all the things she’d imagined he’d say today while tossing and turning last night, that had not even remotely crossed her mind. She blinked, not knowing how to respond. “Thank you, my lord. I do appreciate that, even though it was quite a long time ago.” She sighed. “A lifetime ago, it seems.”

“Indeed, it does seem that way.” He gazed ahead, pointedly not looking at her. “I want to tell you what happened.” Suddenly, his piercing gaze was trained on her, the sorrow there almost a palpable thing.