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But the words refused to come as thoughts flowed instead. August must despise her after her words to him. And now, more than ever, as she stood staring at him in stunned silence, he must think her even more odd.
“Are ye well?” he asked, hesitance written across his features.
That finally shocked Livvy from her stupor. He was hesitant. Not frustrated. Not judgmental. Hesitant.
Surely that meant he wasn’t upset with her, that she could speak her mind with him just as she’d done since the beginning.
“Yes,” she finally responded.
He glanced over his shoulder to the empty pathway shrouded by thick trees and grey clouds above. “I believe your father already left for ’ome.”
But Livvy shook her head at his assumption. “Yes, but, I…I came ’ere to see ye.”
His brow raised a fraction. “Oh.” He placed a small smile on his lips. “What did ye wish to see me ’bout?”
Why was he so kind? Even now, after she’d basically accused him of not being a true friend and stormed away when he’d tried to help her, he was still behaving as wonderfully as ever.
She let out a breath. Well, now was her chance to make amends, to show him that she intended to be as good a friend as he was. “I wished to speak with ye, to explain…’bout me actions on Sunday last.”
Again, surprise lit his features. He glanced left and right across the empty pathway, then drew a few steps closer to her, though they remained a few feet away from one another. “Ye don’t need to explain. Not unless ye wish to.”
“I know. But I do wish to.” He fell silent as she continued. “Ye see…I be ashamed to admit it, but when I came to fetch me reticule from ye at the graveyard, I o’erheard your conversation with your sisters. I should’ve left, or per’aps said somethin’ on Sunday ’bout it, but me feelin’s were hurt and I…well, I blamed ye for it. So I just wished to ’pologize.”
There. She’d explained herself. Could this awful feeling finally leave her now?
Unfortunately, August didn’t seem ready to end the conversation at all. Wincing those beautiful brown eyes of his, he drew closer to her. “Please, don’t ’pologize for o’erhearin’ what ye did. I ought to be beggin’ forgiveness for what me sisters said more ’an anythin’.”
She looked away. How she longed to clamp her mouth shut, to pretend that everything was now resolved, but she knew if she didn’t speak up now, she’d feel just as terribly as she had all week.
“Thank ye,” she said, “but I be used to their words. I…I was more upset ’bout what ye said.”
He didn’t speak for a moment, looking away with a distinct look of confusion. “What…what I said?”
She stifled a groan. Need she speak it aloud? “Ye just said I be odd. Well, your sisters did, and ye didn’t defend me.” She looked away, her cheeks aflame with heat. “I know it be ridiculous, but I s’pose it ’urt as I’d hoped ye thought different ’bout me. But it be fine if ye don’t. I just—”
“Livvy.”
His soft voice made her pause. “Yes?”
A half-smile stretched across his lips. “I did defend ye.”
Her mind raced over the conversation, as it had over and over again for the last week. “No,” she said softly. “Your sisters said I was odd, and ye…ye agreed.”
He looked to the side. “Well, ’course I did.”
Her brow puckered. He was openly admitting to it?
“I be sorry,” he said, “but I simply can’t see ’ow what I said be offensive. I agreed that ye were odd ’cause, well, ye do be odd.”
Livvy frowned, her defenses rising like the tide to prevent her heartache from occurring once again. Perhaps she’d been wrong about this man all along. “And ye don’t know ’ow I could be offended by such words?”
He peered down at her, his smile maddeningly distracting. “I s’pose, but I didn’t mean it offensively as we all be a sort of odd.”
Livvy struggled to maintain her anger. She was right in being offended. She knew she was. But then, was it his fault or her fault for taking insult when none was meant to be taken?
He took a step closer to her. “Be that why ye’ve been avoidin’ me? ’Cause ye ’appened to o’erhear a tenth of our conversation?”
She looked away. How she wished she could bury herself beneath the cobblestones they stood upon, if only to hide her embarrassment. “Per’aps,” she mumbled.
