Page 25 of Echoes of the Sea (Storm Tide #2)

“There is something additionally strange,” she said.

“While my uncle and his friend are here, I think you need to be very circumspect. I told them we had a carpenter who was working here, and I suspect they thought very little of that. But if they knew you actually were a gentleman of leisure who lived here and once even spent an evening in my company, they would be scandalized to the point that my entire future would be in danger.”

“I realize that’s the way things were in the past, but to hold to that now—”

“There is nothing ‘in the past’ about this. A young, unwed lady sharing a house with an eligible, young, unwed gentleman is simply not done, not without ruining them both.”

He held his hands up and blinked a few times. “Wait. You’re serious?”

“The rules about this might be lax in America, but they are not at all here.” She actually found it shocking that there would be that much of a difference between their two countries.

“The slightest show of failure, and my uncle could take everything from me. I cannot risk giving him reason to do so.”

He held the door on the back terrace open for her, and she stepped through it.

The tip of her cane had grown wet outside, and it slipped on the polished wood floor.

Kipling’s arm wrapped around her and helped keep her steady while she regained her footing, just as he’d done in the sitting room several nights earlier.

She wanted to ask him not to let go, to suggest he could keep his arm around her, walk with her, hold her .

.. It was very unlike her to be so bold.

“What is it your uncle is threatening to take from you?” Kipling asked, having dropped his arm away already.

“My grandfather left me an inheritance. His will said it was enough that I could live in some ease, without having to continue being a poor relation in my uncle’s home.

But because my grandfather was a vindictive and unkind man, he’s requiring me to prove that I can be a good steward of it by showing myself a good steward of Guilford for the half year I am required to be here. ”

Though he seemed to understand her, he still had the look of someone sorting through a mystery.

“If my uncle declares that I didn’t do a good job or if I outright fail, the inheritance I have been promised will be given to him, and I will be required to marry whomever he chooses for me.”

“What?” He didn’t sound shocked; he sounded utterly baffled.

“There were laws passed in recent years that allow ladies to object to matches chosen for them,” she acknowledged, “but they can’t truly be enforced.

The ways in which ladies can be coerced or forced into marriages are multitudinous.

Contracts such as this supersede even laws when it comes to the realities of life. ”

He stopped in the middle of the corridor. “In this day and age, you cannot be forced to marry someone.”

“A lady’s ability to choose her future is no more within her grasp in 18 03 than it was in 17 03.”

He shook his head slowly, his brow pulling tighter and tighter.

She reached out and set a hand on his, similar to how he had to her in the gardening shed.

And just as it had then, the light touch brought a surge of warmth and awareness but also a degree of peace and calm.

“I know this is less than ideal. I don’t want you to think that I’m ashamed of your being here.

It isn’t at all the reason I’m asking you to play least in sight.

Your company is far preferable to my uncle or his .

.. friend. But Uncle never stays more than one night.

I simply need you to take your meal in your room tonight.

You’ve done so most of the time you’ve been here, so I assume it won’t be a terrible thing for you. ”

“But I suspect it will be a terrible thing for you. Whenever you speak of your uncle, you do so in terms of anxiety and worry. And this friend of his seems to make you even more uncomfortable.”

He had sorted that even though she had hardly said more than a word about Mr. Winthrop.

His brows suddenly shot up. “I’ve just realized. If they have arrived, that must mean the sea road is uncovered.”

Amelia’s heart dropped. “It is. Provided we don’t have a full moon anytime soon, it should remain entirely above water until the next storm.”

“We could go into the village. You could get away from the sea while we attempt to convince people to come out and help look after the place.”

“I’m not allowed to leave,” she reminded him.

“I realize you’re supposed to make your home here, implement changes and improvements. But I—”

“I’m literally not allowed to leave. If I take even a single step away from Guilford Island, I will be in violation of the terms of my grandfather’s will.”

“ I’m not subject to those terms,” he said firmly. “I’m going to take the sea road up to the village.”

“Stirring up a hornet’s nest will only make this worse. I don’t know who in the village might be reporting to my uncle and be willing to tell him things that would make him look down on me.”

“You think the village is crawling with spies?” he asked dryly.

She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “My grandfather’s will said there would be people willing to tell my uncle if I violated the terms of the agreement.”

That seemed to give Kipling a degree of pause.

“Please be careful when you’re in the village,” she said. “Not just for my sake. They are a superstitious lot. If they find reason to think you too much of an oddity, I don’t know what they would do.”

“I know how to be unobtrusive,” he said.

She gave him a jokingly withering look, which made him laugh. Heavens, she liked the sound of his laugh and the way his eyes danced with amusement.

“I’ll finish my work this morning, then I’m going to go see what I can find on the other end of the sea road.”

And her enjoyment of only a moment earlier all but evaporated. He was leaving. He’d said he wouldn’t, and she supposed this wasn’t really violating that promise. Guilford Village wasn’t so very far away. And he hadn’t said he wasn’t coming back.

But what did he have to come back to? Living half his days like a carpenter? Mick dogging his heels? The Iverses being almost friendly to him?

Her?

With such unappealing enticements, what hope was there, really, that, upon leaving Guilford, he would ever look back?