Page 12 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

Rob spotted Caroline from the drawing room window. She walked along the path at the edge of the lawn, heading towards the parterre gardens.

He had not gone up to the nursery for fear he would be intruding on Mary and Drew’s argument, and that meant he was currently at a loose end.

He freed the latch, opened the French door and stepped out as Caroline disappeared behind the seven-feet-tall yew hedge.

When he walked across the lawn in pursuit, he realised he had come outside hatless and gloveless, but his stay here was informal, he would not wear them to walk in the gardens at home.

The garden on the other side of the hedge was rectangular, with broad flowerbeds on either side. Caro was standing in front of the flowers, leaning forward and holding a bloom to her nose.

His heart skipped a beat. If he could draw as well as John the pose would make a perfect portrait – he would call the painting ‘The serenity of a summer morning’.

The grass pathway silenced his footsteps as he approached. ‘Caroline. ’

She jumped half out of her skin, turning and stumbling. She would have fallen among the flowers but he caught her arm. When she was steady, he released her.

Her bosom lifted with a sharp breath, and in the shadow of her bonnet, her cheeks burned red.

‘You frightened me,’ she accused.

‘I did not intend to. I saw you come out, and I have nothing to do.’

There it was again. The moment she stopped the expression of what she felt, she stopped looking at him and looked beyond his shoulder.

What a puzzle.

It made him unsure. ‘ I wish she would be braver ,’ Drew had said the other day. Rob could help her, if she would let him. ‘Do you think it possible that by the end of the summer we may be friends?’ he ventured.

Her bosom lifted as she took another deeper than usual breath, and her gaze returned to him. ‘That would b-b-be nice, I think. But you will have to g-g-give me time to… adjust. I am sorry.’

She would have left him, but instinctively he held her arm to stop her flight. It would discompose her, yes, but when the woman kept running how else was he to keep her here long enough to speak?

The muscles in her arm stiffened. She pulled it free.

‘We can progress at your pace. Yet, please, talk to me. It will be very awkward if you spend the whole summer avoiding me.’

She nodded. Yet then, again, walked off.

It made him wonder what she endured in her marriage. Everyone knew her husband had been violent and that was why she left him.

The feeling of pity wrenched his stomach.

Perhaps it was that which had caught him in the gut the other day.

She might suffer with fear, but he had a feeling she also suffered with wounded pride, because her husband left her embarrassed…

That wound would be opened daily among his family, they were all terribly in love.