Chapter Two

      With a deep, inspiriting breath, Emma took another determined peek around the hazel hedge.

      The dilapidated exterior of weatherbeaten boarding and slipping roof tiles had her optimism again ebbing. The cottage looked deserted. Perhaps he had moved away. Please no, don’t let that be! she silently prayed. The London post was already lost to view as the road dipped below the shadow-racing field, and would be well on the way to Bath, some two miles further on.

      She had been dropped in the village of Oakdene and had wandered the narrow, rut-scored lanes looking for Nonsuch Cottage with many a villager’s curious stare following her. A bramble embedding in her skirt had quite literally brought her stumbling upon what she sought: it was an aptly named little place, she smilingly realised as her honey gaze weaved past the crude wooden name-plate on the gate, through foxgloves and scarlet roses entwined with bellbind and cow parsley, and on to the crooked door.

      Gently reared behind the graceful brick façade of Rosemary House in Cheapside, she had hardly realised that such ram-shackle-looking dwellings existed, let alone expected ever to enter one. As for gardening, nurturing delicate hothouse blooms had been her only experience of the demands of horticulture. The association of a conservatory and exotic plants and happier days with friends evoked a flash of memory, puzzling and niggling at the periphery of her consciousness. She gave it barely a further moment’s concentration before again focussing on the grimy whitewash of the cottage.

      On closer inspection it seemed structurally sound. In fact, she decided, it held a definite rustic charm. The interior of the building might be quite neat and tidy; one couldn’t expect a widowed gentleman of straitened means to bother about weeds when he had to attend to the needs of his small children. Curtains were visible at dusty windows high under the eaves, she gladly noted, yet it was so quiet it could have been deserted.

      As though to settle that anxiety a female voice shrieked out something unintelligible; there followed a child’s thin wailing. So the property was inhabited, and by a Billingsgate fishwife by the sound of it! A sudden awful suspicion stopped her heart, and she wondered why it had never occurred to her earlier: had Matthew not replied to her letter of six months ago because he had remarried? Before she could torture herself further on the subject, the white-boarded cottage door was flung open. A small mongrel dog hurtled, whining, close to Emma’s skirts then scampered out into the lane.

      ‘Blasted cur!’ the young woman barked, and was about to slam the door shut when she noticed Emma. Slack-mouthed surprise was soon replaced by a stony expression. ‘Whatever you be sellin’, we don’t want none. Be off with you. We’ve got Bibles aplenty ‘n sermons ‘n pills ‘n potions…’

      Emma wasn’t sure whether to laugh or display outrage that this young woman’s first impression of her was as some sort of pedlar! Was her appearance really so drab that she was deemed to be touting from door to door? Her own impression now of this young woman was that she wasn’t Matthew’s wife but his housekeeper, a judgement backed by her rough local dialect and faded black uniform.

      Aware of the woman still staring aggressively, Emma finally detached herself from the bramble with a tear to her skirt, a prick to her finger and a spattering of mauve berry juice to her palm. Drawing herself up to her full height, her slender shoulders back, and topaz eyes glass-cool, she haughtily informed the woman, ‘I have just alighted from the London stage and would like to speak to Mr Cavendish. Is he at home?’

      Emma’s unexpectedly refined accent had the woman’s jaw dropping again and a keen-eyed scrutiny slipping over her from serviceable tan bonnet to dusty, sturdy shoes.

      ‘Close that blasted door, will you, Maisie? The draught is taking these papers all over the desk…’ was bellowed from within.

      ‘Matthew…’ Emma whispered to herself at the sound of that well-modulated, if deeply irritated tone. But the relief she was sure would drench her at the first sight or sound of him was slow in coming. ‘I should like to speak to Mr Cavendish,’ she repeated firmly, with a nod at the door.

      ‘Wait there,’ the woman snapped discourteously, dark eyes skimming over Emma’s modest attire, then the door was shut in her face. Within what seemed a mere second a tall man was stepping over the threshhold onto the grass-sprouting cobbled pathway. A hand was wiped about his bristly chin and across his eyes as though he was fatigued.

      ‘Emma…?’ Matthew Cavendish murmured disbelievingly as his fingers pushed a tangle of brown hair back from his brow for a better view of her. A white grin split his shady jaw and, with a cursory straightening of his shirt-cuffs and waistcoat, he was rushing towards her.

      ‘Emma! How wonderful to see you!’ He gripped her by the shoulders and warm hazel eyes smiled down into her upturned, uncertain face. ‘Why didn’t you send word you were coming? Oh, I’m so sorry…come inside…please. What an oaf you must think me, leaving you planted amongst the weeds! As you can see,’ he added ruefully, gesturing at snaggled greenery, ‘tending the roses isn’t a fond pastime.’ After drawing one of her arms through his they proceeded out of breezy late summer sunlight into the cool, dim interior of the cottage.

      ‘Maisie will fetch some tea,’ he directed at the woman while helping Emma to slip out of her cumbersome cloak.

      Emma’s eyes flicked to the small brunette and noted an odd, insubordinate stare arrow from servant to master. Then, with a twitch of her faded black serge, Maisie was gone.

      After a brief pause during which only polite smiles passed between them, there was,

      ‘I must apologise…’

      ‘I should explain…’

      They had spoken together and simultaneously laughed, embarrassed, too.

      ‘You first,’ Matthew invited, ushering Emma towards a comfortable-looking chintz-covered fireside chair and pressing her into it. As he leaned towards her and gripped her hands, displaying his pleasure at seeing her, a recognisable sweetish aroma assailed her nostrils. She had too often been about her intoxicated papa not to instantly recognise the smell of strong alcohol about someone’s person. There was a hint of red rimming his eyes too, she noted, with a hesitant smile up into Matthew’s undoubtedly hung-over face.

      ‘I was about to say, Matthew, I must apologise for visiting you without proper warning. But I had no time to write, or wait for your reply.’ She gave him a wry look. ‘After all, it has been six months since last I wrote and still, daily, I expect your letter…’

      Throughout the uncomfortably sultry atmosphere in the coach jolting its way to this village, all that had dominated her mind was Matthew: how she longed to unburden herself to him, beg him to reinstate his marriage proposal of five years ago. Now, oddly, the desperation had evaporated. What remained was simple relief that she had distanced herself from Jarrett Dashwood.

      ‘You must rest awhile after your journey, then dine with us,’ Matthew said with an emphatic squeeze at her small hands within his.

      Emma smiled her thanks; she was hungry; she was also grateful that Matthew was exercising tactful restraint. He had obviously sensed she needed a little time to compose herself before revealing the catastrophe that had forced her to break all codes of etiquette and arrive uninvited and unchaperoned at the home of an unwed man. Acknowledging that impropriety brought another to her attention: remaining with Matthew overnight as his guest, even if he had a female servant and children, was completely out of the question. She would need to find lodgings.

      Emma glided small, unobtrusive glances at him as she looked about the untidy small parlour. Oh, he still appealed to her. He hadn’t aged. But his unruly hair was tangled, his skin tone unhealthy and his attire dishevelled.

      ‘I’ll