Chapter Nine (part II)

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I think I can be forgiven for being somewhat distracted through lunch. It was pleasant, I think... Temperance did most of the talking, soliciting my opinion on grosgrain versus satin ribbon, and the ideal length for sleeves on a summer frock. Earnest was cheerful enough, if a bit less easy than usual, and Miss Goodwin was seated just far enough away that I couldn't really speak with her.

Lady Oakhurst picked at a tart for perhaps fifteen minutes, then she excused herself, muttering something about her begonias. Soon afterward, Miss Goodwin and the nurse marshalled their young charges and marched them inside for their lessons. The terrace echoed with their squeals and the clatter of their shoes a few moments after the door shut behind them, and then quiet sank down upon us.

Earnest and I shot perfunctory smiles toward one another.

"Well." Earnest gestured toward the maze. "Shall we?"

I nodded quickly. "Yes. Please."

He offered me his arm, and we walked. The entrance of the maze was flanked by a pair of statues -- both young men, I noted, nude and well-made. The walls beyond were taller than they'd seemed from a distance. The hedges rose well above my head, dense, and somewhat imposing.

The quiet between us ripened into a genuine silence as we walked through the turns -- a tense, unnatural, conspicuous silence I had never known with Earnest before. Every sound grew loud and filled my ears, til the world was nothing but the crunch of gravel underfoot, the rustle of our garments, the hiss of my breath flowing past my teeth...

At last, my patience broke. I cried, "Moon above, Oakhurst...!" and stomped my foot in the white gravel. "Are you going to talk to me or not?"

"Of course, of course..."

With a sigh, Earnest faced me, fastening his gaze somewhere near my ear. He took a deep breath and held it a long while, his lips pressed tight together -- prepared to speak, and yet still unready.

"I want to marry you," he said. His hands twisted round each other, clasped and unclasped. "But you see... Some men... Sometimes..."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I understand that part well enough."

"You do...?" Earnest squinted at me with naked surprise.

"You know Ewert has a flock of three hundred sheep..."

He sputtered, laughing and frowning at me. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I frowned back at him. "Have you never watched your sheep?"

"Ummm... Not really..." His lips pulled back in a wry grimace. "I can't say they ever interested me."

If I had ever doubted it before, it was clear now that Earnest and I somehow lived in very different worlds. Flocks had to be moved, fed, bred, sheared, and slaughtered. This meant work for most everyone at Ewert, from the smallest shepherd boy to his Lordship himself. Whether I was interested in sheep had never been relevant.

"Well." I rolled my eyes again and walked on. "Suffice it to say one can learn a lot of things from watching sheep. Some rams... Sometimes..." I cast a pointed look over my shoulder. "So some men, too. You and... And this other fellow..."

"Stan." Earnest checked himself, wincing. "Blake. Stanley Blake. He's my valet." He offered me his arm again.

"So you and Mr. Blake. Very well. That's simple enough. And, of course, you must still marry and produce an heir..."

"I must, yes." Earnest nodded slowly. "I uh... I trust you see why I wanted to speak with you. I wanted to be frank with you about the nature of the arrangement." He pulled another wry face and shrugged. "Mainly, I wanted you to understand it really would be an arrangement."

I snorted. "Well. I've had worse offers."

"I know..."

Earnest stopped and regarded me with such fierce pity, it took me aback somewhat -- I had to force myself to not look away.

"Miss Shepley... You must understand, I do adore you. Maybe not as a man should, but I do, truly, and if I were to be wholly selfish, I would choose you above any other in a heartbeat... But the truth is I had no intention of proposing to you. I don't want you to be stuck in an arrangement, not even with me. But then I heard about this ugly business with your cousin..."

"Ah."

"After that, I thought... I thought..." Earnest's shoulders crept up in a sort of lingering shrug. "Well, if worst came to worst, I thought you might prefer an arrangement with me, after all."

"I see." I nodded, and now I did look away. It was clever, really. Pragmatic. I was slightly surprised by him. "So, you get Blake and a wife, and I get rank and security..."

Earnest's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, no, no. More than that..." He spoke quickly, seeming anxious to pull up any misunderstanding before it could take root. "No, I want you to be happy, and I would do everything in my power to make you happy. I'd do my best by you as a husband, and in all ways, you would be my wife... Mistress of the house, mother of my children... But I wouldn't be jealous, you understand. I've no right to be jealous... And... Well. If it turned out some of the acorns didn't fall from the same tree, I'd call them Grimmonds, all the same."

It took a moment for me to grasp his meaning, but a moment passed, and I did.

"Oh." My hands flew to my mouth. "Oh, I see."

"I say, I've shocked you after all." Earnest slipped his ring off, spun it round, and slipped it back on again, all the while offering me a strained grin.

"That's... very generous of you, Oakhurst."

He shook his head. "No... No, it's only fair, really. But I'd like to be generous. I try to be."

He offered me his arm again, and we walked on. I chewed my lip as I turned over his proposal.

"How many sons would you require?"

"Oh." Earnest's eye darted to the ground. "Ah... Two, I think. Just in case. But then we needn't uh... Two. Two sons will do."

Pragmatic again. I nodded slowly, considering it. "Two sons, and then I could take my own lover..."

Earnest began to protest, but I cut him off. "Surely not before...? You'd want to know your sons are yours."

"Ah. Well." Earnest shrugged. "I do see your point, but there are so many uncertainties. I think we can negotiate the details as they emerge. But that's the arrangement, broadly speaking." He stopped walking again and studied me, almost cringing. "What do you think? Is it... too arranged?"

I shook my head. "No, I think it's quite elegant, really. One solution for both of us."

Earnest closed his eyes, his head tipping skyward as he sighed relief. "I knew I could count on you."

"I haven't accepted you yet." I raised a finger and pinned him with a warning look. "It's an elegant solution if worst comes to worst. But I don't know that it shall."

Earnest was suddenly contrite. "Oh, well, yes, of course," he said. "And let's hope it doesn't."

He managed to stay sober and reflective for three or four whole seconds, and then he caught me up in his arms. He lifted me off the gravel and skipped in place a few steps, jostling me to my bones.

"Oh, I do adore you!" he cried. "I'm so glad you've come!"

I laughed and swatted at him. "Put me down, Oakhurst!"

He returned me to the ground, giving me a last squeeze about the ribs before he released me, and then he just grinned at me. Bit by bit, mischief crept into his eyes.

"I say, do you want to know the best way to go through the maze?"

I regarded him warily, one eyebrow raised. "And what's that...?"

Earnest grinned wider and wider, the muscles in his shoulders tensing, readying for something.

He said, "You run!" and then he pelted off down the path, kicking gravel up behind him.

I laughed and gathered up my skirts, crying, "That's not fair, Oakhurst...!" as I ran after him.


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