More Than a Match for the Earl by Emily E K Murdoch

Author:Emily E K Murdoch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-03-06T14:46:43+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Nothing else smelt like the local village church. Nothing.

‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son...’

Rilla breathed in deeply, finding comfort and solace in the dependability of the little church that sat just outside the Wallflower Academy.

Beeswax candles. Heavy starch in the vicar’s vestments. The hardness of the pews, lightly scratched along the seats. The cool of the stones beneath her feet. Snowdrops. It must be the Wallflower Academy’s turn to provide flowers, for the place was heady with their scent, and they were the current favourite of their proprietress.

In a world in which Miss Pike attempted to change her fate, and in which gentlemen bared their souls to her without her quite knowing what she had done to receive such intimacies, the building was another one of her anchors.

‘Amen.’

Rilla swallowed, attempting to follow the church service rather than get carried away by the memories of two days ago.

But it was a challenge. Finlay had—they had never spoken like...

It was more than she could ever have imagined.

H-how did you know that I needed comfort?

I didn’t know. I just guessed.

‘The reading today is taken from...’

Rilla heard the rustle of pages as fifty or so of the congregation rustled through the Bibles provided on each pew. She heard the genteel cough of someone just behind her, the shifting of someone who was evidently uncomfortable.

It was just another Sunday morning. One which would surely pass just as all the others had.

Except that she had a man on her mind, and Miss Pike was seated next to her and determined to—

Well. Irritate her.

‘I suppose your father has written to you,’ breathed the woman on her left.

Rilla did not permit a single inch of her face to alter. What on earth was the woman thinking—and after her etiquette lesson only yesterday! ‘We are in church, Miss Pike.’

‘It’s very important. The moment I read it this morning I knew I had to speak to you about it. I merely wondered—’

‘Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt...”’

‘If you had heard—’

‘“The land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month—”’

‘The news!’

Try as she might, Rilla could not bring herself to grace the woman with a glare. She had worked on her glare for many years, her sisters assisting her at times, and Sylvia had aided her in perfecting the raised eyebrow.

The trouble was, none of those attitudes seemed particularly appropriate for church.

Even if the vicar was, apparently, almost as short-sighted as she was blind.

‘Miss Newell,’ murmured Miss Pike, nudging her with her elbow as though that would incentivise her to respond. There was tension in her tone that Rilla had never heard before. ‘Have you heard from your father?’

Rilla sighed heavily. She would much prefer to indulge in memories of Finlay nudging her, Finlay taking her arm, Finlay revealing his heart to her in such a manner...that of a friend.

No, not quite a friend.

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