Rose Trelawney by Joan Smith

Author:Joan Smith [Smith, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1980-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The exception in our routine was as follows. The next morning I received a note from Miss Wickey asking me to drop in to see her next time I was in the village. There seemed no urgency to it, and I thought little of it, but that there was another enclosure in the envelope. It had been sent out by Mulliner’s footboy, who did not await a reply. The note said: “Miss Smith: I am most eager to discuss with you our unfinished business. I shall be at the inn till noon, and expect to see you there, alone. For your own convenience, I know you would prefer it thus. Sincerely, Mr. Smith.” That’s all. I read it through a couple of times, with my hand trembling. It sounded perfectly menacing, yet as I reread it, there was nothing worse mentioned than ‘unfinished business’ which could be innocent. And why should innocence require no observers? I would prefer that we meet alone. It was impossible not to wonder if Mr. Smith were my last patron. Lover, in other words. If this were the case, he was correct in thinking I would prefer to meet him alone. Yet someone had undertaken to strike me on the head, and if not Mr. Smith, who else? If this was the manner in which Mr. Smith behaved when we were alone, I understood very well why I had fled him, and knew as well I would not meet him alone. My wish was not to meet him at all, but my curiosity had something to say in the matter. Folly to ignore the note altogether. To crumple it up and burn it, as darted into my head. I think all the same I might have done just that if Sir Ludwig had not strolled into the hallway to see who had come to the door. He took one look at my stricken face, then lifted my note from my fingers.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“He mentions my going alone,” I pointed out.

“He says you might prefer to go alone. Do you, in sight of your last meeting with Mr. Smith?”

“No, of course not,” I answered. Oh, but I didn’t want him to go with me!

There was no getting out of it. My bonnet was squashed on my head and my cape flung over my shoulders while I stood thinking of ways of being rid of him, and before I knew what to do, we were off. I haven’t a single idea what he said along the way. I have some vague recollection of his never being still a moment, prattling on excitedly about what the ‘unfinished business’ might be, in a perfectly cheerful way. When we got to the inn, Sir Ludwig went in and made enquiries, but there was no Mr. Smith registered, no message left for me.

He came out, hunched his shoulders and raised his brows. “A hoax,” he said. “No, hardly that I suppose. Mr. Smith didn’t wish to show his face when he saw you came accompanied.

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