“And this is why they will not come to Hartsmere.”
“Aye, yer ladyship.”
“It doesn’t matter to you that your prosperity has returned?” Hartley asked. His expression was stormy. “The lady herself gives you food and clothing and sends men to repair your homes. She wishes to give you still more.” He snorted. “Your gratitude is overwhelming.”
Kirkby became very interested in a loose thread on his coat. “T’auld ways die hard,” he muttered.
“It is all right, Hartley,” Eden murmured.
“It is not.” He hadn’t touched the ribbons, but Copper tossed his head and rattled his harness.
“If you go about your business and show the lady proper respect,” Hartley continued, “your crops and beasts will suffer no harm from any weather, good or ill. This dale will be the envy of all Albion. You will never know want again. But if you do not appreciate what you have been given—”
Thunder rumbled out of the clear sky. The sheep bunched and bolted. Kirkby followed as quickly as his aged legs would permit.
Copper set off at a trot toward the farm.
Eden stared at Hartley, at a loss to understand his strange words. How could he guarantee the weather or the good fortune of Hartsmere’s farmers?
“Perhaps it was unwise to make such promises,” she said. “Please take us home. There is nothing to be gained by pursuing this further.”
“So easily defeated, my lady?” he asked. “You allow a superstition to undo all your good work? Or is it your pride you’re worried about?”
Her throat developed a lump. “My pride is my own concern. Please take us back.”
The cart came to a stop. Hartley glared at her. “These people must be taught to respect their betters.”
“And you, I suppose, are the one to set a suitable example?” She laughed. “If they are all as respectful as you, I had better accustom myself to a lifetime of disappointment.”
“By Titania’s wings—” He frowned up at the sky, and then abruptly turned the cart about, avoiding a pothole.
Eden tried to ignore her wounded feelings. “What these people need most is education. I have already discussed a school with Mr. Appleyard. There was one, once, but it is in disrepair.”
“And the dalesmen will surely appreciate that, as well.”
“Is it your intention to make me feel worse, Hartley Shaw?”
Copper lunged to one side, nearly upsetting the cart. Hartley steadied Eden with a firm hand and did not let go when the horse and cart settled again.
“No,” he said in an altered tone. “It is not. But I—” His grip became almost like a caress. “I do not enjoy seeing you sad.”
Eden shook her head. One moment she thought she knew this man, and the next he changed yet again. “It is but a temporary reversal,” she said. “But thank you for your concern.”
They looked at each other, and Eden was swept back to the garden where they had last shared such intimacy. But now they were no longer at odds. They were allies against a world in which both were outsiders. Eden sensed that a man like Hartley would be an outsider wherever he went, belonging nowhere.
That was true loneliness.
“Hartley,” she said. “Why do you… care so much?”
She regretted the words instantly, when it was far too late to recall them. Her cheeks grew hot. She almost snatched the ribbons from Hartley’s hands in hopes of moving again, anything to distract them both from what she had revealed.
“Eden,” he said. Only that, but he filled the name with all the lovely melodies of spring: birdsong, the breeze sighing among new leaves, the rush of water from snow melting high on the fells.
And emotion—a whole world’s worth.
What was happening? Eden had known scores of men, and yet none of them had so affected her since… since the man she had called Cornelius Fleming. Not one among her peers had made her heart hammer and her body thrum with need as Hartley Shaw could do with but a word.
“I do not think—” she began.
He stroked his hand up her arm.
“Hartley.”
He pressed his finger to her lips. Without words, he seemed to be telling her that thinking, and speech, and every social impediment between them meant nothing. She looked into his eyes and knew he was about to kiss her. Here, in the middle of the road.