by Merry Farmer
Elaine blinked rapidly, looking thoughtful. “Do I?” Her hand dropped to her lap. “I suppose I should.”
“But you don’t?” Rose frowned, straightening.
“Well, I mean, that sort of thing is well beyond the pale,” Elaine said, still blinking. “It’s not the sort of thing one runs off and does on a regular basis. That is to say….” Her cheeks went pink, and she looked as though she’d said something offensive.
Rose was too astounded by how unoffended Elaine was to make anything of it.
And then Elaine sighed and said, “How wonderful it must be to feel so free to break the rules of society and propriety.”
Rose gaped at her. In all the months that she had known Elaine, she never would have pegged her as the kind of woman not only to be permissive about matters of the heart—and other anatomical locations—but to display a spark of curiosity when talking about them.
“This isn’t London, after all,” Elaine went on, looking as though she were having some sort of inner conversation. “This is Cumbria. Society here is far more forgiving of slips and indiscretions.” She focused on Rose again. “But, of course, you will marry him now, won’t you?”
“I—” She didn’t know. She couldn’t in all honestly say Isaac hadn’t asked. But the circumstances of his asking had been more painful than beautiful. Perhaps if he asked again, under better circumstances.
But no, it was madness to even consider marriage now.
Was it?
“Nothing needs to be decided today,” Elaine went on, waving the entire monumental issue away with a flick of her wrist. “What we need to worry about today is practicing our rowing so that we can win the regatta on Saturday.”
Rose glanced doubtfully at her, uncertain whether Elaine was serious about the competition or using it as a blessed excuse to get Rose’s mind on something else. “All right,” she said, taking up her oars.
Elaine patted Rose’s knee, then twisted, lifting her feet and her skirts over her seat to face the right way. “These things have a way of sorting themselves out,” she said. “And I’m certain that Dr. Newsome will come to you with heart in hand in no time at all.”
And strange though it felt, Rose hoped she was right. She hoped she would know what to do if she were given a second chance.
CHAPTER 8
Saturday morning dawned bright and cheerful. Elaine was too excited to sleep much past dawn, and since Rose was usually up with the birds to light the house’s fires and fix breakfast, she was treated to the happy sight of her friend bouncing around the house with a smile on her face.
“We’re going to win this race, I just know it,” Elaine practically sang as she helped Rose carry breakfast things into the parlor, where Mr. Bond sat.
“I have no doubt that you will, my dear,” Mr. Bond said with a smile of his own. He had a flushed, excited look that made Rose worry as she buttered his toast.
“I’m just sorry that you’ll miss the whole thing,” Elaine said, pulling an ottoman over to her father’s chair so that she too could eat from the small table beside him.
“I may have some surprises in store for you yet,” Mr. Bond said with a wink, tapping the side of his nose.
Elaine only smiled at him and dug into her eggs. Rose was less at ease with the comment. What could Mr. Bond possibly be planning?
She didn’t have time to think more of it, as they young men from the orphanage arrived shortly after to carry the boat into town.
“This is going to be jolly good fun,” young Jason said as Rose led the three into the back garden, where the boat still sat on blocks.
“I’ve never heard of women entering the regatta before,” Lawrence agreed, directing the other two around the far side of the boat. “It should be fantastic.” He crouched, then lifted one side of the boat all on his own. For such a slender, attractive young man, he had amazing strength.
“I’m still not certain you’ll be able to enter,” Marshall, the most studious of the three said in a muffled voice, helping Jason pick up the other side of the boat.
“Nonsense.” Jason dismissed the comment. “Of course they’ll be allowed to enter. Who wouldn’t want women participating in…well, in everything.”
The other two young men snorted and snickered at the comment. They gave Rose the feeling that she was left out of a joke.
But as it turned out, by the time they got the boat to town and to the lake, Elaine and Rose trailing after the boys, Marshall was right.
“I’m sorry, Miss Bond, but women are not allowed in the regatta,” Mr. May, Brynthwaite’s mayor, informed them.
Rose was utterly unsurprised, but Elaine let out a shocked, “What?” Her cry drew attention from some of the other men waiting in line at the dock to enter. “But that’s absurd.”
“Forgive me, Miss Bond,” the mayor said, apologetic and polite, “but this is not the sort of activity young ladies should be taking part in.” He sent a weak smile Rose’s way.
“It is so an activity this young lady will take part in,” Elaine insisted. She stomped her foot for good measure.
Rose felt her face heat, not so much with embarrassment, but with shame that she wasn’t as ready and willing to jump into the fray and fight for her friend. Other people were far more willing, though.
“Let her in,” Lawrence called, standing with his friends near Elaine’s boat.
“Yeah, it couldn’t do any harm,” Jason seconded him. Marshall just frowned.
“I’m sorry,” Mayor May said with an uneasy smile for Elaine, glancing around to judge who was listening. “It simply isn’t done.”
“Are you sure?” The question came from none other than Mr. Wall. The man had approached the table where teams were registering as silently as he had slipped away into his bookshop the day they’d met him. “What’s so wrong about it?”
“Thank you, Mr. Wall,” Elaine said, lighting up over the fact that the mysterious and regal man had come to her aid. She nodded to Mayor May as though the point had been proven. “It couldn’t do any harm at all.”
The mayor shifted anxiously. “I’m afraid it could. Propriety, after all.” He cleared his throat. “And if there were an accident, the rescue could be most…immodest.”
“There won’t be an accident,” Elaine insisted, her temper beginning to get the better of her. “I’ll have you know that Rose and I have been practicing for this for weeks.”
Mayor May blinked. “On the lake?”
Elaine deflated somewhat. “Well, no. In the grass. But we’ve become excellent rowers.”
A few of the men around them snickered. Mr. Wall frowned at them. Rose chewed her lip, wondering how fast they could get out of the center of attention.
The mayor sighed. “I’m afraid the answer is still no. I’m sorry. Next.”
The mayor looked past Elaine to the next pair of men in line, who were bold enough to nudge Elaine aside.
“This is outrageous,” Elaine shouted in protest, even as Mr. Wall timidly took her arm and stepped with her to the side. “This is unfair in the extreme. This is—”
“I have a suggestion.”
Rose’s heart ballooned in her chest as she turned and saw Isaac striding to him. He looked ridiculously handsome with the morning sunlight streaming down on him, making the grey streaks in his hair seem like flashes of light. He wore casual clothes—simple trousers and a knitted vest over a shirt with the sleeves rolled up—instead of the suit he wore for work. The scratches that had marred his face after their accident had faded. Try as she might, Rose couldn’t get her heart to slow down once it started beating for him. Everything Elaine had said about how the two of them belonged together, in spite of the distant and recent past, flew back to her.
“Dr. Newsome.” Elaine instantly forgot her protests and burst into a grin, glancing from Isaac to Rose. “How delightful to see you.” She blinked, and her expression sharpened once more. “What is your suggestion?”
Isaac glanced from her to the Bryn
thwaite boys and nodded. He gave Mr. Wall a curious look and a nod. Lastly, he met Rose’s eyes. In an instant, no one else in the world existed. The warmth and…and need in Isaac’s eyes sent a quiver of longing through Rose. She was wrong to have pushed him away. That fact was suddenly so obvious that she wanted to shout it from the rooftops. She wanted him in every way. Elaine was right, they were perfect for each other.
A heartbeat later, he glanced away from her and back to Elaine. “I think there’s a way you can enter the regatta,” he said quietly and gestured for them to follow him.
Just like that, Rose’s hopes for happiness were back on shaky ground. Of course, it would have made no sense for him to declare his love for her and to propose again with everyone around them. The timing was all wrong for any sort of reunion. But it made her uneasy all the same. What if he had taken her rejection the other day to heart and wanted nothing to do with her now? What if she’d lost her chance?
Isaac led their motley group away from the dock and around the corner of a warehouse to an empty alley between two buildings. The air in the shady space was cooler than the direct sunlight, but it wasn’t the reason for the chill that zipped down Rose’s spine. Isaac hadn’t looked at her once since greeting her.
“What is your plan?” Elaine asked right away, not giving him time to look again.
“Simple,” Isaac said with a shrug. “Women aren’t allowed to enter the competition, so you two will dress as men.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. Elaine grinned from ear to ear. “Perfect,” she said.
“Shakespeare,” Mr. Wall said.
“Shakespeare?” Jason asked with a look that was something between confusion and delight.
“As You Like It,” Mr. Wall went on. “Twelfth Night. Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shakespeare’s plays are full of women who dress as men to get their way.”
“And so shall we,” Elaine declared, sending Mr. Wall a delighted smile. Mr. Wall blushed with pleasure, but before he could make any other reply, Elaine’s smile faded and she said, “But where are we going to find men’s clothes to fit us on such short notice?”
“The boys,” Isaac said, nodding to Jason, Lawrence, and Marshall.
“Well, Marshall, maybe,” Jason said. “I’m too tall, and Lawrence here is too broad.”
Marshall frowned, looking put out at the suggestion that he had the same shape as a woman.
“It doesn’t matter.” Isaac shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be your clothes. I’m sure the orphanage has all sorts of stray bits of clothing in storage. Could you run and grab some that would fit?”
“Absolutely,” Lawrence said with a huge grin. He, Jason, and Marshall jumped into action.
“This is so exciting,” Elaine said, clapping her hands in front of her. “I just know we’re going to win the race now. Thank you, Dr. Newsome. And you too, Mr. Wall.”
“My pleasure,” Mr. Wall said, managing to look like a fifty-year-old schoolboy glowing under a compliment.
“Oh!” Elaine sucked in a breath, glancing from Rose to Isaac. Her eyes glittered with mischief. “Mr. Wall, perhaps we could use your bookshop to change into our disguises?”
Rose frowned slightly, wondering what her friend was up to.
“I…well…that it…um….” Mr. Wall glanced around anxiously, then gave up. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“Perfect.” Elaine grasped his arm. He visibly tensed at her touch, his face growing even redder. “Perhaps you can show me what facilities we have available. Rose, you and Dr. Newsome should wait here for the boys to return with our disguises. Come along, Mr. Wall.”
As soon as Rose realized what Elaine’s plan was, Elaine and Mr. Wall were gone. That left her and Isaac standing alone in the shade of the alley. Everything that Rose wanted to say leapt to her throat at once, but not a single word formed on her lips. She just stood there, working to convince herself to look at Isaac.
“This is probably a bad idea,” Isaac said at last to break the silence.
“I know.” Rose swallowed. “I keep telling myself that the two of us should stay apart, but it feels so wonderful to be here with you.”
Isaac’s brow went up in startled surprise. “I meant that it’s probably a bad idea for the two of you to dress as men to enter this race.”
Rose clapped a hand to her mouth as embarrassment frazzled her. She’d gone and tipped her cards to Isaac, probably humiliating herself in the process by contradicting everything she’d said the other day. The urge to run filled her.
But Isaac stopped her with, “Do you mean that?”
“Mean what?” she asked, voice hoarse with self-consciousness, lowering her hand.
He took her hands, facing her fully. “That it feels wonderful to be here with me?”
Rose’s heart thumped so hard against her ribs that she could barely take a breath, let alone answer. All she could do was nod.
Isaac’s expression pinched with frustration. “I don’t know how to untangle the knot we’ve made,” he said in a low voice. “It seems as though everything we’ve said to each other has been wrong, and everything we’ve done—”
“Has been right,” Rose finished for him. “But I don’t know what do to about it.”
He stepped closer to her, the heat of his body cutting through the cool shadows around them. “We could start over,” he said.
The words made Rose’s heart sing. “We could?”
He leaned into her, his gaze focusing on her lips. “We could set aside all of the confusion and begin again, perhaps with a picnic by the lake instead of a supper at the pub. We could get to know each other instead of—”
His words cut short with a confused frown that set every one of Rose’s nerves on edge. Her body ached for him, and she was inches away from throwing caution to the wind and kissing him within an inch of her life. But he was suddenly distracted, a hundred miles away.
“William?”
His single-word question threw Rose right into confusion with him. She twisted, stepping away from him, only to see Mr. Bond making his way uncomfortably down the street behind her.
“Mr. Bond,” she called out, she and Isaac rushing out of the alley to his side. “What on earth are you doing?”
Mr. Bond flinched and looked around as Rose and Isaac rushed toward him. He was hunched over his cane and seemed to lose his balance as he searched out Rose. Isaac reached him and clasped an arm around his shoulder to steady him.
“William, you shouldn’t be here,” Isaac said.
Mr. Bond ignored the censure in his voice with a smile. “I should have known I’d see the two of you together. And that you’d catch me in the act.” His voice was weak and wheezy. His smile did nothing to set Rose’s mind at ease. If anything, it terrified her even more.
“Did you walk this whole way yourself?” she asked.
“Of course, of course I did,” Mr. Bond gasped. “I used to walk into town all the time.”
“Your heart can’t take this kind of exertion,” Isaac scolded him, supporting as much of his weight as possible as he escorted Mr. Bond on toward the grassy hillside where people were gathering to watch the race.
“I couldn’t let my dear, sweet girl row in this regatta without seeing her,” Mr. Bond said. “I would never forgive myself.”
“And Elaine would never forgive you if anything happened to you,” Rose scolded. She knew it wasn’t her place, but her own love for the irascible old gentleman—and the pallor on his face—pushed her past the bounds of propriety.
“Tush and nonsense,” Mr. Bond sniffed, but he didn’t disagree with her. “I want to see my daughter race.”
Isaac and Rose exchanged a look. The words “If it’s the last thing I ever do” hung in the air around them. Mr. Bond looked as though the end were rushing at him.
“Let’s get you seated somewhere comfortable where you can watch the race,” Isaac said.
“You’re not going to take him home?” Rose asked.
“I’d like to see
him try,” Mr. Bond said with more bluster than substance.
Isaac and Rose exchanged another look. “I don’t think there’s time,” Isaac said. He nodded down the road to where Jason, Lawrence, and Marshall were hurrying up the street with clothes in their hands.
Rose let out a breath. “I can make sure they get those clothes to the right place if you look out for Mr. Bond.”
Isaac nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”
Rose stared at him for a moment, debating whether it would be completely crazy of her to kiss him. Elaine certainly would have encouraged her. But there were too many people around, and her concern for Mr. Bond was too intense. In the end, she gave him as much of a smile as she could manage before turning and dashing off to meet the boys.
It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Rose and Elaine to find clothes among the pieces the boys brought and to change into them at the bookshop.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Elaine asked, stepping into a pair of trousers several sizes too big around the waist. “And to have the entire bookshop to ourselves as well.”
Rose only hummed in response as she buttoned the shirt she’d been given. She should say something to Elaine, tell her that her father had put himself in grave danger by walking all the way into town just to see her, but she didn’t know where to begin that conversation. A part of her thought it would be more merciful to let Elaine have her fun by racing, and then deal with her father’s health after the race.
“I wish I had more time to peruse the bookshelves,” Elaine went on, slipping suspenders over her shoulders and tightening them to hold her trousers up. “Mr. Wall was exceptionally kind to give us free run of the place, though, and I wouldn’t want to impose on his hospitality by acting as though I own this place.”
“And there’s the race,” Rose reminded her. She selected a vest and put it on.
“Yes, the race.” Elaine squealed with excitement. She finished with her clothes and picked out a cap to fit over her already braided and pinned hair. “Do you think they’ll see through our ruse?”
Yes, Rose wanted to answer. But she continued dressing anyhow, her thoughts more with Mr. Bond and with Isaac than on whether they were about to face humiliation by being called out and rejected a second time.
