by Lucy Langton
Louisa looked so serious that Isaac knew he should take what she was saying seriously. “Yes, of course,” Isaac reassured her. “I shall leave you now to go and call upon your parents. I do hope that you will rest well here, and if you require entertainment ...” he trailed off and went to the bookshelves in the room. He grabbed an assortment of books that he thought she might enjoy, and then placed them at her bedside. “I hope that these shall suffice.”
“I think that I’ve thanked you almost as many times as you’ve apologized to me today, but I shall say it again: thank you, Isaac. Will ... will you be here this evening, or do you have plans already?” Louisa asked, suddenly shy.
Isaac was surprised by Louisa’s forwardness, but also utterly delighted. “I shall have nothing to tend to this evening. Would ... would you enjoy some company? Perhaps I could read some of my father’s thrilling law books while you read,” he replied to her.
“I would very much enjoy the company; thank you, Isaac,” Louisa said, picking up the first book. “And now I shall let you ride off to my home, and I will not thank you again for I do believe your ears are becoming tired of hearing my voice.”
Outwardly, Isaac chuckled and took his leave of Louisa, but inwardly, he denied that he could ever become tired of her voice. All of this business with Louisa’s accident had come about because he had wanted to hear her voice again; the truth was that the way he took through the woods was not a shortcut to his home. He was simply taking his usual shortcut, but then when he saw Louisa sitting by the brook, he had changed his course slightly.
And then Isaac remembered that when he had come upon her, Louisa had made a noise that sounded like she was thinking about ... well, something very pleasurable. Isaac couldn’t say for certain, but the possibility that Louisa may have been thinking about him was ... enthralling. He could not get his mind off of it for the rest of the day.
Chapter 5
While Louisa lay in the guest bed at Isaac’s house recuperating after her treacherous fall, she could not help thinking how lucky she was. Anyone else in her situation would have been cursing their fate, but Louisa was utterly delighted that she would be spending the night at a respectable young man’s house without their being any sort of impropriety involved. She never thought that she would have an opportunity like this, especially after what her sister did.
She spent the afternoon reading all the books that Isaac had kindly left for her, and eventually, when the day turned overcast, she took great pleasure in listening to the rain pelting against the window. Lloyd tried to jump up on the bed many times, but Louisa reminded him that he was lucky the lady of the house was even allowing him to stay in the room with her.
When he heard that, he became far better behaved and fell asleep on the floor beside Louisa. She was so happy not to be doing any chores right now that the pounding headache she was experiencing was almost worth it.
However, Louisa soon regretted ever having thought that her luck was entirely good. This was because right when she thought Isaac would be returning from her parents’ home to come and visit her, Dowager Duchess Grenfell came and saw her.
When she knocked softly and opened the door to Louisa’s room, Louisa was initially very pleased to see her. “Good afternoon, Your Grace,” she said politely, placing the book that she had been reading on her bedside table.
“Good afternoon, Miss Louisa,” Agnes said curtly. She closed the door behind her and came around to the side of Louisa’s bed, and Louisa suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She propped herself up more in bed, feeling that it seemed more appropriate behaviour.
“I cannot thank you enough for your kindness,” Louisa began, looking earnestly at Agnes. “I do not know what I would have done had Isaac not rescued me in the forest.”
“It is my son who you should be directing all of your gratitude towards, and I should ask that you refer to him as Mr Quince as opposed to anything else,” Agnes barked sharply. Louisa was surprised by her tone, but she shouldn’t have been. This was the way that every person in town had been treating them for the last three months.
“My profuse apologies,” Louisa said as she scrambled to make amends for her error. “I believe that my aching head may have impacted my manners, but I should make no excuses for my actions.”
A strange look crossed Agnes’ face, and for a moment, Louisa thought she might have even looked slightly impressed. “Well, I ... I am glad of that,” Agnes responded eventually. Louisa could tell that Agnes was trying to remain as distant and harsh as she could, but Louisa had a knack for charming people.
It had not worked on many of her family’s friends, unfortunately, but that was because those people were already atrocious to begin with. Agnes, on the other hand, had an air about her that told Louisa she could possibly be swayed. Certainly, she reassured herself, if she raised Isaac, there must be many redeeming qualities within her.
“And that is very generous of you to encourage me to direct all of my thanks to your son, but I hope you don’t mind if I continue to be grateful to you as well. I am an uninvited and unexpected guest in your home, and I cannot imagine what an inconvenience I must be. Your assistance to me this afternoon went beyond neighbourly kindness, and I assure you that my parents and I will do everything that we can to repay you for it,” Louisa finished. She was worried that she was putting on the compliments too thick but figured it was better to pull out all the stops and go for it on the first run. She could always rein it in later.
Agnes opened her mouth to say something in return, but then stopped herself. She was then silent for a few moments and eventually became distracted by the sound of the rain hitting the window. Agnes turned to look out at the stormy day, and when she did, she finally responded to Louisa. “You are not what I expected you to be, Miss Louisa,” Agnes said quietly, her voice still maintaining a certain harshness.
Louisa was perplexed by the comment. She was not sure how she was meant to respond to it, so she decided just to wait and see what else Agnes had to say to her.
Agnes leaned against the base of the window and crossed her arms at her chest. At that moment, however, Lloyd became aware of the other person in the room and came around to Agnes’ side of the bed to greet her.
Upon seeing Lloyd, Agnes recoiled in fright. “What is that?!” Agnes cried, jumping up into the windowsill. “And why is it in my house?”
Lloyd, however, was very used to people recoiling at the sight of him, and so he just did what he always did in this situation: he got into the most adorable position that he could. He ambled up in front of Agnes, flopped down onto the floor, and presented his belly to her to scratch while he wagged his tail happily.
“I am so sorry to have frightened you, Your Grace,” Louisa said quickly, trying to get out of bed to collect Lloyd, but her head prohibited her from doing so. She crawled back up to her pillows and hastily explained, “I thought that you knew he was over there. This is my dog, Lloyd, and I promise you that he is the most docile thing in the word. I can make him leave your sight if you’d like, though.”
“Immediately,” Agnes ordered, and so Louisa began calling Lloyd to her side.
Lloyd, however, would not come. He just kept lying there on the floor with his madly flapping tail and his stupid grin. However, when he realized that this tactic was not working on this terrified woman, he decided to go all out. For him, this meant that he went to Agnes’ side, laid his head upon the windowsill, and went utterly motionless. He looked up at her with his eyes as wide as they could go, for he knew that this calmness and cuteness worked on even the most terrified person.
“Why is he not obeying you?!” Agnes cried, only becoming more frantic.
“He’s ... goodness gracious, Lloyd ... he’s trying to show you that he’s nothing to be afraid of; I’m sorry. When he does this, the only way to get him to leave you alone is to pet his snout. I would come over there and do it myself, Your Grace, but I’m afraid that I’m rather incapacitated. I promise you that he w
ouldn’t hurt a fly; if you just touch his head, he’d be happy to show you what I mean,” Louisa explained, absolutely mortified. She loved that dog to bits, but sometimes he went overboard trying to get absolutely everyone to like him.
Agnes scoffed and continued looking terrified until she managed to calm herself down somewhat. And then, agonizingly slowly, she began moving her hand towards Lloyd’s snout. He never even so much as blinked the whole time she was moving towards him, and when she finally worked up her courage to stroke him the smallest bit, all Lloyd did was thump his tail against the floor and look happier than anything.
Agnes, however, was still not impressed. “Go on now,” she said gruffly, “I’ve done what you want, now go.”
Lloyd stayed and asked her to pet him for just a little bit longer, and then finally left Agnes’ side. He returned to his post of protecting Louisa and promptly fell asleep.
Agnes watched the dog until he was back on the other side of the bed. When he rested, she finally continued with what she was going to say. “Why were you in the forest with my son?” she asked Louisa outright.
“I was not in the forest with your son,” Louisa answered plainly, somewhat taken aback. “I went for a walk with Lloyd, and your son came upon me as he rode home. When I bid him farewell, I was foolish and did not look at where I was going and …”
“Slipped upon a rock, yes, I was aware of that fact,” Agnes snapped. “But why did my son come across you in that part of the wood? That is not his typical way home.”
Louisa suddenly found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place. She knew that she could not tell Agnes that her son had gone out of his way to see her, but Louisa also knew that she could not lie to her and so decided to strike a happy medium. “I saw him passing a little way away, and so I called to him,” Louisa said, half-lying. “I wanted to see how his discussion had gone with my father about the procurement of our family home.”
“Do you not know how improper that was?” Agnes demanded. “A young woman such as yourself should not have been alone in the woods with my son in any case. There was no chaperone around, and anyone could have seen you.”
Louisa could feel her frustration rising, but she did her very best to answer the dowager duchess as calmly as she could. “I am well aware of that, Your Grace, but I thought that perhaps as Mr Quince and I had a respectable reason for talking that it would not be such a scandalous affair,” she explained, minding her tone.
Agnes practically rolled her eyes. “No one who happened to be passing by would have known that your intentions were honourable,” she said gruffly. “How do I know that you are not going to do to my son what your sister did to that man?”
Louisa’s blood froze in her veins. She had been sneered and glared at by many of the members of the community who used to be her friends but had never been so directly confronted with this kind of judgement. She so desperately wanted to fly off the handle and put Agnes in her place, but she knew that would be just about the worst idea in the world right now. And so, Louisa knew that she had to continue with her charm tactics and try to convince Agnes that she was not the same person as her sister.
“Your Grace,” Louisa responded very level-headedly, “I do not know how to assure you that I am not my sister. I must ask that you allow me to show you through my actions that I will only ever have the most honourable intentions with every member of your family. I understand your concerns, and they are all valid, but I must tell you that they are not ones that you need to concern yourself with. I am not Evelyn, and I hope that you will do me the honour of allowing me to prove myself to you.”
At last, Agnes seemed to ever-so-slightly drop the wall that she had been keeping up between her and Louisa. The corner of her mouth turned upwards, and she nodded seriously to Louisa. “Those were all very reasonable explanations and requests. I shall endeavour to keep an open mind in your presence. I shall take my leave of you for now, and I will see you before you leave tomorrow afternoon,” Agnes said, making her way towards the bedroom door.
But as she passed by the other side of Louisa’s bed, she paused and looked at Lloyd. The dog immediately knew when someone was looking at him, and so he began drumming his tail happily against the floor once more and grinning at her as only dogs can. Agnes sighed and then slowly walked over to the dog and gave him another few pats on the head.
“You two are both very good at charming people; you know that right?” she said very quietly, and then exited the room without looking back at Louisa. When the door clicked shut behind her, Louisa breathed a sigh of relief. Well, she thought, that was just about the best outcome from that conversation.
Chapter 6
Later on that night, Louisa was fed a wonderful and rather lavish dinner by her standards, which had been delivered to her room by a kindly servant. She was surprised that Isaac hadn’t returned to give her a report from her family, but she thought that perhaps he had forgotten about his promise to come back and speak with her again. That was not a problem, as she knew that Isaac probably had a great many other things on his mind that were more pressing that visiting Louisa.
Having decided that Isaac had indeed forgotten about his promise to return to visit her, Louisa simply spent the rest of the evening reading. She felt so spoiled taking in all of these books that looked brand new, especially when they were novels that she had not read before. She got so lost in one of the books about a young woman who lost her family fortune to a cruel duke that she did not notice when another young man entered the room.
Finally, when the young man cleared his throat, Louisa nearly jumped out of her skin. “Goodness!” she cried, almost flinging the book she was holding in her hand across the room.
“Its okay,” the young man reassured her, “I’m not as scary as I look.”
Louisa put her hand over her heart and took a few deep breaths, attempting to get it to return to a normal pattern. “Sorry about that,” the young man finally said.
“That’s all right, thank you,” Louisa replied, but she thought that her visitor could have probably guessed that she was still annoyed from having been scared so badly. “Who am I speaking to?”
“Oh, right,” the young man said, running his fingers through his hair. “You were unconscious when I assisted you.” As Louisa watched him, she began to have a feeling she knew who he was. He looked a great deal like Isaac, only more ‘traditionally handsome’.
He was nearly as tall as Isaac, with broad shoulders, a trim physique, and dark brown hair. His blue eyes shone out from beneath his bushy eyebrows, and had Louisa been drawn to this type of a man, she would have nearly fainted at the sight of him. But, as Louisa was drawn to more unique young men, he did absolutely nothing for her.
“I’m Gregory, Isaac’s older brother. But you can call me the Duke,” he said with a pompous smile on his face.
Louisa gave him a hesitant smile. She wasn’t sure if he was making a joke or if he really wanted him to call her that. “Ah yes,” she responded, “I should have recognized you from the family resemblance. Thank you for your kindness this afternoon.”
Gregory nodded and looked mildly uncomfortable. “I did what Isaac asked me to, that was all,” he said awkwardly. “But I didn’t come in here to request compliments, I ... well.” Gregory shifted his weight on his feet back and forth. He looked like he really wanted to say something, but he was unable to.
“Is there something you’d like to ask me?” Louisa encouraged him. “Is it anything similar to what your mother came to ask me about this afternoon?”
A confused look came over Gregory’s face. “My mother? What did she ...” but then he realized what his mother had probably come to talk to her about. “Oh, no. No, I came here to ask you if ... See, it’s just that Isaac ... I didn’t want you to …”
Gregory was interrupted by Isaac entering the room right at that moment. He looked from his brother to Louisa and back again, baffled.
“Good evening to you both,” he said, an
d the moment Louisa heard the sound of his voice, her heart fluttered with delight. She was very happy to see him, and that wasn’t just because he was interrupting whatever awkward conversation she and Gregory were about to have.
