A Chaotic Courtship (Rough Draft)

Chapter Fifteen

At that moment, I could not have been happier.

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"Your mind is far away."

Looking up from the letters I had been studying carefully, I frowned at Anna. She had a coy smile on her face. "I'm trying to figure out the word you've put before me," I said defensively. She, Miss Elizabeth Carter, Miss Delan, and I were playing a word game where we had to figure out the word based on the letters we were given. "That requires some thought, you know."

"That's not what I'm talking about. You are behaving in a distracted manner this afternoon."

She stared pointedly at where the men of the house party were shooting at targets. Mr. Richfield glanced over at the same moment, and his smile widened as his gaze met mine. My cheeks flushed, and I ducked my head. "That is what I'm talking about," Anna whispered, leaning close to me. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Not here, Anna."

I hoped our low voices would go unnoticed. "What are you whispering about over there?" Miss Reynolds asked. Even hours into the picnic, she hadn't lost the pout.

Anna rolled her eyes as she sat back. "I gave Diana a hint for her word. She has been giving it such diligent attention I thought she could use some help."

Returning from playing Graces, a game I had never enjoyed where the participants caught a small hoop with small sticks, Sarah came to have a look at my letters. She leaned over my shoulder and said instantly, "Highwayman."

"Thank you, Sarah," I said in annoyance. I frowned down at the letters and saw that, of course, she was right. Wait. 'Highwayman'? I moved my gaze to Anna. Why, after everything that had happened, would she use that word?

"So, tell us about your run in with the highwayman, Miss Forester," Miss Carter said, spinning her umbrella on her shoulder. "You haven't said a word about it."

I had hoped to avoid any mention of it. "There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. It happened, and I don't remember anything about it."

"Honestly, Miss Forester, I begin to think it didn't truly happen," Miss Reynolds said pointedly. "There have been no details, and only your siblings' word it must have happened as they say it did."

"Perhaps she merely tripped and fell, and is far too embarrassed to say so," Miss Carter said with a laugh.

That was when I knew they had planned this. Mother had a look of pure horror on her face, and Mrs. Knighton's countenance became appalled. Mrs. Reynolds wasn't even paying attention, her entire focus on the men shooting. Mrs. Carter, though, laughed with her daughter as though she had heard a great joke.

Sarah was livid. "Perhaps, Miss Carter, you could explain to me how would be possible," she said sharply. "James and I found Sarah on her back. If she had tripped, as you just suggested, she would have landed on her face."

Miss Carter seemed more than happy to debate with Sarah. "Well, then perhaps she slipped going down the bank and fell backward. Mr. Knighton has said how woefully clumsy she is."

My breath caught in my throat, and I could only stare at her. Anna shook her head. "My dear Miss Carter, that cannot be true. My brother would never say such a thing."

I wished I could have had her confidence. Philip Knighton had been behaving strangely since I had declined to marry him. He could have proclaimed my failings to these ladies. "Perhaps she the whole situation," Miss Reynolds said, ignoring Anna.

And I promptly forgot about how my former friend did or did not speak of me. "I beg your pardon?" I said, my tone shifting one of controlled fury. My fingers curled around the abandoned letters of the game we had been playing. I had the feeling this is what they had been trying to get to this entire time.