A Season for Honour

Chapter 7

'It is a lovely day, is it not?' Octavia said to Captain Fallbrook as she drove the gig through the front gates of Northleigh and onto the main road. He then smiled at her, and she felt even more aware of him sitting next to her.

When they had arrived at the stables, only half an hour after the trip was first proposed by Charles, he had insisted that she should drive the gig. She had found it strange that he had been so determined for her to drive. In her experience, most men, including Freddie, would have taken the reins without even asking her permission. But Octavia was soon learning that he was unlike any other man she had ever met, not that over the past eight years she had met many. And now, as she drove the gig steadily down the lane, he sat next to her with his body almost, but not quite, in contact with hers. Even though they were not touching, she was acutely aware of him. She moved across further towards the edge of the gig, to put a little distance between them, but it did not help. When this tactic failed, she had tried to take her mind of his presence, by engaging him in a conversation, regarding the weather.

'Indeed, it is, my lady,' he replied, it is the perfect day for fishing.'

But, before she had time to think of a suitable response, the right wheel of the gig hit a rut in the road, and the vehicle lurched violently to the left. All her efforts to avoid any contact with him were destroyed, when Octavia was thrown unceremoniously against him. His arm came around her shoulder to steady her, and, to her embarrassment, she found the length of her left side pressed up against him. She looked up at him and discovered that he was looking at her with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. Octavia blushed, but it was not just embarrassment that had made her cheeks flush, there was that frisson of awareness that she always seemed to feel when she looked at him. Realising that she was about to lose control of the gig, she pulled her scattered thoughts together and pulled sharply on the horse's reigns, thus avoiding any impending disaster.

'I shall enjoy watching Charles and Olivia have a little fun,' she said, once the horse had begun to trot confidently and she had, once more, regained control of her wayward feelings. 'I do like them to spend a little time outdoors every day, enjoying the fresh air.'

'I also hope to see you try your hand at fishing,' he said as he sat back and relaxed.

Over the past few days, Octavia had been thinking about what Katie had said to her. And as a consequence, she had not slept well since taking tea with her friend. It had not taken her long to realise that Katie's assessment of her situation had not only been insightful, but accurate. As Octavia had mulled over what Katie had said, she knew what she had to do. She must try and break free from the spectre of her late husband, that had followed her around Northleigh for the past eight years. When he had died, she had tried to obliterate those painful memories of him by making her children the centre of her life. It was slowly dawning on her, that all the love she had lavished upon them, had not diminished her own torment. In fact, overprotecting them and keeping them locked away from the world outside Northleigh, was probably damaging their own chances of happiness.

It had come as a shock to realise that to completely cut herself off from her neighbours, had been a mistake. Her children needed friends, and she had shunned the very people that could have provided them with that friendship. Then, of course, there was the problem of Olivia's future. Katie had been right; how could she entrust something so important as her come out to a stranger? It had upset her to realise that shutting herself away in the safety of Northleigh, had been not only selfish but very naïve. In the future, Olivia would need her mother's advice and protection, not her fear of society and their approval. How could she look after her precious daughter, if she did not accompany her into society?