Sanditon revisited

5: Is it conceivable I had her wrong?

His head still pounded, sharp and heavy when he arrived at Trafalgar house, adding to his bad mood. He was not looking forward to telling Tom the news because he knew his brother would be disappointed and accusing, probably once again try to convince him not to leave. It turned out he was right. Already in the hallway, before they moved into the office, Tom started objecting, not ready to let Sidney leave without putting up a fight.

"I told you explicitly that we had to go back to London."

"Dammit, Sidney. Did my words mean nothing to you?"

"I cannot force them to stay, Tom." He wondered how his brother sometimes could be so blind. Sanditon was beautiful, but it was a small town with few amusements.

"How am I to fill these empty houses, Sidney? I confess, I am relying... Charlotte?"

His brother interrupted himself and alarmed, Sidney followed his gaze. Miss Heywood was crouching under the desk for some reason.

"There it is!" she exclaimed as she almost jumped to upright position, but he had a strong suspicion she had been hiding from him rather than looking for something.

Damn woman, why did she keep crossing his path so inconveniently? Hiding under the desk suggested that she wanted to meet him just as little as he wanted to meet her though. It was funny in a way, resourceful even. He had never come across a lady hiding under a desk before. There seemed to be many firsts with Miss Heywood, and he was not entirely sure if it was a good thing or a bad, or perhaps a bit of both. Ought he to apologise again for yesterday? He could not do it in the presence of Tom anyway so he could allow himself to think about it for a while. Maybe it was for the better to pretend like nothing, talking about it would probably just make bad things worse.

"Miss Heywood. Always popping up when least expected", was all he said dryly. Annoyed he registered that his own palms suddenly were clammy. Simultaneously he noticed the pink tinge appearing on her cheeks and thought it was not unbecoming.

"I'll leave you to it, gentlemen." She looked like she wanted to retort to him but swallowed it and instead excused herself and left them. He was relieved and disappointed in equal measures, though confounded as to why he would feel disappointed at all. He shook it off and turned to Tom again.

"Look, the fact of the matter is, there is simply not enough to tempt them here. They need more... They need more entertainment."

"Sidney."

"I'm sorry, Tom. But we leave this morning."

He hated to disappoint Tom, but he also disliked being too involved in his affairs. Tom always had grand schemes, one idea crazier than the previous and more costly too. In the past Sidney had invested money in Tom's ventures and lost it. He would not repeat that mistake. He tried to help him in other ways because he truly wanted his brother to succeed, both for his own and his lovely family's sake, but there was only so much he could do. He had his own business he could not neglect for long either. Still, he had a bad conscience for leaving Tom behind and was therefore feeling moody when he, Babington and Crowe later stood waiting for the coach to London.

His brooding was interrupted when Mrs. Griffiths' maid came running and handed him a note, with a request from Mrs. Griffiths to deal with his ward who apparently had painted a naked man swimming in the sea. Sidney's cheeks flushed with anger and shame; anger at Miss. Lambe's inappropriate behaviour and shame because this meant that Miss Heywood had told Miss Lambe about the embarrassing encounter, thus inspired her to the painting. He prayed Mrs. Griffiths did not know about it too. Somehow he had thought Miss Heywood would keep the unfortunate incident to herself but once again she had proven herself a mindless girl. His blood boiled when he told his friends he would have to remain in Sanditon another day to deal with his feral ward. He hoped he would at least be able to avoid Miss Heywood, but alas.