"Good, I am pleased to hear that. I do hope you will be able to attend the next time I come to call." He may have been smiling, but his tone seemed off to me somehow, there was an undercurrent of some kind I couldn't comprehend.
'I'm sure I will, Mr. Horne. I look forward to it." There! That seemed like a pleasant way to close a conversation.
But he didn't move. His eyes were fixed on me making me feel very uncomfortable. I shifted from one foot the other nervously. My mouth opened to speak when I was interrupted by Arabella.
"Lori, are yo-" She saw Alexander and stopped short. "Oh, Mr. Horne, I sorry, I did not know you were still here."
She looked between the two of us and it only took a second to figure out what she was thinking.
Good lord, Ella!
"Yes, well, I was on my way out when I spotted Miss Benjamin, here, and decided to visit with her for a moment." He said smoothly.
"Why, Mr. Horne, you know better than to be caught alone with a young lady!" Ella teased. "Off you go, come along." She ushered him out the door. Thankfully, Alexander didn't put up any resistance.
I exhaled freely when I heard the door shut and the sound of the horses take off. Good riddance! He was being weird.
"Well!" Ella declared, coming back into the library. "It certainly has been an eventful day."
I nodded.
She plopped down beside me and looked at me expectantly.
"Well?" She asked.
"Well, what?"
"What did he say? What did he do?" She gasped. "Did he do anything untoward to you?"
"No, he didn't." I went on to tell her about what he said and I said and even told her about the odd tone he used toward the end.
"Hmm..." Ella tapped her chin. "Maybe he wanted you to invite him back over here."
Well that wasn't going to happen.