Sera turned away, startled, and Adam dropped his hand and they both leapt to their feet.
Hogue scurried after Bell, looking like a terrier who’d been caught shitting in his owner’s shoes.
“I wish you the best of luck in finding her,” Sera called brightly to Bell’s back.
Bell whirled around. “You are an utter disgrace.” His gaze turned to Adam. “And you, sir, should be more careful who you consort with, whoever you are.”
With that, the two men climbed into the carriage and drove off.
It was only then that it occurred to Adam that Lord Bell may very well know Lord Pendrake. And if he did, this day could come to haunt him.
“Now then,” Sera said cheerfully. “Stone?”
Chapter Nineteen
For having so recently been accused of abducting a viscountess and threatened with the magistrates, Seraphina was in rather high spirits as they drove to Paul Bolitho’s.
It was easy to enjoy Adam’s handsome presence and dry wit, now that she had resolved to try.
“How long do you intend to stay in Cornwall?” she asked as he steered the cart down the narrow, gorse-lined road. She hoped he would not leave before she did.
“Depends on how quickly I can procure the stone and finish the structural work. After that I’ll leave the joiners and painters to it. I need to be back in London in six weeks at the latest.”
“Ah, you will outlast me here. What will you do without my company?”
He lifted the corner of his mouth. “Waste away in despair.”
She smiled. “I should hope so.”
“In truth, I have quite a lot of work to do. New plans for a project Mayhew and I are proposing.”
They passed a pile of torches in the center of the village square. She clapped her hand to her mouth. “Golowan. Oh, the procession is tonight! I nearly forgot.”
“The children haven’t. Adeline has insisted on wearing her costume all day.” Adam hesitated. “I wasn’t sure if I should mention it, given the threats you’ve received, but they are still hoping you will join us.” He looked over at her, his eyes hooded. “If you’d rather not, I understand.”
She could tell he wanted her to go. She should go. She’d adored the procession as a girl. Why should she let threats and posters keep her from enjoying herself? “I won’t disappoint your children. Of course I’ll come. Besides, I can’t leave them to make the journey to town in your horse cart.”
“They like my horse cart,” was all he said. But he was smiling in a way that made her stomach resume that fluttery feeling, so she refrained from speaking except to direct him to Paul Bolitho’s workshop.
And yet, now that the promise of an evening out in town hung over her, her light mood began to drain away. Would dressing in festive attire disguise her identity enough to celebrate unnoticed? What would Adam’s children think, if she was jeered? And what would he think, seeing her as an object of derision? It was one thing to know about her reputation. It was quite another to endure the worst of the harassment. She was hardened to the abuse, but the Andersons would feel the sting and flinch from it—or from her.
She cleared her throat. “It’s just to the left.”
Adam turned the cart. “Just here?” he asked.
“Yes, with the sign.”
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly. “You look pale.”
She was not sure. At the sight of the mason’s snug stone building, she regretted coming. She’d often visited here with her father, and it was exactly as she remembered it.
But she wasn’t. She was Seraphina Arden now.
And Paul Bolitho had been her father’s friend, not hers.
“Sera?” Adam reached over to offer her help stepping down.
She snatched her hand away so quickly he looked like he’d been burned.
“Aren’t you coming?” he asked.
She shook her head. She could no longer fathom why she’d felt it would be a good idea to accompany him here. She did not want to see Paul Bolitho. Or rather, she did not want to subject herself to how Paul Bolitho might react to seeing her.
“I’ll wait here, if you don’t mind,” she said.
“It’s getting hot. Won’t you be uncomfortable in the sun?”
“No, it’s pleasant in the breeze.”
There was no breeze.
Adam gave her a long, searching look. “Sera, if you don’t wish to see him, why did you come with me?”
She was taken aback by the directness of his question. She did not wish to confess that a specific kind of fear was curling up around her lungs. One she’d first felt sixteen years ago, when the rumors had begun to spread. When things she’d only told her lover suddenly became a kind of village lore, and people stopped meeting her eye in the square.
She decided there was no use making an excuse. Her behavior was odd, given that this outing had been her suggestion. “Paul was a close friend of my father’s, and I have not seen him since we became estranged. I’d rather not come in just to be tossed out. Please don’t mention me to him.”
“Lass,” Adam said softly, looking at her like she was an orphan selling cloth scraps in the street.
“Go on.” She waved him away rather truculently and shaded her eyes from the sun to keep him from continuing to look upon her with that unsettling pity. She was relieved when he finally went inside.
It made her irritable to be observed acting in a way that could only seem pathetic. Adam couldn’t know what it felt like to be cast out of a place. How you never knew who might welcome you and who might curse you and who might leave repulsive threats on your terrace in the night. How it was easier to stay away and not have to learn the answers.
She could not account for why she kept risking chance encounters when she knew the town was littered with memories and people like traps strung up in the forest. She must stop this.
“Why, Seraphina Arden!” a warm voice called.
Paul Bolitho strolled out of his workshop with Adam, grinning at her like she was his own daughter. “I’d heard a rumor you were back in town and didn’t believe it until Mr. Anderson said you’d recommended this place.”
“Mr. Bolitho mentioned he’d like to see you,” Adam called. “I gave him the convenient news you were a few yards outside his door.”
She cut Adam a dark look for his perfidy. “I . . . yes, here I am.”
“Come down and let me look at you, child,” Paul said, holding out his gnarled laborer’s hand to help her.
She took it, and he drew her to himself in an embrace. “’Tis good to see you, Sera. You look well.” He stepped back. “So tall, just like your papa.”
She ignored this comparison and focused on Paul’s kindness. “How is your family, Paul?” she asked.
“Oh, well enough. Harold’s gone to the navy and Small will take over the shop one of these days. I’d bring him out to greet you but he’s in town with his sons, preparing for the procession.”
She smiled. “Give him my regards.”
He nodded. “Are you staying at the old house?”
“I am.”
Paul grinned. “Your papa would be pleased. Briony wanted to sell the place and move nearer to her family in Penzance, but he wouldn’t let her. Said he wanted you to be able to find him whenever you decided to come home.”