The Bluestocking’s Absolutely Brilliant Betrothal (The Notorious Briarwoods #6)

Chapter 12

I t was very clear that she had worn the wrong shoes. Aurelia traipsed though the verdant underbrush of the forest and looked about.

Perdita followed closely by her side, her crow circling somewhere overhead. The sleek, clever black bird let out a few strident caws.

Aurelia had never met anyone as fascinating as Perdita and, quite frankly, she was rather glad the young lady had come out into the garden the previous night and invited her to come to Heron House in the morning for a chat.

This was not exactly how she had imagined her morning transpiring. She usually read the newssheets and the latest pamphlets about France whilst she drank tea, but when one was invited by a Briarwood to attend Heron House, one always agreed.

Besides, it was positively clear that the young lady was remarkable, and she’d rather enjoyed her company the night before out on the balcony. How was she to say no to someone who had been so practical…and so unique?

Clearly, Perdita was not like most people. Her clear love for animals, and they for her, was only the beginning of it.

Even so, she’d assumed they would take tea together. This was a far cry from sipping the luxurious beverage.

Her slippers were dirty. Perdita had not told her they would be going for a long walk and certainly not a long walk into the wood. The wood was at the back of Heron House.

She’d had no idea such a vast expanse of trees existed out here. The house, of course, was elegant and swept down to the river. But here, she felt as if she had been drawn into some sort of ancient witch’s world.

“Why are we here?” Aurelia dared to ask at last.

Perdita gave her the merriest of looks and lifted her fingers to her lips as if to quiet her, and then she pointed towards a bramble bush.

Much of the forest floor seemed to be laid with the prickly stuff, though the berries were no longer in season. Aurelia silently did as she was instructed to do and looked towards said bramble.

And then she spotted it. There, underneath the blackberry vines, was a most remarkable creature. A fox stared at them both. Red fur, black paws, and eyes that looked as wise as anything.

Her heart thrilled suddenly. She did not know why. She’d never been particularly encouraged to like wild things. She preferred wild thoughts and wild people who wished to change the world.

The animal did not startle at the sight of them, and she wondered at it.

“Why isn’t it afraid?” she whispered to Perdita.

“Wild things like me,” Perdita said simply. “Even frightened things like me.”

She narrowed her eyes. For a single moment, she wondered if Perdita was comparing her to the fox, for she was frightened these days. Her father had looked particularly gray this morning, and he seemed to have lost some of the mobility of his hands. They were trembling just a little bit. She’d noticed it when he’d picked up his teacup and said cup had shaken in its saucer. They had pretended it did not. That pretense had in some ways been more painful than the actual event of his hand shaking.

Perdita took Aurelia’s wrist and then began to pull her away. “She’s protecting her kits, you know. So we don’t want to alarm her much. But I thought you might like to see the fox.”

“Why?” Aurelia asked, having felt more at peace looking at the animal than she had in some time.

Perdita cocked her head to the side, which sent her long hair, which was quite shockingly down, tumbling over her shoulders. “You strike me as someone who would like foxes. Wily, clever, determined, and prefers to be alone.”

“I don’t prefer to be alone,” Aurelia protested, pulling her arm away from Perdita’s grasp. “I come from a large family just like yours.”

“And you prefer to be alone,” Perdita insisted. “Or at least you do now and will in the future…if you carry on as you are.”

Aurelia narrowed her gaze.

“Oh, no. I think it’s perfectly good,” Perdita assured swiftly. “I quite like being alone too. I have an entire circular turret in Heron House, if you did not know. At the top of the house. I’m constantly going up to the roof, and I like to have a good wander by myself with my animals in tow. Mama accepted it long ago and none of my siblings mind at all. So, if you wish to spend the rest of your life in a thatched cottage somewhere up in Yorkshire or Scotland, I shall applaud you, but you will have to let me visit you every now and then, of course.”

There would be no such cottage, of course, unless she took solely to writing letters to other people who wished to change the world and help people in France.

Though, frankly, that sounded shockingly appealing.

She frowned, drawing in the scent of damp earth and trees. How did Perdita see her so very well? She did want to be alone. Want was not quite the right word. She felt compelled to be alone. She liked people. She liked gatherings. She loved her siblings, and she loved her parents. But being with others, especially now that her father was ill, was difficult. She didn’t wish, well, to risk… She swallowed.

She quickly shoved back the painful memories that she did not let come to the surface.

Her present fear of losing her father was terrible enough without thinking of that time so long ago when her mother had been on the brink and…

She swallowed as her throat tightened.

Perdita put her arm through the crook of Aurelia’s elbow. “Really. Everyone keeps making such a fuss about you marrying my brother, but you don’t seem particularly keen.”

She coughed. “I beg your pardon?”

“You don’t want to marry him, do you?” Perdita asked gently. “Did someone find the two of you kissing in a cupboard or something?”

“No, not at all,” she replied swiftly.

“You haven’t kissed my brother?”

She cleared her throat.

“Oh, you have,” Perdita exclaimed, her brows waggling. “Good for you. I hope it was splendid, but I don’t really wish to think about you kissing my brother, if you don’t mind. I do think, however, that you should just end the engagement if you don’t think it’s for you.”

“It’s not that simple,” Aurelia countered, her spine stiffening.

“Of course it is,” Perdita said with a sage shrug. “Everything is that simple.”

“No, it’s not,” she returned, wondering at Perdita. How could she be so naive? Perhaps it was coming from a family that allowed so much independence and oddity, but Perdita could not possibly understand Aurelia’s circumstances. Could she?

Perdita cocked her head to the side. “I know why you don’t wish to marry him. He’s very troublesome and extremely arrogant. No fun to be around at all.”

She scowled. “Well, that’s not true.” She paused, her scowl turning to a reluctant smile. “Except he is arrogant, of course, but that’s because he’s so skilled and it’s likely warranted. He’s kind. He’s interesting. He’s humorous and rather lighthearted. He’s also extremely capable of organizing things.”

Perdita narrowed her gaze and furrowed her brow. “My goodness, you are making an excellent case for him. I think he secretly wishes for love. It must be you then.”

“What do you mean exactly?” she asked.

“Well, he must genuinely like you. He wouldn’t ask just anyone to marry him.”

Her insides fluttered. She longed to tell Perdita the truth. That it was all an illusion. That he did not actually wish to marry her. Well, perhaps he did, but it was all for convenience, and it wasn’t going to take place at all.

Perdita leaned forward and said kindly, “Unburden yourself. I can see that you have told me lies.”

She let out an exclamation. “I beg your pardon?”

Perdita nodded, then sighed. “I have misled you too with some of the nonsense I just said, asking if you were being forced to marry my brother due to kissing. I already knew that wasn’t true. You see… You must understand that Briarwoods don’t keep anything from each other. Did you know that?”

Aurelia let out a whimper of a sound. Drat. If Briarwoods didn’t keep secrets…

“So you know the truth then,” Aurelia breathed.

“Of course I know. The whole family knows.” Perdita tsked, rolling her eyes.

Aurelia groaned. “Dear heavens. So the lot of you know?”

Perdita waggled her brows. “That my brother and you are masquerading about as an engaged couple? Oh yes.” Perdita cleared her throat. “But what’s driving me mad is watching my mother and the rest of the family think that if they just convince you thoroughly enough, you’ll go through with the engagement. But…”

Aurelia’s couldn’t breathe. She suddenly felt rather caught, like an animal in the corner. “Yes?” she prompted.

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Perdita said softly. “You can’t be convinced. You’re too clever and true to yourself for that.”

The compliment was a rather large one, and she could sense Perdita’s admiration but also her love for her family and its machinations.

Aurelia worried her lower lip, then blurted, “Why do they want to convince me so badly?”

Perdita laughed. “Well, you’re lovely, aren’t you? You’re caring. You are interesting. You want to make the world a better place. You sound like a Briarwood.”

“Do I?” she queried, actually liking the fact that she sounded like a Briarwood, except for the fact that she wasn’t ready to be one. “Well, that’s very kind,” she said.

“Thank you,” Perdita replied. “We all try to be kind, but we also all try to be as honest as possible. So I think you should just hie off.”

She choked. “You are blunt. Hie off, eh?”

“Yes,” Perdita said. “And bluntness suits me. It would suit you too if you but allowed it.”

Perdita drew in a deep breath and then, suddenly, before Aurelia could reply, she charged forward. “Come along then. Come along. Shall we go back to the house? I think your slippers are getting wet.”

She nodded, unable to form words. The whole meeting had been so singular. She slipped her arm from Perdita’s, wishing to be separate whilst she contemplated Perdita’s comments.

And while she was walking almost blindly, thinking of said comments, her foot caught on a root and she suddenly tumbled forward, her skirts hiking up about her.

She let out a groan of annoyance, reached down, and pulled off her slippers, which were now completely ruined and inappropriate for such endeavors.

“Dratted things,” she said.

“Yes, not at all suitable for a forest walk,” Perdita replied.

“You did not tell me we were going on such a walk,” she pointed out, noticing that her stockings were also ruined. She peeled them off, leaving her pinkened skin exposed to the earth, which shockingly felt…very pleasant.

“But don’t you like a little bit of mystery?” Perdita asked, grinning.

“No,” she replied honestly.

Right now, mystery was making her wonder if her father was well enough or not.

Perdita crouched down beside her. “Well, I’m sorry for you then.”

“Why?” she gasped. She was not accustomed to anyone feeling sorry for her. She didn’t like it. As a matter of fact, she grimaced as the unpleasant realization that Perdita did truly seem to pity her washed through her.

“Because life is a mystery,” Perdita said simply. “Everything is unknowable. Nothing is actually predictable. So if you do not like a mystery, then you’re going to be rather miserable.” Perdita held her hand out to her.

The words pounded through Aurelia’s head. She wanted to thrust them away and give them no consideration, but there was something so powerful about Perdita, despite her youth, that she couldn’t shake the proclamation away.

Keeping her shoes in her hand, Aurelia took Perdita’s help and allowed the young lady to pull her up.

As she let her feet slide over the earth and then to the cool grass leading back to the house, she wondered at all of this.

The dowager duchess seemed to have been trying to convince Aurelia to wed.

Now Perdita was convincing her to retreat. It really rather felt like a tug of war within her, and as they crossed the lawn, she spotted him. Spotted the man that was the subject of the tug-of-war.

And much to her consternation, her devilish insides thrilled.