Chapter 56

“No, I want to take you to Maud’s, a little tearoom I know of in Tunbridge Wells. I can pick you up in say, three quarters of an hour?” That would make it almost three o’clock, and we could be at the tearoom by teatime.

“Do I need to fear for my reputation?” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“You never have to fear me,” I told her earnestly.

“I know, dammit.” Her words were teasing. “I’ll serve my current customers, flip over the closedsign, and run a comb through my hair.” And now her words were almost caressing.

“Er…would you be upset if I asked you to wear trousers?”

“Not at all, Rick. That’s all I have in my wardrobe. Ta for now.”

“Ta.” I swallowed hard as I hung up. The last person…the onlyperson to call me “Rick” was Fox.

But Fox…

Determinedly, I pushed him from my mind. Things were as they were, and I had other matters to worry about, chief among them the fact that Father was pressuring me more and more to marry.