Free Elisabeth Kidd by The Rival Earls Page A

behavior!”
    “Nonsense, you needed it. You may think you have all your strength back, you know, but fatigue catches up with one in the most inconvenient ways sometimes. I remember nearly falling off my horse once in Spain after I hadn’t slept for two nights, and poor Salamanca was just as tired and barely achieved a trot, poor fellow.”
    Presently, they were standing on the wharf, having secured the narrowboat. They agreed to meet Rose and Bill at the Angel Inn in two hours to compare notes and decide when to set off on the return journey. Sabina thought that James’s mind was elsewhere during this discussion, for he looked distracted and only nodded in agreement when any suggestion was made.
    He was no more voluble when they set off on foot to explore the town.
    “What’s the matter, James?” she asked.
    He looked at her, and after a moment of seeming indecision, smiled. “I beg your pardon. I was only thinking what you might like to see in the town. There are any number of famous sights—St. Dionysius church, the old school…”
    “Which is closest?”
    “The church, I think.”
    “Then let us go there first.”
    He took her hand and they set off down the street. Sabina had passed through Market Harborough before, but had never really looked at it. It was a busy, crowded place, particularly around the large central square, yet it had a certain elegance. Old timbered buildings lined the cobbled streets, and numerous old inns had their doors opened invitingly to the street. Fragrant smells drifted out and mingled with the sweet smells of fruit and vegetables on the farm barrows that lumbered past, bringing supplies to inns and markets.
    It was quieter in the church close and nearly silent inside the ancient building itself. They sat down on a pew toward the rear and gazed upwards at the delicate tracery around the windows. Occasional muffled footsteps from somewhere beyond the nave was the only sound other than their whispers. Sabina was glad she was with James in such a lovely, serene place.
    “Have you ever been here before?” James asked.
    “No,” she said, gazing about. Then she remembered. “At least, not that I recall.”
    “There is nothing quite like an English church,” he said. “I thought Spanish cathedrals were grand, but they seemed—I don’t know, not so friendly as our village churches, even such a venerable old one as this.”
    Sabina remembered that she and Peter were to be married in the Ashtonbury village church, a tiny building with barely enough pews for her family, let alone his. She had always been fond of that church, but she had not been in it since.
    “What’s the matter, Miranda?” he whispered.
    She realized that she was on the verge of tears and quickly wiped her hand over her eyes. “Nothing, I was being silly. It’s only that I feel so—alone, with no family and no past.”
    “You aren’t alone, Miranda,” he said softly, then leaned over to kiss her. “You will find your past soon. You have us in the meanwhile.”
    She leaned into his kiss, grateful for the brief oblivion it gave her, but the sound of a door closing somewhere in the church brought her back to reality.
    “Oh, dear, how improper we are being.”
    He smiled. “Who is to know.”
    She glanced around. “Only God, I suppose.”
    “Somehow, I don’t think He is offended.”
    They sat for a few minutes, saying nothing. Then she became aware that he was watching her, and she turned to look at him. She studied his face, a little browner today after so long in the sun, his slightly crooked nose more evident in the dimness of the church. His mouth curved slightly upward when she turned to him, although his blue eyes were unsmiling. Suddenly she had the a premonition that this would be the last time they looked at each other in quite this way.
    “James, I—.”
    He put his fingers on her mouth. “No, don’t say it. I can say it—I love you, Miranda—because I know I always shall, whoever and