‘Mr Harrington?’
Owen blinked. Judging by the concern on her face he’d had one of his episodes, where his mind froze and went blank. But for how long?
‘Mr Harrington, are you in pain?’
Not too long, by the sounds of it, or she’d have rung for help. ‘I’ve been sitting still for too long, that’s all,’ he said brusquely, removing his leg cautiously from the footstool. Pins and needles made it numb. He had no option but to wait until they passed before standing up. ‘You were saying?’
‘Are you sure you are—can I get you anything?’
‘No, I thank you,’ he said, hauling himself upright. ‘I need to think about what you have told me.’
‘Oh. Yes. Indeed.’ Miss Brannagh got to her feet. ‘I expect I’ll stay at the posting house tonight, until I can make other arrangements. You could send a note to me there, if you think of a suitable position.’
She held out her hand, and he took it in his gloved one. Though he had lost some of the feeling in his fingers, her touch still sent a jolt through him, conjuring the fleeting memory of the last time they had held hands like this, and the way time had seemed to stop. He looked down at her work-roughened hands, the tiny healed cuts, the result of constant chopping, the outline of old blisters from cooking on a hot stove. A permanent reminder, as his scars were, in a very different way, of her broken dreams. He no longer dreamed, but if he could help Miss Phoebe Brannagh to pick up the pieces of her life, then he would have rescued something, for her if not for him. It was scant consolation but it was better than nothing.
The kernel of an idea began to form in his mind. It was an outrageous idea. No, he couldn’t possibly—or could he? ‘You can’t stay in a posting house. I’ll have Bremner organise a hotel for you.’
‘Mr Harrington, I’m afraid I don’t have the funds...’
‘You can pay me back.’
‘I can’t possibly...’
‘What you need is a good dinner and a night’s rest in a comfortable bed,’ Owen said firmly, ringing the bell to summon his butler. ‘You’ll wake up refreshed, and much more prepared to face whatever the day may bring. I will brook no argument.’
‘Very well, if you insist, but I will refund you as soon as I can.’
‘Fine. Now, I’m going to hand you over to Bremner. Eat well, Miss Brannagh, and sleep well. I will send my carriage for you in the morning.’
She smiled tremulously. ‘I don’t know how to thank you. You are very kind.’
Not kind, determined, Owen thought, and already feeling a hundred times better than when he’d woken up this morning. ‘Until tomorrow,’ he said, releasing her hand as Bremner appeared, his man listening with well-disguised surprise to his clipped instructions.
The door closed on the pair of them, and Owen dropped heavily into the nearest chair. It was only just noon but the day, which usually stretched like a vast empty desert in front of him, seemed too short. He had a great deal of thinking to do.
Confounding her expectations, Phoebe slept soundly in the hotel’s huge, extremely comfortable bed. It was delightful to be able to stretch out her limbs, find a cool spot when she was too hot, without worrying she would disturb anyone. Anyone being Pascal, a light and fitful sleeper who thought that beds were primarily intended for lovemaking.
She couldn’t really remember exactly when and why Pascal had come to move into her apartment. She dimly recalled him mentioning a dispute with his landlady, who wished to charge him for laundering sheets. He had refused to pay, and as a consequence found himself homeless. Why waste time looking for new lodgings which could be more usefully be spent in the kitchen, he’d said, especially as Phoebe’s rented apartment was so large it was wasted on just her. Since there was no landlady on the premises to object to their scandalous domestic arrangements, and as the other occupants of the building kept themselves to themselves, Phoebe had come to view their living together as perfectly acceptable. Until Estelle found out.
Estelle had been shocked and furious when Phoebe had finally confessed that she and Pascal were living under one roof—and that Pascal was not paying a sou for the privilege. Nothing Phoebe said could convince her sister that such arrangements were acceptable in Paris, nor that the situation could end in anything other than disaster. And Estelle had been proved right.
Right about Pascal, and right about Phoebe’s ambition too? Estelle simply couldn’t understand why Phoebe was putting herself through the rigorous training and unrelenting hard work of a restaurant kitchen. She couldn’t understand why Phoebe wasn’t content to cook for her loved ones, why she would put herself through all the effort of serving up food to an unknown public who would have no compunction in deriding it, if it didn’t please them. Estelle thought that Phoebe would be much happier spending her settlement on building her dream kitchen in her own home, rather than cooking in someone else’s kitchen for complete strangers. Estelle simply didn’t understand Phoebe’s passion, and this was very difficult to bear, especially since Phoebe completely understood her twin’s love of music.
Estelle had a very special gift that elevated her playing above the ordinary. Phoebe had hoped that she had such a gift too, for cooking. Estelle didn’t understand that, but she’d hoped Pascal, a culinary genius, would. He’d seemed to, at first, but ultimately she’d either failed to prove herself or he’d been lying to her from the first. Either way, the net result was the same. She had set her sights too high, and she had—predictably—failed. All that was to be done now was to try again, with her sights set lower, to make her own way. Though her heart ached at the wedge which the argument had driven between herself and her twin, she was determined to find a way to re-establish herself before the rift between them could be healed.
What would she do if Mr Harrington could not recommend a suitable post? If he could, she would work night and day to prove herself. Please, she said to herself, crossing her fingers, please let him know of someone.
Her tummy clenched with nerves. She should enjoy the luxury of having her tea and bread served in bed, ask the maid to have a bath made ready, and make the most of her time in this fabulously indulgent and expensive hotel, not waste it fretting.
* * *
She had succeeded in this small ambition, but when a message arrived informing her that Mr Harrington’s town coach awaited her convenience, Phoebe was immediately assailed by anxiety. Even if he could not help her, she was glad of the opportunity to see him again. The conversation yesterday had been focused on her plight. She had learned little of his own travails save the sketchy details he had told her. His accident seemed to have made a recluse of him. When had it happened? How far had he got on his travels after he left Paris? Pain had changed him, but she found it difficult to believe that the charismatic man she had met two years ago would have given up on the world so completely. He appeared, on reflection, to be a man without hope. Though perhaps she had simply caught him on a bad day.
* * *
‘Miss Brannagh, how do you do today?’ Owen asked, indicating the chair at the fireside she had occupied yesterday. ‘You slept well?’
‘Very well, thank you.’
She