Evie’s Choice. Terri Nixon

summer dress, and that they must have shown. Then he looked back at Will, clearly relieved as Will also dropped his guard and assumed a more relaxed position.

      David’s tone turned rather snooty and I lost the fleeting sympathy I’d felt. ‘Who are you, anyway? No gentleman, that’s for sure. A gentleman would never assault a lady while she was out riding.’

      ‘What do you want, David?’ I said, moving to Will’s side. ‘Just say what you came for and then leave.’

      ‘I came to see you, as a matter of fact,’ he said. ‘Your mother invited me to dinner.’

      Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn’t that. ‘What on earth for? And how did you know where I was?’

      ‘Everyone knows where you come to get away from everything, even your stable-hand. It’s a good thing I came, if you ask me, another few minutes and that low-born thug might have done anything!’

      ‘Watch who you’re calling a thug,’ Will said with deceptive mildness, but I saw him tensing up again.

      David did too, and stepped back, his voice betraying his nervousness. ‘Whatever you claim to be the case, you cannot deny I came along just in time,’ he said. Privately I couldn’t help agreeing, but for a very different reason. I found my eyes drawn once more to the muscular arms that brushed mine as we stood side by side, and knew that if they were around me right this minute I would have surrendered everything, wholly and without a second thought.

      ‘Are you going to tell anyone what you’ve seen?’ I wanted to know.

      ‘Well now, I don’t know what I’ve seen, do I?’ David looked cunning suddenly, and I wanted to slap him. ‘It’s hardly your fault if some ruffian attacks you while you’re sleeping in the sun.’

      Will and I looked at each other, and I could see he was going to admit to exactly that, if it meant maintaining our secret for my sake. I spoke quickly, before he could. ‘That isn’t what happened, David, you know it isn’t.’

      ‘Evie –’ Will began.

      ‘No, it’s not and you can’t pretend it is either. You’ll lose your job and Mr…your employer will suffer too,’ I said, almost naming Markham in my hurry to make my point. Mother would be certain to discover who Will was, and that would be the last time he or Markham would be delivering to Oaklands. Not to mention Will’s reputation being torn to shreds. I could not allow that.

      I turned back to David, who was glancing from me to Will and back again. ‘David, I know you’re going to run back to your mother and tell her what you saw, but you need to know that won’t make any difference at all.’

      ‘Any difference to what?’

      ‘To us.’ I slipped my hand into Will’s and, after a glance of mingled exasperation and pride, he raised it to his lips. ‘Nor to what you came here for,’ I added, and David flushed.

      ‘I merely came to dinner,’ he reminded me. ‘At the invitation of your mother.’

      ‘And the instigation of yours,’ I said acidly. ‘She must be quite sure I will get the Kalteng Star back one day, and what better way to ensure it goes back to the Wingfields than if you and I were to marry?’

      ‘The diamond is gone,’ he protested, but there was no conviction behind his words; he clearly believed the same as his mother, that Lizzy would soon break under the terrible conditions inside Holloway, and tell someone where she had hidden it. Except I knew she hadn’t taken it to begin with, and with any luck we would never see it again.

      ‘Then Clarissa won’t be too disappointed to learn that I have no intention of joining our two families again,’ I said.

      ‘Aren’t you two related anyway?’ Will said.

      ‘Only distantly. David’s great-grandmother was my great-aunt Catherine.’

      ‘So it’s legal for you to wed?’

      ‘Legal, but not in the least desirable,’ I said, ‘particularly after the way he helped convict Lizzy.’

      ‘I simply came to dinner,’ he repeated stubbornly. ‘Please allow me to escort you back, Miss Creswell.’

      ‘I have Orion,’ I reminded him, profoundly grateful for the excuse. ‘And it’s nowhere near time to eat yet. At least Mrs Hannah will have plenty of notice of your cancellation.’

      David’s jaw dropped. ‘Are you refusing me the hospitality offered by Lady Creswell?’

      ‘Not at all. Do stay, if you wish. I hope you enjoy talking to Mother.’

      ‘Won’t you be there?’

      I smiled sweetly. ‘I expect I shall have a headache later. It’s probably best if I take a tray in my room.’

      Will’s hand tightened on mine as he choked back a laugh, and I gripped hard in return. David looked at us both, searching for a way to save face. In the end he simply turned on his heel and strode off down the hill, no doubt aware of the picture of dignity he made. This was spoiled slightly as he had to take a sudden side-step to avoid the inevitable sheeps’ leavings, and his ankle turned; his disappearing silhouette cut a rather less dashing figure from that moment on. Will and I leaned on each other in relief at being alone again.

      ‘Do you really think your two mothers are conspiring to have you married off?’ Will said. I was glad of the distraction, even if it meant discussing such an unsavoury thought; I was too conscious of the silence, of the peace that had fallen over us, and of the heat of his body.

      ‘The Kalteng Star does funny things to people’s minds,’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised.’

      ‘But, as you said, it’s gone. We don’t know who stole it, and it’s fairly certain you’ll never get it back.’

      ‘Thank goodness, although Clarissa must think differently.’ I realised something then, and smiled. ‘Do you know, Lord William, that never once in all the time I have known and loved you, did it occur to me that you might have had your head turned by it too?’

      He gave me an amused look; it had obviously never occurred to him either. ‘Not even when I told you how much I’d struggled before, to make a living from sculpting?’

      ‘Not even then. Besides, you’re here with me now even though I don’t have that fortune any longer.’

      ‘You’re still a very wealthy young woman,’ he pointed out. ‘Although the first time we saw each other I think we both knew we would be standing together one day. That was back when I thought you were kitchen staff at Oaklands, of course.’

      ‘But I knew who you were.’

      He put his arm around my shoulder. ‘And it didn’t make any difference to you, so why should it to me? The way I see it, loving you comes with a great deal more complication than loving me could ever do.’

      ‘You’re right,’ I said a little glumly, making him smile. ‘You have my sympathies. Promise you’ll never give up on me?’

      ‘I promise. I only hope David is too embarrassed to tell his mother, or yours, what he saw up here.’

      I had to speak of it, now the moment had passed and I felt safe from my own unexpectedly fierce desire. ‘Will, about before, when David found us –’

      ‘I’m not going to tell you I’m sorry,’ he interrupted, but I shook my head.

      ‘But we can’t … you know. We shouldn’t. And today I felt…’ I was struggling to find the words, but he was there with his own and, as always, they cut straight to the heart of things.

      ‘Only a word from you would have stopped me.’ He held my shoulders and ducked down so his eyes were level with mine and there was no hiding. ‘And you wouldn’t have said that word, would you?’

      ‘No,’ I confessed in a small