Love Between the Lines by Kate Rothwell Page B

her as she examined the sprigs of a glistening glass violet. “A clumsy cow in a china shop,” he’d said. At least he hadn’t called her a bull.
    Sir Gideon interrupted her thoughts. “Are you rearranging the room to fit your memory?”
    She blinked and put her hands behind her back , feeling like a naughty child . Touching objects again. Fiddling with something until it broke. Her nervous symptoms. “No. I simply must move or run out of here. Listen, Sir Gideon, I know you’re going to be my employer, but I think you demand too much by insisting on this visit.”
    “ What can you mean?” he said jovially. “It shan’t take long.”
    Lizzy nodded. “There is that.” The last time she’d attempted to come home, it had been her mother’s birthday. Her father had allowed a five-minute visit before he reappeared with the coachman. He’d informed Lizzy that he would have Peter escort her from the premises if she didn’t leave on time. To spare her mother, who’d been turning bright red, Lizzy left immediately. As they’d hugged good-bye, her mother had murmured that Papa probably wouldn’t have had her bodily removed.
    Lizzy picked up a silver vinaigrette from an occasional table and paced the room twice before putting it on the mantel. “Honestly, I thought you British were reserved. Your race isn’t the sort to go poking into other people’s business.”
    Sir Gideon said nothing but lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes, the aristocrat again. “Surely a trained observer such as yourself knows better than to make generalizations.”
    She smiled. “Aha! So you admit you’re nosy.”
    Then a familiar voice interrupted her moment of triumph.
    “Sir Gideon?”
    Her father, ta ll and leaner than she recalled, stood in the doorway, dressed in a dark suit for work.
    Then Mr. Drury ’s shoulders went back and the polite smile he wore dissolved—he’d noticed Lizzy. She moved at once behind the leather chair near the fireplace.
    “ Elizabeth. Did you arrive at the same time as Sir Gideon?” He sounded stern—and worse, disappointed.
    She nodded. Her hands rested on the back of the chair and her fingers clutched it tight so she’d stay still.
    “ Are you friends with this gentleman?” Mr. Drury demanded.
    “ Not precisely,” began Sir Gideon.
    “ You were alone with a man. Here in our house?” His quiet voice was hoarse from holding back his temper. That was fast, she thought.
    “ For less than a minute, Papa,” she said as quietly as she could. “Let me explain—”
    But of course he wouldn ’t listen to her. He turned his back. “Sir Gideon, I beg your pardon. You wished to see me about something? Does it concern Elizabeth?” For a brief moment, something like hope flashed in his eyes, but just as quickly it was gone. Good God, he must have wondered if Langham was a suitor. Poor Papa. But he wasn’t a stupid man and now he frowned considering the matter. “Sir Gideon? Langham? The British publisher?”
    “ Yes, indeed. I’m only over here for a month. Very fast visit. Ten days until I sail.” Sir Gideon sounded jolly, like a guest who’d been invited to tea. Although of course neither of them had been invited to so much as sit down.
    Papa remained silent and his hands trembled at his sides. Had he trembled with rage before? Lizzy wondered if the palsy arose from emotion. Surely if he had some sort of illness she would have heard by now.
    “I expect you’re wondering why we came to visit today—” Gideon began.
    “ I think I can guess,” Mr. Drury said. “You are a publisher and you are employing my daughter. More than that I do not need to know. And Elizabeth knows the conditions under which she might enter my house.”
    She nodded. Too bad she couldn ’t point to Sir Gideon and whine, He made me , like a child. But if she kept quiet, she could perhaps leave without bursting into gusts of unladylike tears. For once.
    Sir Gideon said, “She did try to explain to me that you