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.He’s in love with her, and he wants her to go back to America with him, but he doesn’t think she will.”“So, you have become a matchmaker?”Mattie grinned, something she had been doing often of late.Like him, she seemed to have put away her grief for the moment.His heart thrilled to the brightness of her smile.“I thought I might.I’m going to tackle this thing between Sylvie and Thomas too.”“Oh, my dear.I wish you well with that.So, you and Stephen are not…” William struggled for words.“In love?” Mattie offered.“No, I’m in love with you.”William’s face heated, and he coughed behind his hand.“Miss Crockwell, how brazen of you!” He returned her smile with one of affection.“Do not ever change.”“You say the nicest things, William,” Mattie said softly.She looked over her shoulder to where Louisa sat on the sofa and drank tea while others played cards.“I’m going in,” she said as she sailed off.Chapter Fifteen“Louisa, I wondered if I might talk to you,” Mattie said as she slipped onto the sofa next to Louisa.Mattie noted that Stephen, playing cards, watched her with an alarmed expression.She wasn’t sure if he really wanted her to talk to Louisa or not, but folks in the Georgian era rarely seemed to say what they truly meant, so she decided to move things along.“Certainly, Miss Crockwell.I hope you are enjoying your stay?” Louisa’s smile was not as wide as Mattie had seen it, and Mattie knew she needed to clear the air as soon as possible.“It’s wonderful.I’ll be going home to America soon.” Mattie hated to say the words, but they seemed like a good opening for a difficult conversation.“What do you think of America? Have you ever been there?”Louisa looked taken aback for a moment, but she quickly schooled her face into an expression of polite interest.“No, I have not.Mr.Carver returns soon as well, I think.”“Does he? I didn’t know that.Have you ever thought about visiting America?”Louisa shook her head.“No, not in reality.” Louisa’s gaze traveled to Stephen, but she quickly looked away when she saw Stephen watching them.Mattie watched the exchange with a sigh.“What if…” This wasn’t as easy as she’d thought.“Yes, Miss Crockwell?”Mattie forged on.“What if you fell in love with someone who lived in America? Would you consider moving there?”Louisa’s eyes rounded.She opened her mouth to speak and closed it again.She took a hearty sip of tea.Mattie looked over her shoulder toward William with a pained expression.“No, I have not contemplated such a thing, Miss Crockwell.No more than I have contemplated marrying a Frenchman or an Italian.” Louisa’s pink cheeks were indecipherable.Was she mad? Embarrassed? Mattie hoped she wasn’t blowing it, for Stephen’s sake.“It’s a beautiful country, Louisa.Stunning.” Mattie stalled as she pondered other tactics.“Yes, I am sure it is.I have heard Mr.Carver speak of it.”A full-frontal assault was required.Mattie threw one more look over her shoulder toward William who watched with a small smile of support.“Ah, yes! Mr.Carver,” Mattie said.“Yes.Well, that’s what I really wanted to talk to you about.”“I did not realize you and Mr.Carver were so…well acquainted, Miss Crockwell, but it would appear that you are.”“We’re not,” Mattie said with a tilt of her head.“We’re just fellow Americans.”“Yes, of course,” Louisa said with a look that suggested she thought otherwise.Mattie took a deep breath.Here goes!“Look, Louisa, the thing is…Stephen is in love with you.” Mattie let it go and waited for the reaction.Louisa gasped, and her eyes flew to Stephen, whose attention had been captured by the game once again.“Miss Crockwell! That is a very bold statement.How can you possibly know such a thing?”“Well, one look at him says it all, but as it happens, he told me so.”“He told you? I find it odd that he should discuss such a thing with you before addressing himself to me.” Louisa stiffened as if she was affronted.These people and their rules, Mattie thought.Argh!“Well, I asked him,” she shrugged.“I’ve seen him watching you, and I suspected he was in love with you.So, I asked.”Louisa looked at Stephen once again, her cheeks rosy.“And he told you he was?”“Yes.I think though that he hasn’t said anything because he thinks you wouldn’t want to go with him to America.” Mattie felt she had said way too much, but she wasn’t sure that Stephen or Louisa would follow up.It seemed like some of the romances in Jane Austen’s Georgian-era books took forever to develop given the era’s propensity to observe the niceties above all else and to treat strong emotion as a less than desirable trait.But then, Stephen was American.Maybe American societal mores were already different in this era.Louisa turned back to Mattie and pressed her lips together.Mattie winced.She had said too much! Drat!“If I were in love with my husband, I would follow him to his home.That is our custom,” Louisa said serenely, as if she spoke of an abstract future subject.Mattie stared at her.“Really?” Mattie breathed.Louisa cleared her throat and took another sip of her tea.Her eyes strayed toward Stephen, still engaged by his partner in conversation.“Yes, of course.”“So, are you saying you feel the same way about Stephen?”Mattie saw Louisa swallow hard, and her chest heaved as she took in a deep breath.She looked at Mattie and blinked.“Yes, Miss Crockwell.I surprise myself by disclosing to you that I do, in fact, feel the same.” Her lips curved softly.Mattie glanced over her shoulder toward William, resisting an urge to throw him a thumbs-up signal.He must have seen something in her face because he smiled broadly.She grinned back and returned her attention to Louisa.“Will you tell him?” Mattie nodded toward Stephen.“I am afraid I cannot.Mr.Carver must initiate such a discussion.”“I’ll tell him if you want,” Mattie offered.Otherwise, it wasn’t going to get done, was it?Louisa chuckled.“You cannot simply walk up to Mr.Carver and declare my undying love for him, Miss Crockwell.We are not so hasty in these matters.”“No, no, of course not.I won’t,” Mattie promised.Well, of course she was going to.Louisa nodded and lowered her eyes to her tea.Mattie spun her head toward Stephen, willing him to look up so she could communicate nonverbally.Luckily, he did look up at that moment.His eyes traveled to Louisa first, and Mattie almost jumped up and waved to get his attention.She did raise an abrupt hand to her hair, startling Louisa.Stephen met her eyes, and she gave him a slight, almost imperceptible nod [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]