For a Year She Read Aloud to a Blind Stranger in the Park — He Was the Duke Who'd Refused Her
Chapter 7
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For a long moment, no one spoke. Hobday studied the elms with great attention. Bishop leaned harder."That is a great many facts," said Verity at last. "I find I prefer them to apologies.""I was not offering one.""I know," she said. "It is why I believe you."She stood. His face rose to follow the sound."I shall be here at 6:00 tomorrow," said Verity. "I make no other promise.""I did not ask for one.""I know that, too."She did not cry. She had stopped in 1816, and she saw no reason to resume for a duke. She walked out of the park with her back straight and her knees not entirely steady.Bishop walked with her to the gate. At the gate, the deerhound sat down and would go no further."Go back," she said.Bishop looked at her with eyes the color of old wine and did not move."You are a very poor judge of character," said Verity. She scratched his ears all the same.No one called him back. He counted 41 of her steps on the gravel before the park took them. The dog's collar chinked after her, and he did not call it back."He has gone after her, sir," said Hobday."I know where he has gone."He had told her the truth, and it had not killed him. He had expected it to. He sat with that in the wet, and listened to rain on his own hands. Somewhere a gate clanged. Far off, a woman's voice said good morning to someone, and he had no means of telling whether it was hers. It would have to be enough."Hobday.""Sir?""Was she crying?""No, sir. She walked out like a woman who has been handed the keys to a house and not yet decided whether to go in."He very nearly laughed. "That is a good description.""I have had practice, sir," said Hobday. "I was handed the keys to you."She was at the bench at a quarter to six the next morning. Hobday, who had meant to say she was late, found nothing to complain of."Chapter 9," said the Duke.She read Chapter 9."Rayford," she said at the end of it. "You were not listening.""I am always listening.""You were counting my pauses.""They are very informative," said the Duke.For 11 weeks, they did nothing more dangerous than that.One morning in November, the first frost lay on the park like salt. She had been reading for an hour when he lifted a hand."Stop there," said the Duke.She stopped at a full stop for once."I broke my own term," he said. "I should like to break it again. Tell me what is there. Only once."She looked up from the page.