She said, “I was reading in the journal that these types of plantings are going out of fashion. The French favor wildness now.”
“The French favor excess in all things,” August observed.
She gave him a sideways look. “You don’t approve?”
“I find it exhausting, frankly.” He looked at the profusion of roses. “I prefer things that are predictable. Things that stay put.”
“Then you must find me intolerable.”
He started, not expecting the admission. “Quite the opposite.”
Her hands were folded at her waist, but he saw the way her thumb worried at her knuckle. He wondered if she was nervous or simply wishing she were elsewhere.
They resumed walking, a little slower.
“May I ask you something?” she asked, her tone deceptively casual.
“Always.”
She hesitated. “Did you know Lady Wilhampton would be at the Irondale ball?”
He felt the ground shift beneath him. “No, I did not.”
She seemed to accept this. “She was very… attentive.”
“She is always attentive, especially when there is a scandal to be had.”
Eliza stopped beside a marble sundial, her fingers trailing along the edge. “She seemed to think she knew you very well.”
He did not reply at first. The sun glinted off the brass gnomon, casting a sharp line across the dial.
“She knew the version of me that exists for the benefit of others,” he said. “The real me is… less interesting.”
“I doubt that,” Eliza said and turned away before he could respond.
A breeze stirred the roses, petals drifting across the path.
He caught up to her. “I am sorry if she made you uncomfortable.”
“She did not,” Eliza replied. “I have endured worse than a sharp tongue.”
He looked at her. “Still, I am sorry.”
She met his eyes, and for a second, he thought she might believe him.
They walked on, the sun now warm on their backs.
At the far end of the garden, they reached a small copse of beech trees. The path narrowed, forcing them to walk close.
Eliza said, “You once wrote that you preferred letters to conversation.”
He remembered. “It is easier to edit one’s words on paper.”
“And yet you speak very well.”
He laughed. “That is only because I rehearse in advance.”
“Do you rehearse these walks, too?”