“Sebastian drove us down in his phaeton,” Antonia replied. “It only took us just over six hours, so we left Green Street at the altogether decent hour of eight.”
“Lucky you!” Miss Savage smiled at Sebastian. “I came up from the New Forest so had to stop overnight with friends in Brighton.”
“Just over six hours…” Hadley Featherstonehaugh looked at Sebastian rather eagerly. “That must mean you used your own horses.”
Sebastian nodded. “I babied them along. We stopped at Faversham for lunch, so that gave them time to recover.”
“What are they?” Hadley asked.
With a grin, Sebastian settled to discuss horseflesh with Hadley. Predictably, the ladies lost interest and started chattering about projected excursions and events with which they hoped to fill the following days.
Eventually, the topic of carriage horses was exhausted, and Hadley was called to order via a question from his wife. Sebastian raised his head and scanned the company, but other than various staff, no one else had joined the gathering.
Antonia noticed. She put a hand on Sebastian’s arm. She’d intended purely to attract his attention, but the muscles under her fingers tensed to steel, and his head whipped around, and his gaze pinned her. Her heart leapt; her pulse spiked. Pretending to be entirely unaware and unaffected, she coolly informed him, “If you’re looking for Ennis, Cecilia said he was busy with unexpected estate matters and would join us later.”
He stared at her for a second, then his chest rose as he drew in a breath, and he nodded and looked away. After a moment, she remembered and drew her hand from his sleeve.
A second later, he asked, “Is there any event or entertainment scheduled for today?”
She resisted the impulse to blink in surprise. Was his naturally deep voice a touch deeper, rougher? “No. Nothing tonight. Just tea at four o’clock, and then dinner at eight.”
“Drawing room at seven?”
She nodded. “The usual.”
She’d had plenty of time during the journey into Kent to confirm that her sudden susceptibility to him hadn’t faded and, subsequently, to decide how best to cope with—and to hide—her unexpected sensitivity. But if the way he’d tensed and the sheer potency of the look he’d bent on her when she’d entirely innocently laid her hand on his arm was any guide, she wasn’t the only one battling a newfound susceptibility.
That, she hadn’t factored into her deliberations at all.
Indeed, that such a situation might exist had never entered her head!
She needed to rethink, rather desperately, about him and her, but that required time alone, away from him.
Yet she remained determined to participate in his mission and contribute to the outcome as and when she could. She’d wondered if, as soon as he was through the front door, he would quit her side; playing the role of escort at a country house party didn’t require him to loom at her shoulder every minute of every day. Yet he’d gravitated back to stand beside her and, even when he might have drifted away, had shown no inclination to do so.
She was in two minds about that. While he was by her side, she could keep abreast of what he was doing vis-à-vis his mission. But if he was by her side, she tensed and remained in a hypersensitive state in which her nerves seemed so taut they quivered, just waiting for a touch, a look, an expression to set them twanging. That seemed to have become her new default state when he was near.
“Everyone!”
They all looked toward the staircase.
Cecilia was standing two steps up, with various footmen and maids behind her and the round figure of the matronly housekeeper beside her. “We have your rooms prepared. If the ladies would like to come forward, we’ll have you comfortably settled in good time before tea. Four o’clock, everyone, in the drawing room, which”—Cecilia pointed to her left—“is over there.” She looked down and smiled. “Mrs. Parrish. We’ve put you just along the west wing, with Miss Bilhurst on one side and Mr. Parrish on the other.”
Antonia fell in behind the Featherstonehaughs. Somewhat to her surprise, Sebastian maintained his position beside her. They chatted to Hadley and Georgia about the amenities Cecilia had mentioned could be found in the grounds, as others were sent upstairs to their rooms, and the four of them edged closer to the bottom of the stairs.
Finally, Georgia faced Cecilia.
Cecilia smiled on their group. “As it happens, you’re all in the east wing—the first three rooms on the eastern side. Your windows look out on the shrubbery and wilderness and over the woods.” Cecilia consulted her list. “Antonia, you have the room closest to the gallery, with the Featherstonehaughs next door along.” Cecilia paused to allow the housekeeper to organize a footman to lead Georgia and Hadley to their room.