Carving for Miss Coventry by Deborah M. Hathaway
Chapter Twenty-One
Edward had never seen Miss Coventry so happy. In truth, he’d never seen anyone so happy.
After a brief walk around the town, the two of them had decided it would be best to take a moment to rest from their early morning—especially because it was sure to be a late night for them both.
They’d slept in their separate rooms then woke up to luncheon. After eating, Edward had met Miss Coventry and Jane outside of the inn, where they began their exploration of Wells.
Miss Coventry had dared to replace her heavy cloak and hood with a simple spencer and bonnet adorned with those same small blue flowers he’d first noticed at the cricket match four weeks before. “Will this be enough cover, do you think?” she asked, motioning to the bonnet.
He nodded. “I believe so.” Then he looked away before he could admire the way her green eyes brightened against the light blue of her spencer.
Their first stop was to purchase a ribbon, and after ensuring the shop was vacant apart from the owner, Edward held the door open for Miss Coventry and Jane. But Miss Coventry paused, her brow wrinkled.
“What is it?” He looked over her shoulder in the shop. “Do you recognize someone?”
She shook her head. “I have never been within a shop before without my sister or mother. I know there is nothing to be anxious about, and yet…I am.”
Her father certainly had been dedicated to keeping up appearances. Would the man ever regret the toll his efforts had taken on his daughters?
With an encouraging smile, he offered his arm to her again. “Well, you shan’t be alone, if that’s what concerns you.”
She gingerly took his arm then gripped it tightly as they moved about the shop.
The owner, a short man with hair falling forward from behind his ears, came to stand before them. “Good morning. May I help you find a certain color, Mr. and Mrs.…?”
Miss Coventry’s grip tightened on his arm.
Edward smiled comfortably. “Hickenbottom.”
The man paused then nodded with a comfortable smile. “What can I help you find?”
Edward looked down at Miss Coventry. “What color are you in need of, Mrs. Higgenbottom?”
The shop owner’s sharp eyes focused on him in an instant. What had Edward said?
Miss Coventry squeezed his arm. “Hickenbottom,” she whispered in correction.
Heavens above, he’d said the wrong name. A bubble of laughter moved up his chest, but he barely managed to keep it down.
“Light blue, please,” she responded, her twinkling eyes matching the humor laced through her tone.
The man eyed them with suspicion then showed them to the blue ribbons. Miss Coventry picked two long strands and purchased them both before the owner wrapped them up and extended the package toward them.
“There you are, Mrs.…” He paused, having clearly forgotten the name again.
Edward could not blame him, nor could he help himself from saying, “Higgenbottom.”
“Hickenbottom,” Miss Coventry corrected swiftly.
This time, his laughter could not be warded off, and a short chuckle escaped Edward’s lips. “Not long married, you see. We both keep forgetting the name.”
A barely stifled giggle came from Miss Coventry, then she tugged on his arm, and they swiftly left the befuddled man’s shop.
Their laughter fully erupted once they were safely on the street, Jane following close behind with a smile of her own.
“What on earth were you thinking, Mr. Steele?” Miss Coventry whispered, tears of mirth filling her eyes as their laughter settled. “Why would you forget your own last name if you were newly married?”
He chuckled along with her. “I figured I may as well confuse the man more than he already was.”
“Well, you managed to succeed in that regard.”
Their laughter continued, and they carried on to the next shop. After that, Miss Coventry’s hesitance melted swiftly away, and she entered the next three shops without an ounce of reluctance.
As for Edward, keeping up the façade that they were, indeed, husband and wife, became more and more enjoyable. He’d always wanted to marry. But once the rumors began and business waned, marriage became a distant dream. To pretend now that his dream had come true, it was both happy and unsettling. In reality, it could never come to fruition, especially with such a woman.
As they moved from shop to shop and stall to stall, their anxieties about being discovered faded, and Miss Coventry’s joy grew and expanded to each person she spoke to or even so little as smiled at.
She found joy in everything, whether that was pointing out various trinkets for sale at one stall, a street performer making adults and children laugh, or the way the trees created spotted shadows against the cobblestones.
Near the end of the afternoon, the three of them made their final stop at the town’s bakery. Edward purchased a few cheesecakes for the three of them, and they meandered slowly down the street as they ate, speaking of their parents and growing up, until the conversation shifted to their time in the town.
“Have you truly never been to any shop before in Ashwick without your family?” he asked.
She nodded, taking a bite of the cheesecake. A piece of the pastry clung to her lower lip before it fell to the ground. It was unfortunate he could not have wiped it off himself.
“You never went with your friends?”
She sniffed with derision. “What friends?”
“Ashwick is not so very small. There is not a single woman your age?”
She sighed, swallowing the last of her cheesecake and rubbing her hands together. “I did have friends when we first moved there, when I was ten years of age.” She retrieved her gloves from her reticule and put them on one by one. “I enjoyed their company, especially when Beatrice grew busy with her own friends and courtships, but eventually, they all entered Society and married, starting families of their own.” She looked away. “It became too difficult to find things in common, and our friendships faded fast.”
His heart reached out to her. What a lonely life to have been dealt. “Did your relationship with your elder sister help you in any degree?”
“Unfortunately, no. Once we moved to Ashwick, our relationship faltered, as well.”
Edward had always wanted a sibling, though he only now realized how infinitely more sorrowful it was to have had a sibling and lost one, than to have never had one at all.
“Do you remember much of life, before your father made his fortune?” he asked next.
“Yes. It was far simpler in many ways. In truth, there are times I long for that life to return.” Her eyes took on a distant look. “Now, my family is always separated. Father is preoccupied with business matters, Mother is taken with Beatrice marrying, and Beatrice, well, she has become disenchanted with life. She is a mere shell of whom she once was. We may have had very little before, but at least we had each other.”
Edward frowned. Even with his business failing, he still had friends who wished to see him and a mother who loved him. With a controlling father, an obedient mother, and an absent sister, Miss Coventry truly had very little. No wonder she’d wished to escape the confines of Daffley Park.
His mind was brought back to what she’d said earlier that morning in Ashwick. “You mentioned that your sister has no intention of marrying. She told you this?”
She nodded. “After my conversation with you in the fields, I decided to share with her how difficult the last few years have been for me. I had every intention of helping her so we’d both be happy, but I’m afraid our conversation shifted. She told Father that she would never marry, and it was then that I learned that Father still had no intention of allowing me out in Society. I was tired of waiting, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
They reached the outside of the inn and paused off to the side, standing in front of an alleyway that led between the inn and another shop.
Miss Coventry turned to Jane. “Will you continue to the inn to ensure my dress is made ready for the evening? I will be up shortly.”
Jane glanced between her and Edward, then with a barely contained smile, she nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
She scurried away, and once they were alone, he faced Miss Coventry. “I’m sorry that speaking with your family was not successful. I cannot help but blame myself for giving you such poor advice.”
“It is no one’s fault but their own. Besides, I am finished waiting. I simply decided to create my own happiness.”
“A wise decision,” he responded. “So long as you do not do anything reckless, such as fleeing from your home.”
He gave her a pointed look, and she smiled. “May I ask you a question next?”
His stomach shifted. Given the questions she’d asked him in the past, she could throw anything at him. But it was only fair for him to answer after the questions he’d sailed at her. “Of course.”
“What was it that made your business no longer profitable?”
He had been expecting this question for some time. It was only natural to wonder. But he could not tell her the truth. Not now.
“A misunderstanding occurred between my father and a gentleman who’d hired him,” he explained briefly. “Words were exchanged, and false accusations were made. Horrible accusations.”
Solemnity crowded around him as it did every time he thought of that period of his life, sitting with his parents, listening to Father as he described the lies said about him.
Such darkness, such sorrow, could not be imagined, nor could any of them truly comprehend what had occurred. It had taken its toll on them all, especially Father.
“Those accusations, despite having been proven false, were spread throughout the community. One by one, our friends and customers, gentlemen who had been working with us for years, no longer commissioned our work, and our business fell apart.”
Her eyebrows drew close together, pain reflected in her eyes. “And your father died shortly after that?”
“He died because of that.”
Edward would never forget how Father had stopped eating and sleeping due to his sorrow, how the weariness in his eyes had increased daily until no light was left within him.
“How did you manage to move past it?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
He blinked away the image. “I do not know if I have fully. But each day, I must remind myself to forgive and move on. For if I do not, bitterness and anger will consume me until there is no longer light within me. I know that is not what Father would have wanted.”
She nodded, compassion veritably spilling forth from her eyes. “Wise words to live by,” she whispered. “Ones I would do well to remember, too.”
Then her gaze dropped as she looked past his shoulder, and her eyes rounded. She launched her hand forward and clutched his arm. “I know her.”