Adam and the Reverend Miller had barely crossed the threshold of the vicarage before the latter’s face changed to one of pure, thunderous displeasure.

“I hope that I have not offended you, sir,” Adam said, “in calling upon you and your daughter. My intentions were only honorable.”

The Reverend grew red-faced.

“Honorable?” he spluttered. “You come here and demand that I vouch for you in front of your father, even though I am far from convinced of your innocence,” he sputtered, like a kettle that had been left for too long over the fire. “Now, you seem to be making advances upon my daughter. The audacity of it!”

He had reddened to such a degree at this point that his face was scarcely recognizable.

“I know your type, you young cad! You are deflated by the rejection of your father, and so you seek to amuse yourself by interfering with my girl! It is not to be born, sir, indeed it is not!”

Adam could scarcely recall the last time he had felt so surprised. The Reverend, who he had always considered to be a reasonably mild-mannered and judicious person, had morphed before his eyes into a creature of pure, volcanic rage.

He saw movement over the Reverend’s shoulder and realized that the face of Miss Miller was peering out of the window. She was quite white, and it was clear that she feared her father’s towering anger.

Adam cursed himself. By coming here he had angered Miss Miller’s father, and he knew that the former would bear the brunt of the latter’s anger after he had gone.

“I will leave you, sir, as I can see that my presence is not welcome,” he said quickly. “But before I go, I must say one thing, and that is that I came here of my own volition. Your daughter did not invite me here, and therefore I beg that you do not blame her for my coming.”

The Reverend’s eyes narrowed, the whites stark against the redness of his face.

“I suppose the young hussy has told you to say that,” he said, his voice growing gravelly with fury. “Well, mark my words, young man, she will not be making the same mistake again. Good day to you, sir!”

He nearly threw Adam’s hat at him and turned his back, before marching back through the doorway and slamming the front door behind him.

Adam stood there for a little while, stunned. He had set off to see Miss Miller with such a lightness in his heart, feeling that so long as she had forgiven him, then any other obstacle could be overcome.

But now it was evident that the matter was far from as simple as that.

He walked away from the vicarage, taking the stone steps through the garden two at a time, all his anger and distress at the vicar’s behavior converted into a powerful physical energy.

So lost was he in his thought that he nearly collided with Miss Campbell who was coming through the gate just as he was leaving.

“Good day, Mr. Harding,” she said, looking up at him with a sunny smile that seemed to clash sharply with his mood. Of course, there was no way that she could have known what had just taken place inside the vicarage.

“Miss Campbell,” he said, almost too distracted to touch his hat and bow to her, but not quite. “I hope you are well.”

“Quite well, sir, although I fear from your countenance that I do not find you in a tranquil state?” Miss Campbell was frowning up into his face as if trying to read it, in a way that reminded Adam distantly of the way that his nurse had looked at him when he was a child, and she was trying to discern some childish ailment.

Adam thought about concealing how he really felt but sensed that there was no point in doing so. Furthermore, Miss Campbell had thus far proved to be a kind and resourceful ally to him so there could be no harm in confessing his concerns to her.

“I fear that I have been too hasty, Miss Campbell,” he said. “I called upon the Reverend and Miss Miller, and I believe the Reverend believed that I was there only to speak to him. The fact that I wished to see his daughter put him a great deal out of humor, and he has just asked me to leave.”

Out of humor is something of an understatement, he thought grimly to himself, yet I have no desire to make Miss Miller’s friend believe me to be a self-pitying sort of fellow.

Miss Campbell gave a little laugh, but it was a laugh of sympathy rather than derision.

“I am afraid that Miss Miller’s father has always been a rather severe man,” she said. “Perhaps you did not see it that way when he was in your father’s house, but in his own home he is rather like a lion guarding its den, I am sorry to say.”

“It is understandable that he wishes to protect his daughter,” Adam added hastily.

“Protect, yes,” Miss Campbell replied. Her almond-shaped eyes grew serious, and Adam was struck once again by the feeling that he had seen this young woman somewhere before, somewhere that his mind could not account for. “But what her father undertakes is more akin to suffocation, I am afraid.”

“I have a very good opinion of the Reverend Miller,” Adam said, doing his best to be fair. “I have always considered him to be a just and sensible man.”

“That is because you have never courted his daughter before,” Esther replied.

Adam opened his mouth to reply and then shut it again. The point was irrefutable.

“You will never win him over by trying to become his friend,” Miss Campbell said decidedly. “Such behavior would only anger him, and convince him that you were trying to manipulate him in some way.”

“To be truthful, I am not sure that it will be possible for you to win him over, at all. I fear that it may, in fact, be wiser to clear your name and make your peace with society. I fancy that he will come around when he knows that public opinion is no longer on his side.”

Adam was surprised to hear such shrewd words coming from this small, smiling woman, and realized that perhaps he had somewhat misjudged Miss Campbell. Clearly, as allies went, she was a valuable one.

“And in the meantime,” Miss Campbell continued, “I do not expect that the Reverend would wish to stop his daughter from taking a little exercise, particularly if she is in the company of her friend. The woods and groves are so lovely at this time of year, do you not think?”

She was still smiling, and her meaning was crystal clear. Adam nodded.

Perhaps there would be more conversations in that magical space, the place where it seemed the usual rules did not matter.