Lydia was much subdued as she rode in the carriage to Honeyfield for her riding lesson with Ellen. Her Aunt’s announcement had indeed been a shock. She had never considered what Doctor Winston’s wooing of Lavinia could mean for her. Now she was faced with another life changing reality.

“How lovely you look in the riding costume,” Ellen exclaimed, as Lydia descended from the carriage. She came over and took both of Lydia’s hands and stood back to admire the dress. She took Lydia by the arm and led them toward the stable.

“Edwin told me to tell you that he fully intends to offer you his promised tour of the estate after lunch.”

“I look forward to it,” Lydia said, as they arrived to find the horses waiting for them.

Lydia was finding her inner horsewoman. She was taking to it like a dog takes to fetching a ball. After practicing trotting around the corral, Ellen suggested they head out into the open field and work from a trot to a canter, and Lydia was anxious to take up the challenge. By the end of the lesson, Lydia was riding right beside Ellen as they gently raced back to the stables.

“Next time, we shall ride into the woods and along the river. I can’t believe how quickly you are learning,” Ellen enthused.

“And I can’t believe how thoroughly I am enjoying riding. My only regret is that I did not learn to ride earlier.”

“Well, come. It is time for lunch and I have the most exciting news to tell you while we eat.”

“Are we going to your rooms?”

“No, we shall be eating with Mamma and Edwin today. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t, but I should like to change out of the riding dress first if you don’t mind. I brought a dress to change into.” She held up a small bag she’d brought with her.

“Yes, me too.”

They changed their dresses and headed for the dining room.

“What is your exciting news?” Lydia asked as they proceeded down the hallway.

“Wait until we luncheon. It’s really Edwin’s surprise.”

They entered the dining room. Her Grace was seated at the head of the long table. Edwin, by right, should have been seated at the other end, but they would have needed to shout down the length of the table to carry on a conversation, so he sat to his mother’s right, while Ellen and Lydia sat opposite.

“How is the student doing?” Edwin asked as he stood when the two ladies entered.

“I swear, Edwin, she is going to be an even better rider than I am.”

Lydia blushed. “Nonsense.”

Her Grace raised her gloved hand and waved in Ellen’s general direction. “Ellen, my dear, I can hardly believe you are able to judge Miss Fernside’s abilities so soon after commencing her lessons. I feel certain no one will be able to rival you. After all, you are a Templeton.”

Ellen gave Lydia a glance and grimace before turning back to answer her mother. “I stand corrected. However, I feel like Lydia and I are sisters, therefore, I feel quite certain we shall, at the very least, be equals.”

Mother gave a “humph” and turned to the butler, giving an almost imperceptible wave to indicate it was time to serve.

Lydia mostly remained quiet during lunch, as Her Grace rattled on about family matters, totally ignoring Lydia’s presence, with no attempt to engage her in conversation. However, Edwin would look at Lydia and smile and even winked once to indicate he understood how left out she must feel.

As the luncheon neared its end, Lavinia came into the dining room to fetch Her Grace for her constitutional walk before naptime.

As they were leaving, Her Grace turned back to Edwin. “I had the most delightful note from Pamela, thanking us for hosting her last week. And she said to give you her particular regards.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Edwin said in an exasperated tone of voice.

Finally, the Duchess was gone, and both Edwin and Ellen gave a sigh of relief.

Ellen turned to her brother. “Tell her,” she said, enthusiastically.

Edwin nodded and turned to Lydia. “My darling sister is about to have her eighteenth birthday and we are going to celebrate with a party.”

“Oh, Edwin—not just a party—a ball.”

Edwin nodded.

“It will be the event of the season,” Ellen added. “There shall be champagne, dancing, and all the finest ladies and gentlemen of the region shall attend. Isn’t it exciting? It shall be my very first ball.”

Lydia leaned over and gave Ellen a hug. “How splendid.”

Edwin stood up from the table. “Miss Lydia, I believe it is now time for our little adventure.”

He offered his hand. Lydia stood and went around the table to take it.

“Shall I see you again before I leave?” Lydia asked Ellen.

“Come to the stables. I am going to help groom the horses shortly.”

“Very well,” Lydia said.

“I want to talk about the guest list, and you can help me sort it out.”

“Oh, Ellen, I know very few of the type of people you will be inviting.”

Ellen laughed. “Do not be a snob Miss Lydia, I am not only going to be inviting folks with titles, you know. This is to be my party and I shall invite whoever I think will be fun, and you can help me with that.”

“Very well, until later, then.”

Edwin escorted Lydia outside to the front of the house where there was a horse and trap awaiting. He helped Lydia into the seat and he went around to the other side, climbed in and took the reins.

“First I want to take you around and show you the layout of Honeyfield Estate. Then I would like to take you to my office and show you the plans I am working on for the botanical gardens and the designs for the park.”

“How very exciting. I admire your ambition. Where shall we begin?”

“First I want to show you where we are building the lake. Well, it is more of a pond really, but it will anchor the North American landscape. I am having a number of botanical specimens shipped from the new country, which should arrive in the next few months.”

Edwin slapped the reins and the horse started up.

“And will there be a tropical garden?” Lydia asked.

“Surely. And for that, I am going to construct a large glass structure so they can be protected in winter. However, that will be some time off yet. First, I am going to concentrate on the northern hemisphere plantings. I want to create a natural setting, with both formal and informal planting areas. But that I will explain more clearly when I show you the drawings.”

After showing Lydia the width and breadth of the estate, Edwin pulled the trap up to a stop on top of the high ridge of a field. He helped Lydia down, and they stood looking across the open field from the ridge.

“There,” he said, pointing, “That is where I shall establish the pond. You can see where there are several springs flowing that will feed the pond and I will be starting construction on it next month.”

“This is a wonderful vantage point. Are you going to establish any special feature up here?”

“Yes, I was thinking of putting in a pavilion. It would be lovely to see the sun rise or set from here. One could serve tea or read or just contemplate.”

“I love it.”

Edwin turned to Lydia. “Now, Miss Lydia, tell me more about your interests. You told me previously you are interested in gardening.”

“Oh, Edwin, my interests are not nearly as grand as yours. I have a special love of trees. I spent a lot of time working in my family’s orchard, and I am, even now, pruning my aunt’s few fruit trees.”

“Yes, an orchard is a wonderful idea. We have a small one now, but it is in sad shape and needs attention and expansion. Perhaps you might advise me on what I should add and how the trees might be arranged.”

“It would be an honor to assist you in that.”

“And you are knowledgeable about vegetable gardens, as well?”

“I am, but certainly you must have a kitchen garden already, no?”

“We do. But it could be greatly expanded.”

“Then if you have any questions for me about that, I will be happy to help. But, please, I want to hear more about your plans for the botanical garden. This I find most fascinating and I know so little about the scope of such a project.”

Edwin nodded. “Then allow me to show you. Let us travel to where I envision laying out the formal garden, and then I will take you to review the drawings and you will get a better idea of the scope.”

Lydia enthusiastically admired what Edwin was trying to do. Not many men she knew had the vision to undertake such an ambitious project, and she could not imagine he had much support from his mother, who appeared to be much too conventional to admire his ambitious undertaking.

What a shame, Lydia thought, that a man of such vision should be out of her reach as a marriage partner; for here was a man she truly admired and had great affection for, although she really did not know him all that well yet.

Edwin took her hand as he helped her into the trap. And she couldn’t help but notice the charge of energy they exchanged as he touched her. For a brief moment, their eyes met and he smiled shyly.

“Now, you must realize this is a work in progress,” Edwin said, as he stood before the drawings laid out on the table in his small office behind the stables.

Not a very impressive space for a man of his stature to work in Lydia thought—but then he was at heart really just a humble man.

“Nothing is set in stone, and I am open to changes and all suggestions,” Edward said, as he glanced to read Lydia’s reaction.

Lydia looked over the drawings. She was aware how close Edwin was standing to her. She could feel the heat radiating off his body. It made her feel slightly giddy and she moved away to look at a drawing on the other side of the table. He did not follow her.

“Edwin, I am not very good visualizing a garden from plans drawn up on paper. But I do get the idea of what you are striving for and I find it very exciting.” She looked up into his eyes, which were smiling.

“I know what would help,” he said. “I have some books with quite exact drawings of some historical gardens. It would give you a better sense of what I am striving for.”

He went over to a bookshelf and pulled down several books, opening them, and spreading them on the table before her. He came around and stood close next to her and began pointing out features in the books that corresponded to designs in his drawings. However, Lydia was, once again, distracted by Edwin’s body next to hers and she was having a difficult time focusing on what he was trying to point out to her.

She mumbled responses at appropriate pauses in his speech, but she did not truly comprehend what he was trying to tell her.

Finally, he stopped speaking and turned to look at her, expecting her to respond to what he had just told her.

“Edwin, I have to say it is all very impressive, but I am afraid a lot of it is beyond my limited comprehension of a project of such scale.” But she did not want to leave it on a negative note. “However, I am certainly willing to learn, and if there might be some way you could see me assisting you I would be more than happy to offer my services in any way I can.”

“Thank you, Miss Lydia. I greatly appreciate that. I shall keep that in mind and will think how you might be useful to me.”

Lydia smiled. “I should be going. Ellen wanted to discuss the guest list for her birthday ball and I will need to return home to prepare supper.”

Edwin nodded. “Thank you for your time and attention, Miss Lydia. I look forward to seeing you soon again. Perhaps at the time of your next riding lesson?”

Lydia nodded in return. “Good day, Edwin.”

* * *

Lydia was in her bedroom writing a letter to her family. It had been far too long since she had invested the time to inform them of her life in Shropshire. She laid out the many events that had taken place since her last letter. There was Gingersnap to account for. Her walks with Doctor Cooke. Her delightful friendships with Ellen and Jenny and, with some hesitation, she described her unique relationship with Edwin, the Duke of Shropshire.

And lastly, she hesitantly broached the subject of her Aunt’s possible marriage, and Lydia’s dislocation, if her married aunt was to move to Oxford. She did not, however, mention the idea of returning home if she had nowhere else to go, for Lydia felt, with some certainty, that she would be able to find a suitable situation locally.

As she was finishing the letter, she heard Jenny shrieking from downstairs. Gingersnap raced up the stairs and sought refuge under Lydia’s bed.

“Just a minute,” Lydia shouted back. “I shall be right down.”

She would finish the letter later, even if it meant she would miss the final post.

“Jenny, why are you shouting?” Lydia asked as she came down the stairs.

“Did you get one too?” Jenny asked, bouncing up and down.

“What? Get what?”

“An invitation to Miss Templeton’s birthday ball?”

“Oh, good heavens, Jenny, I helped Ellen prepare the guest list,” Lydia said, as she passed through the entry hall into the sitting room. “Come, I have just made some raisin and walnut biscuits. Help me put them in tins, and by all means sample one.”

“But it is a ball! A real dancing ball! There has not been such an event since Alice Paddington’s husband died and she celebrated the end of her forty years of misery.”

Lydia had to laugh at that.

“Why ever do you suppose that my entire family was invited? I have never even met Miss Ellen.”

“Ah… but you have met me, and Miss Ellen asked me to invite the worst possible slags I knew—so, of course, I thought of you.”

Jenny squeaked and swatted at Lydia’s arm.

“But what am I going to wear? What are you going to wear? What shall my parents and brother wear?”

“Calm down, Jenny. The ball is still a month away. There is plenty of time to sort all of that out.”

Jenny jumped up to sit on the kitchen table. She let out a sigh and picked up one of Lydia’s newly baked biscuits. “Um, these are delicious. You are quite the cook, are you not?” Lydia did not respond. Jenny looked at her. “You are very quiet. Is something troubling you?”

Lydia looked at Jenny. “There has been a development.”

“Oh?”

She didn’t feel it was right to tell Jenny about her aunt’s pending engagement until she chose to make it public, but she wanted to tell Jenny about her precarious situation.

Lydia stopped putting the biscuits into a tin and leaned back against a counter. “I can’t go into the details, but there is a possibility I may no longer be able to stay with my aunt. I am going to need to find a new living situation.”

Jenny’s mouth fell open. “Lydia, why?”

“I can’t say why just now, but I need to talk to someone about it.”

“Where would you go? Would you return to Piddlehinton?”

Lydia shook her head. “I can’t do that. My parents cannot afford to keep me.”

“Then you must accelerate your pursuit of Doctor Cooke.”

“Oh, Jenny… I don’t think I can do that?”

“Why not?”

“First, it is he who must show a sincere interest, and then he must declare his intent. And I have seen neither.”

“Lydia, he certainly has shown interest. The walks, the flirty conversation over tea, his enduring interest in your health…”

“Jenny, those are hardly indications of a pending proposal of marriage.”

“Perhaps not, but they are the first steps. Now it is up to you to encourage him to walk more briskly.” Jenny picked up another biscuit. “My, these are good. You should send the Doctor a batch of these. That would certainly encourage him and let him know of your interest.”

“I will think about it.”

“Lydia, you are too tentative. One would think you are not interested in him.”

Lydia thought about the wonderful moments she had shared with Edwin, and how attentive he was to her. But she also knew it was an impossible situation and to even think about a romance blossoming between the two of them was the height of useless speculation.

Lydia stood away from the counter where she had been leaning and resumed packing away the biscuits.

“That is a splendid idea, Jenny. Perhaps I shall make a new batch of biscuits and drop them over to Doctor Cooke later this week.

Jenny smiled. “You see; you are marching right along.”

Lydia still had reservations. “But I need to also think of other possibilities. I have been thinking I might find employment locally. Perhaps as a companion, like my aunt is with the Duchess. There must be several genteel families in the area. Maybe you could suggest a few I might contact.”

“It is possible my father, as a respected banker, might know some families.”

“Might you enquire of him?”

“Certainly. But I think your very best course would be to land your Doctor Cooke.”

Jenny sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “But what I must do is begin planning exactly what I am to wear to the ball. With all the family going, and all of us in need of new clothes, I am certain I am going to end up having to make my own gown.”

She jumped down off the kitchen table and snatched another biscuit out of Lydia’s tin before she closed it.