“Tomorrow will be too late,” she said. “I’m leaving in the morning.” There was silence on the line. “Please, Patrick. I want to see you before I go.”
“Fine. Be watching for me.” He hung up the telephone and called for his motor to be brought around. After making his excuses to his friends, Patrick stepped out of the club and into his waiting automobile.
A quarter of an hour later, he pulled into Bedford Square. Linley waited for him on the front steps of Berenice’s townhouse. When she saw him, she sprinted across the pavement and climbed in beside him.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, settling herself into the passenger seat.
Patrick took a deep breath and nodded. Gentlemen did not take unmarried ladies for a spin in their motor at two thirty in the morning. If anyone saw them, the consequences would be dire. “Did you have anywhere particular in mind?”
“No.”
“Then I know somewhere we can go.” He put the automobile in gear and circled Bedford Square.
They drove out of London toward one of the smaller towns north of the Thames. Away from the thick haze of coal smoke, moonlight flooded the countryside, shining so bright that Patrick could’ve driven without his headlamps. Neither he nor Linley spoke, contented to take in the view and enjoy the crisp night air over the whine of the engine.
On the outskirts of a small village, the motorcar turned off the lane and pulled into an open field of grass. Far down the hillside, London’s lights cast a yellowed glow on the horizon. Patrick shut off the engine, and the night went silent.
“Are you cold?” he asked, shrugging out of his evening jacket. “Put this on.”
He placed the jacket around Linley’s shoulders. She hugged it tightly to her body, taking in the scent of him that still lingered in the heavy wool. “Won’t you be cold now?” she asked, noticing that he was down to his shirtsleeves and waistcoat.
Patrick shook his head. “It feels good to be out of that thing for a while.” As if the idea just came to him, he climbed over the back of the driver’s seat and into the rear of the motorcar. “Come on,” he said, giving her his hand. “We’ll be more comfortable back here.”
Linley crawled up and over the seats. “Schoville said this is a Rolls-Royce,” she said as she plopped down beside him in the back. “A rather expensive motor for someone who’s stony-broke. Apparently my definition of the word must be quite different from yours.”
“I am broke, no matter how you see it. After my father died, the death duties took nearly all the money I would have inherited,” he explained. “Georgiana and I practically had to start over from nothing.”
“I don’t think it is fair. No matter how much money someone has, they don’t deserve to have it all taken away in taxes.”
Patrick kicked his feet up on the jump seat in front of him. “I’m glad you feel that way. I only wish more people shared your sympathy.” He lowered his voice and added, “As much as I hate the suffragettes, I tell you I didn’t mind their blowing up Lloyd George’s house.”
“Please, let’s not talk about the suffragettes.”
Frankly, Patrick was as sick of hearing about them as she was. He didn’t know why he brought it up, and he already wished he hadn’t. “All right, then let’s talk about you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. There has to be a reason you pulled me out of my club at two in the morning,” he said. “So let’s hear it.”
Linley gulped. “Oh, Patrick, I am sorry about ringing you, but I’m leaving for India tomorrow and the prospect of not saying goodbye…I just couldn’t bear it.”
He folded his arms behind his head. “What happened to our not seeing each other anymore, and that business about only being friends?”
“If you’re going to tease me,” Linley said, “Then I’d rather you take me home.”
“I am not teasing. You of all people should know I never joke about matters of the heart, especially when it’s matters of my heart.”
She blinked at him.
“You see, I’ve grown terribly fond of you these past few weeks,” Patrick continued. “And to be perfectly honest, I wish you wouldn’t go.”
“But I have to.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” he said. “I’m sure Mrs. Hastings wouldn’t mind if you stayed on, at least until the season ended.”
“Cousin Berenice cannot afford to support me in London, and you know my father’s financial situation is impossible.” Linley turned her head up to the canopy of stars above them.
“Don’t you want to see where this is going between us?”
Linley shook her head. “I already know where this is going.” She brought her eyes down to meet his. “Nowhere.”
“It’s going nowhere because you never give it a chance!”
“We’ve had this conversation before and my thoughts on the matter haven’t changed,” she said. “I will never leave my father. He needs me.”
“I need you.”
She snorted. “No you don’t. You might think you do, but you’ve gotten along just fine without me until now.”