The ground beneath me trembled when the man galloped past us on a stunning black stallion, with his charcoal coat fluttering in the wind like a black raven. I had no choice but to admire the man’s effortless movements. He was riding with such ease as if he had spent his whole life in the saddle.

I noticed him suddenly grabbing the reins to stir his horse back toward us. He stopped right next to our picnic blanket, with his horse nervously neighing and shifting.

After the mysterious rider took off his elegant black hat my eyes widened in shock.

“G-Good afternoon Lord Sutton, L-Lady Trengove, Lady C-Caldwell.”

“Good afternoon, Your Grace,” Lord Aidan lowered his head to greet Baxter Read. “I have called on Lady Ashlyn to take her to the park. It’squite a beautiful day, don’t you agree, You Grace?”

“Indeed,” Read answered him, his brows knitting with confusion as he assessed my aunt’s and Aidan’s joined hands. His amber irises met mine for only a brief second, before he hastily averted his gaze. “W-Well, I’ll be o-on my way. I bid you g-good day Lord, Ladies,” he politely inclined his head.

“Good day to you too, Your Grace!” Aidan nodded his head.

Read nudged the animal to move forward and stormed past the hillock.

I didn’t realize I was holding a breath until I started to feel faint. This day was rapidly turning from horrible to worse – the only one to further complete this picturesque occasion was Lord Tinley.

I remained seated on the blanket, listening to Aidan’s and aunt Abigail’s flirtatious banter for the next half an hour. But after that, I simply decided I had enough. “Will you mind if I explore the gardens for a little bit? I promise I will remain close by.”

I didn’t know why I even bothered to ask since they were more than delighted to get rid of me as soon as possible. The moment I'd vanished behind the nearest tree I heard my aunt’s loud giggle. “Lord Aidan, you greedy man! What if someone sees us?”

“Unbelievable,” I muttered under my breath. “What am I even doing here?” I wished Jared and Edith would be by my side, they would know what to do.

The park was beautiful, but I felt myself slowly slipping into a melancholic mood. I stopped near the lake, taking out a vanilla cupcake I’d stolen out of the picnic basket. I threw the crumbs to a mother duck and five curious little ducklings which quacked hungrily. Apparently the cupcake was a great treat as they continued to open their small beaks, begging for more.

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“I am sorry little ones, this is all I brought,” I laughed, spreading my empty hands for them to see.

All of a sudden I heard footsteps behind me. I turned rapidly, my heart beating wildly in my chest.

“T-They are a-always hungry,” Baxter Read smiled at me.

“Oh! I thought you already left!” I said startled, inwardly cursing my foolishness as I failed to notice the tied black stallion.

His face fell before he lowered his eyes toward the ground. “I a-apologize, My Lady. I just s-spotted you back there and you seemed s-sad. It is not my i-intention to d-disturb you.”

He was a true enigma to me – somewhat odd, yet almost astonishingly polite and respectful. Never have I spotted his eyes darting to forbidden places nor a hint of pettiness inside them. Without a reasonable argument to condemn the poor gentleman, I sighed in defeat. “You are not disturbing me, Your Grace,” I offered him a small smile.

Our eyes met and I noticed how their corners crinkled when he smiled.

“May I i-inquire why are y-you here, by y-yourself?”

“Well, I believe that you’ve noticed Lord Sutton’s inclination toward my aunt. I didn’t want to disturb them,” I looked away from his slouched, fidgeting figure.

“I c-cannot comprehend h-how…” He was nervously squeezing his hat, until it was nothing but a wrinkled mess.

“Comprehend what, Your Grace?” I asked in confusion.

“N-nothing, don’t m-mind me,” he answered hurriedly, his cheeks flaming with embarrassment. “I-It’s a nice w-weathert-today, isn’t it?” He looked up into the cloudless sky.

“Yes, I suppose it is.”

He never tried to take a step closer to me, always maintaining a few feet distance between us.

“It m-must be around 80 d-degrees outside. Although some h-heavy showers are f-forecasted for the evening, m-maybe even a t-thunder. It will be q-quite c-chilly in the night time. I b-believe the minimum t-temperature will be around 70 degrees,” he chatted away.

“Oh, I-”

“-Wind d-direction is south-west, s-speed 7 mph,” he cut me off. I watched in disbelief as he licked his finger, sticking it in the air. “H-humidity, about 40 %.”

“Oh, that’s-”

“-Y-yes there definitely will b-be some s-showers overnight,” he nodded to himself. “But t-the next f-few days are g-going to be drier and b-brighter. They s-said the w-weekend will be c-cloudy and breezy, w-with some r-rain on Saturday.”

Oh, Heavens, Alison and Bonnie weren’t joking. He truly was obsessed with weather.

“Do you s-smell t-that, Lady Caldwell?”He asked me, looking toward the sky.

“Smell what?” I gulped, all the while suspiciously watching him out of the corners of my eyes.

“The r-rain,” he inhaled deeply. “I c-could put a w-wager on the f-fact that t-this summer w-will be a wet one. T-thank God, don’t you a-agree, Lady Caldwell? No m-more d-damages to the crops.”

“Well, most definitely, Your Grace-”

“-S-southern part of the United Kingdom will h-have the most r-rainshowers,” he ignored my futile attempts to give him any kind of answer.

Dear God, what did I get myself into?