Eseld admonished, sounding very much like her imperious mother as she did so.
Laura obliged, wiping the worst of the sand and seaweed from her worn half boots.
As they paused, voices from within reached them.
Eseld’s mother, Mrs. Bray, said, “Thank you for the kind invitation, Mr. Kent. Mr. Bray and I, and Miss Eseld, will happily join you for dinner.”
A lower masculine voice said something that included her name.
“No, I don’t think Laura will wish to come,” Mrs. Bray replied. “She doesn’t like family occasions, not being one of us. And I believe she has a cold coming on. Best to leave her home, especially as the weather has turned decidedly chilly.”
Eseld rolled her eyes, gave Laura an impish grin, and pushed open the door with a bang. “We’re ho-ome, Mamm dear.” She winked at Laura and sallied into the modest parlour, where Mrs. Bray was talking with two male visitors: handsome, golden-haired Treeve Kent and his younger brother, Perry.
“Ah, here is Eseld now,” Lamorna Bray said with a smile, a smile that quickly faded when she turned to Laura. “Laura, child, you look a fright. Your face is nearly as red as your windblown hair. Roaming the beaches again, I suppose?”
“I . . . yes.”
“Why must you go scampering about the countryside? You look wild . . . almost blowsy!”
Laura felt her cheeks heat, but Treeve Kent smiled at her. “Actually, madam, I think her eyes and complexion are quite brightened by the exercise, and her hair shown to best advantage.”
Was the handsome man mocking her? Laura wondered. He must be.
“Forgive me,” she said. “I did not realize we were expecting callers.”
“We’ve come unannounced, I’m afraid,” Treeve replied. “Unpardonable to a Town miss, I suppose?”
Laura blinked. “I . . . hardly know.” As a child she had lived in Oxford, not London, but the local Cornish youths often called her an “up-country girl” or a “Town miss,” as though a great insult.
Treeve turned to his shorter and quieter brother. “Speaking of manners, I am not sure if you’ve met my brother, Perran. He’s been away most of the time you’ve lived here, I believe, either at university or training at Guy’s Hospital.”
Guy’s Hospital, Laura knew, was a London teaching hospital. Her own father had trained there as well.
“We have met,” Laura said. “Though I don’t expect he will remember.”
The dark-haired man smiled shyly at her. “Yes, I remember you, Miss Laura.”
“And what about me?” Eseld asked with a coquettish fluff to the blond curls framing her face.
“Of course I remember you, Miss Eseld.” Perry bowed.
Eseld dimpled and dipped a curtsy.
Treeve went on, “We have just come to invite you to join us for dinner. All of you.”
A moment of awkward silence followed, marked by the ticking of the clock. Mrs. Bray said nothing, did not even look her way, but in her stony profile, Laura saw her irritation. The woman probably thought Laura would jump at this chance to override her wishes and experience an evening with the local gentry. But Laura knew too well that Mrs. Bray did not want her anywhere near this particular gentleman.
Instead, Laura said, “Thank you, Mr. Kent. But I shall have to decline the pleasure. I feel a cold coming on, and the weather has turned rather chilly.”
Treeve’s eyes glinted knowingly. “You look perfectly healthy to me.” He turned to his brother. “What say you, Perran? You’re the professional.”
“I am not well enough acquainted with Miss Bra—”
“Callaway,” the older woman swiftly corrected. “Laura is my husband’s niece through his first marriage.”
“Ah. That’s right. I forgot.” Perry shifted from foot to foot, his face reddening.
“Never mind,” Eseld soothed. “It’s a natural mistake. And Laura is practically my cousin, living together as we have these many years now.”
Laura felt weak gratitude seep into her heart at the young woman’s words. Dear Eseld. She was probably only saying it to curry Treeve Kent’s good opinion, but to her credit, Eseld had always treated her like a cousin, and not an unwelcome addition to the family.
For as Mrs. Bray pointed out, Laura was not really family. She was not related by blood to any of them. If not for Matthew Bray acting as her guardian after the deaths of her aunt and parents, Laura would be all alone in the world.
While Eseld and her mother dressed for dinner at Roserrow, the Kents’ home, Laura helped Wenna in the kitchen—her penance for using their elderly cook-housekeeper’s favorite pot to clean one of her finds.