at this early hour—would permit. For many minutes, they traveled along the long, green expanse of a great park—Hyde Park, Mrs. Mainprice informed her—then veered away from it. Almost immediately, the jam of townhouses and shops gave way to gardens and orchards and spacious lawns surrounding tidy houses. A hill rose to their north, the former regent’s park to their south, and the sky stretched into the distance. Another flurry of development came and went, with its poorhouse and small factories, then suddenly they were in countryside and open air. Rachel sighed deeply, the past days’ tension exhaling with her breath, easing from her neck and shoulders. And all it took was the sight of some green . . .
“Ah,” she sighed again. Peg grumbled at her to raise the window and close the shade so they could sleep, which made Mrs. Mainprice tut at them both.
Dr. Edmunds rode up alongside. The rising sun cast a golden glow over his features, burnishing them. “Miss Dunne, you might wish to get some rest. It’s a long and tiring journey.”
“Told ya,” Peg muttered, quiet enough that only the occupants of the carriage could hear, and huddled into her shawl.
Rachel ignored her. “I am interested in seeing the sights, Dr. Edmunds. I doubt I could rest if I tried.”
“Pleased to be away from London?” he asked, guessing at her true feelings.
She smiled. “I am.”
“I thought you might be. Which is why I instructed the driver to skirt the city to the north rather than pass through it. A less direct route to Essex, but a more pleasant one.”
“Thank you, Dr. Edmunds.”
“My pleasure, Miss Dunne.” Tapping fingertips to his hat, he pressed his heels against his mare’s flanks and set her trotting. Rachel poked her head through the window and watched the set of his shoulders, his fluid movement of his torso as he rode ahead of them. He was thinking of me, of what I might enjoy . . .
“Can ya shut the window?” Peg snapped.
Rachel jerked her head back in, slid the window up, and caught sight of Mrs. Mainprice’s contented smile before she snuffed it out.
CHAPTER 17
Six long hours later, which included a stop for luncheon, they approached Finchingfield and Dr. Edmunds’s family estate. The place where he would make his mark as a gentleman farmer. The most successful gentleman farmer if it killed him, Rachel recalled with a wry smile.
Kneading the cramp in the small of her back, she raised the window shade all the way. Finchingfield town stood on a small rise, a collection of snow-white houses with thatched roofs marching up the gentle slope, the square stone tower of an old church rising above them, and a windmill turning slowly. They pulled off the main road before reaching the town, venturing down a short lane to a large reddish brick house. Acreage rolling beyond the house lay like an emerald patchwork blanket upon gentle hills.
“Oh my,” Rachel murmured. “It is quite lovely.”
Mrs. Mainprice stretched wearily and leaned over for a view. “That there would be the old master’s house.”
The house was simpler and smaller than Rachel expected, only five windows across and lacking a grand entrance, instead making do with a bottle-green door and plain arched light above it. Its very simplicity was elegant. She decided she could not see Miss Castleton being mistress of such a house. She needed bow windows and magnificent iron railings.
It was equally clear that a discredited Irish healer who empathized with a penniless apple seller and blurted out poultice recommendations would not make an appropriate mistress either.
“The house is quite pretty,” Rachel observed, the comment inadequate.
“I’ve always liked it. A home meant for a family. You can’t see from here, but it has a lovely fenced garden at the back and a stream where those trees are in the distance. The master used to fish there as a boy and go swimming when it was hot.” Mrs. Mainprice smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Oh, those were good days, they were. ’Twas here that Dr. Edmunds first realized how much he wanted to be a physician. I remember a time when he brought home an injured bird he’d found and tried to convince the old master to fix its wings. When the old Dr. Edmunds refused because he was busy, then the young master went and took care of the bird himself. So proud he was. Ah yes, good days indeed.”
Rachel gazed at the trees, the house with its large windows.