Summerset Abbey (23 page)

Both Rowena and Jonathon declined and Mr. Dirkes looked disappointed. “Well, if you two are done with your tea, perhaps it is time for the second half of our afternoon. Are you still up to it, my boy?”

Jonathon nodded, but he didn’t seem as thrilled about the prospect as he did earlier. There was no doubt that Jonathon’s demeanor toward her had changed, but what had done it? Her mention of her family? Wasn’t that what had upset him so last time?

They walked out of the inn and got into Mr. Dirkes’s green Silver Ghost. She sat up front with Mr. Dirkes, who drove, while Jonathon lounged with his injured leg in the back. She was conscious of his eyes on her and she hoped her hair hadn’t come undone and that her hat was on straight. She very much wanted to touch her hat to see, but didn’t want to let on that she was concerned with her appearance. Her neck flushed under his gaze. Unable to stand it, she turned in her seat. “So where are we going, Mr. Wells?” she asked above the sound of the motor.

“So we’re back to being formal again, are we, Lady Summerset?”

“I’m not Lady Summerset! That’s my aunt. I’m not the daughter of an earl. I’m the
Honorable
Rowena Buxton, but we don’t really want to carry things to that extent, do we, Mr. Wells?”

He smiled at the little lesson in peerage etiquette. “Jonathon! And no, Rowena, we do not. It’s much easier if we are simply Jonathon and Rowena, isn’t it?”

Her cheeks heated at the way he’d spoken, as if they had an intimate relationship. She nodded, unable to answer, but something had lightened between them again and Rowena was able to relax and enjoy the drive.

The wind bit her cheeks and lips, and she wished she had thought to bring netting to protect her face. No doubt she would be all chapped and windblown before they reached their destination. The trees stood stark and bare against an ominously gray sky. “I do think it’s going to snow,” she said to Mr. Dirkes.

“It feels like it will, but maybe it will hold off until your flight is over.”

Rowena’s stomach sank. “My what?”

“Now you’ve gone and spoiled the surprise!” Jonathon said, leaning forward between the two seats.

Just then Mr. Dirkes pulled off the road and into a field. Rowena’s eyes widened as she saw several men working on an aeroplane in the middle of the field.

“So what do you say, Lady Rowena?” Jonathon’s voice was thick with challenge. “Are you ready to take an aeroplane ride?”

She sat staring at the machine as it got closer and closer. “I’m not a lady,” she said, swallowing.

He laughed as Mr. Dirkes helped her out of the motorcar.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Mr. Dirkes asked.

She opened her mouth to say
No, no, I am NOT,
but then she noticed he’d addressed the question to Jonathon, not to her.

“I guess we’ll have to see, won’t we?” He laughed and cast a challenging look at Rowena.

She lifted her chin and firmed her shoulders. There was no way she was going to back down now. She felt as if her sex and her class were being tested.

She followed a limping Jonathon over to the aeroplane. “Don’t worry,” he called over his shoulder, “this one has been tested before. It’s usually quite safe.”

Rowena tried to not show her alarm as they got closer and closer to the machine. It looked rather small to take two perfectly normal-sized people into the sky. “What kind is it?” she asked, trying not to show her nerves. The men servicing the plane smiled at one another. Evidently, she wasn’t successful at hiding her fear.

“It’s a Bristol T.B.8H. We built it for the Royal Flying Corps, you see,” Mr. Dirkes answered.

“What’s this part?” She touched the side of the plane, trying to keep talking. Maybe if she kept talking, she would forget the terror turning in her stomach.

“The fuselage.”

One of the men had handed Jonathon a clipboard with a list on it, and he suddenly turned serious as he hobbled around the plane and began checking things off. Rowena realized she hadn’t seen that particular look on his handsome face before. She’d seen him flirtatious—with the nurse at the hospital—and angry, with her, but this expression was completely different. Rowena found it thrilling to observe someone so wholly engaged in his work, and she was so busy watching that she forgot her fright.

Suddenly Jonathon nodded. “Load her up!”

One of the men took her arm and Rowena realized that meant her. “Oh, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said to Mr. Dirkes as they guided her toward the front seat of the aeroplane.

“Oh, don’t worry, he’s quite good,” he assured her.

“But the first time I met him he was crashing!”

“That was an experimental plane!” Mr. Dirkes had to yell to be heard above the propeller of the aeroplane, which had just started up.

Jonathon was suddenly behind her, so close she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. With one hand he took off her hat and then she gasped as he began taking the pins from her hair.

“What are you doing?” She whirled around but couldn’t escape, as she was trapped against the fuselage of the aeroplane. He kept picking pins from her hair as if he were grooming an animal. His brow was furrowed in concentration, but she saw the humorous glint in his eye.

Her hair finally tumbled down and she reached up and gathered it up in one hand so she could see. He held up a small leather cap with goggles attached to the top. “You have to wear this for safety. It will protect your eyes and keep your hair from flying about.”

“Oh. You could have told me.”

“But it was so much more fun my way.” He grinned.

What cheek! The man was positively insolent. But she found herself smiling back at him. She took the cap and the hairpins. Then, before she could react, he turned her back toward the plane and put his hands around her waist. She gasped as he lifted her up onto a stepladder that had been brought out for the job. She climbed into the passenger seat of the aeroplane, her legs numb with fright. Dropping the hairpins quickly into the pocket of her coat, she then twisted up her hair and tucked it inside her blouse before settling the leather cap over her head. After she settled down into her seat, he buckled a harness around her. She
couldn’t look at him. Not with the imprint of his hands on her waist still hot beneath her corset.

One of the men helped him up into his seat behind her. She turned her head to see. The men moved out of the way and her mouth got dry as they made arm movements to Jonathon, who was busy checking instruments. Her heart started beating rapidly as she realized that there was no turning back now. Mr. Dirkes yelled something to her but she couldn’t hear it.

“What?” she asked, leaning toward him.

“Adapt or die!”

She smiled and nodded and tried not to show she was on the verge of fainting. Suddenly the machine lurched forward and Rowena gripped the front of her harness. She might have screamed but she had no air left in her lungs. The engine whined as they went faster and faster. She wanted to close her eyes, but she didn’t want to go to her death with her eyes closed. Her father had called her his brave one. She wondered what he would think if he could see her now.

Adapt or die.

She was being jarred so badly by the wheels of the aeroplane on the field that by the time they actually lifted off the ground it was almost a relief. The wings dipped this way and that and for a moment she thought they were going to plunge back down to the ground, but they soon leveled off and began climbing steadily into the sky. She looked down and caught her breath at how rapidly the earth beneath was falling away and shrinking. Then they entered the low clouds and everything turned gray and foggy. Her heart pounded and her mind had trouble grasping what was happening, it was so far-fetched, so unreal.

She was flying.

“How can you see?” she yelled above the sound of the motor.

“I can’t,” Jon yelled back.

That didn’t make her feel any better. Suddenly the mist surrounding them turned into a shimmer of silver. The minute particles of light sparkled and danced around her like a microscopic ballet. The pirouetting glittered brighter and brighter until suddenly they were floating above the clouds in a totally different world. A world of infinite sunshine, where vast miles of blue spread out all around them and below, white and gray pillows of clouds drifted.

Rowena’s heart soared along with the plane as they dipped and played. Jon didn’t try to speak to her and she was glad, for there was absolutely nothing to say about the breathtaking spectacle that surrounded them. Tears gathered in her throat and eyes. She had never really thought of heaven, and her father, with his love of free will, had rarely spoken of his own beliefs, but up here she could feel the presence of God. Who but God could create such a wonderful vista? And who but man, created in his image, could build a way to view it?

Rowena twisted around in her seat to yell something to Jon, but couldn’t think of anything that would even come close to how she was feeling. His mouth softened into a gentle smile and he nodded at her, understanding the extent of her awe.

It seemed as if they’d flown on forever before he turned the plane, the wings dipping down low on one side, almost touching the clouds. Her heart beat wildly at the maneuver but she felt excitement stirring in her veins. What it must feel like to be in control of such a machine, to be able to do this whenever one desired!

Slowly he flew the plane downward and they disappeared into the clouds again, the mist chilling her to her bones. When they finally came out underneath the clouds, her heart sank at the
grayness of the world below. But now she knew what it was really like, that there was a place where the sun always shone and mist glittered below.

As they flew, Rowena could see the town of Summerset as well as Thetford, a neighboring town off in the distance. Jonathon flew over a ridge of rolling hills. Houses, some big and some small, dotted the fields beyond and Rowena gasped when she spotted Summerset. For a moment, she was frantic to have him turn around, but then she realized that no one could possibly see her. She laughed at the freedom it gave her and twisted around to see Jon. He winked at her from behind his goggles. She grinned and nodded and they swooped down lower. Soon they were flying just above the turrets of Summerset, so close she could see some of the outside servants, staring up at them in wonder. She spotted a lone woman walking down the drive toward the house and she wondered whether it was Prudence or Victoria. She twisted to get Jon’s attention and then pointed. In response, he turned the plane and swooped lower, and coming up on the woman, he waggled the wings above her. She looked up, her hand shielding her eyes, and Rowena could see it was Prudence.

All too soon he turned the plane toward the hills and flew back to the field. Rowena closed her eyes, terror once again churning in her stomach. She remembered what happened the last time Jon had flown a plane and she could almost hear the snapping of the trees and the shattering of the wings.

A gentle jarring told her that they had landed safely and she opened her eyes as he navigated the plane back to the gigantic tin building and the men waiting outside.

Her ears were still roaring after the engine cut off and she wondered whether she would ever be able to hear normally again. But she didn’t care because it was worth the sacrifice.

Jonathon was helped out of the plane while another man helped her out of her harness. Rowena didn’t hesitate when Jonathon lifted his arms to her. He held her against his chest briefly before setting her gently on her feet.

She whipped off her leather cap, laughing. “That was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done!”

His hands rested lightly on her shoulders and they stood only inches apart. A smile played about his lips as his blue eyes searched hers. Rowena wanted to launch herself into his arms to thank him for the ride, for helping her to see, for just being here with her. She laughed at her thoughts, embarrassed, but she met his eyes, more carefree and brave than she’d ever felt in her life.

For a long moment she thought he was going to kiss her and something in her hoped that he would, dared him to, almost, but then he pulled away and linked his arm with hers.

He smiled sideways at her as they walked away from the aeroplane. “Weren’t you afraid?”

For a moment she felt a twinge of disappointment, but was still too elated from the ride for it to last. “I was terrified! But it was so lovely up there. I wanted it to last forever!”

Mr. Dirkes was walking toward them. “That went off perfectly. I think the RFC is going to be royally pleased.”

Rowena looked up at Jonathon. “Is it hard to learn how to fly? How long have you been flying?”

“For the last year. And it isn’t too hard. The hardest part is what to do in emergencies. Sometimes all you can do is hold on.”

Mr. Dirkes chuckled. “Luckily, you haven’t had to do that too often.”

“You’ve crashed other times before?” Rowena pressed, anxious. “Besides the time I found you?”

“The crash you witnessed was my fourth, though two of them
were takeoff mistakes. I never even got off the ground. But planes are much safer nowadays.”

“What happened with the last crash?”

“It was an experimental plane. Aeronautics is still a young science, and not all our experiments work the way we think they will.”

“Are there any women pilots?” she wondered.

Both the men laughed and she tensed. “Not many English ones,” Mr. Dirkes said.

“Why ever not?” she asked.

“I don’t think there has been any interest as of yet.”

“I should like to learn,” she said, trying to muster as much dignity as she could.

Both men laughed again. “You made that decision moments after your first flight. Perhaps you should think on it a bit,” Mr. Dirkes said, shaking his head.

“But I must say, you did make an excellent copilot,” Jonathon said.

Jonathon smiled tiredly and Rowena was instantly contrite. “I’m sorry. You must be exhausted. You should be resting.”

“I am rather knackered,” he admitted.

“Let’s get you back then, and I will take Miss Rowena home,” said Mr. Dirkes.