to admire the
marble portico
and the
paved, treeless driveway,
you will say something equally impertinent to Cecil and
he
will have the satisfaction of ordering you off the property instead of me. But tonight I am still mistress here. Get out!” She felt rather like a mouse trying to impose her will on an elephant.
“He
is
a prize ass, is he not?” he said.
She was not quite certain she had heard him correctly. She looked into his dark eyes, but they had not changed expression.
“How else but by allowing him to fawn over me was I to learn the truth about you?” he asked.
She frowned. “The
truth
about me is none of your business,” she said.
“I beg to disagree with you, ma'am,” he told her. “Your safety and security and happiness were your brother's business. He passed that responsibility on to me at his death. That is what he meant, quite clearly, when he had me promise to protect you. He knew what his death would mean to you. By keeping the truth from me you refused him the peace he sought when he solicited my promise.”
She had not considered his offers of help in that light before. She did not want to think of them that way now. He was a
stranger
. In addition to that he was a man from a different world, so far above her on the social scale that it was impossible to converse with him or deal with him as she would with any of her neighbors and friends. He was
Lord
Aidan Bedwyn, son of a duke. She approached the nearest chair and sat on it.
“You owe me nothing, Colonel,” she said. “You do not even know me.”
“I know,” he said, “that I am responsible for you. I gave my word of honor. I have never broken my word once it has been given, and I will not start with you.”
“I absolve you,” she said.
“You do not have that power,” he told her. “What do you intend to do? What are your plans?”
When she drew breath to speak, she found that she could not draw in enough air. She felt as if she had been running hard. She shrugged.
“I will think of something,” she said lamely.
“Do you have anyone to go to?” he asked.
She still resented the abrupt, probing questions into her private life. But she understood now that he must not be enjoying this any more than she was. How he must be wishing that he had not come upon Percy before he died. How he must be regretting the fact that his batman had caught a cold before he could leave as planned yesterday. She shook her head.
“Not really.” She could not, of course, take up residence with James and Serena, even temporarily. Her only relatives were Cecil and Aunt Jemima, Aunt Mari, and her cousin Joshua, whom she would once have wed if her father had not forbidden the connection on the grounds that Joshua, though a wealthy shopkeeper, was neither a gentleman nor a landowner. He was now married to someone else and had three young children.
“You plan to take employment, then?”
“I suppose so.” She smoothed her skirt over her knees. She had not changed since this afternoon, and she was feeling rumpled. “I am not without skills and I am not afraid of hard work. But it seems rather cruel and cowardly simply to go away and concern myself with my own survival. I have a few days, though, in which to try and arrange something. I should have thought ahead and planned for just this eventuality, should I not? Percy was always in danger of dying.”
“Why
did
you not?” he asked her. “You knew the terms of your father's will. You knew, as you have just pointed out, that your brother lived in constant danger of dying.”
“I suppose I did not like to admit that possibility,” she said. “I suppose I chose to deny reality. He was my only brother. He was all I had left. As for marrying, it seemed calculating and distasteful to me to wed only in order to secure my inheritance. I always imagined that I would marry for love.”
She did not mention John. Would she have married someone else this year if there had not been John? She was
marble portico
and the
paved, treeless driveway,
you will say something equally impertinent to Cecil and
he
will have the satisfaction of ordering you off the property instead of me. But tonight I am still mistress here. Get out!” She felt rather like a mouse trying to impose her will on an elephant.
“He
is
a prize ass, is he not?” he said.
She was not quite certain she had heard him correctly. She looked into his dark eyes, but they had not changed expression.
“How else but by allowing him to fawn over me was I to learn the truth about you?” he asked.
She frowned. “The
truth
about me is none of your business,” she said.
“I beg to disagree with you, ma'am,” he told her. “Your safety and security and happiness were your brother's business. He passed that responsibility on to me at his death. That is what he meant, quite clearly, when he had me promise to protect you. He knew what his death would mean to you. By keeping the truth from me you refused him the peace he sought when he solicited my promise.”
She had not considered his offers of help in that light before. She did not want to think of them that way now. He was a
stranger
. In addition to that he was a man from a different world, so far above her on the social scale that it was impossible to converse with him or deal with him as she would with any of her neighbors and friends. He was
Lord
Aidan Bedwyn, son of a duke. She approached the nearest chair and sat on it.
“You owe me nothing, Colonel,” she said. “You do not even know me.”
“I know,” he said, “that I am responsible for you. I gave my word of honor. I have never broken my word once it has been given, and I will not start with you.”
“I absolve you,” she said.
“You do not have that power,” he told her. “What do you intend to do? What are your plans?”
When she drew breath to speak, she found that she could not draw in enough air. She felt as if she had been running hard. She shrugged.
“I will think of something,” she said lamely.
“Do you have anyone to go to?” he asked.
She still resented the abrupt, probing questions into her private life. But she understood now that he must not be enjoying this any more than she was. How he must be wishing that he had not come upon Percy before he died. How he must be regretting the fact that his batman had caught a cold before he could leave as planned yesterday. She shook her head.
“Not really.” She could not, of course, take up residence with James and Serena, even temporarily. Her only relatives were Cecil and Aunt Jemima, Aunt Mari, and her cousin Joshua, whom she would once have wed if her father had not forbidden the connection on the grounds that Joshua, though a wealthy shopkeeper, was neither a gentleman nor a landowner. He was now married to someone else and had three young children.
“You plan to take employment, then?”
“I suppose so.” She smoothed her skirt over her knees. She had not changed since this afternoon, and she was feeling rumpled. “I am not without skills and I am not afraid of hard work. But it seems rather cruel and cowardly simply to go away and concern myself with my own survival. I have a few days, though, in which to try and arrange something. I should have thought ahead and planned for just this eventuality, should I not? Percy was always in danger of dying.”
“Why
did
you not?” he asked her. “You knew the terms of your father's will. You knew, as you have just pointed out, that your brother lived in constant danger of dying.”
“I suppose I did not like to admit that possibility,” she said. “I suppose I chose to deny reality. He was my only brother. He was all I had left. As for marrying, it seemed calculating and distasteful to me to wed only in order to secure my inheritance. I always imagined that I would marry for love.”
She did not mention John. Would she have married someone else this year if there had not been John? She was
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