Chapter Three #2
Mary then said, “If you are trying to make me jealous, Julian, you will have to flirt with someone other than Elizabeth. No one could possibly believe a gentleman of your standing would be interested in her.”
Her sister’s barbs had long ago stopped wounding. Julian, however, did not seem immune to the shock of her vitriol.
“And why wouldn’t a gentleman be absolutely enthralled with Miss Elizabeth?” he demanded.
Mary smiled lightly, as though she truly thought Julian’s question was an ironic one. “Even at the slow pace of the park, we’d not have time enough to list all the reasons, now would we?”
The barbs might not have wounded Elizabeth any longer, but she still didn’t enjoy them. “I have complete confidence, dearest sister, in your ability to rattle off as much of the list as you possibly can during the course of this excursion.”
That, apparently, served as an invitation enough for Mary. “You are here as a guest,” she said firmly. “Inserting yourself into the conversation is rather ill-mannered.”
“Reason number one,” Elizabeth mouthed to Julian, holding up a single finger.
“And whispering is rude as well,” Mary added.
Elizabeth added a second finger to the first. Julian seemed to only just hold back a grin. He looked away from them all, waving to someone familiar he saw not far off.
“Here comes Mr. Carson,” Mary said. “He has four thousand a year and is related to some of the first families of England.” She hissed under her breath to Elizabeth. “Do not—”
“—embarrass you,” Elizabeth finished for her. “I know the rules, Mary.”
“You know them, but you do not follow them.”
Elizabeth caught Julian’s eye once more. She held up three fingers, not bothering to hide her amusement.
“We are making remarkable progress, aren’t we?” he whispered. Then, at full voice, he greeted a young gentleman who had just ridden up alongside the carriage. “Damion, I would like to introduce you to someone.”
With a look that could only be described as approaching panic, Mr. Damion Carson said, “I have already made Miss Gillerford’s acquaintance.” He eyed Mary as if she were an owl and he a helpless rodent. It seemed that he really did know Mary.
“I wish to make you known to Miss Elizabeth Gillerford.” Julian proceeded without hesitation. “She has not made her official bows yet, but I assure you, her acquaintance is well worth making.”
Mr. Carson offered a proper inclination of his head. “Miss Elizabeth, it is an honor to meet you at last.”
“At last?” That was an unexpected phrase to hear tagged onto the end of a sentence uttered by a gentleman she did not at all know.
“Julian has mentioned you many times before,” he explained.
He had spoken of her to his friend? Her heart picked up at the thought. Perhaps her adoration of him was not so entirely one-sided.
“I understand you two grew up together,” Mr. Carson added.
And with that her heart dropped once more. Had Julian referenced her in no other context than that?
“We all grew up together,” Mary interjected.
Mr. Carson kept his gaze on Elizabeth and Julian.
“Yes, I understood that as well. And” —he actually seemed to be speaking to Elizabeth now— “I am told you are fond of books and have a similar taste in literature as Julian has. I confess that histories and treatises are not entirely to my liking, though I have enjoyed a few.”
So that was the topic of discussion with which she was concerned: her taste in books. How lowering.
“I do read other things, of course.” She had always been plucky, something for which she was particularly thankful at the moment.
“I simply have limited access to anything else. Mr. Broadwood occasionally lends me volumes from his family’s library, but he is often engaged elsewhere during the Season and no longer has time for his childhood friend, more’s the pity. ”
Mr. Carson smiled broadly. He struck her as a genuinely happy person, and she was glad of it.
Julian was fortunate to have such a friend in his life.
“I have seen our Mr. Broadwood at any number of Society events during the Season, and I assure you his time would be far better spent perusing the shelves of a library than inexpertly navigating the social whirl.”
“I look forward to one day watching his ineptitude in action,” Elizabeth said.
“It is a sight to behold. And I hope that when you do have your Season, you will allow me to dance with you, as I find I would very much like to continue building our acquaintance.”
Elizabeth blushed so immediately and so deeply that no one in all of Hyde Park could have failed to notice. “I would like that as well.”
Mr. Carson looked past her at Julian. “Thank you for making this fortuitous introduction.”
“My pleasure,” Julian muttered, sounding as though it had been anything other than a pleasure.
What has come over him so suddenly?
“Miss Elizabeth.” Mr. Carson bowed over her hand. “It has truly been a joy speaking with you.” He looked over at Mary. “Miss Gillerford, it has been . . . as it always is.”
Elizabeth watched Mr. Carson as he set his horse to a slow walk away from the carriage and disappeared into the press of people gathering in the park.
She liked him. He had a sense of humor quite similar to Julian’s and a kindness about him that she admired.
For a moment she imagined Mr. Carson, married, and calling on her and Julian in their home, an abiding friendship growing between all of them.
She’d entertained daydreams of that sort for years, even during that long-ago time when she’d thought the only obstacle to her imagined happiness was Mary.
She’d realized in more recent years that Julian had as little interest in courting Mary as he did in courting her.
She hadn’t lost her dearest love to her sister; she’d simply never had his love in the first place.
***
“I am firmly on the verge of throttling Mary Gillerford.” Julian paced once more the length of his sister’s sitting room.
“You have been on the verge of throttling her for ten years, Julian,” Helene reminded him.
“Yes, but now she has gone beyond simply leeching the life out of me. She is attacking Beth, and doing so in public.” He stopped at the mantel, tapping his finger on its edge.
“Mary insulted her on the way to the park yesterday. She made sly comments about her to nearly every person we spoke with. And, as if she’d not done a thorough enough job of it, she spent a full quarter of an hour afterward criticizing Beth’s conduct, her dress, her conversation, everything she could think of. ”
Helene set her sewing on her lap. “Mary’s unkindness is the reason she has not had a single suitor despite being in her third Season. She, of course, insists that the real reason is being already promised to you.”
Julian’s jaw tensed on the instant. “I do not know what our parents were thinking, encouraging that idea all of these years. I have certainly never been in favor of it. Intelligent men dream of more noble deaths than being nagged into an early grave.”
“That, we do.” His brother-in-law, Robert Pinnelle, stepped inside at that exact moment. “And we choose our wives accordingly.” He greeted Helene with an affectionate kiss on the cheek then sat beside her.
“I am so pleased you’ve come in,” she said, “as I have had an absolutely brilliant idea and need you to extol its virtues shamelessly.”
“What is this brilliant idea?”
“As you well know, I have not hosted a dinner party in weeks.”
“Do I know that?” He clearly didn’t.
“Of course you do, love. After the last one, you told me, whilst you were kissing me, how much you’d enjoyed the evening.”
That was a touch more information than Julian had bargained for.
“I remember the kissing part,” Robert said.
Helene continued as though Robert were keeping up perfectly. “I must have guests over again. I am simply bereft of company.”
“I know it is my duty to agree with you wholeheartedly,” Robert said. “And yet I can’t help feeling a little insulted.”
“You know perfectly well what I meant. You do not always attend functions with me, and you are so often gone during the day doing your important things. This house— indeed, this city— is so lonely without you.”
Julian jumped in once more. “That is quite a boon to your pride, old man. All of London is not companion enough for her without you.”
“As I said, an intelligent gentleman chooses his wife wisely.”
Helene tossed them both looks of sorely tried patience. “Neither of you is allowing me to share my brilliant idea, and I think it is very badly done of you.”
“My apologies, dearest,” Robert said. “Do tell us your idea.”
Apparently mollified, Helene continued. “I mean to invite the Gillerfords for a small dinner gathering, and I mean to insist that Miss Elizabeth Gillerford be included in the invitation.”
Brilliant indeed! Julian’s heart lightened at the thought. Beth would have reason to leave her house once more, even if she was required to do so in the company of her irksome family.
“Gillerford?” Robert’s brow drew in. “The family who are neighbors of your family in Surrey?”
“The very same,” Helene confirmed.
“Hold a moment.” Robert held up a hand. “Isn’t their daughter the one with the crazed look in her eyes?”
“I do not believe I have ever heard Mary described so precisely.” After taking a moment to ponder that fitting turn of phrase a little more deeply, Helene continued her explanation.
“Mary, the older sister, is the frenzied one whom everybody avoids like an eel pie on a hot summer’s day.
Miss Elizabeth is the younger sister, and is a lovely person with very civilized eyes. ”
Robert’s ponderous gaze landed on Julian. “Aren’t you supposed to marry one of these sisters? I am certain your mother said something about that.”
Julian shook his head in disbelief and took up his pacing once again. He ought to simply flee Town before Mary’s claws were lodged even further into him. But that would mean abandoning Beth to her family’s unkindness.
“Mrs. Carson told me that her son met Miss Elizabeth just yesterday and mentioned her quite a few times last evening,” Helene said. “I believe young Mr. Carson is near enough to family to be included in the dinner.” A matchmaking gleam filled her gaze. “I believe they would get on quite famously.”
“Beth is not yet out,” Julian quickly pointed out.
Helene didn’t seem the least bothered by that information. “But she is more than old enough to be. And one need not have a Season to be courted.”
“Courted?” He nearly choked on the word. “How have we jumped that far already?”
Robert eyed him with blatant curiosity. “What has you wound so tightly? Carson’s your friend, as is Miss Elizabeth.”
“I simply do not think that they would suit each other.” He was pacing again. Something about the suggestion of Beth and Damion making a match of it did not sit well in his mind.
“Nonsense. They would be perfect together.” Helene met her husband’s eyes. “They really would be.”
“It is settled then.” Robert lifted his wife’s hand to his lips. “Extend your invitation to the Gillerfords and Mr. Carson, and let my secretary know the date of your party so I can make absolutely certain I do not miss it.”
Helene hopped to her feet, her eyes brimming with anticipation. “I shall make my list immediately.”
“I am on that list as well, aren’t I?” Julian called after her. He received no answer.
I had better be on that list.