Chapter 24 #2
From the way she busied herself with buttering a piece of toast, Richard knew.
“He called upon us,” she finally said. “Douglas, the scamp, urged him to do it, before he also left the city. That must count for something, don’t you think?
Douglas is a bit of a rogue, but he would certainly know if anyone of his acquaintance was unacceptable to his mother, and I notice he hasn’t sent any other of his friends to call.
” She looked at him in appeal, and he gave her a wry look.
Her lips quirked and she waved one hand.
“Anyway, I met Lord Burke as he was leaving, after he had spoken to Joan, and I must say, he looked very pleased by the encounter. I invited him to tea—”
“Evie,” he said with a soft sigh.
She gave him an unrepentant look. “Why shouldn’t I? I had only just arrived, and here was a handsome young man on the stairs, saying he’d been bidden to look after Joan! I needed to size him up. What else ought I to have done?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “Allow him to leave, then speak to the young lady. Perhaps she did not wish to see him.”
“Richard,” she said in reproach. He met her gaze with a raised brow.
With a guilty look over her shoulder at the door, she lowered her voice.
“How could I? Joan is four-and-twenty, and no other suitors have been to call. I don’t know much about him, but I know who he is, and I felt it would be wrong to turn away a potential, very eligible, suitor.
” She sat back with a tiny shrug. “If Joan takes a disgust to him, of course I would put a swift end to things.”
He shook his head, but with a rueful smile. Even after her own disastrous experience of marriage, Evangeline was still a romantic at heart. Somehow that pleased him, even if he thought she ought to stay out of any courtship involving her niece. “But I presume she has not taken him in dislike.”
Her eyes brightened and she leaned forward. “No! Quite the opposite. And having seen them together, I believe the fascination is mutual.”
“‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment,’” he said in amusement.
“Of course I would not wish to spoil a young lady’s happiness.
” He put his hand on hers. “I merely hope you will make very certain that the interest is mutual, and not likely to upset or alarm Lady Bennet. She has always been a woman of firm ideas.” More like rigid and inflexible, to his thinking, but he didn’t say that.
“Miss Bennet is not your daughter, after all, and the decision is not yours.”
Evangeline sobered. “True. I have no wish to anger Marion. And I swear upon my life, the moment Burke puts a toe out of line, I will whip him from this house and never allow him back in.”
“I shall send a warning around to the man, that he will have you to face if he trifles with the young lady,” said Richard with a grin.
She slapped his hand lightly. “If he needs a warning like that, he’s not the man for Joan. You know I would never allow her to be hurt.”
“Of course not,” he said, putting aside his reservations.
Everyone said Burke was no idiot; he would know the rules of society.
He was also a friend of Miss Bennet’s brother, which ought to temper his actions further.
Richard guessed Burke was like a great many other single young gentlemen—willing to be wild and carouse for a time, but with some measure of honor to keep him from crossing the line, and a nebulous plan to settle down into respectable marriage eventually.
“Clemency is attempting to persuade me to give speeches again,” he said, not wanting to argue over Lord Burke any longer.
“Oh? Do you intend to?”
He lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know.” He glanced at her. “Would you also attend, if I were to give a speech?”
“Perhaps,” she said with a coy look. “If the evening promised to be entertaining.”
He leaned toward her. “What if I assure you . . . that it would end in your complete satisfaction?”
She tilted toward him, too, one hand still stroking Louis’s fur. “You would personally guarantee it?”
“I would see to it myself,” he replied.
She smiled, one brow arched. “How could I refuse? One is so rarely guaranteed complete satisfaction.”
He ran his fingertip over her wrist. “I hope you wouldn’t refuse. Your presence would assure my satisfaction.”
She smiled, the same dreamy smile that had captivated him from across Lord Allen’s drawing room years ago. “I don’t wish to deny you any such pleasure.”
“I hope not,” he returned, “since my pleasure is vested in bringing you pleasure.”
Her eyes grew soft. “Silly man! You must know you bring me more pleasure than anything else in this world.”
His heart gave a solid thump. His exact feeling about her. The last several days away from her had driven home to him how much so.
He had agreed to a discreet, almost clandestine, relationship because she’d wanted it, and he’d wanted her badly enough to agree to virtually anything she asked of him.
He’d had no way of knowing where things would lead, though.
Instead of his attraction burning itself out eventually, like a flame consuming oil-soaked rags, it had become something integral to his very being.
He couldn’t imagine being without her, and more and more it chafed that they must keep a discreet distance.
Clemency had told him once that everyone whispered that they were living together in sin, which had given Richard a stab of unease.
He’d listened and watched closely, but had seen no sign that it afflicted Evangeline.
He himself suffered no ill effects, though they would have had to be crippling to deter him.
Perhaps the gossips had finally had enough of them.
He wanted more. More of her, more of them.
If she were willing to go to a salon with him, on his arm, it would be a tentative first step toward a public declaration.
He loved this woman. His heart and mind had been pledged to her for some time, but only in private.
He wanted to say it aloud; he wanted everyone to know.
He wanted her hand on his arm when he attended some pompous aristocrat’s salon, he wanted her as his dinner partner at every ball, he wanted to help her into his carriage at the end of the evening and take her back to their home, where he wouldn’t need to slip away in the first blush of dawn through the garden.
Behind them, the door opened. A tall young lady with dark hair stood there, fairly gaping at them—at him. Richard hid his grimace of dismay behind a polite smile. This must be Joan, whose mother thought him scandalous and dangerous.
He did not wait, but took his leave after a few pleasantries. He’d had his moment with Evangeline, and it would carry him through a few more days without her. He walked home with the dogs, Louis protesting all the way, and considered his next act.