Chapter 6
“What are you doing in here?” Gabriel demanded of his niece.
“I wanted to meet Lady Agnes.” Helena’s voice was defiant, but it held a tremor as well. “When will I ever get another chance to meet a spinster?”
“Why do you want to meet a spinster?” Gabriel strode over to her side.
This was exactly what he had wanted to avoid.
Helena was strong-willed and strong-minded, and those were wonderful attributes, but she was also young.
She might get it into her head that Lady Agnes was someone for her to emulate, and Gabriel didn’t want that.
He didn’t want spinsterhood for his niece.
That didn’t have much of a chance of making her happy, and all he truly wanted was to see her happy.
“I just thought she might be an interesting person,” Helena said. “And I was right. She’s lovely, Uncle Gabriel. I’d like to spend more time with her. You know, she said that she would help me choose some books to read.”
That was more than enough. Gabriel wasn’t going to allow himself to speculate as to the reading material Lady Agnes might deem appropriate. “Go to your room,” he told his niece firmly.
“But I want to stay! Why can’t I be friends with Lady Agnes?”
“Just do as I tell you. I’ll see you tonight for dinner.”
Helena huffed, but she obeyed, turning and seeing herself out of the room.
“I didn’t tell her that,” Lady Agnes said when the door was closed.
“What?”
“I didn’t tell her I would choose books for her.
I know that isn’t my place. I told her she should ask you to choose books for her.
” She straightened her spine. “She told me you discourage her from reading, and I did tell her that she ought to ask you for permission to do so, but I wouldn’t have tried to give her anything to read without your permission. I’m not sure why she said that.”
“I know why.” Gabriel sighed. “She thought she’d make me feel outnumbered by doing that. She’s a good girl, but she does that sort of thing from time to time—pushing too hard to get her way. Sometimes I don’t know what to do about her.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about it,” Lady Agnes said with a smile. “She’s a wonderful young lady. She has a wit, and a real sense of who she is and who she wants to be. You ought to be proud.”
“I am,” Gabriel said. “But when I hear her say that she wants to meet a spinster…” He pressed his lips together. “I don’t wish to be rude.”
“My life isn’t what you want for your niece.”
“No, it isn’t.” He certainly didn’t want to think about her coming up with her own List of Improper Ideas ten years down the line. The thought made him shudder.
For the first time, it occurred to him that he had no idea what might be on Agnes’ list. She had never told him.
“You’ve raised her well,” Agnes said. “She’ll have no trouble finding a match once she comes out.
I truly believe that, Your Grace. I don’t think she wants to be me.
I think she simply finds me a curiosity.
She’s never met anyone like me, and I’m sure she’s heard the talk.
All the rumors. She simply wants to know the truth. ”
That made sense to Gabriel. “I suppose it’s better for her to take the mystery out of the thing,” he said. “Let her see what it means to be a spinster.”
“Because if she sees it, she’ll understand that it’s a misery no one would ever choose voluntarily?” Lady Agnes raised an eyebrow.
“That isn’t what I said.” But it was what he was thinking.
Lady Agnes might well insist that she was perfectly happy with her spinster life, but it couldn’t really be true.
Or if it was, it would be because she was such an odd duck that she found happiness in things that would make other people miserable.
Seeing the way she lived might actually be a good thing for Helena.
Perhaps Gabriel shouldn’t try to keep them apart.
Lady Agnes reached over and picked up her book, obviously ready to return to her own reading.
Gabriel took the chair across from her once more. “Before you get back to that, I think we should speak,” he said.
She looked up. “I’m not going to lure your niece into my sinful ways.”
Why did his heart stutter when she said that?
Why was he suddenly noticing her full lips, her smooth skin, her long eyelashes—why was he yearning to touch them?
That wasn’t even what he had been planning to speak to her about.
“It isn’t that,” he said. “I think we should talk about our plans for our courtship. We should decide when we’re going to see one another, and how we’re going to present ourselves to society.
This isn’t going to work unless we have some sort of plan in place. ”
“Oh.” She put her book back down. “By the way—does Helena know about our arrangement?”
“She doesn’t.”
“She doesn’t know that our courtship is a charade? Or—?”
“She doesn’t know anything about any of it. All she knows is that I told her there would be a guest in the library today and she wasn’t to be a disturbance—not that she listened, clearly.”
“She may know more than you think she does.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing. I just mean she’s perceptive,” Lady Agnes said quickly.
“But I asked whether she had been informed about us because I wasn’t sure what to say when she asked about my business here.
I told her I was just here to read—that’s how we got into our conversation about books in the first place.
But you’re very right that we need to have a plan in place, and it needs to be something we have discussed and agreed upon.
The next time I’m asked a question, I want to know how I should answer it. ”
He nodded. That made sense. “I’m going to come up with something to tell her about it all, and when I do, you’ll know,” he said. “I just haven’t done that yet.”
“All right. What about the rest of the ton? What are we going to show them?”
“There’s a ball set to take place in three days’ time,” he said.
“It will be hosted by my friend the Duke of Henshaw—he loves a party, so I’m sure it’s going to be a good time.
I think you and I should both make plans to attend that.
We shouldn’t arrive together, but we should both be there, and we can use the opportunity to present ourselves as a couple. ”
“I haven’t been invited to this party,” Lady Agnes pointed out.
“Well, that’s no obstacle,” Gabriel assured her. “I can see to it that you get an invitation. I’ll speak to Nathaniel and have one sent to you. He’ll be only too happy to help us.”
“Is that right? Why would he feel that way about it? He doesn’t even know who I am.”
“Well, of course he does. He also reads the scandal sheets.”
Her face flamed. “I see. So he thinks I’m your mistress.”
“No, no. He actually is aware of the true nature of our arrangement,” Gabriel said. “I confided in him about it.”
Lady Agnes frowned. “I don’t like that,” she said.
“I don’t think we ought to tell anyone the truth about it.
I’m not planning on telling anybody. The more people know, the more likely it is that it will get out around the ton, and then someone we were trying to keep it secret from is bound to piece it together.
It’s not a good idea to reveal these things. I know too well how gossip spreads.”
“All right,” Gabriel said. “I can agree with your terms. I won’t tell anybody else about it, but I can’t help that I already told Nathaniel—and my friend Jonathan as well.”
She sighed. “You’ve really been making the rounds, especially for a man who isn’t even comfortable allowing me to spend a few minutes in a room with his niece.”
“It isn’t the same,” he said firmly. “I have a duty to protect her from everything the world might throw at her.”
“All right. I understand,” Lady Agnes said. “And if an invitation arrives, I’ll accept it—I’ll attend this party. I don’t know that I think it’s the best idea, but I haven’t got a better one.”
“We should dance together a few times while we’re there,” Gabriel said.
“That won’t be a problem. I’m a fine dancer.”
“Is that right?”
“I have done it before,” she said rather tartly. “Being unmarried doesn’t mean that I’ve never had any experiences at all.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he told her. “So we’ll dance at the ball.”
“Yes.”
“And there’s one other thing.”
“What is it?”
He drew a breath. “We’re going to have to pretend to be in love with one another.”
Her brow furrowed. “That wasn’t part of the original agreement at all.
Why would we have to pretend that? I assumed we were just going to let everyone think we were getting married for some benefit that we wouldn’t have to specify to them.
No one is going to think that we’re in love with one another. It’s a much harder story to sell.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Gabriel said. “I think it will be easy. And what’s more, it’s the best way to explain your frequent visits to my home, if anyone is still watching us.” He raised an eyebrow. “Unless you want to tell people you’re here reading salacious books.”
“Are those my choices? Publicly confess to reading this book or else pretend that I’m in love with you? Your Grace, you must hear how absurd you sound.”
“And yet, I truly think it’s the best strategy for the both of us,” he said.
“Why does this matter to you?”
“Because it looks better for Helena,” he said simply.
“Let people think I am so caught up in the idea of romance that I’ve fallen in love myself.
They’ll look indulgently upon us, and favorably up on her.
And what’s more, they will leave us alone if we do this, Agnes.
Thinking that we are in love will convince the worst of the mamas that it’s time for them to set their sights on someone else for their daughters.
No one wants to see their daughter married to a man who doesn’t love her, after all.
They’ll understand it’s to their benefit to simply choose somebody else. ”
Lady Agnes sighed. “I don’t know if I can do this, truth be told,” she said. “I’ve never been in love.”
“Nor have I,” he agreed. “But it doesn’t seem so hard to imitate. We look into one another’s eyes, we say a few sweet things to each other, and we dance together. People ought to believe that. And we won’t have to keep up the charade for too long. Can you manage it?”
“Of course.” A bit of fire came into her voice. It made him smile. “I can manage anything, Your Grace.”
“Good,” he said. “Then I’ll arrange for Nathaniel to send you an invitation, and I’ll see you at the ball. I think it will be a very good time.”
He gestured to the door, indicating that he was ready for her to go.
With a curt nod, she rose and departed without looking back.