Chapter 6 #3
‘Well, you are indeed inconstant, Lady Eveline. Only four years were you able to love me, when you assured me your love would be eternal?’
‘Recklessness and youth, not inconstancy, my lord,’ she corrected him.
‘It matters little. I know you well, my lady, and I know he will not make you happy. You know it as well as I; there is only one man you wish to marry, and to the good fortune of us both, I am willing to prove the truth of my assertion. ’
Eveline felt a pang within her.
‘How generous of you to concern yourself with my happiness after so many years.’
‘You do not understand.’
‘I understand enough to determine that this conversation is over.’
‘No, Lady Eveline. You do not. I do not intend to give up, and least of all when I know it is Lord Arden to whom you are engaged. You will be mine, because you desire me as much as I desire you. I have told you I am ready to marry, and that is what we are going to do. ’
Before she could answer, a feminine voice intervened with the perfect smoothness of a whip wrapped in velvet.
‘Lord Tentwall, what an uncomfortable surprise it is to find you monopolizing a lady newly arrived in the city.’
Eveline turned her face.
Margot Marwood, Dowager Countess of Ashbury, had stopped beside them with an amiable smile and eyes so attentive that no sensible man would have ignored such a disguised warning.
She was dressed in dark mauve, wore pearls at her neck, and held a closed fan that she seemed prepared to use as a weapon should it prove necessary.
Tentwall made her a bow at once.
‘Lady Ashbury.’
‘I see you remember who I am. It is always encouraging to find that some gentlemen keep their memory when it suits them. I too know well who you are, and I must remind you that this young woman is under the protection of the stern Duke of Statony and that I consider myself her guardian at this very moment.’
Tentwall’s jaw tensed.
‘I was only greeting Lady Eveline.’
‘Of course. And I was only coming to rescue her from a conversation that, from a distance, was beginning to take on the look of a punishment. As much given as you are to flattering the fair sex, do you still not know when you are making one uncomfortable—two, if I count myself among them?’ The lady clicked her tongue.
‘I suppose you still have a great deal to learn, my boy.’
Eveline had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, though she took pity on an embarrassed Tentwall.
‘Lady Ashbury, there is no need—’
‘My dear,’ she interrupted, ‘almost nothing that is necessary proves amusing.’ The dowager countess turned her gaze towards the viscount to tell him: ‘I am sure you will find another entertainment, my lord. Perhaps one that does not have ducal brothers, fiancés whom you know all too well and who have a bad reputation among the reckless, or widowed friends with excellent memories. Seek other prey, I recommend it, for this time you will not get off with a mere scar, I assure you,’ she threatened him without turning a hair.
Tentwall held Lady Ashbury’s gaze for an instant too long. The countess remained impassive. Then he inclined his head.
‘Ladies, if you will permit me, I have monopolized your attention too much. I wish you the best.’
‘Lord Tentwall,’ they dismissed him both at once.
He moved off without adding anything more, though Eveline felt his tension even after he was lost among several guests.
Lady Ashbury watched her out of the corner of her eye.
‘Well,’ she said. ‘You have survived your first shark of the Season, my dear, but you are not as prepared as Alice assured me. What were you thinking, allowing him to approach you?’
Eveline let out the breath she had not known she had been holding.
‘I am not sure he is still a shark. And since you know me well, I will tell you that there are stumbles that still hurt and that it is impossible to drive entirely from one’s mind.
’ It was no lie, for during those four years the two of them had spent much time together.
Lady Ashbury was not as assiduous as Arden in paying visits to Alice, but she had made a great many.
‘Do you still love him, Eveline?’ she asked without preamble.
‘I remember that I once loved him very much.’
‘Good. You have said it in the past tense; that is a good sign, I suppose. Oh, my dear, you will do well never to forget that sharks do not stop biting, however many scars they accumulate. ’
Eveline looked towards the place where Tentwall had disappeared.
‘He has changed. I have seen him more sure of himself,’ the young woman noted.
‘We all change. The interesting question is whether we improve or merely learn to dissemble with more elegance.’
The music ended. Applause filled the room, and that gave Eveline a few seconds to recompose her smile.
Lady Ashbury came a little closer to her.
‘And now tell me, before Statony appears with the look of a man wanting to execute someone: are you considering the possibility of accepting the marriage proposal Tentwall has made you?’
Eveline felt her chest tighten. The conversation had taken place in a low voice; she had not thought anyone had overheard them.
Oh, heavens! All she needed was for yet another piece of gossip about her to begin circulating in the room.
What a disaster!