Chapter 10 #2
“You needn’t worry about it. I’m not keen on him, either.” He offered his arm. “Why don’t you and I go for a walk around the room? It should calm our nerves.”
“I thought this musicale was going to be fun,” Arabella said as she took his arm. “But it seems a little… lackluster, I suppose. It’s strange, and I’m not comfortable with it.”
“Do you want to leave?”
“I’m afraid that’s not an option. My brother’s here, and he’s been keeping an eye on me.
” She looked around the room. “Although I can’t see him at the moment.
He likes to sneak away when he can. He’s meant to be the viscount, and yet he’s drinking all of his money away. What little he has of it, anyway.”
Alastair was still shocked at this happening, although he couldn’t truly understand why. His father had a different relationship with him, and it was frustrating to know that Alastair couldn’t ever live up to his expectations. But there had always been some sort of affection deep down.
It didn’t feel as if Arabella and her brother had the same sort of relationship. The current Viscount Fairleigh preferred to do things his own way and, essentially, neglect his sister. Arabella was upset that she had to rely on her brother to protect her and keep her safe.
Alastair could understand that one. When you needed to look to someone to be on your side and they were more interested in self-preservation, life was incredibly hard.
They wandered around the room, Alastair watching his mother out of the corner of his eyes.
She seemed to be more interested in what Sebastian was saying, although his cousin looked as if he would rather be anywhere else.
But Miss Linton was looking at him, openly staring with a blank expression. That was enough to make him shiver.
“Are you all right?” Arabella asked. “You’re shaking.”
“What? Oh, I’m fine.” He cleared his throat. “I guess I’m just a little cold. It’s cooler than I anticipated in here.”
“You’ll get used to it, I’m sure.” Arabella glanced over her shoulder. “At least we’ve gotten your cousin distracted. Your mother can bother him for now, although not in so many words.”
Alastair smiled.
“She’s always had a soft spot for Sebastian. She would hang onto every word if she could, although Sebastian doesn’t think the same way. He sees my mother as an annoyance and someone he needs to keep at arm’s length.”
“Why doesn’t he like her?”
“I’ve never really asked. He’d been like that since we were children.” He glanced at her. “Do you have any other siblings other than Viscount Fairleigh?”
Arabella shook her head.
“No, it’s just the two of us. Mother put her foot down when she was recovering from my birth. She said she didn’t want to do it again, and she would not be forced into it.”
“I’m surprised that you two could discuss something like that.”
“Father told me about it when he was still alive.” Her voice caught a moment before it started to recover.
“And from the way he talked about it, I know he saw childbirth as a harrowing labor. If they were both alive now, they would have two children and spend their time together with Philip and I occasionally joining them.”
Alastair could see why this felt like a sadness to Arabella.
She was remembering both of her parents and how they came to their own demise.
His heart went out to her, wishing he could say something that would make her more comfortable.
But it was like his ability to talk and not sound like a fool had failed him.
He was increasingly distracted by the fact she was holding onto his arm, smiling at him as if he was the only person in the room. Alastair wanted to forget propriety for a moment, to reach out and trace her face with his fingers to see if her skin was as soft as it looked.
He stopped himself, though. That wasn’t a good idea. Aside from the fact it would cause a scene in a public place, he had to remember they weren’t actually in love. This was just an arrangement they sorted between themselves. It wasn’t meant to be anything except helping each other out.
And yet…
“I discovered something the other day,” Arabella said suddenly, keeping her gaze averted. “I thought you should know about it.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it could be something to do with Father’s death.
” She focused on a painting that hung across most of the wall nearby, picturing a man on a huge horse with servants running around while they went out hunting.
“In one of his account ledgers, there was a page torn out of it.”
Alastair found this curious. Did that mean something? It was a possibility, especially when it was in the ledger that maintained the family finances.
“Do you know when it was done?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I honestly don’t know. I don’t know what to think about it. But it’s strange, isn’t it? That this would have happened at this point.”
“I suppose,” Alastair mused.
Then he noticed her slightly downcast expression and turned her to him, clasping her hands in his. He didn’t care if this looked out of place at this moment. Especially when Arabella’s hands were so cold they were like she’d dipped them in ice.
“I’ll look into it. You’ll going to need to let me have a look at your accounts, although I don’t know how you’re going to explain it to your brother…”
“Philip lets me handle the accounts,” Arabella said quickly. “He was never very good at numbers. Besides, he spends his time in library, and he doesn’t care about anything else.”
Alastair didn’t say anything about that. It was disconcerting that Fairleigh wasn’t taking his new role seriously, choosing to completely ignore it. While it was understandable when he was not ready, Fairleigh had been the new viscount for six months now. Surely, he would’ve stepped up by now.
He had an amusing thought about Arabella becoming the heir and if she could make a better job of the title. Although it became less amusing when he realized that Arabella really could do better than her brother.
They were standing a little too close now, the crush of people making them drift together. Alastair didn’t want to let go of her hands, which were beginning to curl in his gentle grasp, but he had to. If someone made a comment about it, things were going to get uncomfortable.
Clearing his throat, he let go of her abruptly.
“I’ll get my steward to write a check out for you, my lady,” he said gruffly.
“What?”
“We agreed on you getting money from me at certain milestones. That’s tonight. I’ll sign it and you will have it tomorrow.”
Arabella blinked at him as if he’d gone mad. Then her expression cleared and something shut down behind her eyes. She straightened up and squared her shoulders.
“Yes, of course,” she murmured. “We can’t forget about our arrangement, can we?”
“No, we can’t.” Alastair resisted the urge to fidget. Why was this suddenly more awkward to deal with? “Anyway, I think we should head into the musicale shortly. Everyone’s starting to move, and we’re going to get bad seats if we don’t hurry up.”
Arabella grunted.
“I don’t think we should care about that. At least you’ll be far from your mother if she’s sitting up front.”
“What about you? I thought you wanted to see this musicale tonight.”
She sighed and looked at the floor. “I’ve lost my enthusiasm for it, actually. I’d rather head home, but I’ve committed myself to this.”
Alastair wondered if it would be noticed if they slipped away now. He wanted to leave and go home, but that would be unfair on Helena. He couldn’t leave his sister with their mother. But the thought of getting out of the musicale was too tempting to ignore.
“How about we just walk around this room?” he suggested. “We don’t have to talk to anyone, and we can still hear the music out here. And we won’t get jostled around by other people.”
Arabella looked lost in thought for a moment. Finally, she nodded.
“All right. I think that sounds preferable.”
Even though he knew he shouldn’t be happy about this, Alastair felt his heart leap at the agreement. He wanted to spend more time with Arabella despite everything.
Maybe he’d hit his head at some point and hadn’t noticed. This was not like him at all.
There was something intriguing about Arabella Fairleigh, and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about what it could be.