And probably very little money for the past five years-until he inherited the title, she thought. And yet through most of those years he had supported a child who was not his own.
'I find you rather stupid,' she said scornfully. 'Remarkably stupid, in fact. I am enormously relieved that we will never be married.'
And she stuck her nose in the air and went striding off toward Eve and Aidan, trying to convince herself that she had just spoken the truest words she had ever uttered.
She hated him.
She really did.
How dare he be so foolishly noble!
How ridiculous all this was.
She wished fervently that she had not so impulsively decided to come here with him. She wished she were back at Lindsey Hall. She wished she had never gone to Bath. She wished she had never met the Marquess of Hallmere.
No, she did not.
'Sweetheart.' He was coming along beside her, she realized. 'You are doubly gorgeous when your temper is up. No, make that triply gorgeous.'
She almost shamed herself by laughing. She lofted her nose into the air instead.
CHAPTER XVIII
Constance and Chastity sat down with Joshua during the afternoon and helped him draw up a list of guests to invite to the ball. Despite the splendor of the ballroom at Penhallow, he could not remember its ever being used. As his aunt had pointed out at breakfast, there were not enough families close by of sufficiently high social status to merit an invitation.
'We will invite everyone,' he explained. 'I suppose the inhabitants have not changed a great deal in five years, but you must help me make sure I have forgotten no one.'
'A real ball,' Chastity said, her eyes shining, 'in the splendid Penhallow ballroom. I am so glad you did not allow Mama to talk you out of it, Joshua.' She flushed, apparently at her own disloyalty. 'And I am glad you did not allow her to force you into marrying Constance.'
Constance flushed pink too.
'Perhaps,' he said, his eyes twinkling, 'Constance likes Cousin Calvin better.' He had been right in his guess this morning, of course. His aunt was doing her best to promote a match between them.
'Oh, no, Joshua,' Constance said gravely.
'Constance likes Mr. Saunders better,' Chastity said.
'And you, Chass?' he asked. 'Do you like Hugh Garnett?'
He had meant it as a teasing question, one over which they would all laugh. But she stared at him with stricken eyes, her face paling.
'I would not give my consent anyway,' he told her hastily. 'I am your guardian, remember?'
She smiled, her lips as pale as her face.
'You are Prue's guardian as well,' she said. 'Will you allow her to be cooped up in the nursery for the rest of her life, Joshua? Or sent to an asylum?'
'An asylum?' he said, frowning. 'That has not been mentioned again, has it?'
When it had first became obvious that Prue was not as other children were, her mother had wanted her sent to an asylum for the insane. Fortunately it was one of the few matters over which Joshua's uncle had asserted his will, and Prue had stayed. Chastity had devoted most of her girlhood to being a companion to her sister. Joshua had helped, as had Constance to a lesser degree.
'If you come here to live and we have to remove to the dower house, Mama says she will have no choice but to send her away,' Chastity said. 'Her nerves would not be able to bear having Prue within her sight every day.'
Joshua sighed. He had appointed a good and competent steward to look after his estate and had considered his duty to his new position done. But he was Chastity's guardian and Prue's too. Perhaps after all it was neglectful of him to have stayed away-and to be planning to leave again as soon as this business with Garnett had been cleared up. It was an admission he did not want to make.
'Prue will have a home at Penhallow as long as I am alive and marquess here,' he said. 'And the whole of the house will be hers to use as well as the nursery. Is Miss Palmer good for her?'
'Mama calls her an improper governess,' Chastity said, 'because she does not even try teaching Prue most of the things governesses usually teach. But she has taught Prue all sorts of things nevertheless, and she takes her outdoors, where Prue loves to be. Prue can tend the sorriest-looking plants and make them grow into a lovely garden. She is not insane, Joshua. She is just . . . different.'
'You are preaching to the converted,' he said, smiling at her. 'You and she were with Mrs. Turner and Ben Turner down at the harbor this morning?'
'Mrs. Turner adores Prue,' Chastity said. She hesitated. 'And I believe Ben does too. Mama would have an apoplexy.'
Joshua drew a slow breath. Devil take it, it looked as if he was going to have to stay awhile. His aunt was the mother of these girls, of course, and therefore their rightful guardian even if not their legal one. But he could see nothing but unhappiness all around him. Here were two young ladies-both in their twenties-who had not yet been given any chance of a life of their own. And Prue was now grown up-she was eighteen. They could no longer continue to think of her as a child, though he gathered that his aunt preferred not to think of her at all. She seemed incapable of thinking of anyone's happiness but her own.
He wished then that he had not come back after all.
Would the problems vanish, then, if he were not here to see them?
