For the sake of her reputation, some distance was perhaps needed. Melville, she could trust not to create ideas out of this that were not there. Her father certainly wouldn’t voice his thoughts to anyone, which left Lord Fortescue himself, and they had a contentious relationship. Wrongly worded phrases from him could really damage her.
Why hadn’t she even considered this? Through her actions, she’d given her enemy ammunition to practically destroy her. On some level, he was aware of it too.
How could she have been so stupid, so unthinking? Her actions seemed ludicrous now. Granted, at the time, his situation had been so very dire, but how did one communicate that? At first glance, her actions conveyed sentiments that weren’t there. And in the aftermath, they would see him tall and strong. They wouldn’t see how dire his situation that had been. All they would see would be the threat of impropriety.
Rising from her seat, she went downstairs, finding Fortescue in the salon, sitting in his brace like he always did. His rebellion had met an end, it seemed. Now that she was here, she didn’t quite know how to word what she wanted to say.
“In light of our discussion earlier,” she started. “There is the potential to make the situation seem different from how it was.”
“And how was it?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. It annoyed her.
“I’m speaking for the potential for you to make it seem things were different than they were, for the sheer reason of harming me.” No point pussyfooting around what she wanted to say.
“That would be ungenerous of me.” He didn’t argue the point. As she suspected, he was aware of this ammunition he had over her. What was it they said about the fallibility of good intentions?
“So you seek to use my generosity against me?”
He watched her for a moment from where he sat, unerringly stiff-backed. “I will not,” he finally said. “Your generosity was never anything other than generosity.”
Octavia didn’t know how to take this, or what he meant. "It would be ungenerous of you to besmirch my character based on my attentions to help you.”
“It would.”
“My father really wouldn’t forgive you, if you did something despicable.”
“Contrary to what you believe, I’m not one to delight in despicable acts.”
Awkwardly, he rose from the chair. All she saw now was the invalid. When he wore that brace and was so encumbered by it, she saw him as an invalid. He moved closer. “If it makes you feel better, provided your cousin and father are amenable, we can agree to never mention your assistance to me. No one else knew.” Eliza and Caius knew.
“Then how did you come to be here?”
“I threw myself on your father’s mercy as I passed. Intent on making it to London, I simply couldn’t make it.”
It would solve all the potential difficulties, but her father, Melville, Eliza and Caius would all have to agree. Melville might be the weak link in the chain. He might tell people why he’d left town for a while. She would write to him, and Eliza. “Thank you.” Obviously, he could lie, but she didn’t believe he was a liar.
“Now we simply have to worry about your father’s fear that I would kidnap you and run away with you.”
“My father would never fear that,” she said with a shake of her head.
“I would never fear what?” he said, walking into the room.
Now this was awkward. “That I would ever find Lord Fortescue charming.”
“Really?” her father said. “Has he been trying to charm you, then?”
Well, if her father had suspicions before, they certainly weren’t doing a good job dissuading him with this argument. “Not my type in the least.”
“Uhm,” her father said non-committally and took his chair by the fire.
“And we have agreed, in light of people making faulty assumptions,” she continued, “that any assistance given to Lord Fortescue shall never be mentioned by anyone again.”
“Ah, so you will expunge it from the annals of history.”
“Entirely. As neither of us wishes for people to get the wrong impression.” Importantly, she felt she was communicating the right point here.
“So you will not mind at all when Lydia Forthill comes over and tries desperately to get his attention?” her father asked.
“No, it’s a match I have encouraged myself,” she said with a smile.
“Out of spite,” Fortescue said. Who was he trying to help here?
“Only an idiot would marry that woman,” her father said and rustled his paper before burying himself behind it.
“Your son just married her sister,” she said incredulously.
“Julius married the Forthill fortune—something I suspect doesn’t draw Fortescue here.”
“That is true,” Fortescue added. “I seek a comfortable and happy marriage.”
“Well, in that case, I think you are safe from his attempts to charm, Octavia.”
Octavia stood with her mouth open, not that she was at all surprised her father would say such an uncouth thing. “Good, so we all have the same understanding.”
Fortescue was amused by all this. He would be, because her father had just savagely insulted her. But in all, it served her purposes, so she wasn’t going to argue.
Chapter 26
OCTAVIA’S EXCITEMENT WAS clear as she watched at the windows for Julius’ carriage coming down the long driveway to the house. Lord Hennington seemed to be himself utterly, mostly spending his time reading or looking annoyed whenever Octavia asked him questions.
“Shall we go for a quick walk?” Finn offered. By quick, he meant up and down the veranda. As of yet, he hadn’t managed to make his way down the stairs
