“My husband was of a distinguished family too,” she said. “I miss him so, you know. It is so lonely to be without him.”
“Is it, Susan?” Lord Eden hung the lantern carefully on a nail inside the door of the barn and covered her hand with his. “Give it time. It has been less than four months.”
“I know,” she said, “but I feel so helpless and alone. He was very strong and dependable. He looked after me.”
He felt in his pocket for a handkerchief and held it out to her.
“Oh,” she said, her voice high and trembling, “I am so unhappy. I pretend, you know, so that no one will know and pity me. But I am so unhappy.”
She was in his arms suddenly, her hands spread against his chest, her face hidden against his waistcoat beneath his cloak. Lord Eden wrapped his arms about her and rocked her comfortingly.
“Hush now,” he murmured. “No one would blame you for crying, Susan. It is perfectly natural.”
“Oh,” she said when she could speak around her sobs, “you are so kind. You were always so very kind to me.”
When she lifted a tear-stained face to his, Lord Eden kissed it. He kissed the tears from her eyes and cheeks, and he kissed the pouting little mouth that he used to find so enticing.
“Oh,” she said, sighing and resting her head against his shoulder, “I always feel so safe with you.”
“And so you are,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “Come, Susan, you must show me these kittens, and then I will take you back inside. The sound of music will cheer you up again.”
“Yes, it will,” she said, looking at him with wide-eyed gratitude and stooping into a bed of straw to lift up the kittens one by one and lay them against her cheek. She crooned to them and kissed their fur.
Lord Eden watched her with a smile and reached for the lantern as soon as she had put the last one down again.
“I cannot go indoors yet, my lord,” she said. “I must look a perfect mess, and my eyes must be fiery red. I cannot let anyone see me like this. You go on in. I will stay with the kittens for a while. Take the lantern. I can find my way in the darkness.”
“How foolish to think I would abandon you, Susan,” he said. “But your eyes look perfectly fine to me. I have never known anyone who could cry as you can without getting red eyes as a result. We will walk slowly back to the house, shall we?”
She leaned heavily on his arm as they walked.
“We had better go in,” she said with a sigh. “I am sure we will have been missed, and everyone will be wondering what we are doing. If we stay any longer, some of them will be foolish enough to expect some sort of announcement.”
“Well, we certainly would not wish to put your reputation in such danger, would we?” he said, smiling at her. “Besides, Susan, everyone knows that you were so devoted to your husband that it will be a long time yet before you can think of choosing another. I think your good name is safe.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, “I am sure it is, my lord.”
“And then,” he said, “everyone knows that we were childhood friends, Susan, and will quite understand if we treat each other with greater freedom than strangers would enjoy. You do not need to worry about being forced into a situation in which you will have to receive my addresses. I would not allow you to be so harassed. Never, my dear. I have too much respect for our friendship.”
“Oh,” she said, darting a glance up at him as they entered the lighted hallway of her father’s house, “you are most kind, my lord.”
He smiled fondly at her and handed the lantern to a servant. “Think nothing of it,” he said. “What are friends for, Susan, but to help and defend each other?”
ELLEN HAD DANCED with Mr. Morton and Lord Agerton and Sir Peregrine. She had even succeeded in smiling and conversing. But every single moment she was aware of a brightly gay Jennifer, and constantly her ears rang with the accusation, “You are a slut and a whore.”
She still did not know if it would be wiser to seek out Jennifer and try to talk to her again, or to give the girl time in which to think. She had decided to take the latter course, on the advice of the dowager countess. Her future mother-in-law.
Strangely, she had not found it difficult earlier to pour out the whole story. Perhaps she had still been too distressed over her encounter with Jennifer to feel embarrassment at having to admit the whole truth to Dominic’s mother. Or perhaps the fact that that lady had crossed her sitting room and put an arm about her shoulders and called her her poor dear had had something to do with easing the situation.
“How very delighted I am to hear that you and Dominic are to marry, dear,” the countess had said, kissing her cheek when the story had all been told. “I was so very afraid that you would each be foolish enough to let the other go.”
“You can possibly want me as a daughter-in-law, ma’am?” Ellen had asked.
“I cannot imagine any lady I would want more for Dominic,” the other had assured her. “You will be a companion to him, not merely someone to protect. A companion as well as someone to love is what he has always needed, though he has been foolish enough not to realize it for himself until now.”
“I do love him,” Ellen had assured her. “I am not marrying him just because I am in an awkward situation.”
The dowager had clucked her tongue. “Well, of course you love each other,” she had said. “Now, I will go in search of your stepdaughter. She is a dear and sensible girl. She will need a little time to adjust to the new facts, that is all. Give her that time, dear. Don’t press her. And for now, leave her to me.”
So Ellen had left Jennifer to the dowager countess. And was not at all sure that she had not taken the coward’s way out.
“Dance with me, Ellen?” Lord Eden asked as Miss Letitia and Colin began to play a waltz.
She had planned to keep away from him for the rest of the evening at least. She did not want to make matters worse as far as her stepdaughter was concerned. But it was a waltz, and he was smiling at her, and she could not help but remember how wonderful the afternoon had been before they had arrived home.
“Yes,” she said, placing one hand in his and reaching up the other to rest on his shoulder.
“Is Miss Simpson very upset?” he asked as they began dancing. “From the almost desperate way she seems to be enjoying herself, I would guess that she is.”
“She believes that I was unfaithful to Charlie long before his death,” she said. “She refuses to listen to reason.”
“And if I talk to her, I will only make matters worse, doubtless,” he said.
She nodded. “Your mother had a talk with her this afternoon,” she said. “I went to her and told her everything, I’m afraid.”
“I’m delighted you did,” he said. “I am eager to have this thing right out in the open, Ellen. I want to set a wedding date.”
“Do you?” she said. “I don’t know, Dominic. It still does not seem right.”
He held her hand more tightly. “Oh, no,” he said. “You are not going to change your mind again now, Ellen. Absolutely not. But listen. Miss Letitia and Colin are making a truly heroic effort to sound like a whole orchestra. Let us enjoy the waltz, shall we?”
She almost wished after a couple of minutes that they had continued the conversation, however awkward it might have been. She did not know of a dance that could make one more aware of the man one was partnered by than a waltz. She remembered the time she had waltzed with him at the Duke of Wellington’s ball. The time when she had been pushed against him. When she had become physically aware of him for the first time.
She could smell his cologne again.
“What do you use to wash your hair?” he asked, his smiling green eyes seeming very close. “It must be something quite different from anything used by any other lady of my acquaintance. A very enticing fragrance.”
MR. COURTNEY TOOK a hearty farewell of each of his guests several hours later. But he had something more to say to the Earl and Countess of Amberley, in the strictest confidence. Mr. Courtney spoke
