acquiesced, and half an hour later Penny conducted her downstairs and showed her into the morning-room where Lord Pargeter sat alone, eating a late breakfast. He uncurled his great length from his seat and held a chair for her. ‘I trust you slept well, Mistress Donnington?’
‘Very well, thank you.’
‘Please help yourself to whatever you want.’ He indicated the many chafing-dishes on the table. ‘Or would you prefer me to do it? Your hands must still be painful.’
‘Hardly at all, my lord.’ She took a little ham, concentrating on her plate because she knew he was looking at her pensively, as if wondering how to make conversation with her. ‘I am afraid I do not make a very good oarsman.’
‘You did very well. Am I to assume you found Sedge House not to your liking?’
‘It was not the house,’ she said, ‘though it was in a parlous state.’ She looked round the room as she spoke. It was elegantly furnished in mahogany and walnut, some of it exquisitely inlaid with satinwood. The seat of the chair she sat on, like all the others, was covered in damask. The fireplace was of marble and the plastered ceiling was decorated with gilded scrolls. It exuded wealth and status; there could not have been a greater contrast with Sedge House. ‘My uncle was not expecting me and he had other guests,’ she went on, in a effort to excuse the behaviour of her unsympathetic relative.
‘Just so.’ He lifted a pot. ‘Chocolate?’
‘Thank you.’
He poured a cup of the thick dark liquid for her. ‘Your great uncle is a Capitain, just as you are,’ he said, as if that explained everything.
‘How do you know so much about me, my lord?’ she asked, though she could guess his information came from Charles Mellison, and that made her feel uncomfortable. She began to wish she had not been so open with the young man.
‘Master Mellison told me of his conversation with you,’ he said. ‘He told me you were going to live with your uncle.’
‘That does not mean I could condone…’ She paused, not wanting to put a name to what she had seen in her uncle’s house. ‘I never knew I had any relations until my mother was dying. Now I wish I had never come.’
‘What would you have done if you had not?’
‘I could have found work and lodgings, looked after myself.’
She could not read his expression. One minute it was solicitous, another almost malevolent. His dark eyes never moved from her face; it was as if he was studying every line of it, committing it to memory. What did he see there? she wondered. Was he trying to read signs of debauchery which would tell him she was like her great-uncle? Was he wondering if he dared keep someone like that under his roof? He broke the silence at last. ‘What kind of work have you done?’
‘I am a milliner, my lord.’
‘I doubt there is much call for hat-makers in Winterford, Mistress Donnington. We are a very rural community. The village used to be on the edge of the winter inundation; it was the only place where the fen could be safely crossed, which is how it got its name, but a hundred years ago, while Cromwell and the king battled it out for supremacy, the Adventurers fought against nature and won. Now Winterford is simply a slight rise in the surrounding land, all of it very fertile, but a long way from the beau monde of London.’
‘I was not thinking of setting up as a milliner here, my lord.’
‘What, then?’
‘I do not know. I am adaptable, my lord.’
He smiled and his sombre expression changed; his mouth softened and his eyes twinkled. ‘Just so long as it does not entail keeping house for your uncle, eh?’
‘He already has a housekeeper.’
Her smile dimpled her cheeks very attractively, he decided, though she still looked tense, half afraid. ‘Where would you live?’
‘I would have to find lodgings.’
‘Live alone? I hardly think that would serve.’ He paused, then asked slowly, ‘Have you thought of marriage?’
She smiled. ‘Doesn’t every young lady dream of it?’
‘Is there no one?’
‘No, my lord. I have been too busy…’ She stopped suddenly, remembering her conversation with Charles Mellison.
Encouraged, he went on, ‘I believe Master Mellison told you a little of my situation.’
‘My lord, he would not be so indiscreet.’
He chuckled suddenly. ‘You obviously know how to be discreet yourself, but you need not worry, I am not asking you to betray him; I know my friend very well and I can guess he told you I was looking for a wife.’
‘He did mention it in passing, my lord.’
‘Only in passing? I am persuaded he went out of his way to speak to you about it.’
‘I cannot think why he should do that,’ she murmured.
‘Did he not say we would do very well together, you and I?’
‘My lord!’ she protested.
‘Oh, please do not be alarmed.’ He stopped speaking to offer her warm bread in a cloth-lined basket. She shook her head, and he went on, ‘But he is right about my wanting to marry.’
‘I am sure you could have no trouble finding a suitable wife, my lord,’ she said demurely.
‘As to that, I am not so certain,’ he said. ‘You see, I am very particular and very difficult to live with. In truth, I am impossible.’
‘Surely not,’ she said, because she thought it was expected of her.
Her answer produced a short bark of a laugh. ‘Indeed I am. I am short-tempered, ill-mannered and I am wont to go off by myself for hours at a stretch. And as for making polite conversation…’ He shrugged. ‘Most of the time I find it tedious.’
‘You do not paint a very agreeable picture of yourself, my lord.’
‘I want you to know the truth.’
‘Why?’
‘Because…’ he went on, leaning slightly towards her and making her heart beat in her throat and flooding her face with colour. Surely he was not…? No, she was being absurd. ‘I believe you are in something of a fix yourself…’
‘Not so desperate that I have to resort to trying to live with a man who, on his own admission, is impossible to live with,’ she said with some spirit. ‘I pray you, do not assume that because I am in a little difficulty I have to throw myself at the first man who crosses my path. I listened to Master Mellison because politeness demanded it, but that does not mean I understood or wished to comply with whatever it was he was suggesting. I may be a Capitain, as you put it, but we are not all like my great-uncle, I assure you. My mother was a lady right to the end, in spite of being forcibly separated from all she
