he is averse to his sister lowering herself to go to work, especially as Lady Bonhaven’s companion. He has other ideas, which are even more embarrassing.’
That was what she had been doing in Brook Street when he had met her and her aunt; he had guessed as much. Poor thing, he would not recommend Lady Bonhaven as an employer to anyone. Her ladyship had been a friend of his late mother and he knew her to be a tyrant to her servants. ‘And do you think you will like working for her ladyship?’
‘I know I should hate it.’ There was no point in trying to hide her dilemma from him, since her brother had already been more than frank. ‘If I could find congenial work or set up a business, do something useful that will earn me enough to live on, I would not need to.’
‘What could you do?’
‘I do not know. I have been educated. I could teach. Or help someone catalogue a library, or write book on household management. Or do fine embroidery.’
‘Ugh!’ he said with a shudder. ‘It would ruin your eyes. And such lovely eyes too.’
She ignored the compliment. ‘It is all very well for you to belittle such occupations, but you are not in my shoes.’
‘I do not think they would fit, my dear,’ he said, lifting up one elegantly shod foot and regarding it complacently. His balance on one foot was perfectly steady.
‘I wish I had never said anything to you at all, if you are going to treat it as a jest,’ she said angrily, noting his muscular calf in its pink silk stocking; there was no need for padding there. In fact, his whole physique belied the idle fop. She shook such irrelevant thoughts from her. ‘As for my brother’s outlandish scheming, that is certainly not to be taken seriously…’
‘Then you are at an impasse.’
‘It would seem so. But do not mistake me, I am not done yet.’
‘No, of course you are not.’ He looked sideways at her, wondering how much of the last half-hour had been carefully planned to trap him, how much of an actress she was. He gave a little chuckle. ‘You have forgot one calling open to impecunious ladies.’
She turned to stare at him. ‘How dare you! I had thought you were a gentleman, my lord. I see now how mistaken I was.’ Angrily, she began to walk on very fast, but he soon caught her up.
‘You misunderstand me, ma’am,’ he said, taking her arm and forcing her to stop. ‘Such a thing never entered my head. I was thinking of the stage.’
She pulled herself out of his grasp. ‘An actress! That is nearly as bad.’
‘It need not be. The stage is becoming respectable, you know. I am acquainted with several actresses who are as staid as nuns.’
‘How disappointing for you!’
‘Ouch! Perhaps I deserved that. Shall we call a truce? I so dislike being at outs with anyone.’
‘Very well,’ she conceded. ‘But I cannot act, and it does not appeal to me.’
‘But do you like to watch a play?’
‘I used to, when Papa was…’ She paused. ‘I have not been lately.’
‘Then we should remedy that at once. I have a box at the Theatre Royal. It will be my pleasure to escort you.’
‘Why?’ she demanded.
‘In order to make amends for my serious blunder just now.’
‘There is no need for that. I have forgiven you.’
He stopped and bowed to her. ‘I am indeed relieved.’ He took his place beside her again and they continued their walk. ‘But what about a visit to the theatre?’
‘Lord Portman, you forget I am in mourning for one thing and on Monday I am to begin work at Lady Bonhaven’s. I will have no opportunity to see a play, unless she chooses to go and I accompany her.’
‘She won’t do that. I know the lady and she abhors all such entertainment as the height of depravity. A more strait-laced matron it would be hard to imagine.’
‘Then I am sorry, I shall have to forgo the pleasure.’
‘I am sorry too. Look, we are at the end of the path. Shall we turn about and go back to the Rotunda or make our way to the field for the fireworks?’
She turned, looking for her brother and Sir Ashley in the milling crowds, but they seemed to have disappeared. She suspected they were deliberately throwing her into a compromising situation. ‘Oh, it is too bad of Max. Where has he got to? I must go at once and look for him.’
‘He will find us if we go to the fireworks. If not, I will undertake to see you safely home.’
‘How could he?’ she stormed. ‘How could he?’
It was not a question to which she expected a reply, but he chose to answer it. ‘I think he is hoping that I will be chivalrous enough to make you an offer, as I am sure you are aware.’
‘Then he has been wasting his time. You are not going to, are you?’
‘You are nothing if not outspoken,’ he said. ‘And you have put me in a predicament, as you did when we first conversed three days ago: to agree would certainly not be gallant and to disagree would mean that I must make the offer.’
‘Oh, be done with your jests! I cannot abide any more of them.’
‘Then by all means let us be serious.’ He drew her to one side of the crowded path, where a Grecian statue stood on a plinth in a little arbour. Here it was quiet and they would not be disturbed. She knew she ought to protest, but there was something about him that was hard to resist. He pulled her down beside him on to the plinth, which was at the right height to make a seat. ‘We could play their little game out for them.’
‘You refer to my brother and Sir Ashley?’
‘Yes. Both are convinced we should make a match of it.’
‘I know Max’s reasons, but what are Sir Ashley’s?’
‘He knows I must marry again in order to beget an heir to my estate.’ He paused, wondering whether to explain about Beth, but decided not to; he wished he had never told Ash. ‘Sir Ashley has chosen you for the role of my bride.’
His use of the word role made her wonder if he saw it all as a play and they were each acting out their parts. ‘Why?’
‘Do you know, I have no idea? Perhaps he appreciates your qualities.’
‘I do not see how he can know them. Whenever we have met, he has seen fit to disappear with my brother, leaving us together.’
‘Your brother is not a very diligent escort.’ He was rapidly coming to appreciate her qualities himself. She was not cowed or overawed and had a ready wit. She was also, as Ash had pointed out, not tiny as Beth had been, but strong and healthy. She was not beautiful, but she was certainly not repulsive. Those divine eyes made up for a great deal. Supposing she were to bear his children—would
