“Go about in Society, you noddy,” she said with a laugh and a playful tap on his arm. “You shouldn’t still be here. If you were anyone else, there would sure to be gossip.”
“Why won’t there be gossip, then?” he asked with a frown.
“There still might be, but everyone knows you are a serious student. They will assume you don’t know how to go on.”
Roderick pulled himself to his full, impressive height and looked down his nose at her. “Would anyone truly think a member of the house of Northcott doesn’t know how to go on in any social event? Truly, Lucy? I might have had my nose stuck in books most of my life, but even I couldn’t escape the long arm and expectations of the Earl.”
Lucy laughed lightly, but she cast him an expression he could not interpret. “So then what are you still doing here, in that case?” She asked it with a slight frown before hurrying to add, “I’m not objecting, I promise you. I’m happy for an opportunity to speak without hordes of people about. But it does seem like there must be a reason.”
“I was hoping to get your advice on a delicate matter. Could we go driving or walking or something equally innocuous and yet private?”
“That is perfectly fortuitous, as I could really use your help with something too.” But then she frowned at him. “Did you come here in a carriage?”
“I don’t own one,” he returned her frown, which made her laugh again.
“Well then I suppose it’s walking for us. Let me run up and get a spencer. I’ll only keep you a moment.” She was almost to the door before she turned with a question. “Do you need something to eat? Should I have a footman bring you a nuncheon of some sort?”
He was about to refuse, but then he offered her a rueful smile and accepted. “That would be most appreciated. How did you guess?”
“Bert is always hungry,” she explained with a smile as she left the room.
Roderick didn’t particularly appreciate being cast in the same light as her young brother, but he couldn’t fault her reasoning when a footman brought him a sandwich a few minutes after she left the room.
She didn’t keep him waiting long, though. Just as he had finished wolfing down the sandwich she had ordered for him, she was back in the receiving room, ready to go.
He eyed her fashionable attire. “Are we going to be able to actually converse around that bonnet, my lady?” His scepticism was evident, making her chuckle. That hadn’t been his intention, but he always enjoyed her amusement.
“I do have a fully functioning neck, my lord,” she pointed out in a dry tone punctuated with a roll of her expressive eyes. “And it isn’t nearly as concealing as you’d think,” she added. “But if you don’t like it, I can change,” she offered.
A part of Roderick wanted to agree that she do so, but he felt silly asking it of her. “Next time,” he finally grumbled, even as he wondered why he was making a big deal over such a nonsensical matter and also pondering whether there would be a next time. He had promised himself he would find a well-dowered wife, not dally with Lucy Scranton.
Before he could change his mind about the excursion, though, he was descending the front stairs of Scranton House with Lucy’s small hand tucked firmly into his elbow.
They strolled along in comfortable and companionable silence for a time before Lucy’s sigh indicated she was less comfortable than he had thought.
“Thank you for coming. I had thought I’d have to summon you. You could have blown me over with a feather I was so shocked when you turned up. It was like I had wished for it and there you were.”
“And this makes you sigh disconsolately?” Roderick didn’t see the connection despite the delight that had swept him at her words.
“No, I’m disconsolate, as you said, from the reason why I wished for you,” Lucy explained, turning her head so she could smile at him.
“Ah, so there was a reason other than a wish for my scintillating company, then?”
Roderick wished he had asked her to change the bonnet after all. He loved watching her expressive face flit between reactions and thoughts. But he hadn’t, so he had to make do with clutching her hand as it was nearly as revealing as her face since she constantly fidgeted and flinched when in conversation.
“I wish to wed,” she declared, making him startle. The idea that suddenly filled his head, of him wedding with her, was pushed out by her following words. “I’ve made a list of the gentlemen who seem to be courting me or could be encouraged to do so if I selected them. Along with the names, I’ve listed the positive and negative aspects of such a union. I cannot decide amongst them,” she added with another dispirited sigh before continuing. “Of course, I’ve narrowed the original list. Some options had the pros far outnumbered by cons, so that was easy. But now I’m stuck with four candidates and I cannot decide. I thought your logical mind would be of greater assistance than my own.”
Roderick finally found his tongue and spoke up. “That is most fortuitous, as you said. I have a list of my own and could use another perspective.”
She turned her head fully at that and stared at him with wide eyes for almost a full minute, or so it seemed to Rod. “So it wasn’t my wish that summoned you then,” she finally said with a smile that seemed sad around the edges.
Rod refused to allow himself to react to her words. “It was the best and greatest coincidence, it would seem.”
“But you don’t even believe in coincidences,” Lucy pointed out as she resumed walking, pulling him toward a bench set back off the path they were treading.
“Events such as this might convince me,” Roderick countered lightly, trying not to fidget as she again stared at him steadily after he sat next to her. Her maid nodded as Lucy waved her toward the next bench. They would be almost perfectly private despite being out in the open in a public place.
If he wasn’t about to pursue an embarrassing conversation with a young woman he feared he had a schoolboy’s crush on, he would consider it to be the perfect situation.
