“Rightly so,” Darcy said. “I have no objection to your plans, Miss Lowrie, but I am pleased you consulted me.”
“I thank you. If it is no trouble, I will stay here tonight and set out tomorrow.” A flush of color in her cheeks accompanied her words. Clearly the prospect excited her.
Miss Darcy tossed her head. “Which will give you time to tell my brother everything I have done since you reported to him last.” Despite her words, the girl seemed more amused than disturbed by the prospect.
Miss Lowrie’s dark eyes twinkled. “That is what companions do.”
“You must be longing to refresh yourselves,” Elizabeth said. “Would you care to come inside?”
After the two ladies were led upstairs, Elizabeth asked Darcy, “Will she be offended to discover I have limited time to provide her with companionship?”
“Georgiana? Not at all. She prefers to keep to herself. She spends most of her days practicing her music. Miss Lowrie’s family is one of our neighbors, so I expect they will still call on each other.”
Elizabeth took care with her words. “Miss Lowrie seems very young to be a companion.”
He shrugged. “True, but she has known Georgiana all her life, and is one of the very few people my sister trusts. That is more important to me than her age.”
She debated asking him more, but she had already learned that he did not like to talk about his sister. Instead she said, “What was it that Granny told you to do? It made such a difference in your casting.”
Once again, he flushed, raising her curiosity to a feverish level. “Perhaps you should ask her.” But he must have seen her outraged look, for he added, “Ask me tonight, when we are alone.” And that smoky look was back in his eyes.
“Promises, promises,” she teased.
He raised her hand and, turning it over, pressed a lingering kiss to the inside of her wrist that sent a spiral of desire down her arm. “I always keep my promises.”
Chapter 2
Somehow Darcy managed topersuade Georgiana to leave her room and come down to dinner, as long as she could sit between him and her companion. That part was easily arranged, and the girl seemed as comfortable as she ever was among company, which was to say that she hardly uttered a word to anyone else.
There were too many guests at the dinner table for Darcy’s taste, too. Until tonight they had all clustered together at one end of the long table, with Elizabeth beside Darcy, but now there were enough guests that she had to sit at the opposite end, with an epergne blocking Darcy’s view of her.
It was unbecoming to sulk simply because he could not be near his wife, but, dammit, they had little enough time left together.
And something seemed to be bothering her. Earlier she had been warm to him, even after Georgiana’s surprising arrival, teasing him about Lady Amelia’s advice. But tonight, when he brought her into dinner on his arm, she was stiff and her smile artificial. Was she offended that he had asked her to keep Cerridwen away from Georgiana? Or perhaps Lady Amelia or Georgiana had said something to upset her. Whatever it was, he wanted to fix it.
When Elizabeth rose at the end of the meal, signifying the departure of the ladies, she did not even meet his eyes. This was not good. Could shepossibly have managed to guess the truth about Georgiana? He could not imagine how, but he did not understand that unusual Talent of hers. Or what her dragon was capable of. The idea made his chest ache.
He had to find out, so after a token glass of port with Roderick, Darcy suggested that they rejoin the ladies. He could not wait until he was alone with Elizabeth in her room. For all he knew, she might already have revealed the secret to the others.
In the drawing room, he went straight to her side and bent down to ask her quietly to join him outside. She gave him a cool glance, but nodded and followed him into the next room.
“Yes?” she prompted. No little touch to his hand or his cheek, as she so often did when they had a moment alone.
“Something is troubling you,” he said.
“How observant of you.” Her smile showed her teeth but held no warmth.
“May I ask what it is?”
“Last week, when you went to Nottingham for your meeting with the War Office…” She left the sentence unfinished.
“What about it?” he asked cautiously. Perhaps this had nothing to do with Georgiana after all.
Her eyes narrowed. “What did you think of Nottingham?”
He had no impressions of it, since he had never been there. “I thought only of returning to you as quickly as possible.”
“How then, did you manage to call on your sister, who was in London?” she snapped.
