Imogen was in the conservatory, where she had taken refuge after seeing the familiar carriage approaching. She would not have had even that much warning if she had not been standing in the drawing room window at the time, rocking a sleeping Melody Emes in her arms and thinking that there could surely be no lovelier feeling in the world.
She was gazing out through the conservatory windows now at some daffodils blooming in the grass, though she was not really seeing them. She heard someone come—someonewith a dog—but did not turn her head.
Vincent sat down beside her, first feeling for the seat. His dog settled by his knee.
“Imogen,” he said, and he reached out and patted the back of her hand. “Does he always behave badly?”
“Oh.” And strangely, bizarrely, she found herself smiling. “Didhe behave badly?”
“There is a smile in your voice,” he said, and that sobered her. “He was bursting with belligerence. It would not have taken much provocation for him to take us all on at once with his bare fists. I could not see him, of course, but I could hear him. Is he a large man?”
“Yes,” she said. “Not huge, though.”
“Then Hugo alone could have knocked him down with one punch,” he said, “though I have the feeling he would had hopped right up again for more punishment. What does he look like?”
“Oh,” she said, frowning, “tall, dark, handsome—all the old clichés.”
“And ishea cliché?” he asked.
“No.” She was still frowning. “I thought he was at first, Vincent. But not now that I know him better. No one is less of a cliché. He is... oh, no matter. Did he go quietly?”
She felt as though there were a leaden weight at the bottom of her stomach as she imagined his carriage driving away from Penderris. Actually, it had been there since the night of his birthday ball, that cold, heavy weight. Would it never go away?
“He is in the salon with the other men,” he said. “He wants to see you. He demanded that one of us come and tell you so. But then he added aplease.”
Her lips quirked into a smile again, though she felt nearer to tears than laughter.
“Tell him no,” she said. “And addthank you,if you will.”
“We all expected him to come, you know,” he said. “We were all agreed upon it the night before last after you went to bed. There was no point in laying wagers. We were all on the same side. And Sophie agreed with me, and the other ladies did too. We haveallbeen expecting him to come.”
There was nothing to say into the pause that followed.
“He is terribly upset,” Vincent told her.
“I thought he was belligerent,” she said.
“Precisely,” he said. “But there was nothing to be belligerent about, you see, Imogen. George went outside to greet him like a courteous host, and we all behaved with the greatest civility.”
She could just imagine them all lined up in the hall, not realizing how formidable they could look when they were standing between someone and what that someone wanted.
Poor Percy! He had done nothing to deserve any of this.
“I will send him away if you wish,” Vincent said. “I believe he will go even though he told us he would not budge until he saw you. He is a gentleman and will not continue to pester you if your answer is no. But I think you ought to see him.”
“It is hopeless, Vincent,” she said.
“Then tell him so.”
She drew a deep, audible breath and let it out. Vincent, she noticed irrelevantly, needed a haircut. His fair, wavy hair almost touched his shoulders. But when had he evernotneeded a haircut? And why should it be cut? It made him look like an angel. His wide blue eyes only enhanced that impression.
“Send him here,” she said.
He got to his feet, and his dog stood beside him. But he hesitated. “We never ever offer one another unsolicited advice, Imogen, do we?” he said.
“No, we do not,” she said firmly, and he turned away. “But consider your advice solicited. What do you wish to say?”
He turned back. “I believe,” he said gently, “we all have a perfect right to make ourselves unhappy if that is what we freely choose. But I am not sure we have the right to allow our own unhappiness to cause someone else’s. The trouble with life sometimes is that we are all in it together.”
