“I think that may be part of it,” she said.
“But she eats very sparingly,” he told her.
“I have an aunt in Wales,” she said, “who insists that she has only tolookat food and her waist expands by two inches. For somepeople weight seems to have little to do with the amount they eat. But women often feel unattractive if they believe themselves to be fat. Or they are made to feel unattractive. Perhaps men too, though not quite as much, I believe.”
“I adore her, Gwyneth,” he said with a sigh—and realized that he really was allowing his tight grip upon his emotions to be loosened. But, God damn it all to hell, Pippa and Steph were hissisters.
“I know,” she said.
“I am going to need your help,” he said before realizing that heneverneeded anyone’s help. But she was going to be his countess and... Ah, hell.
“I know,” she said again.
The stable yard was deserted, Ben and Owen having long gone about their business elsewhere. Gwyneth and Devlin went inside the stables, where he saddled her horse, despite her insistence that she could do it herself, while a groom was saddling his. She put on her hat, and Devlin helped her to the sidesaddle and handed up her whip.
They rode to Cartref in a silence that was unexpectedly companionable. Though he did feel close to exhaustion, Devlin realized. It was something he had felt a number of times since his return to Ravenswood. It was surprising, really. His life on the Peninsula had been far busier, less comfortable, more strenuous, more dangerous. More full of anxiety. Though that one word gave him pause. There were numerous types of anxiety. It had been almost exclusively a physical thing when he was there. Here it was something quite different. Emotion was battering at him from all sides here, and the effort to keep it outside of himself while at the same time dealing with the issues that had caused it was fatiguing.
“Would it be better if I talked to your father tomorrow insteadof now?” he asked her. “If I merely made an appointment with him today?”
“Yes,” she said. “I want to have time to be looking my best for this extraordinary marriage proposal you have promised me. And I think I want you to be looking your best too. And Dad will have time to prepare some impressive speech to deliver to you. Mam will have time to rise to the occasion. Idris will have time to hide.”
Was shelaughingat him? He looked across at her. Shewas.Though not so much laughing in derision, perhaps, as bubbling with exuberance. She was feelinghappy, God help him. And God helpher.She was looking like the Gwyneth he remembered, though now he was the cause of that look and was not merely observing it from afar.
“I believeextraordinarywas your word,” he said.
“But I will insist upon a very special marriage proposal,” she told him.
He wondered for a startled moment if she would alwaysteasehim. If she would refuse to allow him to take himself too seriously.
“Sir Ifor and Lady Rhys will not drive me from the door with a broom when I arrive tomorrow, then?” he asked her.
“Devlin,” she said. “You arethe Earl of Stratton.Besides which, they do not want me on their hands all their lives. Yet they know that is precisely what will happen if you will not take me.”
“Ah,” he said. And he felt close to laughter again. And so tired he hardly knew how to remain upright in the saddle.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I think,” Sir Ifor Rhys said the following morning as he spread his linen napkin over his lap and prepared to tackle the breakfast his butler had laid before him, “Stratton is coming here this morning because he wants to beg me to let him sing solo with the choir at our Christmas concert. I will have to think of an answer to give him before he gets here. How does one saynovery, very tactfully?”
“Da-ad!” Gwyneth protested, though she could not help laughing too.
“Number sixteen,” Idris murmured.
“What was that, Idris?” Lady Rhys asked.
“Number sixteen,” he said more loudly. “Dad made fifteen guesses last night. I counted. The only one hestillhas not thought of is the obvious one.”
“Which is?” his mother said.
“He is coming to ask Dad if it is all right for him to be my friend again now that he has the earldom and all that,” Idris said.
“But howdoI say no tactfully?” his father asked. “No one can tell me that.”
“Sometimes,” Lady Rhys said, “I think I must be living in a madhouse. Gwyneth, cariad, they are just teasing. But one as bad the other they are, your father and your brother.”
“Not quite, Mam,” Gwyneth said, eyeing her plate with its single poached egg and slice of buttered toast and wondering if she was going to be able to eat even that modest breakfast. “Dad has made sixteen suggestions if Idris is to be believed, while Idris has made only one. Here is another from me. Perhaps Devlin is coming to ask Dad for my hand in marriage, though he does not need to since I am practicallymiddle-aged.”
“Number eighteen,” Idris said. “And a worthy contribution, Gwyn. It is what men do regardless of necessity, though. It is what I did a few weeks ago even though Eluned is twenty-six. Luckily for me, Mr. Howell said yes after giving me a good grilling.”
