“Do be careful, Luc,” the duchess advised. “Boats have a habit ofwobbling.”
“So do I when I am standing in them,” Lord Roath said, winking at her and waggling his eyebrows and looking suddenly boyish. And very handsome.
Jenny was laughing helplessly as he wheeled her away.
Philippa made to get to her feet, but the duke set a hand on her wrist.
“Stay awhile if you will,” he said. “Keep an old couple company for a few more minutes.”
Philippa settled back into her seat and looked warily from one to the other of them. It sounded like a bit of a pathetic request, but she doubted it was any such thing.
“Tell me, Lady Philippa,” the duke began. “Was it something he said? Or did? Like bringing you a single rose when I had advised at least two dozen? All of themred?”
He could not possibly believe she had rejected a marriage offer for such a trivial reason, of course. But both he and the duchess were looking intently at her.
“You very kindly gave me your blessing when you spoke with my brother at the House of Lords and arranged to send the Marquess of Roath to call upon him to discuss a marriage contract,” she said. “Believe me, please, Your Grace, when I say I was touched and honored. I know he is the only heir of your direct line and is therefore very precious to you. I have seen also that you are very fond of him. But I am differently situated. I am not ready yet to think of marriage.”
“I believe you must be lying to me,” he said with what sounded like a sorrowful sort of gentleness. “Why else does a young woman come to town in the springtime? Especially when she is several years past her days in the schoolroom. Young men like to sow a few wild oats before they settle down. Young women wish to establish themselves far sooner as wives and mothers and heads of their own households.”
“You generalize, Percy,” the duchess said.
“I do,” he admitted. “Generalities are largely true, though, are they not? I look at my grandson through partial eyes, Lady Philippa. Even so, I believe he is a more than normally attractive prize for any young lady currently on the market. I have seen you waltz with him and look upon him as though you were attracted to him. I have seen him waltz with you and look at least equally attracted. He came to town this spring knowing that his duty is to choose a bride and marry her—even though he is only twenty-six, on the young side for a man. For several reasons you are far and away the most eligible, most obvious choice for him. As I see it, from the outside looking in, a match between you and Luc might even have the supreme attraction of being a love match. Am I way off the mark?”
“We agreed not to harass the poor lady, Percy,” the duchess said.
“Harass?”His bushy eyebrows met across the bridge of his nose as he frowned at her. “Always that word. Is it harassing a young woman to plead with her to explain why she will not be my granddaughter?”
Was he deliberately attempting to make her break down in sentimental tears? Philippa did not suppose so, but she suspected he was a wily old man. If he could not get his way by one method, then he would try another. But she had a feeling deep down that he was sincerely puzzled and upset. So wasshe.There were other women, of equal or similar rank to her own, who would be only too happy to receive the Marquess of Roath’s addresses. A few of them were here this afternoon. Why was the duke still so interested inher?
“Come, my dear,” the duchess said, patting Philippa’s hand, onto which a tear had just dropped, she realized with some mortification. “Walk with us to join Kitty and your mama out in the sunshine. It is a pity to waste it, is it not, when it may rain tomorrow?”
She linked an arm through Philippa’s as they walked, though she did not lean upon it. She remarked upon the flowers and the sun sparkling on the river. The duke walked on Philippa’s other side, his hands clasped behind his back. He did not sit, though, when they came up to her mother and Lady Catherine, though there were empty chairs and Uncle George Greenfield got to his feet to draw one closer for the duchess. Lord and Lady Mayberry had gone down to the river to watch Jenny have her boat ride, Lady Catherine told them.
“I will go and watch too,” His Grace said, “if Lady Philippa will be kind enough to offer me her arm.”
She offered it. What choice did she have?
“I do not intend to lean heavily upon you,” he told her as they walked away together. “But the lawn slopes downward very slightly, if you have noticed, and I would hate to find myself breaking intoa gallop and running right into the water. Someone would have to fish me out and ruin his boots.”
Philippa laughed.
“I must beg your pardon if you were given the impression that I was...harassingyou at the tea table, Lady Philippa,” he said. “That was not my intention.”
Why, then, had he chosen to walk with her when Uncle George would have been happy to supply a far stronger arm?
“Oh yes, it was,” she said. “And it is.”
For a moment she thought his temper was about to explode all over her. Instead he uttered a short bark of laughter.
“I like you, Lady Philippa,” he said.
“I like you too, Your Grace,” she said, smiling at him despite herself.
“The thing is,” he said, “that I cannot get it out of this old head of mine—Her Grace calls me a stubborn old fool—that you and Luc like each other too.”
“The trouble with you,” she said, “is that you have had your way all your life, and now you cannot believe that one young woman would dare to thwart your will.”
“Ah,” he said with a sigh. “You remind me of my dear May when we were young and she would sometimes step up close to me, tower over me, and invite me to go find someone else to bully since she was beginning to find my tantrums tedious. Those were the days, Lady Philippa. I thought the good Lord had stopped making women like her. But then he made you.”
