Seth swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. He felt that the situation was falling out of his control.
This bloody woman has been receiving guidance! She has had lessons in dealing with a rogue. She was not this self-assured before. Who is trying to undermine me?
He made his thoughts harsh, stoking his anger, wanting to be free of the magnetism that drew him to her. Being attracted to any of the women selected for him by his devil of a father was unacceptable and undesirable. It simply wouldnothappen. Seth clasped both his hands behind his back and turned away.
“Your Grace, the Duke of Bellmonte?” said the young man with the elderly companion.
“Yes,” Seth replied brusquely.
“Graham Wallace, Earl of Tewkesbury. Allow me to introduce my mother, the Dowager Countess.”
The man looked to be barely out of his teens with a round face and earnest expression. The Dowager Countess looked like a crow, dressed all in black and with a pointed, pinched face.
“What I do love about promenading in Hyde Park is the unsolicited introductions to people I ordinarily wouldn’t have sought out,” Seth said with a beaming, friendly smile.
Wallace blinked uncertainly, unsure if he was being insulted.
“Seth, you can be so prickly sometimes,” Amelia tutted from beside him. “Will you not introduce me?”
“Of course. Tewkesbury, this is my betrothed, Lady Amelia Nightingale of Prescott Estate,” Seth said grudgingly.
Wallace bowed over Amelia’s hand, and she curtsied to him and the Dowager Countess.
“Well, I will not inflict any more unsolicited company on you, Your Grace. I simply wished to make your acquaintance. We have just taken up residence here in town, Tavistock Square. We should be delighted if such a prominent man and his lady would join us for afternoon tea,” Wallace beamed, smoothly overcoming his earlier uncertainty.
“We would be delighted, Lord Tewkesbury,” Amelia smiled in return, “when would be suitable?”
“Tomorrow at three, perhaps?” Wallace suggested.
“I have an engagement,” Seth muttered.
“We will be there, my lord,” Amelia said as though not hearing Seth.
Seth did not hear the formalities of leave-taking from Tewkesbury and his mother. He was staring at Amelia, who walked on with a satisfied smile. The Willoughbys had hovered, watching the interaction between Tewkesbury, Seth, and Amelia. He stopped himself from striding after her and seizing her by the arm. Instead, he forced an insouciant smile and strolled in her wake.
“Are you now my appointments secretary?” he asked.
“It was a polite response to a polite invitation. They are new to the city and possibly seeking to expand their social circle. It seemed the kind thing to do,” Amelia went on.
“I am, as I said,otherwise engaged,” Seth emphasized, without breaking the facade of pleasant conversation.
“Do you not wish to spend time with your betrothed?” Amelia asked. “Is it such an onerous prospect?”
Seth hid gritted teeth behind a broad smile.
“When you put it like that, how could I refuse?”
He had not planned on spending more time with Amelia and had believed that it would not be necessary to achieve his goals. But it was becoming clear to him that the woman had changed hermind since sending him the scathing letter in which she all but broke off the engagement.
It seems I will have to work at driving her away all over again!
They resumed walking and caught up to the Willoughbys. Aunt Phylis was dwarfed by her two daughters but gave the air of presiding over them regardless. She looked from Amelia to Seth expectantly.
“Such a pleasant young man, Earl Tewkesbury. And a noble and dignified Dowager Countess. They will be a pleasant addition to our society here in town, will they not?”
Her tone suggested that the question was actually a statement of fact.
“I agree, Aunt Phyllis,” Amelia echoed. “In fact, we have been invited to afternoon tea tomorrow.”
