Miss Williams’s eyes darted up to meet his, caught him looking, then fled downward once more. They’d been playing this game for the past ten minutes.
“Your bow has improved.” The grudging admission reminded Silas that Mrs. Williams was still in the carriage with them. He’d all but forgotten her. “But you need to work on your small talk.”
“Not everyone is comfortable in a crowd, Mama.”
There she went, defending him again. It wasn’t that he needed her help to deal with her mother’s criticism, but it gave him an odd feeling to know there was someone on his side. He’d never had that before. Silas had the unsettling suspicion that he could come to need it far too much, like a drunk who couldn’t keep himself from the bottle. He’d only just tasted a hint of her kindness, and he already wanted more.
Don’t get too used to it.It wasn’t a good idea to come to depend on Miss Williams for anything other than the two hundred pounds she’d promised him. Three hundred and twenty, if he counted what she already owed from that day he’d scared off her suitor.
“The art of conversation is a skill one can learn, like anything else in life.” Mrs. Williams turned to Silas, undeterred. “If you are at a loss, the safest course is to ask the other person some questions and feign a great interest in the answers, until eventually you stumble onan opportunity for a good discussion. What part of the country did he grow up in, how does he know the host, does he have any children, and so forth.”
“Thank you, madam. I shall keep that in mind.”
Miss Williams was struggling not to frown, though whether her displeasure was directed at her mother’s patronizing advice or his chill tone, he couldn’t tell. Honestly, she should be grateful that he’d managed to hold his temper this well. When it was finally time to sabotage their engagement, he would have a few words saved up for Mrs. Williams.
“You can practice at Mrs. Brandon’s ball.”
“What ball?”What fresh hell is this?“I thought the next event was to be the supper for your husband’s arrival.”
“It was,” Mrs. Williams confirmed, “until Mrs. Brandon invited us to her ball next Thursday. This is a coup for all of us, Mr. Corbyn. I couldn’t refuse.”
“I don’t dance.”
“Youdon’t dance?” She looked horror-struck.
This should have been obvious to everyone. Did they think the navy kept a dancing instructor on each ship to impart a little refinement to the men between their duties?
“I also don’t dance,” Miss Williams pointed out. “So I don’t see how it will matter.”
“Youdon’t dance due to sheer obstinacy.” Her mother looked at her through half-lowered lids. “Whereas I presume Mr. Corbyn means to tell us that due to some defect in his education, he does not know how.”
Silas judged it better not to reply to this than to issue the retort that was on his tongue. He glanced out the window of the carriage. They hadn’t even crossed the Thames yet.
“You will call on us tomorrow and we shall do our best to teach you,” Mrs. Williams announced.
The words felt like a noose closing around his neck. “I’m otherwise engaged tomorrow,” Silas tried. He had a very pressing obligation to do absolutely anything but this.
“Then you shall have to cancel your plans. What could be more important than your future bride?”
“Don’t makemeresponsible for this,” Miss Williams protested, an attractive flush coloring her cheeks. “I don’t even want to attend this ball. Can’t we send our regrets?”
“It would be the height of rudeness to cancel on less than a week’s notice.”
“Mama, sheinvitedus on less than a week’s notice. You can’t think that she really minds whether we’re there. She must have sent out her invitations a month ago.”
“Which is why it’s all the more important that we make an appearance!” Mrs. Williams scolded her daughter. “You were a social outcast only yesterday, but now that you are engaged, you’re being given a second chance to prove there was an explanation for your behavior. It would be foolish to squander this.”
Silas looked away. Once he found an excuse to disgrace himself and end their engagement, he didn’t think her “second chance” would last too long.
It wasn’t his concern. It was what shewanted. So why did he hesitate?
He didn’t want this woman. He preferred a lover with a bit of experience, someone who knew what she liked and wouldn’t expect more than he could give.
Hannah Williams was an innocent. She was naive. Her outrage at the story of his captain’s misdeeds had been unfeigned, as if the prospect of someone in power using their position to do harm was entirely unknown to her. This must have been what her brother meant when he’d warned Silas that she lived a sheltered life.
It should have been irritating that another person could reach adulthood with so little understanding of human nature.
But that same innocence was what gave Miss Williams her unquestioning faith that Silas couldn’t be guilty of what everyone said about him, for no better reason than that she liked him.
