‘What seems natural to you is just short of miraculous to others,’ she said. Her gaze dropped to the floor for a moment. When her eyes met his again, he felt the same euphoric jolt as he’d got from Ellingham’s punch.
‘Of course, Grandmama’s list is nothing compared to other problems I am facing. I will need an actual miracle to solve them,’ she said.
He waited through another series of steps, but she made no effort to enlighten him.
‘If there is something bothering you that Mr Leggett was not aware of, I am sure he would want you to tell me,’ he offered.
When next they passed in the dance, she was biting her lip, as if trying to decide. Then, she shook her head. ‘The only one who will be able to help with this matter is the new Earl of Comstock. It is why I am so eager to meet him.’
‘Of course you are.’ Because all the things he had done for her, and all he might do in the future, had no value when compared with a title.
The dance ended, and he escorted her to the edge of the floor. Once there, she gave him what she probably thought was a sympathetic smile. ‘I mean no disparagement of your abilities. But this is a family matter.’
As if all the things he had done so far were not. ‘Just how well do you know your esteemed cousin, Miss Strickland?’
‘Better than you do, I should think.’ She was bluffing, of course. She knew nothing at all.
Until Gregory received responses to the enquiries he’d made, he knew little beyond the fellow’s name. So he bluffed as well. ‘I wonder, do you want to know the truth about the man you are saving yourself for?’
‘I am sure there is nothing that will surprise me,’ she said. But now her smile was the one that looked strained.
‘I do not think you do,’ he answered, strangely satisfied to have riled her.
‘If you know anything, speak,’ she challenged. ‘But I think it is far more likely that you are just trying to be difficult.’
‘Do you doubt my word?’ She had every right to, since he had nothing beyond vague hints to offer her, yet he could not help continuing. ‘Your brother-in-law hired me because of my abilities. I can find things that no one else can. Candlesticks, for example. And paintings. And inconvenient truths.’
‘Then reveal them,’ she snapped as all her earlier goodwill evaporated. ‘It is your job to do so.’
‘What would your response be if you learned that the future Earl was full seven and seventy?’ A hypothetical question was not precisely a lie.
He watched her trying to suppress a shudder before replying, ‘We cannot all be young and handsome. It is unfair to judge a person with only a single detail to describe them.’
It only became a lie when he embroidered over the half-truth. ‘Then I will add the gout that has delayed his crossing, the excesses that brought it on, the bad temper resulting from the continual pain and what has been described as a difficult nature by his friends and employees.’
The beautiful girl beside him swallowed and there was a long pause as she tried to choose a response that did not reveal her obvious disappointment. ‘People exaggerate for any number of reasons. You cannot know any of this firsthand, therefore you have no way of proving them.’
Now was the point where a man of honour would admit that he had spoken falsehoods in anger. Instead, he blundered on, jealous at her defence of a man she had never met. ‘I suppose you will still doubt when you meet his wife, who must be old enough to be your mother since she has presented him with four daughters and a son. All but the oldest are unmarried and will no doubt enjoy a London Season along with the opportunities that his title will bring. What they will not appreciate is competition on the marriage mart by a pair of distant cousins.’
‘Married.’ He had expected her to look disappointed. Perhaps there would be a few bitter tears that her plans would come to naught, the kind of small tantrum as one often saw from pampered creatures used to getting their own way. Then, she would turn her sharp tongue on him, blaming the messenger as she had done after they found her grandmother’s portrait.
He would deserve it for the foul way he’d just treated her. Had he learned nothing from this afternoon? Had the truce they’d forged on the dance floor meant nothing at all?
But tonight’s response was far worse than the stunned silence that had greeted him after their kiss. Nor was it the slight upset he had expected tonight. No minor shock could have caused the sudden pallor of her face, or the stricken look in her eyes. For a moment, he feared she might swoon right there in front of him. It did not seem as if she was going to cry. Rather, she seemed to be doing a brave job of holding it back, as if she knew that once the first tear escaped, there would be a flood that could not be staunched for several hours.
‘I am sorry,’ he said, ready to call back every word of the last few minutes if it could erase the pain he’d already caused her.
‘No,’ she said, firmly, placing a hand on his arm as if she were the one to offer comfort. ‘I will be all right. It is far better to know the truth than to nurture false hopes.’
But had they been false? There was still a chance that things were just as she believed and a stranger was coming to rescue her from across the sea. Or it could be just as he predicted. How could he recant, if he did not know the truth himself?
She swallowed again, and he saw the supreme effort it was costing to maintain her smile, which was every bit as lovely and as false as the one she’d practised in the mirror. ‘The family is fortunate that he has been blessed with a son. The succession is secure and we needn’t worry about the future.’
‘But you and your sister...’ he began to say.
‘It was kind of you to think we might be competition for our new cousins,’ she said, patting him on the hand. ‘But I doubt they will have anything to worry about on that front. As long as he is kind to Grandmama and allows her the dower house, Charity and I shall find a way to manage.’
‘Do not worry.’ There was only one thing to do that could make this right. Now that it had occurred to him, it seemed to be the most sensible thing in the world. It would justify his rash and uncontrollable behaviour, whenever he was around her. If this was where he had been heading, since the first moment he’d seen her, his life made sense again.
