Seth turned. Lady Lavinia was standing behind him, and the first thing he noticed was that she was wearing a pale yellow gown that didn’t flatter her at all.
For one thing, the color was all wrong for her skin. It made her look sickly. It also did nothing for those captivating eyes of hers. He couldn’t make out the flecks of green that had so intrigued him, and even the brown didn’t look right when contrasted with that gown. Who had chosen this for her?
She must have seen some sort of judgment in the way he was looking at her, for her face went bright red. “I’m sorry if I’ve interrupted you,” she said.
“You haven’t.” He’d been standing in front of a bookshelf in the library, skimming over the titles available there, and while this wasn’t the sort of place he would have expected to find a younglady, it was possible that she had come here specifically looking for him. He turned his back to the books and gave her his full attention. “What can I do for you?”
“Are you sure I’m not interrupting you? Not taking you from anything you would rather be doing?”
“I was only looking at these books,” Seth said. “I’m happy to return to that later, if there is something you need to discuss. After all, you did me a great service the other night.”
She frowned. “But I thought we were even,” she said. “You repaid the service I did to you.”
“If there’s more I can do for you, I will do it,” he pledged. “I don’t know if you understand just how grateful I am.”
“You weren’t grateful at the time.” She didn’t seem accusatory. It seemed as if she was merely stating a fact. There was no reproach in her tone. Besides, what she was saying was true. He hadn’t felt grateful to her at the time.
Seth supposed he owed her some honesty. “I think you know that I was concerned you might be trying to ensnare me into some sort of engagement.”
“I wasn’t doing that.”
“No, I no longer believe it of you,” he agreed. “Having seen the way you’ve handled yourself over the past day or so…you simply don’t seem like that sort of lady.”
“What do you mean?”
“Shall I speak honestly?”
“I think that would be a good idea, yes.”
Seth nodded. “I believe it would require a degree of social mastery that you don’t seem to possess to manipulate someone in the way I was worried about,” he said. “You’re not conniving. You’re not someone who knows how to turn a situation to her advantage like that. I can very easily believe that you simply decided to pull me into the bushes as the quickest possible solution to a problem you saw. And though it was anoddsolution, I can’t deny that it did work. That leaves me in your debt.”
“I see,” Lady Lavinia said. She seemed rather taken aback. “I did not come here to collect on a debt of any sort, Your Grace. I don’t consider you to owe me anything.”
“You and I differ in our opinions on that matter, then,” he said. “But don’t trouble yourself. I don’t mean to inconvenience you in the payment of my debt. I only want you to know that if there’s anything I can do during this party to be of service to you, I’ll be happy to do it.”
“Well, I seem to have benefitted from your assistance so far,” Lady Lavinia admitted, some of the fierce blush receding from her cheeks. “You and I both saw what happened yesterday, and all I did was wear what you told me I ought to.”
“Yes, I’d say that was quite a successful choice.”
Lady Lavinia looked around. “I find myself with a dilemma,” she confessed. “My father wishes me to marry quickly, and he’s already making the arrangements. But I don’t wish to marry a gentleman of my father’s choosing.”
“You don’t like the person he’s selected for you?”
“I don’t even know who it is,” Lady Lavinia said. “But when I think of marriage, all I can think is that if I’m not marrying for the sake of love, I don’t think I want to do it.” She blushed a little again. “I’m sure you think that’s very foolish.”
“I don’t, actually,” Seth admitted. “You ought to know by the way we met that I don’t like the idea of being forced into a marriage I didn’t choose.”
“It must be nice to be able to make that choice for yourself,” Lady Lavinia said enviously.
“There’s no hope, then, that you might be able to make your own choice?”
“That’s why I’ve come to you, actually,” Lady Lavinia confessed. “I know this is rather a lot to ask, but I have ten days left, according to my father, to make a match for myself before he intercedes and forces my hand. If I can manage to fall in love with someone, and convince him to fall in love with me during that time, I can still have the sort of marriage I dream of.”
“Ten days. That’s hardly any time at all,” Seth said.
“That’s right. I was on the verge of simply giving up on the whole affair, but my sister convinced me not to. She persuaded me that I ought to keep trying, and perhaps I should. The trouble is that…well, I haven’t any more green gowns to wear.” Lady Lavinia let out a little laugh. “I know I can’t simply wear green all the time. But so far, it’s the only thing I know to do that changes the way I am perceived. It’s the only thing that seems to get me any notice from any of the gentlemen of theton.”
Seth nodded slowly. “I can see the problem,” he agreed. “And you’re right—you can’t wear nothing but green for the rest of your days. But it would serve you well to have a few more things in the color that suits you best. I don’t know why you’re wearing this.” He gestured at the ugly yellow gown, not bothering to hide his distaste for it.
