“If it's a bit of freedom you want, why don't I escort you back with the company of your maid? I'll invite Ned, and we will make a fun little trip of it.”
“That would put me under your protection. I don't need anyone's protection. That is precisely my point. I can protect myself. I knew you wouldn't understand. I thought my sisters would—being so independent and resourceful as we had to be our whole lives. We are not sheltered daughters. They've changed. They've gone soft.”
“Of course they have, they're mothers now. It will happen to you too when you have a babe of your own.”
Willa swallowed. A babe of her own? She hadn't given it much thought, being the youngest of nine children. A child looked like so much work. Her sisters had helped raise her. She hadn't thought she wanted children of her own, but then her sisters had cute, plump, pink little babies. She might be changing her mind. Softening, as it were, to the idea, but that would mean finding a husband, which she wanted to do in her own time, in her own way.
“Willa, I'm going to be honest with you. We've always been honest with each other, haven't we?”
“Refreshingly so. It's what I like most about you.”
“This idea is stupid,” he said.
She flinched. “Stupid?” He'd never beenthathonest with her.
“Your experience with the aristocrats of high society is limited. You don't understand the trouble you're asking for, and not just from the men who will see right through any disguise you attempt. If it is known you traveled four days on your own, you will be ruined. There's no telling what they will say about you.”
“I have never cared about rumors.”
“You should start,” he said. “A lady in your position cannot play fast and loose with her reputation. It doesn't just affect you. It affects everyone around you. Your friends, your acquaintances, your sisters. You represent them all. You can hurt them in ways you haven't even thought of.”
Willa clenched her teeth and breathed deeply through her nose before she lost her temper. “I knew I shouldn't have told you. You don't understand.”
“I understand what you want, but this isn't the way to get it.”
“I don't think you do. How could you?”
“I don't want to see you hurt. You're the smartest person I know. Men from Cambridge can't keep up with you. But this idea is ludicrous. You can come up with something else. I know you will think of another way.”
Willa huffed in annoyance. Now he was pandering to her ego. Was this a mistake? She'd gone to so much trouble already to plan her clandestine escape, but he made some valid points. The only problem was now someone else knew what she planned to do. And while they'd always been honest with each other, she now realized that in this, she would have to lie. She felt dirty being dishonest with one of her few true friends.
Her debut into society hadn't been smooth. Most of the people she met were false and egotistical. They didn't like her opinions or her observations. They sneered at her, whispered behind her back. She supposed that's why her sisters had become so protective of her. They thought she was hurt by such actions, but she wasn't. Willa didn't care about the opinions of others. She knew herself, and Wesley knew her.
Which is why he probably wasn't going to believe what she would say next. But there wasn't much he could do about it. In this next endeavor, she was going to be alone, at least until she made it to London, and shewouldmake it to London.
She was a Marsden. Marsdens never turned their back on a challenge.
She lifted her chin. “Fine, I'll do something else. I will go back with Georgie tomorrow, and in four days, we’ll have tea at Gunther’s. How about that?”
He nodded once, his lips set in a grim line. “I look forward to it.”
“My toes are damp. How about we go inside and have a nice pot of tea?”
He offered his arm and she accepted, trying to ignore the hollow feeling in her stomach. They left the cozy shelter of the willow and proceeded to the house.
Chapter 2
Wesley wasn't deterred by his failed almost-proposal. Truly, he hadn't intended to propose to her. He would like to, should the opportunity present itself. But his immediate goal upon visiting Luckfeld Manor had not been to propose but to speak with Lord Luckfeld, one of Willa's many guardians,aboutproposing to her. Lucian Luckfeld, his neighbor and acquaintance, was his first step in a long campaign for Willa Marsden's hand. He gained her friendship last season, but now he wanted more. He had no rush to be married, but from the moment he met Willa, he wanted her. Her beauty dazzled him, the shining softness of her cocoa hair, the way her warm brown eyes twinkled with amusement, and her laughter, quiet and a bit raspy, the most erotic sound he'd ever heard.
He doubted she knew how sensual her laughter was, but it made the hair on his neck stand on end. In his mind, she was the perfect woman, intelligent, confident, witty. She made the most mundane topics of conversation sound intriguing. They'd once discussed voles in great depth, from their pig-like snouts to their webbed feet, during a garden fete. Then she’d drawn him a picture of a vole smoking a cigar in a wingback chair, and that was just one of the many moments that kept him entranced. But there was one large obstacle that stood between them.
Their friendship. Their sweet, honest, utterly benign friendship.
She did not see him as a suitor. She didn't seeanyman as a suitor. There was one thing that was clear when Willa debuted her first season, the men of thetonwere frightened of her. Except for him and maybe Ned—no, he was quite certain Willa intimidated Ned too.
But Wesley wasn't. He was ensnared, entranced, and to be blunt and to the point, he was in love with Willa Marsden, and…
She had no bloody idea.
