“Lord Hartington,” she greeted him, dipping into as shallow a curtsy as manners allowed, and hoping he couldn’t see the way her legs trembled.
He was clearly surprised to see her alone there, but he quickly smoothed his expression into something courteous.
“Miss Fairchild,” he said, inclining his head politely. “I have come to speak to your father. Would you be so kind as to fetch him?”
“The viscount is not well this morning.” She would have normally attempted to conceal such a thing, but it seemed silly to try to hide the facts of the night before from a man who had witnessed them firsthand. “I can call my brother to speak to you if you prefer? Though we are engaged, as I understand it.”
She had not said it sharply, but he still winced at the words. So he had some sense of shame, at least. Good.
“I would not want to impose on your brother’s time,” he said, somewhat stiffly. Perhaps he was as uncomfortable as she was. “And perhaps this will be for the best. The matter concerns our futures, after all. We should discuss it directly.”
“Yes,” she said, feeling light-headed. “I hope we can come to an agreeable arrangement for all.” What that would be, she had no idea, but she barreled on politely. “Shall we sit?”
He took the seat she indicated him, and she sat opposite. She expected him to speak, but he did not, so she took the opportunity to further study him.
He was the same as she remembered him: the chestnut hair, chocolate brown eyes and sun-kissed skin – only taller and broader, filled out into a man with the weight to carry the handsome features that had made him look a bit too serious as a child.
Except for when he laughed – she remembered he had a wonderful laugh, that lit up not just his face but the whole room.
She felt sudden warmth spread through her at the memory. Flustered, she looked away from him, trying to regain her composure.
“I apologize for the shock this must have given you,” he said abruptly, having apparently found the nerve to speak. She could hardly disagree with that statement.
“No girl expects to become engaged in such a way. Though indeed, I should have been shocked even if it were less …unconventional. I cannot say I expected to become engaged at all.” She had only meant to subtly underline the fact that they hardly knew one another as adults, and had not even been properly introduced in society, but he seemed to take it differently. He frowned.
“But surely you must have had many suitors?”
The question seemed so genuine that she wondered if he was unaware of the open secret of her father’s gambling habits. Habits that had not ruined the family yet but certainly didn’t make marriage to her a particularly enticing prospect. She’d heard he was abroad quite a bit, so perhaps he truly did not know. Regardless, this was not the direction she wanted to take the conversation.
“Not as many as you might think, My Lord,” she demurred, shifting her eyes to the side. He took the hint, thankfully, and did not press the question.
“I hope in time you will see that I did not act as rashly or as carelessly as it may seem,” he said, his voice softer. Dropped low like that, it had a pleasantly dark, velvet quality. She shivered but tried not to show it. She wondered what could he mean by that?
How could she see this as anything more than it was – a property transaction between two men, neither of whom cared very much for her, the property in question? All the warm feelings frommoments ago bled away, replaced by a bitter cold despite the fire in the grate.
“I shall not tarry or take more of your time,” he continued, “especially as I believe we will have much time to discuss such things in the future. In fact, that is my primary purpose for calling today. I’ve come to ask you to come to stay at Hartington.”
“Stay with you? Why?” she gasped, momentarily shocked out of her good manners. She hastily regained her composure. “Forgive me, My Lord. It was a kind offer, but I cannot say I understand why you’ve made it.”
To his credit, he did not tell her that she did not need to understand, as some men would have. But his response still made her heart sink.
“I’m sure you’ll agree it will be an agreeable arrangement. I should like to keep an eye on you, and for you to come to know my mother and sister. And me, as well, of course.”
Emotions swirled through Isolde: a hot spark of anger at the idea that she needed to be kept under scrutiny, a pang of frustration that her father had put her in this situation, and stronger than both those, a chill of fear at leaving her sister to fend for herself in this house.
Cornelia wasn’t ready for that; Isolde had never planned to leave her to deal with all this alone.
And yet, even as she contemplated the many reasons she could not go, she knew that she must. He had phrased it like a question, but of course, it was not, not really. She wanted out of this engagement, but she could not achieve that by angering him so that he broke it off.
A ruined engagement, on top of the rumors of how the engagement had come to be in the first place? She wasn’t sure her family’s reputation could survive that.
She allowed herself a brief moment to close her eyes – just a breath in and out to will herself to calm. Then she opened them, steeled against this new reality.
“Thank you for the invitation,” she said. “Of course, I would be pleased to come stay with you at Hartington.”
***
At least by the time Cornelia found her packing in her room later that day, she had managed to stop crying.
