Lista was having a difficult time not viewing him as the enemy at the moment, the embodiment of something she verymuch didn’t want to do. They’d only just discussed her fondness for Julian hours earlier and Louis had told her that he would not encroach on that. He’d made it seem as if he were bowing out, a man of honor. But perhaps she’d been wrong.
Perhaps he’d only told her what he thought she wanted to hear.
Lista pondered all of the things she could say to him, the roundabout flirting, the meaningless chatter, but all she could really come up with was the truth.
The unbridled truth.
She wanted answers.
“My aunt has just informed me that my mother gave you permission to court me,” she said. “Is this true?”
Louis was standing at the top of the stairs, making no effort to come any closer to her. He nodded without hesitation.
“It is, my lady.”
“Would you mind telling me how this came about?”
He sighed, faintly, perhaps knowing she would ask that question at some point but not thinking it would be so soon. Worse still, she didn’t sound pleased, which wasn’t a surprise. Louis knew of her fondness for Julian, but that didn’t change his sense of determination. He still intended to court her, Julian or no Julian.
He was careful in his approach.
“Have you been told that Julian saw me carrying you back to the castle when you slipped in the vineyard?” he asked.
Lista nodded. “I have.”
“And you were told that he assumed we were carrying on behind his back.”
Lista’s hard stance wavered. “I have.”
Louis cleared his throat softly and leaned against the wall. “I saw him in the stables not long ago as he was preparing to leave,” he said. “He was… angry. Truth be told, it was unreasonably so.You and I had done nothing wrong, yet he would not believe that. His sister, Lady Addington, was present and she explained to me that Julian has been humiliated before, by people he considered his friends. He thought that we were behaving dishonorably. He told me that he would not be made a fool of.”
Lista’s stiff stance broke with that disturbing and rather heartbreaking information. She hobbled over to the nearest wall, leaning against it to take the pressure off her ankle.
“Addington told me,” she finally said. “Julian has terrible self-confidence because of his different eye colors. Truthfully, that never mattered to me. Julian is kind and witty, but also quiet and introspective. He’s a remarkable man, but the fact that he would not allow you or me to explain what he had witnessed is greatly offensive. He is too quick to judge.”
Louis shrugged. “Mayhap,” he said. “I do not even know the man, but he was quite willing to believe I was dishonorable. You, too. In fact, I do not even understand how all of this happened. It all started when your mother told me that you wanted to bid me a private farewell and then…”
Lista’s head came up. “Mymothertold you?” she said, interrupting him. “She told you that, exactly?” Although he had already told her that, it was finally sinking in.
Louis nodded. “You were in the vineyard,” he said. “Your mother told me that you were waiting for me there.”
Lista’s eyes took on a glimmer of realization. “She sent me to the vineyard because she wanted grapes,” she said, almost to herself. Then, the truth of the situation hit her. “God’s Bones… she sent me to the vineyard and then she sent you to the vineyard under false pretenses.”
Louis wasn’t quite following her. “Then you did not wish to bid me farewell?”
Lista shook her head, but then she quickly nodded. “Of course, I would bid you farewell and thank you for your swordagainst the Scots,” she said. “But never did I tell my mother that I wished to bid you a private farewell. She lied about that.”
Now, Louis was coming to understand. “To throw us together.”
“Exactly.”
“And Julian saw it.”
Lista put both hands to her mouth in shock, realizing the manipulation that had gone on. “I’m sure they liked Julian well enough as a suitor until you came along, as an earl’s son,” she said. “They set the stage to chase Julian away, making the path clear for you.”
Louis shook his head at the level of deceit going on in this quiet corner of Northumberland. “Well, it worked,” he said, somewhat exasperated. “Julian is gone, he accused me of lying to him, and I played right into your mother’s hands.”
Lista’s focus lingered on him for a moment. “Then how did the permission for courtship come along?”
