Chapter 15
Harry told me today that I am nothing but a spoiled, willful child!I don’t understand how he can say such a thing when I’m nothing of the sort.Even if it were true, what should he expect when I have ten older brothers who all insist upon doting upon me?Who treat me like a child?
He certainly didn’t seem to be thinking I was a child when he caressed my cheek so tenderly just before saying such hateful things.Indeed, I had thought he was on the verge of kissing me...
~From the diary of Lady Fiona MacKintosh—Mar 1893
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Residence of the Earl of Harrowby
9 Belgrave Square
Belgravia, London, England
The following night
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“What are you doingstanding here all alone?”
There was little chance Fiona would give any credence to Ilona’s playful accusations in the park by admitting, even to her brother, Connor, that she had been covertly watching Aylesbury dance the Galop with the widowed Lady Billings.Or that she’d followed his movements through the polka with the mousy Miss Bradford just before or paid more attention to his waltz with the perpetual wallflower, Lady Meredith Ansley, than she had to her own with Lord Temple.
Aylesbury had always been one to seek out ladies who otherwise might not be invited to the dance floor.According to Abby, it had been his habit since the first days she had known him, and in all truth, Fiona considered this habitual kindness to be one of his finer qualities.But even knowing that his efforts were most likely conducted for those reasons, she couldn’t help but wonder if Aylesbury had a care for any of them.
If he had a care for her.
Their unexpectedly intimate conversation in his carriage had raised a wealth of questions and doubts in her mind.It had her rethinking the past, wondering about the future, and pulling at the bandage of her aggression, opening that wound even further.
When she spoke to her sister-in-law afterwards, Eve assured her that she believed Aylesbury was pursuing her with honorable intentions.However, Fiona knew the proverb about good intentions.The road to her own personal hell might be paved in them if she relaxed her guard around him.
She was not a child any longer, Fiona reminded herself.A child who tossed her affections away willy-nilly and waited with bated breath for them to be returned.Lessons hard learned were also the hardest to forget.She couldn’t find the courage to entrust him with her heart again.
Moreover, she couldn’t trust herself not to fall for him anyway.Fiona felt doomed either way but wasn’t going to mention that, either.Instead, she arched a brow at her brother and responded with a pert retort along the lines he would expect from her.
“Alas, I no longer stand alone but stand instead in unfortunate company.”
Understanding that he was to be the unfortunate company, Connor grinned in appreciation.“I will not join you then.”
Fiona turned her back but could feel his presence lingering behind her.Glancing back, she saw him staring fixedly at the ceiling, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets, rocking from his heels to his toes in an exaggerated motion.
“Are you still here?”
“Aye, much as you are, what a surprise, and I shall stay here, I think, ’til you have gone as well,” he parried neatly.
Her lips twitched reluctantly.“Here?All but attached to my side?A good thing for the women of London to be spared your company then while you keep mine, but woe on me.”
Connor threw back his head and laughed, drawing the eyes of many young women who clearly wouldn’t mind his company.“Spared of I?Sister dear, for all my wealth and most truly for my handsome face, the ladies all love me and love all of me.”He sighed dramatically with his hand over his heart.
