Mantis remembered Lady Brightley saying she would host his family to celebrate the pending nuptials and begin formalizing arrangements. Still, he hadn’t realized she would initiate it so quickly.
“I imagine,” Louisa met Mantis’ father’s stare, “Lady Brightley wishes to discuss wedding details. Three weeks, you say?” This to Mantis. “A church wedding then. How proper of you both.”
“My fiancé is a very proper lady.” As well as compassionate, exciting, beautiful, and all-around… breathtaking.
“You will accept the invitation.” His father lifted his cup for one of the manservants to refill.
“Of course.” Louisa sipped at her own tea. “I quite look forward to becoming better acquainted with your future in-laws, Manningham.”
Mantis cringed. Because making pleasant conversation wasn’t something his father had ever aspired to.
Being spared what promised to be a problematic evening would have made a trip to Gretna Green worth the trouble.
But Felicity wanted a proper wedding, and so a proper wedding she would have.
“Lord Brightley and my father are already acquainted,” Mantis mentioned casually. Would his father admit to having warned the earl away from his own son?
“I was under the impression he and I understood one another.” Ah, yes. His father knew to what Mantis alluded. “Apparently, I was wrong.”
“And now, it is he and I who understand one another.” Mantis locked his gaze with the earl.
He could ask his father why he’d been spreading such exaggerated falsehoods around town. He could ask him if he’d ever see fit to stop hating him.
But the answers weren’t likely anything he wished to hear.
Besides, Mantis had won the lady's hand and her father’s approval anyway. He’d won this round—perhaps it was the last one they’d play.
And Mantis had an appointment to drive his fiancée in the park in less than three hours on what promised to be a beautiful spring day.
With a single nod, he walked out of the room.
He had his entire life ahead of him. He refused to dwell on his father’s animosities.
A Prank?
“Did you sleep well?” Felicity didn’t look as pale as she had recently, whether it was due to the sunshine, or the fresh air, or simply the excitement of riding through the park in a curricle, Mantis didn’t care. All that mattered was the smile she sent his direction as he assisted her onto the seat, which was high up and barely wide enough for two people.
“I did, thank you.”
He walked around the back and boarded with ease, settling himself beside her and not at all minding the close confines of the narrow bench.
Staring at her for a moment, Mantis found himself caught off guard by her beauty. So much so that he completely forgot what he’d intended to say.
“What?” She touched her hat self-consciously.
“You’re beautiful.” Cliché and trite, but it was true.
She dropped her gaze and a lovely pink blossomed like roses in her cheeks.
“Thank you.” He barely heard her response. “The horses will get restless if we sit here much longer though.”
She was right. Of course she was.
He wanted to kiss her but instead he signaled for the horses to pull them into the street.
She seemed nervous today. Was it because of what happened in the park?
“I apologize for making up that story about our courtship yesterday. But I realized I couldn’t possibly tell my parents about the orangery...”
