“The vote is over. He was supposed to go to the country to think on his sins.”
“As if a man like that ever would” The countess pursed her lips. “Very well. I give you leave to contact Lord Heath. Since he didn’t present himself to me this morning, I assume you didn’t seduce him. Perhaps a second night—”
“Countess!” Sadie exclaimed. “I will not seduce a man into marriage.”
“Then your prospects are rather dim, I’m afraid. Lord Liddican’s lies have done their work. Did you have many dance partners this night?”
The lady knew she had not.
“This season is not going well for you. Not well at all.”
What could she say to that? It was true. Last season she had no suitors, a damaged reputation, and no cares. This season she had no suitors, a destroyed reputation, and she did care. That was a failure, even by her lax standards.
She did, however, have one very big positive. She understood herself better now. She had come to terms with her mother’s ghost and that made her more settled, less rash, and much less prone to beating up gentlemen who richly deserved it.
“There will be no midnight rendezvous with Lord Heath,” she declared firmly. “I will speak to him tomorrow at the park.”
“In front of Prinny and the wholeton?”
Sadie frowned. “Thetonwill be at Hyde Park, not at the picnic tree. This is an impromptu meeting with the royal.”
The countess rolled her eyes. “There is no point in accidentally meeting Prinny if no one sees it.”
“But—”
“Hush. You have given me a headache. If you do not wish to plan things ahead with Lord Heath, then I cannot help you.”
“By which, you mean you have told everyone that Prinny will be—”
“At the Scottish Tree Park, as everyone is now calling it.”
“Goodness,” Sadie breathed in shock. “I really have become notorious.”
“You have,” the countess confirmed. “Now you must get royal approval or you are completely sunk.”
She didn’t care, she reminded herself. She didn’t care if her reputation was ruined, if she were sent back to Scotland in disgrace. She would receive the rest of her dowry as her own coin and be free to live her life as Connall’s chatelaine.
But now, shedidcare because she didn’t want to be her laird’s chatelaine. She wanted to be Lord Heath’s wife.
“Damn,” she breathed into the darkness.
She repeated it again thirty minutes later alone in her room. Because—apparently—she wasn’t quite alone. Lord Heath had climbed the ivy and was knocking on her window while sporting a huge grin.
Chapter Eleven
Heath had scuffedhis boots, dirtied his waistcoat beyond repair, and revisited his youthful antics in a way that made him grin. He had no intention of climbing ivy ever again in his life, but he would do it this once in service to Miss Sadie Allen.
And so he said, when she pulled open her bedroom window with a shocked gasp. “Whatever are you doing?”
“Didn’t I do this in your nightmare? I’m proving that—”
“That you’re a daft idiot, that’s what!” she exclaimed as she helped him inside. “The countess thoroughly approves of me seducing you, so you could have walked in the front door and she would have welcomed you. In fact, she did yesterday.”
“I know. But tonight, I didn’t want anyone else involved.” He finally managed to straighten up and brush the worst of the dirt from his clothing. “That ivy needs to be removed.”
“You can tell that to the countess tomorrow. At the park.”
“Hmm. Very well. In the meantime…” His voice lowered and his expression grew concerned. “How are you faring? The ball must have been torture.”
