“We’ll go change for our ride, Nessa,” Layla said, and pulled Emily with her up the stairs.
Momentarily alone in the hall with her father’s best friend, Vanessa braced herself, and Peter didn’t tackle the subject delicately, asking her pointedly, albeit in a whisper, “Are you unaware that his father is directly responsible for William’s absence?”
She didn’t want to tell him that a bargain had been struck. There were already two opposing opinions of her agreement to the bargain, one from her mother, one from Monty. She didn’t want Peter’s opinion to tip the scale. And she’d prefer for Peter to think the marriage was her idea.
So she answered the question by pointing out, “How better to soften someone’s feelings than by becoming a member of his family?”
“But still—does your mother actually approve?”
She grinned. “Mother doesn’t quite know what to make of me. She has found, to her annoyance, of course, that ordering me around just doesn’t work.”
He rolled his eyes. “I am aware that Will gave you free rein, as it were.”
“But as it happens,” she continued, “Mother holds that family in high regard, so yes, I have her approval.”
“Are youbothforgetting the vendetta?”
Must he be so persistent? “A grieving brother, a bad decision made.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I place the blame where it belongs, as my father did. And one heartsick old man doesn’t blacken the whole Rathban family. Besides, all that matters is I am enamored of the son. I am quite pleased by the match.”
Already wearing her riding habit, she headed to the front door before she blushed over that lie, but then something alarming occurred to her and she turned back to Peter. “If you write to my father, please don’t tell him. That should be my happy news to deliver.”
“Certainly. I won’t spoil your surprise.”
Chapter Forty-two
“HOW THE DEUCE DIDyou hear about that?”
Vanessa had come to visit Snow while she waited for the twins to join her and had found Donnan grooming her horse. And he’d immediately told her that there was a stable near London that was for sale.
He laughed at her surprise. “Ye’d be amazed what ye hear in taverns, lass. The owner seems a wee bit desperate tae sell, so ye could probably get a guid price, which is why I mention it—actually . . .” He seemed a little abashed before he admitted, “Calum and me, we’ve taken a liking tae this town. We wouldna half mind running a stable for ye if yer going tae breed these big beasties.”
Vanessa was delighted that the MacCabe brothers were willing to do that. It solved one of the immediate concerns of owning a stable, finding men she could trust to run it for her.
“My schedule is full for today, but tomorrow morning when I escape all the daily callers would be a good time for you to show it to me.”
“So yer still being kept busy?”
She nodded. “I expected it to be a whirlwind. Tonight we’re going to the theater and I believe Mother has arranged a large dinner party for tomorrow night. I confess, looking further ahead than that is a little daunting.”
The twins arrived, the grooms were waiting. Monty wasn’t among them today, but she smiled as she imagined him still abed. But there was a little nervousness mixed into her anticipation of seeing him. If he teased her about last night, she wasn’t sure how she would react. She hoped he simply wouldn’t mention it, even though she knew that’s all she’d be thinking about the next time she saw him.
She enjoyed the ride through the park with her sisters. She didn’t even mind when they were stopped a few times by their favored gentlemen. The attention certainly kept Emily in a good mood.
Daniel attended the theater that night with his mother, though their seats were on the opposite side of the performance hall from where the Blackburns were sitting, which Vanessa didn’t find helpful at all. If Lady Rathban was their partner in the engagement campaign, Vanessa wasn’t impressed with her tactics, though to be fair, the seats surrounding the Blackburns had filled up rather quickly with the young men who were unofficially courting the twins.
Vanessa made her lack of interest in the present company clear, just as she’d done at the balls, just as she’d done by avoiding the callers who continued to knock on their door each day. She managed not to be rude about it; she just didn’t want to encourage any of these young men when she was secretly courting another.
The twins were too busy whispering with the gentlemen to pay attention to the play being performed on the stage. And Vanessa made sure that if Daniel did happen to glance at her across the room, he would catch her smiling at him, so she wasn’t actually watching the actors, either.
Kathleen assured her that she would take her over to Lady Rathban during the intermission and engage the lady in conversation so Vanessa could have a few minutes to flirt with Daniel. That wordflirthad made her want to laugh. It wasn’t exactly what she and Daniel did when they were together. Drawing invisible swords was far more apt.
But she got her chance to be with him for a few minutes in the lobby during the intermission where they were out of range of being overheard. Kathleen had immediately led Lady Rathban a few steps away and started a whispered conversation, and the twins were occupied with their own beaus, leaving her standing next to Daniel.
He looked very dashing tonight, despite his bored expression. But remembering Monty’s lessons, she complimented him on his jacket and put her fingers on his lapel as if she were absentmindedly just feeling the fabric.
He responded to her touch by stepping back out of her reach! “You still haven’t tired of irritating me?” he said cuttingly.
“I could never tire of you, Daniel. You make my heart flutter.”
