“If you think that best,” Eleanor said, her feelings about the hand very much the opposite.
In the next deal, the trump ace led. When Eleanor’s turn came, she was about to lay down all of her cards when Sir Charles saw her first put down the knave of clubs.
“No, no, Miss Tilney,” Sir Charles said, laughing at her and pushing her hand from the table. “You cannot play Pam! You must follow suit and head the trick, and let the ace pass.”
Eleanor kept her patience at his assumption she did not know the game. “But I am holding no other trump, I am afraid. And I have a Pam flush,” she said, laying down the knave of clubs and four other cards of the same suit.
“We are all looed,” Lord Dryden cried. “Well done, Miss Tilney!” With this hand she immediately won all five tricks. Since they were playing unlimited loo, each person paid the whole amount of the pool.
Sir Charles clearly did not like having been wrong and his help not being needed, and he sulked for another hand. Eleanor was inclined to let him play in silence, but that would not entice him to think that Colborne Park needed a mistress.
“Sir Charles, do you host many card parties at Colborne?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Eleanor took a deep breath and tried again. “Perhaps another evening we might play whist.” She gave him an earnest look and then dropped her voice so the other three players could not hear. “I think I should like to partner withyou.”
He gave her an admiring look that she was not insensible of. It did not escape her that it again dropped much lower than her eyes or lips. “Your servant.” He leant back with a smile and was in good spirits again.
She tried her best for the rest of the evening to play to win so as not to enrage her father, but also to appear to need as many hints as Sir Charles could give. The anxiety of the former was harder to manage than the unnaturalness of the latter.
It was plain that Sir Charles was not the man best suited to make her happy, but Eleanor was certain that she could manage anything, cope with any trial. Had she not suffered her father’s harshness, his strictness, his unfeelingness since her mother died? Had she not been without steady friendship and companionship for nine years?
I am a strong woman even if I have no power.
There was nothing at Colborne Park she could not endure, nothing she could not handle with the same poise and strength with which she had faced every injustice, indignity, and unkindness at Northanger. She could tolerate an ignorant husband, a rude and boorish one so long as she could assure herself that he would grant his wife independence and respect.
It was enticing a man to marry her while under Philip’s eye that would be the hardest thing she had ever done.
ChapterFour
As was his habit, Philip woke early and found a table in Lord Longtown’s library to spread out his papers. A heavy storm of April rain had made the morning too wet to go to church, and Philip was pleased that most of the household seemed to have stayed abed and he had the entire library and a large fire to himself. He had spent the night thinking over Eleanor’s actions with Sir Charles Sudbury, and since he was no more satisfied by her decision now than he had been while tossing and turning in his bed, he might as well put his time to something useful.
At least mathematics must always come to a precise and rational conclusion.
He focused for some time on the force with which a spherical shell of copper filled with inflammable air ten times lighter than common air would ascend, and then realised he had made a mistake.
“Damn it,” he muttered, leaning back from the table and roughly tugging his cuffs back into place. If he was at home, he could remove his coat and feel less formal and more at ease. It was another reason to regret coming to Welland.
While he was recalculating based on copper being 7,500 times denser than air at the surface, General Tilney entered the library. A rolling feeling filled Philip’s stomach, and he fought the irrational desire to flee. Philip would be the first to admit that he was a retiring man, not inclined to share a contrary opinion or enter into a conversation with a stranger, but to be alone with the general made Philip feel like the worst sort of diffident, shrinking dotard.
“Good morning, Brampton. I am looking for Dryden.”
Philip rubbed a damp hand down his trouser leg as he rose to greet him. The general was a tall man and had a remarkable presence. He had grey hair, still powdered, that must have been blond like Eleanor’s in his youth, and unlike other men of his age, his waistcoat scarcely strained its buttons.
“I think Dryden and his father are in conference. The marquess said that they were going to discuss the settlements for Dryden’s marriage, and improvements to his home.” Actually, Longtown had only barked a few words as they passed one another in the corridor, but that was the impression that Philip was left with.
General Tilney nodded, but rather than take his leave, he settled into a chair near to Philip’s table. “What is all of this?” He gestured to a sheet with calculations.
Philip took a calming breath. Normally, he had no trouble discussing mathematics with anyone who showed a marginal interest. But who could be at ease with a man like General Tilney?
“I, I am attempting to solve—I have been asked to help—a professor at Royal Military Academy wants...” Philip started over and explained the force required to lift the sphere. “I now have to determine what weight it will keep in equilibria, and to what height it will ascend without being loaded with any weight.”
“To what purpose?” the general said, his brows drawing closer. “It cannot be mathematics simply for mathematics’ sake.”
Philip’s mouth went dry, and he decided against speaking aboutThe Diaryand how eager he was to answer the perplexing problems in time for next year’s issue. That was an entertainment, a way to challenge his intellect, rather than a way to be useful. His pseudonym Plus Minus had a reputation to keep up, but General Tilney would never appreciate that. “The Royal Military Academy employs mathematics professors, and one of them is an acquaintance of mine. We often correspond to discuss significant or challenging problems.”
The general gave him a sceptical look. “A professor hired to teach the cadets must consult withyou?”
