Joan nodded. That didn’t eliminate the sentimental attachment Miss Burke had claimed, but it hardly stooped to cruelty.
There was a tap on the door, and Smythe entered with two florist’s boxes. He placed one box before each of them.
“My,” said Evangeline in surprise as she untied the string. “I wonder who would have sent these?”
Joan ignored her aunt’s rhetorical question and busied herself with opening her own box. She had received bouquets before, but none since her second Season, years ago. And these flowers were unlike those long-ago daisies in every way. Inside the box lay a sheaf of long-stemmed lilies, of such stark simplicity she could only stare.
“Arum lilies,” said Evangeline. “How exotic!”
“They’re beautiful.” Joan lifted one out to see it better.
“Lord Burke knows his flowers, I see.” Evangeline fished the card out of her box, which held a bouquet of brilliant tulips.
She dropped the lily back into the box and ripped open her own card.
I hope you will grant me the pleasure of your company on a drive two mornings hence,it read. Be ready early. It will be worth the wait.
—Burke
For a moment she had to fight back a pleased smile. He might be an enigma, but sending flowers meant something, didn’t it? He certainly hadn’t needed to; it wasn’t as though he was courting her ... was he? From anyone else, flowers and invitations to drive might be construed as such, but from him, it was impossible to tell.
“He asks permission to take you driving the day after next.” Evangeline held her card out. “I will grant it, if you want to go. But if I’ve misread you, dear, and you don’t want to go with him, I am perfectly willing to take the blame and refuse him.”
She bit her lip. His note to Evangeline was only a little longer, but far more polite. He thanked her for tea the other day and asked very properly for permission to take Joan driving. It seemed he could be a gentleman when he wished to be one. And what did he mean, the wait would be worth it? What did he plan to do? She handed the note back. “He did mention something about driving, but I expected him to forget all about it.”
Her aunt just gave her a wry look.
She pressed her lips together. “Even now he hasn’t fixed a time—early! What does that mean? Is he going to turn up before dawn with some mad plan to drive to Greenwich?”
“Absolutely not,” said Evangeline. “Your father would murder me.”
“Well, it would be very like one of Douglas’s friends to ask and then not arrive. Two days is a long time to delay.”
“I expect he’ll come. No one made him ask to take you driving. Don’t say Douglas did,” her aunt added as Joan opened her mouth. “Douglas is hundreds of miles away. Besides, Lord Burke doesn’t look the type to take orders well.”
That was true. “That doesn’t mean he won’t regret asking.”
Evangeline just smiled. “Perhaps you should trim that new bonnet, just in case.”
For some reason this made her shoulders tense. Two days might be enough time for Mr. Salvatore to deliver another new dress, but she didn’t have a decent bonnet. And for some reason Joan was loath to wear her old, unflattering bonnet on the drive. “I don’t know how to do it without it making me look tall.”
“But you are tall,” her aunt pointed out. “How do you plan to hide it?”
“Obviously I cannot hide it,” said Joan wistfully. “But I don’t have to wear a bonnet that makes me look even more enormous.”
Evangeline laughed. “Enormous! Oh, really. You’ve been standing next to the wrong people. You are not too tall.”
“Not next to you, but next to everyone else I am.”
“Nor next to Lord Burke.” Joan glared at her. Evangeline tried to look innocent. “It’s true! He must be at least five or six inches taller. You could wear my beaded silk shoes with the lovely heel and still be shorter than he.”
“Everything need not involve Lord Burke!” she growled. Although she wouldn’t mind wearing shoes like those ivory silk ones, and if the only person she could conceivably dance with while wearing them was Lord Burke ... perhaps it would be worth the sacrifice.
She got to her feet and picked up her bouquet. “I’ll just go have Polly put these in some water before I consider the bonnet.”
“Make sure she fetches the proper vase,” said her aunt as she headed for the door. “Arum lilies are very tall.” Joan glanced over her shoulder suspiciously to see Evangeline hold a pink tulip to her nose. “Lord Burke seems fond of tall things,” she added almost idly.
“You’re incorrigible,” she declared.
