“I’m glad you’re here,” Lockhart said with a brief glance at Roderick. “What do you think? The green or the blue?”
“The blue,” Roderick said absently. “Did you not ask your aunt and uncle’s leave in inviting me to join the party as we discussed?”
Lockhart pointed at the blue. “As the earl says, Jenkins. Have the rest pressed for supper tonight. You may go.”
Jenkins swept up the items for his master’s evening toilette and then bowed to Roderick before he left the room.
“Are you going to answer me?” Roderick pressed.
Lockhart wrinkled his brow. “You sound cross as the devil. What’s got you in a twist?”
“My question,” Roderick said and threw up his hands. “You invitedme to join you and promised you would speak to your family about it. But your aunt and uncle seemed surprised to see me and your cousin was obviously irritated.”
He couldn’t help but briefly think of the lady with her fine features set just so on a slender face that matched her small frame perfectly. She had a simplicity to her appearance, but that only made her prettier. Except she had glared at him ever-so-slightly. She had spoken to him with an unmistakable chilliness to her tone.
“I told you that Clarissa was obsessed with propriety. And yes, it might have slipped my mind to request you join us.”
Roderick thew up his hands. “Damn it, Lockhart.”
“But,” Lockhart continued, “my aunt and uncle were clearly over the moon to have so important a gentleman join the party. You saw them drooling all over you, I think my aunt nearly my lorded herself into an apoplexy. Although the Marquess of Mickenshire technically outranks you, he also has half your worth financially and when it comes to his connections. So you are, for all intents and purposes, the man of the highest importance to grace their halls.”
Roderick stared. “That may be true, but it’s meaningless. They’ve invited the others as potential suitors for your cousin, you said, but I’m certainly not that.”
And that was true. Although he had noticed Miss Lockhart’s finer qualities when it came to her beauty, he hadn’t been struck by her in any other immediate way. There hadn’t been any specific sparks when he took her hand. And she despised him, which wasn’t what he anticipated when he metthe one. So shecouldn’tbe that, nor was she likely to be a lover to him, considering her virtue, her goals to marry well and her apparent dedication to all things proper.
All of which meant she was not of interest beyond polite conversation. That was the end of that.
“No. Poor girl.” George shook his head. “Though some stuffy man with an acceptable rank will likely take her on, I fear she’ll be miserable in the end.”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned her obsession with proper manners several times. Out of curiosity, what brought that on?” Roderick asked.
George shrugged. “Likely the never-ending criticism of my aunt and uncle. The poor girl can never set a foot right, it seems, no matter what she does. And if anything doesn’t go exactly as hoped, they all begin analyzing what she did to cause the problem.” Now his friend looked truly troubled. “For her birthday just before the Season, my aunt gifted her a copy ofThe Mirror of the Graces.”
Roderick shook his head. “I’m not familiar.”
“Of course you aren’t.” George chuckled. “It’s this ghastly etiquette manual designed to grind all the way into the ground every woman who buys in to its advice. I had a look at it during the fete we threw for Clarissa and couldn’t get past the first bit when the author demanded the neckline be always covered or else a lady risked being seen as far too sensuous.”
Roderick wrinkled his nose. “God help the entirety of Society, then, for current fashion dictates a lower neckline.”
George shrugged. “And yet my cousin seems to have bought in to the entire scheme that if she only behaves with exact correctness she might solve all the problems for herself, her family and perhaps even the world.”
Roderick frowned. He did not have any connection to the lady, but he did feel for her. “That’s too bad, but I suppose there is nothing to be done about it. As you said, she’ll likely match with some gentleman equally driven by such concerns and live her life very happily watching for every wrong turn of ankle or phrase.”
“Indeed.” George sighed. “At any rate, it seems you have forgiven me for failing to alert my aunt and uncle to your joining us.”
“I suppose,” Roderick said with a playful glare. “Ifyou’ll come with me for a walk around the garden. My legs are still stiff from the ride.”
“I swear, you are like an old man,” George said with a laugh. “Twenty-eight and already complaining of aches and pains. No, I won’t today. I drank too much at the inn last night and I need to sleepso that I might be exceedingly dashing for the first supper of the party tonight.”
Roderick shrugged. “Very well. Then I withhold my forgiveness. You’ll have to make it up to me later. Rest well.”
George’s laughter followed him into the hall and Roderick was grinning as he made his way through the house, down the stairs and slowly through the winding passageways toward what he hoped would be an exit to the garden.
Most of the doors to the chambers were closed, but he peeked in at a few that were open. There was nothing particularly interesting in any of them, the usual small parlors and a music room. When he reached the end of the hall, however, he found a chamber that was almost entirely empty save for a worn-out chaise with a broken armrest and shabby fabric covering. The wallpaper here peeled at the water-damaged ceiling and there was a cracked pane of glass along the set of doors that led to the garden.
He frowned at the odd condition of the chamber, but stepped in nonetheless and crossed to exit outside. There was a small terrace with a set of stairs down and he took it with a breath of the fresh, warm air. The summer was coming to an end, but there was a still a softness to the breeze he’d always loved. Summer always made him feel younger, a bit more carefree.
He made his way through the garden, which was planted prettily with rosebushes which now had fading buds, tall trees whose leaves were just beginning to turn coppery and a few bushes that bore their end of season berries. There was nothing amazing about the space, but it was peaceful and comforting.
