“I’d be thrilled with a marriage of convenience. I so dread having to experience another Season.” Sophie patted Eleanor’s arm in sympathy, but Eleanor wasn’t distracted. “If it’s just a marriage of convenience, then why worry?”
Lissa moved to stand behind a straight-back chair that faced the two ladies and the portrait, gripping the top of it. “Becausehe’s been my friend for years. I care about him, not to mention if they all fail, I’ll be sent to prison, too. It will be my fault. If I didn’t go with him to Leighhall’s, I would have never discovered the truth, and he’d be safe now.”
Sophie studied her as she did everyone. “Are you not looking forward to your new life as a baroness?”
Lissa hadn’t thought so far ahead, but now that Sophie mentioned it, she could easily imagine what it would be like. “No, I am not looking forward to life as a baroness, but I am looking forward to being Anthony’s wife. I know we wouldn’t remain at Bellamore long. He would still do his investigations, only I would help. We are good together in figuring out puzzles.” She smiled as she thought of their recent adventure. “And that’s not the only way in which we are good together.”
“Lissette!” Ellie put down her embroidery. “You certainly don’t mean…”
Lissa grinned, happy to enlighten her friends as she had Dory. “I do mean. He is an excellent lover, and I have learned so much more than what is in the duchess’s secret book.”
Eleanor blushed and Sophie appeared puzzled.
“Ellie, did you not share theEducation of the Feminine Specieswith Sophie?”
The blush grew darker. “No. I haven’t even gone beyond the title page myself.”
Dumbfounded, Lissa stared at her friend. “But why?”
Ellie looked at her and then at Sophie and then back at Lissa. “If you insist. I didn’t want to know about what I would never have the chance to experience.”
“What?”
“No. Don’t say that.” Sophie wrapped her arms around Ellie.
The woman gave a curt nod. “It’s true. I am not sought after by anyone, except for an occasional old man with poor intentions. I’ve resigned myself to being a spinster.”
Lissa remembered wanting to be just that, but now, she couldn’t imagine her future without Anthony in it. It was a sobering thought. Also a revealing one that required examination.
“Ellie.” Sophie’s soft voice in such a commanding tone was odd. “You are not going to be a spinster. You are a beautiful woman, with a large, caring heart, that any man should be pleased to have for a wife.”
Ellie sniffed and nodded, but Lissa could sense her friend didn’t believe any of it, even if it was true. “This is why I never wished to marry. Why is it that we must impress the men andtheydecide whom they want? Why can’t they impress us and we choose whomwewant?”
“Because that’s not the way of theton.” Ellie said the words with finality, but her lips did quirk up at the idea of having the choice.
“Would you choose Anthony?”
Sophie’s question caught Lissa by surprise. Would she? “I suppose if I absolutely had to choose a husband, I would choose him.”
“Now, that’s what I thought after he first visited here.” Ellie slapped her leg with her statement, causing the embroidery loop to fall from her lap.
Yet at that time, if someone asked if she’d choose him, Lissa would have said… What would she have said? She would have said yes because, based on her knowledge then, he wasn’t a peer and had wealth. And now?
“You love him.”
She snapped her gaze back to Sophie. “What? Why would you say that?”
“Because it’s true.” Sophie’s green gaze didn’t waver.
Was it? Was that why she’d been pacing the confines of Silver Meadows for three hours worried she’d never see Anthonyagain? The answer was so obvious, she couldn’t believe she’d missed it. Sophie was correct.
Somewhere between being friends and being married, she’d fallen in love with Anthony. She loved him with all of her heart, her every breath, her very being.
The butler stepped into the parlor. “Lady Bellamore, you wished to know when a carriage entered the gate. I have been informed that—”
She didn’t wait for Harrison to finish, but ran past the man and out the front door.
The Northwick coach was followed by the Roxburgh coach, which was the one in which she was most interested. More coaches came down the lane behind it. Were there people inside, or had they all been thrown in prison? Surely the other coaches would have returned to their homes if no one rode in them. Hope sparked in the depths of her soul.
