Her voice took on a lecturing quality.“In nature, we find that the seemingly random or strange behaviors exhibited by living creatures always have a reason behind them.The animal’s needs—for sustenance, for shelter, for a mate—will prompt and direct its every action.People are the same.”
Fitz raised his brows.Was she about to compare him to a wild animal?
“For several weeks now,” she went blithely on, “I have watched you dance attendance on a bevy of young ladies you couldn’t have cared less for, all to please and appease your father, who watches you like a general commanding his troops on the battlefield.He wants you to wed but you would prefer to avoid matrimony.”
The knowledge that she had been watching him, considering him so closely and in such a focused manner, gave Fitz an odd thrill.He wondered how on earth he could have missed noticing her in return, but he had to admit to himself that he tended to pay only the barest attention to his surroundings when at a ball.
“What else did you think of me?”he demanded, intrigued.“While making your scientific deductions, which are brilliant, by the way.”
Pale pink roses bloomed along her cheekbones and her long lashes swept down to brush against them, as though Fitz had just paid her the prettiest compliment she’d ever heard.“Most people don’t like it.When I deduce things about them.They find it embarrassing, I think, though that is not usually my intention.”
“I once stripped down to my smalls and took a dip in the Serpentine on a dare.At mid-day.”Fitz shrugged.“I’m hard to embarrass.”
She nodded gravely, as though adding that detail to her mental list of Fitz’s qualities.“I see.You are very sure of who you are, and what you want.Which is tonotget married.Oh by the by, will you tell me, for I could not make it out: why, then, do you attend a ball like this where there are nothing but marriage-minded ladies?Why not simply tell your father you don’t like it?”
Fitz felt a shaft of the old bitterness pierce his heart.He looked away from her too-observant stare.“What a question.For someone who sees so much, you seem very unaware of the way the world works.”
“Thisworld is not the entire world,” she pointed out in a mild tone than nevertheless rang through Fitz’s head like a gong.
“Good gad, don’t let anyone else hear you spouting such radical talk,” he warned with mock alarm to cover the strange way her words were echoing in his brain box.
“I don’t care about anyone else,” she said impatiently.“Tell me what you meant, about your circumstances.”
Shaking off the strange mood she’d put him in, Fitz pulled on his social mask and met her inquisitive stare with a devil-may-care grin.“Why, that I’m penniless.My father is wealthy, of course, and my older brother will be marquess after him, and already has one of Father’s lesser titles and the estate to go with it.Rob has a purpose and an income, even before the enormous dowry his fiancée will bring with her when they wed.My sister married an earl, so she is well provided for and a credit to the family.But I’m a younger son.My title is merely a courtesy title.My inheritance is at my father’s discretion, as is my monthly allowance.Therefore, I rely entirely on his goodwill for my livelihood.”
It chafed, as it always had, and Fitz ignored it, as he always did.Harder to ignore was the glimmer of sympathy in Caroline’s violet eyes, as though she’d seen through to the heart of his deepest, most secret unhappiness.
“It’s the way of the world.”Fitz turned away and shrugged, affecting unconcern.“Our world, at least.I wasn’t born first, and I would’ve made a bloody awful Marquess of Huntingdon if I had been.I must keep on Father’s good side.He wants me engaged by the end of the season to a girl he approves of, or he will cut off my funds.”
The recollection of his current circumstances had Fitz reluctantly glancing out at the ongoing ball.Father would be ready to release the hounds after him if he missed the supper dance.Fitz found he was very sorry to be ending this pleasurably strange and strangely pleasurable interlude, but it was time he got back to his normal life.He bowed to Caroline with real regret.
“So you see, I cannot help you, Miss Quick.I have little to no influence over my father—the reverse, in fact.And I have problems of my own to be getting on with, coming up with a stratagem to avoid the fate Father has in store for me.It will take some doing, I’m afraid.Once Father has an idea in mind, he is like a terrier after a rat.I haven’t much hope of success, if I’m being honest.I’m quite likely to end up bound to whomever Father chooses for me.”
“But don’t you see?”Her eyes shone like the amethysts in his mother’s favorite brooch, the one his sister Arabella wore on her wedding day.Caroline clasped her hands in front of her chest.“This is why I chose you!Because we can help each other!”
For one mad moment, Fitz wondered if Caroline was about to propose he and she get engaged—and for an even madder moment, he wasn’t sure he wanted to refuse.But what she actually said was, “Your father is currently directing all his energies toward getting you married.But what if your father were distracted from his goals for your romantic future…by a romance of his own?”
* * *
The planes of Lord Fitzwilliam’s handsome face, which had fallen into a sort of sad apathy Caroline disliked seeing, gradually brightened until he was smiling at her with genuine respect.It felt like looking up at the sky at the very moment the sun came out from behind a cloud.
“That isgood,” he said, nodding slowly.“I do see what you mean.And that’s how you knew I would want to help you—because it would solve both our problems at once!My god, you are a wonder, aren’t you?”
Caroline felt herself flush again and couldn’t even spare the attention to curse her pale hair and skin that showed everything she felt so plainly.Part of her wanted to quaver that perhaps he was only making a mockery of her somehow, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe it.
He was just so…open, in his approbation.Once she finally got him to listen, he reallylistened.Without defensiveness or judgment or ego.That was a rarity in Caroline’s experience, with all people but especially with men.
The admiring look in his eyes went to her head like strong drink.“Then you agree?You’ll help me?”
“I would like to,” he said regretfully.“But I’m afraid you have not reckoned with my father’s personality.I’m sure your mama is all that is lovely and enticing, but my old governor is a stern, unbending, bloody-minded curmudgeon.He’s been on his own for nearly fifteen years now and he’s never made so much as a peep about taking a new marchioness.”
Caroline smiled.“I know.That is why I am so confident.”
He frowned.“I don’t follow.I realize I’m not the canniest of fellows, but how does that make sense?”
Hmm.Caroline weighed her mother’s privacy against the need to convince Lord Fitzwilliam to help her.
Perhaps if she wished for him to trust her, she would need to extend a modicum of trust herself.“I have good reason to believe your father is far from indifferent to my mother,” she finally said.“Keep a watchful eye upon him throughout the rest of this evening; I believe you will see what I mean.And if that is not enough, there is certain…proof that I can produce.”
