“What are you saying?” Lord Mangue demanded.
“I only mean the way Lady Caroline might meet up with Lady Hollidge. What did you think I meant?”
“I cannot abandon Lady Caroline,” Lord Mangue fretted. “I told her parents I would escort her.”
“Please, my lord. You should go find her at once,” Caroline said. “I have these two gentlemen and my good friend with me. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to your sister with no one at all to protect her.”
“Yes, you’re correct. I bid you good evening.” He didn’t even wait to say goodbye to the rest of them before hurrying away.
“Poor girl, I hope she is unharmed,” Daphne said.
Caroline nodded, but when she caught Lord Diamond’s eye, she nearly began to laugh.
Lord Trent shook his head. “Remarkable that you could see a girl’s mole in this dusky light.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Lord Diamond said. “I do hope it was the correct lady.”
Just then, the bell announced the start of the mysterious Cascade. And they moved toward it as did many other of the gardens’ visitors. Somehow, Caroline found Lord Diamond directly beside her.
“Are you interested in this?” he asked.
“It is amusing, don’t you think?” When she’d seen the mock waterfall and fake mechanized carriage crossing the bridge the first time, she had never seen anything like it before or since.
“I findyoufar more amusing and interesting,” Lord Diamond said. “Shall we take a stroll?”
Caroline tensed. This was not the safety of Lady Plain de Ville’s tiny plot of garden. This was Vauxhall where reputations were ruined on a nightly basis.
“Just to talk,” he added.
Caroline hesitated. She barely knew him, but what she did know, she liked. And again, this might be one of the few, precious moments they could spend in one another’s company.
She nodded.
“Lady Caroline and I are going to take a walk. We shall return here shortly.”
“This show lasts about a quarter of an hour,” Lord Trent reminded them.
Lord Diamond nodded. “I shall have her back here and in time for you to escort her to her parents.”
“Understood,” Lord Trent said.
Daphne was watching with her mouth in the shape of anO,and Caroline knew she would have to explain it all to her later.
When Geoffrey got LadyCaroline alone in Vauxhall, he surprised himself. The first thing he wanted to do was talk with her, not kiss her, despite wanting very much to do that as well.
“I want to know everything about you,” he confessed, drawing her arm through his and continuing to move along the path, so they didn’t appear scandalous. “Do you enjoy riding?”
“Very much.”
“And boating?” he prompted.
“Do you mean rowing or sailing?” she asked.
“Either. Both, I suppose.”
“I have sailed across the Channel to France, but I would very much enjoy an outing in a rowboat.”
“I would enjoy rowing you wherever you wish. As long as it’s upon water.”
