“I asked if you had yet been to the Sydney Gardens.”
“Did you?”When had they stopped speaking about soup?He chuckled lightly. “My mistake.”
Lady Susanne joined him with a good-natured laugh. “It is no matter. I’m sure you have much on your mind. Mother explained you are in Bath to determine whether to sell your maternal grandparents’ home. Your own mother lived there, did she not?”
“She did.” He thought her a very amiable young lady. She was good fun, didn’t put on airs, nor was she too silly. Truthfully, his grandparents’ investment property was low on his list, far beneath enjoying the ladies of Bath to determine if one might bea suitable wife. “Would you have an opinion on the best course of action if I told you I have been charged with two options?”
Lady Beasley eyed her daughter, who shook her head.
“I am sure I know little about such things.”
“But you must have an opinion,” he pressed. “To sell, to keep closed up, or to keep and lease, risking damage by dissolute tenants.”
“I suppose I do, but your opinion must be infinitely more informed and thus better.”
Lady Beasley nodded with satisfaction at her daughter’s neutral, even placating response.
Hearing footsteps, Adam peered between them but couldn’t see anyone.
“Are you well, my lord?”
They were both staring at him in return.
“I wondered if Mrs. Malcolm were here.”
“Our governess?” Lady Beasley asked with surprise.
“I think of her now as your chaperone. I didn’t see her to say goodbye the other night, and that seemed dreadfully rude of me.”
Lady Beasley blinked at him, and for a moment, Adam wondered if she suspected something.
However, Susanne smiled. “That’s very kind of you. I believe she is teaching my sisters at present, but I’ll tell her you asked after her. Will that suffice?”
“Perfectly,” he said, feeling thwarted. Unless Mrs. Malcolm acted as chaperone again. To that end, he would invite Lady Susanne on an outing and try to make it happen.
“Would you like to take a walk through the Sydney Gardens? Perhaps tomorrow if the weather permits.”
“That would be lovely,” Lady Susanne said. “You are free to accompany us, aren’t you, Mother?”
“Most certainly, I am,” Lady Beasley answered, “and I shall.”
Blast!
Alice knewhewas inthe house that very minute. She’d overheard Lady Beasley mention his name to Lord Beasley before he’d escaped to the York Club on the exclusive and elevated terrace known as Edgar Buildings.
Her conflicted emotions had kept her awake the night of the ball into the wee hours. Since then, she had decided despite how attracted she was to Lord Diamond — uncomfortably so, in fact — he was to be avoided.
She had adored dancing with him until her misstep. And she had not struggled when he’d drawn her close. Most certainly, she had felt a sizzle of sensual satisfaction the instant his mouth claimed hers.
Then she’d recalled who she was and where she was, not to mention what had happened last time she’d been attracted to a man. Socking him in the stomach had seemed a natural reaction. Alice wished she’d done it to Richard when he’d first kissed her. If she had, she would still be a member of theton, perhaps married by now to an upstanding gentleman.
And how upstanding could Lord Diamond be if he was supposedly interested in Susanne, an entirely appropriate match, yet willy-nilly kissed her, a woman of seemingly inappropriate status. Only men who took advantage of women would behave thusly.
After the first lessons of the day were finished and the girls were taking a break, Alice thought the safest place until she was sure Lord Diamond had left, short of staying cooped up in herroom, would be the back garden. It was a generous sized space, not something one would find in the middle of London.
With the peonies in bloom, she promenaded around the perimeter, working off some pent-up energy before taking a seat in the shade. No book, no violin, nothing but her thoughts.
That was a mistake because they returned immediately to Lord Diamond. He was fine looking with very dark hair, cobalt blue eyes, a strong chin, and a tall muscular frame without a hint of sedentary, overindulgent paunch.
