“Ah, yes! That is what I was saying. You are very helpful, Mrs. Malcolm.”
He was teasing her, and she was allowing him. She ought to turn heel and disappear into the house and let him retreat through the hedgerow.
“The difference is if you have forgiven me, then when we meet again, we can have a light and easy discourse, rather than any tension. At the very least, I can give you a friendly wave when I come to collect Lady Susanne.”
The rogue!Just like that all her good feelings toward Lord Diamond dissipated. He was too worldly for the Beasleys’ eldest daughter. And any man who kissed a chaperone and still wanted to escort her charge was assuredly a reprobate.
Despite knowing she should mind her own business, through gritted teeth, Alice asked, “Where are you escorting Lady Susanne?”
“We are going to Sydney Gardens to take a walk. I hear it is quite the place.”
Hoping she didn’t look like the disapproving scold she felt at that instant, she tried to keep her mouth from pursing.
“Itwas‘the place’,” she corrected. “It has fallen out of fashion, and the Royal Victoria Park has become all the rage. Regardless, Lady Beasley prefers the former because of fond memories from childhood, hot air balloons and fireworks. That sort of thing.”
“Not at the same time, I would hope,” his lordship quipped. He was trying to be funny and charming but was not succeeding, not with her.
“Do you think it wise to court her?” Alice couldn’t help asking.
“Wise?” he repeated, plainly befuddled. “Isn’t she of marriageable age and of good character?”
“Yes,” she bit out.
“Then I cannot see how it would be unwise.”
Because you kissed me!she wanted to point out and emphatically, too, perhaps even raising her voice. However, she did not. Her lips pursed after all, which made her feel old, and then she managed to speak.
“Very well. If that is your decision.”
She couldn’t figure out how to make him leave her, and it would be detrimental for them to be found together.
“Good day, Lord Diamond.” Alice walked away.
Chapter Four
Although Mrs. Malcolm did not come along on their outing to the Sydney Gardens, Adam had a grand time, anyway. Lady Susanne and her mother were kind and amusing people. However, from the moment they left the carriage and entered through the gate beside the Sydney Hotel, each with a shilling ticket which Adam purchased, the daughter seemed as much a visitor as he was. She didn’t even know why the pleasure gardens had their name.
Despite knowing the answer, he'd asked simply to let her show off her knowledge of her city of birth. Instead, she was perplexed.
“I could not tell you, my lord. It is a mystery.”
That made him laugh. “Not really. The original designers named the gardens for Thomas Townshend, the first Viscount Sydney.”
She looked at him blankly.
“He was a powerful politician at the end of the last century,” he added, hoping she would show a spark of knowing. “LordSydney,” he repeated the name, feeling frustrated as if he were speaking another language, “was and is extremely well-known. The colony in Australia? The East India Company?”
She shrugged, and he gave up asking anything and just told her.
“The gardens’ planners hoped to gain his favor so he would fund some of the development or, at the very least, its upkeep.”
“How clever of them,” Lady Susanne said, “and of you, too, for knowing so much.”
He glanced at Lady Beasley. She shrugged slightly.
“It is believed Lord Sydney never even bothered to come here,” she disclosed, proving she was not as unfamiliar with Bath’s history as her eldest daughter. “If I had been them,” her ladyship continued, “I would have changed the name directly. He didn’t deserve the recognition.”
Adam had to stop himself running his hands through his hair and tugging on it. In the next instant, Lady Susanne exclaimed in delight over some beautiful flower she couldn’t name, and he realized her lack of learning didn’t matter so much because she was interested in hearing whatever information he could tell her. And her mother was able to answer any questions he had since she had lived in Bath all her life.
