Nate shook his head. “Stay away from the maidservants at Villa De Lacey. I’m warning you.”
“I’m afraid, I can’t do that. There’s a little redhead whose—”
“For goodness’ sake, Frederick, don’t you have enough on your hands already?”
Frederick shrugged. “I suppose. But one gets so easily bored.”
“Well, you’ll have to find another way of entertaining yourself. Eat hallucinogenic fungi and go for a midnight swim in the lake if you must but leave my servants alone.” Nate glanced around the room. “All of you. I mean it.”
The four men looked at him with bleary eyes and nodded obediently. But as he watched them exchange their smoking robes for their jackets, he wasn’t convinced they’d keep their promise.
Chapter Nine
The following day,Nate was obliged to take Adelia Eamont for a turn around the grounds. Rather than joining them on the walk, Lady Eamont and a sour-faced Lydia insisted on trailing behind them to give the impression that they were chaperones, even though he had not asked Adelia to step out with him alone.
“You would have done better with Miss De Lacey. Her knowledge of these grounds is far superior to mine.”
“But it’s your garden, so it’s time you became more familiar with it, is it not?”
He shrugged. “We have a gardener for that purpose.” He nodded in the direction of the elderly man, clipping a hedge with enormous shears. “Since you are so interested in botany, perhaps I should askhimto show you around the garden. He has extensive knowledge of all the plants, trees, and flowers.”
“How very thoughtful of you.” Miss Eamont twirled the white parasol she carried to shield her from the morning sun. “I’m sure I will want to become well-acquainted with the gardener eventually. But I’m really only interested in how pretty everything looks and how wonderful the flowers smell. I don’t care to know much else. If the garden looks lovely, the gardener shall have my praise.”
Nate frowned at this rather odd response to his attempt at rebuffing her. He hoped she wasn’t still harboring thoughts of becoming his wife.
“Lord Westerly told Papa that you were soeager to start tending to your new estate that you abandoned London immediately for Westmorland.” Miss Eamont peeked sideways at Nate.
He cleared his throat, uncomfortable with her obvious attempt at flirtation. “Is that so?”
“Yes, I must say, I was surprised to hear it, but that is the explanation he gave Mama and Papa for your putting off our meeting in Hyde Park.”
“What meeting?” Nate asked, deliberately playing ignorant.
“The one Lord Westerly arranged with my papa. You must know your brother wants us to be married.”
Nate stopped, silently cursing Edward. “I am sorry if Lord Westerly misled you, Miss Eamont, but I long ago informed my brother that I have decided to remain a bachelor. Therefore, I will not be marrying anyone.”
To his surprise, she looked at him with sympathy rather than anger. “Is it because of what happened with Miss Morley—her abandoning you at the altar?”
Nate stiffened.
“Because—” she glanced at her mama and sister, who’d also stopped and appeared to be straining their ears to hear what was being said—“Mama says that it is only natural for you to be hesitant about marriage after suffering such treatment, but I can assure you that—”
“I can assure you that my reluctance has nothing to do with Miss Morley,” he said through gritted teeth. He could not believe that Lady Eamont, and perhaps many others in the ton, were still discussing his private affairs after two years!
“Good, because although I may not be as beautiful as she, I want to assure you that I would be quite willing and dutiful as a wife.” She locked her eyes on his. “Quite dutiful,” she repeated, “and very willing.”
Nate stepped back, hoping to break the awkward moment, but Adelia stayed steady and kept her eyes on his.
He turned to face the villa and said loudly enough for Lady Eamont and Lydia to hear, “I think it is time we returned to our rooms. I shall need to change for the boating excursion.” Then he bowed to the ladies and strode back to the villa.
*
Later that afternoon,James made several trips to carry six rowboats from the storage hut at the back of the house down to the shores of Lake Windermere, and two of the maids packed and delivered a picnic tea for the guests.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a boat race?” Lady Eamont said. “We can have a man to row and a woman as a passenger in each boat.”
“That sounds wonderful, Mama,” Adelia and Lydia exclaimed in unison.
