“The simple truth,” he said. “I want to give you the benefit of the doubt if I possibly can. You know I love you, Isabella.”
“I could play this game out to the end,” she said. “But I believe I understand you very well, Matthew. You will agree that Hobson’s death was an accident if I consent to be your mistress. Am I right?”
He held his arms out to his sides. “Why the harsh tones? Do you see a pistol about me?” he asked. “Chains? Ropes? Do you see a constable or guard lurking at my shoulder? Do you think I have searched for you all this time just in order to see you executed? Do you know me so little, Isabella?”
“Speak plainly with me,” she said. “For once in your life, Matthew, speak plainly. If I refuse to be your mistress, what then? Give me a straight answer.”
“Isabella,” he said, “I am a guest here. I came with an old friend of mine, Lord Thomas Kent, to spend a few weeks on an estate I have always wished to visit. It is quite splendid, is it not? You are a governess here—a happy coincidence. And of course we must speak of that unhappy death, whose mystery still has not been cleared up because you fled immediately after it. But there is no need to say everything that needs to be said between us at this very moment, is there? You are not going anywhere for the next few weeks, and neither am I.”
“No,” she said. “I did not think you would be persuaded to speak plainly. But I understand you very well for all that. I have, after all, known you for much of my life. I am to live with a threat hanging over my head. You will dangle me like a puppet on a string.”
“You have heard, I suppose,” he said, “that the Reverend Booth was, ah, disappointed in you? I believe it is the elder Miss Hailsham who is currently the fortunate recipient of his smiles.”
Daniel! Fleur lifted her chin.
“When we leave eventually, Isabella,” he said, “I think it would be as well to do so without airing our dirty linen, so to speak, before the duke and duchess, wouldn’t you agree? And I am quite sure that you would not wish to cause his grace unnecessary disappointment when you leave by raising false hopes in the intervening weeks, would you? You will, of course, be coming home, where you belong.”
“Don’t worry, Matthew,” she said, “there is no affair to put an end to.”
He smiled. “He makes a habit of strolling the back lawns in the early morning, then?” he said.
Fleur turned her head sharply to find that indeed his grace was walking toward them.
“Good morning,” Lord Brocklehurst called. “I find that your park has as magnificent prospects at the back of the house as before it.”
His grace was carrying a cloak over one arm. He shook it out and set it about Fleur’s shoulders without a word to her.
“My grandfather hired the best of landscape gardeners,” he said. “I trust you had a good sleep, Brocklehurst?”
“Indeed, yes, I thank you,” the other said. “And as you must have guessed, your grace, my feeling of last evening was quite correct. Miss Hamilton and I have a slight acquaintance and have been inquiring into the health of each other’s relatives.”
“Miss Hamilton,” his grace said, turning to her, “I will be giving Pamela her first riding lesson this morning directly after breakfast. You will bring her to the stables, if you please. You are dismissed for now.”
“Yes, your grace.” She curtsied without looking at either him or Matthew and turned to hurry back to the house.
There was to be some reprieve, then. It was not to be quite as bad as she had feared all night, and for two months before that. He was prepared to give her her freedom in exchange for what he had wanted for three years past. Except that in the past she had been able to treat his attentions with scorn. Now he must feel that he had a hold on her.
And who was she to say he did not? It was all very well now, in the relief of knowing that it was not to be today, to tell herself that she would throw his offer in his face when he told her finally that it was time for them to leave. It was well now to imagine herself telling him, her head thrown back, contempt in her eyes, that she would take the noose rather than him.
But would she when the time came?
And it was quite like Matthew, of course. It amazed her that she had not thought of it as a possibility before. He had wanted her badly enough. Was it likely that he would give her up to the gallows any more willingly than he would have given her up to Daniel?
Of course. She was foolish not to have thought of it.
She unbuttoned the cloak absently as she climbed the stairs inside the house. And then she looked down at it with awareness. It was her own cloak. It had been hanging in her wardrobe.
He must have sent a maid upstairs for it. He had brought it out to her and wrapped it about her shoulders.
And he had ordered her to bring Lady Pamela out to the stables to him after breakfast.
There was to be another day, then. Not chains and a long carriage ride and a dark prison cell at the end of it. Not yet, anyway.
Her step lightened and quickened. There was to be another day.
IT WAS STILL TOO EARLYfor breakfast when the Duke of Ridgeway came inside with Lord Brocklehurst. There was still time to accomplish one more thing before eating and going back outside with Pamela.
He sent a servant to summon Lord Thomas Kent to the library if he was up. He must talk to his brother. Somehow, he could not take the coward’s way out and just say nothing.
