“Just in time too.” He rose from the chair. “Show me where to put him. I’ve a woman to pursue. A stubborn, temperamental beauty of my own. I’ve quite the task ahead of me.”
Twenty-Eight
H
ow ravishing you look,” Dorset told her.
Maeve smoothed her gloved hands over the silks of her brilliant cerulean skirts. “Thank you, my lord. I seem to have inherited an exceptional lady’s maid.”
His lips tightened. “From Rowena Hollerfield.”
Maeve ignored the slight. “Well, Agnes is quite exceptional. I am lucky to have her.” She wondered why she had allowed Parsons to last as long as she had. Her insolence was glaring after being around Agnes’s calm demeanor for the short amount of time Maeve had known her. She was thrilled with Agnes.
“I suppose last night was quite the coup for you.” He spoke pleasantly but there was an edge present. “Your entry hall. The flowers.”
“Ah. Yes, well, that was an excellent surprise. I admit my astonishment, and,” she chuckled softly, “pure vain delight.”
His jaw softened. “I can imagine. While I must admit hating at walking in the hall and being hit with puerile envy.”
Her joy burst forth and she abruptly covered her mouth. The park was indeed crowded and several heads turned in their direction. “Er, thank you for saying so, my lord.”
“Don’t you think it’s time you called me Sebastian?” He was most definitely testy.
Maeve frowned. “That doesn’t seem proper.”
His laugh was a reluctant gasp. “There is something to be said for a beautiful woman who has been out of the school room for a number of years.”
Maeve choked, swallowing another bout of mirth.
A deep shade of red crawled up his skin. “That was most irreverent of me to say,” he sputtered.
Once she gained control of her laughter, she patted his hand. “Do not fret, Sebastian. Women fresh out of the schoolroom are but children. It’s indecent when you think of what they are expected to endure before they even know themselves. I think the marriageable age should be moved from eighteen to five and twenty.”
“And you are?”
“Four and twenty.”
“So in your own eyes you are not of marriageable age.”
“I do so enjoy my freedom.”
“And you’ve been married before.”
“Yes. But thanks to Alymer, I am able to enjoy my independence. Not many women have that luxury.”
“No. I suppose not.” He was quiet for a time, then, “I wonder how my sisters felt upon the arrangements of their marriages.”
Maeve smiled at his thoughtfulness because that is what he was… thoughtful. “Somehow, I fail to see you forcing them into an unpleasant situation. If I’d left things up to my mother, I would be relegated to the country with Shufflebottom tearing through my dowry.” She shuddered at that fate. Welton would be the better choice between the two, and he acted like a boy led by his leading strings.
“I noticed your gardens being tended. Come spring they will look beautiful.”
Her own jaw tightened. So. She had a gardener now.
“What do you mean ‘she’s out for a drive’? With whom? And where the devil did all these flowers come from?”
“The lady’s evening was a smashing success, I’d say,” McCaskle said.
“Who the hell sends a woman rhododendrons?” He dug out the card.I shan’t sleep at’all until we dance again. S.“And who is S?”
