“No, er, not … precisely.” Thea bit her lip and glanced away.
“Well, you’re hardly the first couple to marry under, ahem, rushed circumstances,” Phillips said.
“Yes, but normally couples who marry under such rushed circumstances are madly in love.”
Phillip’s brow furrowed. “Madly in love? What do you mean?”
Thea couldn’t meet her friend’s eyes. “Nevermind. I … I don’t know what I mean either. The fact is that if I hadn’t sneaked here and broken my leg, Ewan wouldn’t be married to a woman he never wanted.”
Phillip frowned at her. “Is that what you think?”
Thea spent an inordinate amount of time staring at and smoothing her skirts before replying. “What else am I to think? He’d planned to marry another lady and now … now he’s stuck with me. I’ve ruined his life.”
“You’veruinedhislife?” Phillip’s nose was completely wrinkled into a frown as if he were thoroughly confused.
Thea nodded miserably.
Phillip tilted his head to the side. “Seems to me that if he kissed you, Clayton has some responsibility to bear as well.”
“Of course he does, but the kiss was a spontaneous mistake, obviously. He shouldn’t have to scrap all his carefully made plans over it. And no wife wants to be a ‘responsibility.’”
Phillip pursed his lips, opened his mouth to speak, and shut it again before finally saying, “Lady Thea, if you will allow me to speak bluntly …”
Thea swallowed and nodded some more. “By all means.”
“At the risk of telling my friend’s secrets. Clayton was a complete mope after you left. And that’s coming from me, who has been a complete mope for months.”
Thea couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s description. “Phillip, you were not a mope. You were devasted. Just back from war where you nearly died. You’d been through far too much and you needed time to heal.”
“My point is that I’ve never seen Clayton as sullen and unhappy as he was in the days after he received your father’s letter informing him that you had refused the marriage.”
Thea frowned. “You must have mistaken it. Whatever reason Clayton was sullen had nothing to do withmyabsence, I assure you.”
Phillip shifted in his chair. “Why do you say that?”
“Do you not know he was engaged to be married to another woman?”
“Are you talking about Lady Lydia Malcolm?”
“Lydia Malcolm? Is that who it was?” A mental image of Lady Lydia flashed through Thea’s mind. She’d met the young woman before. Blond, graceful, beautiful. Perfect manners. Why,she’dwant to marry Lady Lydia ifshewere a bachelor. No wonder Ewan was unhappy to have had to take Thea instead.
“Yes, and the truth is that they were never even engaged. Not formally.”
“What?” A rush of heat like lightning flashed through Thea’s middle.
Phillip splayed his hands across the table. “If he’d been engaged, you’d have seen it in the papers, wouldn’t you?”
Thea shook her head. “I thought perhaps we missed it. Maggie doesn’t always read me every line.”
“It’s true that Clayton and Lydia’s father had discussed a possible match, but nothing was ever put to paper. And furthermore, I can assure you that Clayton never even mentioned Lydia to me more than once.”
Thea took a deep breath. She closed her eyes. “You don’t understand, Phillip. My mother always told me not to marry a man who didn’t love me. Ewan cannot possibly love me.”
Phillip studied her face. “I cannot tell you whether Ewan loves you. The answer to that is in his heart. But I can tell you that he was far from madly in love with Lydia Malcolm.”
Thea swallowed hard. “May I ask you something else?”
“Of course.” Phillip nodded.
