A rush of excitement filled Susannah’s chest and it tightened. He’d come just when she was beginning to think she would have to make the next move. Afraid even to speculate on what the note might say, she rose and quickly took the folded paper, and turning away from Mrs. Princeton she opened it. Written in bold black lettering were the words:
Duchess,
I want you to join me for a ride in Hyde Park. If you are otherwise presently entertained, I shall wait in my carriage until you are available to join me.
Race
Susannah gasped in surprise as a new appreciation for the marquis filled her with a sudden, eager anticipation.
She turned and looked at her companion. “What nerve that man has,” she exclaimed in a whispered voice, letting the note flutter to the top of her desk.
“What’s the matter?” Mrs. Princeton asked, her soft brown eyes rounding in concern.
Susannah took a deep, steadying breath, her mind whirling with possibilities. “That man is unbelievably brash.”
“What did he say to you, Your Grace? Has he been horribly rude to you?”
“No, no, Mrs. Princeton, nothing like that. In a most informal manner, the marquis has invited me to go for a ride in Hyde Park with him. No, not invited,” Susannah amended, “it’s more an order.”
Mrs. Princeton’s expression relaxed from concern to almost a smile. “I don’t see that as being brash, Your Grace. It’s perfectly acceptable for a gentleman to ask a lady to go for a ride in the park with him.”
“Of course it is,” Susannah said, trying to tamp down the thrills of joy filling her. “It’s not what he says but how he says it that puts me in a dither. He writes that he understands if I am busy at the moment. He is happy to sit in his carriage and wait until I’m available to go with him.”
The skin around Mrs. Princeton’s eyes crinkled and she laughed softly. But seeing the annoyed expression on Susannah’s face at her mirth, she quickly composed herself.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace, I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”
Susannah smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous, Mrs. Princeton. I know exactly why you find humor in his note. He is treating me exactly the way I treated him a few days ago. I would laugh, too, if I weren’t so provoked by it. I can see that he has decided to play my game and annoy me. And I’m quite sure he thinks he will win in the end.”
The older woman, whom Susannah sometimes treated more like an older sister than a paid companion the past ten years, faced her once more. “Thank you, Your Grace. As you know, I do worry sometimes that I overstep my place.”
“And you know you have no reason to censor your words when you talk to me. Sometimes I need your perspective, whether or not I solicit it, want it, or use it.”
“In that case, I will tell you that I think it is a splendid idea that he wants to take you for a ride in the park, and I think you should go.”
Susannah pursed her lips for a moment and looked at Mrs. Princeton. “Are you thinking of trying to be a matchmaker once again?”
Mrs. Princeton lifted her sharp chin and sniffed. “Absolutely not. You have chided me too many times on that account, and I have promised never to do it again.”
“Good,” Susannah said, but wasn’t sure she believed the woman who had once told her that her greatest sorrow in life was that after her husband died, she never remarried and had children.
Relief washed over Mrs. Princeton’s face, and she asked, “Do you think his invitation means that he is ready to look at the documents you have?”
Susannah folded her arms across her chest and drummed her fingers on her arms. “I seriously doubt it. I think he simply wants to let me know that he can play my game as well as I can. The problem is that this is truly not a game with me. The pearls rightfully belong to my mother, and I’m determined not to leave London without them. Unfortunately, rather than simply enlightening Lord Raceworth to the truth as I had hoped, I only amused him.”
“I’m sure that is not the case,” Mrs. Princeton argued as she brushed aside a tight curl of hair that kept falling across her forehead.
“I’m sure it is,” Susannah corrected her. “I should have known that in London the title dowager duchess would not carry the enormous prestige and intimidation it does in smaller villages like Chapel Glade. I miscalculated that point, and I’m going to have to rethink some things.”
“In that case, a ride in the park with him will not be so bad.”
That’s the problem. It wouldn’t be bad at all.
“But you know I didn’t come to London to be drawn into Polite Society with all its rigid rules and fierce machinations. I have done that and have no desire to get caught up in it again.”
Mrs. Princeton rubbed the palms of her hands down the sides of her black dress. “It’s just a ride in Hyde Park, Your Grace.”
“In any other town or village, perhaps. Not so in London. It is more than that. The park is a place where the elite of Society gather to praise themselves and ridicule everyone else. Polite Society and the ton are nothing but organized madness.”
