Nor a veryimprudentyoung lady, if the truth were told. “It may take a bit of coaxing to bring her around, but I’m certain you can win her over. I’ll do whatever I can to advance your cause.”
“That’s good of you, Cross, but she doesn’t seem overly fond ofyou, either.”
No, people generally weren’t. “How have I offended Lady Cora?” An unfriendly look or frown, a stray comment he might have better kept to himself? He hadn’t the vaguest idea, but it was usually one of those.
“Never mind, Cross, it doesn’t matter.” Barnaby waved a dismissive hand. “As it happens, we have another resource at our disposal.”
“We do? What sort of resource?” Not the gold waistcoat, he hoped.
“Why, Juliet Templeton, of course. You’ll have to beg her pardon first for whatever monstrous thing you did to chase her away, and then persuade her not to leave Steeple Cross, but I have the utmost confidence in you, cousin.”
“Juliet Templeton!” Miles tore off his spectacles and tossed them on top of the stack of letters on his desk. Would that name never cease to haunt him? “What has she got to do with it, and why in the world should I beg her pardon?”
If anyone should beg anyone’s pardon,sheshould beghis. She’d descended on his house uninvited, like a swarm of locusts—or, well,onelocust, but even one was too many—and now, predictably, she was throwing everything into disarray.
“Because of your abominable behavior, of course. You’ve frightened her off.”
FrightenedJuliet Templeton? Laughable. He’d never seen a lady less apt to be frightened of anything than she. “What makes you think she’s going anywhere?” She was, of course, going somewhere—anywherebut here—but how did Barnaby know of it? Had she complained of him during breakfast?
“Oh, she’s going. She told Lady Cora she was leaving tomorrow morning.”
Well, thatwasgood news. Just what he’d hoped for, in fact. She was nothing but a distraction. The sooner he was rid of her, the better.
He shot to his feet, suddenly too agitated to sit still another moment.
Hehadn’tacquitted himself last night quite as the gentleman he claimed to be, but it wasn’t as if he regretted his harsh words to her.
Still, that shadow of reproach in her eyes—
“Stop that infernal pacing, will you, Cross? I haven’t even told you the whole of it yet.”
“What’s the whole of it, then?” What could be worse than asking Juliet Templeton to remain at Steeple Cross when he’d nearly tossed her out his door last night?
“Well, you see, I was eavesdropping on Miss Templeton and Lady Cora before I entered the breakfast room, and I heard Lady Cora ask—”
“Eavesdropping! For God’s sake, Barnaby.”
“… and I heard Lady Cora ask Miss Templeton to advise her on a choice of husband.”
Miles froze mid-step. “Why the devil would Lady Cora want Miss Templeton to advise…”
Damnation. It was that infernal matchmaking nonsense again. All of London was buzzing about the Templeton sisters’ matchmaking abilities, since quiet Emmeline Templeton had caught Melrose’s eye. Lady Cora must have heard about it, and now she wanted Juliet Templeton to matchmake forher.
And that…thatwas worse than anything.
“Miss Templeton must stay and help me win over Lady Cora. What have you got against Miss Templeton anyway, Cross? I think she’s lovely.”
Lovely, yes. Far too lovely for his peace of mind.
“If you beg her pardon, I daresay she’ll agree to help. You did save her life last night, after all. That was a neat trick, Cross, plucking her out of the air as you did. How did you manage it?”
“Pure, foolish luck.” With the emphasis onfoolish.
“But for you, Miss Templeton might have broken a limb.”
“Or her neck. What did she think she wasdoing, frolicking atop a carriage that was about to topple over the side of a cliff?”
Barnaby blinked at him. “Frolicking? It looked more like she was clinging for dear life to me.”
