Still, three days. Three long, silent, dreary days.
But if timehadseemed to slow to a crawl, it had nothing to do withher. It was the blasted weather that had him so out of sorts. He’d been coming to Steeple Cross since he was a child, and he couldn’t recall a more miserable August than this one. The rain had been an unceasing, torrential downpour. He couldn’t even go out to ride, as a large portion of the grounds were flooded.
There was only so long a man could be cooped up indoors without becoming a trifle irritable.
So, when his temper snapped on the morning of the third day, it wasn’t because Juliet didn’t appear at breakfast. Nor was it anything other than the interminable gray skies that made him stalk through the house on the hunt for her. And when he found her tucked into a window seat in the library, it was the incessant rain and howling wind that made him demand, in a tone that did no credit to him as a gentleman, “Where have you been?”
And there went the blue eyes, wide, and then wider still, those diabolical black lashes fluttering.
“I—”
“Have you forgotten we have an agreement? I said I’d help you silence the rumors plaguing you, andyoupromised you’d help me with the small matter of my cousin’s future happiness. Does that sound at all familiar to you, Miss Templeton?”
She laid her book aside. “I haven’t forgotten, my lord.”
“Well, then? When did you intend to begin with your matchmaking schemes?”
“I’ve already begun. I’ve been watching Lord Barnaby and Lady Cora for the past few days, and I have the most brilliant idea.”
Juliet Templeton with a brilliant idea was sure to lead to mayhem, but the butterfly had battered her way free of the chrysalis, and there’d be no stuffing her back inside now. He dropped into a chair across from the window seat. “Very well, then. Regale me with your brilliance, Miss Templeton.”
She beamed at him. “Bowls!”
“Bowls. You mean lawn bowls? The game?”
“Yes, the game with the jack? Youhaveheard of it, have you not?”
“Of course, I’ve heard of it, but bowls require a bowling green, and I believe the lawns are currently underwater.” For God’s sake, if the weather were fine enough for lawn bowls, they’d be hunting right now.
“Indeed, they are, but the ballroom is perfectly dry, my lord.”
“The ballroom? Why should the ballroom matter, unless… good Lord, Miss Templeton, you’re not proposing we play bowls in myballroom?”
“I don’t see why not. It’s a very large one, with plenty of space to toss the bowls about.”
“Toss the—”
“But I’m not proposing agameof bowls, my lord.”
“You’re not?” Thankfully, she hadn’t utterly lost her wits.
“No, indeed. If we’re going to go to all the trouble of turning your ballroom into a bowling green, then we must make a tournament of it, with teams and matches and a judge—perhaps Lady Fosberry will take that part—and winners and runners-up, and oh! What shall we use for prizes, my lord?”
Prizes? Shehadlost her wits. “We’re not playing at lawn bowls in my ballroom, Miss Templeton.”
“Whyever not?”
She asked as if this were a perfectly logical question, and even had the nerve to look puzzled by his objections. “Because it’s aballroom.”
“Well, are you having a ball in thereright this minute?”
“No, but—”
“Your guests are restless, my lord. The gentlemen are bored with no sport to amuse them, and the ladies… well, they’re much as you’d expect ladies to be, when they’re surrounded by cross, snappish gentlemen.” This last was said with a rather pointed look that made his cheeks heat.
“Yes, I’m aware of that, Miss Templeton, but—”
“Well, what do you intend to do about it?”
