“I assure you, itisthat bad. Thetonhas behaved disgracefully towards the Templetons ever since that business with their mother’s adulterous affair and the scandal that followed when she fled to the Continent, and it’s only grown worse since Euphemia’s sisters married. Thetonis never more vicious than when they’re jealous. I can’t speak for Gilly, but I know Euphemia often feels very alone when she’s in London.”
She felt alone? Damn it. That didn’t sit well with him. Not at all.
“I didn’t mean to upset her.” That didn’t make his part in this afternoon’s scuffle with her any less shameful, however. A proper gentleman didn’t drive a lady into a fit of temper.
“I know that, James, yet here we are.” She waved a hand toward Miss Templeton, who’d grown smaller with each step across the lawn, until at last, she vanished into a thin copse of trees.
He let out a huff. Squirmed in his chair. Kicked at a rock near the toe of his boot. He knew what he had to do, but?—
“James.” His aunt laid a hand on his arm. “You really should go and?—”
“Yes, I know. I’m going.”
“There’s a dear boy.” She gave his arm a fond pat.
He wandered off in the direction Miss Templeton had gone, composing an apology in his head as he went. He was no good at them, having rarely felt the need to apologize to anyone, for anything.
It was most unpleasant, this feeling of being in the wrong.
He found her seated at the base of a tree, her legs pulled up to her chest. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, and her cheek was resting atop them. To look at her, one would never guess that not ten minutes ago she’d delivered a lecture that made his ears blister. She looked as cool and unruffled as ever, every trace of anger tucked safely away.
“Miss Templeton.”
“Lord Fairmont.” She blinked up at him, the few rays of afternoon sunlight that had penetrated the canopy of leaves above them falling across her face, and emphasizing the deep blue of her irises.
Her eyes were a very dark blue, just like her sister Tilly’s were. He’d never met any of the other three Templeton sisters, but if the gossip was true, their eyes were all the same unusual shade of blue.
He’d never much admired blue eyes, but her eyes were unlike any others he’d ever seen before. So dark, like a summer sky at midnight, with long, thick eyelashes that brushed her cheekbones when she blinked.
Had he ever seen any longer or thicker eyelashes than hers?
If he had, he didn’t recall it.
How was it he’d never noticed them before? Had he ever truly looked at Euphemia Templeton before today?
“Miss Templeton,” he said again.
“Yes, my lord?”
He paused, studying her, but he couldn’t read her expression. Her face was as blank as an untouched artist’s canvas.
But she wasn’t quite as accomplished at bleeding all the emotion from her tone. He heard the slight quaver in her voice, and all at once the vague sense of regret he’d felt at upsetting her sharpened, digging its claws deep into his chest.
“I, ah… I have a question for you, if you’d agree to indulge me.”
She turned toward him, her cheek still resting on her knee, her gaze wary, but after a slight hesitation, she nodded. “Very well.”
It was the first time she’d looked directly at him since that strange moment in the Ring, right after the accident with Lord Gilbert, and he took full advantage of it, gazing deeply into her eyes, searching in the depths for the secrets she was hiding.
She hid more than she revealed, but that temper, and her passionate defense of Lord Gilbert… those were real.
Perhaps he should infuriate her more often.
“Am I mistaken, Miss Templeton, in thinking that you just scolded me about my behavior toward Lord Gilbert just now?”
“Me, dare to scold you, my lord? It hardly seems likely, does it?”
Ah, at last, some emotion on that smooth, placid face! How absurd, that he should feel so pleased to be the one to elicit it, but he was like a dog who’d been given a treat for performing a clever trick.
