Chapter Twenty-Two
Bankham,
I have reason to believe Lillias’s affections have long been engaged elsewhere, and her attachment to me likely resulted only from an expectation of disappointed hopes. I shall not stand in the way of a more appropriate match, and will release her from her promise should the future she desires become available to her. Her happiness is all that matters to me.
H. Cassidy
Giles brought the letter to Lord Vaughn, with whom he’d requested a private meeting in the library at Heatherfield.
“I found it this morning tucked beneath my door. He left before dawn.”
Lord Vaughn stared at the letter for a good long time, and thought:Good Christ, why did Ieverhave daughters?
“You are the...‘elsewhere’?” He said this with faint amazement and looked up at Giles from beneath beetled brows.
Giles looked radiantly bemused. “It would seem so,” he said delicately, and with not a little pride. “I believe Mr. Cassidy detected as such. And I believe this is his way of telling me that he will not shoot me should I wish to step in.”
The earl lowered the letter. His frown remained fixed.
“I seem to recall hearing something of an arrangement with your distant cousin. Harriette,” he said.
Giles cleared his throat. The earl’s frown was having the intended effect, which was to make him uncomfortable just for the sake of it. He said carefully, “It is not a fait accompli, you see. My parents might perhaps be disappointed that we will not be upholding the tradition of an alliance with the Dervalls, but I cannot think they will ever object to my match to Lillias, who is not only the daughter of an earl but possessed of such a sterling character. I in fact think, once they learn of the depth of our mutual esteem, they would rejoice.”
The earl listened to this speech with a good deal of rue, considering the girl in question possessed a character comprised of many and varied splendors. He loved her, but she was human.
“Esteem,” the earl repeated. Finally. Musingly.
Giles, for a moment, wasn’t certain what to do with this.
“Yes, sir. I thought it wisest to speak to you before I spoke to Lillias, as I should hate to cause her consternation if you did not approve of a match. And I do already think of you as almost a father.”
Lord Vaughn stared across at the young man he’d known since birth. He was a fine lad, good-hearted, intelligent, level-headed. He knew nearly everything about him, thanks to their family’s long connection. Certainly the town was plagued with far worse, young bloods who drank and whored and raced their highflyers at foolish speeds. St. John at this point could go either way, really, but the earl controlled the purse strings and St. John was tethered to those. He would simply need to take on faith that he and his wife had instilled proper values in their children and hope for the best while taking a firm hand. One didn’t get to be a parent without understanding that much of life is out of one’s control.
Once again he frowned down upon the letter left by Mr. Hugh Cassidy, who had departed for Portsmouth before dawn on a hired mount. This was not a surprise, as he’d said he’d be doing as such. It could not be said that he was stealing away like a thief in the night. And his stunning little letter indicated that he would also not, for instance, be calling anyone out or otherwise making a fuss should his engagement come to an end.
The still, gray, stunned face of his daughter over breakfast, during which she’d merely looked at her plate of eggs as though she’d never seen such thing before, was a bit jarring, however.
This letter rather explained a lot.
Was it true? Had she been secretly pining for her childhood friend all of this time?
He looked up again. Giles withstood another few potent seconds of his unblinking scrutiny without squirming.
And Lord Vaughn did appreciate the scene inwhich he was now participating—the handsome, respectable, young titled man in the beautifully tailored clothing humbly begging an audience with his prospective bride’s father. It was how he’d dreamed it would always be. It was infinitely preferable to standing in a small crowd when a curtain was whipped aside to reveal his daughter in the throes of what looked like an expert clinch with a man she’d met only a fortnight earlier.
And yet.
Why thebloody hellhadn’t this young idiot sitting in front of him spoken before now?
It was a terrible pity it was too early to drink.
“Why the bloody hell didn’t you speak before now?” the earl said out loud.
Giles blinked.
“I... I could not be certain that the depth of her regard was equal to mine. Everyone admires Lillias and she is in turn kind to everyone.”
The earl turned his head toward the clock, mainly in order to think without the younger man’s hopeful gaze upon him. He could have told Giles that no one is certain of anythingeverby the time they were the earl’s age. But he was tired, and it was very clear to him that his daughter ought to get married.
