‘Better in terms of position and wealth, possibly, but they will deal extremely well together and she will be happy. Is not that far more important?’
Lady Chalford nodded, but sniffed, whether at the thought of the lost brilliant match or the realisation that her daughter would actually be leaving her for a household of her own, it was impossible to judge. Elizabeth had little doubt that a rest, and a rather more substantial meal than she had suggested, combined with some sound good sense from her lord, would see Lady Chalford’s spirits revived with the new day. Elizabeth left her, keen to have the258solitude in which to consider her own situation, but this was again denied her, since, as she passed Amelia’s room, that damsel peered out, and beckoned her within.
Amelia had discarded her gown for it to be brushed down by her maid, and was only attired in her petticoats and a rather fetching pale apple-green dressing gown. Her cheeks were still slightly flushed and her eyes sparkled. ‘What a day we have had, to be sure. I never thought it would be that exciting.’
‘No indeed. That first race was so close too.’ Elizabeth smiled, teasing, as Amelia blinked. ‘Oh, were you not referring to the horses?’
‘I … Oh, you wretch! You know I scarcely saw nor cared about the horses, except that race where Lord Carbrooke took me to stand by the rail. Were not the horses fast?’
‘Yes, thankfully. I would not care to have to watch a race of slow horses.’
Amelia pouted, but her eyes betrayed her. ‘It is not right that you should mock me so. Just because you care for nothing that does not stand on four legs.’ Amelia did not notice the sudden twist to her cousin’s smile. ‘He is wonderful, isn’t he, and do not ask if I mean the horse that won the Derby.’
‘I will not, Amelia, and he is certainly a very nice young man.’
‘And so fast! I had barely time to exclaim and away he went …’
‘Like a greyhound after a hare.’
‘Like a … No. How could you? He was brave too, for the thief might have had accomplices.’
259‘Possibly over four and a half feet tall also.’ Elizabeth held up her hand. ‘Yes, I know that he did not know whom he might encounter, or rather, did not consider his own safety, Amelia. It was the thoughtless act of a young man, “thoughtless” of himself and thinking only of you.’
Amelia blushed rosily, and tears came to her eyes. ‘I have never met anyone like him, Elizabeth, never.’
Elizabeth forbore to tell her that she had not met that large a number of people in her seventeen secluded years. Part of her wanted to warn her in her innocence that, in the end, she would find her ‘god’ had feet of clay, and yet there was nothing that she could think of that might occasion Carbrooke doing what Henry Freshford had done to her. Had she been this ecstatic? Looking back, she thought that just before it all fell apart, she had. Initially, she had been healthily sceptical of the attention paid to her by gentlemen. After all, what they professed could be proved false by deed and time. However, Henry Freshford had got under her guard, a guard she had thought unbreakable, and once he did, then she had become as uncritical as Amelia was now about the Viscount Carbrooke. She had let herself be swept away on hope and anticipation, casting the voice of experience into the shadows, and paid the penalty for her folly. She would not, could not do so again, could she?
‘And he says that they make pyramids of riders, and they ride six horses abreast.’
Elizabeth realised she had let Amelia’s conversation flow over her, and that ‘what Lord Carbrooke says’ was now going to replace ‘what Mama says’ as Amelia’s watchword in every circumstance.
260‘Oh.’
‘I am sure you will want to come, since there are so many horses involved. You will want to come, won’t you, Elizabeth?’
The pleading note in Amelia’s voice was childlike, and just as it would seem cruel to withhold a treat from a child once it had seen what it was, so Elizabeth knew that she could not deny her cousin.
‘Of course. I am to be the sop to chaperonage, am I?’
‘No.’ Amelia dimpled. ‘Well, not entirely. I think Julia’sbrother is coming down from Oxford next week and he could come with us, with Julia, I mean.’
It did not strike Elizabeth that her evening would be one of unalloyed delight.
‘Elizabeth?’
‘Sorry.’
‘If he, if Lord Carbrooke were to … Papa would not refuse him, do you think? Mama was not quite pleased when we got home, was she? If I was told I might never speak, or correspond with him again, I think I might just … die.’
‘That, Amelia, is histrionic.’ Elizabeth sounded suddenly unflinching. ‘You would no doubt be rather miserable for a while, but you would not die, nor go into a decline, nor any other of those things that only happen within the covers of lurid romances. This I promise you.’ She saw the desolation upon her cousin’s face and softened. ‘But it is nonsensical to speak of such a thing. Your parents will, I am sure, be most receptive if Lord Carbrooke makes an offer for your hand. They only want the best for you.’
‘He is the best for me.’
261It was a simple statement, said softly, but Amelia meant it honestly and completely. Elizabeth squeezed her hand.
‘Indeed. Now, do not be a goose and shed tears, but rather look your best and most dignified for dinner. You do not want your papa to think you tardy and silly, and your mama did say he was dining at home tonight.’
Elizabeth was almost monosyllabic through dinner. She had tried to be logical and sort her thoughts whilst she washed her hands and face, and changed her gown, but it was too serious a process to do with Ditcham fussing about her, and Ditcham had fussed, sensing something untoward, yet not being able to ask outright what it might be. She responded to everything as if there was a delay before her mind could process what was said, and her eyes held trouble. Well, from Ditcham’s long experience, that meant some man had upset her, but if that was the case, why was she neither distraught nor angry, more puzzled?
