Yet he was still looking to her for an opinion.
She gave him a glassy-eyed smile and said, ‘I am sure it will be wonderful, Thomas. Now that we have settled my future, I will call for dessert.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
The next morning, Thomas lingered longer than needed over breakfast, trying not to appear worried. A better man might feel carefree at this point. But the best he could manage was to appear that he was in control. In truth, he was close to panic. He’d overplayed his hand with Skeffington at dinner last night and had no idea what was likely to happen next.
Worse yet, Louisa knew that. She was far too clever to have missed the vagueness of his explanation to Percy. She’d proclaimed it good but smiled at him with the same smile she’d been using for years to hide her true feelings. Then, she’d distracted them with a peach flummery.
The choice of dessert was apt, given the circumstances.
He had not seen her yet, this morning. It was likely that she was busy with the running of the house, as she had been, yesterday. But he could not put off their meeting indefinitely, nor could he keep distracting her with kisses.
Although, it might be interesting to try. Louisa was surprisingly kissable. It was a wonder he had not noticed it before. The urge to dally with her might fade as quickly as it had come. Or it could grow to become something even better.
More research needed to be done on the subject. He smiled in anticipation. Then he reminded himself it would be better to wait until after this business with her grandfather was settled and she had his undivided attention.
Of course, it might also be the direct route to solving their problem. He could go to Lord Skeffington, announce that he was actually the Duke of Bonham and make the offer for Louisa again. It would not really matter if that square-toed goat kept her money or not. He had more than enough to keep them both.
If he did that, her grandfather’s blessing would be just a formality. It was her answer that mattered and he was confident that she’d agree. When she’d told him he could have any woman he wanted, she had not excluded herself from that group. She seemed to like him. She definitely liked kissing him. She was eager to get out of this house. So, he could offer to marry her by special license. They could retire to Bonham Court, where he would take her to bed and they would promise never to speak of this week again.
Of course, that would only prove what he’d always suspected about himself—that without his title and wealth he was useless. As Tom Smith, or for that matter as Thomas Carew, he was no kind of hero. He was clearly incapable of completing a task without dragging Bonham into it and throwing the weight of his title behind the argument.
He took a sip of his coffee and pushed the fear out of the way so he could think. It was rather early in the game to be giving up. They’d not even been here two full days. He hadn’t seen Skeffington yet today. There was no telling what might happen if he did. Hopefully, it would be just the thing he needed to convince the fellow to give up the money and set his granddaughter free.
In the distance, he heard a knock at the front door. In another house, he’d have ignored it. But this was a sharp sound that stood out in the all-pervasive silence. Whoever this person was, they did not know the rules.
He set his cup aside and rose. Whatever this was about, it would take less time if Tom Smith was not involved in it.Perhaps a visit to the garden was in order. He left the room heading to the back of the house and out of the doors at the end of the hall. He walked a little way down a path, took a turn and doubled back down another, pausing to admire a rosebush not too far from an open window.
The voice drifting through from the distant hall was female, a high-pitched tremolo ending in a society laugh as distinctive as the mating call of a bird. It cut through the chatter at any gathering and drew all attention to the woman who made it.
He recognised it immediately.
The Countess of Rinwood was the last person he wished to see. And he could think of no reason she might be here. Percy had never mentioned her as being a friend of the family and he’d not seen the woman speaking to Louisa at all. But it could be no one else. He was not close enough to make out the words, but the cadence of her voice, the rises and falls of pitch and volume, were unmistakable.
In answer, there were gaps of silence. Either Percy or Louisa could account for those. The soft voices they used in this house would not carry all the way to the back garden. But then he heard the sharp barking and snapping of Lord Skeffington. Even when the man had no reason to be angry, he sounded as if he was.
There was some satisfaction in that, he supposed. His host had come down from his bedroom, just as he’d predicted. And, judging by the way the conversation faded as he listened, Skeffington was giving his guest a tour of the house. It had been a smart decision to come outside, since he did not want to have to explain to Lady Rinwood how he came to be here, under an assumed name. She was a notorious gossip and the story would be spread from Land’s End to John o’ Groats by nightfall.
As he moved back towards the centre of the garden, the conversation came to him through different windows, louder and clearer.
‘I simply must see your gardens, Lord Skeffington. A house as magnificent as this must have grounds that equal the interior.’
Damn.
They were in the hall, heading towards the French doors. There was no way back into the house unless he climbed in through the open window behind him. With that, he risked being caught halfway, which would be impossible to explain. Another alternative was to sprint past the bench and down the hill. That would be a quarter mile of open ground before he even reached the standing stones.
‘Bonham?’
The time taken to consider his options had eaten up the seconds needed to decide. He had been discovered.
‘Bonham!’ His back was still towards her, but he could feel her hurrying towards him, demanding to be recognised.
Time seemed to slow as he imagined how the next few moments would go. Just as he’d been a few moments ago, he was standing at a crossroads that could change everything about the days to come.
In a moment, this whole, mad charade would be over. He would be trapped in the sort of tiresome, sycophantic conversations he’d left London to avoid. After that would come the even more difficult admissions he’d need to make to Skeffington and apologies for the lies he’d told. Louisa would be revealed as a desperate spinster who had made up a lover to impress her family.
Or…
