Page 37 of Give Him a Chance

A person who looked at her sometimes with that knowing smile as though she had shared a secret with him, Lucy realized desperately, and although she had not done so purposefully, it was totally possible that she had.

She never had been good at hiding her emotions.

She had never wanted to before.

When Lucy glanced at her mother, it was to see her jaw had dropped.

“You—You cannot be serious about keeping him!”

Perhaps she was, and perhaps she wasn’t. Lucy hardly knew what she was doing these days, highly conscious of the man’s presence in her home even if they were not in the same roomtogether. There was a strange sort of humming, a resonance in the Lindow household now that Bernard—now thatDixonwas a part of it, and Lucy could not help but relish it.

It was not that there was something missing in the house, since Evelyn had gone off to get married. It was more that there had always been something missing within her.

“I don’t know,” Lucy repeated, as though the sentence would somehow mitigate the fact that she had allowed a stranger, a criminal, and potentially a dangerous man to move into their home without even asking her parents. “I just…”

Her gaze drifted to Dixon once again. He was chuckling with her father; one of them had clearly said something amusing as they ascended the steps, and her father clapped their guest on the back as he roared with laughter.

Something heavy twisted in her stomach. “I just don’t like the idea of the future without him.”

When Lucy turned to her mother, it was to find that she was clutching a hand to her heart.

“Oh, my darling girl, I always knew that one day—”

“Mama!” hissed Lucy as the pair of them followed the menfolk and ascended the stairs, allowing Lady Romeril’s footmen to remove their pelisses. “Please!”

There was no point in asking her mother to behave herself, not when the Countess of Lindow was always so delighted whenever there was another wedding in the family.

Though there had never been a wedding such as this. Between a Chance and a person of Dixon’s class. Certainly not between a Chance and a criminal. Yes, her mother hadn’t been a member of Society before her marriage, but she hadn’t fallensolow. And after all her mother’s lectures about Lucy’s duties as an earl’s daughter, how she had to always be chaperoned! The countess’s devotion to true love would encourage such a match?

No, it is not going to be me getting married next, Lucy thought firmly as she stepped across Lady Romeril’s hallway and heard the chatter emanating from her drawing room. Absolutely not. She had far more important things to worry about than handsome men whose charming buttocks—

Damn it!

“Ah, Lady Lucy.” Lady Romeril smiled like a cat who had not only got the cream, but negotiated with the cow for a better rate. “I saw your cousin only a few weeks ago.”

This, unfortunately, did not narrow it down. The Chances did not so much breed like rabbits as…as express their affection in a manner through which children could be born, Lucy thought with a laugh she immediately attempted to suppress.

That was how her sister, Evelyn, had once explained it, anyway.

“I am so glad you enjoyed their company,” said Lucy aloud, hoping Lady Romeril would not notice how she was hedging on precisely which cousin they were speaking of.

Lady Romeril’s smile widened. “I did not say that I did, did I?”

And that is the trouble with ladies like Lady Romeril, Lucy thought bitterly.They have all this power, all this opportunity to do good in the world and change it, transform it into something better and brighter…

And all they seem to do is bicker and snipe and get under everyone’s nerves.

“You must be Lady Romeril,” came a startlingly cheerful voice to her left.

Lucy’s stomach plummeted.

Oh, no.She hadn’t had sufficient time to warn Dixon, to prepare him for the onslaught of being in Lady Romeril’s presence. She had not even told him that the woman’s abilityto destroy and make reputations was second only to the queen’s herself!

And it was a very close second.

But there he stood, beaming at the woman as though she couldn’t bite his head off in one snap, and Lucy was powerless to do anything about it. All she could do was watch.

Lady Romeril drew herself up, and there was a lot of her to draw. Lucy watched in fascinated horror as the imposing older woman eventually came to a halt and said imperiously, “And just how would you know who I am, pray? I do not know you.”