Page 48 of Her Unsuitable Match

* * *

After breakfast, Pippa and Myles were practically pushed out the door by his parents. “Show your wife all the best places for a picnic,” her new mother-in-law insisted. “Pippa must choose where we hold our afternoon gathering.”

Pippa barely had time to slip on a bonnet and gloves, and Myles only popped on an old tricorn hat that had seen better days before leading her out into the countryside behind their house. A few of his nephews had tried to accompany them, but somehow Uncle Winston had bribed them away with the promise of a fishing expedition, leaving Pippa and Myles alone on their ramble through the trees and then a meadow.

“I hope you do not mind my family’s eagerness too much,” Myles said, his hands tucked behind his back. She walked alongside him, plucking up a wildflower here and there as they went. “They want you to like it here, so you will come back, towing me with you.”

“They certainly needn’t expend too much effort on my account,” Pippa said, lifting a daisy to her nose. “I am charmed by all of them, Myles. By all of this.” She gestured with the flower to their peaceful surroundings. Butterflies fluttered alongside them, going from flower to flower. The sound of the grass rustling in the breeze and the hum of bees were far better sounds than clattering wheels on cobblestone streets. “I spent much of my childhood wandering about the estate where Adam and Elaine live when they are not in London. I spent all of last summer riding Bunny about, free as the wind.” She smiled wistfully at the thought of her mare. A horse she feared she would lose to her brother’s spite. Best not to dwell on something that hadn’t occurred yet. “I quite enjoy the country.”

Myles cocked his head to the side, his dark brown eye singly focused on her, his brow creased in puzzlement.

She tapped his sleeve with her flower. “You thought I preferred London to everything else, didn’t you?”

He shrugged and turned his face away, allowing her to admire his profile. “I know your life in London is important to you. The freedom you wanted to enjoy is all there—not in a place like this.” He waved at the meadow and trees.

Pippa raised her eyes to the clouds above her, picking out snatches of blue between the gray and white of an English summer sky. “That is the point of freedom, isn’t it? That you can come and go as you please, whether it is to and from the theater or a fishpond.”

“The company is likely better at the fishpond,” Myles muttered, and Pippa allowed herself to giggle. An amused smile turned his lips upward. “My apologies. Comparing people to fish isn’t kind.”

“Yes. The fish might take offense.”

Myles’s laugh seemed to surprise him as much as it did her, and the richness of his voice made her shiver with pleasure. He didn’t laugh enough. Though she certainly saw more of his smile of late than she had in London. How had he ever agreed to marry her, knowing she would drag him from one despised event to another?

He’d wanted to rescue her, of course. And provide for his younger sisters. Sisters who had, that very morning, plotted carefully which bachelors in the neighborhood they wished to invite to the picnic. Did they know yet that Myles intended to enlarge their dowries?

Pippa cradled her wildflowers closer. Had there ever been that same giddiness of feeling when she had considered suitors? She couldn’t remember such excitement when she thought of one man over another. And she had quickly decided not to bother with courtship and marriage at all. Not after she saw how miserable her siblings were in their matches. All except Adam and Elaine.

She peered up at Myles from beneath the brim of her bonnet. “Did you enjoy growing up at Ambleside?”

He slowed to a stop, then swept the surrounding countryside with his gaze. “I think my childhood as close to perfect as it could come.” He led them up a small hill. “The years I spent running across hills and climbing trees with my brothers and sisters didn’t prepare me for the life of a soldier—but my father’s lessons of honor and duty made the more difficult days bearable. My mother’s example of compassion kept me from focusing inward, where I likely would have spiraled into the same darkness and despair I sometimes see in the eyes of other men who spent their youth making war.”

Was that the secret to his character? Good parents. A gentle childhood. Having seen where he grew up, she could appreciate all that was beautiful about it. Yet the Cobbett family, despite his father’s title, wasn’t wealthy. Not when compared to her own family’s coffers. What was it that made their family so happy?

When Pippa didn’t respond, Myles stopped walking and looked down at her. “My apologies, Pippa. We are supposed to find a place for a picnic. It should be a diverting task, and I’ve grown morose.”

“I am not at all offended by your conversation, Myles. If anything, I am intrigued. Your character puzzles me at times.”

His eyebrows rose. “In what way? I cannot think myself too mysterious. Though the eyepatch, I am told, lends me a certain air of peculiarity.”

She giggled, like a flirtatious maiden rather than a sophisticated woman of Society. Then she cleared her throat. “Your eyepatch, sir, is absolutely charming. I would say it hints at a roguish quality. But anyone expecting to meet with a scoundrel will be terribly disappointed. You are an excellent product of your parents—honorable and good.”

He stared at her in silence, his lips curving upward softly. “You are too kind in your assessment.”

Before she could return compliment for compliment, he bent and plucked a bright purple flower—a wild sweet pea bloom. But rather than add to the collection in her hand, he tucked the stem carefully behind her ear. His fingers brushed her skin. Realizing how close he stood, Pippa momentarily forgot how to breathe.

His lips no more than a hand’s breadth from hers, Myles murmured, “When you put roses in your hair, I always wonder why a woman would wear any other ornament. You need none at all, given your beauty, but the flowers….” His voice trailed away, and he dropped his hand limply to his side. Then he cleared his throat. “Forgive me. This time, I’ve wandered into a topic I know nothing about.” He stepped back before he gave her a little bow and stalked away, leaving Pippa to watch after him in confusion. Her heart dropped as she let out a disappointed sigh.

Though she wasn’t entirely certain why she ought to be discontent, she felt it keenly.

She followed after her husband, cresting the hill, to find he had stopped on the other side. He watched two riders approach them. A man and a woman.

“Do you know them?” Pippa asked, looking from her husband to the couple.

“Not that I’m aware. But I think we are about to make introductions.”

Pippa looked up again as the gentleman called from atop his horse. “Good day to you both. Might you be familiar with this neighborhood?”

Myles stood strong and handsome at her side, posture perfect and confident. “Indeed. My father is Lord Greenwood. I am Myles Cobbett. This is my wife, Lady Philippa Cobbett.” He sounded proud to present her as his own, and Pippa glanced at him from the corner of her eye while her cheeks grew warm for no reason at all.