Page 23 of Impetuous

“No, I shall be happy to remain in Dunsleigh for a time, madam, but I could not impose so as to stay with you unannouced.”

“But ’tis no trouble,” Aunt Ardis assured him gaily, as if unexpected guests were a common occurrence at their home. “We at Moulton Hall are always ready for a guest or two.”

They continued to argue politely over the matter, but Sir Philip won the day, steadfastly refusing to put Mrs. Moulton out with his presence. Cassandra knew, as did Sir Philip, that there was nothing Aunt Ardis would have loved as much as having one of the most eligible bachelors in England trapped in her house for several days, and she had to hide a smile as her aunt finally gave in to him with ill grace. After that there was another small skirmish over whether he would return that evening for supper, which ended with Sir Philip politely insisting on declining, with a promise to return to pay a call on them the following day.

When he had ridden out of sight, with Aunt Ardis and Joanna waving their kerchiefs to him to the very last, Aunt Ardis whirled around, clasping her hands together in front of her bosom in seeming ecstasy.

“Can you imagine?” she exclaimed. “Sir Philip Neville, here in Dunsleigh—and with no other purpose than to visit us! Oh, Lilah Davenport will have an apoplexy when she hears this.” She seemed transported by the vision of her friend’s jealousy. “Joanna, this is such a coup. He could not stay away from you.”

Olivia let out an unlady-like snort at these words. “I noticed how difficult he found it to stay away from her this afternoon.”

Joanna rounded on her. “He was merely too polite to go over there to Chesilworth and then leave immediately. I am sure that it is all your fault, Cassandra, that he would not stay here or even come back for supper. He was probably afraid that you would trap him to work in the dirt and heat again.”

“I suspect it was a different sort of trap he feared,” Cassandra commented coolly, sending her cousin a significant look.

Joanna’s eyes shot sparks. “How dare you!”

“Dear cousin, I am afraid you left yourself open for that. It took little daring.” Cassandra walked past her into the house.

Joanna followed, her face drawn up in a harsh mask of fury. “Why else would he come here, if not because he could not stay away from me? I certainly hope you don’t entertain any delusions that he came to see you!”

“He did too come to see Cassandra,” Crispin cried out in fury at the slight upon his sister.

Joanna cast him a withering glance. “What would you know about it? You’re just a boy.”

“I know plenty!”

“Crispin…” Cassandra said warningly. He shot her a mulish look, but closed his mouth and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I have no delusions where Sir Philip Neville is concerned,” Cassandra told her cousin blandly. “If you will excuse me now, as you can see, I must take a bath.”

She walked off, leaving Joanna looking after her distrustfully.

* * *

SIR PHILIP CAME to call on them the following morning as early as it was polite to do so. Aunt Ardis did not bother to inform Cassandra of his presence, so she did not know he was there until Olivia came hurrying into her room with the news.

“That woman is such a witch!” Olivia exclaimed, her cheeks high with angry color. “She is deliberately trying to conceal him from you. She knows that it isn’t Joanna he is here to see.”

Cassandra pressed her hand against her stomach, which had done unaccounted flip-flops at the news that Philip was in the house. She glanced in the mirror anxiously, then told herself not to be foolish. Neville did not care how she looked. It would not matter that she had worn her pale blue dress, the one that did so much for her eyes, or that she had arranged her hair this morning with greater care, creating a fuller frame for her face.

She strove to keep her voice light and calm as she replied, “I imagine Aunt Ardis thinks he is here because of Joanna. You know how highly she regards Joanna’s ability to attract any and every male. If a person wears trousers, she thinks he is in love with Joanna.”

“She does have a wonderful ability to delude herself,” Olivia agreed. “But she didn’t tell you he was here just for spite—to keep you from having any fun.”

“Our aunt is not a woman who likes to share,” Cassandra agreed. “However, I think that this time she is up against someone who is even more used than she to getting his way. And since, as we know, Sir Philip is not here out of desire for our dear cousin—” she smiled knowingly “—it might be interesting to see just what happens.”

“That’s true.” Olivia’s frown vanished at the thought of her aunt having to endure Sir Philip’s insistence on seeing Cassandra. With a grin, she flopped down onto her bed and curled her legs up under her in her usual way. “He is a handsome man, isn’t he?”

“Sir Philip?”

Olivia grimaced. “Of course Sir Philip. Who else would I be talking about? And don’t try to act as if you did not notice. Who could not notice that dimple in his cheek? When he doesn’t smile, he looks quite stern, doesn’t he? And then—when you made him grin yesterday, there was that dimple, and his eyes lit up, and, well, he looked like an entirely different person.”

“He is attractive when he smiles.” Cassandra herself smiled at the memory of that boyish dimple.

“Oh, pooh, Miss Prunes-and-Prisms,” Olivia teased. “You are not an old spinster yet, no matter how you try to paint yourself one. And Sir Philip knows it, too.”

“What?” Cassandra glanced sharply at her younger sister, heat rising in her cheeks. How could Olivia have guessed that something far more than conversation had happened between her and Sir Philip? “What do you mean?”