Page 47 of The Bridal Quest

"Oh, dear," Pansy said anxiously, her eyes tearing up. "I'm afraid he's terribly angry with us now. Odelia ..." She turned imploringly toward her older sister.

"Well." Lady Odelia looked shaken. "Well. He is an ungrateful pup, is he not? I have half a mind to wash my hands of him and go back to Pencully Hall."

"No! Odelia!" Pansy cried out, and now the tears spilled over, running down her cheeks. "Please, don't leave us with him."

Lady Odelia's face softened, and she reached out to pat her sister's hand. "There, there, now, Pansy, you know I shall not desert you. If I decide to go, you may come with me."

"Lady Radbourne," Irene said to Pansy, "I should not worry, if I were you. I do not believe, that Lord Radbourne would harm you in any way. He does not strike me as a man who is spiteful."

"Of course he will not hurt you, Pansy," Lady Odelia told her sister. "Though I fear he is becoming recalcitrant." Her brow knitted in thought. "Why is he digging in his heels now?"

"Perhaps, my lady, he has simply become tired of being told what to do," Irene suggested. "No man of my acquaintance would meekly accept being told that he could not invite whom he wanted to his own party."

"There was something about him of our father, wasn't there, Pansy?" Lady Odelia said reflectively.

Pansy's only reply was a small moan of distress.

"Well," Lady Odelia went on. "Clearly the Ferrington chit will not do. No spine at all—she would never be able to direct him. Pity ... Ah, well, good thing we have you, Irene."

"Excuse me?" Irene replied, facing Lady Odelia. "My lady, I meant what I said. I have no intention of marrying Lord Radbourne."

"Yes, well." Lady Odelia shrugged dismissively. "Easy enough to say, my girl. But we have all seen the way you jump to his defense."

"I was only being fair," Irene replied with some heat. "It does not mean I—I—have feelings for the man."

"Hmm. I suppose." Lady Odelia gave her a patronizing smile. "Still, I hope that you wake up to the truth ... before Gideon gives up and chooses one of those other girls."

Chapter Eleven

Irene was wise enough to know that Lady Odelia was baiting her. She hoped, no doubt, to make Irene jealous with the mention of the other women and the suggestion that Lord Radbourne might choose one of them instead.

Irene, however, had no intention of being manipulated by Lady Odelia or anyone else. She reminded herself that it made no difference to her whether Gideon chose another woman for his wife, though she was honest enough to admit that she had felt a twinge of what she supposed might be jealousy at the thought of him marrying another. After all, over the course of the time she had been here, she had begun to like Gideon, and she could not help but think that if she were of a mind to marry, he might well be the man she would choose. And it was a rather heady sensation to be pursued by so eligible and attractive a man as Lord Radbourne.

But she was not going to marry, and she was not so weak as to allow her mind to be swayed by feelings of lust or pride. She sincerely hoped that she was not so ignoble as to wish for him not find happiness with some other woman if she herself would not marry him. So she was determined to ignore the little barbs that afflicted her now and then when she looked at Gideon and thought of him wooing another.

She stayed steadfast in her decision to quell the vanity that had inspired her to wear prettier dresses and arrange her hair in a soft, inviting style. There was no point in attracting Gideon's attention; indeed, it worked against her wishes. Moreover, she felt that returning to her old style sent an overt message to him and the matchmakers that she had no intention of trying to catch his favor.

They continued with the dancing lessons, as well as the rather stilted conversations between the three of them that were meant to improve the earl's social skills, but Irene made sure to maintain a correct distance between herself and Gideon, as well as a rather formal tone. She noticed a certain puzzlement in Francesca's eyes and an irritating amusement in his, but she strove not to let his attitude bother her. No doubt he wanted to goad her into one of their arguments. However, she was as aware as he that their arguments always resulted in an upheaval of emotions and produced a sort of intimacy that her pleasant-but-distant attitude discouraged.

Over the course of the next few days they developed a loose schedule of working in the mornings, then stopping their lessons just before luncheon. In the afternoons Gideon disappeared into his office or on business about the estate, and Francesca and Irene were left on their own to do as they wished—at least sometimes. Francesca spent much of her time helping with the plans for the upcoming week, and as a consequence, Irene often found herself involved in the preparations, as well.

Since interminable conversations regarding seating arrangements, floral decorations, menus and music bored her almost past bearing—and conversations about the merits of the various possible brides for Gideon were irritating in the extreme—Irene often avoided the drawing room after lunch, secreting herself in the library with a book or occupying herself in her room with the needlepoint she had been halfheartedly working on for the past month, or writing a letter to a friend or her brother.

She would have preferred to take a long walk, but after her experience the first day she was at Radbourne Park, she had been reluctant to run the risk of running into Gideon. However, she grew more and more restless, so on her fourth afternoon of inactivity, she decided that a walk through the gardens would be safe enough. After all, if Gideon was locked up in his study or out looking at his lands, he would not be idling about in the gardens. And in just a few more days the other guests would begin arriving, which Irene feared meant that she would rarely have much chance to be by herself.

She pulled her bonnet off the shelf and slipped out the back entrance onto the terrace, then down the steps into the upper garden, where she wandered onto the path, tying the strings of her hat as she went. With no destination in mind, she randomly took whatever paths forked off, looking at the autumn flowers. She stepped through a lattice archway, covered in ivy, and on the other side, as she turned to go through a gap in a hedge, she stopped.

There, in front of her, a small boy was crouched, intently studying the progress of a snail across the path. He whirled at the sound of her approach, looking alarmed. But when he saw her, he relaxed and stood up.

"Sorry," Irene said, smiling reassuringly. "I did not mean to frighten you."

"I thought you were Miss Tyning," he told her confidentially. He was a pleasant-looking, sturdy lad of five, with a thatch of sandy hair and a sprinkling of freckles across his snub nose. His eyes were the same light blue as Teresa's, confirming Irene's guess that this must be Timothy, Teresa's son, who had been rather inexplicably invisible since her arrival.

"She is my governess," he went on to explain. "And she will be ever so annoyed when she wakes up and sees that I've gone. But it was much too pretty a day to stay inside."

"Much too pretty," Irene agreed solemnly.

He regarded her for a moment. "You are the lady come to marry Gideon, aren't you?"