Page 44

The dance ended, and as he bowed, Julian caught her hand once more.

“I beg a few more minutes of your company, Miss Trent,” he murmured. “But be warned — what is to come may be difficult. I hope it will bring us to an ending of things.”

Her smile faded, but as she searched his face, her trust bloomed again. “I want nothing more than for it all to be concluded,” she whispered, taking his arm. “Whatever you intend, I shall join you in it wholeheartedly.”

Julian glanced over his shoulder and nodded to his brother, who followed with Miss Galbraith on his arm. The four of them made a curious procession back toward the guests. Julian slowed, letting Brookmire lead him to where Lady Henderson stood awaiting her daughter’s return. The moment she saw Julian walking with Miss Trent, her gaze sharpened like a blade, her back going ramrod straight.

“Lord Carrington.” She lifted her chin. “Good evening.”

A faint wrinkle formed at her nose as her gaze fell on Miss Trent, then passed to Brookmire and her daughter. “This is not as it ought to be, I think.”

“I cannot imagine what you mean,” Julian replied quietly, relieved they stood in a quieter corner where the conversation would not carry. “Unless it concerns these strange rumors that have been spread about?”

Her lips flattened. “You are courting my daughter,” she said, near demanding. “Nearly all of society knows of your connection to her.”

Julian shook his head, meeting her eyes evenly. “I cannot think how such a notion arose. I am not courting your daughter.”

Her eyes flashed. “You are cruel, Lord Carrington. We are known to one another, are we not? Our families have been friends for years, and you would deny the connection now, in favor of another? It is not right.”

Julian curled his fingers into a fist and let nothing needle him. He must stay outwardly calm, whatever he felt. “Miss Galbraith is not the object of my interest, Lady Henderson. I am sorry if it pains you. But it is my brother who seeks a connection with her.”

“As you see,” Brookmire said calmly, as Lady Henderson’s gaze flew from one to the other. “That is why I was so eager to dance with your daughter this evening, to tell her I have long hoped to court her. I admitted I had been distracted by the matter of Stoneleigh House. But that is all at an end now, and I may turn my thoughts to what I truly want.”

Lady Henderson’s brows lifted, her voice very quiet as she looked to her daughter. “Is this true?”

Miss Galbraith hesitated, then nodded. “Lord Brookmire told me of his interest only today,” she said, almost mouselike. “I have always taken note of him. But it was your wishes, Mama, that made me draw back.”

Lady Henderson’s cheeks flushed hot. “How could you? After all my planning, all my guidance — you would turn from it?”

“Mama, I see now that pressing myself toward Lord Carrington was never what I wanted.” Miss Galbraith’s voice trembled, but her eyes held her mother’s. “Yes, I did as you asked. But my heart was never in it. Indeed, I have felt myself cruel at times, speaking to Miss Trent as I did, when she had done nothing to deserve it.”

“What does your heart matter? What do your own feelings matter in this?” Lady Henderson threw up her hands. “This is about something far greater, my girl. It is about your family — about doing what you must to better our standing and our security.” Her lip curled toward Brookmire. “A viscount will not do. It must be a Marquess.” The last came with a darting look at Julian, who did not so much as acknowledge it. “Can you not see that?”

“I am sorry, Lady Henderson,” Julian interrupted, before Miss Galbraith could speak, “but I will not be traded in place of my brother.” He looked to Miss Trent, who had gone rather pale. “I fully intend to court another.”

It was, evidently, entirely the wrong thing to say. Lady Henderson seemed to swell with rage, her head snapping toward Miss Trent, her face going scarlet.

“You?” she spat, all civility gone. “You have no right to that house. It was always meant for Lord Carrington, and for his wife. For my daughter. It is she who should be lifted in society’s eyes, she who would make that house the most resplendent in all of London.”

Miss Trent did not move an inch, but her hand squeezed Julian’s arm a little tighter.

“You should return it at once,” Lady Henderson pressed, trembling with fury. “Give up the house and your courtship both, Miss Trent, and go back to the impoverished family you came from. You will not take my daughter’s place, for she is far more worthy of this than you.”

The fury that rose in Julian’s chest had him moving forward to silence her, but it was Miss Trent herself who held him back, her hand gripping his arm.

“Lady Warrington gave me Stoneleigh House,” she said, her voice clearer and stronger than Julian had looked for. “She gave it so that my family might know a kindness long withheld. I believe she meant it to right a wrong done to us, and I am forever grateful for it.” Her chin rose. “I will not surrender it.”

“Selfish,” Lady Henderson hissed. “Nothing but selfishness.”

“Nor,” Miss Trent went on, louder now, over the older woman’s words, “nor do I intend to give up my connection to Lord Carrington.”

Lady Henderson fell silent, and Julian’s heart leapt into a wild, hopeful beating.

“I never anticipated that I should feel any affection for Lord Carrington,” Miss Trent continued, speaking plainly, careless of who might hear. “Nor did I think such a feeling could ever be returned. And yet now I am overwhelmed with gratitude for so unexpected a blessing — for my heart is already, and I fear shall ever be, entwined with his.” She smiled, even as Lady Henderson’s jaw clenched. “I would sooner give up every other comfort in this world than give him up.”

The force of her confession near staggered him. He turned to find her gaze already on his, and wanted nothing so much as to tell her, here and now, that he loved her with his whole heart, only for Lady Henderson to break between them with a snarl.

“Foolishness,” she hissed, her composure cracked clean through. “You were nothing to Lady Warrington. You do not deserve that house. You do not deserve him. It is my daughter who — ”