“I don’t play the pianoforte much, and never in public,” Pippa found herself saying, meeting his eye squarely. “I learned it because ladies are meant to, you see, but I prefer the violin.”
Lord Barwick lifted his eyebrows. “But you’ll play to oblige me, I’m sure?”
“I’m afraid I must respectfully decline your request, Lord Barwick.”
There was a brief silence after that. Lord Barwick blinked, as if struggling to get his head round it all. Out of the corner of her eye, Pippa saw Lavinia hide a smile behind her hand.
“I see,” he said at last, voice more clipped than before. “What a disappointment, to be sure.”
“Will you be staying for luncheon, Lord Barwick?” Katherine asked smoothly, and this time there was ice in her voice. He looked at her properly for the first time and pursed his lips.
“No,” he answered at last, perhaps finally understanding that he was not as welcome as he had assumed. “In fact, I think I should be getting along.”
Lord Barwick left rather quickly after that, leaving a silence behind him. Katherine cleared her throat and spoke first.
“I don’t like him,” she said, addressing herself to nobody in particular. “It is not my concern, of course, but I do not like him, Pip.”
Pippa swallowed, nodding silently. “My mother likes him as a match for me.”
Katherine said nothing to that. Really, there was nothing to say.”
I don’t like him either,Pippa thought.But what am I to do?
You must dosomething,chimed in a little voice at the back of her mind.Do something soon, or else you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.
Chapter Ten
The day was grey and cloudy, not really ideal for a garden party. Still, the event had been scheduled for at least a month, and accepted several weeks ago, so they were going.
Nathan tried not to feel too miserable. It was just a party. Indeed, there was work to do at home, but garden parties were day-time events, and he was likely to return home and be hard at work well before sunset.
Lately, however, Nathan felt that he had been distracted. Work didn’t enthral him the way it once had. Piles of paperwork had always made his heart sink a little, but now he felt so miserable he could hardly force himself to get started. His mind had been wandering during meetings, too.
He was thinking of Pippa Randall far more than he ought to have done. There was no real reason for the woman to be on his mind as much as she did, and yet he couldn’t seem to shut her out.
She’d be at the party, to be sure. Nathan wasn’t sure if he were excited for that or dreading it.
His plans to hold back and wait and see what happened with Miss Randall seemed rather foolish now. She was in Society to be married, everybody knew that. Women came to London for nothing else.
What sort of woman would choose a viscount over a marquess?
“Nathan? Nathan, I am speaking to you!”
He jolted out of his reverie, tearing his eyes away from the scenery flashing by, and blinked at his mother.
Rose was watching him with a faintly amused expression, eyebrows raised.
“You were a hundred miles away,” she remarked. “Pray, shareyourthoughts.”
He flushed. “I wasn’t thinking of much, Mother. I am simply not looking forward to this garden party, that is all. I don’t generally enjoy them, you know that. Not that it matters much, of course.”
She pursed her lips. “I’m sure Miss Randall will be there.”
He sighed. “That thought already occurred to me, Mother.”
“Do you plan to speak to her? You should, you know.”
“I imagine it will be unavoidable.”
