Mrs Bloomfield pressed on. “You refuse to entertain a mercenary marriage. I heard you wouldn’t play Mr Hightower at cards when he was too drunk to know what he was doing. You have kept whatever promise binds you to Townsend—don’t tell me you’d be here if he were not. You are an honorable man, Mr Ryder. Regardless of whatever you supposedly did during the war.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mrs Bloomfield. I’ll keep that in mind when I have to run away to enlist in India after my debts pile up.”
Camellia heard most of the exchange from her hiding place. Put together with his telling of the Wild Hunt, she felt a deep sympathy for him, and shame for walking away from him when he could have used her help. Who was she to demand his secrets? She slipped away before the others finished speaking. She must find a way to make it up to him. Or swallow her pride. Which Camellia hated doing.
Chapter 11
After Mrs Bloomfield left, Finn stayed in the library, hoping he wasn’t missing any important social nicety of the house party. Who knew there were so many trivial events one must attend? Of course, he was attending a lot of them specifically to keep an eye on Elliot…and Camellia. She had been decidedly frosty to him since their exchange the previous day, and why not? He’d been rude. Refused to answer her question when she’d already answered virtually the same one posed by him.
And she’d been attentive to Elliot ever since. And Elliot was astonishingly good at handling her attention. And Hortense’s. And yet another young lady’s.
Finn frowned. In fact, Elliot wasn’t acting like Elliot at all. He was no longer the awkward, eccentric youth he’d been a few days ago. He was charming. Talented. Witty. He had suddenly become another person, one ladies considered in all seriousness.
While Finn simply watched.
It was enough to drive one mad.
He grabbed a book off the shelf, wishing he could find something in one of them. If he found the origin of Wyemont’s ghost stories—well, one in particular—he’d surely understand why it had such an effect on him. He’d understand why his life was a shambles. But he’d discovered nothing. And he was forced to watch as the one lady who intrigued him was instead caught in Elliot’s inexplicable orbit.
“Damn it,” he muttered out loud.
“It can’t be as bad as all that,” a sweet voice said, very close by him.
“Camellia,” he said, his breath catching. He hadn’t heard her approach. She was as lovely as always, dressed in the same chocolate-colored gown as she’d worn the first time he saw her. “I mean, Miss Swift. You startled me.”
“Just as you did the first time you found me in the library. I thought to return the favor.” She smiled at him, her dark eyes searching his face. He wondered why she had really come, and also why she smiled at him so enticingly.
“Are you still in need of an ally for your search?” she asked, rather shyly.
He breathed out. “Very much. I’m useless alone.”
“Then hand me a book.” It was a peace offering. Finn took it gladly, pleased beyond all expectation that she had returned.
They spent a few minutes reading together in silence.
“I want to apologize,” Finn began, just as Camellia said, “I should say I’m sorry.”
He said, “You have nothing to be sorry for. I kissed you without your permission.”
“But with my interest. But I meant that I am sorry for…I had no right to insist that you tell me—” Camellia broke off, unable to put words together.
“I asked you for your reasons,” Finn said simply. “I should have offered my own.”
She shook her head. “Yours are more complicated than mine, I know. You should not feel a need to tell me.”
“I think I want to.”
Camellia said, “Wait until you are sure. I can be patient, and I am no one special, after all.”
“Of course you are special, Miss Swift,” he said. “You are my only ally.”
“You exaggerate,” she said, looking down at her feet.
He dared to touch her arm briefly. “I would never lie.”
“I…we should work.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He tried to dispel the mood with a grin. “Tell me when you find the answer to the riddle…or when you find any ghost story about the castle. Particularly if it involves a sword fight.”
