Although, the more she considered Constance’s behavior, the more she wondered if Constance knew anything about what Mr. Dawson was doing. Had he somehow arranged the articles without her knowing? What of the letters found in Constance’s room? The girlhadseemed ignorant of them.
Thel scowled. “If I challenged him to a duel, it would be by morning.”
She shook her head. “You do not have sufficient reason to call him out. Even if you did, and assuming you were even the victor, her grief would eventually fade, but she would never forgive you. If we are to have any chance of beating Mr. Dawson, it must be in the place where we have the most influence and control. Within society.” She sighed. “She trusts me. If we give her enough time, she’ll come to her senses. The difficulty will be in keeping Mr. Dawson from realizing what we are doing.”
She had some idea of what might entice him. Her former husband had loved nothing more than drawing out her suffering. It was only when she’d failed to give him a reaction that he’d grown impatient and things had escalated. If Mr. Dawson was the same, then for Constance’s sake, she would put on the most elaborate performance of her life.
“Let me help,” a voice said.
Mr. Ringwell stood in the doorway, dressed in a different suit than he had worn earlier that evening. His hair was wet, and there was a damp towel clutched in his hand.
“What happened to you?” Thel asked.
Mr. Ringwell’s lips thinned. “When I wouldn’t let Constance wander off without me, she pushed me into afountain. Lord Wintermoor found me and allowed me to borrow one of his suits.” He lifted his arm. The cuff of his jacket dangled over the tips of his fingers. “We are not quite of the same size.”
Olivia put a knuckle to her lips but could not completely disguise her laugh. He looked like a child who had been playing in his father’s wardrobe. Constance would owe him a significant apology if she had any interest in maintaining their friendship.
Mr. Ringwell rubbed his hair with his towel. “She told me about Mr. Dawson. It’s not the first time I’ve seen her besotted. She’ll come out of it.” He squeezed the towel so tight that the tips of his fingers turned white. “She has to.”
“I wish I had known there was something between you two,” Thel said. “It might have saved me the trouble of finding a matchmaker.” Then he cursed as Mr. Ringwell shook his wet hair, spraying droplets of water.
Olivia stood and paced the room. When she compared the situation to her own coming out, Mr. Ringwell was the most significant difference. Her childhood had been devoid of friends. Every young man she had met at her first ball had been a stranger. The earl had used her lack of experience to his advantage, placing himself above her other suitors by virtue of his greater fortune and title.
“Mr. Ringwell can assist us by preventing Mr. Dawson from capturing the entirety of Constance’s attention,” she said. “Mr. Dawson will find it difficult to control her while there is someone else whispering in her ear, and because she treats him like a friend, Mr. Dawson might not see him as a threat.”
Mr. Ringwell winced. “You do not need to remind me.”
“Do not start,” Thel said. “If you had expressed your feelings to her sooner, she might never have fallen in with Mr. Dawson to begin with.”
Mr. Ringwell’s ears turned red. “I know. It’s only that when it comes to Constance, the practiced speeches vanish frommy mind the moment we’re alone. I had all but given up on her until you left for London. It was only then that I realized that I couldn’t let her marry someone else.” He shuffled his feet. “I tried to confess tonight, but my tongue twisted into knots and the words wouldn’t come out.”
“I’m sorry,” Olivia said. She knew exactly how it felt to be overwhelmed with emotion to the point where she couldn’t speak.
“I did ask her to marry me once,” Mr. Ringwell said. “When we were children. I even gave her a ring made of braided grass.” He touched his breast pocket, where Olivia suspected another such ring was stored.
“You will have another chance,” Thel said. Then he looked at Olivia. “How shall we start our campaign?”
She would never grow tired of the way he deferred to her, especially when they both knew she was the expert in a given area.
“I’ll tell Constance the only way she can convince her family to accept Mr. Dawson is by showing them he can exist in society alongside her,” she said. “That way, we can control how and when they meet.”
“And she won’t get away from me again,” Mr. Ringwell said. “Even if it means I drag her into the fountain with me next time.”
Chapter 20
MURDERESS INTENDED DIVORCE. It is with great pleasure I can reveal, at last, Lady Allen’s motive for the heinous murder of her husband, the Earl of Allen. The earl, having grown suspicious of his wife, discovered a cache of paperwork that suggested she intended to petition for divorce. Enraged by her disloyalty, the earl confronted his wife and informed her he would oppose the petition. In doing so, he sealed his fate.
It had been years since Thel had regularly ridden a horse, but the steadyclip-clopof horse hooves on the path and the wind rustling the leaves drew him back to his youth and the afternoons spent hunched over the neck of his chubby, gray pony, determined to impress his father.
Unfortunately, his daughter’s excitement meant he could not fully enjoy the moment.
“A spring wedding would be best, but winter is so beautiful,” she said. “I wish I could tell everyone. Are you certain I must wait? John was not happy when I insisted on secrecy.”
He had gone over this point enough that he was comfortable answering. “They need time to adjust to the idea of you being courted at all, my dear. It will be years until you marry. We will tell them about your betrothal when the time is right.”
That was also the reason they were awake far earlier than usual, while the rest of his family lay abed.
Constance huffed. “I suppose. Do you think grandmother would lend me her pearls? I’ll need a sprig of myrtle for my bouquet, of course, and carnations to symbolize faithfulness…”
