She was looking at the floor, but at this she raised her eyes back to his face, and the flush became pallor.
‘I … I am sorry, I did not mean …’ She swallowed rather hard. He looked so very serious, and offended, and suddenly everything was a jumble and she wanted to cry. She bit her lip, and his expression changed instantly, and he grasped one of her hands in a tight clasp.
‘Your cousin means nothing to me. What happened was not at my instigation, you must believe that. I thought, briefly, she was beautiful, but …’ He spoke hastily, afraid that she would not listen to his heartfelt words.
‘Susan is beautiful.’ Harriet sighed.
‘Only in her features. There is no beauty within her.’ Lord Edward’s voice dropped to a passionate whisper. ‘Not like you.’
Harriet now turned a shade of deep pink.
‘I did not think you the sort of man to flirt with me. I do not care for it, sir.’
‘I am not flirting, Harriet, and you know it.’ It was not lover-like; it was not romantic in the way Harriet had always imagined, but Lord Edward was undoubtedly sincere.
‘Oh.’ He had used her name, and it made her heart pitter-pat.
‘Now show me your dance card.’
She did so, and still unsmiling, Edward Wittenham wrote EW in a flourishing, if small, round hand beside a quadrille, and then the waltz. In the face of this masterful behaviour, Harriet’s anger melted away.
‘I shall return to claim … my dances.’
She nodded.
Sophy, who had permitted Susan to join the set of the next country dance with a youthful peer whom she knew was far too young to be seeking a serious relationship, saw the exchange, and reading it by their expressions and the ebb and flow of Harriet’s colour, gave a heartfelt sigh. Her sister looked about her, seeking her, and came towards her a little dazed.
‘Sophy, he … Lord Edward …’ She held up her dance card, and her face glowed. ‘I … If he should wish to speak to me, in private I mean, might I … What he said, the way he looked … Oh Sophy, Papa would not refuse him permission do you think, because he will not inherit a grand title?’
‘Harry, you goose, of course he would not. Lord Edward is the sort of man he will approve of mightily, although if he sells out do not be surprised if Papa starts inculcating sound land management in him or suggests he have a herd of prize Jerseys.’
‘Oh, he would.’ Harriet giggled.
‘If he wishes to … find out if an offer would be acceptable to you, I have been in this house often enough to know that there is a small chamber two doors beyond the card room. The young ladies of the house use it for their drawing class because there is good light in the daytime. Just do not go there hand in hand. Dearest Harry, this makes me very happy.’ Sophy leant and kissed her sister’s cheek.
‘You … you do not feel that I am fickle, do you? Because I said I did not wish to see him again?’ Harriet looked at her hands. ‘For in truth that was not true. I mean it was only true then. I did not want to see him just at that time, you see, for I felt very low … despondent, but I … oh, I am making no sense.’
‘Sense enough.’ Sophy laughed, softly. ‘Now go and await your dashing soldier claiming his dances.’
‘Perhaps I am expecting too much. Perhaps he does simply want to dance.’ Harriet was suddenly uncertain.
Sophy shook her head and pushed her away. So delighted was she, and so lost in thoughts of how the interview might proceed, that she did not see that the dance had concluded or that Susan was being escorted to sample the ices by Lord Pinkney.
Lord Edward returned, ostensibly to lead Harriet into the quadrille, but his head was so full of the declaration he was about to make he thought he would forget all the steps. He had found a glass of claret and a quiet corner, and rehearsed what he considered suitable ways to ask a young lady to marry him. It was rather more unnerving than waiting for the trumpeter to sound the charge.
‘I … Would you be offended if we did not actually take our places in the set, Lady Harriet? There is something very particular I wish to say to you.’
‘Not offended at all, sir. If … If it is “very particular”, I believe there is a little chamber, where the ladies do watercolours and such, towards the rear of this floor. We might be more private …’ She blushed, and he took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
‘I will meet you there in a few moments, yes?’
She nodded, withdrew her hand, and flitted away. Her fear, as she opened the door, was that some other couple might also know of this secluded spot for a tryst. It was dark, but the curtains were not drawn, and the light from the flambeaux upon the terrace below gave enough illumination if one did not stand too far from the window. Without quite understanding why she did so, she removed her long gloves. Her heart beat fast, and although she was expecting him, she gave a squeak as the door opened, and the uniformed figure entered the room.
‘Harriet?’ His eyes were not adjusted to the gloom.
She stepped forward with a rustle of her skirts, her hands held out and trembling. He took them firmly, carried them to his lips, and then went down immediately upon his knees.
‘Before all else, forgive me,’ he implored.
