But did it make him happy? Mercy was not ready to choose a life like that. One where love was measured by the good it could do for Society and one small mistake from her could cost the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Ireland.
“Are you certain you want to live that way?”
“Lady Mercy, I truthfully don’t feel like I have another choice.”
Mercy slid her queen forward and took a rook. It was a sacrifice; the Duke of Harrington would easily take her queen in his next move, and it wasn’t even a sacrifice that would give her a later advantage.
She wanted this chess match to be over. The sooner, the better.
The Duke of Harrington’s priorities were so far removed from her own, he made her head spin. Even if his decisive courting suddenly made all the sense in the world.
He didn’t have a choice to make; it’d been made for him. The duke hadn’t chosen her. Society and her place in it had.
If she told him now that their relationship would never work, she would break her parents’ hearts, and he would go off and find the next best bride he could. She might not understand the duke, but she did want him to be happy.
She wanted him to know he did have a choice.
And she couldn’t think of a better candidate to tell him that than the woman he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off the whole afternoon. She just needed to give the two of them a chance to be alone and work it all out.
Chapter 18
Miss Morgan must be abetter friend to Lady Mercy than Nicholas had previously thought. For when he met Lady Mercy and her family at the Zoological Garden two days after his house visit, Miss Morgan and Lady Yolten were once again in her family’s company. The three young ladies stood together in a group, eyes shining as they watched the llamas eat the hay that was laid out before them. Nicholas should join them, but he kept his distance for the moment, but he couldn’t focus on the long hair and beady eyes of the llamas in front of him. His eyes kept drifting to Miss Morgan. Why was she here with Lady Mercy and her parents? Again?
And she was acting so strange. Just as she had been at the Driarwood home, she hadn’t tried to speak with him, nor had she tried to manipulate or control the conversation around Patience.
Lady Yolten caught Nicholas’s eye and strode toward him. “It is interesting, isn’t it?” Lady Yolten had a fast and comfortable way of speaking. “The different animals that can be found around the world. Some are so foreign, it is hard to imagine them existing at all, and yet, here they are, in the Zoological Garden. It’s as if they were waiting for us to discover them and admit that perhaps, here in England, we do not know everything that is to be known in the world.”
Nicholas chuckled. “Don’t let Lord John Russell hear you speaking such blasphemies.”
Lady Yolten’s eyes glanced skyward. “If I were to meet him, that is the last thing I would tell him. First I would let him know that he needs to clean up the Thames.”
“Shall I convey that message to him the next time I see him?”
Lady Yolten blinked in a blatant attempt at innocence. “You would do that for me?”
“Most likely not,” Nicholas answered honestly. “But I havespoken with him about it several times for myself.”
Lady Yolten gave him a strange look. “You have?”
Nicholas frowned. Was that so hard for Lady Yolten to believe? “Of course. It isn’t healthy for anyone.”
Lady Yolten’s eyes searched his face for a moment, then forced a garbled laugh from her throat, as if she were trying to change the subject. “Mercy is much too enthralled with these llamas. I have heard enough of her stories. Lord and Lady Driarwood have already left us to see the giraffes, and I think we should join them. Who knows when Lady Mercy will finish her descriptions of their stomachs and chewing habits with poor Miss Morgan?”
Nicholas glanced at Lady Mercy. Her hands were in the air, her face alight, as she explained something to Miss Morgan that obviously fascinated her. The corners of his mouth raised, and he wished for nothing more than to join the two women and hear what Lady Mercy found so exciting about the animals’ stomachs. But that would also mean standing with Miss Morgan, and Patience hadn’t yet had the chance to speak to Lady Mercy about her courtship with Ottersby. He would much rather not have that conversation started by Miss Morgan.
Nicholas turned to Lady Yolten and nodded. Lord and Lady Driarwood were already at least twenty feet down the path toward the giraffes. He extended his arm, and Lady Yolten took it.
They walked together in comfortable silence for several minutes before Lady Yolten spoke. “So you want to help the Irish and clean up the Thames. Any chance you would like to tell me something nefarious about yourself to make me feel better about my lack of aspiration?”
Nicholas scoffed. “I’m hardly a saint. Trust me.”
Lady Yolten sighed deeply. “I’m afraid Iamgoing to have to trust you on that. As much as I would really rather have proof.”
“You want proof of my nefariousness? When I am courtingyour purported best friend?”
“As Yolty likes to tell me, I don’t always make a lot of sense.”
“Yes, well, Lord Yolten doesn’t seem to mind. He is disgustingly happy with you.”
