“Thank you, General. Most of what I’ve learned about serving and leading was learned from you.”
“Well, we won’t mention that to Wellington,” Papa said with a grin.
I loved seeing Papa with his men. All of them respected him, some out of fear and others out of love. If I didn’t know better I would have placed Captain Calder in the category of those who wholeheartedly cared and looked up to him. He seemed so sincere.
The dinner bell rang and I flinched. Papa excused himself to find Sir Phillip’s wife. Mama turned to Captain Calder. “I have you escorting Evelyn into the dining room. Thank you for joining us for the next few weeks.”
Captain Calder’s practiced smile once again faltered. The hours I spent studying his face had served me well and I could see the discomfort breaking through that gentlemanly mask of his. He hadn’t counted on seeing me again, and he definitely hadn’t counted on me being General Blackwell’s daughter or escorting me into dinner every night. He tucked all of those thoughts away masterfully, held out his arm and nodded briskly in my direction.
It was as though he’d been issued a battle command, not an invitation to dine.
“I assume,” I said under my breath. “You would like our adventure together to remain a secret?”
He didn’t look at me, only glancing ahead, but he did nod.
“I told you I don’t like keeping secrets from my family.”
“But in our case,” he said softly, “don’t you think it would be for the better good?”
It would be for his better good, that was certain. I closed my eyes tightly, still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the man who’d kissed me was Captain Calder.
If he’d come here in order to take advantage of Hattie, or even distract her when Mama and I had gone through so much effort to put her in the path of good, upstanding young men, then he was going to have a battle on his hands. “I suppose we shall have to see.”
This time it was my turn to look forward, as if I had no interest in the man escorting me into dinner while he turned his head to examine me.
I hoped what he found there was at least a little bit intimidating.
8
CAPTAIN JOHN CALDER
What did she mean,we would have to see? Did she intend to tell her parents or, even worse, Harriet about the shepherd's croft? This dinner was turning into a disastrous affair when it should have been one of the happiest evenings of my life.
All I wanted to do was speak to Harriet but she sat across from me, bracketed between two men. Davis—the lucky devil, and a Mr. Vincent Howard, who was the foppish son of Sir Phillip. I had plenty of chances to look at her, and yet every time I did, she was speaking to one man or the other, and those men seemed quite delighted to have her eyes on them.
Meanwhile, I sat uncomfortably next to Miss Blackwell, the woman I’d been certain I would never see again, only to end up in her home because she was General Blackwell’s daughter.
His daughter.
I was torn between completely ignoring everything that had happened between us and dragging her away somewhere the first moment I could get her alone and making her promise, once again, that no one would ever hear of our scandalous night together. How many times had the General casually mentioned the skills he taught her or bragged about her intelligence? Half the men in his company were in love with her and the other halfdespised her for setting a standard none of them could live up to. If Blackwell knew I’d been there in that shepherd’s croft with her that night, there would be the very devil to pay.
“I trust your journey to Blackwell was uneventful?” Miss Blackwell said in a voice so sweet I could almost taste it. I had barely interacted with her the morning I’d woken up to find her in her nightdress, but she’d given me a clear enough picture of who she was, and it wasn’t this dulcet woman who sat so becomingly beside me.
Lieutenant Brookhouse sat on the other side of her, and he leaned forward. “I visited him two days ago before coming here. He took sick, the fool. Trying to ride in the rain.”
I narrowed my eyes at both of them. Miss Blackwell was purposely goading me, and Brookhouse should have had the common courtesy to not make me look weak in front of the general’s daughter.
But common courtesy had never been Brookhouse’s strength, not when he had the opportunity to nettle someone. Typically I enjoyed that aspect of his personality. Even when it was addressed toward me.
But not at the moment.
“Oh.” Miss Blackwell’s mouth turned down in almost believable concern. “You were caught in the rain? It must have been dreadful.”
I might have thought she was an angel when I awoke from delirium to find her watching over me, but now she was trying to impersonate one, and this time, I wouldn’t fall for it.
“Brookhouse is right,” I said stiffly. “I was a fool for trying to continue, and I paid the price.”
“He was abed for days,” Brookhouse piped up. “Cursing the rain and murmuring about a beautiful woman. So you see, my dear Miss Blackwell, we are lucky to have him here at all.”
