“It’s only seven miles away. Papa and I have ridden there on several occasions. It has been sadly neglected.”
“Yes, well, technically it is still my father’s estate, and he took most of the funds that could have been used to repair it with him when he moved his new wife and my siblings to Connecticut.”
She flinched slightly at my response, but then hardened again. “They are half-siblings, are they not?”
I stilled. I’d never seen them as such, but everyone else, including Father, had. He’d taken them away not long after marrying his third wife without so much as a discussion with me. Miss Blackwell was striking at every weakness. She was a Blackwell indeed. My own mother had died in childbirth. I’d known no other mother save Arthur’s and May’s, and she had never treated me as anything else but her son. The newest Mrs. Calder was nothing like her. “Yes. You’re quite right. Thank you for that reminder.”
She closed her eyes slowly, the hardness in her jaw softening. Some small portion of the kind woman I’d seen in the croft dared to show her face. I sighed. I didn’t want to be on such adversarial terms with General Blackwell’s daughter, or Harriet’s cousin, for that matter. “I didn’t do or say anything inappropriate while I was under your care, did I? Something to make you think so poorly of me? Or question my intentions with your cousin?”
Miss Blackwell’s shoulders tightened, the movement barely perceptible. “Nothing noteworthy, I assure you.”
Ah, so I had. But what? I straightened my posture. Coming to Blackwell to court Harriet was no different than coordinating a battle. I needed to think about this more strategically and stop acting like a bumbling fool. Miss Blackwell saw herself as an enemy, but she didn’t need to. “I have no ill intentions toward Miss Pryor.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I owe a great deal to Hattie. Her family has suffered because of my mistakes, and I will not see her suffer again. I don’t trust you. You don’t seem to be the type to stay true to one woman.”
“I ... what?” I’d been true to her cousin for six long years. “Miss Blackwell, I assure you?—”
“I don’t want your assurances. I cannot allow a man whose heart isn’t fully hers to distract her from finding the man whose heart will be. And while I don’t know you well, I do know this—you may like my cousin, but you aren’t in love with her.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that was exactly who I was, but her certainty gave me pause. Did I love Harriet? My eyes sought her out—her delicate fingers sliding over the spine of a large tome on the bookshelf, resuming her search now that Brookhouse was no longer accosting her with his deuced humor. She was even more graceful now than she had been at seventeen. But we hadn’t had more than a few moments to speak to each other. She’d been a lifeline at a time when I’d been drifting without a tether, and a dream to hold onto and fight for from then until now, but how did I feel about Harriet, the woman? How much of my heart was hers? I was going to marry her, that much was certain.
I’d promised myself I would have a family again, and each year I’d heard that Harriet was still unmarried, and that she was waiting for me, the more secure I was in the fact that just when I’d needed one, I’d found a faithful woman. A woman who would never leave me in the situation I’d been in at twenty-four—alone, the caretaker of a house with no one in it.
Iwouldmarry Harriet. She was the only woman I could trust.
I leveled my gaze back at Miss Blackwell. “If you believe that of me, then it appears we are at an impasse.”
“It appears we are.”
I nodded. Miss Blackwell was going to be a formidable foe in a place I hadn’t expected to find one. But I’d vanquished plenty of foes in my lifetime. “May I trust you not to mention our first meeting? Even to Miss Pryor?”
“Most likely not.” She sighed. “If you are so bound and determined to pursue my cousin, there may come a time I may need to tell her of it. I learned my lesson about keeping secrets from her a year and a half ago, and I won’t be repeating that mistake. If you keep your distance, however, I see no reason I would need to tell her or anyone else.”
I clenched my jaw and stood.
Even if Harriet returned to our table, there would be no use speaking to her if Miss Blackwell was beside us. I was going to have to find her some other time, when she was alone, or at the very least, not with her domineering cousin.
It seemed as though I’d found myself on the wrong side of a war with a Blackwell.
Evelyn Blackwell
Captain Calder spentthe rest of the evening reading a book, a stormy broodiness about his person that perhaps some women would have found fascinating. That May of his most likely found it irresistible. Hattie seemed relatively unaffected, though. She returned to our small table and soon after Vincent Howard joined us, a most welcome substitute for the sullen captain. But even Vincent proved a disappointment. He addressed most of his comments toward me and that flirty smirk I’d been so pleased about was very present, but rarely aimed in her direction.
Hattie kept darting glances at Lieutenant Brookhouse, and the relief I felt at her interest there instead of on the man that kept giving Vincent icy stares from above his book seemed a step in the right direction.
When the evening was finally over, I stayed close to Hattie, pulling away from her parents before she went up the stairs and to their shared room. We slowed and waited for Aunt and Uncle Pryor to be far enough up the stairs to be out of earshot.
“What do you think so far?” I asked, wanting to hear her opinion of the men before I influenced it.
She gave me a mischievous look. “I think the dinner was excellent and, as always, your company was entertaining.”
I pinched her elbow softly. “Not about the party, you goose. The men. What do you think of the men?”
She started up the stairs and then turned back to glance at me. “I think your father should talk the officers into wearing their uniforms for one of the dinners.”
It was the last thing I thought she was going to say, and I could only blame the surprise of her comment for causing the image of Captain Calder in his military coat to pop into my brain and making me lose my train of thought. He would perhaps look too good in that coat. I scrambled up the stairs until I reached her. “Are you certain that is a good idea? They may not have brought them. And they are so freshly released ... ” I faded off, because honestly, those were all excuses. Her idea was a good one, and it wasn’t just Captain Calder who would be dressing in uniform—Brookhouse and Davis would as well. “I’ll talk to Papa about it. Is there a certain man you are most interested in seeing in uniform?”
“I’ve already seen Captain Calder in his.” She bumped my arm with her shoulder. “He was quite dashing. Is he too handsome for your tastes?”
