“As will Nelson, I’m sure.”
Roland turned and bowed. “Ladies, and young sir,” he said. Then he led Havoc away toward his house, attempting to ignore that he had an audience in doing so.
The audience was not all behind him either. As he approached the house, curtains dropped in all the front rooms.
There was something embarrassing in publicly courting. But no matter, there were to be dog walks at eleven each morning. Hopefully with less of a crowd.
*
It was themost natural thing in the world that all her sisters should dissect their impressions of everything that had been said on the dog walk with Lord Thorpe.
Valor remained entirely against him, as he posed a threat to her plan to keep her remaining sisters in the house forever.
Verity claimed she’d read that marquesses always preferred mastiffs as their dog of choice, so she found Lord Thorpe a very usual sort of person.
Winsome thought he was handsome enough and wondered how he stacked up to his brother, though she satisfied herself that she would soon find out as they were both to come to dinner.
Felicity said the daily dog walking was very promising and applauded the lord for thinking of it.
Grace said he’d proved his interest by flying out of the house upon seeing Serenity.
Miles had nothing to say about Lord Thorpe, but he liked the lord’s dog and spent a half hour trying to convince his mother that they ought to get one of their own.
But for Valor, everybody was satisfied with him. Was he as reserved as everybody said? She did not really know, he had not seemed so. On the other hand, nobody would describe him as particularly freewheeling either. There was a seriousness to him, she supposed.
It had struck her when they’d spoken of a temperament being fixed. Lord Thorpe had claimed that temperament wasmostlyfixed, but could be modified a little. That was just what she was trying to do! She was working hard to be less carried away by her feelings, as being carried away often led to a weep. She was certain Lord Thorpe would not be drawn to a weeping lady.
She had done well today; she’d controlled herself when she’d noted the snow that still covered the lower leaves of the trees sparkled in the sunshine. The majesty and beauty of nature was exactly the kind of thing that made her eyes water. She’d not even had to wipe her eyes over the developing friendship between Nelson and Havoc, though it had been so touching.
She must just go on this way, acting as a rational lady and not one who could be carried away by the glories of nature or the friendship between animals. Or rather, she could be a little carried away, but not too much.
It did occur to her to wonder about the rightness of attempting to change who she was for the sake of a gentleman. If one of her sisters had asked her the same, she’d advise against it. But then, none of her sisters were contemplating Lord Thorpe, and he was glorious in every respect. As well, she’d been attempting to rein in her feelings even before she’d met the gentleman.
The dinner hostingLord Thorpe and Lord Charles was nearing and it had been the usual chaos in getting things ready. Mr. Cremble had finally descended from his room, though his coat bulged to one side. Charlie said he’d strapped a bible over his heart.
Serenity did not know what Mr. Cremble thought was to happen. Did he imagine Mrs. Right was planning on shooting him and he guarded his most important organ? That was Verity’s speculation. She said it was a usual thing for a man fearing he would be shot to place something over his heart that would slow the bullet. Serenity did not know if that could be true or not. If that’s what he’d done, it was very foolish. She’d never in her life seen Mrs. Right with a fowling piece in her hands.
She turned her attention to her looking glass as Mrs. Right fussed with her hair. Her cheeks were in high color fromanticipation. She wore an aqua blue sarsenet dress with an embroidered bodice of tiny flowers that had lovely little cream silk bows at the cuffs of the sleeves.
“I see,” Mrs. Right said, having just been informed of the daily walks at eleven in the morning with Lord Thorpe and his dog. “That seems like an awful lot of walking for one old housekeeper.”
“You need not go every day, though,” Serenity said. “Charlie could accompany me—he’s a senior footman and practically the butler.”
“We’ll see how the duke feels about it,” Mrs. Right said.
“Or, I could bring along Charlie, and my sisters.”
“Aye, he might feel a bit better about that arrangement. Now what’s to happen when it rains?”
“Goodness, we did not talk about rain.”
Mrs. Right snorted. “Here you are, both living in London, and did not talk about rain, now I ask you…”
“It is only water after all, and I do have an umbrella.”
“Aye, but I reckon he won’t use one. Some gents do, some don’t, and I’ll guess the marquess is too manly to be seen shielding himself from rain. So there you are, him soaking wet and you struggling along with a leash and an umbrella. Of course, he’ll offer to hold the umbrella for you, but somehow that never works entirely right—the far side of you will be firmly in the weather. You’ll end with two wet people, two wet dogs, and wet whoever you dragged with you.”
Serenity burst out in peals of laughter from the vision. “I suppose I’d better tell him the dog walking is off if it rains.”
