Should he call down to Marley? Send some sort of signal that he was still alive and she could go away? Where were a person’s footmen when a person needed them?
Then he heard Marley shouting. Why was he shouting? What was he shouting?
The shouting came closer. “My lady, please do not proceed further!”
His door burst open. Landry clutched the covers around him. She was in his bedchamber—what was he to do?
“There you are,” Lady Edith said matter-of-factly. “I suppose you’ve seen the banns and wonder what it’s all about.”
Banns? Was she getting married? To someone else? Had he waited too long?
“I can see from your expression that you do not have the first idea of what I’m talking about. Landry, you are surrounded by newspapers, do you not read any of them?”
Landry glanced at the pile that lay beside him. “Oh as to that, I was meaning to get to them. What banns?”
“There is a bit of nonsense in yesterday’s paper about my supposed engagement to Lord Manderbey. Can’t think who put it in there, myfather’s hair is practically on fire over it. Says if I do not come up with a real suitor we’re going home.”
“Oh dear no, I did not see.”
“Over and over again this morning,” Lady Edith said. “Edith, if you do not come up with a real suitor we are packing up before the week is out.”
“Before the week is out?”
“So he says,” Lady Edith said. “A real suitor, Edith, or it’s all up.”
“A real one, I see, well, it would be terrible to have to go home…”
Landry knew perfectly well that this was his chance. But it was all so untoward and nerve-wracking! He was in his nightclothes in bed!
“My advice, just spit it out, Landry,” Lady Edith advised.
“Spit, yes, well, what I wonder is…do you want to get married…to me?” My God, he’d said it. He stared at Lady Edith in horrified fascination.
“Yes, finally. Very good, I am glad that is settled,” she said, much to Landry’s amazement.
Had it really been so easy? He’d just said it and she said it was settled?
“I can tell my father he can pour water over his head and calm down,” Lady Edith went on. “Now, here is my advice to you. Do not speculate far into the future; you don’t have the temperament for it. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. It grows late in the day, so continue your repose, as there are times where a good lay-around is just the thing. On the morrow, get up and get dressed. You must see my father and then we must see Lady Winsome to assure her that all reports of my engagement to Manderbey are nonsense. I will call for you at eleven.”
Lady Edith turned on her heel and was followed out the door by a dumbstruck Marley. As they went down the stairs, he heard her say, “Beef tea is what’s wanted, it will put some strength back into him.”
Landry lay back on his pillows. It was done. He felt a soothing comfort in the idea that Lady Edith had been so sure of the arrangementsto be made! He was to rest until tomorrow and he was to have beef tea. She would take him round to her father. She would know what to say to Lady Winsome. She’d probably manage Manderbey too.
And that idea of putting one foot in front of the other was really rather good. It was very true that he did not have the temperament for considering the future—it made him nervous. Now, he was to just not think about it.
He suddenly laughed. His relations held no further power over him. With Marley on one side and Lady Edith on the other, he was invincible. He was safe.
The Earl of Landry had got himself engaged, despite all predictions to the contrary.
*
Winsome had wishedthe day to come and also wished for more time to stew in her father’s house. She had not left it in some days. All they’d had on the calendar was a card party and the duke had been more than happy to beg off. Now, the day of the masque had arrived.
If there were one thing that did not hang over her head like the Sword of Damocles, it was her costume. She was to go as Cleopatra from her favorite Shakespeare play. She had decided on it long ago, as the dying for love was highly romantic and the dress was so interesting. It was all white, a very fine lawn, with a marvelous wide and stiff circular collar embroidered with gold thread on a blue background. There were matching cuffs of embroidered fabric for her wrists, and a gold-plated belt. She would carry a gilded staff, topped by the head of a serpent. She would wear a half-mask in gold, with a little fashioned gold lotus flower at the top.
In a few hours, she would don her costume, hold her head high, and walk into Lady Darlington’s ballroom to see what she would findthere. She was just now in the drawing room pretending to enjoy her tea while secretly looking for her courage.
Thomas hurried in and said, “Lady Winsome, a Lady Edith and Lord Landry have come. Lady Edith says it is vital they see you.”
