While a short speech, it was not one Nathaniel had ever expected to hear from Patrick’s mouth.
“I have an appointment in London with a senior officer later this week,” Patrick added. “That was what I was trying to tell you earlier.”
“You really are serious, aren’t you, Patrick?” Nathaniel commented, still smiling.
“More serious than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“I never thought I’d see this day. But what has brought on such a change of heart? You’ve always been excellent on horseback, and you’re a good shot, but the idea of uniform has never seemed to your taste before. Working for a living, in fact, was far from your agenda.”
At this line of questioning, an evasive expression came over Patrick’s face.
“Maybe I’ve just never talked about it.” He shrugged. “I don’t tell you everything, Nathaniel. You wouldn’t understand.”
Nathaniel regarded his brother meditatively, then laughed again as another realization dawned on him. Of course, the reasonPatrick kept pressing him about his supposed feelings for Cecily was that he himself was still in love with Mary. He was joining the army in the hope of winning her heart back.
Everything now made sense.
“On the contrary, Patrick. I understand completely,” Nathaniel asserted. “You plan to join the cavalry, win honors and fortune, and thereby also win the heart and hand of Mary.”
“You do talk nonsense, Nathaniel,” Patrick muttered, flushing bright red. “I’m joining the army for me, not for her. She’s the most infuriating woman I’ve ever met.”
“Then why do you often follow her about?” Nathaniel challenged, now highly entertained by his brother’s mild discomfort. “It would be easy never to see young Mary at all in a house the size of Greyhaven Park, and yet I find you two arguing and sniping at one another in some corner or stairwell every day.”
“I’m not following her!” Patrick protested immediately and very unconvincingly. “It’s just that… I don’t see why I should make an effort to avoid her when I live here too.”
“You don’thave tolive here,” Nathaniel pointed out affably. “She does. Although I don’t mind at all if you wish to. Lilian likes having you around, or at least she likes the sweetmeats you always seem to be carrying.”
Patrick wasn’t really listening now. He was still determined to defend himself against the completely correct assertion that he often followed Mary around.
“Well, I cannot avoid Mary without avoiding Cecily, and even Lilian today, can I?” he argued. “They’re so often together.”
“You could eat your meals with Lilian in the nursery,” Nathaniel teased. “Then you wouldn’t have to stare at Mary across the dinner table.”
“Oh, go and boil your head,” Patrick grumbled, now reverting to childhood language.
“I’m sorry,” Nathaniel chuckled. “I was only getting a little of my own back, Patrick. I really am pleased with your decision to join the army, and will pay for the commission on the spot when you have it.”
Picking up his glass again, he raised it to his brother.
“To you, Patrick!” he toasted. “I’m not used to feeling proud of my younger brother. It’s a very strange feeling, indeed.”
Mollified, Patrick smiled back and raised his own glass. “To you, too, Nathaniel!” he echoed. “May you get everything you don’t know that you want!”
Laughing at his brother’s nonsense, Nathaniel clinked his glass against Patrick’s.
CHAPTER 21
“Jump, Buster!” Lilian called out excitedly, running alongside the small white terrier as it leaped over the series of small obstacles she had set up with chairs and sticks on a course around one of the lawns. “Yes! Jump again. Cecily, Mary! Did you see Buster?”
Cecily and Mary both applauded with genuine enthusiasm.
“Oh my, what a jump! Well done!”
“Now I’m going to jump too,” Lilian announced, tucking up her skirts and returning to the start line. “That’s how I showed Buster what to do when I first got him.”
As the little girl began to run and jump around the same course of obstacles, Mary and Cecily smiled at one another and applauded again.
“Lilian must have put a great deal of time and energy into training that little dog,” Mary remarked. “I’ve never seen a terrier do anything quite like that before.”
