Page 64 of Appointment in Bath

“Settled in with the Pinnocks, by all accounts. Sober, miserable, and entirely out of trouble. Mr. Pinnock is probably exerting himself to find a suitable match for him. He’ll have the signore leg shackled before the year is out, mark my words.”

“I should have liked to meet him.”

“I’m confident you shall eventually. Ruggiero was quite curious about you. He appreciates a pretty girl, the bounder.”

“I wish all gentlemen were so inclined.”

Ivo cast his sister a sidelong glance. “Speaking of gentlemen… Who is this Charles Heywood, really?”

“I told you,” Kate said. “A former naval lieutenant of excellent family. He has a sister, as well. A charming girl with eyes that are two different colors—one blue and one brown. Jack and I met them last week when we called at Heywood House.”

Ivo had heard tell of her impulsive journey to pay an unannounced visit on the mysterious ex-lieutenant. Kate must be very well gone indeed if she had stooped to chasing a gentleman down at his family’s country home. “Yes, but who is he to you?”

“No one.” Kate’s gem-like eyes gave a mischievous twinkle. “Not yet. But he will be by the time I’ve finished.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s nothing of the sort. I only mean to court him. We’ll walk and ride, and talk and dine. He can play games with us the first evening, which will show my skills at cards and charades to excellent effect. And then, the second evening, we shall waltz together.”

“Where? There are no local assemblies at present, and it’s too late to plan a ball.”

“We have no need of either. We’ll simply clear the drawing room. You, Jack, and James can take turns dancing with the lieutenant’s sister while the lieutenant and I—”

“You and your elaborate plans.”

“Don’t disparage them. One must plan if one wants to succeed.” Kate’s expression turned thoughtful as they tramped up the snow-covered drive. “Granted, we’ll be woefully short of ladies, but that can’t be helped. There’s no one hereabouts worth inviting save the vicar’s daughter and she caught cold while visiting her father’s parishioners. Which is all to the good. I shouldn’t like the lieutenant to meet Miss Colfax. She’s too perfect for words. My own personality might suffer by comparison.”

Ivo sighed. As an older brother, it was his duty to discourage her calculating romantic schemes. To counsel caution—and reason. But he didn’t feel much like warning Kate against her heart when his own heart was in such a sorry state. “What if mother and father don’t approve of him?” he asked instead.

“Why shouldn’t they? Anyway, it’s me who has to live with the gentleman I marry. I shall dashed well have a hand in choosing him.”

“But you might have anyone. When you return to London next month—”

“I don’t want anyone. I want the man I want, not some well-bred suitor I’ll discover during yet another tedious season. It’s a matter of the heart, not the head. You’ll understand that when you meet the right person.”

Ivo once again lapsed into silence.

“It’s not Miss Burton-Smythe, by the way,” Kate said.

His gaze jerked to hers.

She gave him a knowing look as they ascended the front steps of the house. “James mentioned it before Christmas when he went after you. You weren’t really calling on her, were you?”

“No,” he said. “I haven’t called on her.”

Not formally. Not yet.

It wasn’t for lack of wanting to. There had simply been no opportunity to do so.

As chance would have it, one didn’t present itself until over a week later, the very day that Kate’s guests arrived at Beasley Park.

Ivo remained just long enough to greet them in the drawing room along with the rest of his family.

Lieutenant Charles Heywood was as dark as the Beresford men were fair. He towered over Kate, and over Ivo, too, with an unmistakable military bearing. Ivo half expected the man to start barking at them to man the guns or swab the deck or some such thing.

Miss Heywood was markedly less imposing. A strikingly lovely girl with deep auburn hair, mismatched eyes, and a sweet softness to her features, she spoke in a low velvet murmur and scarcely made eye contact with any of them.

James looked at her rather too much.