Page 11 of An Accidental Elopement

“A couple of birds.” His expression was still eager, he still spoke quickly as if to get it over with.

Cecilia nodded and tried to make sense of his clear reluctance to talk about the hunt. Her father and brothers loved to go hunting, although her mother had been by earlier and told her that Algernon had abstained today in order to catch Lady Hester alone. But if they had shot a couple of birds, she could have been sure to be hearing about it for the next half hour.

“Is...” Cecilia moved to sit up straighter on the sofa. A frown furrowing her brow. Their conversations were usually not this stilted. That was one of the things she liked about him. “Do you not wish to talk about the hunt, sir?”

“The hunt was fine but nothing spectacular. Tell me about your day.”

“I was here. Reading.” The last word came out strangled as she felt a sneeze in the back of her nose. She tried to subdue the sound as she sneezed into her sleeve.

“Any visitors?” Lord Archibald asked and handed her a handkerchief from his pocket without looking at it. It was still warm from being carried close to his body and Cecilia told herself not to read anything into that detail as she gently wiped her nose with it, then hid the handkerchief in her fist, hoping he would forget he gave it to her.

“My mother was here. And Flint... Lord Lambourn came by right after the hunt. I believe he shot a couple of birds as well.”

“Yes, I walked alongside him for some of the hunt,” Lord Archibald told her. Now hesitantly, studying her face intently.

Cecilia could not help but blush a bit and look down at her clutched hand at his scrutinizing stare. He seemed to catch himself; at least he averted his eyes and cleared his throat. Then shifted in his seat.

“And you spoke of nothing but the hunt?” he inquired.

Cecilia met his dark blue eyes. Her grandfather’s estate was by the ocean and her father liked to take them all sailing in his yacht during the summer. Lord Archibald’s eyes were exactly the same color as the ocean on a bright summer day where they were so far from the shore that they could only barely make it out as a sliver of light sandy color in the horizon. Cecilia felt that she could swim in those eyes. Drown in them. Too late she remembered that she had to answer his question.

“I don’t recall. Nothing in particular at least.”

There was a very subtle change in his demeanor that told her that he was disappointed. A slight slump in his shoulders, his bottom lip protruding just a bit more than usual. Then he collected himself and the expression was gone.

“How are you finding the book?” he said, and his voice was back to the cheery charming register it usually held. “Would you believe me if I told you that I have never read a word of Austen?”

“I can easily believe it.” Cecilia smiled and gently tucked the handkerchief in between the pages of the book.

His strange behavior was pushed to the back of her mind, and it was not until she was alone again that she remembered it. He seemed to have expected Flint to tell her of a certain matter, only she was not sure what.

Six

The next couple of days, Archie kept an eye on his sister and Lord Lambourn. It was clear that they were both trying to not look at each other. Although sometimes failing miserably. Whatever had happened between them seemed to be over though. The looks were more of longing than of smoldering passion.

Since there had been no declaration, Archie deduced that Lambourn had decided that he would rather remain with Cecilia Gaywood. It pained him as Hester’s brother that she had been rejected and it pained him as Cecilia’s friend that she would have to live with a man who did not love her and clearly was not faithful.

Each night Archie made certain to retire after Lord Lambourn. He followed him discreetly to make sure that the earl actually made it to his own bedchamber. When he reached the family wing, he would walk past Hester’s door even though his own room was not that far down the hallway. Every night he saw a light under the door and more than once he could hear the subdued voices of her and her lady’s maid.

For the next three days, everything was normal, and Archie was starting to find his own manner bordering on stalking when he caught Lord Lambourn and Hester exchanging a look through the drawing room after dinner. Lord Lambourn was playing cards with his brother, Cecilia - who had joined the house party almost fully since her foot did not hurt as much - and the younger Miss Drummond but turned his head just briefly to look at Hester.

As Archie was sitting next to Hester, he not only caught the earl’s smoldering look but also how Hester quickly averted her eyes and blushed. Clearly, something had happened between them, something that he had not noticed since he was not following the two of them during the day. Archie clenched his fists and tried to remain calm as the conversation around him continued.

That night, Lord Lambourn did not go to his room when Archie discreetly followed him. Instead, he went to the library again. Archie paused in the shadows on the opposite side of the hall but when the earl did not emerge after a couple of minutes, he ventured closer and peeked inside. They were sitting on the windowsill, very closely. He could hear their subdued voices. When the earl reached out to take Hester’s hair from its pins, Archie retreated. He had no need to see the earl kiss his sister again.

He walked into the salon that Miss Drummond had chased him into a couple of days ago to think matters through. He could go back into the library and demand that Lambourn marry his sister. It would solve his problem of sneaking around as well as end Cecilia’s betrothal. Again, he hesitated though. Should he give Lord Lambourn a final chance to tell Cecilia himself? Even though his conduct was far from that of a gentleman, perhaps he would tomorrow given the opportunity.

Besides, barging in there now would only mean embarrassing Hester, which he had no intention of. She was the one of his sisters that he was closest to. Even though it gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach, he retreated to bed himself, hoping for an announcement at breakfast.

But as he came down to breakfast the following morning, he was sorely disappointed. Lord Lambourn had already broken his fast and gone riding with his brother, and when Archie headed to the morning room for luncheon, he was told that the earl was in the study with Mr. Gaywood finalizing the marriage contract between himself and Cecilia. Archie clenched his hands around his cutlery as he tried to focus on the food in front of him.

It was beyond his comprehension why Lord Lambourn would kiss Hester when he was engaged to Cecilia. All through the visit, Lambourn had seemed somewhat indifferent towards her and now Archie knew him to be unfaithful before the two of them had even married. He needed to stop this as much for Cecilia’s sake as for Hester’s.

After finishing the meal, Archie walked casually to his father’s study and waited in a salon opposite. It did not give him a view of the door, but he would be able to hear when Lord Lambourn and Mr. Gaywood exited. When they did, he would demand an audience with Lord Lambourn and make this farce stop once and for all.

What he had not expected was someone else to enter. He could hear the surprise in Hester’s voice as she said that she had believed her father to be in there and that she had come in to borrow a blot of ink. A couple of minutes later she came back out, clutching the ink in one hand. Her face had turned into a stony white mask.

He quickly moved to go to her only to see the door to her study, next to their father’s, close the moment after. He looked at the closed door and tried to figure out what to do. It was not like him not to act, but ever since Hester had been a large child, she had hated it when others saw her upset. She had once elbowed him accidentally in the face as he had wanted to comfort her - and get her off the ground - after she had fallen out of a tree when she was seven. She had wanted to see the sparrow fledglings in the nest, but a branch had snapped.