Page 37 of Christmas Comes to Little Valentine

“Damn it, Nat, who is this girl? I hear she has no people, no money, she’s come out of nowhere.”

“Hereford,” Nat corrected. “Not nowhere.”

“Ah, yes,” Hawkney said, regarding him thoughtfully. “You were visiting an old schoolfellow when you met. It must have been very romantic.”

“It was, and she’s a lovely girl, Hawk. Respectable, and clever too. Lord, is she clever. I reckon she’d even run rings around you.”

Hawkney was silent for a long moment. “Then I shall look forward to meeting her,” he said abruptly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

Nat blinked. “Is that it?”

“Is that what?” Hawkney replied calmly, opening a ledger and turning it to the correct page.

“The lecture. Where’s the bit about the family honour, lineage, what we owe to the name, et cetera et cetera?” he demanded, thoroughly unsettled by this unaccountable lack of reaction.

“And precisely what difference would it make to your plans if I ranted and raged and told you that marrying a woman you barely know and who has nothing to recommend her was a terrible idea? If I pointed out that you owed your family and your name a good deal more respect than you ever give them?”

“None whatsoever,” Nat said frostily.

“I rest my case,” Hawkney replied, having already turned his attention back to the book.

“I take exception to the ‘nothing to recommend her’ remark, for she has everything to recommend her. I’m the bad bargain, I assure you, but I cannot help but point out that you are an unfeeling bastard, Hawkney.”

“Yes, so I’m told,” his cousin replied, dipping his pen in the inkwell and looking entirely unconcerned.

Nat sat forward in his chair, glaring at the devil who never failed to vex him. He was always so damnably in control, so… so emotionless. Even when he lost his temper, he didn’t shout and stalk up and down the room or wave his hands about like a normal person. If only something would ruffle that perfect exterior.

“Hawkney, old man, you are a damned cold fish, I only hope that you fall in love one day, irrevocably and helplessly in love with no hope of rescue, and to the most unsuitable girl one could possibly imagine, for it couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow. Lord, but I shall cheer for her.”

“I am afraid that will never happen, Nat, so you are doomed to disappointment, but if you are quite done, I really am rather busy today.”

“Oh, I’m done,” Nat said, surging to his feet. “Have fun with your ledgers,” he added over his shoulder as he made his way out.

Tempting as it might have been to slam the door and vent his feelings, it would only make Hawkney feel increasingly superior and he needed no help in that regard. Besides, Nat wasn’t a child any longer and such behaviour was beneath him, he assured himself.

Making his way back to the entrance hall, he looked up and felt his anger fall away as he saw Meg coming down the stairs. She looked pale and anxious, and he knew at once that she had heard about Hawkney’s arrival.

She hurried down the last steps, gazing at him as if she could read the information from his face.

“Well? You look agitated, are you agitated?”

“It’s all right. He was damnably provoking, but then he always is. He knows it’s none of his affair, though, and won’t interfere.”

“Then, there was no confrontation, no angry words or—”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Nat assured her, though even as he said the words he did not believe them. Hawkney didn’t like it, and when Hawkney didn’t like a thing, it usually went away. Well, not this time, he thought grimly. No matter what.

“Oh!” she let out a sigh of relief, and he felt wretched as he realised how worried she’d been. “Thank heavens.”

Nat smiled at her and was about to suggest they take a walk to the town and look at the shops as she’d wished to, when his mother came hurrying out of the front parlour.

“Well, there’s the carriage coming down the driveway to deliver Miss Percy, and what I shall do with her, I cannot think,” she said crossly, glaring at Nat, who held up his hands.

“Don’t blame me, Mama, this is all your doing,” he said, rather amused though he felt dreadfully sorry for the poor girl. “I hope you did not tell her why you were bringing her here?”

“No, indeed! I know you think me a ninny, Nathaniel, but I do have a little sense, and besides, I know how contrary you are, as you have proven to me once more. However, I did think you would suit very well, but that’s by the by. I’m sure Miss Bancroft is a very nice person,” she said, sending Meg a doubtful glance, “though it is such a shame she has no dowry and no family. Such an odd thing to have no family at all when we have first cousins and second cousins and cousins by marriage and great-aunts and uncles leaping out at us at every turn, or so it seems. Indeed, it is very strange,” she repeated, slanting Meg another considering look as if she wondered at the possibility of it being her own fault.

“Well, there might be distant relations,” Meg said apologetically. “But Papa was such a recluse, and he never spoke of any, nor left me any details of any, so I could not say.”