Page 18 of Engaging Sir Isaac

Jacob groaned and rubbed his forehead, while Silas shook his head slowly.

“You cannot be so dense,” Silas said, folding his arms upon the table and leaning forward. “Miss Wedgewood hardly said two words after that, though all of us tried to include her in the conversation. All of us except you. Of course, you did not say very much either.”

“My hope is that the ladies are salvaging the evening in the next room,” Jacob said lightly, wrapping one hand around his cup of coffee. “Otherwise, your fate will be settled.”

Isaac squeezed his eyes shut as he spoke. “I have done absolutely nothing wrong. A man can be quiet at dinner without giving insult.”

“Not if he made another guest uncomfortable by his conduct.” Silas used his lordly tone, the same one he employed when speaking to political groups. “We all interpreted your remark about guests to include Miss Wedgewood, so it follows she did the same. Then you remained silent, unpleasantly so, all evening. That curtailed her desire to speak. You have amends to make and asking the woman about her family will not suffice.”

“I agree,” Jacob put in. “You are going to have to do a great deal more to fix the situation, or none of us will hear the end of it.”

A pulse began behind Isaac’s eyes, thrumming at a steady tempo. A headache would soon follow. A dismal one, if he were to guess, that would leave him in pain for some hours. All because of a woman he barely knew.

Yet he saw Silas and Jacob’s point. “I would not upset Grace or Esther,” he admitted at last. “I will do what I can to set Miss Wedgewood at ease.”

The door to the dining room opened and Esther stepped inside. All three men rose, and Isaac’s heart sank. Esther was already sending a poisonous look. “Silas, I am afraid we need to be on our way. Miss Wedgewood has told me she is not feeling well. We must return her to the Alderton house at once.”

“Of course.” Silas did not argue, but as he went around the table, he made certain to meet Isaac’s eyes. “Good evening, gentlemen.”

Esther did not immediately follow her husband from the room. He likely went to inform a servant of their need of the carriage.

Esther came another step inside the room, fixing her brother with a sharp-eyed stare. “Isaac Fox, I have come to accept that you are not the man you once were, and that is understandable. But I am absolutely appalled by your behavior this evening. I have every reason to believe that Miss Wedgewood finds her situation in the Alderton house awkward and unpleasant. I had hoped to make her feel welcome among us, so she has a place of refuge while she is visiting. But your cold reception and lack of gentility served to show her she is unwanted here, too. It is most unkind of you.”

“I have hardly said a word to the woman,” Isaac argued, keeping his voice low. “If she wishes to be overly dramatic about the situation—”

“Overly dramatic?” Esther asked, voice pitched to match his. “It is not dramatic to find oneself friendless, Isaac. To feel alone. I thought you would understand that.” She shook her head, her disappointment in him settling like a weight upon his chest. “Good evening, Jacob,” she said to the vicar. “I am sorry we must leave early.”

“Quite all right, Esther. Good evening.” Jacob bowed, then cut into Isaac with his own disapproving frown.

“I haven’t any idea what you want me to do about the situation,” Isaac said when his sister left. “What any of you want me to do. I did not attempt to befriend Miss Wedgewood—I have no wish to befriend her. That was all Esther and Grace’s idea.”

The door opened again, this time allowing Grace inside. She sighed, hand at her back as though to support her large middle. “I have never had a guest leave with such speed.”

Isaac’s bravado faded. “Was it really my fault?”

Grace winced and came back to the table, retaking her seat there. “I am under the impression that Miss Wedgewood has a great deal to trouble her but being an unwanted guest has certainly dampened her spirits. I will not cast the blame on you, Isaac.” Then she offered him a tired smile. “Not the entirety of the blame.”

He dropped back into his chair. “Esther seems to think I was meant to somehow set everything to rights for Miss Wedgewood during her stay here.”

“Esther is in a rather unique position. I think she sees a great deal of herself in our new friend.” Grace raised her hand for Jacob to catch in his. He raised her knuckles to his lips and brushed a kiss upon them. Isaac lowered his eyes rather than see the intimate glance which passed between his friends.

He was happy for them. Happy for Esther and Silas, too. And Hope with her new husband, the two of them away in Spain for half a year now. Each of his dearest friends had found their other halves. Leaving him the odd man in the group. The lone bachelor.

While he might not understand Miss Wedgewood’s predicament, or her supposed discomfort with the marquess’s family, he could well appreciate what it meant when excluded from certain situations.

“I cannot like her,” he muttered aloud.

“Why ever not?” Grace asked, and Jacob appeared surprised, too. “You like everyone.”

“Not everyone,” he said at once. “Not people like the Marquess of Alderton.”

Jacob started to nod. “And Miss Wedgewood’s association with their family would give you pause. Understandably so. But we are not always like our friends, are we?”

“I found her trespassing on my land,” Isaac reminded them. “Asking impertinent questions about me.”

“Perhaps she needs another chance.” Jacob, as vicar, would have to suggest such a thing. Second-chances, opportunities to prove oneself changed, prodigal sons returning, and every other unlikely redemptive state of a mortal. Isaac had once reminded Jacob of a person’s need to both forgive and seek forgiveness. As Isaac disliked hypocrisy more than any other human fault, he had no choice but to follow the counsel he had once given to his friend.

“A second chance.” He rubbed at his temple again, the headache pulsing now against the backs of his eyes. There would be no sleep for him that night. All due to Miss Wedgewood’s appearance in his life. “Very well. When next I see Miss Wedgewood, I will attempt to forget my initial thoughts and impressions about her. Does that suffice?”