Page 57 of Engaging Sir Isaac

Isaac turned to her, startled by that pronouncement. “What?” He had not drawn that conclusion from her stories.

“Years ago,” she said with a dismissive wave.

Isaac pulled the reins, halting the horse pulling the gig, and turned fully to her. He arrested her with his gaze, the depths of his feeling unconcealed. “I do not care if it was this morning or a dozen years ago. He ought to be called out. Drawn and quartered. Publicly flogged. Why did you not tell me that he was the man? You should not spend another moment in that house.”

Millie folded her hands in her lap, most primly. “That is all very easily said, Isaac, but not practical. Where do I go? Lady Olivia would not allow me to leave without doing her bidding first. Lord Carning is as capable of ruining my family as ever he was before. Lord Carning is a peer, the grandson of a duke. An heir. An accusation toward him would be no more productive than digging a tunnel with a teaspoon. The teaspoon will only bend and break.”

“I am not a teaspoon,” he muttered. “And he is just a man.”

“You could not even strike him without being brought up on charges.” The exhaustion she spoke of was evident in her tone. “And then my name would be bandied about all over again, a joke for men at their gambling tables, gossip over teacups. There is no justice for him, Isaac. Only trouble for me.”

Isaac stared at her, unable to argue. Though he wished to tell her she was wrong. Instead, he started the horse forward again. Without looking at her, he asked, “What was he saying to distress you when I arrived?”

He heard the slow intake of her breath, saw the way she shuddered before she spoke. “He reminded me of the past. Nothing more.”

Isaac did not press further. He sensed she would say no more, and he had no wish to upset her. “Then we will not speak of the past at all. Only of the present.” They continued down the road toward Inglewood and the sea, a path as familiar to Isaac as his own shadow. “You were quite terrible at Whist last night.”

Millie glared at him. “I did warn you. I almost never win.”

“I admit, I did not mind. Watching your countenance as you attempted to read my intent upon my face—it was as amusing as watching a play. Frowning, smiling, narrowing your pretty eyes.” He mimicked one of her expressions from the previous evening, furrowing his brow, pursing his lips, and narrowing his eyes.

Millie smiled at last, though with only the barest amusement. “I did not look like that.”

Isaac shrugged. “You did.”

“Sir, you are contradicting a lady. That is terribly rude.”

“The lady ought not tell falsehoods if she wishes me to agree with her.” He mimicked her expression again, this time drawing a laugh from her. “There. You know I am right. Though I will admit that you are a great deal prettier than I am, so the expression was not so terrible upon you as it is upon me.”

“Now you are just hoping I will call you handsome and soothe your vanity.” She scoffed and folded her arms. “I refuse to fall prey to your wishes, Isaac.”

“Positively unfair of you.” He guided the horse down the lane to Inglewood. It was the fastest way to the beach, to pass through Esther and Silas’s lands, and of course they would not mind. “We have been invited to take refreshment with Esther this afternoon.”

“We have?” Millie cocked her head to one side. “And what does she make of all the time you spend in my company?”

That sobered him. When he had returned his sister to her home the night before, after an evening of sitting as near to Millie as he could without crossing the lines of appropriate behavior, Essie had been gleeful. His sister talked of nothing else until they parted company. If no one else believed Isaac smitten with Millicent Wedgewood, his sister certainly did.

“Exactly what we hope everyone thinks.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “That I am falling in love with you.”

Apparently, that was not the thing to say to please Millie. She turned away abruptly, her bonnet obscuring her lovely face from view. “Will she be terribly angry when she learns the truth? When I leave and nothing more is said?”

They crested a hill before the carriage path dipped down the beach, and Isaac halted the horse at the top. The beach spread as far as they could see, in either direction, and the North Sea laid before them. Isaac took in the beautiful sight, the shining silver of the water and brightness of the sand.

“Millie.” He had to get the words right. Had to indicate just enough interest without leaving himself open for pain. “I have wondered, when all of this is over, if we can satisfy Lady Olivia, if you might be willing to see me again.”

“See you again?” He could barely hear her over the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore, or his heart thudding in his ears. “After everything?”

He nodded and forced more cheer in his voice than he felt. “Perhaps I could call upon you in London. Or you could come back, visit Esther. I know she wishes to spend more time in your company.”

“Only because she thinks the two of us might enter into a courtship.” Millie turned her gaze to the sea, closing her eyes as she took in a breath of the briny air. “My family will still have a great deal of recovering ahead of us. Even if I am invited to parties and events, even if my mother is welcomed back to the circles that closed to her, there will be a lot of work ahead of me.”

Isaac had called himself a fool before, but even he could not misunderstand what Millie tried to tell him. Polite as her words may be, her rationale pragmatic and straightforward, she was really telling him, “no, I will not see you again.”

Despite telling himself that he had known it was a ridiculous notion to entertain, Isaac’s heart cracked. He practically heard the sound as one would a branch snapping in two, or a vase dropped upon a marble floor.

He hid the pain behind a smile and a laugh, as he had when he first returned from war. “That is a shame. I find I enjoy your company. Even if you are a terrible partner at Whist.”

Millie took his words as permission to smile again. “Are we going to sit upon this hill forever, or will we drive along the beach as you promised?”