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‘Sulking! I am doing nothing of the sort.’ Nell heard her voice rise and got a grip on her temper. ‘You are a complete hypocrite, Marcus Carlow, glowering at me for talking to your brother then accusing me of sulking,’ she hissed at the crack in the door. ‘I don’t like you, I don’t want you—’
There was a loud thump on the door panels that sent her jumping back in alarm. ‘Nell!’
‘Will you stop shouting! Do you want the entire household here? Do you want to shame me in front of your sisters? Go away!’
Silence. Then, ‘You really are the most infuriating woman I have ever met,’ Marcus Carlow said. It must have been the muffling effect of the door, but she could have sworn he was smiling as he spoke. ‘Good night, Nell.’
‘Infuriating? Me?’ But there was only silence. Nell turned the key in the lock and flung open the door, spoiling for a fight. The passage was empty save for half a suit of armour on a pillar. ‘Oh!’ The temptation to slam the door was almost overwhelming. Nell closed it with care, locked it and stalked back to bed.
What do you do, she wondered an hour later as she punched her pillow in an effort to find a position where she might finally sleep, when you fall in love with a man whom you want to shake in exasperation almost as much as you want to kiss him?
‘The lake is frozen, so Potter tells me,’ Marcus remarked as he tackled a large and bloody beefsteak.
Nell averted her eyes from both the man and his idea of a reasonable breakfast and addressed herself to her toast and preserves. She was finding it very difficult to ignore Marcus while at the same time not give the appearance of doing so.
‘We could skate,’ he continued. ‘Potter says the ice is bearing—he and two of the other under-gamekeepers were on it last night.’
‘Oh, yes!’ Honoria was predictably enthusiastic. ‘We can all go and take a picnic and have a brazier, just like we used to do.’
‘I didn’t know there was a lake,’ Nell remarked.
‘It is more of a long, large pond,’ Lord Narborough explained. ‘It was made by damming the river to create a head of water for the mill lower down. Most of the streams around here are shallow, but they feed the Woodbourne and it has a reasonable depth.’
‘We crossed one of the tributary streams when Nell and I were riding,’ Marcus said.
She saw Hal looked up at the use of her first name. ‘So we did, my lord,’ she said with a little emphasis on the title. Hal’s lips twitched.
Unaware of the byplay, Lord Narborough tossed down his napkin and beamed. ‘A good idea. The sun is out, the frost is hard. Watson, tell the kitchen that we require a luncheon hamper and have the footmen take the brazier and so forth down to the lake.’
‘George,’ Lady Narborough began, then looked round the table at her enthusiastic family and smiled. ‘Oh, very well. The exercise will do us all good, I daresay. You have some stout boots, Miss Latham?’
‘I will just watch,’ Nell demurred. ‘I have never skated.’
‘You will love it. Please try, Nell,’ Verity cajoled, despite Nell’s firm refusals.
She was still saying no when they reached the lake-side an hour later. This was obviously a well-rehearsed excursion, with muffled-up footmen in galoshes throwing oilskin rugs over fallen trees for seats, a brazier and kitchen staff clustered around it making ready for hot drinks and luncheon. The staff seemed to be enjoying it as much as the family and it was hard, in the middle of so much laughter, to keep refusing to join in.
Nell stood by the edge, well wrapped up, watching while Lord Narborough executed intricate reverse steps with his wife, Hal whirled a shrieking Honoria in circles and Marcus fastened Verity’s skates.
Diana strapped on her own skates with a practised air just as Lord Narborough delivered his breathless wife back to the edge. ‘Miss Price?’
They stuck out for the centre, collecting Verity as they went. Nell tried not to feel envious. It looked such fun, so effortless. Marcus came up, as sure on his skates as he was on firm land. ‘Nell?’ She fought the urge to turn away and take refuge by the brazier.
‘I do not skate, my lord,’ she said politely, conscious of Lady Narborough not so very far away.
‘Nell, I want to make up.’ Marcus was smiling ruefully at her when she finally made herself meet his eyes.
‘Really?’ She began to walk along the edge while he skated slowly beside her. ‘After glowering at me last night and then hammering on my door for an argument? Do you assume I am going to corrupt your brother?’
‘Hal? Good God, no! Quite the reverse, I am sure. Hal is the most appalling flirt; I would not want your heart wounded, Nell.’
Would you not? she thought, wondering what he would say if she told him that she feared he had already broken it. ‘And that makes you scowl?’
‘Was I so fierce? I am sorry, Nell. My thoughts last night were not easy. I had some hard thinking to do.’
‘You seem more cheerful this morning,’ she ventured. ‘Have you made up your mind what you will do about your problems?
’
