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The rest of the meal passed easily because she kept her mouth shut and allowed her parents to conduct the conversation.
But keeping her mouth shut was exhausting work, and she was quite spent by the time their evening came to an end. She walked Innes to the door, more like shadowing him and hanging back a little, because she wasn’t certain he had forgiven her yet, and she did not wish to rile him again.
He stopped abruptly and whirled to face her. “Are you going to hide like a timid squirrel or walk beside me and properly show me out?”
She let out her breath. “Then, you don’t wish to wring my neck?”
His smile was broad and generous. “I’m still contemplating it.”
“Well, put it out of your mind. It isn’t healthy to retain one’s anger, something about bile building up in one’s liver, or so I’ve read.” She wished to put her arms around him and hug him as she used to do when she was little, but that would have to wait for another time. He wasn’t ready for displays of affection, no matter how innocently intended. “I’m so glad you joined us. We had a lovely evening with you.”
He nodded. “I enjoyed it as well. Your parents have always been excellent company.”
“And me?” She winced, knowing he was not about to compliment her.
“You, Hyacinth? Well, you have always been…you.” He walked out the door, leaving her with her mouth agape. She let him go because she wasn’t certain what he meant by it and did not know how to respond.
Once he walked out of the front gate and was out of sight, she returned to her parents, who were seated in the parlor. Her gaze drifted to thedemi lunetable beside the settee and the box sitting atop it. “Oh, Papa! He’s forgotten my gift! He needs it desperately. You heard him going on about never marrying, always being alone, and being fine with it.Fine with it.He used to have the biggest, sweetest heart I’ve ever seen in a boy.”
She felt herself working into a snit, but not over him precisely. She was angry over the ill-treatment he had received throughout his life. He was now beaten down so badly it had numbed his heart to any joy. “I must bring it over to him tomorrow. Will you take me there, please?”
Her mother spoke up. “Hyacinth, you know I adore Innes and think the world of him. But you are my daughter, and I could not bear to see him hurt you. What are you doing?”
“I am only going to give him this gift.” She squirmed under their intense, scrutinizing gazes. “I would also like to add a little cheer to his house. I thought we might help him decorate it with boughs and ribbons and mistletoe.”
She sighed and sank onto the settee beside her mother. “And to answer the question neither of you is asking but are thinking, the answer is yes. I do love him. And kindly do not lecture me on the impossibility of love at first glance, since that is exactly what happened to both of you.”
Her father groaned.
“Unlike you, I did not need a hive of angry bees to lead me to Innes. I’ve known him all of my life. So, I suppose I cannot truly claim to have fallen in love at first glance. Perhaps fallen in love at first glance now that I am no longer in leading strings and out in society.”
“Stop mentioning that word,” her father grumbled.
“Love? Why not? It isn’t as though I intend to misbehave or allow Innes to lead me astray as you attempted to do when you first met Mama. Lady Withnall told me everything. You needn’t bother to deny it, because your own brother confirmed it was all true.” She was referring to her Uncle James, the Earl of Exmoor.
Her mother chuckled. “Your father was awfully naughty but irresistible.”
“I washonorable. I always intended to marry you.” He returned his gaze to Hyacinth. “I know what you are doing. It won’t work. You are my daughter. No man is getting his itchy paws on you before the two of you are legally wed.”
“Then we are in agreement. Perhaps by tomorrow, he will have made up his mind about me. Mother, do you wish to join us? Innes has a lovely townhouse in Belgravia. We can put together a box of decorations to bring over along with my gift. Papa, what time shall we stop over? Late morning? Early afternoon? Should we send him a note to let him know we will be paying him a call? Or should we surprise him? I would rather surprise him, because he might flee like a frightened doe, otherwise.”
Her father merely stared at her.
“Papa,” she said gently. “I am going to see him one way or another and do not wish to do it behind your back. So, will you escort me? Otherwise, I will go unchaperoned.”
She had promised Innes she would never again traipse through London on her own, and she meant to keep to her oath, but her father did not have to know it.
He threw his hands up in the air. “I’ll take you to him tomorrow at four o’clock.”
“Thank you, Papa. Why four o’clock?”
Her mother gave her a nudge. “Be quiet, Hyacinth. You’ve just won this round. Let it go. Give me a kiss and scurry upstairs to your bedchamber before your father has the chance to reconsider.”
She kissed them both but had a special hug for her father. “I love you.”
As she walked out, she heard her father mutter to her mother, “Violet, I’ll kill that boy if he breaks her heart.”
Hyacinth realized she would have to tread very carefully. Innes had grown an extremely hard shell around himself and was not going to allow her in anytime soon. But in all her haste and excitement, she had never considered one very important thing.
What if she was too late? What if he had already lost all feeling in his heart and would never allow her in?
