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Delagarde bent a disconcertingly penetrating gaze upon her. “Do you?”
“I might. I don’t yet know, I have barely met him. That is not the point.”
“I take the point,” he returned, trying to suppress the rise of a sensation of wrath which he knew to be misplaced. “Rest assured that when someone suitable does apply, I shall refer the offer to you.”
Maidie fairly gasped. “Someone suitable? You are to judge their suitability, and I have nothing to say to it?”
“For God’s sake, Maidie, get off your high ropes! Be glad I rate your intelligence high enough not to suppose you so idiotic as to consent to marry a mere boy of twenty.”
“If that is the case,” said Maidie, jumping up, “you ought to suppose me capable of making up my own mind.”
“No, because I don’t trust you! You are both impulsive and reckless, and your candour is a recipe for disaster.”
“Well, it is my disaster—not yours!”
Delagarde strode up to her and took hold of her shoulders in a way which was becoming habitual. “I am not going to let you ruin your life, so don’t think it!”
“Let me go! It has nothing to do with you—as I have several times informed you.”
“You made me responsible for you, you obstinate little vixen! If you don’t like the consequences, you have only yourself to blame.”
Maidie wrenched herself out of his hold, pulling away. “You need not think you can go on in this high-handed fashion with me, for I won’t bear it. You know very well I never wanted you to interfere in my life.”
“That is past praying for. And if anything was needed to demonstrate I must interfere, it is the collection of freaks you saw fit to encourage to dangle after you.”
“Freaks!”
“Yes, freaks. And let me warn you if that clodpole Lugton takes it into his head to apply to me, he may look to have his ears boxed.”
“He will not apply to you because I will not let him. If I choose to marry him, nothing you could do or say would stop me, so don’t think it!”
Delagarde barked a mirthless laugh. “You have a very poor understanding of my powers.”
An abrupt frisson jerked Maidie off balance. Adela’s voice came back to her:You have placed yourself wholly in his power. Her pulse missed a beat, and started up again unevenly. She fixed him with a stare, but lost control over her voice.
“D-don’t think I am un-unaware of what you intend by this. You m-may think you can m-make me do what you want, but you are m-mistaken. I am n-not afraid of you, Delagarde, and I know how to protect myself.”
There was a tumult of emotion in Delagarde’s own breast: fire and fury, a devil of violence to which this female drove him, and which threatened every moment to overwhelm him. But these words threw bafflement into the pot.
“What are you talking about?”
Maidie saw the change in his face and was brought up short. That was stupid. She must not let him see her suspicion. As well blurt out at once she believed he might be planning to trick her into matrimony. He was bound to deny it. She shifted away.
“It—it does not signify. Rest assured I shall marry whomever I please, fortune-hunter or no, and you have nothing whatsoever to say about it.”
Delagarde fell back. The dark eyes burned, and he spoke in a voice of suppressed passion. “If that is how you feel, I cannot think why you enlisted my help in the first place. You might as well have married Lady Shurland’s brother. Do so, for all I care. Marry whomever you please—it is nothing to me!”
He turned on his heel and walked quickly out of the saloon.
Chapter Thirteen
In a mood of great unease and tension Maidie set forth to attend the Rankmiston ball early upon the following week. It was set to be the high point of the Season, which was one of the reasons Lady Hester gave for refusing to allow Maidie to cry off. She had protested in vain.
“But only think how embarrassing, ma’am. Young Oliver will scarcely feel himself able to look me in the face.”
“Nonsense, child. If all young men who received a rejection were to abjure the society of the object of their affections, the rooms of most of our hostesses would be very thin of company.”
“I can scarcely claim to be the object of Oliver’s affections.”
