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Perdie was the sister of a duke, and he in line to inherit as viscount. If one were to measure the differences between them, she far outstripped him, even adjusting for her gender. “I have nothing to say to you. I have not changed my mind on the matter, nor will I.”
A desperate look came over his face. “Even if I’m willing to discuss your demands? We can have a honeymoon abroad. A month or two, as long as you’d like until you get with child.”
Stunned, she stared at him. “What?”
“I will wait on you,” he said fiercely. “I will give you whatever time you need. Please, let us take a ride in the park and discuss this.”
The street around Perdie seemed to revolve as though someone had spun her. She fought for a steady breath and held up her hands to ward him away. “No.”
There should have been some gladness that he was finally willing to listen to her. But Perdie felt nothing of the sort. She frowned, unable to credit she felt no gladness. It struck her then she had never been in love with Owen. She had loved the idea of a romance and a marriage. Was that not what all young girls of fifteen dreamed about? A charming, handsome beau to sweep her off her feet. Only now she realized there had been no depths to their courtship. Nothing real like what she had shared with Thaddeus.
It hadn’t taken much more than Owen’s careful attentiveness to convince her that she was in love. His poems were a bit flowery but flattering. And he had spent a great deal of time flattering her vanity by telling her how beautiful she was.
Perdie laughed, so astonished by the revelations flowering through her. She made to walk away, and he took a step forward.
“You are my fiancée,” he said. “Let me make it up to you.”
The top hat tilted over his forehead, shadowing his expression. His mouth bunched in that way it did when he wanted to kiss her.
She couldn’t let that happen. She would sock him on the nose and let the scandal happen. Perdie balled her fist. Fortunately, at that moment, the door to her townhouse slammed shut. Lord Owen blinked and took a hasty step away. Perdie didn’t dare glance behind her, but the clipped footsteps brought an ally nearer to her with every breath.
When she had reached Perdie’s elbow, Felicity said, “The carriage has been seen to, Lady Perdita.”
Lord Owen looked between the two of them in desperation. “Do you have need of an escort? I’d be happy to ferry you wherever you’d like in my new phaeton. It was meant to be a wedding gift, but my father gave it to me early.” He gestured to the equipage, but Perdie didn’t pretend at admiration.
Perdie replied politely, “No, thank you, Lord Owen. I believe Miss Harrington and I will wait inside. There isn’t room in your phaeton for three. Good day.”
She turned her back on him, even though it made her shoulders tense, and her breath came short. Felicity remained by her side with every step. She let Perdie ascend the stairs first, putting her body between her and Lord Owen.
As the butler opened the door to the townhouse to admit her, Lord Owen called after her from the street. “I’m not giving up on you, Perdie.”
She held her breath until the door shut on him and cut him out of her life.
If only she could be certain it was permanent. She wanted to curse. Recalling that she promised herself to be free and unfettered, she did, only in her thoughts.
Damn it!
* * *
Perdie somehow feltas if she floated in the air, stepping into the entryway of 48 Berkeley Square. In another room, she heard the easy laughter and chatter of the women she counted among her friends. How she had missed them and their comforting camaraderie. Did they know she had run away? She wanted to grasp Felicity’s hand for comfort but held herself steady.
However, Lady Theo was not here. Would the others know to welcome her? Had they noticed her absence at all?
The first woman out of the room to greet them was not Lady Theo, but near enough. Lady Theo’s bosom friend, Lady Charity, always seemed to be puzzling out six problems at once. Still, on the rare occasions when her vivid green eyes rested solely upon a person, it was with an intensity that made all of Perdie’s self-conscious doubts bubble to the surface.
When she spotted Perdie and Felicity in the entryway, Lady Charity lifted her gloved hand to her mouth and blinked owlishly. “Oh, bless me, you’ve returned!”
“Yes. My ah……my cousin is recovering.”
Perdie hated to lie to her friends, but she had promised mama she would tell no one she had ran away. It only needed one loose lip to light the fire to the scandal of the season. Perdie didn’t want to make an unforgivable blunder. A blunder such as admitting she had been in the company of a man unescorted, a man who had curled her toes with passion. A man who had proposed to her before she’d taken flight and come home.
It was different, being back in London. She had stayed in for a few days, just reading. But once she ventured outdoors, the strictures of society closed around her like an ill-fitting corset. She found it difficult to breathe. More than ever, she longed to be out at the side of a stream, teasing Thaddeus while he hunted for fish with sharpened sticks.
But that wasn’t her life. That couldn’t be the scope of her life. Even if she felt like she was missing something in gathering her family’s formidable name around herself once more. Something she’d never noticed lacking before.
Lady Charity waved her hand through the air. “Don’t give us that drivel. We know you ran off after Theo turned you away from the club.”
Perdie’s stomach twisted inside out. “What?”
