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“Jane greatly admires our brother. Do you see the way she smiles whenever she looks upon him?”
Flushing at being so obvious in her regard for the earl, taking another measured breath, she politely knocked on the door and went in when the countess bid her enter. Phineas and Mary and Sarah’s husbands were absent from the drawing room. Everyone else was gathered, and Felicity was almost disconcerted by the several sheets of newspapers about the room, being passed from one person to the other.
Oh dear. What scandal had the earl been caught up in? Felicity dipped into a curtsy and greeted everyone before taking a spot on the sofa beside Annabelle. It amused Felicity somewhat to see Mary and Sarah trying to hide a particular section of the news sheet. It also warmed her heart to know they cared enough about her feelings to hide the mention of any scandal.
A piercing emotion filled her chest, and she thought she would be happy indeed if she could call them sisters. As an only child growing up, life had often been lonely, which is one reason she had found the ladies at 48 Berkeley Square so refreshing and delightful. It was why she had grown so close to Lady Perdita and had even cried when she went away on her honeymoon travels with her new husband.
Felicity smiled at Mary. “There is no need to cosset me from any scandal concerning Phineas.”
A gusty sigh issued forth from Sarah. “I, for one, think a wife or fiancée should always be informed of her partner’s shortcomings.” Grabbing up a scandal sheet, she pushed it toward Felicity. “While you were in the town caring for your father, our brother was in town setting everyone on their ears by dancing with someone for the first time in two years! Her name is not mentioned, but more than one article claimed he appeared besotted.Bah!Phineas besotted with this wretch. Why I never heard the likes of such assumptions. I assure you nothing of the sort. They even wondered if their most famous elusive earl might take a bride this season. I agree with nanna that it is time to inform the newspapers of his engagement.”
Felicity swallowed a gasp and met the stare of the dowager countess.
Crafty old woman. Still trying to push her grandson against a wall. Oddly anger snapped through Felicity on his behalf.
“Only his lordship may decide if an announcement of our engagement is to be placed in the papers,” she said with icy firmness, which she then tempered with a small smile. “And I am the lady he danced with at Lady Arlington’s ball.”
Several gasps echoed, and only the dowager countess remained unruffled, but there was a very decided glint in her eyes.
“You!” Annabelle shifted beside her and cast her a look of admiration. “Well done. Phineas seemed to have exiled himself from fun! Not even when we keep our country balls does he dance. It is talked about and considered rude for the host to be so toplofty.”
“It was rather thrilling,” she admitted with a smile. “I was not aware the scandal sheets had run amok with it!”
The dowager countess thumped her cane. “I am surprised you were in town, Miss Harrington. Did Wyndham not collect you from the country?”
Felicity was saved from answering by the appearance of the very devil they talked about. Her whole body tightened with awareness whenever he was near, and her heart trembled with longing. He flashed her an amused glance and bowed to his relatives. “I am here to invite my fiancée on a picnic by the lake.”
His mother smiled, clearly delighted with this turn of events. She urged Felicity away, who gladly avoided the dowager’s probing stare and escaped with Phineas into the hallway. She leaned into his heat slightly, inhaling his warm, masculine scent. “That was rather close, a timely intervention on your part if I might say so. I daresay you should prepare to be interrogated by my presence in town when I should have been in the country,” she said, wagging her brow at him.
He watched her with an air of detached amusement. “Nanna will be fondly cautioned to mind her own business. Now off to our picnic.”
Felicity stared at him in surprise. “I was not so certain you had one planned.”
“You missed luncheon, and supper is some hours away, though I suspect you will not want to join us after our picnic.”
Several minutes later, Felicity understood that cryptic reply as she stood under a large oak tree overlooking his splendid lake, staring down at the feast laid out on blankets. The summer air felt crisp, clear, and chilly. She inhaled it deeply into her lungs, tugging her shawl closer to her shoulders. “Phineas, whatever are we to do with so much food?” she asked in shocked dismay.
He flashed her a quick smile. “Eat it,” he said with relish, tugging her down to sit on the thick blankets spread out.
She recalled his love of tasty dishes and laughed, only to sober when he used his finger to pluck a buttered garlic prawn in her mouth. She softly moaned at the succulent taste, her lashes fluttering closed.
He took a steady breath and slowly released it. “I knew it,” he said drolly, “that you were a fellow food aficionado. I could tell, because when we dine, you did not eat like a mincing miss but enjoyed the varied dishes.”
The incredible sensual beauty of his smile struck Felicity. An odd feeling stirred inside, and a wistful ache went through her heart. What would it be like to have this man as hers forever? Not just for a few nights? What if they could have more between them than a pretend engagement?
Breathless with the craving erupting inside of her, she looked away from his suddenly sharpened gaze. She glanced down at the thinly sliced roast beef, delicate white fish in a crème sauce, wrapped in some kind of pancake to make eating with fingers possible, large prawns in buttered garlic sauce, two halves of roasted quail, slices of roast pork, vegetables, and delicate chicken-filled pastries. Then her gaze landed on the lemon syllabub. He had remembered that she enjoyed it.
“Whatever are you thinking, Felicity?” he inquired in a low, curious voice.
She briefly turned away so he wouldn’t see the truth in her eyes. Felicity allowed her mouth to smile, despite the aching heaviness in her heart. “Let’s eat!”
They dove into the dishes with great enthusiasm. Nibbling on a piece of delicious roast pork, she said, “I think it rather astonishing you have such a…lithe body and can eat so much.”
He chuckled. “You sound like my sisters. I will tell you a secret. As a child, I loathed food and often appeared underfed. My nanna and mother despaired over me.”
Her eyes widened. “Never say!”
He swallowed the food he chewed, poured wine into two glasses, and handed her one.
