AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How sad. I only hope that Saracen went to a good master. Do we know who? Perhaps I could purchase him from...”
“I doubt it,” said Stanhope with an unseemly levity. He strode across the terrace with a conqueror’s step, looking much as he had the first time I had seen him. My unruly heart began to tremble. “The new owner is quite infatuated with the beast and will not sell him for any amount of money.”
Normally that news would have, if not broken, at least damaged my heart, but right now my being was so overwhelmed with Stanhope’s nearness, the irrational pull he had on my unruly heart that I could barely think. It was the first time in two days he had deigned to appear, making even his sister the Duchess speak sharply about his lack of manners.
“How dreadful!” the Duchess murmured, then abruptly put down her wine glass and stood. “I must go - I had totally forgotten that I must speak to Crowdie about my new dress. She simply has to fix it. Come with me, Miss Barwick, I shall need your help.” And as one both were gone.
Stanhope gracefully sank into the newly vacant chair and chuckled.
“Dear Anne! Such a good heart, but such a bad actress. Now, I was most shamefully eavesdropping. You cannot really be considering returning to the United States.”
I sighed.
“Surely you are not going to demand that I stay as well. It would be far too disappointing to have you become an echo of Sir Mordecai and his kin.”
“His kin? Not yours?”
“By blood, surely, but not by choice or affection.”
He chuckled and reached for the glass of wine extended by an attentive footman. “Is rebellion bred into American bones?”
“Yes, it is. We do not suffer bondage well. I only wish that Father had been more forthcoming about his reasons for leaving England. About his family.”
“Had he been, would you have come?”
“Most likely not.”
For a moment his face hardened with a look that was almost sorrow, then switched back seamlessly to his habitual geniality.
“Then you would not have enjoyed the romantic attentions of Mountjoy and young Draycott.”
“Enjoyed? Hardly an apt choice of words. Nor would I have been subject to the machinations of Sir Mordecai and Basil. All of which I would happily have avoided.”
“Neither would you have seen Saracen,” he remarked, then with a definite but unquantifiable change of tone, “nor met me.”
An arrow of sadness stabbed through my heart. My life had been changed by both of them, even though I could never own the horse and the man... the man who had stolen my heart regarded me as nothing more than a pleasant acquaintance.
His gaze concentrated on the deepening black lace of the trees.
“So you are absolutely positive that no one here has claimed your affections?”
What could I say? My heart churned inside of me. If I said yes, it would be an outright and unforgivable lie. If I said no he would most likely misinterpret it as a tendresse for one of my two unrelenting and unwanted suitors. If I said ‘you’ he - as would any decent man - might regard it as a blatant advance from an unacceptably forward woman. As he had a title and presumably a rather acceptable fortune, I was sure that he was more than familiar with such predatory and scheming creatures.
As a result, I kept quiet.
“So what shall we do about our betrothal? If you leave people will, of course, divine what has happened, but it does seem rather an inelegant solution.”
“Yes,” I said when he was silent so long that it was obvious that he expected an answer, “it would.”
“You know Anne is planning a sojourn in London, though it will be miserable and bereft of company in the height of summer, but I daresay we could stage a monstrous quarrel amongst whatever company we can find there, and you can storm off to South Carolina with good reason.” Could I even pretend to quarrel with Stanhope? I didn’t think so, and so remained silent once again. “Or, if you are willing, we could make our betrothal a true one.”
His voice changed, becoming more hesitant and unsure, more so than I ever imagined his could be.
My voice sounded different too.
“A true... You mean you really wish to marry me?”
He looked over at me, the gaze from his blue, blue eyes washing over me like warm water.
