Page 56 of The Trouble with True Love

“Led me on?” She frowned, staring at him in bewilderment. And then, as she realized what he meant, her eyes widened. “You thought I’d expect a marriage proposal? Fromyou?” Her emphasis on the last word made him grimace, and then, she laughed, laughed so merrily that he felt like a complete idiot.

“I need not have worried on that score, it seems,” he muttered, watching her.

“Goodness, no!” Sensing that he was not as amused as she, Clara sobered and gave a little cough. “You may rest assured, Lord Galbraith, that the expectation you fear never entered my head. And if it had, I’d have booted it out again straightaway. We both know you’re not a marrying man.”

“Quite so.” Despite everything, he felt off-balance again, and truth be told, a bit nettled as well. She really was the most unaccountable girl.

“While I,” she went on, “am definitely a marrying sort of woman.”

“Yes,” he hastened to agree, nodding to emphasize that important point. “Most definitely.”

There was a pause. They seemed in complete agreement on the matter, and yet, he felt dissatisfied, as if there was something still unsaid, leaving him no clue at all what to say next.

“Our truce remains intact, I hope?” he said at last.

“Of course.” She gave a deep sigh as she looked up at him. “Oh, I’m so glad we’ve had this conversation,” she said, laughing again. “I feel so much better now. Although...” She paused, her smile fading, a little frown etching between her brows that gave Rex renewed cause for concern. “In a way, you’re right that you’ve given me certain expectations, though not quite the ones you feared.”

Rex readied himself—for what, he wasn’t quite sure. “Indeed?”

“The last time you attempted to broker a peace with me, you brought champagne.” She spread her gloved hands wide, demonstrating his failure in that regard, and gave him a look of mock regret. “You set a very high standard for yourself, Lord Galbraith, and now, I’m afraid you must live with the consequences. I’m not sure that I can accept any apologies from you if champagne is not offered in accompaniment.”

He laughed, and the tension and guilt he’d been flaying himself with all week broke apart and floated away on the warm spring breeze. “Now that,” he said as he ushered her to a nearby lawn chair, “is an expectation easily fulfilled. But only if you stop referring to me by my title and start calling me by my name. It’s Rex, by the way,” he added over his shoulder as he walked away, making for one of the footmen milling about with champagne, sherry, and lemonade. He plucked two flutes of champagne from the tray and returned to her side.

“Here we are,” he said, offering her one of the glasses before settling himself in the chair opposite hers. “It’s Laurent-Pierre, ’91,” he added as she lifted her glass. “A vintage as excellent as that ought to put me firmly back in your good graces, I should think.”

“Mmm,” she said, an appreciative murmur as she swallowed a sip of sparkling wine. “It’s lovely, but I’m not sure what that opinion’s worth, since I wouldn’t know one vintage from another. In fact, until the other night at Covent Garden, I’d never had champagne in my life.”

“Yes,” he said, smiling as he remembered her happy surprise upon discovering the magic of champagne. “I suspected as much. But I can’t imagine what took you so long.”

“Irene felt, and I agreed, that to imbibe spirits of any sort around Papa would only encourage his drinking, so we both chose to abstain while at home. So, thank you,” she added, raising her glass to him. “For introducing me to my first champagne.”

Among other things.

Thankfully, he managed not to voice that rather naughty thought out loud. “It’s understandable you and your sister would choose to abstain at home, though I don’t know why you haven’t had any champagne in the duke’s household, for they are not teetotalers. In fact, I see Lady David sipping champagne as we speak.”

“Lady David is married. She is also a very strict and watchful chaperone. I drink only what Sarah and Angela are allowed, which is a little taste of each wine served at dinner, and no champagne has been served at home. Unfortunately.”

“Best pace yourself, then,” he advised, grinning as she took another appreciative sip, “since you’re not accustomed to spirits. As for Lady David,” he went on, turning his head to glance again at the woman talking with Auntie Pet, “she seems to be in a more liberal frame of mind today. She’s looking right at us, and she doesn’t seem at all put out that you’re drinking a full glass of champagne in the middle of the day.”

“Yes, well, Carlotta is feeling amiable today.”

That took him back a bit, for Lord David Cavanaugh’s wife wasn’t known to be the friendliest of creatures, particularly not to his somewhat tarnished family. “Indeed?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Clara said, laughing. “Carlotta is capable of amiability... sometimes.”

Rex laughed, too, enjoying the wicked pause she’d put into her remark. “And what accounts for her friendly manner this particular afternoon?”

“That we’re here. The duke’s family hasn’t received many invitations this season.”

“Ah, yes,” he said, remembering what Auntie had told him about her family. “The Dowager Duchess’s scandalous marriage. It hurt the family’s social position badly, did it?”

“It did, indeed. Your great-aunt’s invitations—the ball, and now this picnic—have been welcomed with great delight by all of them, including Carlotta.”

“Well, if anyone knows what the duke’s family is going through, my family does. My parents made my family a favorite target for gossip and a juicy topic of London’s scandal sheets for years.” The hint of bitterness in his voice was unmistakable, even to his own ears. “Sorry,” he added. “I don’t mean to denigrate your family’s livelihood, Clara.”

“No need to be sorry. You have every right to feel as you do. If it’s any comfort, my family didn’t publish scandal sheets at all until my sister invented one. For a time, theWeekly Gazettewas a scandal sheet calledSociety Snippets, and the only reason Irene did that was because a scandal sheet can be very profitable, and we were in desperate need of money at the time.”

“Another thing I completely understand,” he assured her. “And I imagine your father’s drinking made him a very poor businessman?”

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