Page 7 of Not Quite a Lady
Lily watched him thoughtfully as he made his way to the door. Mr Lovell’s steam engines might be an interesting investment, she would have to find out more about it.
The fact that Mr Lovell’s broad shoulders and quietly dominant masculinity was making something flutter pleasantly inside her was, of course, nothing to do with the matter. She pulled the dance card off her wrist and scribbled her address on it.
‘There is a clean and respectable hackney cab waiting outside.’ She looked up and found he was standing by the table. ‘The driver will take you home.’
Lily got up and held out the card. ‘Thank you, Mr Lovell. This is my address. Let me know if you need an investor for your steam engines.’
‘Ma’am.’ He took her elbow and showed her out and into the cab which was standing at the kerb. ‘If I might venture some advice? Find a new fiancé, one who realises you are worth waiting for.’
Jack Lovell stepped back before she could do more than stretch out a hand and start a few words of thanks. He spoke to the driver, giving the address off her card she realised, then lifted his hand in farewell.
And I cannot find him again.Lily craned out of the window, but he had vanished into the fog, back into the coffee house.
She leaned against the lumpy squabs and made herself think.Adrian. What am I going to do about Adrian?
The illustrations inLa Belle Assembléewere delightful this month. Lily flattened the spread pages of the journal open under the weight of her side plate and tried to divert herself by studying the walking dress.
Three rows of cutwork ruffles enhanced with French knots ofdeep blue ribbon rose from the hemline, the cambric skirt was gathered high under the bust, contrasting with a bodice and sleeves in blue velvet with white puffs at the shoulders and cuffs. An ornate knot of velvet and lace was placed at the neck.
The shawl it was shown with was disappointingly plain and the bonnet no more than tolerable, but it had possibilities, especially in green velvet with a silk skirt. And more ruffles of course.
Lily narrowed her eyes and wondered which items from her jewel box would set it off best. The emeralds in the gold setting were the obvious choice, but there seemed to be some stuffy rule about coloured gems in the morning. Still, even with pearls, Adrian would admire it.
Lily picked up her neglected toast and bit into it thoughtfully, thankful that Aunt Herrick was breakfasting as usual in her room where she would remain for much of the day, venturing out later for a carriage drive or to go shopping.
In fact her mother’s sister was a nod to respectability more than a close and watchful guardian of her niece. Widowed and mildly eccentric, Anne Herrick excused her laxity with the accurate excuse that, as the widow of a mill owner, she would not lend her niece any countenance and could safely leave that to Lady Billington whenever Lily attended a social gathering.
But Aunt Herrick was an avid reader of all the papers and a mine of information about the glittering world she was devoted to propelling Lily into.
And, as a woman who had had no scruples about the tactics she had used herself to win the prosperous Mr Herrick, was equally open-minded in her schemes to entrap Lord Randall.
She seemed to have succeeded all too well. To Lily’s amazement Adrian had appeared on her doorstep the morning after that shattering incident in Piccadilly and confirmed his proposal of marriage.
‘But, last night…’ she had stammered, realising that she had not expected to see him again.
‘Lily, my darling.’ He had taken her hand and pressed a chaste kiss on it. ‘You must make allowances for a man in love. I should have realised how shy and innocent you are. No wonder you reacted as you did. I cannot pretend an innocence to match yours – you know that. But I have learned from this and I promise to behave from now on.’
And, to her own inner amazement, she found herself accepting his apology, accepting the engagement. It seemed the only thing to do in the face of his penitence.
What would happen if she rejected him now? But he had not been in any hurry to see it puffed off in the announcement columns, which was a trifle flattening, even when he explained that it would be best to deal with “all that boring business with settlements” first.
In other words, Lily brooded, the very large sum of money he was expecting her trustees would reveal to him as her inheritance. He would anticipate that all her assets would be his as her husband.
A frown creased Lily’s brow in a way which would have earned her a sharp reprimand if Lady Billington had observed it.
Would Adrian be very upset when the Trust was explained to him and he discovered that things were not quite that simple? And what was he going to say when he realised just how involved Lily was with the management of her inheritance?
She realised, guiltily, that she was half-hoping he would change his mind, not that that was a course of action a gentleman could take after what had passed between them. And not one a lady could tolerate either, if a merchant’s daughter who had allowed herself to be alone in a carriage at night with a man could be categorised as a lady.
Lily shook herself briskly and ordered another pot ofchocolate. Each member of the family had made sacrifices in order to advance the fortunes of the France clan.
Grandfather had scrimped and saved to amass the inheritance which her father had then made into a fortune. Her mother had died in India soon after childbirth, her father had weakened his health with his long hours and even longer journeys.
Her duty was to capture a title and respectability at whatever cost to her finer feelings. Papa’s grandsons would be gentlemen, it had been his dearest wish.
If only she could feel more enthusiastic about Adrian. She had not expected to love him, but she wished she could at least feel warmly about him. That faint glimmering of physical attraction had vanished after the incident in the carriage and had not resurfaced, even after four weeks.
Oh dear.She had burnt her boats, she was realising that now with the benefit of hindsight. If she could be transported back she would not have gone with him, whatever anyone else advised her, even at the cost of his proposal.
