Page 28 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke
She met Hal’s eyes as she rose—somehow without collapsing at his feet—and found she could not read his expression at all.‘Your Grace,’ she murmured as he released her hand.
Now Mama was going to order tea and expect her to pour and make inane conversation, and she didn’t think she could manage a word.
To her huge relief, Hal turned and smiled at her parents.‘Sir, Lady Wiveton.I wonder if you will permit me a few minutes private conversation with Lady Thea?As old friends we have a great deal to catch up on.’
‘But of course.’Predictably, Mama was already halfway to the door, urging Papa and Drage before her.‘Do ring for refreshments, Thea dear.’
Thea was scarcely conscious of them leaving.She took two steps back away from him so she could see him properly.‘You… You absolute…Swine.’
The room began to blur and tilt and she reached out a hand, just conscious of it being take in a firm grasp before everything went black.
Chapter Nine
That could have gone a lot better, Hal thought grimly as he lowered Thea’s limp form onto the sofa.
Even as he wondered whether to make things even worse by ringing for a glass of water, she opened her eyes, then sat up.
‘You!’she said again, her voice shaky.Then it hardened as her gaze came back into focus.‘Youliedto me.’
Hal shook his head.‘I did not, although I admit I hid a great deal from you.’
‘A great deal?And you are still doing it,’ she said fiercely.‘You said your name was Hal Forrest.’
As he entered, Hal had noticed a copy of thePeeragelying in a side table next to a stack of partly addressed invitation cards.He picked it up and brought it over to the sofa, flicking through the pages until he came to his family’s entry.
‘See?’He held it out and indicated the place.‘Avery Henry de Forrest Castleton Vernier, sixth Duke of Leamington.I always hated Avery and I’ve gone by Hal ever since I was old enough to insist on it.’
Thea waved the heavy red volume away with a flick of her hand.‘That is just a quibble and you know it.You deceivedme, you and Godmama both.What were you doing there?’
‘Calling on my godmother on my way to the last visit of my tour of my estates before I came down to London,’ he said, laying the book down out of reach of an angry woman.ThePeeragewas heavy enough to fell an ox.
‘The final estate is really hardly more than a farm in Norfolk, it was no problem to leave that for the moment and stay for a while as our Godmama wanted.’
‘I amsoglad it did not in any way inconvenience you,’ Thea said, her icy tone at odds with the heat in her eyes.‘I told you why I was there, why I had run away, and you said nothing about who you were.Nothing.’She broke off, her bosom rising and falling with her agitated breathing.He saw the realisation strike her.‘They all knew who you were—Godmama, Fenwick, the other servants.Goodness knows what they must have thought.’
‘Godmama told the staff that I was travelling incognito,’ he explained.‘They had no idea why you had arrived or that it had anything to do with me.’
Thea closed her eyes, and he suspected that she was reviewing all the things she had told him and, probably, wishing she could sink through the floor while she did so.Or more likely wishing he would be the one to sink.
After a moment, she raised her lids and regarded him stonily.‘It did not occur to you simply to say who you were andleave?’
‘No,’ he admitted.‘By the time I realised what had caused your flight, you had poured out the whole story.I wanted to help and I could see that if I admitted who I was it would have been acutely embarrassing for you.’
‘Oh?And this is not?’she demanded.
‘I believed that we had established a friendship.An understanding.I thought that when I called here we would have the opportunity to discuss the situation.And I could apologise.’
‘For what, exactly?’She was not giving an inch, he thought, admiring her backbone even as he was inwardly wincing.
‘In the first place for taking you for granted and neglecting you all those years.Your description of my unthinking behaviour hit home hard, believe me.You have every right to feel angry about that.’
He meant it.Lord, what an unthinking fool he had been to accept that such a thing was settled and that he had no need to bestir himself.What if he had met Thea and found he thoroughly disliked her?What if she had been a shrew, or a selfish, self-absorbed woman who would have had no care for their dependants, their children?And that was just the practical side of the matter: he’d had no right to assume that he could simply command another person’s life like that.
Thea’s chin went up.‘Oh?I have yourpermissionto be angry, have I?Thank you so very much, Your Grace.That might be the case, but I am finding it very hard to forgive your neglect of me before now.You say you are sorry, you have apologised and I am sure that soothes your conscience, but it does not makemefeel any better about it.’
Hal nodded, accepting that.It was difficult to see how an apology and an explanation of complete thoughtlessness could compensate for the feelings she must have experienced when Thea realised she was expected to marry an almost complete stranger.Although surely she would not have expected to make a love match?Would she?
He pushed that idea aside.He had never had any thought of making such a thing, and she would not have been raisedto expect it either.People of their class married for many reasons, but love was never one of them.Now, somehow, that seemed a…lack.
