Page 77 of War of the Wedding Wagers
Lord Pendleton waylaid him with talk on a matter Sir Frederick could barely take in—something about horse breeding or perhaps it was crop rotation—and then instantly forgot.
Miss Playford smiled at him as she passed, her golden curls bouncing with each step, before stopping to speak to young Edward Fairchild. Miss Fairchild’s brother.
Amelia. The very thought of her name caused his chest to tighten.
The woman he loved had just frozen him out by revealing something so damning about her and her situation that he still couldn’t quite comprehend. Her eyes, usually so warm and direct, had been unable to meet his, and that perhaps had hurt more than anything.
She had a secret. Well, didn’t everyone? But clearly hers was dark, and she wanted to hold it close to her. She’d tried to deceive Sir Frederick.
That’s what she’d inferred before she’d walked away.
And then Henry crossed his line of vision and without remembering quite why he needed him, he hailed the young man with a short command, which he knew sounded terse.
But he wasn’t very happy about anything much this evening.
“Sir Frederick? I beg your pardon, but I’m in rather a hurry.” The young man cast a furtive look about him and then at the door, before saying, “My apologies, Sir Frederick, but something rather urgent has come to pass that I must attend to.”
Sir Frederick didn’t feel very sympathetic towards anyone else’s so-called emergency. His own was far more important.
“I need your help with a delicate matter—”
“A delicate matter?” Henry repeated, looking—Sir Frederick thought—remarkably alarmed.
“Yes. A woman.” Sir Frederick scowled at the thought of her. Bold, brash Mrs. Perry who’d be waiting for him in the library tonight to tell him, no doubt, more of why Miss Fairchild was so patently unsuitable and what she, instead, could offer him.
“What woman?” Henry asked, shifting from foot to foot as if he was itching to get away.
Sir Henry lowered his voice. “The widow. She wants me to meet her and I fear she plans to entrap me.” He hesitated. “I thought you might accompany me. You could ensure proprietywas maintained. In fact, if you hid yourself, she could speak freely and then it would be proved what she was about. Would you do that for me?”
Sir Frederick had known Henry his whole life. The lad had always been too happy to accede to Sir Frederick’s requests, so he was taken aback when Henry shook his head saying sorrowfully, “I must leave urgently, Sir Frederick. A… a message has just been handed to me and I’m afraid I’m required to attend a matter that really demands my attention immediately.” Casting about with an air of desperation, young Henry’s gaze suddenly alighted upon Edward who was in earnest conversion with Miss Playford, before he called him over.
“Fairchild! Perhaps you could assist Sir Frederick with a request that I am unable to fulfill,” he said. “You’re an amenable chap.”
And then Henry was gone and Sir Frederick was in the rather embarrassing situation of having young Edward gaping up at him.
Except that before either Sir Frederick or Edward actually said anything, Miss Playford suddenly unleashed her delightfully candid smile and said, “Sir Frederick, I know this is frightfully bold of me but Edward has just been discussing a very great conundrum with me that I know could be so easily fixed with such very little trouble on your part but that would ensure the future of a very deserving young woman who is about to lose it through no fault of her own.”
“Good Lord, Miss Playford! There’s no need to spill everything!” young Fairchild protested before Sir Frederick had a chance to respond. Which was just as well, because the truth was that Sir Frederick was considerably taken aback by her pronouncement.
“What is this? I’m the answer to safeguarding a young woman’s future? One she is about to lose? A little cryptic, don’tyou think?” He knew he sounded ill tempered. But the truth was, what was more important than the fact Mrs. Perry had set alarm bells ringing—compounded by Amelia’s own cagey behavior—and that the widow planned to use all her wiles to entrap him?
If not tonight, then at some stage. Why, he was concerned enough that he might find her insinuated in his bed this evening, such was her tenacity.
And then Miss Fairchild really would have reason to have nothing more to do with him. She’d already tried to insert a wedge between them with her strange talk of having a gambling habit she’d not mentioned before.
That certainly did not make sense.
And now young Edward Fairchild and Miss Playford were speaking in riddles; and just looking at Edward with his eyes so like his sister’s was painful because Sir Frederick had got a double dose of disappointment.
Was it really not going to work out with Miss Amelia Fairchild?
For whatever reason, there were obstacles of which he had a horrible inkling but which now appeared frighteningly insurmountable. Why else would she have greeted him with such reserve before revealing the extent of her wrongdoing?
And how did Sir Frederick feel? Confused? Conflicted? Yes, all of these things.
Now her brother was wanting something from him and he felt highly disinclined.
Frowning, Miss Playford sent him a more piercing look, then repeated, more slowly, as if Sir Frederick were an imbecile, “Edward very foolishly wagered his sister’s inheritance upon something that you can easily fix.”
