Page 72 of The Lover's Eye
“I thought you said you’d not flinch at his harsh words.”
“That was when I expected them to be aimed atme,” he said, his scowl softening under her touch.“I did not think it possible a man could speak so to his child.If I am ever to be a father, I will never commit such cruelties.”
Their eyes connected then, their expressions mirroring intwined self-consciousness and care.“If you insist on going to him,” Giles said softly, “you will not go alone.”
25
Giles recognized himself for a lovesick fool when his coach and four drew up to Ridgeway House a few days later.Before departing, he had placated Finch on many estate matters, Isobel had sent word of their travel plans to the Pembertons, and the newlyweds did not intend to stay above a few days in Cumberland.
Still, Giles was keenly aware he did not want to be there at all.The thick façade of the country house, darkened to the shade of charcoal by dumping rain, stoked fury in the pit of his stomach.
The humiliation of Lord Ridgeway’s rejection had been one thing, but now that Giles knew the old man had been deceiving him?Pretending Isobel was a willing participant in Elias’s courtship, when really, the man had been an imminent threat to her safety?
No, now Giles was disgusted.Vitriol pulsed in his veins, and he longed to throttle the man with his bare hands.
“Thank you, again,” Isobel said, giving Giles’s hand a brief squeeze as the vehicle stopped.“I know you’re only here for me.”
He smiled, struggling in vain to hide his sour feelings.Shewas worth it.She was why he would go inside and behave himself.No throttling.
In the time it took them to dismount from the coach and rush up the stairs, their outer layers became considerably soaked.A little rapid of water spilled off Giles’s hat as he bent his head to remove it.
“Welcome back, miss,” the footman said, smiling at Isobel as he took her wet pelisse.
Giles glared at the young servant until recognition sobered the boy’s expression.
“His lordship is expecting you in the study,my lady,” the footman amended.
Isobel looped her hand through her husband’s arm, giving him a pinched smile of encouragement.She had handled her father’s vulgar letter with grace—too much grace to be of her benefit—but Giles could see she was nervous to face him.
The study door was already open.Giles had not known what to expect.Just a scowling old man?A pile of trunks and a ‘good riddance’?At least it was not the barrel of a shotgun.Somehow, he had convinced himself that was a likely option.
What they met with was the same cloying, cluttered room, and a white-haired figure slumped at its opposite end.Isobel cleared her throat to try and wake her father, but he didn’t twitch a muscle.
They advanced toward him, and Giles’s eyebrow lifted in disgust, taking his top lip up along with it.Lord Ridgeway’s mouth gaped open, a pair of spectacles so low on his nose they pinched his nostrils, and a tabby cat curled in his lap.She purred loudly, alternately licking her own paw and the much larger, flaky-skinned paw of the viscount.
After successive attempts at verbal cues, all of which failed, Isobel had to reach across the desk and shake her father’s shoulder to wake him.
“What?”Lord Ridgeway bellowed as he awoke.He sat up, his spectacles tripping off his nose, and struggled to make amends with reality.Figuring it would take his sight to do that, Giles bent slowly and retrieved the spectacles.
Lord Ridgeway swallowed as he looked up at Giles.The men’s faces were near enough that there was no question of identity.
“Oh, thank you,” Lord Ridgeway said gruffly, taking the spectacles and outfitting them to his face.“I hadn’t known you’d come, Lord Trevelyan.”
“Isobel was gracious in allowing me to accompany her,” Giles said coldly, “lest she encounter any …trouble,during her travels.”
The old viscount’s mouth twitched, and he pretended to sort a few papers atop his desk.“Ah, good of you.Now that you are safely here, you are assured to meet withnotrouble, yes?”
“That is certainly my hope.”
“How have you been, Papa?”Isobel asked, going around the desk to give him a hug.“I feel it’s been an age since I last saw you.”
“An age?Perhaps your folly has made time appear much longer—”
Giles cleared his throat.A deep, gruff sound that stilled the air.Lord Ridgeway’s tone at once leashed into something more palatable.“It is good to see you, my girl,” he said.“I must offer you both my congratulations.”
The evening went remarkably better than Giles had expected.Isobel went to her chambers to freshen up from the day of travel and see to it that her belongings were packed correctly.Giles was obliged to stay below, in the study with Lord Ridgeway.
It was an awkward business at first, and never erred to pleasantness for Giles, but he could see the old man was trying.He did not broach the topic of their hasty marriage and seemed to sense he would be a fool to utter so much as a syllable of criticism against his daughter.
