Page 29 of To Love and to Loathe
Diana looked at her with suspicion. “Why areyouso interested? Did that cozy tête-à-tête with Belfry make these activities sound rather appealing?”
Emily did flush at this. “I am merely seeking to become… more well-informed.”
“I’d wager Belfry would be more than willing to help you in that endeavor,” Diana said sweetly.
“So,” Violet said, seeming to think this interlude had gone on quite long enough, “let me be certain I understand this. You and Jeremyare…” She waved her hand, searching for the appropriate euphemism. “… becomingintimately acquainted, shall we say?” She waggled her eyebrows in an exaggeratedly lascivious fashion, and Diana reflected, rather grumpily, that Violet was somewhat insufferable when she was happy. “But you have no desire to marry him, which the dowager marchioness seems to be angling for. So your solution is to—even as you engage in said intimate activities—try to get him married to someone else?”
“I’m not trying toactuallyget him married,” Diana said, exasperated. “Or at least not to Lady Helen.”
“I would certainly hope not,” Violet said. “You’re skilled, Diana, but no one’sthatskilled.
“I still have eleven months to see him wed, according to the terms of our wager,” Diana said. “There’s no need to rush the matter.”
But, even as she spoke, the wheels in Diana’s mind began to turn. Surely,surelyLady Helen could not be as dreadful as she seemed. No one wasthatdreadful. Perhaps she merely needed some assistance in wooing a gentleman as marriage-shy as Willingham.
The fact of the matter was, Diana despised losing—to anyone at all, but particularly to Willingham, with his smirking and his eyebrow-raising and his mere existence. And for that reason, she was determined to see him wed in the next eleven months, no matter what it took. And how much easier it would be to ensure such an outcome if the lady she chose to play this role was the one she had already so conveniently redirected his grandmother’s attention to? Willingham was a strong-willed man, but surely even he would crumble beneath the combined will of Diana and the dowager marchioness.
“What are you thinking?” asked Violet, who had been watching Diana’s face shrewdly as her mind had raced.
“Well,” Diana said slowly, knowing her friends were going to think her mad, “I was just wondering if perhaps we don’t give Lady Helen enough credit.”
“Credit for being dreadful?” Violet asked. “I assure you, I give her plenty of credit in that regard.”
“We’ve crossed paths a fair number of times, and she is quite awful,” Emily agreed.
“Oddly so, in fact,” Violet mused. “Her brother is quite alluring.” She had a vague, dreamy expression upon her face.
“Violet!” Emily said, shocked. “You are married!”
“And only recently reconciled,” Diana chimed in. “Don’t ruin your reconciliation by mooning over Rothsmere.”
Violet laughed the laugh of happily married women everywhere, secure in their husband’s affections. Diana, despite having been married for over two years before Templeton’s death, had never laughed that laugh. “I’m married, not dead,” Violet said. “Rothsmere is exceedingly handsome. And charming.” She gave Emily a speculative look. “In fact…”
“Oh, no,” Emily said, nipping that line of conversation in the bud before it could even be properly begun. “We are not talking about me anymore. We are discussing Diana.”
“So we were,” Violet said, but not before giving Emily a glance that said, quite clearly, that she was mentally bookmarking this discussion to be continued later. Diana found it rather disconcerting to realize how much energy Violet had to meddle in her friends’ lives now that her own marriage had been so happily, if laboriously, reconciled. The change in her friend, in fact, made Diana feel a bit odd: she realized that Violet had not been quite, well,Violetfor so many years, and that she, Diana, had not entirely noticed it until Violet was acting likeherself again. What kind of friend was Diana? Was she so self-absorbed that she could fail to notice a friend’s misery? That thought made her, quite suddenly, think once again about the dark circles beneath Emily’s eyes, and she vowed that this was one conversation that she, too, would continue.
At the moment, however, both of her friends were peering at her curiously, rather as though she were a particularly exotic animal. She could not entirely blame them, given the day’s events.
“Willingham and I have come to a mutually agreeable arrangement,” she said briskly, trying to keep any hint of sentiment out of her voice. Evidently she succeeded, because Emily looked disappointed and Violet rolled her eyes. “This arrangement has no bearing whatsoever on his grandmother’s efforts to marry him off, and that is why I’ve decided to distract her by finding a different matrimonial candidate for him.”
“You think he is going to suddenly decide that Lady Helen Courtenay is his ideal wife?” Violet asked, extremely skeptically.
“I’msayingthat the lady perhaps deserves some further investigation,” Diana said carefully. She knew this was a stretch, and yet it seemed too easy an opportunity to pass up entirely. “Her brother is delightful, and seems to like her well enough, so she can’t be as dreadful as she seems. It’s only a matter of making Willingham realize it.”
“Why do you care so much, Diana?” Emily asked curiously.
“Have youmethis grandmother?” Diana exclaimed. “I’ve no intention of spending the next fortnight with her trying to trap me in a locked room with her grandson.”
“I imagine she won’t need to try very hard,” Violet said with unholy glee. “I think it likely you’ll trap yourself without much prompting.”
“That is quite enough commentary fromyou, Violet, thank you very much,” Diana said peevishly. “I’m going to seek Lady Helen outand try to get to know her a bit better. She and Willingham might suit perfectly.”
And Diana would be one hundred pounds the richer, just like that—and, far more important, she would have the satisfaction of having bested Willingham. She did not wish for much in life—a comfortable house, an extensive wardrobe, and a plentiful supply of paint and canvas were all she really asked for. But the sensation of winning a wager against Willingham? Yes, she would admit to wantingthatrather badly.
She sat back, feeling rather pleased with herself. It was an entirely sound plan.
Violet and Emily regarded her as though she had recently escaped from Bedlam.
