Page 30 of Lady Controversial
‘She does not deserve you,’ Ellery said softly.
Isolda’s eyes flew open and her head returned to its regular position. ‘What an odd thing to say. We can choose our friends but our relatives are foisted upon us, obliging us to make the best of things.’
Ellery thought of his mother, his elder sister and her likeable yet sometimes pompous and easily led husband who appeared to have taken up near permanent residence beneath Ellery’s roof, and sighed. His younger sister was the only female relative for whom he had any patience and yet he felt compelled to defend them all simply because…well, because they were his family.
‘What of your aunt?’ he asked. ‘Since she is sponsoring your sister’s presentation, it seems reasonable to suppose that the two of you might live with her.’
‘Oh no!’ Isolda shook her head emphatically. ‘That is impossible.’
‘Why?’
Isolda chuckled. ‘Because she and I would kill one another within a week.’
‘Even so, she is your aunt and you just pointed out the unbreakable ties that bind families.’
‘Ah, but you fail to make allowance for the fact that my aunt and I do not see eye to eye. She would take Jane in without a second thought but cannot abide the prospect of having me living beneath her roof.’
‘Good heavens.’ Ellery raised both brows. ‘What on earth is so objectionable about you? Please have the goodness to explain.’
‘I have no obligation to explain anything to you, Lord Finchdean.’ Her playful smile softened the reprimand. ‘However, if you are asking me to hazard a guess then I might suggest that I am neither feminine enough nor compliant enough to rub along with Lady Bellingham’s exacting standards.’
‘In which case she is a blind fool.’ He smiled at Isolda, thinking her feminine to her fingertips, despite her unorthodox attire, about which she didn’t seem to have given a second thought. She certainly didn’t seem embarrassed by it, and hadn’t once asked him to excuse her appearance. The business in the clearing with the sword played on Ellery’s mind, increasing his curiosity about this most unusual and elegant of creatures. ‘But then I have always thought that about her.’
‘Nonsense!’ She raised an eyebrow and sent him a speculative look. ‘I doubt whether you are even acquainted with my aunt.’
‘Very likely not.’
‘Jane will have to live with her when the season gets under way, but I promised Papa most particularly that I would make her my responsibility until that time came.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t know why it was so important to him, although he and my aunt were not on friendly terms either, so perhaps that has something to do with it. He would have blamed himself for his recklessness in depriving Jane of her presentation, though, which is why he told me to let it go ahead if our aunt offered her services in that regard.’ Isolda paused. ‘He seemed confident that she would, but I couldn’t get him to explain why. Anyway,’ she added, sighing, ‘a promise is a promise, it meant a great deal to Papa, and I gave him my word, so…’
They walked on in silence for a while, smiling at Brutus who had appeared from nowhere and now darted in and out of the trees, kicking up leaves in his pursuit of only he knew what.
‘There must be something more to it than that,’ Ellery said after a prolonged pause, sensing that she was holding something important back.
‘My aunt does not like me because I am not my father’s daughter,’ she said eventually.
Ellery’s mouth fell open. ‘I beg your pardon,’ he said when the power of speech was returned to him.
‘I am the result of a tryst between her late husband and my mother, which would rather explain her antipathy towards me, don’t you think?’
Chapter Ten
Isolda watched the earl closely as she revealed a secret that she had never shared with another living soul. She was at a loss to know why she had enlightened Lord Finchdean, or why she had walked away from the cottage with him dressed little better than a tramp, for that matter. It seemed futile to apologise for her attire, so she hadn’t attempted to do so. If he found her appearance offensive, he could have left as quickly as he’d arrived, and having given her no advance notice of his visit he must take her as he found her. She was clearly a novelty value from his perspective, and he hid his bemusement behind a veil of gentlemanly conduct.
She was grateful that he hadn’t arrived five minutes earlier, otherwise he would have caught her with her sword in the clearing, and that situation would have taken some explaining. Not that he was entitled to expect an explanation, but she knew that would not have prevented him from demanding one.
He had discomposed her by coming to her again in person, which perhaps explained the confession that she had not reached a conscious decision to make.
‘I beg your pardon,’ he said politely for a second time.
‘I believe you heard me,’ she replied calmly. ‘It is hardly a revelation I would make without being fully cognisant of the facts, and I dare say your imagination will save me the trouble of a more fulsome explanation.’
He paused beneath an oak tree that showered leaves directly onto his hatless head. He didn’t appear to notice the cascade and instead leaned a broad shoulder against the trunk.
‘I see,’ he said, although clearly he did not.
‘I expect you wonder how I know. I mean, it is hardly the sort of thing that Mama would have admitted to.’
‘How long ago did your mother pass away?’
