Perhaps his was the worst injury of all, she thought. She could imagine little worse than losing one’s sight. Yet he smiled and was purely charming. Did his smile extend all the way inside himself, though? There was something slightly disturbing about his cheerful demeanor now that she understood the devastation the wars had wreaked upon his life.
“If Hugo had fetched a gargoyle, Vincent,” the Earl of Berwick said, “it would have made no difference to you, would it?”
“Ah,” Lord Darleigh said, turning his eyes with great accuracy in the direction of the earl and smiling sweetly, “it would not matter to me, Ralph, would it, provided she had the soul of an angel.”
“A hit indeed, Ralph,” Viscount Ponsonby said.
And that was when Gwen heard the echo of what Viscount Darleigh had said to her—We sent Hugo down onto the beach today to find you … He fetched a rare beauty.
“Lord Trentham came to find me?” she asked. “But how did he know I would be there? I did not plan that walk ahead of time.”
“You would do well, Vincent,” Lord Trentham said, “to tie your tongue in a knot.”
“Too late,” Viscount Ponsonby said. “Your secret must out, Hugo. Lady Muir, for a number of reasons, all of which seem sound to Hugo, he has decided to take a bride this year. His only p-problem is selection. He is arguably the finest soldier the British armies have produced in the last twenty years. He is not, alas, equally renowned as an accomplished l-lover and wooer of the fair sex. When he explained his situation to us last evening and added, wise man, that he was not in search of any grand love affair, he was advised to look about him for a personable female, explain to her that he is a lord and really quite f-fabulously wealthy, and then suggest that she marry him. He agreed that he would go down to the beach today and find such a woman. And here you are.”
If her cheeks grew any hotter, Gwen thought, they would surely burst into flame. And all her earlier embarrassment and anger had returned with interest. She looked at Lord Trentham, who was standing stiff and erect like a soldier at ease, but not at ease, and her chin lifted and her eyes sparked.
“Perhaps, then, Lord Trentham,” she said, “you would care to inform me of your stature and wealth now, in the presence of your friends. And make me your offer of marriage.”
He looked directly at her and said nothing. He was not really given the chance.
“Ma’am,” Lord Darleigh said, his blue eyes on hers again, though now they looked as troubled as his voice sounded. “I spoke to make everyone laugh. It was not until the words were out of my mouth that I realized how unpardonably embarrassing they were to you. We were, of course, all joking last evening, and it was pure chance that you were on the beach and hurt yourself and that Hugo happened to be there to offer you assistance. I beg you to forgive me and to forgive Hugo. He is blameless in your embarrassment. The fault is all mine.”
Gwen transferred her gaze to him. And she laughed.
“I beg your pardon,” she said. “I can quite see the funny side of the coincidence.”
She was not sure she spoke the truth.
“Thank you, ma’am.” The young lord sounded relieved.
“It is time that particular topic of conversation was put to rest,” Sir Benedict said. “Where is your home, Lady Muir? When you are not staying with … Mrs. Parkinson, is it?”
“I live at Newbury Abbey in Dorsetshire,” Gwen said. “Or rather, my home is the dower house in the park. I live there with my mother. My brother and his family live at the abbey—the Earl of Kilbourne, that is.”
“I knew him slightly in the Peninsula,” Lord Trentham said, “though he had a viscount’s title then. He was shipped home, if I remember correctly, after his scouting party was ambushed in the mountains of Portugal, leaving him close to death. He made a full recovery, then?”
“He is well,” Gwen said.
“It was Kilbourne’s wife, was it not,” the duke asked, “who turned out to be the long-lost daughter of the Duke of Portfrey?”
“Yes,” Gwen said. “Lily, my sister-in-law.”
“Portfrey and I were close friends in the long-ago days of our youth,” the Duke of Stanbrook said.
“He is married to my aunt,” she said. “Those family relationships are a little complicated, to say the least.”
The duke nodded.
“Lady Muir,” he said, “it will be best for you, I believe, if we excuse you from sitting at the dining room table with us. Although I could provide a stool for your foot, it would not be adequate. The good doctor was quite adamant in his instruction that you keep your foot elevated for the next week. You will, therefore, dine in here. I do hope that will not be too inconvenient for you. We will not desert you entirely, however. Hugo has been appointed to bear you company. I can assure you that he will not assail your ears with tales of his wealth or with suggestions that you marry him in order to secure a part of it for yourself.”
Her smile was austere.
“I daresay I will never live down that faux pas,” Lord Darleigh said ruefully.
The duke offered his arm to Lady Barclay and led her from the room. The others followed. Sir Benedict Harper, Gwen noticed, did not use his canes as crutches even though they looked sturdy enough to bear his weight. Rather, he walked slowly and with painstaking care, using them for balance.
The silence in the drawing room after the door had closed behind the diners seemed almost unbearably loud.
Chapter 4
It had not been his fault, Gwen thought, that joke and the coincidence of her being on the beach today of all days. It just felt as if it were his fault. She resented him anyway. She had just been horribly embarrassed.
And Lord Trentham looked as if he resented her. Probably because he had just been horribly embarrassed.
His eyes were on the door as though he could still see his fellow guests through its panels and longed to be on the other side with them. She wished quite fervently that he was there too.
“Will Sir Benedict ever walk without his canes?” she asked for something to say.
He pursed his lips, and for a moment she thought he would not answer.
“The whole world beyond these walls,” he said eventually, still watching the door, “would say a resounding no. The whole world called him fool for refusing to have the legs amputated and then for not accepting reality and resigning himself to living the rest of his life in bed or at least in a chair. There are six of us within this house who would wager a fortune apiece on him. He swears he will dance one day, and the only thing we wonder about is who his partner will be.”
Oh dear, she thought after another short silence, this was going to be an uphill battle.
“Do you often see people down on the beach?” she asked.
He turned to look at her.
“Never,” he said. “In all the times I have been down there, I have never encountered another soul who was not also from this house. Until today.”
There was a suggestion of reproach in his voice.
“Then I suppose,” she said, “it seemed a safe thing to say to your friends, who were teasing you. That you would find a woman to whom to propose marriage down on the beach, I mean.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “It did.”
She smiled at him, and then laughed softly. He looked back, no answering amusement in his face.
“It all really is funny,” she said. “Except that now you will doubtless be teased endlessly. And I am confined here for at least a week with a sprained ankle. And,” she added when he still did not smile, “you and I will probably be horribly embarrassed in each other’s company until I finally leave here.”