Page 61 of Lessons for Marquesses
Part of her hoped it was a goodbye. Before Mr. Wolf, she had never described the color of a man’s eyes except in the plainest terms. Brown or blue. If they were another hue, she simply put them into the color—brown or blue—that was the closest.
Mr. Wolf’s eyes were like Helios’s, a golden brown that shifted with his moods. They emitted an exultant glow with amusement. Other times, most times, they were overcast, causing those in his vicinity to wince at the glare for looking too closely.
She slowly opened the note.
Dear Neighbor Right Next Door,
Everything pales in comparison to your hair, and the ideas it conjures are not immoral but idyllic like the remembrance of happiness too rare. An ebullient sunset on a summer evening. The wine you didn’t savor beneath your tree of dreams, but if you had, each swallow of its vibrancy would have stirred within you a heartrending bliss. Your hair is the color of a poignant promise, like the blood wiped from a newborn child.Powerful like a fierce chestnut horse galloping along the heath at nightfall.
In truth, there is nothing I can provide you that you do not already possess. But alas, I will attempt it. During my solitary tour of Farendon, I came upon a castle ruin. Meet me there at three.
Wolf
Georgiana folded the note, her palms suddenly damp.
Heartrending bliss?
Poignant as a newborn child?
Like an unlatched gate battered in a storm, her heart beat erratically as she peeked her head in front of the cheval glass. She grimaced at the shock of red hair. But it was her mother’s hair and somewhere along the way, she had forgotten this. And Diana St. Clair’s hair had been beautiful.Shehad been beautiful, inside and out. So why did she continue to hide from the world, from her own self, what represented her dearest mother?
But a fierce chestnut galloping along the heath?
Georgiana stepped sideways until all six feet of her was visible in the mirror and twisted a curl about her finger. This was an ebullient sunset?Shewas ebullient? She wasn’t quite sure the exact definition of the word, except perhaps a romantic version ofhappy.
Her hair was like savoring wine? Mr. Wolf savoredherlike wine?
A warmth swirled below her navel. Much lower. Where the only sensations the space had wrought were monthly pains and the urge to use the pot. Of all moments for Charlotte’s teachings to take hold, she questioned the wisdom of meeting him. What further sensations, what impulses might come over her?
Georgiana snorted, reaching for her wig. And stopped.
There was nothing Mr. Wolf could give her that she did not possess, he had written. Was he telling her she had the strength to forgo her wig? To show the world she was George regardless?
She stood taller.
I will go the entire summer without a wig becauseIwant to.
She left for the stables and rode her horses longer than usual. There was no reason to be afraid, and even if she had ridiculous ideas that Mr. Wolf hadideas, her lack of, well, everything save her hair, was adequate to discourage him.
Nonetheless, the hour before she was to meet him, she wrote out every imperfection she’d been born with or acquired and every reason she should meet Mr. Wolf because he would never have ideas.
She was perfectly repellent.
Tucking the list into her coat pocket, she told Charlotte she was to visit tenants, would return by dinner, and kissed her aunt’s cheek. As she neared the ruins, her stomach tumbled over on itself.
Mr. Wolf perched at the top of a castle wall, his long legs dangling carelessly as he gazed northwest toward a barley field.
She withdrew her paper titledTen Reasons to Meet a Wolf.
His endowments were so plentiful and her faults so numerous, there were twenty-two.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Georgiana nudged Minion forward,peering up at the ruins of the old Margate castle. Most of it had crumbled to the earth, and what was left had no roof, three dilapidated towers, and a front wall. Really, she had never studied it pastruineduntil now.
Her heart lurched when Mr. Wolf waved and knocked his boot heels against the stone. “Sir, please come down!”
Minion sniffed the air, squealing and perking an ear to the ruin.
