Page 21 of The Reckless Love of an Heir
‘We shall have a glass of wine before we go through to dinner, Casper, Julie.’ His father led them towards the drawing room.
Henry wondered if his father understood the situation as well. If so then Henry would be in for a lecture after they left.
‘You are fully dressed…’ Alethea whispered.
‘I could hardly dine with your parents in my shirt.’
‘They would not have minded.’
‘I would have felt a fool, and I think I might have made them feel foolish too.’
Sarah had taken charge of Susan and was walking with her. Christine walked beside Aunt Julie, with Henry’s mother, while his father spoke with Uncle Casper.
‘Were they expecting me to announce our engagementtonight?’ He’d learned as young as his boarding school years that it was always better to be direct when dealing with an awkward situation, otherwise awkward situations festered.
She blushed a deep crimson, much darker than the colour Susan had been turning.Yes, then.
‘Yes. I am sorry?—’
‘You have no need to be sorry. But I must make it clear, I am not going to propose to you while I am home. I am not ready to settle, Alethea, it is too soon, and I will not apologise for it.’ He had slowed their pace, so the others were ahead, then he stopped and faced her. ‘I am sorry if that distresses you. I know you will make a good wife but I cannot commit until I will make a good husband and that will be when I am older.’
She looked into his eyes – searching for answers – perhaps to understand his feelings. What were hers? Did she think more of him than he thought of her? That thought was a little petrifying.
‘I am getting older too, Henry,’ she said quietly. ‘It is different for a woman. If I wait much longer I shall become too old to be considered. What if you change your mind then? Then I will not have another chance.’
They had always been aware of this obligation and neither of them had expressed any disagreement. This was their first conversation about their feelings on the matter.
‘When will you ask me? I will not wait for years. I wish to be married and settled.’
There, his speaking openly had led her to do so too. This was the sentiment she had been hinting at ever since he returned – she would not continue to wait.
‘I cannot say, or rather I will not, I suppose, because I do not know; someday in the future. You will have to choose whether or not you wait.’
Uncertainty shone in the black centres of her eyes. ‘I am notsure I can wait.’ Her hand slipped off his arm and she walked ahead.
Touché. He laughed internally and followed.
When Henry entered the formal drawing room his father was already offering Alethea a glass of wine. The footman poured it and asked Susan if she would like a glass.
Across the room a footman was lifting Susan’s shawl from her shoulders.
The dove grey colour of her dress suited her hair and eyes, and oddly her light grey eyes seemed more striking than Alethea’s blue as she looked up and accepted the offer, as Alethea accepted her glass.
Henry walked forward as the footman poured another glass.
When Henry took the glass, his father’s gaze caught Henry’s and his eyebrows lifted.
His father had indeed deciphered the atmosphere and he would be of the same opinion as Alethea.Why are you waiting?
Wonderful. It was Henry who had suggested this dinner, and now he would not be able to bloody digest it. He should have made his opinion on the subject clearer when he wrote to Alethea from London and managed her expectations. Yet it was nonsense for them to grasp at an invitation to dinner with such silly hope. In undertaking one rare act of thoughtfulness, which his father had been remarkably pleased by, he had knocked open a hornets’ nest.
Lord, though, he hoped his father had not thought the same. Had that been why he was so happy with the idea?Damn.This was not meant to be an enactment of the prodigal son parable. He had not intended the fatted calf to be slaughtered and a toast raised to the fact he had returned home and would remain there forever. The intent had only been to see his aunt and uncle before he returned to London.
He sipped from his glass. Alethea had turned her back on him and walked across the room to speak with Sarah.
Wonderful!
Yet to be fair, if she fell out with him and married someone else, he would not weep over it. His heart was not involved; it would not be broken. It would make no difference to him, other than that when the time came for him to take a wife he would have to look for one.
