Page 24 of The Reckless Love of an Heir
Henry stood. Now was his moment to rectify the situation between them.
He crossed the room. ‘Wait a moment, Sarah,’ he said quietly to his sister, then to Alethea he said, ‘Will you walk outside with me for a short while? The night is reasonably warm. I think we need to continue our earlier conversation and I would rather notdo so in here.’ Hopefully she would not misconstrue this invitation.
She looked at him with eyes that judged him with condemnation.
His lips twisted in a half-smile, probably in a mocking expression – he’d always been thick-skinned – he’d never really been touched by others’ ill-opinion. He came from a large family and had attended a boys’ boarding school. Such things made a person less vulnerable.
‘Oh, very well.’ Her answer was impatient but forbearing. ‘Lead on.’
He’d always known Alethea had a rigid strength of character, a valuable quality for a Countess. In London life, there was a need to be stalwart and to cling to one’s morals. Although where people set their bar on morals varied, and he knew his bar was far beneath Alethea’s – but that too was a positive. He preferred it that way about.
He lifted a hand, encouraging her to walk before him, towards the French doors which led out onto the terrace. If they stood within sight of the windows there would be no issue with propriety.
A footman opened the door for them to pass through.
Alethea crossed the stone paving to the balustrade and looked out over the formal gardens which were outlined in bright moonlight.
All this would be his one day, and therefore hers too. Between them they would care for it and cherish it as his parents did now.
‘Sulking does not become you…’ he said quietly.
She turned and glared at him. ‘I am not sulking. I am angry.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I cannot keep waiting!’ she shouted in her obvious frustration. ‘My life revolves about your whims, whether or notyou care to come home, and then when you do come I am left to hover waiting to see if you will ask… It is like this is a game to you!’
Self-centred!The accusation rang in his head in Susan’s tone. ‘I do not treat this or you as a game. I have feelings too, that is all.’ But damn it, he wanted to know what hers were. ‘What do you feel for me? Am I breaking your heart by asking you to wait, then?’
Her eyes flashed with anger. ‘Is that what you wish for, for me to be here pining for you while you lead a jolly life in town? Susan constantly complains I see too much good in you. I always thought you better. You are proving her right!’
Susan…He should tell her to mind her own business. ‘Susan has always had very little tolerance for me; we both know it. Do not let her opinion sway yours. What if all I ask is for another year?’Of freedom, to live life as a bachelor and get the recklessness out of his blood. ‘At the end of that year then I will propose and we will settle here.’
‘I am three and twenty next month and in a year I shall be four and twenty. Perhaps I do not wish to wait a year.’
He breathed in. The net was closing. He could not avoid it forever, he had always known that. What she said was true, four and twenty was late for a woman to marry. He sighed out. ‘Why not come to town then this summer and spend time with me there? I still wish to wait a year, but then we may become better acquainted and you shall not feel so excluded.’ There, he was not entirely selfish or irresponsible, he could think of her happiness too.
She stared at him, her lips slightly parted. Her eyes caught the moonlight and shone silver. He had an urge to lean and kiss her but it was hardly in the manner of the moment and he would guess they were being watched.
‘Very well,’ she answered. Her lips pursed for a moment before she added, ‘When should I come?’
‘I intend to stay here until the assembly and then return to town. You may come any time you wish. I shall write to you when I am there, and you may let me know when it is convenient for you, your father and mother.’
‘I should not have asked you that, should I?’ she replied. ‘You do not own London, Henry. I can go there whenever I wish, and when I am there, I can dance with whomever I wish and allow any man who desires it to court me. You may wait a year, Henry. But I may decide not to.’ She turned away and went back inside.
He smiled. Then laughed.
She had not answered his question, but he did not think her heart was involved. He thought her feelings the same as his. There was attraction between them; the rest was only practical. They suited one another and it was what their parents hoped for.
7
‘What did Henry speak to you about outside?’ their father asked Alethea as soon as the carriage door closed.
A tension had lingered throughout the evening because they had assumed Henry intended to propose and he had not.
Susan’s father had grumbled aboutthat boyduring their journey here, and now it seemed he would continue the same theme of conversation all the way home.
‘He asked me to wait a year, and then he said he will propose.’
