Page 12 of Miss Dignified
If Captain Powell was attempting delicacy, the matter was dire. “Plain speaking will always suit me better than innuendo and euphemisms, sir.”
“One has suspected this about you, but one doesn’t want to give offense.”
One?Now he was a diplomat. “Out with it, sir. I have work to do, and you are intent on finding your prodigal soldier.” The captain’s plate was empty, as was his tea cup. He’d put off this difficult topic as long as he could.
“For the duration of my sisters’ visit, I would appreciate it if you could… That is to say, if you’d be willing to… make a pretense, shall we say, of appearing somewhat…”
A confused bird fluttered against the window, then flitted away.
“Sir?”
“I need to take evasive action, Mrs. Lovelace. To create a ruse, a distraction, such that my sisters cannot steal a march on me when I have much on my mind.”
The captain always had much on his mind. “What is it that you’d ask of me?”
He left off gazing out the window and turned a serious expression—more serious than usual—on Lydia. The full brunt of that grave, blue-eyed inspection was somewhat unnerving.
“Mrs. Lovelace, when my sisters are underfoot, might you manufacture a few superficial indications that you are… fond of me?”
“I am fond of you.” Lydia had no idea why those words, of all the words she mentally recited, should leap the parapet of her good sense and fling themselves into audible speech. She did not know the captain well, she did not particularly like him, she did not…
Oh bother. Her words were the truth, and if the captain’s measured inspection was unnerving, his unrestrained smile was positively devastating.
Chapter Four
“You arefondof me?” Dylan posed the question as if he’d perhaps not heard the lady aright, which was entirely possible. But then, Mrs. Lovelace’s admission had made her blush, and a more charming sight than a flustered Lydia Lovelace did not exist in the mortal sphere.
“I esteem you, Captain. You are conscientious toward your former men and toward your family. Your expectations of your employees are reasonable, and you pay well.”
Madam House General was in full retreat, though it was an orderly retreat. That Lydia Lovelacecouldblush was a revelation in itself. “You said you werefondof me.”
Blushing or not, she could still produce a formidable glower. “Less fond by the moment. Explain this favor you seek from me.”
“I do seek a favor of you, you are correct.” Dylan seized upon the term with some relief. Mrs. Lovelace was softhearted. She would ignore a direct order if it offended her, but she’d render aid to a shivering, bedraggled bachelor if he asked humbly enough. “The ruse is for the benefit of my sisters.”
“The ones with curious natures.”
Nosy, prying, headstrong… but not stupid. Dylan’s sisters were alarmingly perceptive. “Precisely. I hazard a guess they are coming to Town to find me a wife. I have nothing against the institution of marriage in theory, but no wish to take a wife at this time.”
“You don’t want a wife of their choosing foisted off on you.”
Had somebody foisted a husband on Mrs. Lovelace? Housekeepers were addressed as if they were married women, but they were, in fact, not usually married.
“I don’t wantanywife foisted off on me, nor do I seek to be foisted off on any unsuspecting lady. My sisters are convinced that I will come home only after I’ve taken a wife, but that has nothing to do with it.”
“You simply don’t care for the country?”
Dylan waited to answer Mrs. Lovelace’s question until after the kitchen maid had put a fresh teapot on the table and taken the empty one away.
“I don’t particularly care for life in Town,” Dylan said, “but I promised a contingent of my men I would see them all securely established in civilian life. That project is almost complete, and when it is, I will return to Wales and the pleasures of country life.”
The beauty, the peace, the old friendships, the satisfaction of hard work, the joy of seeing an estate prosper as a result. Dylan dreamed of home nearly every night and dreaded the waking moment when the dream faded.
Mrs. Lovelace poured them each a fresh cup of steaming tea. “You want me to convince your sisters that you areinvolvedwith me. I sympathize with your plight, Captain, but not even for the preservation of your bachelorhood will I intimate that I’ve compromised myself with my employer. A lady’s good name is her most precious asset and, once squandered, can never be retrieved.”
She recited that last bit with prim conviction, as if reading a sampler, then she added just the right amount of cream to Dylan’s tea.
“That’s the crux of the matter,” Dylan said, momentarily distracted by the grace with which Mrs. Lovelace managed the tea service. “I must appear to be pining from afar, to be alternately contemplating then discarding the notion of an unusual match. You need not do much of anything save tolerate my performance.”
