Page 23 of What the Lady Wants
Isabella expected that there were places, too. She’d been to one of them, although she hadn’t really been looking; she wished now she’d paid more attention. Perhaps when she returned to London…
But she wasn’t returning to London. She was going back to Yorkshire as she had promised, and she would stay there. A week or two, or a little more, and all this would be over, though it seemed much too soon as she thought of it now.
‘You’re right,’ she said, and repeated, ‘There’s always a cost.’
23
Lord Irlam was worried about his cousin. He couldn’t see that Cassandra’s well-intentioned matchmaking schemes were working; as far as he could see, Leo was as besotted as ever, Lady Ashby was attracted to him but didn’t seem to want to admit it to herself, and the weeks were going by, autumn was turning to winter, and no progress of any kind was being made.
‘Why won’t she admit she has a fancy for him, so they can just get married?’ he asked Cassandra early one morning. ‘People who can’t stop glancing at each other and glancing away then glancing back at each other – did you see them last night, thinking they were being discreet? – ought to get married.’
She was lying with her head on his shoulder, and chuckled as she said, ‘Like we did, you mean?’
‘Exactly.’
‘It’s not enough, though, is it? People need to admit how they feel. Talk. Otherwise,’ she said, trailing her hand idly across his chest, ‘there are bound to be all sorts of misunderstandings. Being enormously attracted to each other, even having the odd illicit encounter as we did, is all very well, sir, but it’s not enoughby itself. It wasn’t for us, and I presume it wasn’t for Georgie and Gabriel.’
‘I’d rather not think about my sister in that manner unless absolutely forced to do so, which I hope never to be again,’ he said with dignity, half joking, half serious. ‘Besides,’ he added hastily as she showed incipient signs of arguing, ‘we don’t actually know if she cares for him. With Gabriel and Georgie, it was blindingly obvious – both Louisa and I could see that the poor fellow was suffering for love of her. But I can’t read this girl and neither can you, so you can’t say for sure if she’d give two pins for him beyond the fact that she clearly likes his looks well enough. You must admit that you don’t have the least real idea how she feels about him, and nor does he, for that matter.’
Cassandra sighed and conceded that this was all too true. ‘And I can’t try to find out, either. If I reveal his feelings to her, I’d be betraying his confidence in you, and even if she isn’t angry with him, she might take fright and run away, which is surely the last thing he wants, poor Leo.’
‘Poor Leo indeed.’
‘Is there truly nothing we can do? I’m thinking of all the trouble you had with Georgie when she met Gabriel, and how cleverly you handled it.’
‘First of all,’ he said, seizing her by her wrists and flipping her easily over so that she lay on her back, smiling up at him expectantly, ‘I could only intervene in her affairs because I’m her brother and was her guardian, God help me. I have no authority over Leo and less over Lady Ashby. And secondly, I can’t recall that anything I did actually worked. They had to sort themselves out in the end. And thirdly…’
‘And thirdly…?’ she asked, putting her arms about him and pulling him down for a kiss.
‘Dashed if I can remember,’ he said against her lips.
‘All the same,’ she said much later, ‘we ought to think of something. We can’t allow her to leave here. They might never see each other again!’
‘We can’t kidnap her and keep her prisoner,’ said Hal reasonably. ‘I dare say you’d like to, but we can’t. We can’t do anything at all. You said yourself – it’s no use people being forced together, even obliged to marry by some clever trick, unless they talk afterwards. And even that wouldn’t help if she doesn’t care for him, and for all we know she might not.’
Cassandra sighed and admitted defeat. Or almost, for she was of a persistent character. ‘I’m going to talk to Jane Carston. She’s very shrewd; she might have some idea of what Lady Ashby feels about Leo.’
‘No harm in that. But for God’s sake be discreet, Cassie – the last thing we need is my Aunt Sophia getting wind of anything havey-cavey involving her son.’
‘You’re assuming she hasn’t already. You know she’s very far from stupid – she spent all those years looking after the boys; it must have sharpened her wits to an acute degree.’
Hal groaned and pulled a pillow over his face. ‘Oh God, this family!’ was his muffled response. ‘There’s never any end to it.’
24
Cassandra was not a woman to waste the day, and so as soon as she was up and dressed she set about separating Lady Carston from the rest of her guests with ruthless determination, and in a remarkably short space of time they were to be found tête-à-tête in Lady Irlam’s private sitting room. Jane eyed her hostess rather warily – she wasn’t entirely sure if Cassandra knew the rather curious particulars of her recent marriage, nor indeed whether she was aware of her delicate condition. She couldn’t imagine why her hostess should so plainly desire this private interview. It wasn’t very likely that she’d been drawn aside so that Cassandra could upbraid her for immorality; Lady Irlam didn’t in the least appear to be that sort of person, and the way she lived her own life was none of her business. But one never knew.
She relaxed considerably when Cassandra said, ‘Captain Winterton and Lady Ashby seem to be getting along famously.’
This wasn’t really true; they certainly weren’t spending a great deal of time together, or carrying on any obvious sort of a public courtship. Jane, who was in the know, had seen glances, the odd whispered word, perhaps a brush of a hand across ashoulder that might have been accidental but wasn’t. Yet she wasn’t sure any of it would have been enough to alert someone who was entirely ignorant of the situation.
‘Do you suspect that your husband’s cousin is developing a tendre for Lady Ashby?’ she asked cautiously. Best to put it that way.
‘I know Leo has strong feelings for her,’ replied Cassandra bluntly. ‘He told Hal so.’
‘And you… disapprove of that?’ Jane fenced. She wouldn’t betray a confidence, a promise made to another woman.
‘I don’t disapprove of anything except people’s feelings getting hurt.’
