Page 80 of Pursued Beyond Treachery
“I am sorry to imposition you, Mrs. Guthrie, but visiting hours are over and Miss Wayland is needed upstairs. You are welcome,however, to stay and finish your tea. Our butler will show you the way out when you are ready.”
Susannah fought back a grin. Her aunt was being thrown out in the kindest way possible.
Aunt Guthrie looked first at Mr. Kendall and then at Mr. Roberts. They smiled. She cast Susannah a subtle glare of warning.
“No need,” she finally said. “I have had my fill and am ready to leave.”
“Very good,” Mr. Roberts said. “Might I have the pleasure of escorting you to the door? It is not often I get the opportunity to walk with a lady such as yourself.”
Pink touched Aunt Guthrie’s cheeks and she preened a bit, but Susannah had read between the words. Mr. Roberts had not given her a compliment. The pleasure was in seeing her leave.
Once they were out of earshot, Mr. Kendall leaned in. “Is something amiss?”
“What do you mean?”
“When John left earlier, he seemed… distressed.”
He searched her face, but she could not look at him. Her gaze dropped to her hands, and she tried to cover the sudden urge to cry, or scream… or something. “If he is distressed, he did not share why with me.”
Again his brilliant blue eyes studied her.
“Well, then”—he glanced up at the clock— “perhaps John will enlighten us this evening. Al needs me elsewhere this afternoon, but I will see you at the ball, will I not?”
“Indeed. I am to attend with the Harrises.”
“Will there be enough room? I could return and escort you and Javenia in the Kendall carriage if you wish.”
“No, I am fine. Lord Upton is already taking his other daughters in their chaise so they might leave the landau to accommodate me. No use in giving them more passengers.”
“But that leaves one more seat.”
Mr. Roberts re-entered the room. “No, it does not.”
Mr. Kendall glanced at him.
“I promised Upton I would escort the ladies tonight.”
A grin broke out on Mr. Kendall’s face. “That should discourage Miss Giles quite nicely if Lady Braithwaite cannot dissuade her from her plight.”
“Plight?” Susannah had been so caught up in her own troubles she’d nearly forgotten about Mr. Roberts’s distress.
Mr. Roberts clasped his hands behind his back and tipped his chin up, no doubt trying to appear calm and collected. It only succeeded in making him look like a boy who’d been caught stealing biscuits.
“It seems the lady has taken my kindness to mean far more than it ought and has once or twice tried to encourage me into asituation.”
Mr. Kendall burst out laughing. “What you call kindness is shamelessly flirting. Come now man, you know you shower your compliments too liberally for anyone to imbibe. It is no wonder she is trying to coerce a proposal out of you.”
For the first time ever, Susannah witnessed Mr. Roberts blush. She’d thought the man incapable of being embarrassed as he always put up a front of looking completely collected.
“Might I assume,” she said slowly, “that the situation you speak of is not one of an upright nature?”
“You would be correct, but I have not encouraged her for nigh unto a fortnight.”
Mr. Kendall grinned. “You have not discouraged her either.”
Mr. Roberts glared back. “I’ll not be rude. No lady deserves unkindness.”
“I think all those sisters of yours are going to your head. You have a backbone, man. Use it. Tell your hoard of admirers no for once.”
