Page 33 of A Flaming Lady's Secret Valentine
“Ournextouting?”
“Is the Opera stillà la mode? Oh, but it has been so long since I have lived life as a London man! Truly, I am grateful for any education you can provide.”
Cecilia could say anything at all, and Lord Radcliff would not hear it. There were many things she wished to say: “Edward was right, you are a bore. I would rather swallow my riding gloves than spend another hour in your company. There is a perfectly fine gentleman awaiting me back at Lantham House, whom I yearn for, whom I hope yearns for me, who is twice the man you will ever be!”
On and on Radcliff prattled, Narcissus in the flesh. Cecilia sighed and gazed across the green, hoping to spy a lake for him. Despite the overcast, Hyde was pregnant with visitors entertaining a walk before luncheon. Her belly groaned at the thought, and she glowered at the back of Lord Radcliff’s head.
“...so in truth, I would have become a dramaturge if not for the burdens of peerage life. A professor at Oxford once compared the body of my work to Shirley’s, it is true. Mayhap there is still time for us to lead the lives we desire.” He paused, finally. “I could picture you as my leading lady.”
Cecilia sucked in a breath to stop from screaming. “I have no wish to take the stage.”
“More is the pity. You are so lovely,” he said soberly. “My lady, may I be bold a moment? There is something I long to confess.”
No, you may not.
“I suppose you may.”
Radcliff held his chin up, looking off dramatically. “I did not journey to London with the sole intention of attending His Grace’s Valentine’s ball.”
“I am shocked.”
“In addition, my home in Chelsea has been ready for days.”
“There has neverbeena woman more shocked than I!”
“My reason for this long sojourn has been only to see you, Lady Cecilia. Like a lighthouse, you have guided my way and called me to you. I am but a humble packboat upon a sea of love, navigating the tumultuous tides of sentiment, powerless to sail toward any woman-lighthouse who is not you. ”
She opened her mouth to toy with him more but promptly closed it.
“Have I said too much?” he asked.
Cecilia glanced at Edward. Her brother was oblivious, inspecting the beds of his nails. “I do not know what to say.”
“Shall I say more?”
“No!” she barked, then winced. She creaked open an eye and one of her heartstrings snapped. Lord Radcliff was a pest, a showoff, aliar, but he seemed earnest in his affection for her, now genuinely hurt. “Forgive me, Lord Radcliff. That was infinitely unkind.”
It was worse for her to pity him than to hate him, because pity meant that she cared. He would misconstrue her pity, not understanding that she cared for him only in the way of a person who has known another all her life and is destined, like with family, to wish the best for them.
“My words are coloured only by my affection for you, and that colour is blinding, I know,” Radcliff said. “I shall speak plainly then.”
Cecilia readied herself for the worst. Edward was staring at them, shaking his head slowly back and forth.
She gulped. “Lord Radcliff…”
“I should very much like to court you, Lady Cecilia. In part, because there has never been a fairer woman. In part, because our families are joined through history, and I have no desire to see the braid formed by our clans fray with time.”
He reached over their horses for her hand. “Pray, gift me but a chance to show you the truth of my person and of my heart, and I shall be the happiest lord in all of England. Nay, in all the world.”
She had never been more aware of her fingers. They itched painfully in his hold, and she laboured to slip them back inch by inch.
“You wish only to court me?” she asked, fixating on her gloves. Have they been fashioned in kidskin or ants? “Without commitment, nor expectation?”Without intending to ask me for your hand if you show me that you are a bigot?
“With a commitment to woo you. With the expectation of your being wooed.”
“If I am not inclined to continue our courtship at any point, have I your word that you will release me from it without question?”
Pain flashed in his blue eyes again, and Cecilia reeled back. “You have my word, my darling Lady Cecilia, but I have every faith that we will reach this journey’s end as one.”
