Page 91 of The Heiress's Daughter
“I know, and that’s the problem. If I didn’t keep running into him everywhere, I wouldn’t have—” She broke off and looked away.
“Fallen in love with him?”
Clarissa gave a tragic sigh. “Oh, don’t say it, please.”
“No point in denying it, love. You were halfway to falling for him even before my wedding and it looks like you’ve fallen all the way now.”
“I haven’t. I can’t. You know it’s impossible, Izzy, youknowit!” Clarissa scrubbed at her eyes with a damp and crumpled handkerchief.
There was a long silence. Clarissa picked up an orange biscuit and nibbled around the lacy edging. Then she lowered it, saying, “The problem is, he’s just too charming. He can make me laugh in the most ridiculous ways. You should have heard him talking about the ducks—and then in the park, I could hardly preserve my countenance when he introduced me to the human version.”
She nibbled on the biscuit then continued, “And when I dance with him—and he always asks me and it’s impossible to refuse—and you know I’m not that good a dancer, but…it’s like…I feel like I’m floating, and so warm and safe. And happy.”
Izzy squeezed her hand and said nothing. She looked troubled.
Clarissa went on, “But that’s what rakes are like, aren’t they? They know how to do things like that, make people—ladies—feel like that. And when he ki—” She broke off with a guilty look and avoided her sister’s eye.
Izzy almost choked on a mouthful of biscuit. “Clarissa Studley! You let him kiss you?”
Clarissa felt her cheeks heat. She nodded.
“Well, how was it? You know what Mrs. Price-Jones said about kissing a lot of frogs—”
Clarissa sighed. “He wasn’t a frog.” And what an understatement that was. That kiss had haunted her dreams ever since.
Izzy laughed and brushed crumbs off her fingers. “Of course he wasn’t. So, you let Race Randall kiss you. That’s wonderful.”
“I also let Mr. Clayborn kiss me,” Clarissa admitted.
Izzy clapped her hands. “You daring little minx! And?”
“A definite frog.”
“So it sounds like Race Randall has swept you off your feet with his dancing and his kissing.”
“That wasn’t all. Oh, Izzy, if you’d seen the way he was with Lady Tarrant’s little girls—she’s had the baby, by the way. A little boy. They’re naming him Ross after Lord Tarrant’s late brother.”
“Lovely. We’ll go and call on them later. Now don’t change the subject. Tell me how Race Randall was with those little girls.”
Clarissa described how they’d come across the girls and how distressed they were. “If you could only have seen it, Izzy. He knew exactly how to calm their fears and coax them into a happier frame of mind. And the way he picked up little Lina and let her weep buckets into his neckcloth—so patient and kind. I nearly wept myself, watching him.”
And because, seeing him so gentle and kind with three small girls he didn’t even know, she realized that she was hopelessly and completely in love with him.
“I’ve never seen that side of him,” Izzy admitted. “I’ve only seen the charming-women side and the way he is with Leo. Leo trusts him completely, you know.”
Clarissa nodded. “I’m not surprised. Though men are different with other men, aren’t they? If they make a promise to a man—well, their sacred code of honor demands that they keep it. It seems to me their word given to a woman is quite a different matter.” She had two illegitimate sisters to prove it.
“He’s gallant, too,” she continued. “He rescued me from Mr. Clayborn’s attack—and itwasan attack, Izzy—he ripped my dress half off me and he meant to go through with it, I’m sure. He had his breeches open.”
Izzy stared. “Good God! I hadn’t heard that. What a villain.”
“But Lord Randall burst in and dragged him off me. And later he was responsible for exposing Mr. Clayborn’s horrid deception with his so-called wound.”
“We heard something about it—someone wrote to Leo. Gravel in the boot?—but you can tell me all about it later. Right now I want to hear about what Race Randall did.”
“Well, that’s when he offered for me, and between them, he and Mrs. Price-Jones convinced me it was for the best, that it would change the nature of the gossip so that it wasn’t as damaging to me. And at the time he stressed that I could call it off whenever I wanted. It was all a—a strategy—not a genuine betrothal at all. But I saw Leo downstairs just now and he said Lord Randall had called on him this morning and was quite in earnest about marriage. They’d even discussed settlements!”
More tears came and she scrubbed them away.
