“I’m going inside to lie down,” he told her.
She pouted. “You’ll miss the picnic.”
“Go and enjoy it with your father. And don’t refer to me asdarling. You know perfectly well that that isn’t the way things are between the two of us, Lady Hannah, and I won’t be manipulated like this.” Someone needed to talk some sense into her, and perhaps Lord Codfield was the right person to do it. He, at least, had seemed to understand that this marriage wasn’t going to happen. He knew he had agreed to deal kindly withLady Hannah, but he wasn’t going to do that if she was going to follow him around and try to spread lies about him. He didn’t need to put up with that sort of thing.
Fortunately, she didn’t try to follow him back toward the house. He didn’t really feel like taking a nap, so he turned off on a small path that led into the woods instead. Maybe a walk would clear his head.
And then he saw her—Lady Eleanor.
She was a short way ahead of him on the path, and she hadn’t noticed him yet. For a moment, he thought about turning around, leaving her to the solitude she had so clearly come out here to find. She deserved a bit of peace, if that was what she wanted. Who didn’t?
Then she turned and saw him. “Your Grace,” she said, offering a small smile. “Weren’t you enjoying the picnic?”
“I’m afraid I wasn’t,” he admitted, feeling for some strange reason as if he could tell her the truth. “I’m sure it’s an enjoyable enough party, but the company wasn’t really to my liking.”
That was a bold comment, and he expected her to ask him what he meant by it. It would have been perfectly understandable if she had.
But she didn’t. She smiled and nodded, and he got the distinct feeling that she understood that he didn’t want to offer anyfurther clarification. “I wasn’t enjoying the company much either,” she admitted. “My father set up a blanket so that I could dine with him and a friend of his. Just the three of us.”
“That wasn’t pleasant?”
“It was rather horrible, actually. I suppose you’ll tell me I’m being overly choosy or something, though, won’t you? That I should accept whoever my father wants me to marry?”
Was this a test of some kind? “No,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you that. I hardly think it my place to tell you who you ought to marry. We hardly know one another.”
She grinned. “That makes you much more agreeable than most gentlemen,” she told him. “It’s a rare fellow who doesn’t think I should just be quiet and do as my father tells me.”
“Well, it’s not for me to tell you what you should do,” he said. “Though I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t have a nice time at the picnic.”
“I did enjoy the argument you started at the card table last night, on the other hand,” she said.
“I didn’t start that argument.”
“Everyone was in agreement until you spoke,” she pointed out.
“Yes, and the things they were saying were wrong. If I told you the sky was orange and you said it wasn’t, who would have started that quarrel/ Me or you?”
“I see your point,” she said with a laugh. “And that’s why I liked it! You stood up for what you thought was true. That’s so rare at society functions like this week’s party. I think any other group of gentlemen would have stood around agreeing with everything each other said, and they would never have noticed that they weren’t actuallysayinganything at all. You have to stand up for your opinions—that’s how I feel, anyway—and you did just that. It made me pleased to know you.”
Then she blushed, hearing the words she’d chosen. “Not that I mean to say Iknowyou,” she amended quickly. “Not well. I mean, we’re hardly acquainted. But I’m glad that we are. That’s all I meant by that.”
He smiled, wanting to ease her worry. “I’m glad we’re acquainted too,” he said. “You know, I wasn’t so sure I liked you at first.”
“You weren’t?” She had picked up on the playfulness in his voice and was now returning it to him in kind, and that impressed him as much as anything about her had so far. What a pleasant conversationalist she was! “And what did you dislike about me, if I might be so bold as to ask?”
“Oh, I didn’tdislikeyou,” he clarified. “But you were a bit sour the first time we met, weren’t you? I wasn’t sure you would bepleasant to be around. Of course, I see now how very wrong I was to think such a thing. I find you a delight.”
She beamed. “Maybe now I’m not sure whether I likeyou,” she teased him.
“Don’t be silly. Everyone likes me.”
“Youcertainly seem to like yourself.”
“And I have impeccable taste!”
She started to move in his direction. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t object to it at all. He welcomed the opportunity to speak with her more closely, to get to know her better. But before she reached him, she stepped on an uneven place in the ground and stumbled.
Reflexively, without thinking about it, he threw out his arms and caught her, preventing her from hitting the ground.
