Oliver watched as Claire refused to respond to her sister. He cleared his throat and smiled at Trixie, “When you are older, perhaps I might even accompany you.”
“How dreadful it is to be four-and-ten!” she declared.
“Yes, and when you are eight-and-ten, you will find it so dreadful that you must be forced to mingle for the sole purpose of finding a suitable match,” he replied wryly. He looked at the two ladies at the table and sighed inwardly when both of them refused to acknowledge or join in on the conversation.
“Well, when I am of age to be Presented, I shall do my best to remain unmarried!” the youngest Rowley said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “After all, one of us must remain to take care of Father, so between us, Claire, I shall do it so you can be free to fall in love and marry as you please.”
Oliver watched as Claire glared at her sister for a moment before turning back to her food. Trixie remained cheerfully unperturbed—either that or she had not noticed the distinct look her older sister gave her.
Trixie, however, decided she had had enough of her sister’s gloominess.
“Claire, is something bothering you?”
The question pierced through the tense atmosphere, garnering the attention of everyone at the table. They all looked to Claire, awaiting her response.
“There is nothing wrong,” Claire dismissed her sister. “You are simply imagining things.”
“But you have been so silent and gloomy the past couple of days!” Trixie persisted.
“Maybe I am just tired, Trixie,” she snapped back at her sister.
Trixie fell into a gloomy silence and scowled at her sister.
Olive sighed again and tamped down his frustration. It was already bad enough that he had to deal with Claire and his sister not talking to each other, he also had to play gracious host to Lord Draydon, who made it a point to call upon them so often that it seemed he was almost a regular part of the household.
Yesterday, he had made the excuse of bringing a book that Suzanna briefly mentioned during one of their few conversations.
“Lady Suzanna told me that she quite prefers the work of this particular writer,” he said with a perfectly practiced smile, holding up a book by some obscure personage Oliver could not be bothered to remember.
When he asked his sister about it, she had merely shrugged and said that she must have mentioned it in passing but never deemed that the Marquess would go to some lengths to obtain it for her.
“I do wish he would stop doing it, though,” she told him. “It is making our situation with Claire incredibly difficult and I hate it.”
“Claire seems to be quite taken with the Marquess,” Oliver remarked sadly. “It will be very hard to dissuade her from something. We all know how she is when she sets her mind on something.”
His sister had smiled faintly at that. “She is rather mulish, when it comes down to it, but it is one of her more endearing traits.”
“Also one of the most difficult,” he replied heavily.
It would seem that their days revolved around trying to avoid each other at home and projecting the picture of a harmonious family whenever they attended an affair or a guest called upon them at home.
Last night at the Cunningham ball, Claire deliberately dressed in her most enticing gown yet and Oliver could not help but notice how lovely she looked under the sparkling lights of the chandelier. Her hair was a brilliant black under the light and her eyes glowed with the frivolity of a young miss who knew her charms and exploited them to her full advantage.
He had watched as young bucks swarmed around her, begging for a dance—some even outrageously asking fortwo.
By some heretofore unrecognized herculean effort, he had managed to keep his distance and prevented himself from swooping down on them and scaring the lot away from her.
Seeing her enjoy herself last night, watching her subtly crane her neck, hoping that the Marquess would arrive—was all very painful for Oliver.
What made it worse was that he knew that as soon as Lord Draydon called upon them, she would immediately change her demeanor.
It would seem that he is the only one who could make her happy right now,he noted miserably.
“Very well, I have a lot of things to attend to,” he finally said, wiping his lips with a napkin. “If anybody has need of me, I shall be in my study.”
The past few days with Claire had been extremely difficult for both Oliver and his sister but even if Claire refused to talk to Lady Suzanna unless they were in the presence of other people, his sister had decided to stick by the younger girl and look out for her.
Oliver knew that Claire did not appreciate Suzanna’s “meddling” in her matters and kept to her rooms as much as possible to avoid interacting with her.
