Molly said, “I’ll just leave you two?—”
“No,” Blythe interrupted. “This won’t take long, and Molly, even you must agree with me. Audrey doesn’t know him. If she won’t listen to me, can’t you talk sense into her?”
Molly didn’t answer, and Audrey thought it unfair to put her maid in the middle. “Blythe, I haven’t married him yet. I have time to change my mind.”
“But he’s a stranger!”
“Every person at dinner last night either knew who he was, or had heard of him. He’s not an unknown stranger, anyway. It’s not as if he could take me off somewhere. People know what’s happening between us.” Which was why Lord Knightsbridge had been right, that he couldn’t just escort her away. It would have caused not only talk, but alarm.
Blythe still sounded tight with disappointment and anger, but was there also a touch of concern there? Audrey wanted to hope so, but she’d been disappointed so many times before.
“Blythe, I wish …” Her words faded for a moment. “I wish this didn’t hurt you.”
Blythe didn’t even attempt to deny it. “Well, it does. It’s just not fair.”
“I know,” she whispered. For just a moment, she wished she could confide the truth in her sister, that she wasn’t marrying the earl, but if that knowledge got to their father … she’d be trapped there forever.
“How do you make these men feel sorry for you?” Blythe asked in a bewildered voice.
Audrey heard Molly inhale swiftly, and she herself felt defensive. Calmly, she said, “Blythe, do you remember that I was lied to by Mr. Blake? He never felt sorry for me. He used me and betrayed me.”
There was a taut silence, and then Blythe suddenly whispered, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
That was progress, Audrey thought, beginning to feel hopeful. “And as for Lord Knightsbridge … if I thought for one moment he felt sorry for me, I would send him on his way. But why should he, Blythe? Why should my condition matter to him at all, if he has feelings for me? He doesn’t owe me anything, especially not pity. I didn’t encourage his interest, but I did not turn him away, either. And if hedidn’thave feelings for me, why would he make a blind woman his countess?”
“I don’t know!” Blythe cried. “But is it not suspicious?”
Audrey opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. Itwouldbe suspicious, if it had been true. But Blythe didn’t know that. “I promise I will consider this engagement very carefully. I’ll be in my own home, and he’ll be in his. I’ll meet people from his village, get to know more about him. Will that satisfy you?”
“I—I suppose so.”
Audrey heard a whirl of her skirts.
“I need to finish packing,” Blythe said.
“Do you have wonderful plans for when you visit Father’s sister in London?” It was what she always asked wheneverBlythe went away. Normally, it was like rubbing salt in her own wounds, having to live through her sister’s adventures—or the brief crumbs Blythe told her. But not anymore.
Blythe didn’t answer, and Audrey told herself that perhaps she’d been walking away so fast, she hadn’t heard.
Just before luncheon, a carriage drove below her window.
“Molly?”
A moment later, Molly said, “It’s the family carriage, Miss Audrey. And I saw Miss Blythe as it went by.”
Audrey sighed. “So she left without even saying good-bye.”
“I’m sorry, miss.”
“Don’t be. That conversation might have been one of the best we’ve ever had. I think she was honestly worried about me, beneath her anger. I will write to her when I reach my new home.”
My new home,she repeated in her head. It felt good.
Luncheon wascold meat and sandwiches, so that the men could get back outside. The afternoon was for fishing, and Robert might have declined so that he could help Mrs. Blake, but he thought his presence in the house would only exacerbate Lord Collins’s fury. And it had been good to spend time with Mr. Collins, who didn’t seem like a bad chap. He wanted to get to know Robert, too. His protectiveness of his sister was very late, but welcome just the same.
At dinner, Robert made certain he could sit beside his “fiancée.” More of the men spoke to her, too, as if being a future countess suddenly made her a person in their eyes.
The evening in the drawing room didn’t last long, as everyone would be getting an early start home in the morn.When the room was at last just family and Robert, Lord Collins started to leave. He hadn’t spoken a word to Robert or Mrs. Blake all evening.
