Daisy jumped up from the bed then. “Is that really what you think? How about the fact I barely see mywealthyhusband or the fact that when I do, we spend most of our time trying to make an heir, a boy to carry on his line, the one thing I’m supposed to give him in return for all this and I can’t do it. Even with your stupid teas and tonics!”
The anger on her friend’s face was vexing, mainly because Melissa had put it there.
“Daisy, I …” Melissa began, feeling quite guilty.
“No, I don’t want to hear it, Mel,” Daisy protested, lifting a hand to cut her off. “Save it for someone whose not fed up with your constantly feeling sorry for yourself.”
Daisy turned on her heels then and exited before Melissa had the chance to say another word. Even Flit looked shocked. But as she sat on the edge of the bed, Melissa realised one thing for certain, she really was pushing everyone she cared about away.
Chapter 26
Almost immediately upon returning to London, after an awkward conversation with his father in which he promised there would be no repeats of past events, his mother encouraged Elijah to promenade in the local park. Having already disappointed her when it came to declining her help from a doctor back in Oxfordshire, Elijah knew he had to meet her halfway.
Though she had attended the park with him, Elijah had quickly found himself walking alone, and Lady Durham stopped to talk to several other gossiping hens. He would have preferred it that way but for his younger brother approaching in the opposite direction as he took a solitary walk about the pond.
“Well, if it isn’t my big brother back from the dead!” Edmond announced as he approached with a beautiful young woman upon his arm. Elijah quickly recognised her as Miss Eleanor, the daughter of a viscount that his younger brother had taken a liking to during his last few weeks in London. The two seemed quite close now, and Elijah faintly remembered his mother having mentioned the two were courting.
She might have been a countess had I not survived,Elijah thought, not for the first time glad that his recent illness and diagnosis were not made public. He could only imagine how Edmond might have reacted upon learning that the Earldom had been his only to have it ripped away again.
Yet the two of them appeared quite happy together, and if Elijah took the time to look, he thought they made quite the handsome couple.Might people have looked at Lady Belmont and I like that?
He forced the thought away, greeting his brother with a familiar hug and then Miss Eleanor with a bow. “It will take more than a scolding from father to get rid of me.”
The two brothers laughed, and for a second, it was as though he had never left London.
“We are so glad you have returned, are we not, my love?” Edmond suggested, holding his lady’s hand upon his forearm with great affection. “We were concerned for a little while.”
“Oh, yes, and it is wonderful to see you looking so well, My Lord!” Miss Eleanor put in, and the way the two of them looked at each other suggested to Elijah that perhaps his secret wasn’t so secret after all.
“What Eleanor means to say is, we had heard that your health was not entirely …” Edmond explained, pausing to cough and clear his throat. “Oh, well, you know.”
He reached out with his free hand and clapped Elijah on the upper arm. Then he added, “We are just glad you are back.”
“I am glad to be back,” Elijah assured them in return. Miss Eleanor was just beginning to open her mouth to speak when something familiar caught Elijah’s eye just over her shoulder.
It can’t be!Elijah thought in astonishment as he realised that the blonde-haired, blue-grey-eyed woman standing a few metres away behind his brother was indeed the woman who had left him behind in Oxfordshire.
“Elijah, are you …”
“I’m sorry, forgive me, but there’s something I must do,” Elijah said, cutting his brother off and sliding right past him and his intended.
At that very moment, Lady Belmont’s gaze met his. The connection was broken just as quickly as it had begun, and it tore at Elijah to see her purposefully turn away. The way she tugged on her spaniel’s lead to hurry him along felt like she was tugging on his heart instead.
“Lady Belmont, please,” Elijah called after her, though as he tried to follow, she quickened her speed.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw another woman step in to intervene. She hurried past him, and in an instant, she had caught up with Lady Belmont, practically dragging the woman to a halt.
Elijah didn’t think he had ever been happier to see Lady Fenchurch as she brought her friend to a full stop and began to drag her back around to face him.
“Good day to you, Lord Spurnrose,” Lady Fenchurch greeted him warmly with a friendly smile upon her face while Lady Belmont kept her gaze averted from his for what seemed like an eternity. “What a lovely surprise it is to meet you here!”
“Good day, Lady Fenchurch, Lady Belmont,” Elijah said formally, bowing, though he was certain that Lady Belmont couldn’t see him while she stared down at her spaniel. “I was wondering whether I might be able to escort Lady Belmont for a turn about the pond?”
Though he addressed the words to the lady who was actually looking at him, Elijah so desperately wanted to speak to Lady Belmont, who appeared only to be standing before him because her friend had anchored her in place with an arm locked through the crook of her elbow.
“Oh, I am sure that …” Lady Fenchurch began. At that very moment, Lady Belmont’s head shot up, and she glowered at her friend momentarily, so fast that Elijah might have missed if not for the fact he had been watching her so closely. Her gaze turned to his just as quickly.
“Forgive me, My Lord, but I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to be alone together,” Lady Belmont started to protest. However, the way that Lady Fenchurch’s shoulder tensed suggested she was squeezing her friend’s arm quite strongly, and Lady Belmont’s mouth pursed shut.
