pretend the genial peer hadn’t offered for Lady Henry Seaborne’s hand and been sadly but finally rejected.
‘My mother loved my father far too much to marry a dear old friend to stave off the loneliness of living without him.’
‘They might have been good companions to each other,’ he offered with a shrug, as if love between two human beings that endured even after death had parted them was a concept he found distinctly uncomfortable as well as unlikely.
‘I’m sure the very idea of living in such a lukewarm marriage would seem far worse to her than carrying on as good friends. Only imagine how the poor man would feel if he knew he was constantly being compared to her lost love. If she had accepted him, I would be far sorrier for him than I am at the moment. Lucky she is too sensible to inflict such a life on an old and valued friend. It’s a shame they will lose their ease together now, but I suppose it’s better to know.’
‘No doubt his lordship will come round to the notion of being her friend again, given enough time to recover his equilibrium,’ he replied with a nod towards Corisande, whowas hanging on his every word as if it might be sent from heaven to enlighten her.
Persephone frowned at the idea of Corisande wrapping genial Lord Ambleby in her witchy toils, and wondered if she could do anything to save him far worse pain than being gently rejected by Lady Henry Seaborne.
‘I believe Lady Clare is at a loose end, now she has both her chicks safely engaged and waiting to join the unseemly scramble to the altar Jack and Jessica managed to launch this summer,’ he suggested, with a hard look that admitted he was prepared to assist in matchmaking if it would save a man from the over-eager and self-obsessed Corisande Beddington, so long as she understood he could never endure it himself.
‘If she set her heart on Lord Ambleby, they might be very happy together, I suppose. They are both good-natured and principled, if inclined to be self-indulgent. I believe you’re right and they would suit each other very well, my lord,’ she mused and caught his half-amused, half-horrified expression as he watched her resolve to promote a different match to the one Corisande had in mind.
‘Thank heavens you were born a woman, Miss Seaborne,’ he said mockingly and she couldn’t stop herself asking why, even though she told herself she didn’t really want to hear his answer.
‘I don’t quite see why, when I’m not too sure it was a good thing myself. Being female apparently means I must stay at home and twiddle my thumbs while you males are busy doing things. Why are you particularly glad I’m bound and subdued by convention today more than any other day, my lord?’
‘I’m quite relieved about that every day, since you would be far too dangerous if convention allowed you to wander about the countryside at will. But in this case I thank the good Lord you were born a woman because you would be so uncomfortable in the Seaborne nest if you’d been created a man. I can’t see you happily embracing an idle life and letting Jack take the lead as Marcus seems perfectly content to do. You would either break out and go your own way, as I suspect Rich has done, or break yourself on the frustration of being born out of the direct line of succession and all the power that goes with it.’
‘What a very poor opinion you have ofme, my lord. I’ll leave you to enjoy it before the matchmakers start speculating about us instead of Corisande and whomever her roving eye settles on next.’
‘Don’t you want to know what I found out?’
‘Of course I do, but you seem disinclined to tell me, and I won’t have local society whisper that I have set my cap at you.’
‘Meet me later so we can talk properly then,’ he said with an impatient look that told her exactly how frustrating he found the conventions that bound them and the onlookers all around.
Considering how public his projected meeting with Jack
‘My mother loved my father far too much to marry a dear old friend to stave off the loneliness of living without him.’
‘They might have been good companions to each other,’ he offered with a shrug, as if love between two human beings that endured even after death had parted them was a concept he found distinctly uncomfortable as well as unlikely.
‘I’m sure the very idea of living in such a lukewarm marriage would seem far worse to her than carrying on as good friends. Only imagine how the poor man would feel if he knew he was constantly being compared to her lost love. If she had accepted him, I would be far sorrier for him than I am at the moment. Lucky she is too sensible to inflict such a life on an old and valued friend. It’s a shame they will lose their ease together now, but I suppose it’s better to know.’
‘No doubt his lordship will come round to the notion of being her friend again, given enough time to recover his equilibrium,’ he replied with a nod towards Corisande, whowas hanging on his every word as if it might be sent from heaven to enlighten her.
Persephone frowned at the idea of Corisande wrapping genial Lord Ambleby in her witchy toils, and wondered if she could do anything to save him far worse pain than being gently rejected by Lady Henry Seaborne.
‘I believe Lady Clare is at a loose end, now she has both her chicks safely engaged and waiting to join the unseemly scramble to the altar Jack and Jessica managed to launch this summer,’ he suggested, with a hard look that admitted he was prepared to assist in matchmaking if it would save a man from the over-eager and self-obsessed Corisande Beddington, so long as she understood he could never endure it himself.
‘If she set her heart on Lord Ambleby, they might be very happy together, I suppose. They are both good-natured and principled, if inclined to be self-indulgent. I believe you’re right and they would suit each other very well, my lord,’ she mused and caught his half-amused, half-horrified expression as he watched her resolve to promote a different match to the one Corisande had in mind.
‘Thank heavens you were born a woman, Miss Seaborne,’ he said mockingly and she couldn’t stop herself asking why, even though she told herself she didn’t really want to hear his answer.
‘I don’t quite see why, when I’m not too sure it was a good thing myself. Being female apparently means I must stay at home and twiddle my thumbs while you males are busy doing things. Why are you particularly glad I’m bound and subdued by convention today more than any other day, my lord?’
‘I’m quite relieved about that every day, since you would be far too dangerous if convention allowed you to wander about the countryside at will. But in this case I thank the good Lord you were born a woman because you would be so uncomfortable in the Seaborne nest if you’d been created a man. I can’t see you happily embracing an idle life and letting Jack take the lead as Marcus seems perfectly content to do. You would either break out and go your own way, as I suspect Rich has done, or break yourself on the frustration of being born out of the direct line of succession and all the power that goes with it.’
‘What a very poor opinion you have ofme, my lord. I’ll leave you to enjoy it before the matchmakers start speculating about us instead of Corisande and whomever her roving eye settles on next.’
‘Don’t you want to know what I found out?’
‘Of course I do, but you seem disinclined to tell me, and I won’t have local society whisper that I have set my cap at you.’
‘Meet me later so we can talk properly then,’ he said with an impatient look that told her exactly how frustrating he found the conventions that bound them and the onlookers all around.
Considering how public his projected meeting with Jack
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