At Last Comes Love (7 page)

“Two bouncers in a single sentence,” he said.

She looked at him with all the hauteur she could muster. “You are impertinent, my lord,” she said.

“Oh, always,” he agreed. “Why waste time on tedious courtesies?

Was he worth the panic?”

She opened her mouth to deliver a sharp retort. But then she closed it and simply shook her head instead.

“Was that a
no
?” he asked her. “Or a
you-are-impossible
gesture?”

“The latter,” she said curtly before they were separated again.

A short while later the orchestra paused before beginning another tune in the same set. But Lord Sheringford appeared to have had enough. He took Margaret's hand from her side without a by-your-leave, set it on his sleeve, and led her off the floor and into a small, semicircular alcove close to the doors, where a comfortable-looking sofa was temporarily unoccupied.

“It is impossible,” he said as Margaret seated herself hesitantly and he took the seat beside her, “to hold a sustained conversation while dancing. Dancing has to be the most ridiculous social activity ever invented.”

“It is something I particularly enjoy,” she said. “And one is not
expected
to hold a lengthy conversation while dancing. There is a time and place for that.”

“What did he do,” he asked her, “to throw you into such a panic?”

“I have not admitted,” she said, “that there even
is
any such gentleman or that there
was
any such incident.” She picked up her fan from her wrist, flicked it open, and plied it to her overheated face.

He watched her movements. He was seated slightly sideways, his elbow resting on the top of the sofa not far from her shoulder. She could feel the heat from his arm against the side of her neck.

“Of course there were both,” he said. “If the cause had been a burst seam, it would have revealed itself rather shockingly when you collided with me.”

She ought to just get up and walk away, Margaret thought. There was nothing to stop her, was there? But his persistent questions had revived the memory of her misery and panic, and some of the former returned. She had really had no chance to digest the fact that she would never be married to the Marquess of Allingham.

Lord Sheringford was a stranger. Sometimes it was easier to talk to strangers than to loved ones. She doubted she would ever pour out her heart to Stephen or either of her sisters. It had never been her way to burden them with her woes. Instead, she had always bottled up her emotions deep inside—at least all the negative ones. She had always been the eldest sister, the substitute parent. She had always had to be the strong one, the one upon whom they could all depend.

Talking to strangers was dangerous. But there was something quite unreal and bizarre about this whole evening so far. Margaret's normal caution and reticence deserted her.

“I told a gentleman of my acquaintance yesterday,” she said, “that I was betrothed. I expected that it would be true by tonight. But this evening I have discovered that the gentleman concerned is betrothed to someone else, and the first gentleman is here and will be expecting to meet my fiancé. Oh, dear, this all makes no sense whatsoever, does it?”

“Strangely it does,” he said. “The gentleman to whom you made this claim once hurt you?”

She looked at him, rather startled. How could he possibly have discerned that?

“What gives you that idea?” she asked him.

His eyes bored into hers as if they could lay bare all her secrets.

“Why else would you be rash enough to tell him such a thing so prematurely?” he said with a shrug. “It was a boast. Why boast to him if you did not wish to thumb your nose at him? And why wish to thumb your nose at him if he had not hurt you at some time in the past? What did he do to you?”

“He went away to war,” she said, “while I stayed at home to raise my younger sisters and brother after our father died. We had an understanding before he left, though, and that sustained me through years that were often difficult, even bleak. And then word came through a letter to his mother that he had married inSpain .”

“Ah,” he said. “This paragon of devotion is one of the scarlet-clad officers who are dazzling all the ladies, is he?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And the man to whom you expected to be betrothed?” he asked.

“He also has behaved toward you in a dastardly manner?”

“I cannot in all conscience accuse him of that,” she said. “He offered for me three times over the past five years. I refused all three times, though we were still friends and told each other at the end of last Season that we looked forward to meeting again this year. I arrived in town very recently and therefore neither saw the announcement of his engagement nor heard of it. I came here this evening, expecting …

Well, never mind.”

She was beginning to feel very uneasy, not to mention ridiculous.

What she had intended to be a very vague explanation of her earlier panic had turned into a rather detailed and very humiliating confession.

“You waited too long in both instances,” he said. “With both gentlemen. Let it be a lesson to you.”

She fanned her cheeks more vigorously. She deserved that harsh and unsympathetic judgment. Though it was very typical of a man to take the part of other men. It must be
her
fault that she had lost both Crispin and the Marquess of Allingham.

But he was perfectly right to think so, of course. She need not feel so indignant or so abject. She had not been abandoned by either man.

She had made them wait too long.

It was humbling to see oneself through the eyes of a man.

“And does the dashing, faithless officer know the identity of the gentleman to whom you expected to be betrothed this evening?” Lord Sheringford asked.

“Oh, no,” she said. “I was not
that
indiscreet. Thank heaven.”

One must be thankful for small mercies, she thought. How truly dreadful it would have been if…

“Then there is a simple solution to all your woes,” the earl said. “You may introduce
me
to your officer as your betrothed, and at the same time demonstrate to the other man that you were not waiting for him to offer for you yet again.”

Oh, he really was quite outrageous. Yet there was still no glimmer of humor in his eyes, as she saw when she turned her head sharply to look into them.

“And what would you do tomorrow,” she asked, “when you discovered my brother and brothers-in-law on your doorstep, demanding to know your true intentions? And what would
I
do when I came face-to-face with Crispin tomorrow or the day after? Tell him that I had had a change of heart?”

He shrugged.

“I would inform your fierce relatives that my intentions are entirely honorable,” he said. “And you could continue to thumb your nose at the officer.”

“I do thank you for the gallant offer,” she said, laughing and wondering how he would react if she chose to take him seriously, poor man. “And I thank you for your company during this set. It has been amusing. But I must go now and—”

She was given no chance to finish. The hand belonging to the arm that was propped against the back of the sofa moved to rest firmly on her shoulder, and his face dipped a little closer to hers.

“One of the scarlet uniforms is approaching,” he said, “draped about the person of a large red-haired officer. Doubtless your erstwhile lover.”

She did not turn her head to look. She closed her eyes briefly instead.

“You had better do as I have suggested,” Lord Sheringford said, “and present me as your betrothed. It will be far more satisfying for you than admitting the abject truth would be.”

“But you are not—” she said.

“I can be,” he said, interrupting, “if you wish and if you are prepared to marry me within the next fourteen days. But we can discuss the details at our leisure later.”

Was he
serious
? It was not possible. This was all quite bizarre. But there was no opportunity to question him. There was no time to think or consider. There was no time at all. His eyes had moved beyond her, and he was raising his eyebrows and looking like a man who was none too delighted at having his tête-à-tête interrupted. It was a haughty, cold look.

Margaret turned her head.

“Crispin,” she said.

“Meg.” He made her a bow. “I trust I am not interrupting anything important?”

“Not at all.” Her heart was thumping so hard in her chest that it deafened her despite the loudness of the music and of voices raised to converse above it. “My lord, do you have an acquaintance with Major Dew? May I present the Earl of Sheringford, Crispin?”

Crispin bowed again, and Lord Sheringford regarded him with raised eyebrows.

“And this is the same Major Dew,” he said, “with whom you once had an acquaintance, Maggie?”

Maggie?

Oh, goodness! Margaret's vision was beginning to darken about the edges. At the other extreme, she felt a quite inappropriate urge to burst into laughter. She must be on the verge of hysteria again.

“We were neighbors,” she said. “We grew up together.”

“Ah, yes,” Lord Sheringford said. “That was it. I knew I had heard the name before. A pleasure, Major. I hope you have not come to solicit Maggie's hand for the next dance, though. I am not finished with that hand myself yet, and the present set, you will observe, is not quite over.”

“Meg?” Crispin said, virtually ignoring the earl apart from the fact that his nostrils flared slightly. “Are you ready to be escorted back to your
family
? I shall certainly claim a dance later in the evening if I may.”

There were certain moments upon which the whole of the future course of one's life might turn. And almost inevitably they popped out at one without any warning at all, leaving one with no time to consider or engage in a reasoned debate with oneself. One had to make a split-second decision, and much depended upon it. Perhaps everything.

This was such a moment, and Margaret knew it with agonized clarity as she closed her fan. She could get to her feet now and go with Crispin, or she could stay and tell Crispin the truth, or she could stay and do what the earl had suggested—and deal with the consequences tomorrow.

Margaret was
never
rash, even when forced to act upon the spur of the moment. But this was a different type of moment altogether.

“Thank you, Crispin,” she said. “I will be delighted to dance with you later. For now, though, I will remain with Lord Sheringford. The Marquess of Allingham will be along soon, I daresay, to claim me for the next set.” And then a deep breath and the rest of the decision was made. “Lord Sheringford is my betrothed.”

The ballroom suddenly seemed unnaturally hot and airless. But she doubted she had enough control over her hands to open her fan again.

Crispin looked from her to the earl, poker-faced, and it seemed to Margaret that he knew the man or at least knew
of
him, and did not like what he knew. He had offered to escort her back to her
family
, with emphasis upon the one word.

“Your
betrothed
, Meg?” he said. “But Nessie and the Duke of Moreland do not know anything of it.”

He had just been talking with them. They had all seen her with the Earl of Sheringford. Perhaps Crispin had volunteered to come and wrest her away from him and escort her to safety. What did they all know of the earl that she did not? It must be something quite unsavory.

“I told you yesterday, Crispin, that the betrothal has not yet been made public,” she said.

“It will be very soon, however,” the earl said, squeezing her shoulder.

“We have decided to wed within the next fortnight. When one has discovered the partner with whom one wishes to spend the rest of one's life, why wait, after all? Many a prospective match comes to grief because the couple—or one member of it—waits too long.”

It occurred to Margaret that he really might be serious.

But how could he
possibly
be? They had just met.

He could
surely
not intend to marry her within two weeks.

She did not even know who the Earl of Sheringford
was
. Apart from being heir to the Marquess of Claverbrook, that was.

She felt one of the earl's knuckles brushing against her cheek and turned her head to look at him. His eyes, she could see now, were a very dark brown. Was it the color, almost indistinguishable from black, that gave the extraordinary impression that he could look inside her and see her very soul?

“I must offer my felicitations, then,” Crispin said, executing another bow. “I will seek you out for a dance later, Meg.”

“I shall look forward to it,” she said.

He turned without another glance at the earl and strode away with stiff military bearing.

“He is not pleased,” the earl said. “Is the Spanish wife still alive?”

“No,” Margaret said. “He is a widower.”

“He was hoping, then,” he said, “to rekindle an old flame with you.

You have had a fortunate escape, however. He looks very dashing in his uniform, I daresay, but he has a weak chin.”

“He does not!” Margaret protested.

“He does,” the earl insisted. “If you are still in love with him, Maggie, you had better be careful not to allow yourself to be lured back to him. You would be wasting your sensibilities upon a weak man.”

“I do
not
still love him,” she said firmly. “His actions persuaded me long ago of the weakness of his character. And I do not recall granting you permission to use my given name, my lord. Especially a shortened form that no one has ever used before.”

“A new name for a new life,” he said. “To me you will always be Maggie. Who is the man to whom you expected to be betrothed tonight?”

“The Marquess of Allingham,” she said, and frowned. That information, at least, she might have withheld.

“Allingham?” He raised his eyebrows. “Your next dancing partner?

That is interesting. But you have had another fortunate escape. If he is as I remember him, he is a dull dog.”

“He is
not
,” she protested. “He is charming and amiable and a polished conversationalist.”