Mr. Malcolm's List (11 page)

“
Is
my plan doomed to failure?” Malcolm said, putting his arm around Selina’s
waist.

“Yes, of
course,” Selina said, before melting into Malcolm’s arms.

This kiss
was altogether more satisfying than their first one at Lady Hartley’s
ball.
 
That night, Malcolm’s lips had
barely touched hers, and his arms had been around her much too briefly.
 
Now, she was ensconced in such a firm embrace
she could feel the solid bulk of his chest pressed against hers.
 
This time his lips touched hers firmly and
remained there until she felt in danger of collapsing from either lack of air
or because of the sudden weakness she felt in her lower extremities, she was
not sure which.
 

Before
she fell victim to either, Malcolm raised his head.
 
“You forgot to protect yourself,” he told
Selina.

“What?”
she asked.

“I gave
you fair warning I meant to steal a kiss, so I cannot be held accountable for
my actions.”

“So you
did,” Selina said, rallying a little.
 
“I
suppose then that I am forced to forgive you.”

“Good.
 
Because that is the last time I intend to
warn you,” he said, and kissed her again.

Selina
was hard put to answer that evening at dinner when Lady Kilbourne asked her
what part of the tour she’d enjoyed most.
 
She intercepted a wicked glance from Malcolm, and could feel herself
turning red.

“I
believe it was the Statue Gallery that you found most delightful, was it not?”
Malcolm said.

“I did
enjoy the Statue Gallery,” Selina said, before realizing how Malcolm would
interpret her words.
 
“That is, I found
the Statue Gallery most pleasing.”
 
Malcolm’s grin widened.
 
“The
marbles were exquisite,” Selina said, thankful she had finally said something
that could not be misinterpreted by Malcolm.

“And
which figure did you most admire?” Malcolm asked her.

“Jeremy!”
his mother chided him.
 
“Can’t you see
you are embarrassing Miss Dalton?”
 
Lady
Kilbourne turned to Selina.
 
“Do not
worry, Miss Dalton.
 
You are not the
first to find the statues somewhat shocking.
 
While my sister was alive she gave a tour of the house and one of the
ladies later said that it was a pity that there was not some contrivance that
could be hit upon to conceal the nudity of the males, for lady spectators were rather
nonplussed when viewing them.”

Selina
smiled at Lady Kilbourne, thankful that she had come to her defense, even
though it was not the statues she found embarrassing, but rather Malcolm’s
veiled references to the kisses he’d stolen.
 

However,
Selina’s modesty seemed to impress Lady Kilbourne (or perhaps it was her
ability to converse in full sentences that did the trick), because Lady
Kilbourne seemed to unfreeze toward her by the time dinner was over.
 
When everyone retired to the drawing room
after dinner, Lady Kilbourne requested that Selina play for them.
 

“My son
tells me you’re quite an accomplished young lady,” Lady Kilbourne said, smiling
at Selina.

Selina
acquiesced with good grace, although she hurried to suggest Julia as the next
performer once she’d played her piece.
 
It was obvious to Selina that Julia was becoming irritated with all the
special attention that Selina was receiving from Lady Kilbourne and her
son.
 

Nine

The following
afternoon the rest of the guests began to arrive.
 
Cassie and Mr. Ossory came first, then Mr.
and Mrs. Dalton.

Selina
presented her parents to the rest of the party.
 
She watched them a little anxiously, trying to judge them as the others
might.
 
Mr. Dalton was not as fashionable
as the other gentlemen present, but he was dressed neatly and soberly, in
keeping with his calling.
 
He was a
handsome gentleman of fifty, and it was obvious that Selina had inherited much
of her good looks from him.

Mrs. Dalton
was still an attractive woman at forty-five, but not as attractive as her
hostess.
 
Whereas Lady Kilbourne was thin
and elegant, Mrs. Dalton was plump and motherly.
 
However, both of her parents comported
themselves with grace and dignity and Selina was proud of them.

After tea
the party divided into smaller groups.
 
Cassie and Mr. Ossory went with Malcolm to tour the stables.
 
The Thistlewaites and Lady Kilbourne decided
to rest in their rooms before dinner.
 
Selina and her parents asked if they might go for a walk about the
grounds and Malcolm directed them to the parterred gardens on the south side of
the house.

They
walked in silence for a few minutes, arm in arm, Mrs. Dalton flanked by her
husband and daughter.
 
Selina, who had
had an extra day to take in the magnificence of Hadley Hall, wondered if her
parents were as overwhelmed as she had been the day before.
 

“So,
Selina,” Mr. Dalton finally said, “we were quite surprised to receive an
invitation to Hadley Hall.”

“I
imagine you were,” Selina said.

“Mr.
Malcolm seems like a very nice young gentleman,” Selina’s mother said.

“Oh,
Mama, do you like him?
 
I am so glad,”
Selina said, turning a shining countenance toward her mother.
 
Her mother grabbed her hand and squeezed it,
returning her daughter’s smile.

“We have
only had an hour’s acquaintance with him, Millicent,” Mr. Malcolm said to his
wife.

“And a
very agreeable hour it was,” his wife told him mischievously, looking
remarkably like her daughter in that instant.
 
Her husband smiled briefly at her and patted her other hand, before
becoming serious once again.

“Mr.
Malcolm is everything that most parents would find pleasing:
 
he is well-favored, wealthy, and
well-connected in society.
 
But you know,
Selina, your mother and I require more for you than that.
 

“You have
been reared to prize virtue over wealth and beauty of character over mere
physical attractiveness.
 
Mr. Malcolm is
from a different sphere altogether.
 
In
his world, morality is laughed at, marriages are made for profit, and life is spent
in idle, vain pursuits.
 
Why, you have
only to look at the activities of the Prince Regent and his brothers to see the
truth of that.”

“I know
what you say is true, Papa, but I think that by his interest in me he
demonstrates that he is different from his peers.”

“That is
true, Selina.
 
You are not a nobleman’s
daughter, nor are you wealthy enough to make that a consideration.
 
But you are very beautiful, my dear.
 
And there have been many instances of
physical attraction being mistaken for a more lasting emotion.”

“Your
father nearly fell victim to a siren’s song at your age, my dear. If I had not
been there to protect him, who knows what might have happened,” said Mrs.
Dalton.

“So you
protected me, did you?” Mr. Dalton asked, his eyebrows raised.

“There is
no need to thank me,” Mrs. Dalton said.

Selina
eyed her parents in amusement.
 
It had
always been thus.
 
Her mother restrained
her father from pontificating for too long, her humor keeping him from becoming
too serious.
 
It was a valuable quality
in a clergyman’s wife.

“I am so
happy you both are here,” Selina said.

“We are
too, my dear,” Mrs. Dalton said.
 
“Even
if you and Mr. Malcolm should not make a match of it, it is so nice to have a
little holiday.”

Selina
was relieved to see that evening that her father and Mr. Malcolm appeared to be
getting on very well.
 
The whole party,
in fact, seemed to finally be in full swing.
 
Julia was distracted from her previous bad humor by the arrival of Mr.
Ossory, and Mrs. Thistlewaite was pleased to be able to retire to the
background again with the influx of more guests.
 
Lady Kilbourne and Mrs. Dalton discovered a
mutual interest in gardening, and Cassie was always content when not wrangling
with his cousin.
 
(Which, with the advent
of Mr. Ossory, was happening less and less frequently.)

The only
thing to mar the high spirits of the party occurred after dinner, when the
gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing room.
 
In the general conversation that followed,
Mrs. Dalton turned to her daughter and said, “Oh, I forgot to ask you how Mrs.
Covington is.
 
Did you call on her as I
asked?”
 
Before Selina could reply, Mrs.
Dalton turned to her hostess and explained that Mrs. Covington was the widow of
their cousin, and that she lived in town.

Selina’s
eyes flew to Malcolm, hoping against hope that he was involved in conversation
and had missed her mother’s remark.
 
She
was disappointed to find that he was staring right at her.
 
Her next thought was that Julia might intervene,
but Julia was speaking to her cousin and was oblivious to what was
happening.
 
Selina had no choice but to
answer her mother.

“Yes, I
did visit Mrs. Covington.
 
She paid a
visit to me at the Thistlewaite’s town house, as well.”

“Good, I
am glad to hear it.”
 
Mrs. Dalton turned
again to Lady Kilbourne.
 
“Mrs. Covington
is not really a close connection, her husband was a second cousin only, but she
is a widow.
 
And Mr. Dalton and I have
always taught Selina to show compassion to those in less fortunate circumstances.”

Lady
Kilbourne agreed that this was a good attitude to have, and the conversation
soon turned to another subject.
 
Selina,
however, contributed very little to the discussion.
 
She was completely embarrassed to have been
caught lying by Mr. Malcolm, particularly when at practically the same moment
her mother was praising her principled upbringing.
 
She kept her eyes downcast, waiting
impatiently for a time when she could excuse herself.

“Selina,”
she heard someone say, and looking up, saw Malcolm had sat down in the chair at
her left.

Selina
quickly looked down again.
 
“Mr.
Malcolm,” she said.
 
“Pray excuse me, I
am not feeling well—”

“Selina,”
Malcolm said again, cutting her off.
 
“It
does not matter to me that Mrs. Covington is your cousin, and I am sorry if I
gave you that impression.”

“She is
not
actually
my cousin,” Selina began, but then interrupted herself to
say, “It is I who must apologize, Mr. Malcolm.
 
I am so dreadfully embarrassed. What must you think of me?”

“I think
that you must have been concerned for my good opinion and thought, if you told
me the truth, that you would lose it.
 
It
is my fault, for I look back on that occasion with shame.
 
I sounded dreadfully priggish, even arrogant,
and I have heartily regretted it many times since.”

“Even so,
that was no excuse for me to
lie
.
 
The only thing I can say in my defense is that I wanted to tell you the
truth, but that Julia—” Selina paused, realizing it was not the thing to
cast blame on someone else.
 
“Well,
anyway, I did want to tell you the truth.”

“I
believe you,” Malcolm said.
 
“Now, let’s
forget this foolish incident.
 
It does
neither of us good to harp on it.”

Later
that evening as Selina prepared for bed, she thought how pleased she was that
her mother had introduced Mrs. Covington into the conversation, even though it
had proved embarrassing initially.
 
Her
doubts about Malcolm’s character had been based on Julia’s statements about him
and his disdainful remarks regarding Mrs. Covington.
 
Now, after Malcolm’s apology, she no longer
had any serious reservations about him.
 
Julia’s aversion to Malcolm was becoming more and more recognizable as
wounded pride and could be dismissed, along with her spiteful comments.
 
Mr. Malcolm had his faults like anyone else,
but as far as Selina was concerned, he was close to perfect.

Selina’s
daydreaming was interrupted by a knock at the door.
 
She wondered who could be coming to her
chamber at this hour and was answered by Julia’s head popping in from around
the partially opened door.

“Selina,
may I come in?” she asked.

“It looks
like you are in,” Selina said.

Julia
closed the door carefully behind her and sat down on the window seat.
 
“I think it is time,” she said.

“If you
think it is time for bed, I can only agree, and wonder why it is you’re in my
chamber instead of your own.”

“No,”
Julia said impatiently, “I think it is time to show Malcolm your list.”

“What
list?
 
I do not have a list.”

“You
know, we discussed all this before, when you first came to town.
 
You are to allow Malcolm to find a list that
you’ve written, except all the items will not be checked.
 
Then he will see what it is like to be
measured and found wanting.”

“Julia, I
know that Malcolm hurt your feelings and I am sorry for that.
 
I believe you two started out on the wrong
foot, and I think if you allowed yourself to get to know him—”

“Selina,
what are you saying?”

“I am
saying that I do not intend to take part in this, this deception, any
longer.
 
I admire Malcolm.
 
I do not want to hurt him.”

Julia’s
eyes narrowed and she folded her arms across her chest.
 
“So, now that you’ve seen Hadley Hall, seen
how rich he is, you think you can get him to marry you, is that it?”

“No, that
is not it!
 
I am not interested in
Malcolm because of his possessions.
 
I
truly admire him and lo—like him.”

“So you
lo-like him, do you?” Julia said, mimicking Selina’s near slip of the
tongue.
 
“I wonder if you’d lo-like him
if he was a poverty-stricken curate from
Yorkshire
.”

“Yes, I
would,” Selina said, glaring defiantly at Julia.

“Well,
this is all very touching, but it is not at all what was supposed to
happen.”
 
Julia rose from the window seat
to pace angrily about the room.
 
“You
agreed to help me.”

“I agreed
to think about it.
 
Which I did.
 
Very carefully.
 
And I do not find Mr. Malcolm to be deserving
of such a trick.”

“And
I?
 
You think that
I
was deserving
of such a trick?”

“No, but
I do not think it was the same thing at all.”

“But it
was!
 
It was exactly the same,” Julia
insisted.

“Malcolm
did not set out to offend you.
 
He had no
way of knowing you would discover he had a list.”

“But I
did find out.
 
He did offend me.”

“And do
you think you have never offended anyone?
 
It happens, Julia.
 
Frequently.
 
A mature person
accepts it and moves on.
 
No one wants a
person incapable of forgiveness for a friend.”

 
“And I do not want a prosy preacher’s daughter
for a friend,” Julia said, striding to the door.

“Julia,”
Selina said, but her only answer was the sound of a door being firmly closed.

Mr.
Malcolm and his mother heard the sound from where they still sat in the drawing
room.