Lilly (3 page)

He had the gall to walk over and look around, as if he were choosing a place for a rendezvous point already agreed upon.
  Practically engaged to Lilly, was he making an assignation with a strange woman in the road?  Was that the kind of man Lord Randall was?   Lilly was so stunned, she shivered from the shock.

Lilly
could not stop the trembling in her hands, and she coiled the reins to hide it.

“This planned marriage, you don’t desire it?”
Lilly questioned, so surprised she thought another cruel word from him would strike her to the ground.

“Not after looking at you, no,” he laughed, a rich baritone.  “Well, truthfully, not before either.  An unfortunate necessity.  A quick marriage to a plain
, brown country mouse.  Now back to you, will you meet me sweetheart, I think we could please each other?”

“This mouse, haven’t you seen her?  Written to her?”
Lilly asked, forcing her angry hands to still.

“No,” he grinned.  “I hired a clerk to send
her a few letters, but enough of her.  Who are you?”

“I don’t wish to say,
” Lilly spit out, letting some of the coldness into her voice.

Lord Randall
looked up in surprise and Lilly wondered if no other woman had ever refused him before.

It was all
Lilly could choke out before kicking Midnight into a fierce gallop over the next hill and out of sight from the road.  He was so handsome and so vile, everything and nothing.  Coming to sacrifice himself to a plain, brown country mouse, while arranging an affair in the road to a stranger at the same time.  Was there ever a more despicable creature?  Then Lilly also remembered he’d said letters a clerk wrote.  Lord Randall had an underling write her those letters?  The parchment she slept with, fantasized about, the hopes and love she’d invested into a cherished stack of lies and deceit.  He had not put forth any effort to correspond with her, never read her letters back to him?  Lilly rode a few miles and dismounted under a tree.  She tore off her silly new hat and threw it into a hedgerow.

“Thank the gods I met him on thi
s road, or I would not have seen him for a devil until it was too late,” Lilly whispered, trembling in anger.  The heat of her new habit, the emotion running through her, the disappointment so strong, she choked back sobs and lowered her head into her hands.  Every dream disappeared, every hope dashed, every wish for a grand passion died.

……….

Reece realized he’d been so dazzled by the vision on the highroad that he’d been stupid.  What if she was a relative of this Lilly Castleford?  Why did he mention his marriage?  He climbed back into his coach and continued his journey, thinking about the beautiful young woman on the road and wondering how he could arrange to see her again.  Everything about her he admired.  She was tall but possessed an enchanting figure.  She was young and beautiful with delicate features and a kind smile.  She was also rare, for living a life around mistresses and gamblers, prostitutes and racetrack followers, she was a diamond amongst pebbles of rock. 

Reece Randall wished he had acted differently.  The more he thought of his words to this enchantress, the more he chided himself for a callus fool.
  That last look she had given him was full of dislike, even loathing. A stinging glance, new to the handsome earl.

The thought of courting a country brown mouse now turned his stomach.  How could he even act interested in this
Lilly Castleford after seeing this beauty on the road?

……….

Lilly crossed the fields and arrived back home, pale but resigned.  She would never marry.  She would not consider raising her hopes ever again, she could not face this pain, but oh the disappointment was strong.  Lilly no longer believed in gentlemen of this realm.  Deceivers and cads all.  ‘
Unpleasant business
,’ indeed.  She would never be that again. 

First
, Joshua courting her for years, whispering suggestions of a future together, implying an engagement.  She’d waited years for him to formally propose and when he visited Bath she never expected him to return married.  Joshua’s deception had hurt beyond anything Lilly let people see.

Now
, the wound of false hope was reopened.  Mooning over counterfeit letters, dreaming of marriage again and most painful, seeing the handsome and attractive liar, his appearance, voice, and style everything Lilly admired.  If he was a good man, she would be over the moon with joy and delight to share a future with him. Disillusionment took a piece of hope from Lilly’s heart, leaving a dark hole of loss.

Aunt Mary woul
d not personally know the true earl, but her Aunt Ellen from town surely knew.  Was her aunt so desperate for a favorable match she hid the truth about Lord Randall, just to have a rich lord in the family?

Sick at heart
Lilly climbed the stairs only to see that same fine coach pulling into their lane.  So the cad decided to stop and finish his
‘unpleasant business.
’  No use going to his estate first and taking a bath from his journey.  Why bother for a brown mouse, growled Lilly, for now the whole episode was ridiculous and she would get rid of him once and for all.

Lilly
heard the downstairs maid answer the door.  She moved to the top of the stairs and watched him enter their simple manor house.  For just a second her heart fluttered and she felt the loss stab her.  Lilly gathered her courage and went to the banister railing.  She did not descend, afraid to be near him, fearful she would sob into his fine coat and plead for him to love her.

“You can stop right there,”
Lilly called down, pressing strength into her tone.

His dark head looked up quickly, as if recognizing her voice and he had the nerve to
grin.

“I’ve found you again,” Reece
joked. 

From this viewpoint she was even more magnificent.  Looking up a floor to her long legs, the rise of her bosom, her hair hanging dow
n on her shoulder, Reece felt his pulse race.

How
amusing it was for him to play with other people’s emotions, she thought.  Lilly delivered her grandest smile, the one that made the Donaldson brothers drool and replied.

“No sir, you did not find anything worth having
here, for you only located a plain, brown country mouse, your unpleasant business, Lilly Castleford in the flesh.  Tell your clerk he writes amusing letters, more so than the forged signature of the supposed writer, for I find him a nasty villain.”

Surprise registered on his handsome face, pulling his mouth tight, and
Lilly laughed.

“Sorry for your
wasted journey.  I will always thank my lucky star for the day I met you on the road and not in a drawing room where you might have continued to deceive.  Goodbye Lord Randall, may you rot.”

Lilly
added the last with a hiss and turning, she walked back to her room and slammed the bedchamber door with a wood breaking sound.

“I’ll be damned,” Reece cursed
.

……….

Lilly neither knew how long he stood there nor cared.  She went to her mirror and noticed the high color on her cheeks, her flashing eyes, and a long curl of hair that had come down with her hat. She’d never looked better.  Her blood was running hot, but her emotions were broken. Lilly was sorry Lord Randall was a blackguard.  He was so handsome and she felt as if she’d missed her only chance at finding someone worthy.  The thought made her eyes go bleak.  All that time wasted thinking of letters written by a clerk.  Lilly felt like a fool.  She took the stack of neatly tied letters from under her pillow and threw them into the fireplace.  She lit a candle and touched the flame to the parchment.  Watching the bright golden flame, the grey smoke drift high, Lilly watched another dream die.

S
he changed into a delicate light yellow muslin and added the pearl hair clips her Aunt Ellen had given her.  She touched up her hair and after waiting an hour, went downstairs.

She heard voices fr
om her father’s workroom and assumed one of his many military friends had come to call.  She went into the library and opened her ledger books.  There was negative balances in every column and Lilly sighed and ran her hands around her neck.

“Problems?” a deep voice asked from the doorway.

Lilly looked up in surprise to see Major Sheridan standing there.  He came to visit with her father every month, she’d forgotten today was his day.

“Always,”
Lilly replied, smiling sadly and standing to take his hands.

“Anything I can help you
solve?”  He asked.

“Has anyth
ing of father’s sold, does the Crown plan to buy any inventions?”

“We’re very interested in his latest pistol design, but it’s not ready yet, needs testing.  I heard you are getting married?”
Major Sheridan asked.

“No, I am not,”
Lilly stated firmly.  “I found out the gentleman is a rotter.  There will never be a wedding between us.”

“Any other young gentleme
n after you?”  The major asked, winking at her.

“No,”
Lilly blushed.  “I plan to be a spinster, or go on a long sea voyage after father no longer needs me, but not marriage.”

“So adamant?”

“Yesterday I would had answered differently, but today I got a glimpse of what a bad marriage would be like and I think I’d rather be alone,” Lilly answered with regret.

“You think all marriages are bad?”

“I don’t know.  Are they?”  Lilly asked, knowing Major Sheridan was a widower.

“No, some are fine, others better and a few can be wonderful,” he
grinned and Lilly noticed for the first time how handsome the major was.  About forty, rich brown hair, blue eyes, kind and strong.

“Well, I hope if
you decide to marry again, yours will be wonderful,” Lilly smiled and sat back down behind her small desk.

“I never thought
I would marry again, after Joan, but time passes and I’m still alive.”

Lilly
looked up again and agreed.  “Yes you are. Are you staying overnight at the village inn?  You know you can always stay with us.  What would you like for dinner?  I can offer you something simple but very good.”

“Thanks, but your father an
d I are going to the village pub for a shepherd’s pie and ale.  We have things to discuss.”

Mysterious, for the
major always ate with them in the dining room.

“Perhaps another time then.”

“Lady Lilly, you are sure this other marriage of yours is off?”  Major Sheridan asked, shifting his shiny black boots.

“It was never really on, no
proposal, no ring, no announcement.  Just a few letters I found out were not even written by the same gentleman, but a clerk he hired to write me.”

“Never say it?  What an ass he sounds.”

They laughed together and she smiled, it was comforting to talk about it to the major.

“Ye
s, he is,” Lilly admitted.

“Does your father know it’s off?”

“No, I haven’t told him or the aunts, but I will today.  No sense having them believe something false.”

“Perhaps there still might be something to celebrate,” he hinted.

“What?” Lilly asked.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow, after I talk to your father tonight.  See you tomorrow
morning then?”  He looked deeply into her eyes, his blue stare unsettling.

“Yes. Alright.”

Lilly wondered what that was all about.  The major was so soothing to talk to, his voice so deep and distinctive.  She always imagined it ringing out loudly over a battlefield, giving orders, saving lives.  If he was almost forty, that cad Randall was five and thirty, they were not too far apart in age.  What a difference in their life’s choices.  One married and fought in great battles for his country, while another seduced women and planned mischief.

……….

Lilly met with her aunts at dinner and delivered the disappointing news.

“He was as bold as brass.  Thought I’d meet him in a field for some rom
antic interlude under a tree!  Just think, the idea that a strange lady would so accommodate him when he’d just told her he was in the area to get married.  He is handsome and looks very rich from the quality of his carriage, but he was such a deceiver.  The ridiculing names he called me, a country brown mouse, the letters he didn’t write, I wish you had told me Aunt Ellen, for you must have known he was a rogue,” Lilly said, trying to keep the anger and sadness from her voice.

“I am sorry dear, I’d hoped the
stories I heard about him were exaggerated, for they seemed so extreme.  Now that you know I can tell you he has two mistresses, besides carrying on several current affairs,” Aunt Ellen confessed.