Lord Sidley's Last Season (5 page)

She thought of feigning illness and letting Katie go
alone to Ackermann’s. But Marian had rarely been ill a
day in her life. And given Sidley’s situation, the ploy
seemed grossly unacceptable, even craven. She could
only do her best to avoid him.

That resolve was more easily kept in the abstract. For
when she and her cousins entered Ackermann’s three
nights later for the weekly viewing, Marian’s sole wish
was for Lord Sidley’s presence. She did not spot him on
entering and moved about listlessly before stopping to
examine closely a stunning, printed depiction of a fire
in London.

“You were not there,” Lord Sidley said very softly.
Though he stood at her side, he looked not at her but at
the print before them. At her quizzical silence he explained, “You did not attend Lady Malvern’s supper.”

“I was not expected to attend.”

“I expected you” As he turned to her, one of his
dark eyebrows rose. “You are more selective than your
cousin?”

“I am not-” Marian looked away from his surprisingly accusing gaze. “I have not been presented at court,
my lord. I am here only for the month, and only to study,
not to seek-not to seek companionship.”

“You are still one of the family, and should be welcome
in society. Though you may not indeed be seeking companionship, as you so subtly term it. I understand you
have already sniggled a fellow. I commend you, Miss
Ware. When is the happy day?”

She did not like the word sniggled any more than she
cared for his tone of voice. “Lieutenant Reeves and I-”

“You call him `Lieutenant,’ then?”

“Of course not. William is-”

“Ah, William!”

Marian looked him full in the face. “You sound rather
unpleasant, my lord.”

“‘Sound’? Miss Ware, I had no inkling that my voice
offended.”

“‘Tis not your voice. ‘Tis your tone.”

“Well, with regard to tone, I know enough of music-”

“My lord, I will not spar with you.”

“I regret that very much.”

She reviewed him then-his magnificent, bottle green
coat, his high shirt points, and his delicately crafted cravat. His elegant dress distracted from his too-pale complexion. But his manner, his nonchalance, distressed her.
And for some unfathomable reason she felt extremely
angry.

“I suppose,” Marian said softly, as quietly as she could,
“I suppose we must all indulge you, Lord Sidley, because
you are … because of your disappointed prospects. The
rest of us must bear with your ill humors, and suffer your
deficits in courtesy, because the sad truth is that we need
not suffer them for long.”

He answered her with silence. Marian wished instantly to take back the words. She kept her attention
fixed on the print before her while she struggled to
think. She should have thought before. But she was not
given the opportunity to recover.

“Apparently you’ve been apprised of my impending
demise. Nothing else might so easily explain the alteration in your manner. Though I confess, I must indeed
have been indulged by others, since I am more used to
sympathy than scorn. Your own tone, Miss Ware, is quite
scathing.”

She turned quickly to face him. “My lord, please permit me to apologize. I could not be more sorry, and as
for sympathy-”

“Spare me, Miss Ware. On such short acquaintance,
your sympathy can only be perfunctory”

Marian drew a sharp breath. “Even strangers,” she
managed, “like myself, might … might feel for you, my
lord.”

“‘Feel for’ me? How quaint. I assure you, there is little feeling involved, merely curiosity, that of watching
my morbidly entertaining little existence come to its
close.”

He observed her narrowly; she thought she must look
as ill as she felt.

“Do not waste your time pitying me, Miss Ware. You
are young, with much to experience and enjoy yet in
life. Indeed, anticipating your marriage! What can I be
to you?” He did not give her a chance to attempt an answer, but shrugged and again looked away. “And perhaps my situation is not as dire as others would have it.
In fact, I might wager so. I choose to be optimistic.
However inconvenient you might find it that I should
linger, or even survive.” His smile when he turned back
to her was humorless.

Marian knew she was blushing; she could do nothing
for it. And, sharp as he sounded, Lord Sidley seemed to
derive satisfaction from toying with her.

“Our conversation has been so diverting, Miss Ware,
that I find I still await the answer to my question. When
do you and Lieutenant William Reeves wed?”

“Perhaps later this summer. We have not yet determined. We are friends of many years…

“How delightful! There is nothing like a carefully
measured romance to warm one’s blood. One would never wish an excess of anticipation to spoil the nuptials.”

“That is an unconscionably suggestive-” Marian
broke off and bit her lip. “No doubt you, my lord, have
great contempt for delay and yield frequently to the
madness of the moment-”

“Frequently’!”

“-and would have no understanding of arrangements that extend beyond the immediately available.”

His eyebrows shot up. “My word! What has put you in
such a pother? Surely I am to be permitted a few excesses. My time may be limited. And duty has not been
so kind to me that I’m now inclined to neglect my pleasures. Forgive me. I would not in the usual way speak so
to a young lady, Miss Ware, but you do … provoke me”

Marian looked down and swallowed. “It is no concern of mine, of course. Do you-have you-that is,
my cousin Katie-”

“Lady Katherine is charming!”

“Yes, she is,” Marian said, meeting his gaze once
more. “And she thinks most highly of you, my lord.”

“I am glad to hear it,” he accepted lazily.

“I should not like to see her hurt.”

“No indeed!” He peered down his nose at her. “Has
someone hurt her?”

“Oh! You are-Of course I am concerned that you
should not hurt her!”

“I believe I might safely claim that I shan’t.” He
frowned at her. “On Saturday, at the Malverns’, Lady Katherine invited me to this week’s ball. No doubt you
know that”

“You must not feel pressured to attend on such short
notice..

“Do you not wish me to attend, Miss Ware?”

“Why, of course it is nothing to do with me. But Katie
would be most disappointed.”

He was again examining her face. “Did you receive
the book, Miss Ware?”

“Oh! Oh, yes indeed. It was so very thoughtful …
and we are all most, most appreciative.”

“‘All’ of you?” His lips twitched, but his gaze was serious. “Miss Ware, we have not done well here this
evening. The fault rests entirely with me. Might we start
again?”

He spoke softly, confidingly. The request was generous. In that instant Marian sensed her heart was very
much at risk. But she had not even a second to reflect
on the discovery.

“There you are!” Katie said at her side. “Has Lord
Sidley been entertaining you, Marian?”

“Miss Ware has been most forbearing,” Sidley offered.
“I fear I have grown tiresome.”

“Not at all, my lord,” Marian managed. “I look forward to continuing our discussion at some future date.”

“Perhaps at Lady Katherine’s ball?” he asked, and
his gaze met hers steadily as Katie tapped his arm with
her fan.

“You have decided to attend, my lord!”

“With great pleasure, Lady Katherine. Miss Ware.”
And he bowed before departing.

“Oh, I knew he would!” Katie enthused. “He was
most coy last night-he even claimed he might have another engagement-but now here he is, obliging as can
be. I do hope I shan’t have much difficulty with him.”

“‘Difficulty’?” Marian had some trouble swallowing
the lump in her throat.

“Why, if we are to be married, I should hope for a
good deal more amiability. Complaisance.”

Complaisance! From Lord Sidley? Marian glanced at
her cousin with some impatience. “I wonder, Katie, if
you understand the man at all”

“Oh, do not sound so severe, Marian. Honestly, just
because you yourself are engaged, ‘tis no reason to assume you know everything about gentlemen.”

“That is not what I assume! I spoke only of Lord Sidley.”

“And why should you know Lord Sidley better than I?”

Marian could summon no response. She knew only
that Katie’s plans and attitude filled her with something
akin to foreboding.

“No reason at all, Katie,” she said at last. “You are
right-I am imagining much. You know it is always my
way.”

And with that disclaimer Katie seemed thankfully
content.

“Lady Katherine would do very well for you, Sidley.”
His aunt, Adeline, regally ensconced in a high-backed
chair, smoothed out her black bombazine skirt. She had
worn mourning for her brother, Sidley’s father, and now
wore mourning for her nephew, Sidley’s brother. Indeed, when Sidley reflected upon it, Lady Adeline Pell
had worn mourning of some sort for the greater part of
the past thirty years. “Edgar, Lord Formsby, has already
declined several offers for his sister’s hand,” she added.
“The girl is of excellent family, an admired beauty, just
bearably loud, and shall have at least four thousand a
year.”

Sidley turned fully from the window, from which he’d
been pensively observing the street outside the family’s town home. “And you believe those qualities are what
should suit me?”

“They are qualities that should suit any gentleman in
your position.”

“What a boon to matchmaking, that all of us should
be so conveniently interchangeable.”

“This is a serious matter, Sidley. Your quirky humors
are ill-gauged to the matter of matrimony. I was halfafraid you would return home wed to a Spanish dancer!”

“Were you?” He smiled. “Instead, I gave you a different kind of fright.”

“Yes, well, we will speak no more of that,” she said
uncomfortably. Her loss of composure on his return
would forever be a source of embarrassment for her.
“You are well enough now, and equally well cognizant of
your duty”

“Yes,” Sidley said on a sigh, at last abandoning the
window to take a seat at the fire, across from his aunt.
He selected a sweet of some sort from the tea tray between them and tossed it indifferently into his mouth.
For the past few days he had lacked appetite, but he
knew he must continue to build his strength. He looked
steadily across at his aunt, of whom he was surpassingly
fond, despite her tendency to management.

“So, pretty and pampered Lady Katherine meets with
your approval, does she? You are certain your friendship
with her mother has not swayed you too positively? The
girl is very young.”

“Eighteen is a perfect age! And why should I not be
`swayed positively,’ as you say, by as close a friend as
the Countess of Formsby? Edith and I have always understood each other.”

“Did you plot this fate at the foot of Lady Katherine’s cradle then, Auntie? Or-I had forgotten-no
doubt she was intended for m’brother Simon, who, by
the way, would almost have been old enough to be the
chit’s father.”

“Not quite, Sidley,” Lady Adeline corrected him.
“And in your case, a difference of ten or eleven years
will scarcely signify.”

“More than a decade is a great deal of experience.”

“In my opinion, some of your more recent experiences
would have been better avoided.”

“I see you wish my brief holiday to end.”

“It has not been that brief.”

“I beg to differ. Six weeks is nothing at all.” He sat
back on the sofa and idly tapped his left boot with his
cane. “And I have not been wholly well. You think me a
more attractive prospect than I am, Aunt Adeline.”

“Humbug! You are the prize catch of the season,
even given the … the …”

“My imminent death? I believe my numbered days
are precisely what has propelled me to the top of the
ladies’ lists”

“Do not be coarse, Lee. You were always considered
a prize. Even as a second son”

“Really! Why?”

“I shall not flatter you, outrageous boy.” Adeline
sniffed delicately as she eyed him. “You always had
funds enough through your mother.”

“No doubt you have the right of it, Auntie. My personal charms have never mattered in the slightest.” But
his smile faded as he looked again to the fire. “Simon
should have stayed at home and seen to the family fortunes. We would have been spared much”

“We could no more keep him at home than we could
keep you. After Vitoria he was wild to go”

“The more fool he,” Sidley muttered darkly. “After
Vitoria I wanted only to return. But I digress. You wish
me married and starting a nursery. Re-establishing the
eroded Sidley line! I intend to do as I must. As you say,
there is considerable property at stake. But next season
strikes me as sufficiently soon”

His aunt shook her head. “You will be twenty-nine
this December.”

“Surely that is not too ancient, ma’am?”

“To assure the line, you need an heir.”