Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Evangeline stared at Basil.

Basil stared back.

Evangeline blinked.

Basil cocked his head, stretching his arms out farther, and raised his eyebrows to encourage a response. His smile spread, showing his teeth.

Evangeline burst out laughing.

She could not stop. She covered her mouth with her hand, muffling the sound, but kept on laughing. She wrapped her arm around her waist to support her aching sides, and still, she could not stop.

Basil's smile grew wider. His shoulders began to shake, and soon his rich baritone voice joined hers, filling the room with mirth. She waved a hand at him, begging him to be quiet. The last thing she needed was for her mother to hear their uproar and come to investigate.

It took a few moments and several deep breaths, but Evangeline finally recovered herself. She could not remember when she had laughed so hard. "Forgive me," she said, dabbing at her streaming eyes with her hand.

Basil produced a handkerchief which she gratefully accepted. "Not quite the reaction I was expecting, but it gives me hope, nevertheless. If I can make you laugh like that every day, we shall get along famously, don't you think?"

"Now. Mr. Morley," she said between breaths.

He interrupted her. "Basil, call me Basil, my dear. Are we not engaged?"

"No, we are not. Will you explain yourself, please? What new lark is this? If it is a prank, you are either very bold or very mad. Which is it? You must have quite lost your head. You're not still drunk, are you?"

"No such thing! Hardly had a drop the whole night, I swear it, my darling!" he protested.

"Mr. Morley, you have had several darlings attached to your name, but rest assured, I am not one of them," she said, steel sliding into her voice.

Basil bent his head. "My apologies. But I mean no offense by it, for I do think you a darling and have thought so for years. It is only recently that I have dared think that you might one day become my darling."

Evangeline's eyes narrowed at this new offense. "Only recently, you say? How recently?"

Basil shrugged. "I cannot name the time or place you found you way into my heart, I only know that to have you for my wife would make me the happiest of men."

All inclinations to laugh left her. This was Basil Morley. It was common knowledge amongst the ton that he loved, but not with his heart. Still, the audacity of his offer could not but amuse her. "Might I suggest that it found a place in your heart only today? The very day, in fact, that I am officially out of mourning?"

Basil's eyes widened in offense. He put a hand to his heart, or rather, the place where any normal person's heart resided. "You wound me to the core, madam. I have admired you for years. You cannot have been blind to my adorations all this time?"

"You seem to have been blind to them yourself, sir, with the scores of opera dancers you have helped yourself to while entertaining these feelings for me. Tell me, my friend, how long after Lord Ramsbury's death did it take you to hatch this absurd plan of yours?"

It was beyond absurd, his waltzing in here and declaring himself so blatantly. He was not the first man to try to win her favor since her husband's passing, but certainly the bluntest of her fortune-hunting suitors. The moment she had gone into half-mourning and been able to go about quietly in society, men without a feather to fly with had positively flocked to her, attempting to gain a stronghold in her affections in the hope that she would marry as soon as her year in widow's weeds was complete.

Why did everyone assume she would be so eager to return to the institution? She was not sure what she would do herself, but more than one hopeful suitor had felt the sting of her forthright rejection. It was one of the main reasons she had decided to retire permanently to the country with her children.

There was also the part her son, Henry, had to play in the matter. The Complication, as she called it. But he was much too young for such a responsibility.

Still, at least Basil had had the decency to wait until her year was complete before pressing any suit, even one as ridiculous as this.

"Scores?" Basil frowned at her. "You should not believe everything those gossip mongers tell you, Lady Ram. It does you no credit."

"Oh? It is untrue, then?" she asked, all innocence.

"I will not even broach the topic with a lady who is all refinement and chaste feeling, ma'am. I am not so ramshackle."

Evangeline arched a brow. "You forget how long I have been not only married, but out in society. I cut my eyeteeth years ago. I am no schoolroom miss."

Not anymore.

"Yes, but to be so eager to believe the worst of me. I was in my youth, after all."

"Ah! Forgive me. I did not realize that your youth continued well into your thirties."

Basil bristled. "Five and thirty, ma'am, is the prime of a man's life. Besides, have you ever seen me with scores of opera dancers on my arm? Now apply yourself before you answer. Have you— you —ever seen it yourself?"

Evangeline pursed her lips at the question. He had her there. Lifelong acquaintances they may be, but her time and energies had been devoted to her growing family, not keeping track of Basil's every move. Society had done that for her, and what with how he had behaved after his return from the Continent, she had come to accept the buzz of gossip surrounding him. It was who Basil was. Who Basil had become.

"Of course not," she was forced to reply.

"Well then, you can't really know, can you?"

"So you say." Evangeline rose, forcing Basil to rise as well. "Well, let me not deter you from the enjoyment of your youthful follies by accepting your proposal. I thank you for the—er—honor, but I cannot accept."

"Now, wait a minute," Basil said, hastily stepping over to her and possessing himself of her hands. "Here me out, Lady Ram. I do not profess to know the intimates of your union with old Ramsbury?—"

"And thank heaven," Evangeline exclaimed. She made to twist her hands from his grip, but he only tightened his hold.

"But, really, have you never wondered what it would be like to be paired with a man more your match? One who did not require physicians waiting on him weekly? Who only carries a cane because it is the fashion, not because he is plagued with gout every other week? One who could keep up with your wit as Ramsbury never could?"

"One who is in desperate need of my money?" she asked sweetly in return.

Basil looked surprised. "Oh, do you have—Why, I never paused to think?—"

The blatant innocence on his face made Evangeline burst out laughing again. The look in Basil's eye told her he had once again fulfilled his mission to amuse her.

"Come, my dear, you know I had to try," he said, chuckling.

He still held her hands, for which she was grateful as she needed something to lean on while her amusement ran its course. "And I thank you for the compliment of at least pretending you like me, you wretch," she shot back.

But at this, Basil jerked her forward, pulling her closer to him. His eyes held a sudden magnetizing flame in them that would not release her from their hold until she became quite still, wondering if she should be a little frightened.

"Now where did you get the idea that I don't like you?" he asked, a low growl running undercurrent in his voice.

If she had been a young miss prone to fits of falling in love, his gaze would have held her a willing captive. As it was, an amused sparkle lit her eyes. "Like me, certainly. But like me well enough to marry me?"

He grinned. "Of course. We have always got on famously, you know."

"Famously? And what of the torturous things you said about my spots when we were young? If you have forgotten, I have not," she said, removing her hand from his hold.

"A regrettable circumstance of being an insolent pup. I have cured myself of that, I assure you. Quite reformed."

She laughed. "Reformed? Reformed into what? Something quite worse. Your character was better off when you were insulting women rather than what you do with them now. Reformed! That is doing it a bit too brown, my friend."

"There you go again, believing what everyone tells you."

"But you have not denied it, sir."

His lips twitched. "I am many things, my dear, but a liar is not one of them."

She shrugged. "There you are, then. As it is, I do not believe you like me well enough to seriously ask me to be your wife."

"You wrong me, then."

"And if I had no money?"

He shrugged as nonchalantly as she had. "Then I should continue to admire you from afar and hold you in the highest regard."

She nodded. "I see. Well then, you shall continue to like me from afar, for if we were to marry, I would lose my dower rights, you know. And they are quite a substantial part of my present comfort."

He frowned. Much struck by this piece of news. "Yes, there is that. Hm, and I suppose you would think it impertinent of me to inquire further into your financial status?"

Her share of a third of the late earl's estate was substantial, but Basil did not need to know how much her dowry was or which of the other assets were completely and legally hers. He did not need to know that for every son she bore, Evangeline had been rewarded a large sum. And so, with four sons, she had quite a tidy fortune all to herself.

But if Basil did not know that, she need not tell him.

"Extremely so, sir. Have you no shame?"

"Only a little, and it is a nuisance, I'll have you know. But this is our future happiness hanging in the balance, after all. And we cannot be happy without money. The very idea!"

She gave a curt nod. "And there goes that last little bit. I felicitate you. You are now completely and utterly shameless."

He shook his head and spread out his arms. "I am a hopeless cause, left to myself. Reform me, I beg."

Evangeline laughed but gave an impatient glance at the clock. "An impossible feat, sir. No matter how strong your regard for me, I could not force you to reform if you did not wish to. And I take leave to say that, given our present outrageous conversation, you rather like being a fortune hunter."

" Like being a fortune hunter? I should like it if it actually worked one of these days."

She tapped her nose and gave him a pitying look. "The mamas of the ton know the threat you are to their fair, wealthy daughters and so keep them hidden away from you, which is right. And the rich widows do not think you a threat at all, which is also right. But now I must send you away. My mother is here, and we will be late for our outing if I do not go to her soon. Or would you rather she come in so you may pay your compliments to her as well?"

The invitation did its intended work. Basil's eyes widened. "Ah, as much as I would be delighted to, I would not be the cause of your tardiness and so will bid you good day here. No need to show me out, I know the way. Are you certain, though, in your decision? Could nothing convince you?"

"If you could make the seas gang dry and rocks melt with the sun, I might consider it," Evangeline replied, quoting a favorite poet.

Basil chuckled. "I shall see to it immediately, then. But, a moment, pray…you did not answer my question."

Evangeline cast her eyes about in mock thought before she nodded. "I'm very certain I said ‘no, I will not marry you.'"

"Not that question." He took a step toward her, the space between them changing from decorous to intimate. When he spoke again, it was barely above a whisper. "You did not say whether you have imagined what it might be like to be with someone better suited to you in age and nature. I have known you ever since Ramsbury caught you up and before. Everyone in our circles knew him to be a jealous man when it came to you, but if you had any liaisons outside your marriage, you were so discreet that no one caught wind of it, and no one is that discreet. So tell me, Lady Ram—Evangeline." He raised his hands and clasped her arms, holding her gaze. "Have you never wondered?"

This time, she did not look away, nor did she have any inclination to laugh. His words had become more insolent by the second, but at his touch she held back the biting reproach that sat perched on her tongue.

There had been a time, years ago, when she had almost given in. Almost been tempted to give up everything she loved about her life for the chance to be loved by a man who had been able to ignite feelings and passions within her without so much as a touch.

Basil's assumption, accusation , that she had never felt anything of that sort before was worthy of every contempt. Foolish man—what did he know about love?

She knew what it was to ache with longing, to crave being held by a man who was not gray with age. She had simply done nothing about it. The struggle had been entirely internal. She had chosen one love, the love for her children, over the other. Lord Ramsbury had been a very jealous husband indeed.

The warmth of Basil's hands shot up through her neck and into her face. Her reaction surprised her, even more so the desire that he close the gap between them even further as she kept her gaze on him. She had not been touched by a man in well over a year. She held his eye.

His own look intensified, as if her stillness stirred something in him. When he glanced down at her lips, another chill spread over her and her heart quickened, but she refused to budge an inch.

His eyes drifted back up to hers with the same intense stare. But slowly, an amused twinkle appeared. The corner of his lip lifted upward. "I see," was all he said.

He released her and stepped back, breaking whatever spell he had conjured over her.

"What?" she asked.

"Mark my words, Lady Ram. I will marry you. Perhaps not today, nor tomorrow. But someday I know I shall win you over."

Evangeline rolled her eyes, but there was something in his tone that made her uneasy, as if he were declaring a prophetic vision. "You are absurd, sir. Away with you and do not speak to me again on the matter."

He smiled and bowed his head. "Very well. Though I cannot promise you a long respite from my attentions."

Amusement at the absurdity of the whole situation bubbled up inside her again. "Then you and disappointment are doomed to become intimately acquainted, Mr. Morley."

He chuckled, and Evangeline could not help but return his smile. What a ramshackle creature he was.

"Very well. I will thank you for your time and bid you a very good morning. Where are you off to?"

She was hard put to repress a sigh. "Mrs. Audley's."

Basil grimaced. "Mrs. Audley's? Egad. I wish you not only a good morning, but good luck surviving the visit as well." He turned to leave but came back straight away and took possession of her hands. "We are still friends, aren't we?"

"Oh, yes. I could not drop such a diverting acquaintance as you. I had it in my mind the other day to hire a court jester of sorts to entertain me, but ten minutes in the same room with you has had the same effect. No, I could never give you up."

"I am delighted to hear it, ma'am." Basil lifted her hands and bestowed a light parting kiss on each of them before going to the door, pausing before he passed through to the hall. "I meant what I said. I shall marry you one day."

Evangeline remained unperturbed. "I shall be sure to spend all my money beforehand. Or give it to the poor."

Basil sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head at her. "Minx. I shall marry you just the same, if only to persuade you that money is not the only sun in my universe."

She lifted her hand and twiddled her fingers in farewell. "'Til the seas gang dry, my friend."

A parting smile, a very sly one, and he was gone.