Chapter Eleven

Niles considered himself a reasonable person. He didn't generally think ill of people unless they'd shown themselves to inarguably deserve it. And, thus, it frustrated him that despite not having concrete proof, he felt entirely certain Penelope Seymour was toying with him.

Asking to join him on his morning ride had been unexpected but also unexceptional. He knew of her family's connection to horses, and it stood to reason she would go riding in the mornings just as he did. And to ask to join him on a future morning ride would have been just as commonplace if not for the flirtatious smile that had accompanied the request.

He couldn't make heads or tails of it. Ladies regularly flirted with the other Gents but not with him. And Miss Seymour had not been the least flirtatious before that morning.

She'd also commented on their teamwork during ground billiards, no matter that they had been competitors, and she'd asked if he'd drive her around the estate. Those bits of conversation had involved smiles and slight flutters of her eyelashes as well, and absolutely none of it made any sense whatsoever. Unless she was laughing at him or attempting to manipulate him for some reason.

That rested heavy on his mind as he sat in the guest bedchamber he'd been using the past weeks. He'd changed out of his damp clothes but still looked a scraggly mess. Such was his distraction that he'd not even sent for his valet to help him put himself to rights, and it was in that state that Digby and Lucas found him.

"We heard you'd been out in the rain." Lucas looked him over, shaking his head and smiling. "You look it."

"I was riding Morwenna and was caught in a downpour."

"That is unfortunate for you," Digby said. "But a decidedly fortunate thing for Wilson."

Niles hadn't been expecting that declaration, neither could he make sense of it.

"What the King is attempting to convey," Lucas said, "is that we're hoping Wilson can address the current state of you as a means of practicing his valeting."

"We already spoke with your man," Digby said. "He thinks the young man would benefit from the practice, seeing as Lucas here looks inexcusably unkempt with unacceptable regularity."

Lucas pressed a hand dramatically to his heart. "Digby, you traitorous coward! How dare you malign me this way. The man said nothing of the sort."

From the time Niles had joined the Gents, and likely predating that blessed day, Lucas, Stanley, and Digby had routinely declared each other traitorous cowards in the exact theatrical tone of offended disappointment Lucas had just employed. It made Niles miss Stanley all the more. There was no one in the world like Stanley Cummings.

"I don't mind if Wilson gets some practice." Niles pushed a tuft of damp hair off his forehead. At least he would look like everything wasn't in shambles.

Digby gave a quick nod to Lucas, who stepped out of the room.

It was only Niles and Digby again, as it had been when Niles had first confessed that he was planning to do whatever he needed to avoid the match waiting for him in Cornwall. He'd not made so personal a confession to any of the Gents since Stanley.

"What's the matter?" Digby asked.

"Merely cold and a little wet." Niles tried to look convinced by his own explanation.

"I realize I look exquisite." Digby pressed his hand lightly to his indigo silk waistcoat with a confident and somewhat lavish bow. Just as quickly, his posture straightened and his expression transformed into one of annoyance. "But do I also look stupid?" he asked dryly.

"Never."

Digby gave a crisp nod. "Then, I will ask again: What's the matter?"

There was no point denying it any longer. "Miss Seymour is acting odd."

"Do you think she's ill?" Digby guessed.

"No. I think she's lying." Realizing he had just cast aspersions on a lady's integrity, Niles attempted to clarify. "Lying is, perhaps, too harsh a descriptor. She is—I haven't—If I were anyone else—Except—"

"This is the point where Stanley would have said, ‘Take a breath.'" Digby watched Niles with concern and just a hint of amusement.

So, Niles paused and breathed in and out, giving his mind a chance to decide what he meant to say. "I am absolutely certain Miss Seymour was flirting at me."

"Flirting with you," Digby corrected.

Niles shook his head. "When have you ever known me to flirt?"

That seemed to give Digby pause.

"I have watched ladies flirt with the rest of you, and all of you do plenty of flirting as well. This was different."

Digby dropped into a nearby chair. "In what way?"

"It started suddenly and stopped just as abruptly. And in the moment before she started, there was a look in her eyes as if she remembered what she was supposed to be doing. And the expression that immediately replaced the coquettish looks was something I would interpret as contemplating her next strategy."

"What do you think her aim is?" Digby asked.

Niles shook his head. "I'm not entirely certain. All I know is it feels insincere, as if she wants me to think her feelings for me are more tender than they are."

"Thus, your declaration that you think she's lying."

"I do think it is insincere, which is disappointing. Is it so outlandish of me to hope that someone could genuinely feel tenderly toward me?" He'd been wishing for that for so long.

"Not outlandish at all," Digby insisted.

No woman had ever shown more than a passing interest in him, and he'd never had his head turned in any meaningful way. But the Gents had never belittled his wish to eventually fall entirely in love with a lady, no matter how increasingly improbable that had become over the years.

"Do you think I incorrectly evaluated Miss Seymour's flirting this morning?"

"It's possible," Digby said. "But given your situation, I would say you have ample reason to be at least a little wary."

Niles held his hands up in a show of frustration. "How will I know which it is?"

"You are attempting to sort out a woman." Digby shook his head. "You have little chance of ever knowing what anything is."

"That isn't very comforting," Niles said.

"Monarchs do not exist to offer comfort, Puppy."

Niles pushed out a tense breath. Why did everything have to be so frustratingly complicated?

Lucas returned with both Kes and Wilson in tow. Considering the young man was attempting to learn skills that would provide him with employment for possibly the rest of his life, he looked cool as a cucumber. Kes, on the other hand, seemed anxious.

"Have a seat, Niles," Digby instructed, rising from the chair he'd been sitting in and offering it.

Digby and Wilson gathered behind the chair after Niles sat.

"Mr. Greenberry's hair curls when it's wet," Digby said to Wilson, "but the curls pull out as it dries. Lord Jonquil's, on the other hand, retains a noticeable wave even dry." He continued on with his instructions.

Kes pulled the other chair in the room over and sat facing Niles. "I heard something from Violet last evening that I've been pondering, and I've decided you need to know what I heard." His earnest tone didn't bode well. "Miss Seymour has hopes of moving forward with the marriage her brother and your grandparents arranged."

Niles had more or less assumed that. Why else would she have tracked him to Yorkshire?

"I heard Violet ask her how the courting was going," Kes said. "And Miss Seymour said, ‘It has not yet begun in earnest, but I have hope that it will prove effective.'"

"Prove effective?" Niles repeated the phrase, trying to sort out what Kes had overheard.

"Violet asked about courting ." Lucas looked from Niles to Kes a few times. "Does Miss Seymour think Puppy is courting her?"

"I can't imagine why she would think that," Niles said.

"You haven't been making sheep eyes at her?" Lucas asked with an amused turn to his lips.

"Quite the opposite, actually."

Kes's gaze narrowed on him. "I can't believe you would glare at her."

"No, I mean she has been making sheep eyes at me ."

Any other gentleman would have taken offense at the befuddled doubt that momentarily flitted over their faces. Niles understood it far too well to be even the tiniest bit upset.

" She is courting you , then." Kes gave a single nod.

Courting me. "That might explain the insincere flirting." He began turning his head to look at Digby.

The King leaned around Niles's shoulder from behind. "I realize you are up to your damp neck in romantic distress and are, because of your innate intelligence, literally turning to the most experienced person here, but could you attempt to hold your head still? Wilson is trying to perform a miracle."

"My deepest apologies," Niles said, looking forward once more.

"Let this be your first lesson in being a valet, Wilson," Digby said.

"That I ought to ask the gentleman to hold his head still?" Wilson asked.

"That gentlemen gossip every bit as much as the ladies do."

From the doorway came an unexpected observation. "If things have already devolved into gossip, then I suspect we have arrived too late."

Though Niles had been warned not to move his head, he spun on his chair, recognizing the voice of Lord Aldric Benick. Sure enough, the General had arrived. Henri Fortier—Archbishop—was with him. Other than Stanley, all the Gents were together again.

"If you two don't stop distracting Niles, I'll toss you out of my house," Digby warned.

Aldric eyed him as he and Henri stepped inside. "What has the King's crown crooked this time?"

"He is attempting to impart wisdom to young Wilson here." Lucas motioned to the young man in question.

"And he has discovered he has no wisdom to offer?" Aldric was in a rare mood; he didn't always join in their more ridiculous banter.

"Offer your wisdom to Niles," Digby said. "He needs it."

Henri sat on a nearby window seat. "Are we correct, then, in our assumption that your plan to remain here in order to avoid your match in Cornwall did not prove an ingenious scheme?" He spoke in French, likely not even realizing he'd done so. No doubt he and his new bride, Nicolette, exclusively spoke their native tongue at home. And Aldric had spoken French since birth, so their journey to Yorkshire had undoubtedly been conducted entirely in that language. How long had it been since Henri had even spoken English?

"The plan was not merely un ingenious"—Lucas spoke in English, which would help Henri make the transition—"it has actually left him more entangled in the matrimonial trap than he was before agreeing to the strategy."

Aldric, now standing near where Henri sat, studied Niles for the length of a breath. "More entangled how ?"

Someone—either Digby or Wilson—pulled a comb through Niles's hair, tugging it but not painfully. "Miss Seymour sniffed me out."

"She's here?" Aldric didn't appear to know whether he found that impressive, worrisome, or hilarious.

To Henri's credit, he looked sympathetic. "Was she furious?"

"No," Niles said.

"Hurt?" Henri further guessed.

"No." Niles began to shrug but remembered the instruction to keep still and stopped. "She took it entirely in stride. And she and her brother are still here."

"Did her brother take it in stride?" Aldric asked doubtfully.

Lucas answered. "He might have been upset if not for Digby."

Aldric looked above and behind Niles to where the gentleman in question was standing. "What did you do?"

"I was simply my charming, delightful—"

"Unattached," Lucas added.

"Wealthy," Kes tossed in.

"—self," Digby finished. "That immediately made me Mr. Seymour's favorite person at Pledwick Manor." Then, quite obviously to Wilson, he said, "The ribbon should be tight, but the hair should be allowed to be softer."

"Did Miss Seymour also find herself similarly intrigued by the charming, delightful, unattached, wealthy host of this unexpected house party?" Aldric asked.

"The Irish lass is currently attempting to nab herself a Cornish Puppy," Lucas said.

"And that Cornish Puppy still doesn't want to be nabbed?" Henri asked.

Niles shook his head only to have Digby place his hands on either side of Niles's face to hold him still.

"My deepest apologies, Your Majesty."

"We require only a moment more of your cooperation," Digby said, using such a regal tone that Niles couldn't be certain if the we referred to both him and Wilson or if Digby was referring to himself in the royal plural.

Careful to keep very still, Niles said, "This Cornish Puppy hasn't changed what he wants for himself and his future. And being courted or wooed or whatever else this game is being called isn't changing that. It feels too..." How did he explain why Miss Seymour's efforts rankled the way they did?

"Coercive?" Aldric suggested.

That hit close to the mark, though it was not precisely what he was feeling. "I just don't know if she's sincere. I'm not saying she's a liar," he quickly added. "But I don't like the idea of being... manipulated."

"We'll not let that happen," Aldric said.

Niles made no argument that Miss Seymour was, in fact, interested in him and was courting him because she genuinely wanted to marry him and wasn't merely marrying the person who'd been chosen for her. All the other Gents had been swooned over and been the recipients of sincere adoration. All of them.

Except him.

"You said another year would see you with the ￡150 you lack?" Lucas asked.

"Assuming my family welcomes me home and saves me the expense of lodgings outside of the Season." No matter how upset they were with him, they couldn't cut him off financially; his income was stipulated in legally binding contracts. It hurt that he'd taken solace in that of late. His connection to his family had always been warm and secure. He'd risked all of that by rejecting his duty to his grandparents.

"I wish I had the money to lend you," Lucas said.

The others added their voices to the wish. Niles knew his friends well enough to have already guessed that every last one of them would have helped him financially if they could. Even though Lucas, Kes, and Digby had money enough to live quite comfortably, they all also had expenses attached to their estates. They didn't have much truly disposable income. Henri and Aldric barely had income, despite being sons of extremely wealthy families.

"Is there a possibility of finding an estate at a lower price?" Aldric asked.

"Not one that would provide me with the additional income I need to be eligible for a parliamentary seat." He didn't need to explain to any of them why that was so crucial. They knew his ambition, no matter that it was not often discussed among them.

"We'll see you safely through your current difficulties," Henri vowed.

Behind him, Digby said, "Your second lesson in being a gentleman's gentleman, Wilson, is that you'll sometimes overhear private conversations, but—"

"I know how to keep my mouth shut, sir," Wilson said. "And for Lord Jonquil, who saved my life, I'll keep every secret he needs me to."

Lucas looked entirely convinced of the young man's sincerity, which was reassurance enough for Niles. As Wilson gathered the tools of his sought-after trade, Digby stepped around and joined the Gents.

"Thank you," Niles said to them. "I've managed to get myself into quite a bind. I don't know how I'd survive this without all of you."

"Do you remember," Aldric said, "Stanley saying to us that everyone has a dream, but only the truly fortunate ones get to live theirs?"

Niles remembered that well.

"We're going to do more than see you survive this," Aldric continued. "We're going to see to it that you are one of those fortunate ones."

"One-hundred-fifty-pounds fortunate?" Niles asked doubtfully.

With a look of overdone pondering, Digby asked, "How do you feel about seedy gambling dens?"

That set the Gents laughing.

"And how do you feel about a courting counterstrategy?" Aldric asked. His look of pondering appeared entirely sincere.

"Counterstrategy?" Niles eyed the others, wondering if they had already sorted out what Aldric was hinting at.

"Miss Seymour is attempting to snatch up a Puppy," Aldric said. "And there's every chance Violet is already part of the schemes." He glanced at Kes, who nodded. "Which means Nicolette will not remain uninvolved for long."

"I would say her participation is a foregone conclusion," Henri confirmed.

Aldric met Niles's eye.

"Thus, the need for counterstrategy," Niles acknowledged the realization as he had it.

"Do you want us to tell Miss Seymour that Niles is a horrible person?" Lucas asked. "Maybe suggest that he has no table manners or that he has a tendency to toss insults at the vicar during sermons?"

"That won't be necessary." Aldric stood tall and confident. "Just stay close to our Puppy and be our usual obnoxious selves. That should prevent this courting scheme of hers from becoming a true entanglement."

"What if Miss Seymour proves more determined than that?" Digby asked.

"Or the ladies prove better strategists than our General?" Lucas added.

"Take care with the blasphemy." Henri stifled a laugh. The others didn't bother with the stifling.

Though they hadn't any true answers to his current difficulties, Niles felt better. He was in over his head, yes, but he wasn't alone.