Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

“ W hat are you looking at?” Seth’s mother’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Several miles from the estate, the whole party had climbed down from their horses and settled in for a picnic. Blankets had been spread on the grass and baskets were unpacked. For a moment, Seth had allowed himself to look over at Lady Lavinia, who was still with Lord Hennington. Lady Edwina had joined them on their blanket—it wouldn’t have been completely inappropriate for Seth to join them as well. He was tempted to do it.

Seth turned away, not wanting a conversation about his complicated feelings regarding Lady Lavinia. “I wasn’t looking at anything,” he lied. “Would you like to have our meal together, Mother?”

“I’m surprised to hear you offer,” she said.

“We haven’t spent much time together this week,” he said.

“No, we haven’t, but that was deliberate on your part, and I won’t pretend not to know it,” she said. “I know you don’t always enjoy my company.”

“Perhaps it wouldn’t be that way if you weren’t so insistent on sharing your opinions about my choices regarding marriage.”

“I’m still your mother,” she told him. “You may be a duke, but I’m still your mother. And I saw you—you had your eye on Lady Lavinia, the daughter of the Marquess of Feverton.” She took a seat on a picnic blanket.

Seth took a seat beside her. “Mother, for heaven’s sake,” he said. “I didn’t have my eye on anybody. You’re imagining things.”

“I don’t think I was, Seth. I think you were looking at her. And I’m not the only one who has noticed it. Lady Everly told me she saw the two of you talking the other night. And I certainly haven’t seen you spending time with any other young ladies.”

“Mother, you go too far,” Seth said sharply. “I agreed to this picnic with you, but that certainly wasn’t meant as an invitation for you to say things of this nature. You know you have no right to tell me what to do when it comes to my socialization.”

“Well, I have the right to give you information, at least,” his mother said. “And someone ought to tell you about that young lady before you get in too deep with her.”

“What do you think you’re going to tell me, precisely?” Seth asked his mother. “What do you think you can say to me that I don’t already know?”

“So you do know things about her?” his mother asked swiftly.

Seth began to rise to his feet. “I’m not going to sit here and be spoken to this way,” he said. “If you can’t figure out how to honor the title I hold, the way you did when my father held it, and to treat me with respect, I don’t think you and I have anything further to say to one another.”

“No—for heaven’s sake, Seth, sit back down,” his mother said hurriedly. “It’s just that you ought to be made aware, that’s all. You ought to know of the potential for scandal that surrounds that young lady. I hate to see you get too close to someone who can do you harm by her reputation.”

“And what reputation might that be?”

“Everyone knows she’s strange. Everyone knows that she’s unlikely to marry—that she’s almost certain to be a spinster.”

“Well, that isn’t what I heard,” Seth said. “I heard her father has some sort of plan for her future.”

“In which case you would be just as well served by staying away from her,” his mother said. “Either way, there’s nothing there for you, Seth. No reason for you to get close to her.”

“Do you see me getting close to her? Mother, you saw me looking in her direction, a thing I am at perfect liberty to do even if she and I never speak to one another. Now really, I’ve had enough of this, and I’m not going to put up with any more of it. I’ve allowed you to have your say, but this conversation is over.”

He got to his feet.

“Seth, wait,” his mother protested.

But Seth shook his head. “I’ve given enough chances,” he said. “I know what will happen. If I sit back down, you’ll try to speak to me about this again, and I’m not having any of it. You have no right, Mother. Enjoy your picnic.”

He walked off, feeling a little bit dissatisfied—he’d hoped to have a pleasant conversation with his mother. He ought to have known how unlikely that was, of course.

She was so single-minded about the idea of seeing him marry that it often felt impossible that she would ever turn her attention to anything else. It bothered Seth, but how many times could he possibly tell her that she was overstepping her bounds in speaking to him the way she did? If she didn’t know it by now, it seemed to him that she might never know.

Needing someone else to spend the day with, he looked around, deliberately avoiding looking at Lady Lavinia. He would have liked to go over and sit beside her, to see how her conversation with Lord Hennington was going, but there was no way to do that, not after what had happened back at the stable. If only he hadn’t made a show of saying that he and Lady Lavinia had a discussion that needed to be finished at a later time, he might have felt free to approach her now.

But if he were to go over there as it was, it would look as if he was following up on that. It would look like he was trying to send Lord Hennington away so that he could talk to Lady Lavinia, and knowing Lord Hennington, he would probably be polite enough to get up and walk off.

Seth knew that there was a limit to the number of times he would be able to get away with driving gentlemen away from Lady Lavinia before she would simply decide that he was the one she needed to cut ties with.

He caught sight of Allan, thankfully on his own, and hurried over to join him instead. Allan looked up at him and smiled. “I wondered whether I would be seeing you,” he said evenly.

“It was good of you to put this picnic together for everyone,” Seth said. “I think people are having a good time.”

“I hope so. But it looks like Lady Lavinia has found someone else to spend her morning with.”

Seth sighed, frustrated. “Why does everyone think I’m trying to spend time with Lady Lavinia?”

“When everyone tells you something, you should consider paying attention to it,” Allan said. “It does look as though you want to spend time in her company, Seth. I saw the way you looked in her direction as you were making your way over here.”

“I didn’t look at her at all,” Seth protested.

“But you did,” Allan said. “Perhaps you’re not even aware of it, but you did. I think maybe it’s that she’s taking up so much space in your thoughts that you’re simply not noticing where your eyes wander! The truth is that you looked at her, and then away again, and then back at her, almost as if you were trying to force yourself not to look in her direction. Almost as if it was unbearably difficult for you to restrain yourself.”

“You already know what’s going on between the two of us,” Seth said. “I’ve been trying to help her present herself in a more appealing way. That’s all there is to it. If I glanced at her, it was only to see whether she was following the instructions I’ve given her.”

“And yet you didn’t notice me here until you had nearly tripped over me,” Allan pointed out. “I would have thought you would see me much sooner than you did. I certainly saw you coming in my direction—I even waved, and I thought you’d noticed me, but you looked away. Tell me, Seth, how do you explain it if you won’t allow for the fact that you’re captivated by that young lady?”

“I won’t entertain this,” Seth said. “I came over to sit with you because you’re my friend and I wanted to spend time with you—it had nothing to do with Lady Lavinia. And as for any attention I might have paid her on my way to you, I assure you it’s meaningless.

“Look—she’s sitting with Lord Hennington. All that can mean is that my lessons are paying off. She’s meeting with success in gaining the attention of a gentleman, which, I might remind you, is what I wished for her all along!”

“And there’s no point in asking you whether you’re certain it’s still what you want now that it seems to be happening, I suppose.”

“Why wouldn’t I want it? Do you think success makes me want things less?”

“No,” Allan said. “But I do think that seeing her turn her attention to another gentleman might make you realize that you enjoyed her dependence on you. You might be a little sad that the period the two of you spent together is coming to an end. I think that would be only natural.”

“We don’t know that it’s coming to an end,” Seth protested. “They’re only having a picnic together. It could amount to nothing at all.”

Allan nodded sagely and said nothing, and Seth fell quiet, registering his own words. Of course he was struggling with the idea of seeing Lavinia turn to another gentleman. He had grown used to the role he’d been playing in her life.

Well, it was only to be expected. He had known this would happen. He was glad it was happening. He didn’t want to spend the remainder of this party with her, trying to help her find love, meeting up with her late at night and reminding her that she shouldn’t be picking and pulling at her gown if she wanted people to think well of her.

Perhaps what this meant was that his job was done, and if so, that was a good thing.

But he couldn’t understand why it didn’t feel that way. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It felt as if he had lost something powerful and significant, something he truly wanted.

He cleared his throat. “She’s not going to fall in love with Lord Hennington, so this is all a moot point,” he said.

Allan raised his eyebrows. “You don’t think so?”

“Of course not. He’s a decent man, of course, but he’s a bit of a fool, isn’t he? She’s too clever for someone like him.”

“I don’t know him that well,” Allan admitted. “But he seems kind to me. I’ve only ever heard good things.”

“If he was all that wonderful, he would be married already.”

“Perhaps he simply hasn’t been interested in marriage until now.”

“In which case I find it incredible that he would suddenly take an interest upon seeing her. No, mark my words, he’s being kind to her. It’s nothing more. They’ll probably have a nice picnic, and I’m sure it will increase her confidence—she could use a bit of that! And afterward she and I will resume our lessons together and that will be that.”

He nodded his head firmly, indicating that he was ready to drop the subject, and reached for a sandwich. Allan regarded him quietly a moment longer, then seemed to decide it was best to let it go.