Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

“ Y our Grace, may I have a moment of your time?”

Seth turned. Lady Lavinia was standing behind him, and the first thing he noticed was that she was wearing a pale yellow gown that didn’t flatter her at all.

For one thing, the color was all wrong for her skin. It made her look sickly. It also did nothing for those captivating eyes of hers. He couldn’t make out the flecks of green that had so intrigued him, and even the brown didn’t look right when contrasted with that gown. Who had chosen this for her?

She must have seen some sort of judgment in the way he was looking at her, for her face went bright red. “I’m sorry if I’ve interrupted you,” she said.

“You haven’t.” He’d been standing in front of a bookshelf in the library, skimming over the titles available there, and while this wasn’t the sort of place he would have expected to find a young lady, it was possible that she had come here specifically looking for him. He turned his back to the books and gave her his full attention. “What can I do for you?”

“Are you sure I’m not interrupting you? Not taking you from anything you would rather be doing?”

“I was only looking at these books,” Seth said. “I’m happy to return to that later, if there is something you need to discuss. After all, you did me a great service the other night.”

She frowned. “But I thought we were even,” she said. “You repaid the service I did to you.”

“If there’s more I can do for you, I will do it,” he pledged. “I don’t know if you understand just how grateful I am.”

“You weren’t grateful at the time.” She didn’t seem accusatory. It seemed as if she was merely stating a fact. There was no reproach in her tone. Besides, what she was saying was true. He hadn’t felt grateful to her at the time.

Seth supposed he owed her some honesty. “I think you know that I was concerned you might be trying to ensnare me into some sort of engagement.”

“I wasn’t doing that.”

“No, I no longer believe it of you,” he agreed. “Having seen the way you’ve handled yourself over the past day or so…you simply don’t seem like that sort of lady.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shall I speak honestly?”

“I think that would be a good idea, yes.”

Seth nodded. “I believe it would require a degree of social mastery that you don’t seem to possess to manipulate someone in the way I was worried about,” he said. “You’re not conniving. You’re not someone who knows how to turn a situation to her advantage like that. I can very easily believe that you simply decided to pull me into the bushes as the quickest possible solution to a problem you saw. And though it was an odd solution, I can’t deny that it did work. That leaves me in your debt.”

“I see,” Lady Lavinia said. She seemed rather taken aback. “I did not come here to collect on a debt of any sort, Your Grace. I don’t consider you to owe me anything.”

“You and I differ in our opinions on that matter, then,” he said. “But don’t trouble yourself. I don’t mean to inconvenience you in the payment of my debt. I only want you to know that if there’s anything I can do during this party to be of service to you, I’ll be happy to do it.”

“Well, I seem to have benefitted from your assistance so far,” Lady Lavinia admitted, some of the fierce blush receding from her cheeks. “You and I both saw what happened yesterday, and all I did was wear what you told me I ought to.”

“Yes, I’d say that was quite a successful choice.”

Lady Lavinia looked around. “I find myself with a dilemma,” she confessed. “My father wishes me to marry quickly, and he’s already making the arrangements. But I don’t wish to marry a gentleman of my father’s choosing.”

“You don’t like the person he’s selected for you?”

“I don’t even know who it is,” Lady Lavinia said. “But when I think of marriage, all I can think is that if I’m not marrying for the sake of love, I don’t think I want to do it.” She blushed a little again. “I’m sure you think that’s very foolish.”

“I don’t, actually,” Seth admitted. “You ought to know by the way we met that I don’t like the idea of being forced into a marriage I didn’t choose.”

“It must be nice to be able to make that choice for yourself,” Lady Lavinia said enviously.

“There’s no hope, then, that you might be able to make your own choice?”

“That’s why I’ve come to you, actually,” Lady Lavinia confessed. “I know this is rather a lot to ask, but I have ten days left, according to my father, to make a match for myself before he intercedes and forces my hand. If I can manage to fall in love with someone, and convince him to fall in love with me during that time, I can still have the sort of marriage I dream of.”

“Ten days. That’s hardly any time at all,” Seth said.

“That’s right. I was on the verge of simply giving up on the whole affair, but my sister convinced me not to. She persuaded me that I ought to keep trying, and perhaps I should. The trouble is that…well, I haven’t any more green gowns to wear.” Lady Lavinia let out a little laugh. “I know I can’t simply wear green all the time. But so far, it’s the only thing I know to do that changes the way I am perceived. It’s the only thing that seems to get me any notice from any of the gentlemen of the ton .”

Seth nodded slowly. “I can see the problem,” he agreed. “And you’re right—you can’t wear nothing but green for the rest of your days. But it would serve you well to have a few more things in the color that suits you best. I don’t know why you’re wearing this.” He gestured at the ugly yellow gown, not bothering to hide his distaste for it.

“I didn’t choose it,” she said. “My father orders things for me.”

“He wishes you to look as if you’re at death’s door?”

She laughed. “I think he simply hasn’t much of an eye for color. Neither have I, for that matter. It never occurred to me that this gown might make me look as dreadful as you describe.”

“It speaks well of you that you’re not offended by my saying so.”

“I may not know what colors are becoming, but I do know a joke when I hear one,” she said. Then she sighed. “It’s when I try to tell them that everything seems to go wrong.”

“Is that so?”

“I have no trouble understanding other people, but other people never seem to understand me,” she said.

Seth nodded. He made no comment, but his thoughts were racing. Perhaps he could do something more for her than to simply help her choose the right clothes. Perhaps he could help her improve her ability to communicate with people. He thought of the way he had misunderstood her intentions on the garden path when she had only intended to help him. If she had known how to communicate more clearly, less awkwardly, perhaps that wouldn’t have happened.

But first, there was the matter of clothing to attend to. “Meet me in the foyer in an hour,” he said.

“Why?”

“We’re going into town.

“We are? I hadn’t heard anything about an outing today.”

“That’s because it hasn’t been arranged yet,” Seth said. “But I’ll make the arrangements over the next hour. All you have to do is present yourself here in that time. I assume I can count on you to do that, after all the effort I’ve put into helping you.”

“Of course,” she said quickly.

Seth turned away and walked out of the library in search of Allan.

“Why do you wish to go into town?” Allan asked, frowning.

“I thought it might be enjoyable, that’s all,” Seth said.

“Well, go if that’s what you want to do,” Allan said. “I certainly won’t try to keep you from a pastime you enjoy. But I don’t think I can recommend that any of my guests join you. I don’t think it would make a good activity for my party. It’s far too cold.”

Seth considered. “You don’t need to come, of course,” he told his friend. “But I would like to make the suggestion to the other guests, at the very least. They can take responsibility for themselves—don’t you think so? If they don’t wish to join the outing, they won’t. But there may be those who will. I don’t wish to go against what you want for your party, but allow me to ask them.”

“Why are you so determined?” Allan asked.

Seth hesitated. He didn’t want to tell his friend the truth—that this was all about creating an opportunity to take Lady Lavinia shopping without making it look as if he was overly interested in her. “It seems like an interesting way to pass an afternoon, that’s all,” he said. “Let me see if any of the others are interested, and if they aren’t—well, that will be that, and we’ll say no more about it.”

“Well, you know how grateful I am that you came out to my party,” Allan said. “I know this isn’t the sort of thing you usually enjoy, and if there’s anything I can do to make it a better experience for you, of course I’m going to do it. Go ahead and put the word out. I don’t have any plans for this morning that can’t be amended if people choose to be out of the house for a while.”

“Thank you,” Seth said. “I truly appreciate your willingness to go along with this idea, Allan.”

“I admit I still don’t see why this is so important to you,” Allan said. “But I hope you get what you want out of it, Seth.”

Seth nodded. “And you’re sure I can’t persuade you to join in?” After all, if Allan was coming along, it would be that much easier to convince other guests to join in. Allan was very popular, very well liked—everyone who had come to this party had done so in part because they enjoyed Allan’s company.

If Allan came into town with them today, it would legitimize the outing. And Seth knew it was to his benefit if a whole crowd of people came along. That way, no one would take any special notice of the fact that he was spending time with Lady Lavinia. If his plan to pay her back for her service to him by helping her find herself a match was going to work, it would have to be done without any of the other gentlemen at this party catching wind of his involvement.

“I suppose I’ll come,” Allan agreed. “It’s awfully cold—but at the same time, it will be nice to get warm beside the fire after returning from a day out.” He smiled. “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps this is a good idea and we’ll all have a wonderful time. You know, I ought to listen to you more often, Seth. You can be antisocial, but in spite of that, you do come up with some clever plans from time to time.”

“Well, I do my best,” Seth said, impressed with his own ability to bring this plan to fruition. He only hoped there would be no hiccups in it—that Lady Lavinia would decide to meet him, as she’d said she would, and that her father would see no problem with the idea.

Sometime in the last twenty-four hours the idea of helping her had become more than a simple obligation to return a favor. He truly wanted to do all he could for her now.