Major Westhaven's Unwilling Ward

A stillness descended, broken only by the relentless patter of rain through leaves above them. Lily took a deep breath and attempted to regain some semblance of dignity.

‘You need not wait with me,’ she said at length, when the silence was becoming oppressive. ‘Just tell your driver to stop here and pick me up.’

He made no reply, as she was beginning to see was usual for him. Exasperated, she turned to him. ‘If you would be good enough to perhaps go and see what is keeping them? Lady Stanton will be worried, and I do not wish to stand here all afternoon and be soaked to the skin!’

His face grew distant as he looked down at her. ‘I had not thought you the sort of woman to be overly upset by a little rain, Miss Pevensey. Especially as you yourself brought us here.’

‘It is not the rain that has upset me!’ she retorted. The slight stung her, as she remembered afresh his words at Lady Langley’s ball and the original reason she was so annoyed with him. ‘But I find it odd indeed that you had formed any opinion of me as any sort of woman at all, in light of the fact that you barely know me! Although, no doubt, you think otherwise.’

His eyes narrowed. He was looking increasingly out of sorts. ‘Can it be that I have done something else to upset you, Miss Pevensey, other than discipline my own servant?’

She shook her head, amazed at his gall. ‘Odd as it may seem to you, my lord, I do not take kindly to having my character assassinated in public.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Your character?’

She nodded. ‘I am perfectly able to hold a conversation. That I do not choose to do so with you says more about your character than mine. And just because a lady is cheerful it does not mean she is vacant, my lord.’

Realisation dawned in his face. ‘Lady Langley’s ball.’

‘Yes!’ she spat. ‘Lady Langley’s ball, where you seemed so eager to hold forth on the subject of my personality—or lack of one, if I remember rightly!’

‘You were not supposed to hear that,’ he told her, almost accusingly. ‘And, if you remember, most of it was not said by me.’

‘You began it!’ she snapped.

‘They do say, my lady, that eavesdroppers never hear well of themselves.’

‘Eavesdroppers?’ Lily gasped. ‘How—?’

‘Is that not exactly what you were?’

Unable to answer this without incriminating herself, Lily merely glared at him. ‘I am only surprised, sir, that, after such an appraisal of me, you did not retract your magnanimous offer to take me into your home. Or were you hoping to educate me once I was under your roof—make me a little less empty-headed?’

He was silent for a moment, watching the way she stood, eyebrows raised, waiting for his answer. None was forthcoming.

Infuriated, Lily gritted her teeth. ‘I am not usually contrary by nature, sir. There are many who would find me the perfect companion, I assure you, and none of them would presume to speak of me—or to me, for that matter—as you have done. It is no failing in myself that I find you so extremely…’

‘Provoking?’ he suggested helpfully.

She resisted the urge to stamp her foot for fear it would send her up to her ankles in mud. ‘Now you are laughing at me?’

‘I assure you, I would not dare.’

‘Then explain to me why you make such judgements about women you do not know!’

He raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Perhaps you should explain why you are so eager to hear my explanation.’

‘Because…Ugh!’ Lily threw up her hands. ‘We are going around in circles. I bid you good day, sir. I will walk from here.’

With that she set off, out from under the tree and across the soaked grass, furious, humiliated and all the while wondering at the strength of the emotions that coursed through her. It had been true, what she told him of her character. She was mild, courteous Liliana Pevensey: unassuming, quiet living and, of late, tastefully coquettish in polite company. How had she turned into the type of woman who shrieked at men in the rain?

It was all his fault—and she would have no more of it! He was an uncivilised boor and about as far from a gentleman as she had ever encountered.

The ground squelched under her shoes, and the rain still had not let up, but Lily gave little thought to these trivial matters—she wanted simply to be as far from Major Westhaven as possible.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be following her.

‘Miss Pevensey.’

Those long legs apparently allowed him to cover ground much faster than she—he was gaining on her.

She swung around, narrowly avoiding losing her balance.

‘Leave me be, sir!’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To the gates to flag down a cab, of course!’

‘I have a perfectly good carriage.’ He sounded as if he was trying to pacify a child, and it infuriated her. ‘And, even if I was willing to explain your unchaperoned departure to your friend, you are unlikely to find a cab out here, I assure you.’

She scowled as he drew level with her. ‘I cannot wait another moment if you are to wait with me!’

He took her arm again as she turned away.

‘Stay.’

It was said with such calmness that she actually paused. She looked at him, his hair plastered to his head with rain—and all of a sudden she felt more wretched than she had in a long time.

‘I just want to go home,’ she said, shoulders drooping as the anger drained from her body. ‘You are quite right, my lord. I have not the character for running about the country with mud in my shoes. If that is what gentlemen wish for these days, then I shall happily remain an old maid.’

A frown crossed his face as she met his eyes but fleetingly.

‘I have truly upset you, haven’t I?’

Something in his expression stung her straight back into fury. She wiped rain from her face and scowled at him. ‘Upset me? Why ever would you think that I have enough substance of character to feel upset?’

‘Perhaps if you would—’

‘You must forgive me,’ she interrupted, ‘but it is not easy to learn that your temperament is out of fashion, sir. Even the most vacuous—the most vacant—of us have feelings!’

She stalked past him, tears stinging her eyes. Must she endure such comments from such a man? Not, she reminded herself firmly, that she cared a fig what this particular man thought.

‘Plenty of your peers find my conversation perfectly satisfactory,’ she snapped over her shoulder. ‘Perhaps you should consider that it is yourself who is wanting, not those of us who are merely trying to make things pleasant for others, so we may all—’

‘It seems I was wrong,’ he said from behind her.

Lily stopped. ‘What?’ She turned to face him as he reached her side once more, mud sucking at his boots.