“You were the woman at the booksellers,” Daniel said.
They ignored him.
Disbelief shadowed his lordship’s face. “Sarah, I know I’ve been gone for a long time, but I thought we had a certain understanding…”
She stared at him. “Are you jealous?”
“Yes, I suppose I am.” The viscount huffed.
Daniel leaned toward Creswell and lowered his voice confidentially. “I really don’t know her.”
Again he was ignored.
Miss Palmer’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Yes, of course I trust you. This is just very confusing.” Creswell paused. “But it doesn’t matter. Whatever this man may mean to you—”
“Nothing,” Daniel said vehemently. “I mean nothing to her. Not a thing. We’ve never even met.” It was as if he was talking to himself.
“—I don’t care. I love you, Sarah. I want to marry you as soon as it can be arranged and I don’t care about this man or any other.”
“Any other?” Miss Palmer raised a brow. “You forgive me then? For this man and any others?”
“Careful, Creswell,” Daniel said under his breath. At last the viscount seemed to notice him. “You can’t win with this question.”
Creswell was silent for a moment then drew a deep breath. “I don’t see anything to forgive you for. There is some confusion here, but I am as confident of your affection for me as I am of mine for you. Therefore I am confident as well that there is a rational explanation. You, Sarah, are the love of my life. I have long trusted you with my heart and nothing will ever change that.”
“Excellent answer,” Daniel murmured.
Miss Palmer studied Creswell then smiled. “A very good answer indeed.” She sighed. “I admit this might be somewhat confusing.”
“Somewhat?” Daniel scoffed. “Tell me, is there another Miss Sarah Palmer?”
“Not at the moment,” she said slowly.
“Of course there isn’t another Miss Sarah Palmer,” Creswell said firmly. “This is the only Miss Sarah Palmer.”
She winced. “Not exactly.” She drew a deep breath. “It’s rather complicated. Will, this is Mr. Lewis.”
Creswell drew his brows together. “No, it isn’t.”
“Not exactly,” Daniel said under his breath.
Creswell’s confused gaze shifted between Daniel and Sarah. “What in the name of all that’s holy is going on here? Exactly?”
“Quite honestly, I’m as confused as you are.” Daniel shook his head.
Creswell’s gaze narrowed. “Let us start from the beginning then. I know who I am. I am Viscount Creswell and this is my family’s home. I know who this is. This is Miss Sarah Palmer. The only Sarah Palmer I know of. And you say you are Daniel Sinclair.”
“No, he isn’t,” Miss Palmer said firmly. “He’s Mr. Lewis, Mr. Sinclair’s secretary.”
“No, I’m not,” Daniel said reluctantly. “I am Daniel Sinclair.”
Sarah stared. “You’re not.”
“I’m afraid I am.”
Sarah’s face paled. “Good Lord.”
“And I’m here to see Miss Palmer. Not this Miss Palmer,” Daniel added quickly. “The other Miss Palmer.”
“There is no other Miss Palmer!” Exasperation rang in Creswell’s voice.
“That’s not entirely true,” the new Miss Palmer said. She looked at the viscount. “I don’t think you’re going to like this, but I doubt you’ll be overly surprised.” She cast Daniel a disgusted look. “I daresay, you won’t like it either but I suspect you deserve it.”
“Out with it, Sarah,” Creswell said.
“It all has to do with Cordelia,” Miss Palmer began.
Creswell snorted. “Who else?”
“The Amazon,” Daniel said in an aside to Creswell.
“The what?” Creswell stared.
“Amazon. Sturdy, stout-hearted, carries a walking stick.” Daniel nodded. “That sort of thing.”
Creswell’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll have you know that Amazon is my sister.”
“Sorry,” Daniel muttered.
“Because you called her an Amazon or because she’s my sister? Although.” Creswell turned a suspicious gaze on Miss Palmer. “In a moment, I daresay, I will agree with you on the latter. Sarah?”
“It’s a long story,” she murmured and threw Daniel a pointed glance, “and apparently more complicated than I thought.”
Creswell crossed his arms over his chest. “I have time.”
Daniel mirrored Creswell’s actions. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Very well then.” Miss Palmer thought for a moment. “It began when your father and his father came to a business agreement that included the marriage of their children.”
Creswell stared. “Me?”
“No, not you.” Miss Palmer rolled her gaze toward the ceiling.
“Thank God,” Daniel murmured.
“Cordelia, of course. However, while your father was strongly encouraging the match, he said the fate of the family fortune depended on the success of this business transaction, he left the ultimate decision up to her. She decided she needed to know more about Daniel Sinclair before she could decide anything and thought the best way to do that was to speak to someone in his employ. So she approached him—” Miss Palmer gestured in Daniel’s direction—” thinking he was Mr. Lewis—”
Creswell held up a hand. “And Mr. Lewis is your secretary?”
Daniel nodded. “Secretary, attorney, longtime friend, one day to be my partner.”
“An impression, I might add,” Miss Palmer glared at Daniel, “that you did nothing to correct.”
“Don’t blame this on me. Who initiated all of this? Who approached whom? Who—”
“Why didn’t you inform her of her mistake right away?” Creswell asked.
Daniel stared at the viscount. “If a very pretty, determined, green-eyed woman came up to you in the park and thought you were someone else, what would you do?”
“I can see your dilemma,” Creswell murmured, then slanted a quick glance at Miss Palmer. His shoulders squared. “Although I certainly would have told her of her mistake at once.”
“No doubt,” Daniel muttered, although he would have wagered a great deal of money as to whether or not that would have been the case. At once the import of Miss Palmer’s words—apparently the real Miss Palmer—struck him and he stared. “You mean the woman I’ve been seeing this entire time is really Lady Cordelia?”
“You mean the woman you’ve been seeing who thinks you’re Mr. Lewis?” Miss Palmer’s voice was deceptively pleasant. “That would be Lady Cordelia, yes.”
“What do you mean, seeing?” Creswell frowned.
“Only twice,” Miss Palmer said quickly. “Nothing especially improper. In the park and at the booksellers.
“And in Brighton,” Daniel said under his breath.
Miss Palmer stared in surprise. “You were in Brighton?”
“For the sea air.” Daniel glanced at Creswell. “It’s quite bracing you know.”
“Always has been.” The viscount studied him. “You followed my sister to Brighton?”
“Absolutely not.” Indignation sounded in Daniel’s voice. “I followed Miss Palmer to Brighton. That she turned out to be your sister has nothing to do with me.” He looked at Miss Palmer. “Are you sure about all this?”
“That I am the only Miss Palmer?” she said sharply. “Reasonably sure, yes.”
“And the woman I’ve been seeing—”
“I still want to know what you mean by seeing,” Creswell muttered.
“The charming, witty, honest woman—”
“I wouldn’t bring up honesty if I were you, Mr. Sinclair,” Miss Palmer said pointedly.
“Perhaps not.” It was entirely possible his faculties were still muddled from last night’s liquor. He couldn’t seem to quite grasp what this Miss Palmer was saying. “So you’re telling me that my Miss Palmer is then actua
lly Lady Cordelia?”
“You’re not very quick are you?” Miss Palmer snapped.
Daniel clenched his jaw. “I’m very quick in a rational, logical world where people are who they’re supposed to be. Where lovely, honest women don’t abruptly became traveling Amazons.”
Creswell frowned. “Why do you keep calling her that?”
“It’s really not important now, I suppose.” Daniel waved off the question with an impatient gesture. “Something she said in the way she spoke about Lady Cordelia, or rather herself, brought the idea of a sturdy, stout-hearted Amazonian traveler to mind. It’s an image that’s now stuck in my head.”
A snort sounded off to one side. Daniel glanced at Hodges whose expression remained impassive, but a definite twinkle of amusement shone in his eye.
“Are your intentions honorable?” Creswell asked in a deceptively cool manner.
“Of course my intentions are honorable,” Daniel said without thinking. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Why are you here?” Miss Palmer frowned.
“Why?” Daniel stared. “Complete, total, and utter honesty, that’s why. I thought it was time.”
Miss Palmer huffed. “Rather too late for that I would think.”
“Not at all,” Daniel said staunchly. “I came today to confess everything. To tell her who I really am and ask her to forgive me for deceiving her. And now that I learn that she has been deceiving me as well…” There was far more to Miss Palmer—or rather Lady Cordelia—than he had suspected. That she had the nerve or courage or daring to carry on the same kind of charade he had was far more intriguing than he had imagined. He rather liked her obvious spirit of adventure. This was a woman who would be a challenge to a man. Not easy but always exciting. “I should be indignant, even outraged, furious perhaps.” He grinned in spite of himself. “I might well be mad but this strikes me as being, well, funny.”
“It does have all the elements of a French farce.” Creswell chuckled.
“It’s not the least bit amusing.” Miss Palmer glared. “She hates him!”
“Oh, I don’t think she hates me.”
“Not you as Mr. Lewis but you as Daniel Sinclair.” She shook her head. “Cordelia has found your letters most annoying.”
Daniel winced. “That was the original plan.”
“What plan?” Creswell said.
“If you know about the tontine, then no doubt you’ve surmised that I’ve not been especially interested in marriage. Especially a marriage I had no say in. I couldn’t just tell your sister I didn’t want to marry her.”
Miss Palmer scoffed. “Oh no, honesty would be rude.”
“It would certainly be rude,” Daniel said in a lofty manner.
“Rude would be an improvement. She thinks you’re an arrogant, pompous ass.” She cast an apologetic glance at the viscount. “Her words. I can’t imagine what she’ll think when she finds out you’ve been lying to her.”
“As she’s been lying to me.”
“Then you’re remarkably well suited to one another, aren’t you?” Miss Palmer glared. “An arrogant, pompous ass and a—”
“Stout-hearted Amazon?” Creswell suggested in an innocent manner.
An odd choking sound came from Hodges.
“I thought if she didn’t like me, she would decline this marriage.” He met Miss Palmer’s accusing gaze. “It seemed kinder, to allow her to refuse me rather than me refuse her.”
“Hah.” Miss Palmer snorted.
“I see,” the viscount said thoughtfully. “This is something of a mess, isn’t it? Mr. Sinclair, if we are to continue this conversation with any hope of resolving this quagmire, liquid refreshment is obviously in order. Will you join me?”
“If liquid refreshment means what I think it does, I should be delighted.”
“Hodges.” Miss Palmer turned toward the butler. “Would you have tea served? In the parlor, I think.”
“In the library, Hodges, and just tea for one.” Creswell smiled at Miss Palmer. “This discussion calls for the library, my dear, as well as something significantly stronger than tea.”
“Yes, of course,” Miss Palmer said in a pleasant manner, but Daniel suspected she wasn’t especially pleased. She led the two men into the library.
Creswell chuckled and said under his breath to Daniel, “She’s going to make an excellent countess.”
“It’s a little frightening,” Daniel murmured.
“My mother has trained her well.”
They took their seats near the fireplace at one end of the library. It was an impressive room, large and book lined with a desk and chairs in front of floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as a sofa and chairs before a fireplace and a long library table at the other end of the room. Daniel could almost see Sarah—or rather—Cordelia sitting at the table and writing her travel book. A maid brought tea for Miss Palmer and Hodges poured glasses of whisky for the men, leaving the decanter on the table at his lordship’s request. Creswell waited until the butler had quietly, if reluctantly, left the room.
Creswell studied Daniel. “So, what is your plan now?”
“I have no plan.” Daniel thought for a moment. “I came with the intention of telling her the truth—”
“Still an excellent idea,” Miss Palmer murmured.
“Now, however…” Daniel shook his head.
Creswell sipped his drink thoughtfully. “I’m not sure honesty is the best course at this point.”
Miss Palmer gasped. “William! Honesty is always—”
“Not always, my dear, as Mr. Sinclair has already pointed out. If he had been honest initially, and had told Cordelia he had no desire to marry her, she would have been dreadfully hurt.” He met Daniel’s gaze. “How do you feel about my sister?”
“As honesty does seem to be called for at this particular moment, I have to admit I don’t know.” Daniel thought for a moment. “I liked the woman I was getting to know. Enough to want to make a clean breast of it.” He shrugged. “Enough to ask to call on her.”
“She didn’t tell me that either. I didn’t know about Brighton, I don’t know about this.” Miss Palmer huffed. “She used to tell me everything. She’s getting even with me, you know. Just because I wouldn’t tell her I was writing to you. She thinks I have a secret suitor.”
“You do have a secret suitor.” Creswell cast her a private sort of smile. “Although Father knows about our feelings and I would wager Mother suspects.” He sipped his whisky and studied Daniel. “You need a plan, Sinclair.”
“I’ve had several,” Daniel said wryly.
“A good plan.”
“Yes, well, that’s where I’ve apparently fallen short. I am open to any suggestions. You should know, I have realized that I have no choice but to go through with this marriage to your sister. Now, however.” Sarah, his Sarah, was the Amazon. It was still hard to believe. Daniel chuckled. “It is not quite the sacrifice it once was.”
“Cordelia needs to be taught a lesson,” the viscount said firmly.
Daniel shrugged. “I wasn’t entirely honest myself.”
“You were turned by a pretty face. That’s understandable.”
“You are a man after all,” Miss Palmer said under her breath.
“Until a few minutes ago,” Daniel chose his words carefully. “My intentions, aside from telling her—as Miss Palmer, that is—everything, were to introduce myself to Lady Cordelia as soon as possible.”
“And what are your intentions now?” Creswell said slowly.
“Now?” Daniel shook his head. “I’m not sure what to do now.”
“You said you liked her,” Creswell said.
“I did, or rather I do.” Daniel paused. “Quite a lot actually.”
“And your feelings are not unchanged by learning of her deception?”
“I suppose they should be, shouldn’t they?” Daniel thought for a moment. The fact that the woman he had finally realized he cared for, the woman he wanted, was the very woman he
needed to marry was an unquestioned relief. And he couldn’t help but see the humor in it all. “It seems I find it just makes her more…interesting.”
“You are mad,” Miss Palmer said sharply and sipped her tea. “The two of you probably deserve one another.”
“Let me tell you a few things about my sister,” Creswell began. “She’s the youngest of five children. We have three older sisters, all of which were so much older than Cordelia that her only real companion when she was a child was me. Until Sarah came to live with us, of course. She’s therefore somewhat spoiled.”
“Somewhat,” Miss Palmer muttered.
“Although, she’s never been prone to tantrums. That’s not what I mean by spoiled. But she has always managed to get her own way, especially with Father. She’s quite subtle and more than a little devious and before you know it, she’s off riding camels in the desert with his permission. And taking Sarah with her.”
“I rather liked Egypt,” Sarah said under her breath. “Although I could do without camels.”
“Cordelia is far too independent for a female as well. In spirit as well as behavior. It would be admirable if she were a man.” Creswell shrugged. “When she discovered traveling, it was as if she’d found her calling in life. That too fostered the independence of her nature.”
Miss Palmer leaned toward Daniel. “There’s a certain freedom inherent in traveling, Mr. Sinclair. Especially for a woman. Even I have felt the invigorating effects of independence and self-reliance when we’ve been navigating ancient Greek ruins that I have never known on the streets of London. It’s quite intoxicating.”
“But you have never been especially intoxicated by it.” Creswell met the lady’s gaze, a slight anxious note in his voice. The viscount probably had no desire to have the woman he planned to marry follow in his sister’s footsteps.
“No, Will,” Miss Palmer said smoothly. “I am intoxicated only by you.”
“Good answer,” Daniel said under his breath.
Miss Palmer cast him a smug smile.
Creswell grinned then turned his attention back to Daniel. “While Cordelia has never behaved in a seriously improper manner—” He glanced at Miss Palmer for confirmation and she nodded. “Indeed aside from the articles she writes or that book of hers, her behavior has never been cause for scandal.”
Secrets of a Proper Lady Page 17