Duel of Hearts

by Farr, Diane

  “For it is not only my fiancee whom you have targeted, but my daughter as well! What do you mean by it, my lord? What can you possibly mean by such marked disrespect, such shocking contempt for my daughter’s fair name? The first time I laid eyes on you, you were touching my Lilah in a way that struck me as suggestive—suggestive, my lord, and I promise you I understate the matter! And now I come upon you—having been informed that you plan to snap your fingers in the face of the world and marry Miss Mayhew, despite her lawful betrothal to me—kissing my daughter in the public road! With no more respect for her than if she were a milkmaid!” Overcome with fury, Sir Horace halted at this point in his peroration and moved to seize Lilah’s hand, yanking it away from Drake’s clasp. “And as for you, Lilah, I am deeply ashamed of your conduct. More than ashamed, I am incredulous—I am astonished! I am mortified.”

  To Lilah’s dismay, Papa’s beloved face suddenly crumpled and tears started in his eyes. He shook his head, struggling to command his emotions, and Lilah cried out in distress. “Oh, Papa, do not look so!” She flew into his arms with a sob. “I cannot bear it. Pray, pray do not be angry with me.”

  He patted her awkwardly. “I am angry with you, Lilah, I cannot deny it. I thought you knew better, kitten. I never would have believed that any man could turn your head so easily, or make you behave in a manner you know full well to be wrong.”

  “Oh, Papa,” said Lilah miserably. “If you would only let me explain—”

  “I do not blame you totally, child.” She could feel the anger in his tense arms as he pushed her resolutely away, the better to face Drake. “I know where the blame lies. If I were a younger man, Lord Drakesley, I would be strongly tempted to call you out.”

  Drake looked harassed. “I can’t say I blame you, for I don’t. My actions may seem strange on the surface—”

  “Strange? Is that how you would characterize your behavior? Inexplicable comes nearer the mark! Bizarre! Outlandish! Incomprehensible!”

  “Yes, yes, yes, whatever you like,” snapped Drake, his patience with being scolded obviously wearing thin. “But if you would listen to me for three minutes—”

  “By Jove! The more I think on it, the angrier I become! Kissing my Lilah, and at the same time trying to fix your interest with Miss Mayhew—by heaven, sir, I hope my Eugenia read you a lecture you won’t soon forget!”

  “Well, she didn’t,” said Drake, nettled. “She accepted me. Which, if you read her letter, you should already know.”

  “Drake!” exclaimed Lilah. “The fact that she accepted you is entirely beside the point!”

  Drake looked sulky. He jerked his chin to indicate Sir Horace. “Well, he’s beginning to annoy me,” said Drake truculently. “Carrying on as if he expects every woman to show me the door when I propose. Confound it, I’m an earl! Why shouldn’t Eugenia accept me if she wishes to? Why shouldn’t you?” he added, seeing that Lilah’s eyes were growing round with outrage.

  “Tut! Tut!” said Sir Horace testily. “Eugenia has not accepted you, my lord, and well you know it. She is engaged to me. Kindly stop annoying her, which is what you do when you persist in your suit. It cannot prosper, my lord. It cannot prosper, and you are making a figure of yourself.”

  Drake and Lilah looked blankly at each other. Drake rubbed his chin. “He said her letter was unclear. Apparently it left out the most important part.”

  “Perhaps that’s just as well,” said Lilah anxiously. “Lucky, in fact. For if she hasn’t broken off her engagement to Papa, why, that lets us all off the hook. Doesn’t it?”

  “Hook?” Sir Horace looked suspiciously from Drake to Lilah and back again. “What hook? You’re talking nonsense, the pair of you. I didn’t say Miss Mayhew’s letter was unclear. It was perfectly clear. The reading of it gave me no trouble; understanding what it all meant was the difficulty! At the end she begged me, in plain English, to come to her without delay, and I have done so. I would be with her now, had I not been waylaid by the two of you.”

  Drake frowned. “She wants to see you so that she can explain the breaking of her promise to you.”

  “God grant me patience!” shouted Sir Horace. “She has not broken her promise to me.” He shook both fists in the air, as if appealing to heaven. “Are you dense, man? Are you deaf? Eugenia and I will be married within a fortnight!”

  Drake and Lilah exchanged bewildered looks. “She told you I renewed my proposal,” Drake said impatiently. “Didn’t she tell you she accepted it?”

  “No!” barked Sir Horace. “She told me she pretended to accept it. And that, my lord, is what I cannot comprehend! She—”

  “Wait a moment!” In his eagerness, Drake seized Sir Horace’s shoulders. “She told you she was pretending? She never meant to have me?”

  “That’s right, that’s right. Unhand me, if you please!” Drake let go, with a very queer expression on his face, and Sir Horace dusted his shoulders crossly. “She did not explain how one can pretend to accept a gentleman’s proposal. That portion of her message made no sense. It seemed to me she was playing a very dangerous game, and despite all her assurances that nothing had changed between us—that I was to entertain no fears on that head—I could not help feeling some degree of alarm that Miss Mayhew had plunged into deep water. And she went on, if you please, to inform me that my daughter was on the point of contracting a most eligible betrothal, and that if I wished to seal the bargain I should return to Wexbridge Abbey without delay.” He rounded angrily on Lilah. “What have you to say to that, kitten? Is there any truth in it? For I promise you, no respectable suitor will stand for your jauntering about the countryside with this lunatic—” he jerked a thumb at Lord Drakesley. “And if you have frightened off a decent man with these foolish indiscretions—”

  Sir Horace broke off in bewildered incredulity as Drake and Lilah suddenly burst out laughing. Drake seized Lilah round the waist and swung her into an exuberant two-step. “She saw it all!” exclaimed Lord Drakesley. “Clever, clever Jenny! I should have known she’d never let me down.”

  Lilah pulled a face. “And in marrying you, she certainly would have let you down! You always told me she was a woman of sense. Since she is to be my stepmother, I am relieved to find that you were right.”

  Sir Horace, spluttering with frustration, tried unsuccessfully to dislodge Drake’s hands from his daughter’s waist. Lilah caught at his coat sleeve, her eyes bright with happiness. “Papa, pray—! Do you not see? You are to marry Miss Mayhew, and Drake will marry me. Everything has turned out perfectly.”

  Sir Horace suddenly went very still. His eyes searched Lilah’s face, perturbation in his expression. “My dear Lilah, what can you mean? What are you saying? You don’t wish to marry Lord Drakesley.”

  Lilah blushed. “On the contrary, Papa. I wish very much to marry Lord Drakesley.”

  “And I would like to marry Lilah, sir,” Drake added. “I suppose I should mention that, in case you were wondering.”

  Sir Horace’s eyes, round with doubt, traveled to Drake’s face. “You just told me, half a minute ago, that you wanted to marry Miss Mayhew.”

  “Oh, no, sir,” Drake assured him. “I said I had proposed to her. I never said I wanted to marry her.”

  Sir Horace flushed angrily. “Now, look here—” he began, but Lilah pulled herself out of Drake’s grip and clutched her father’s arm affectionately.

  “Papa, don’t mind Drake. He’s not joking you. It’s just that the situation is rather difficult to explain.”

  “I can see that,” said Sir Horace sharply. “Lilah, I think Lord Drakesley must excuse us for a moment. I wish to speak privately with you.”

  He marched her back to the berline and ushered her inside, then climbed in after her and closed the door. He then sat facing her and took her hands in his, studying her features intently. “Lilah, what are you doing?” he asked her softly. Trouble was in every line of his face. “It isn’t like you, child, to behave so wildly. Why have you encouraged Lord Dra
kesley to think you might accept his suit? It is incomprehensible. I cannot believe that a promise of rank and great wealth would move you.”

  “Oh, Papa, no,” said Lilah miserably. “How could you think that? I love him.” She saw the astonishment and perplexity on her father’s features and leaned earnestly forward. “I do,” she insisted. “Is that so difficult to believe?”

  “Yes,” said Sir Horace bluntly. “His affections seem to list with the wind. He bestows them first on one lady and then on another. And he has no more regard for propriety than a baboon! You’d be happier wed to a Hottentot.”

  Lilah had to chuckle, although it pained her to see her father so distressed at her choice. “Well, I haven’t met any Hottentots, so I cannot say whether your statement is true or false. But, Papa, if Lord Drakesley is a hottentot there must be a little of the hottentot in me, as well. We are as like as two peas in a pod, and understand each other perfectly.”

  “Understand each other? I thought you quarreled day and night.”

  “Oh, we do! I didn’t say we agreed with each other. We understand each other. Agreement is something else.” Lilah bit her lip. “It’s very difficult to explain, and I know it must sound strange, to you,” she admitted. “To you, mutual agreement is the very definition of harmony. With Drake and me…oh, how can I express it? Our souls are in harmony even when our opinions differ, so disagreement is no bar to understanding. We respect each other, Papa. We find our arguments entertaining, not alienating.”

  Sir Horace did not seem reassured by her answer. He stared very hard at her, shaking his head. “Good heavens, child. I begin to think you are as mad as he is.”

  Lilah gave him a rather misty smile. “Oh! I am.”

  He still looked worried. “And yet you believe you love him?”

  “I know I do,” said Lilah fervently. “Although I don’t suppose I can ever make you understand it. It seems a little strange to me, as well. You must know I had thought to marry a…a less forceful man. Drake was not what I had in mind at all. But now that I have met him—” She shrugged helplessly. “I can’t imagine life with any other man. Compared to him, everyone else is boring.”

  Sir Horace, frowning, was sunk in thought for a few moments. When he looked up at Lilah again, his expression was both pensive and humorous. “There is much in what you say, daughter. Opposites may attract, but a marriage of like minds is more apt to bring happiness. Or so I have come to believe.” An apologetic twinkle lit his eyes. “I adored your mother, but our union was far from tranquil. She thrived on a level of drama and excitement that I found exhausting. Now that I am older, I have even less interest in a thrilling sort of life. I daresay my choice of Eugenia Mayhew may have baffled you, for she is nothing like your dear Mama—”

  Lilah shook her head quickly. “Papa, do not apologize. I own, I was taken aback at first, but all that is forgotten. I see now that Eugenia is the perfect match for you. She is clever, but in a quiet way, and I think you will both enjoy your life of peace and tranquility.” She wrinkled her nose, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “It is, of course, a life that would drive Drake and me quite mad.”

  Sir Horace chuckled and patted her hand. “One man’s peace and quiet is another man’s tedium, eh?”

  Lilah smiled with relief. “Yes. Just as one couple’s stimulating discussion is another couple’s ghastly quarrel.”

  A knock sounded on the berline’s door. Lilah pulled it open. Drake leaned in, glancing politely from Lilah to her father. “I hesitate to interrupt while you two are deciding my fate, but perhaps you should consider that the horses are still standing—and that there might be some anxiety back at the Abbey regarding our whereabouts.”

  “Oh, yes!” exclaimed Lilah. “Papa, we must go back without delay. We didn’t leave a note, you know, and everyone will suppose that Drake and I have run off.”

  “We did run off,” Drake reminded her.

  “Yes, but we have changed our minds. There’s no need for us to elope now. Do let’s go back before we start a scandal.”

  Sir Horace took a deep breath. It was plain that this horror had not occurred to him, in all the excitement of the past half hour. “You were eloping?”

  “Well, yes,” Lilah admitted. “But never mind that! We can do the thing properly now—if you are quite, quite sure that Miss Mayhew did not break faith with you.”

  Sir Horace covered his eyes with one hand. “Lilah, how could you?” he moaned. “Are you so lost to all proper feeling?”

  She opened her eyes in surprise. “Of course not! Which is why I am very glad that we need not elope after all. Papa, what did you think Drake and I were doing, so far from the Abbey at this hour of the morning?”

  “Later,” ordered Drake. “Can you not see, my love, that your father requires time to digest this surfeit of information? Give over, or you’ll send him into a fever! I’m taking the gig back to Wexbridge Abbey. We can tell everyone we drove out to meet Sir Horace, if you like. Lilah, stay with your father—and comfort him if you can.” He disappeared, closing the door behind him.

  Sir Horace stared. “I cannot say I like his manners,” he muttered.

  “No, they are atrocious,” agreed Lilah serenely. “He orders everyone about, Papa. Do not mind it. It’s just his way.”

  Sir Horace looked very hard at his daughter. “Bless my soul! I never thought I’d see the day when you, of all women, would accept that tone from a man!”

  Lilah looked mischievous. “You haven’t yet heard the tone he accepts from me.”

  Chapter 20

  Drake arrived at the Abbey well before the Chadwicks and was waiting impatiently on the steps, pacing to and fro, as they drove up. Fimber appeared in the doorway behind him at the sound of approaching carriage wheels, but Drake strode down to the berline ahead of the staff and jerked the door open. Lilah tumbled happily out, letting Drake catch her rather than wait for the steps to be let down.

  “Oh, Drake, it is the most famous thing! Papa has decided that we may be married—if you can convince him that you are not unhinged, which I feel certain you will be able to do if you set your mind to it.”

  A glimmer of a smile lightened Drake’s features. “I will try,” he promised. Keeping one hand on Lilah, he turned to let the steps down for Sir Horace. Sir Horace watched him carefully, his expression still a trifle strained.

  “Lilah has a flair for flippant remarks,” he said gruffly. “I don’t mean any disrespect to you, my lord, as I hope you know. But my daughter’s future happiness is at stake. I am disinclined to rush to judgment in such an important matter. Prudence is called for, my lord. I must give her betrothal the careful attention it deserves. I do not intend to make a hasty decision.”

  “Unlike Lilah and me,” Drake supplied, reaching to help Sir Horace alight. “I don’t blame you in the least, sir. You hardly know me. Lilah hardly knows me, for that matter.”

  “I know you,” Lilah murmured, glowing. She was clinging to his arm in a most besotted manner. “I know you through and through.”

  Drake grinned down at her. “Be that as it may, sweetheart, your father may need a little convincing. At any rate, let’s go in and face the music. Fimber tells me the family is at breakfast, so we can confess our perfidy to everyone at once.”

  Lilah took his arm to climb the steps to the front door, but frowned in puzzlement at this news. “Breakfast. That’s odd,” she remarked. “Who could want breakfast at a time like this? Our absence must have been noticed by now.”

  Drake chuckled. “I daresay it has, but no mere elopement would throw off Nat Peabody’s appetite. The ladies may be in high fidgets, or they may not—but Uncle Nat will have his breakfast.”

  They entered the Abbey arm in arm, with Sir Horace bringing up the rear. In spite of Drake’s sanguine assessment that breakfast would be going forward as usual, Lilah braced for an outcry when she and Drake walked in. She was confident that Miss Pickens, at least, would be too excited and anxious to do anything as m
undane as eating breakfast—so she was both amused and annoyed to find that Drake was right, and the entire party was placidly consuming coddled eggs. An outcry did occur, but it was filled with glad welcome rather than relief and anger, and it was directed at her father rather than herself. Apparently Lilah and Drake’s sensational elopement was less interesting than Sir Horace’s return from Uxbridge.

  There was a general exclamation when Sir Horace was glimpsed, and Nat fairly jumped from his place, wiping his mouth hastily and extending his hand. “Horace, dear chap! Welcome, welcome. Have you broken your fast yet, old man?” He wrung Sir Horace’s hand and waved at the table. “Sit you down, sit you down—no, I won’t hear of it; no trouble at all. Eh, Fimber, is that you? Tell Gaston we’ve three more for breakfast; there’s a good fellow. I say, Horace, why’d you run off like that, all in a quack? Gave us quite a turn.”

  Polly nodded at Sir Horace, but her gaze then slid to Drake and Lilah. The corners of her eyes crinkled. “Here you are, you naughty children,” she observed, with mock severity. “For pity’s sake, come in and close the door. I dare not ask where you have been.”

  Nat glanced at his wife in surprise. “Thought they ran off to be married. Wasn’t that what you said?” His expression brightened and he turned to Drake. “I say—am I to wish you happy, my boy? Have you done the thing already? Bless me, what fast work!”

  “Nat, dear, do sit down,” said Polly. “They can’t have been married yet.” She smiled approvingly at Eugenia. “You were right, my love, as usual. They came back to us safe and sound, and no harm done.”

  Drake looked down at Lilah. “We might have known,” he muttered. “So much for preening ourselves on our cleverness—or our noble resolve to come back here with the deed undone, for that matter. The whole time, we were dancing to Eugenia’s tune.”

  But Lilah was watching, with strangely mixed emotions, her father greeting Miss Mayhew. He had responded genially to Nat Peabody’s enthusiastic welcome, but his eyes had continually strayed to Eugenia, and the instant he had been released he had walked to her side, a light in his eyes that Lilah could not mistake. Under Sir Horace’s gaze Eugenia turned a most becoming shade of pink, and the smile she gave him glowed with quiet happiness. She extended her hand, and Sir Horace took it.