She tipped her pert little nose in the air. “Ye wouldn’t have misled me about a certain earl’s plans for the evening, would ye, Griffin?”
Peasemore.
Griff somehow managed not to grind his teeth together. All he could think about was Ellie, but all she could think about was that blackguard Peasemore. “Ye must have me mistaken for a MacLaren, Ellie. I would never intentionally mislead anyone.”
She punched her hands to her hips. “I have had quite enough of ye disparaging my family, Griffin Reid. If the MacLaren’s have done something to ye, I’d like to know what it is.”
But he couldn’t tell her. Not at the moment, anyway. Griffin turned his attention back towards the ballroom before them, the dancing, laughing couples, the gossiping ladies, the stoic gentlemen who must have been forced to attend such an event. “Ye promised to help Healeyfield with Miss Throssell, Ellie. I spotted the colonel in the card room not long ago, so his daughter must be here. Point her out, will ye?”
Ellie huffed as her arms dropped to her sides, but then she turned around to see the assembled crowd and gestured towards a dark-haired girl, all alone near the opposite corner. “There. Is my debt now paid in full, Captain Reid?”
Griff couldn’t help but laugh. There was something quite attractive in watching Ellie lose her temper – the color it brought to her cheeks, the flash in her eyes, the way she pursed her lips as though begging for a kiss. And while he shouldn’t let it have such an affect on him, he did have the sudden desire to pull her into his arms and kiss her right there in front of everyone assembled at the Ridgmont ball.
“Save me a waltz?” he said before he thought the better of it. The last thing he needed was for her to think she had him wrapped around her pretty little finger. He’d be doomed if she even suspected such a thing.
“Ye didn’t answer me, Griffin. Is my debt now paid in full?”
“Aye.” He nodded.
“Perfect,” she said as she spun on her heel. “Then do have a delightful evening.” And with that, she sauntered away.
Griff could only watch her go, the bounce of her curls, the sway of her hips, the elegant glide of…
“Griff,” Nate interrupted his musings. “Would you be insulted if I said I didn’t understand in the least what is going on with you and your betrothed?”
How could Griff be insulted when he didn’t understand it himself?
A frown marred Nate’s face and he continued, “Why is she talking to Miss Throssell now?”
Just as Ellie started back towards Ian, she caught sight of Miss Throssell once more. She wasn’t certain what Lord Healeyfield wanted with the girl, but she should probably warn her just the same. After all, if she was in Miss Throssell’s slippers, she’d want someone to warn her. So she changed her direction and strode right towards the awkward brunette.
When she was just a few feet away, Ellie cheerfully called, “Miss Throssell!” in greeting. To her untrained eye, it looked as though the girl nearly leapt from her skin at the sound of her own name. Skittish and odd. Poor girl.
Miss Throssell seemed to force a smile to her face and replied, “Lady Elspeth. How nice to see you.”
“I was thinking that very thing.” Ellie closed the small distance between them, grinning widely, hoping to put the girl somewhat at ease. “Care to take a turn about the room with me?”
“Of course,” Miss Throssell muttered softly.
Ellie linked her arm with the dark-haired girl and began to direct her around the perimeter of Lady Ridgemont’s ballroom, past couples dancing a reel. “Ye weren’t, by chance, in the park today, were ye?”
“In the park?” Miss Throssell echoed, nearly tripping over her own feet.
That was an odd reaction. Ellie must have hit on some sort of nerve. “Mmm.” She nodded as they made their first turn. “For some reason I thought ye might be. I was there today, ye see.”
“Were you, indeed?”
“Mmm,” Ellie said again. “And I happened upon a pair of officers who served under yer father. They’re in the King’s Dragoon Guards.”
“Responsible commanders?” Miss Throssell breathed out.
Probably, though it was a strange comment to make in response. But then again it was Miss Throssell, and the girl had been known to say things even stranger. “I’ll always think of Captain Reid as the lad who dared me to swim the length of Loch Ericht and tied my braids into knots when we were younger.” Ellie laughed. “Though I’m certain he is much more responsible these days. Anyway, I thought ye might like to make their acquaintances.”
“Does either of them have only one eye?” Miss Throssell asked.
And that would be one of the odder things the girl had said. Ellie frowned, not certain what to say other than, “Only one eye?” she asked.
Miss Throssell nodded quite adamantly. “It is most important.”
It was most important to find out if the pair of guards had only one eye? What sort of thing was that to say? “Honestly,” Ellie began, “I only gave Lord Healyfied the briefest glance, I was so surprised to see Captain Reid, an old friend of my family, it was difficult to notice much else.” She shrugged. “I suppose his lordship could have a glass eye or something, but he certainly wasn’t wearing an eye patch, if that’s what ye mean. They’re right over there.” She nodded towards the far wall where Griff and Lord Healeyfield still stood.
Miss Throssell glanced in the direction Ellie had indicated, but it didn’t appear as though she planned to utter another word as her lips were clamped quite closed.
“Would ye like to meet them?” Ellie prodded.
Miss Throssell quickly shook her head. “I don’t think I would, Lady Elspeth.”
Then that was that. Whatever plot or scheme Griff and Lord Healeyfield had in store for Miss Throssell, she didn’t want any part of it, and Ellie would make certain the girl’s wishes were heeded. “In that case, ye’d better stay with me, Miss Throssell. I’m certain I can keep them at bay.”
And as though she was being rewarded for a good deed, the Earl of Peasemore stepped into Ellie’s line of sight! He was here! She couldn’t help but smile and sigh a little wistfully at the sight of him.
Lord Peasemore brushed his dark blonde hair from his brow, then his gaze met Ellie’s. With a small smile of recognition, he strode straight for her as though she was exactly what he’d been searching for, which was rather complimentary.
He stopped before her and bowed. As he rose back to his full height, his hazel eyes twinkled and he lifted Ellie’s hand to his lips. “My lady,” he said softly.
Ellie thought her heart might beat right out of her chest. How wonderful this night was turning out to be! In no time, she could bring him up to scratch and she could live the rest of her life as his countess. “My lord, what a pleasant surprise.” Then, realizing her other arm was still linked with Miss Throssell’s, Ellie gestured towards the girl at her side. “Ye know Miss Throssell?”
“Yes, of course.” His eyes flashed to the awkward brunette before quickly returning back to Ellie. “I was hoping I could tempt you to stand up with me for the first waltz tonight.”
A waltz! Could this night get any better? “I would enjoy that, my lord,” Ellie replied evenly, hoping she wasn’t too obvious in her delight. Being obvious wouldn’t help her suit. One needed to be poised and if possible, aloof in such matters. After all, men would rather be the chasers than the chasees. One only had to look as far as Ian for proof of that.
“Until then.” Lord Peasemore nodded and then continued past them.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Miss Throssell said, “I’m certain every girl in Town will be jealous of you tonight.”
Ellie couldn’t help but grin. “He does seem very taken with me, doesn’t he?” If Miss Throssell had noticed Lord Peasemore’s interest, it must be obvious indeed. She could be the Countess of Peasemore within the fortnight if she played her hand perfectly.
“Do be careful, Lady Elspeth,” Miss Throssell
warned.
Careful? When she was about to get everything she ever wanted? Ellie giggled. “Careful is for those who don’t go after what they truly want, Miss Throssell.”
“And what is it ye want, Ellie?” came Griffin Reid’s voice from right behind them.
Ellie’s heart leapt to her throat. She gasped and turned on her heel, dragging Miss Throssell right along with her. Both Griffin and Lord Healeyfield stood just a few feet away. “Ye should know better than to eavesdrop and sneak up on people, Griff,” she admonished.
But Griff was unaffected by her tone. He shrugged unrepentantly and said, “Answer the question. What is it ye want, Ellie?”
She heaved a beleaguered sigh. To have to deal with not one but two stubborn Highlanders in one day was quite taxing, honestly. “What I want is none of yer concern, Griffin Reid.”
He lifted an arrogant brow, then turned his pointed attention to Miss Throssell. “Ellie must have forgotten her manners in the presence of the captivating Peasemore.” He touched a hand to his heart. “I’m Captain Reid and this is Lord Healeyfield.”
“Wilhelmina Throssell,” the girl said softly. Then she brushed a hand across her cheek.
“Miss Throssell.” Lord Healeyfield nodded in her direction. “A pleasure to meet you. Captain Reid and I served under your father. He is a great man.”
Miss Throssell nodded in return. “He is in the card room, if you would like to see him, Lord Healeyfield.”
“I—um—” he stammered “—Well, I’ll search him out later, Miss Throssell. In the meantime, could I persuade you to take a turn about the room with me?”
“You don’t have a glass eye, do you, my lord?” she asked softly, her voice almost mystical in tone as she blinked up at him.
That glass eye business again? The girl was odd, but Ellie had warned the man of that very thing in the park today. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been quite fairly forewarned.
Lord Healeyfield touched a hand to his cheekbone as though wondering if his eye appeared to be made of glass. “Um…no.”
She seemed to visibly relax at hearing that. “A turn about the room?”
“I would be honored, Miss Throssell,” the viscount replied.
The girl looked back at Ellie and said, “Is that all right with you?”
“As long as it’s all right with ye,” Ellie returned. After all, it was Miss Throssell who hadn’t wanted to meet either officer just a few moments ago.
When Miss Throssell nodded slightly, Ellie unlinked her arm with the girl and took a step away from her. “We can continue our conversation later, then.”
Lord Healeyfield didn’t seem able to take his eyes from the odd girl. Hopefully, that boded well for Miss Throssell. No matter how unusual she was, Ellie wouldn’t want to see her hurt.
“Do enjoy yourself, Reid,” his lordship said as he offered his arm to the strange brunette and then quickly whisked her away from Ellie and Griff.
Griff’s arrogant brow lifted once more. “What was that about? Were ye trying to thwart Healeyfield’s plans for Miss Throssell?”
Irritating man. “Thwart his plans?” Ellie lifted her own brow in return. “How could I do that? Ye haven’t told me what his plans are.”
Griff seemed to think about that for a moment and then he said, “She’s his fiancée. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
Ellie gasped. “I beg yer pardon.” She couldn’t have heard him correctly. How could Miss Throssell be betrothed but not know it?
Griff’s silvery eyes seemed to assess her more carefully than he’d done thus far. “I’m fairly certain ye heard me, Ellie.”
“I’m hoping I misheard ye. How could she not know she’s betrothed to the man?”
Griff shrugged a bit. “The Colonel had been injured, severely at Quatre Bras. He didn’t think he was long for the world and wanted to secure his daughter’s future. Healeyfield, or rather Lieutenant-Colonel Carrick at the time, had been the means to that end.”
“But Colonel Throssell is alive and well,” Ellie replied. “Shouldn’t the man’s returned health mean something? Shouldn’t his daughter have a say in her own future?”
Griff shook his head. “Many marriages have been contracted for less. A change in one parameter shouldn’t null the agreement.”
Arranged marriages. What an antiquated and barbaric system run by antiquated and barbaric men. Ellie glanced to where Lord Healeyfield and Miss Throssell were walking about the room together. They looked nice arm-in-arm, but she couldn’t think of two more mismatched souls, not that she knew his lordship all that well. But she knew Miss Throssel, and…Well, it would take an unusual man to be her match, most likely a man with a mind equally odd. Lord Healeyfield didn’t strike Ellie as odd in any way, shape or form. In fact, he seemed the epitome of normal. “Do ye know how furious I would be if Ian did the same to me? If some fellow I’d never met showed up at a ball and told me he was my betrothed?”
A serious look settled on Griff’s face. In fact, he looked more serious than she’d seen him all day. “How furious would ye be?”
Kicking and screaming would be just the beginning. She’d refuse to honor the betrothal no matter what her brother said. She’d blister Ian’s ears until they bled. She’d bash him over the head with her violin until he listened to reason. Not that her unladylike reaction to the hypothetical situation would be any of Griff’s concern. “It’s of little consequence what I would do, Griffin. Ian would never do such a ridiculous thing, so I shan’t ever have to worry about such an occurrence actually happening.”
Griff was certain his heart had stopped. He hadn’t actually given much thought to what Ellie’s reaction would be when she learned the truth of their betrothal. Foolishly, he’d thought she would accept the situation as it was. He should have known better. Ellie had always been just as stubborn as any MacLaren before her. But then a bit hope sparked in his chest. She’d said if a fellow she’d never met was her betrothed… “What if the man was someone ye knew, Ellie? Someone ye even liked, perhaps?”
Her blue eyes sparkled with something akin to indignation. “If it was some I knew, someone I liked, that would be worse, Griffin!”
“How could it be worse?” He frowned at her. She didn’t make one bit of sense. Shouldn’t she be happy that she liked the fellow she was to marry? How could it be worse than finding out she was to marry a stranger her family picked for her?
“If it was someone I knew, someone I liked, then the man should have enough courage to ask me himself,” Ellie replied, with more than a little heat to her voice. “Arranging a marriage behind my back, not including me in a decision that affects my own future.” She shook her head in frustration and her blonde curls bobbed about her shoulders. “I don’t think I could forgive that, Griffin. I think it would be near impossible.”
A bit of dread settled in Griff’s belly at her words. A smart man would consider Ian’s offer of money as payment for a broken marriage contract. A smart man would wash his hands of the MacLarens and start over somewhere else. And though Griff had always considered himself to be a smart man, he’d spent the last decade knowing that it was on his shoulders to right the wrong that had been done to the Reid family. It was up to him alone to restore his family’s land, his family’s legacy. And Ellie…She truly was enchanting. That wasn’t something he’d counted on, falling a bit under her spell. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He couldn’t help gazing upon her. He couldn’t keep from wanting to make her his.
But listening to her words struck a bit of fear in his heart. What if she never forgave him? How could he live with himself then? How could he live with her?
The first chords for a waltz began and Griff smiled what he hoped was his most charming smile. “Dance with me, Ellie?” If he could hold her in his arms, perhaps he could come up with something to say, something that could win her over.
Before she could respond, however, that damned Peasemore was before them. He reached his hand out to Ellie and said,
“My dance, I believe.”
Without so much as a glance back at Griff, Ellie took the Englishman’s hand and together they made their way to the middle of the dance floor.
Watching her twirl about the floor in Peasemore’s arms was like a slug to his chest. He truly hadn’t expected that witnessing something like that would twist his heart, but it did. How was he to compete with a fellow she was so very clearly in love with?
“Ah, Captain Reid!” came Lord Astwick’s booming voice over the din. “I was hoping you’d be here tonight.”
Griff pulled his attention from Ellie and Peasemore to find the large English marquess escorting a tall, pretty blonde woman in his direction. “Astwick. How nice to see ye again.”
The Englishman smiled broadly and tipped his head towards the woman on his arm. “I wanted to introduce you to my wife, Lady Astwick. Hannah, this is the fellow I mentioned earlier - Captain Reid.”
The marchioness nodded in Griff’s direction. “It is very nice to make yer acquaintance, Captain. Ye served in the King’s Dragoon Guards?”
“Aye, ma’am.” Griff replied. “For the last decade.”
“I followed the drum of the Scots Greys for a dozen years myself.” Lady Astwick touched a hand to her heart. “How are ye finding peacetime in England?”
“I’ve only recently come to London—” he nodded in the general direction of where Nathaniel was escorting Miss Throssell about the room “—at my friend’s request. I’ve been in Scotland since the end of the war. And I find I miss it more each day I’m away.”
A twinkle lit the marchioness’ eye. “I miss it too, Captain. My sons are quite anxious to see Scotland with their own eyes instead of just hearing my tales of home.”
“We’ll take them at the end of the season,” Lord Astwick vowed.
“I’m hoping to return home soon, myself.” The twirl of Ellie’s icy blue dress caught Griff’s eye and he couldn’t help but stare at the enchanting lass. Was she as anxious as he was to see Loch Ericht again? Was she was anxious as Lady Astwick or her sons to return to their homeland? Was she—
An Encounter at Hyde Park Page 21