“Her father already knows?” Marian had believed the Pooles’ parents to be in India.
“Certainly. He was there when they announced.” Observing Marian’s face, she said, “There seems to be some confusion, Miss Ware. Of whom do you think I speak?”
“Why, of Clara and Lord Sidley, ma’am.”
Lady Adeline looked most imperious. “Delia TinckneyDwight is a distant cousin of mine, Miss Ware, through her mother. When Delia marries Richard Poole, Clara will at last become a member of the family-in the broadest sense, of course. She and Simon had had an understanding, and Sidley and the Pooles have always been much like siblings.”
“I see” Relief made her heart race. She bobbed dutifully and turned to go.
“Will you not stay to speak with him, Miss Ware?” Lady Adeline’s voice had softened.
“Another time, perhaps, my lady. You are very kind, but I must not intrude. Lord Sidley would be put out.”
“Put out! Miss Ware, I beg your pardon, but is that the impression he gives you? That he would be inconvenienced? Do you care nothing for him at all?”
At that Marian blushed. She could picture herself, in vivid shades of crimson, scarlet, rose. And as her discomfort soared, so did Lady Adeline’s astonishment.
“My dear, forgive me-” she began, but they heard footsteps in the hall. As pink as Marian felt, she grew more so when Sidley’s voice reached them.
“Auntie, when should you like-” And on entering the doorway, he halted abruptly.
Sidley watched his aunt brush past him into the hall. Then he fixed an inquiring gaze on Marian. “Will she be returning?”
Marian shook her head, not in answer but in the absence of one. Sidley was not yet fully dressed. Though he wore a shirt and waistcoat, he was fastening cuffs at his wrist. And at his collar … He had no collar. He had not tied the cravat over his open throat.
He held her shocked gaze. “Bandling,” he called over his shoulder, and the wiry little valet appeared from nowhere. “I need a coat”
“Yes, m’lord. The blue for painting, m’lord?”
“Miss Ware is not here to paint just now, Bandling. Any coat will do. I would spare the lady’s blushes.”
Swiftly the servant wheeled and departed.
“Do forgive me. I was not informed of company” As Sidley bowed to her, Marian managed to focus on his head of glossy black hair. She took a deep breath. She still felt the warmth in her cheeks. “I came with the painting,” she said in a rush.
“Ah, yes! I should have expected you to fuss with the thing.”
“The `thing,’ my lord? You do not sound as though you care much for the `thing’ at all.”
“I care more for the painter than the painting, that is certainly true.”
She stared at him. Confronting him here in the hall, though such an event should not have been unexpected, seemed to addle her wits.
“Miss Marian.” He was most courteously indicating the drawing room behind her. “Won’t you please have a seat?”
“You are about to have dinner.”
“Not at all.” He smiled, as though aware that he disputed the obvious. “The meal can wait. And in any event, this no longer can”
Believing she heard an ominous stress on the word this, Marian turned with some resolve to take a seat at the fireside beneath the magnificent Holbein. When she glanced at Sidley, who had followed her to the hearth, she noticed he had managed, quickly and adeptly, to toss his linen into something resembling a cravat. The valet raced in behind him. As Marian focused on some point beyond Sidley’s left shoulder, he shrugged into his coat, leaving it unbuttoned. She had never before seen him dressed in less than sartorial splendor, but his present informality scarce detracted.
“That will be all, Bandung,” Sidley told the valet, though he did not look to him. Sidley’s gaze was entirely on Marian. “And, Bandling, shut the door.”
At once Marian protested. “My lord-”
“You mustn’t cavil, my dear, as you were so bold as to come here unaccompanied. And you are in no danger. There are two other respectable ladies in this household who may enter the room at will.”
“You take liberties,” she said, even as he settled into the seat opposite.
“Surely not. This is my home.”
“Then I must leave.” She rose to her feet.
Sidley winced as he also rose. “I wish you would not, Miss Marian, as we have much to discuss and never seem to be left to do so”
“Anything you say might be said as easily with the door open”
“But I am much more likely to be understood with the door closed.” At her frown he indicated the chair once again. “Please.”
Marian returned to her seat. As she did so, her glance strayed nervously to the Holbein.
“You like that portrait?” Sidley asked.
“How could I not? You must know it is superb. Unique and superb.”
Sidley observed her closely. “You share something of his skill. Oh, not in style, of course,” he said, dismissing her immediate objection, “but in a certain frankness. An honesty of portrayal. I might even term it sincerity, Marian. A sincerity that, unfortunately, does not appear to convey to your private affairs.” As Marian once again moved as though to stand, Sidley held up a palm. “But you are here now,” he conceded, “which is a promising start.”
Marian’s chin rose. “Lord Sidley, I have often been in your debt-”
“A position you have sorely resented”
“No, I-”
“Come, my dear. Do you believe me a stranger to my own devices? You are a most levelheaded young woman. Indeed, were you less so, I suspect I’d not be half as enchanted”
She could not have heard him aright. “My for-”
“I do wonder at your reticence now, though, Marian. I think I must have come to rely upon your candor, however unsettling to my peace. I’ve had great hopes for your eagerness to share some news with me. Perhaps you attempt to spare my feelings? Or do you believe I have none worth informing?”
“I will not stay so that you might sharpen your wits-”
“I’m gratified that you grant me any, given the way in which you confound them.”
“Surely for you to require frankness from me is outside of enough! You have no call to be angry.”
“Angry? My dear Marian, this afternoon, at your cousins’, I was disappointed, wholly frustrated, and at the moment I am certainly impatient. But not angry. I am rarely angry. And when I am, I do not sit and discuss it. Is your Lieutenant Reeves often angry?”
“William? Why, he-” She caught his look and stopped abruptly. “You know.”
“Yes.”
“Katie?”
Sidley smiled. “Lady Katherine is most forthcoming. Unlike her cousin.”
“I would have told you.”
“When?”
“As soon as I had arranged my future” She thought his eyes looked very blue. She had not painted them blue enough.
“Do you know, I have been regretting my artifice,” he said easily, though the intensity in his gaze remained. “Regretting it only with respect to you, my dear-until today, when it became clear that your own surpassed mine.”
“My artifice?”
“Certainly. Which exceeds mine, because yours is rehearsed. You would have me believe you do not care for me at all, when you know that is simply not the case”
“Not care for-Why, what abominable pride!” Again she popped to her feet. “Must Lord Sidley command everyone’s affections, as well as all their attention?”
He obligingly stood as well. “Not everyone’s, Marian. Just yours.” As she gazed at him, he moved closer, to the fireside between them, and placed one hand upon the mantel. “That is, of course, only possible if your affections are not still engaged elsewhere? I find I must fight the impulse to call the lieutenant out-he has not behaved at all well. And if he has hurt you, his actions are doubly reprehensible. Still, though you find yourself tempora
rily at a loss, I cannot help but recognize the man has done me a monumental favor.”
“It would not be your place, my lord, to call Lieutenant Reeves out…
“Not yet, certainly,” he inserted, leading her to glance at him warily.
“And as for hurting me, I was astonished. I should have wondered at myself had I not been. His marriage was most unexpected. But my feelings were … that is, I think that perhaps he must have performed a favor for me as well”
“How so, my dear?”
“Why, if he did not care for me enough to be true, then I am better unwed. And he has left me free to pursue my painting. With the payment you have made me, if I am careful, I needn’t consider marriage at all”
He sighed. “There was that risk, of course”
“What risk, my lord?”
“Had you been alone, and poor, you might have been receptive to another offer.”
“Lady Adeline mentioned the same. I have not been in the marriage mart. And I am not so calculating.”
“Not calculating, Marian. Merely practical.”
“Why must you call me Marian? You should not…:’
“You must call me Sidley. Or better yet, Lee. Or perhaps something of your own devising, since I am to be your patron.”
“My patron! My lord, I have finished with you.”
His gaze narrowed. “And now you are much too blunt, my dear. Need I remind you that you are contracted to paint Jenny Knox?”
“I meant-I misspoke, my lord. I meant that I am not your obligation.”
“Indeed? Yet I feel I have an obligation, one of sensibility if nothing else. I owe much to our understanding, which I believe is considerable. You have not lived long enough, my dearest Marian, to realize that such understanding is too rare to be dismissed.”
“But I do not need a patron”
She thought he smiled, though his lips did not move.
“Given your confidence, perhaps you never will. But is some aid not preferable to employment as a copyist, or retiring to quaint little Brinford to paint ladies’ fans?” As her lips set stubbornly, he smiled openly. “Come, sweet, what is your objection? That your pride confuses patronage with pity? That as a woman and-pardon me-a spinster, any help from a gentleman must appear unseemly? Or do you object because I am in love with you?” As she stared at him, he repeated, “I am in love with you, yes. I have been courting you, in my fashion, since I first saw you.”
“In … your fashion! Whilst you have been openly wooing several others! Others much more eligible than myself to serve as respectable consort to Lord Sidley!”
He shrugged but retained his smile. “I should never have described them so. You did have a most inconvenient fiance. And I did not woo them, Marian. I reviewed them. I chose to please my aunt”
“Lady Adeline! What must she think of such an arrangement?”
“Do sit, Marian. Please.” As she backed to the chair and collapsed into it, he asked, “Can you truly be so surprised? Have I not made my preference all too clear? I thought myself as obvious as the weather.”
“I thought I-I thought I must have imagined much.”
He smiled. “I confess I also imagined much. Shall I tell you what I imagined as you painted-all those hours at Aldersham? I had to focus my thoughts as well as my gaze upon the poetry books behind you, else I should have gone mad with wanting to leap up and kiss you”
As she straightened, he placed one finger lightly against his lips. “Pray bear with me, dearest, and permit me to do this properly. Tradition requires your patience for just one minute more. So”-he cleared his throat “Green’s lines must serve me. `Oh, glorious sun’-meaning you, of course, with your pride and talent and, yes, apparent tendency to temper-‘imagine me the west”’ He tapped his chest. “‘Shine in my arms”’ He generously opened both palms to her. “‘And set thou in my breast.’ Rather a wish than a command, you see, and-as to the location of the heart-self-explanatory.”
That was enough. At the look on her face he instantly took the two steps to her chair and carefully knelt on one knee before her. He could not have done so as easily, she realized, had his coat been properly buttoned.
“Dearest Marian, I need only have you come home to me” He reached to cradle her limp hands. “You’ve lovely, capable hands… ” He raised them to the warmth of his lips, then pressed her unresisting fingers to his chest. “… and a prodigious talent. But so have I-for appreciating it. I shall never impede you. I’ve a persistent belief we shall get on well together. Will you do me the great honor, the inestimable honor, of becoming my wife?”
“To marry you? You intend that I should be-”
“Lady Sidley. Yes. Shall you mind very much?”
“But you cannot want this! Your family-”
“As I am the last of it, I am free to set its course. My aunt dotes upon you in any event. And, Marian .. ” His gaze was very bright. Indeed, he was so close that she could read her own reflection in his eyes. “Why should I not want your passion and purpose? They speak well of your capacity. In time, you might even come to love me.”
“But I love you now! I quite adore you, as I suspect you well know. I have been sick at heart, because you must look higher. You are an earl! I am not right for you. We cannot do this.” A gentle tug drew her protesting lips to his. “There will be talk,” she whispered weakly.
“My love,” he said, moving to kiss her. “We do not care. We shall not be here to listen.”
True to his word, Lord Sidley missed the greater part of the following year in London, having taken his bride on an extended tour of the Continent’s neglected treasures. The two returned in the spring, to a triumphant viewing of Lady Sidley’s paintings in the next Royal Academy exhibition. But the much-discussed likeness of the earl was not among them. For, despite rumors that the portrait hung privately at Sidley House, the countess continued to claim that her meager talent could never do her husband justice.
Lord Sidley's Last Season Page 17