Nora took a deep, shaky breath, her hands shaking as she tried to formulate her response. “Lord Colbourne, I have the highest respect for you, and it is for that reason that I cannot allow you to enter into a sham of a courtship with someone of my reputation. In your attempt to rescue your friend’s sister, you will doubtless lay your own reputation on the line.”
“I do not agree with you,” Gerard said simply, kindly. “But I think you should know that it is not only for your sake that we discussed this arrangement. The truth is that I have struggled greatly with the strain of my father’s death – both as it brings the responsibilities I have been gifted, and the natural affection of a son for the father. In the midst of this struggle, my mother, whom I greatly respect, has taken it upon herself to find me a bride. I am afraid that, at this time, I am not able to emotionally commit to the kind of courtship my mother requires, but I also need something to…distract her.”
Nora blinked for a moment, startled at this turn of event. Gerard was not attempting to woo her, to toss her blind platitudes about her own qualities or affection. On the contrary, he was being candid with her, and his truthfulness had shown her that it was not a complete sacrifice that he was undergoing.
She wondered fleetingly if he was only telling her this to take the sting out of her brother’s arrangement. But as she looked up and met his grey, kind eyes, she found that she couldn’t find it in herself to say ‘no’ to him. She was just as certain as before that true romance would have no chance in a sham courtship, but at least now she would be able to help Gerard as he was helping her.
“So?” he finished with a gentle smile. “Will you consider my offer for courtship under these newly described circumstances?”
Nora swallowed hard. “You’re certain, Lord Colbourne? It seems an elaborate way of throwing your mother off the scent.”
“My mother is an elaborate woman,” Gerard said with a laugh.
Nora nodded. “Then, I agree.”
Gerard smiled, and Nora could see clearly that it was the smile of a man who knew that what was best was happening, not the smile of a lover who had gained at last the hand of his love. Yet, she knew now not to expect anything more, and so she was not too dreadfully disappointed.
“Thank heaven you were able to bring her around to the proper way of thinking,” William said, standing up with grin.
Gerard turned to his friend and Nora caught the note of warning in his face. “Don’t undo my good work, friend.” He turned back to Nora. “What do you say, Miss Pembroke? Do you think a ride in the park with a man of nobility and your sophisticated brother would take the first steps towards dousing the negative talk in this town in a bit of cold water?”
She smiled despite herself. He was so charming, even when he wasn’t trying to be. “I suppose so,” she said, ducking her head in acknowledgement.
William put on his coat and tapped the head of his riding cane against the door to call for the butler. “Then let the courtship begin.”
Chapter 12
The ride had been quite delightful. Gerard wasn’t sure why he was so surprised. After all, he had spent years riding with William, and more often than not Nora had been tagging along in the background. Today, however, had felt somehow different. Nora had a pinkness in her cheeks, a tentative way about her bearing, and a certain happiness in her eyes that made the whole affair rather infectious.
He wondered if it was all the result of him asking her in a kindlier manner about the courtship. Or perhaps it was because she was already seeing the approving glances in the park through which they rode and knew that the scheme, however far-reaching it had seemed at first, was working. Either way, he had soaked up her delight as his own.
When he reached his own home afterwards, he handed his mount over to the groom and took the stairs two at a time. Inside, he found his mother sitting in the parlour looking over some correspondence at her writing desk.
“Mother,” he said, coming over and sitting on a chair near at her side. “Do you have a moment to speak on a rather important matter?”
She looked up in mild surprise. “Now?”
“Yes.”
Lady Colbourne sighed and laid her papers away. “Go on, then.”
“I think you’ll be rather happy, actually,” Gerard began. “I know how you feel about my current social standing in the world of marriage and courtship, and I’ve taken steps to remedy that.”
Instantly he saw a note of delight come into his mother’s eyes, along with a slight flush in her pale cheeks. “Have you?” she asked. “Who is the lady?”
Gerard smiled indulgently. “Miss Nora Pembroke, actually. I have spoken with her this very morning and she has agreed to everything.”
The light drained quickly out of Lady Colbourne’s face and, much to Gerard’s surprise, she looked actually distressed. She pushed back her chair and stood up quite suddenly, pacing away from their conversation to the nearby window to look out on the passing carts.
“Are you having some sort of fun with me, Gerard, that you would tell me this thing?”
“No.” He, too, stood up in confusion. “I don’t know what kind of amusement you think I would gain from telling you something false, but I truly have asked Miss Pembroke –”
“Why her?” It was startling, hearing his mother who was often so careful and proper in her speech, interrupt him as though she were just another vendor in the marketplace.
“She’s a fine girl. We’ve known her family for years,” Gerard said, his frustration beginning to build. “I don’t see that there’s any real difficulty forming an attachment with such a wealthy and respected family. I hardly expected this sort of reaction from you, Mother. After all, Miss Pembroke is a fine match.”
“Perhaps on paper she lines up with your requirements,” Lady Colbourne said coldly, crossing her arms, “and I know that she’s certainly attractive, but I cannot imagine a son of mine making an attachment with a woman like that. She is always making a spectacle of herself in public places. She has very little regard for the rules and morals of society, and she seems to think that she still has the right to run about town making a fool of herself as though she was a little girl in some faraway village.”
“Mother, that’s hardly fair. You always seemed to like Miss Pembroke.”
“As the foolish little sister of my son’s friend, perhaps, but nothing more. I didn’t have any idea that she was in your sights. If I had, I would certainly have said something to you sooner.”
“It’s not as though I found a lady from a bad family, Mother. She has many fine attributes.”
“Yes, I’m sure if you count her bright eyes and her figure you can find attributes a plenty. And certainly, a union with her would bring cash and connections. But her positive qualities end there in my opinion. She is the sort of oddity that one wants at one’s dinner party but also wants to be able to send away home afterwards. She is entertaining, amusing, like a carnival. And I do not want my son married to a carnival.”
Gerard was flabbergasted. He had no romantic connection to Nora, but he still felt frustrated to hear her spoken about so sharply. Furthermore, he had thought a Pembroke was just the sort of person his mother would accept with open arms. He could not have been more wrong. Lady Colbourne walked away from the window and sat down on the settee, patting the cushion beside her gently. “Come here, son.”
Gerard came and sat. “I’ve already asked her.”
“There are other things to consider,” she went on as though she hadn’t heard him. “If you pursue this connection, I have no doubt that your good sense will eventually show you the truth of Nora’s personality and means, but I fear that in the meantime you will miss other fine opportunities that are much more suitable to your life and legacy.”
“I don’t have my eyes on anyone else.”
“Well, you should.” Lady Colbourne looked as though she were drawing a name out of thin air, but Gerard knew his mother well enough to see that she’d been wa
iting for just such a chance to bring up the woman in question. “Miss Pembroke has a cousin, for example, Lady Katherine Barrington, who is a real delight. Do you know that I just had Cecilia Barrington over for tea a few days past and she couldn’t stop raving about her daughter? Lady Katherine is beautiful and accomplished, she has a good-sized estate and a steady income. And more than that she’s a woman of nobility.”
“Mother, I’ve already –”
“And beyond that, if I must make the direct contrast with Miss Pembroke, I would remind you that Lady Katherine conducts herself in the manner of an accomplished young lady. She sings beautifully and has great skills within the home, besides which fact she is able to carry on a polite and restrained conversation that leaves no people feeling insulted in public.”
Gerard sighed. “So that’s it. You already heard about what happened at last night’s ball.”
“Word travels fast, my son. But while I certainly think last night’s events were a good illustration of my point, I assure you I held this opinion even before Miss Pembroke chose the first night of the London season to make a fool of herself.”
Gerard shook his head. “She didn’t mean to.”
“I am certain she didn’t. Miss Pembroke is not a malicious girl, but she is a foolish one. You, my dear, are not a foolish man.”
Gerard cared what his mother thought. He’d always been careful to weigh his decisions in the context of his parent’s wisdom. But in this matter, he felt Lady Colbourne was taking this out of proportion.
“Why are you so set on this Lady Katherine?” he asked. “It’s not as though we’ve ever had any understanding.”
“But you could.” Suddenly she looked sheepish. “In fact, you might. I have asked the Barringtons over for dinner with a few other families in the area so that you might have a chance to meet Lady Katherine. I was going to tell you about it when we had a chance, but this is the first real opportunity we’ve had.”
Gerard thought about Nora and felt a stab of guilt. He knew that he would have to go along with the dinner and the Barringtons out of respect for his mother and social allegiance to former plans. But he couldn’t help thinking about how crushed Nora would be if she thought her cousin was somehow considered a better alternative than her in a marital situation. He was in a quandary now, for his mother had left him no option but to appear at the dinner party, and he had already agreed to court Nora.
He turned to Lady Colbourne with a strained expression. “I wish you’d spoken about this with me first.”
She leaned forward and patted his knee. “Dear son, if I tried to run every romantic thing by you that would be for your best interest, nothing would ever happen. I’m just asking you to give Lady Katherine, a real, elegant woman, a chance at your heart. If you do, I think the matter of Miss Nora Pembroke will sort itself out without my involvement.”
Chapter 13
The next day Gerard showed up at the Pembroke mansion with his hat in hand, looking to Nora just as ruffled and handsome as ever. He asked if she and James would consider a walk around the town, a well-chaperoned and visible social activity that would fulfil their desire to be seen in each other’s company.
Nora agreed at once, hurrying upstairs to fetch her cloak and muffler and then coming back down to walk out. James seemed reluctant to accompany them, but his reticence turned out to be the perfect ingredient for a good chaperone, for he hung back behind them tending to his own thoughts and gave them the benefit of his presence without infringing on their privacy.
Nora felt uncomfortable at Gerard’s side with the body of her own affection seeming to stand between them like a wall. But she tried to push those feelings aside.
“What activities do you usually make a priority during the London season?” she asked. “Are you a man who can be found at the card tables, or do you, like most young men, focus your attention on the races and Tattersall’s?”
“Do you really wish to speak about the races and Tattersall’s?” Gerard asked with more than a bit of impishness in his tone. “If I recall correctly, that is not a very lucky topic for you.”
She looked up at him in genuine surprise, struck that he seemed to be actually teasing her, letting down his careful, gentle guard for a moment. She resisted the urge to elbow him.
“If you were one of my brothers making such a comment, I would be tempted to retort with a rather scathing commentary on your own character,” she said with a smile.
“And you refuse to do so with me because…?”
“Well, we are in the initial stages of our courtship,” she said, somewhat mockingly, “And you know what people say about making a good impression on the person that they are pretending to court.”
“Keep your voice down,” he warned as they passed a group of people, then, with a smile, “and I’m not sure why you think you have a chance of making a good impression when I’ve known you since you were a young girl.”
Nora liked this, the way Gerard had of making a situation that was anything but comfortable somehow easy, as though they were both in on some sort of secret together. “I should think,” she said archly, “that you knowing me when I was younger would be a serious mark in my favour. As children go, I believe I was one of the more interesting ones.”
“Yes,” Gerard said soberly. “I do believe that time you slipped a frog into your brother’s picnic basket is precisely the sort of anecdote that will have young hearts clamouring at your door.”
Nora laughed aloud despite herself.
“You didn’t answer my question, though. What do you plan to keep busy with this season?”
“I didn’t answer because I fear that my answer would be too dull for a young lady looking for excitement.”
Nora shook her head. “I don’t think young ladies tend to look for excitement in London. I’m told almost daily by my mother that we ought to be searching out the most boring conversations to better ourselves and to avoid scandals.”
Now it was Gerard who laughed. “Well, then I shall confess to you, Miss Pembroke, that I have quite a bit of business to attend to here in London, and though I will attempt to be fully present for the season, I admit that a part of my mind and heart are tied up in our country estate. I took over the reins after my father’s passing, of course, but I find that even a year later the management of those affairs takes up much of my attention.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
He seemed surprise. “Why?”
“It’s just that I can hear it in your voice – you still miss him very much. A year is not so very long to grieve, you know, when you expected a lifetime to learn and grow with someone.”
He turned and looked down at her, in what seemed to be genuine surprise. “I think you might be right, Miss Pembroke.”
They continued on for a few more minutes, and then the conversation seemed to flag. Nora sensed that there was something Gerard wanted to share with her, and after a few uncomfortable dead ends in the conversation she prodded for the truth.
“Is there something in particular on your mind today?” she asked gently. “You seem preoccupied.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m often preoccupied these days. I apologise if I was denying you the conversation you deserve.” They walked on in silence for a moment and then he ventured, quite out of the blue, “Miss Pembroke, is it true you are acquainted with the Barringtons?”
“Acquainted?” she asked with surprise. “I am. Lady Cecilia Barrington is my aunt, and of course that makes Lady Katherine my cousin. We’re rather close, actually – Katherine’s been a good friend over the years. Why do you ask?”
Gerard frowned. “It is only that, when I told my mother about our arrangement yesterday, she mentioned that she was going to host a dinner party and that the Barringtons would be in attendance.” He seemed uncomfortable, and Nora felt a growing misgiving about where the conversation was going. “She seems to think very highly of…all the Barringtons.”
A Baron Worth Loving: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 8