‘I’m not surprised, if he caught you in the conservatory unchaperoned! What happened?’
‘He looked all cold and distant. And he sent me back to Mama and I don’t know what happened with James, because I didn’t see him again and perhaps he’s called him out and he’ll kill him and—’
‘Stop it!’ Dita gave her a little shake. ‘You’ll make yourself ill. I will write to Alistair and ask him to call on me and find out what he means to do. He won’t challenge James, I am sure. You weren’t … I mean, he wasn’t doing anything very—’
‘He was kissing me,’ Evaline said. ‘That was all.’
‘Oh goodness, that was the knocker. I’ll say we aren’t at home.’ They both stared at the door, waiting for the butler to open it, but nothing happened. After a few minutes Dita rang the bell. ‘Pearson, who was that at the door?’
‘Lord Iwerne, my lady, for his lordship.’
‘Thank you, Pearson. That will be all.’
The next half-hour crawled by. A footman came to say that Lady Wycombe had been detained in the kitchen, discussing the dinner party menu with Cook, and would they please finish the invitations without her. Evaline, apparently beyond tears, sat tying her handkerchief in knots, Dita made a mess of three invitation cards and gave up. What on earth was Alistair doing? Telling their father about Evaline’s shocking behaviour? Surely not offering for Evaline’s hand? The nightmare idea that perhaps he had decided to tell her father what had happened eight years ago gripped her and she tried to stay calm. There would have been an explosion from the study by now, surely?
The door knocker sounded again and this time, after a few moments, Pearson came in without them having to ring. ‘That was a Mr Morgan for his lordship, my lady.’
Evaline fell back on the chaise with a gasp. Dita asked, ‘Is Lord Iwerne still with my father?’
‘Yes, my lady. Both the gentlemen are now in the study with his lordship.’
‘I am going to have hysterics,’ Evaline announced after another twenty minutes of sitting staring at each other. ‘I am definitely going to—’
The door opened and Lady Wycombe came in. ‘Evaline, please come to the study.’
‘Dita—’
‘No, you do not need your sister,’ her mother said as she took her arm. She left the door open and after a moment Alistair strolled through, shut it behind him and collapsed on the chaise where Evaline had been sitting.
‘My God, I need a brandy.’
Dita splashed the liquor in a glass and handed it to him. ‘Are you going to tell me what is going on?’
‘Come and sit down beside me and tell me how wonderful I am,’ he said with a grin. ‘I have just convinced your father that Mr James Morgan is an eligible suitor for your sister’s hand. Now, do I not deserve a reward?’
‘No! How?’ Dita shook her head, ‘But he isn’t eligible. No money, no prospects, no connections …’
‘Oh, yes, he has. As of him giving a month’s notice to Lord Percy Wynstanley, he is my confidential agent and secretary on a most respectable salary and with a very nice little house on the south Devon estate, which I am giving them as a wedding present, and the use of the third floor of my London house, which I am finding is approximately four times bigger than any reasonable man would want.
‘And the young idiot did not realise, until I did some research and pointed it out, that his second cousin is the Earl of Bladings and his mother is a connection of the Duke of Fletton. Apparently his parents like to rusticate and never bothered to mention the family tree.’
‘And Papa said yes?’ Dita flopped down on the cushions beside him and grabbed both his hands.
‘That’s better. He did. And your mother. I must admit, I gave them to understand my friendship with Mr Morgan is somewhat more long-standing than it is, but I think Evaline is a good judge of character and all my enquiries, and a very long conversation with him, convince me he is an honourable and hard-working young man who will look after her. And he’s just the man I need to have beside me—the amount of work with the estates is significant and then if I am going to take my seat in the House of Lords—’
‘Alistair, I do love you!’ Dita threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth before she realised what she was doing and what she had said.
He kissed her back, hard, then lifted his head and stared at her. ‘If I realised I got that sort of response every time I employ someone, I would do it daily,’ he said slowly with the air of a man working something through.
‘Well, I could kiss you for a month, I love you so much for making Evaline happy,’ she said, hoping the qualification would blur her true meaning.
‘Ah. And there I was thinking you had decided to accept my marriage offer.’ There was an edge to his voice that told her he was not as light-hearted as he would have her believe.
‘Of course not. Nothing has changed.’ She sat up straight, away from him. ‘It is so good of you—why did you do it when you have no belief in love? I would have expected you to say they were both deluded.’
For a moment the thick dark lashes veiled the amber glow of his eyes and then he laughed, a dry chuckle that sounded as though he was laughing at himself, not at what she had said.
‘I remembered what you had said about Imogen and how she would have done what her parents expected of her. Those two in the conservatory renouncing each other out of a sense of duty—it made me feel about eighty.’