Chapter 5
It was late, and Alice would have liked nothing better than to stumble to bed and sleep for a week after all the excitement of the day. The ride to Kendall Hall, the greeting everyone individually and talking until her jaw hurt, the dinner and the entertainment after, it had all been too much for her and she could barely hold back a yawn as she wandered from the parlour, almost the last to leave the room.
That had been down to her mother who had insisted that as this entire thing had been planned in her honour, she should be the first to rise and the last to bed every day of their stay. Alice had been exhausted just at hearing that and although she had held out as long as she could there were still several guests remaining in the parlour with Lord and Lady Kendall.
Not a one of them had shown sign of going to bed any time soon and as her mother had retired an hour earlier, she could see no reason to prolong her own agony. She just hoped that nobody would mention it to Lady Skeffington.
She was three steps from the parlour when she heard an overly cheerful voice calling after her, "Alice, pardon one moment, please."
Stifling a yawn, Alice bit back a protest, only relieved that it was Nancy and not one of the gentlemen she had tricked into a matchmaking weekend. There could have been nothing more awkward than idle conversation with the hopes of gaining a promise for her company the next day when all she really wanted was to be left alone.
She would be pleased to be left alone for the entire week in fact. Yet that would not have gone down well with the new lady Kendall and so Alice turned with a forced smile upon her face.
"Nancy, you must forgive me," she insisted even as Nancy closed the distance between them, "I was just headed to bed and did not wish to disturb you. Your conversation with Baron Colton seemed quite energetic."
Nancy rolled her eyes at the comment and began to shake her head, looking quite relieved at having had an excuse to get away from the Baron. "The man can quite simply talk a lot of nothing," she said, a shiver running throughout her body as though it had been a dreadful experience.
"That is not a new finding, Nancy," Alice pointed out, biting back the urge to also ask why Nancy had chosen to invite the Baron for the week if her intentions were to help her find a match.She cannot possibly believe that I would ever fall for a man like chatty Colton!
"Yes, well, the Baron all but invited himself," Nancy explained with a shrug, almost as if she had read Alice's thoughts. Nancy reached out then and hooked her arm through Alice's, forcing her to spin so that they could walk further away from the parlour. "I did not come out here to speak of the Baron."
Nancy's face spread with a broad grin and her eyes seemed to fizz with excitement as she squeezed Alice's forearm and stated, "I saw you talking with Thomas earlier."
"Who?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. Although she knew exactly who her friend was talking about, she was not going to make it easy for her, nor did she even wish to talk about it.
Her conversation with Lord Warrington was one she would rather forget, thanks to his obvious and quite rude refusal at the prospect of why they were all truly gathered at Kendall Hall. Yet, Nancy seemed to read something in her expression because she looked quite expectant that it was going to be good news.
"Alice." Nancy's brow furrowed and she scowled disappointedly at her for a moment, before adding, "You know very well that I mean the Earl of Warrington, Lord Thomas Nott."
"If that is true then why did you feel you had to say his entire name just now?" Alice asked, offering her friend a mischievous grin. Though it was a ploy to try and put Nancy off the conversation, to try and change the subject, Alice knew it was never truly going to work and that she was merely delaying the inevitable. Again, Nancy scowled. Alice could not help herself. "Oh, Nancy, scowling is most unbecoming on you."
She could not help but chuckle even as Nancy's face fell, and she looked as though she was in absolute shock. "Why, Alice, I never realised you were so horrid!" Alice cringed and squealed in surprise as Nancy pinched her forearm, a small pinch that hurt like hell, just as she had done many times when they were little girls growing up together.
"That was uncalled for!" Alice snapped, yanking her arm from Nancy's grip so that she could rub the sore patch that was already beginning to turn red.
"And your avoidance is totally uncalled for also," Nancy insisted and she gripped hold of Alice's arm again before she could begin to walk away in avoidance of her friend's questions. "Come on, Alice, we are best friends. You must tell me what the two of you spoke about."
"Must I?" Alice raised a brow at her friend, biting the inside of her lip to stop herself from snapping that she owed her friend nothing, especially after the awkward situation she had put her in, not just for the evening but for the entire week.
"Oh, please, Alice. Do not tease me," Nancy was practically pleading now and Alice knew that she would not give up until she had gotten what she came for. It was likely better to get the conversation over with so that she could go to bed.
Looking at Nancy Alice could not believe the sight of her. While everyone else was beginning to lag, some even with bags beginning to form beneath their drooping eyes, Nancy was as radiant as ever and looked as though she could have run for miles if she were so inclined.
"We spoke of his problems with his carriage and his horse," Alice responded quickly with a shrug and although she hoped that it would be enough to put her friend off, deep down she had known all along that it would not be. Nancy stared at her expectantly, obviously waiting for more. "We spoke of the festivities also."
Nancy still looked expectant as though she was certain there was far more to the story than that. Alice's insides twisted and she felt her entire body tensing as she remembered just how rude the earl had been, talking as though he was far above all the other guests at Kendall Hall.
Though Alice would have liked to tell Nancy exactly how rude he had been just to prove that her plan had gone array, she could not bring herself to let Nancy know the man's opinion on the men she had personally picked for whichever reasons she deemed worthy.
Though she was angry at Nancy for planning this entire thing, she knew how much pride her friend took in such things and how low she would become if she were to have her actions judged by the likes of Lord Warrington, her husband's closest friend.
"He was quite rude and frankly quite irritating," she told Nancy and when her friend looked as if she were opening her mouth to ask what exactly he had said, she quickly added, "Though, I do not wish to repeat what he said as I would rather forget about it entirely."
Even as she spoke the words, she realised that they were not entirely true. Her conversation with Lord Warrington had been almost the only thing she had been able to think about all evening. Yes, he had been quite infuriating and irritating and negative, and yet he had also been somehow charming and handsome and utterly intriguing.
Stop it!she scolded herself, trying once more to remove Lord Warrington from her mind.
"Then you do not find him pleasing?" Nancy asked sounding a little disappointed though her face betrayed the fact that she did not entirely believe Alice. The way her eyes sparkled, and her lips twitched up at the corners suggested that she believed Alice was merely trying to put her off the scent.