Diana flushed and looked down at her feet for a moment, hoping that no one else had heard his remarks, something that could render the evening even more awkward than it already promised to be. Such expressions could not be perceived as anything other than an indication of dissatisfaction with his bride.
When she raised her eyes, she saw Edmund looking sharply at the speaker. Percy and Jacob were closing the coach door and giving instructions to the driver, informed by surly advice from a rather unkempt man with overlong hair and a bearded face, who had presented himself as the groundskeeper.
She wished for a moment that she could rush into Edmund’s arms and hide her face against his chest. Faced with the reality of Andrew Arnold and Hayward House, their previous embraces now felt like an impossible dream.
Even in the darkness, Diana could see that the gardens were as unkempt as their supposed keeper, and there were no torches set outside to light their way up the path. Glancing up, she could see shutters on many of the windows.
She only supposed that with Andrew in India for so long and Henrietta and Kitty frequently away visiting friends, Hayward House had been vacant for some time.
Lady Birks welcomed them inside, gave their coats to the maid who seemed to be the only servant in sight, and made the formal introductions to her son and daughter. She left aside Diana until the very end.
“And of course, Andrew, you cannot have forgotten your future wife, Lady Diana Arnold. Diana has been so very eager to meet you again, especially after I told her all about your successes in India and your prospects in London. What a wonderful pair the two of you will make in society!”
Diana made a small curtsey to her fiancé and smiled faintly, feeling just as nervous and uncomfortable as she had feared.
“Charmed,” Andrew said briefly, looking her body up and down in a simultaneously salacious but disinterested fashion that repelled her on both fronts.
Lord Birks’s general aspect of undisguised boredom had only grown throughout the introductions to Edmund and Jacob and a short conversation with Percy. His patience seemed to have run out entirely by the time Diana was reached. It was as though he’d seen her, accepted her as fit for purpose and had nothing more to say on the matter.
“Let’s get some drinks, Mater,” he said with purpose almost immediately after the introductions. “I’m parched.”
“Of course, my darling boy. If you would bring Diana through to the drawing room. The Duke of Colborne can bring Katherine, and I will follow with Percy and Lord Wycliff. Come along, Fluffles.”
With an ill-humored sigh, Andrew offered Diana his arm, and she took it awkwardly. It was a distinct contrast to the graceful offer and smiling acceptance of Edmund and Kitty beside them. They made a better couple than she and Andrew, Diana observed sadly.
“How was your journey?” Diana asked her cousin politely to break the ice.
“God-awful. Six months on bloody boats and the worst rum you’ve ever tasted. If the company tries to send me back again, I’ll tell them to go to hell. They probably won’t if I have a wife though, especially if you can get pregnant quickly. I hope you will.”
Diana was speechless at his rudeness, tactlessness, and bad language. No one had ever spoken like this to her in her life. The disgust she felt at the idea of touching this man or carrying his child was even stronger now than it had been when he was merely a half-remembered silhouette.
“I see,” Diana managed to reply, glad that they had now arrived at the drawing room so that she could drop Andrew’s arm and step away from him. She hoped her revulsion did not show too plainly on her face, but Andrew did not even look back at her as he headed towards the drinks tray on the sideboard and prepared himself a strong whisky.
“Ah, that’s the stuff!” he said with satisfaction after taking a long swig from his glass. Diana noted the redness of his nose and eyes and wondered how many times he refreshed himself from the drinks tray each day.
“Perhaps the ladies would like a glass of sherry, Lord Birks?” Edmund suggested lightly as the rest of the group continued to stand empty-handed. “Lady Katherine was telling me that you brought some fine sherry back from your travels."
Diana could see the incredulity on Jacob’s face and the confusion on Percy’s at Andrew’s lack of manners and attention to his guests. The duties of a good host were at least one item even within Percy’s area of competence. Lady Birks continued to look at her son affectionately; and Kitty’s attention was all for Edmund, a fact that made Diana unexpectedly uncomfortable.
“Yes, excellent sherry. I got a whole case of the best Spanish stuff on my way back. That maid’s put a bottle out, I see. Yes, sherry all around, I think.”
Andrew lined up the glasses, poured measures of sherry for all and handed them round brusquely without asking anyone what they might prefer. He downed his whisky and soda quickly before taking up a glass of sherry and beginning a story about his time in India, addressed principally to Edmund, Jacob, and Percy.
For a time, he appeared to have forgotten that Diana was even there, which was in some ways a relief. On deeper consideration, as a hint of their shared future, it made her feel hopeless and forlorn.
It was only when the maid announced dinner that Andrew seemed to recall her existence. He again offered her his arm with barely concealed impatience and led her to her seat at the dining table as if he were merely dropping off a parcel or tying up a horse somewhere.
Diana found herself barely speaking throughout the meal. Whichever way she turned at the table, her heart ached at all she saw and heard that night.
One at each end of the table, Andrew and Lady Birks monopolized much of the conversation with yet more tales of Andrew’s accomplishments during his time in India and his bright future ahead with his firm in London. Whenever they could, Edmund and Jacob also conversed at polite intervals with Kitty, who was seated between them on the opposite side of the table from Diana.
Meanwhile, Percy, who was on Henrietta’s left-hand side, was subjected to a flow of his relative’s thoughts on Andrew and Diana’s wedding plans, apparently already agreed on with Lady Templeton. Three possible dates, a selection of guests, and even a choice of menus were run past Percy without sparking anything more than a general, unresisting assent.
Diana wished that she could close her ears to those particular discussions and find a way to pretend that the wedding wasn’t happening at all, although in such close proximity, Andrew himself was a solid reminder of her unwanted future.
At Andrew’s right-hand side, and with a long gap along the side of the table between her place and Percy’s, Diana had little chance for any actual conversation at all. Most of Andrew’s comments seemed directed at the men in the room or his mother, and he apparently did not expect that Diana could have anything interesting to say. Most of her attempts to engage him were talked over or met with a short nod or grunt.
It was only when she asked him about his case of Spanish sherry that he responded with more than a single word or two.