“Let me be forward now.” Vivian took Mary’s hand and looked into her eyes. “Do you love Sir Royce?”
Mary’s blush flamed even brighter. She wished she could lie to Vivian, but there was something about the other woman’s penetrating green gaze that made it very difficult to do so.
“I don’t know!” Mary’s words came out in an anguished rush. “I sometimes fear that I do! He is witty and yet quite kind really, and while, yes, he called me a hoyden, he doesn’t really seem to mind it. At least, he never appears to be embarrassed. Perhaps it would be different in public.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I think he is the sort of man who is the same at home as he is in public.”
“He likes my sisters. And he didn’t tell the earl the full circumstances of how we came upon Pirate. He would have kept the whole episode a secret, actually, but the dog …”
“It would be difficult to keep that dog a secret.”
“And, well, when Royce walks into a room, it’s as though I light up inside.”
“Ah.” Vivian nodded wisely.
“Have you ever felt like that?”
“A time or two. At least to some extent.”
“Is that love?”
“I’m not sure I am the best person to ask. I have always wondered a little about the feeling myself. There are those who would tell you that I am quite cold.”
“You?” Mary’s face mirrored her shock. “No, I cannot believe that.”
“One has many disappointed suitors when one is the daughter of a duke. But I don’t think that I have ever felt the kind of love your parents had. Would I defy my family and run away across the ocean and live without servants and position and wealth? I haven’t found the man yet whom I would do that for.” She paused. “Would you do that for Royce?”
“Yes.” Mary was surprised at her own answer. “I mean, well, if he loved me and that was the only way we could be together, then, yes, I think I would. Does that mean I love him?”
Vivian shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Of course, I am quite accustomed to living that way.” Mary grinned. “So it would not be a great sacrifice.” She paused. “I don’t want to love him.”
“It would be difficult to be married to someone you loved and to know he did not love you back.”
“Yes. It seems worse to me than going into a marriage knowing neither of you loved the other. If I love Royce and he will never feel the same, I would be condemning myself to a life of unhappiness.”
“You say that he ‘keeps’ asking you to marry him,” Lady Vivian said.
Mary nodded. “He has asked me twice, and even though I refused him flatly, he said he would continue. But then he told me he did not wish to bully me into marrying him. I thought he meant he would stop, but he said that he was … simply going to try other ways.” Mary’s blush spoke volumes about what she thought the “other ways” might be.
“I cannot speak for Sir Royce. But in my experience with English gentlemen, if one asks a woman to marry him only out of a sense of duty or honor, a single proposal is considered sufficient. I don’t think it is honor that propels a man to subject his pride to refusal after refusal—or to trying ‘other ways.’” Vivian’s eyes twinkled as she stood up. “I’m not sure if I have relieved your mind …”
“No, you have been a great help to me.” Impulsively Mary reached out and gave the other woman a quick hug. “Thank you.”
She watched Lady Vivian walk down to her carriage, her thoughts humming. Could it really be, as Lady Vivian suggested, that Royce cared more for her than he would admit? That it was not simply out of honor that he asked her to marry him?
With a sigh, she went back in to join her sisters.
Supper was late that evening, as the men had been out scouring the countryside until it grew too dark to see.
“But we will find him,” the earl promised grimly. “Tomorrow we will ride out again. In the meantime, you girls must stay close to the house.”
“No!” the girls cried, almost in unison.#p#分页标题#e#
“We want to help search,” Mary told him.
The earl stared at her. “Don’t be absurd.”
“We’re not. Surely it would help to have more people looking?”
“And give this fellow another opportunity to seize you? I think not.”
“It’s only Rose he wants,” Camellia pointed out.
“So you think you’ll leave me behind?” Rose asked indignantly. “Just you try!”