The Cheer in Charming an Earl(36)

Elinor buried her head into her pillow. She couldn’t bear to look at her aunt. “He loathes me.”

Aunt Millie pulled the coverlet away from Elinor’s shoulders. “I was unable to discern much more than mmmphmlebffle. Whatever you said, it’s of no consequence. What is important is that we leave. Moping about his house won’t win his affection. Distance and time are your only hope now.”

Elinor lifted herself onto her forearms and looked over her shoulder. “We have no conveyance of our own. How can we leave?”

“I have a feeling he’ll lend us his carriage yet.” Aunt Millie offered her a wan smile, then turned and went to the door. “I’ll send up word soon enough. In the meantime, wash your face and do your best with your hair. Men detest weeping.”

Elinor sat up and curled her legs under her as her aunt closed the door behind her. If men hated tears, they shouldn’t make women cry. But remembering how much of her current misery was her own fault only brought a fresh wave of waterworks, and it was another quarter hour before she was able to rise and use the cool water in the washbasin to wipe the misery from her face.

When she was finally summoned to the foyer, she took the curving stair one step at a time with her shoulders held back. She needn’t have held herself so rigid. Grantham wasn’t there. Nor did he make an appearance when they were bundled into his carriage and sent off.

Nor did she see him for the next two days. Not that she could have done, as she never left her bed. But on the third morning, she wandered into her aunt’s parlor and stopped dead in the doorway. “Lord de Winter! What in heaven’s name are you doing here?”

Was Grantham here, too?

She didn’t see him. But she didn’t see her aunt or her brother, either, and she was sure they were in the house.

Lord de Winter bowed briefly. “Lord Chelford didn’t accompany me, I’m afraid.”

“Oh?” Not that she cared, of course. She didn’t give a fig for him anymore. Oh, and there it was, another lie! She cared desperately. Not the girlish infatuation she’d set out with, but an abiding affection she feared would last the rest of her life.

“He doesn’t know I’m here, actually,” Lord de Winter said. “It’s been a bit of an adventure to slip away. But now that I’m here, perhaps you would take a walk with me? What I have to say is not for listening ears.”

Though she would have preferred to see Grantham rather than his friend, this was far too intriguing an invitation to decline. She nodded and allowed him to escort her to the front door and into the daylight.

When they were safely out of earshot of the house, Lord de Winter withdrew his arm and faced her. “Lord Chelford is a miserable wretch. I hope you realize what you’ve done to him.”

“Sir! I didn’t follow you out of doors to be reprimanded.” Her words shot out on little puffs of steam.

He laughed low. “I didn’t mean to chastise you for it. I thought you should know that he misses you.”

She was left speechless by that.

Lord de Winter hooked his index finger under her chin and lifted. She obediently closed her open mouth. Then he sighed and set his hands on his hips, parting his greatcoat at the waist to reveal a jet black waistcoat beneath it. “Lord Chelford and I have been friends many years. More’s the pity, as he would have made any lady a good husband were it not for my poor influence. But now I have the occasion to bring him some happiness, as he’s done for me more times than I can count. Elinor, you must un-jilt him immediately.”

“I can’t!” She glanced away. “I won’t force him to marry me.”

Lord de Winter frowned. “But you must do something.”

Her bark of humorless laughter caused him to tilt his head. “What?” he asked.

“I think I’ve done plenty, my lord. Some might say I’ve gone to great lengths.”

He seemed to consider that as he offered her his arm again. “Why him? Surely there was a butcher’s boy or miller’s son who would have made you a fine husband.”

A commoner, he meant. But of course, such a man was within her reach. She fell into step beside Lord de Winter. To think, for years and years there had been no young men, titled or otherwise; no dukes, nor even old, fat barons, and now she had walked on two handsome earls’ arms within a week! “There wasn’t anyone, my lord. Lord Chelford had the misfortune of being the first unattached gentleman to pass through our village in many years. He was kindhearted and handsome, but I feel very nitwitted to admit I was husband-hunting a man I knew nothing about.”