The Ideal Wife(10)

“I think not,” the earl said. “I think Miss Abigail Gardiner will suit me admirably. I believe she will make the ideal wife. Are you going to stand there all day admiring the scenery, Ger, or are you coming to White’s?”

“The ideal wife!” Sir Gerald said scornfully, replacing his hat on his head and tapping it firmly into place. “There is no such thing, old chap. And it would be to your eternal benefit if you would realize that within the next two days.”



“YOU HAVE DONE WHAT?” Laura Seymour was free of her duties in the schoolroom for the morning and had returned to her room to find Abigail pacing the floor there.

“I have agreed to marry the Earl of Severn the day after tomorrow,” Abigail said, “and I don’t know whether I should collapse into a quivering jelly or roll on the floor with laughter. I don’t know if I am the mad one or if it is he. Or perhaps it is the both of us. We will doubtless suit admirably. You would not care to pinch me, I suppose, Laura, to prove that I really am awake? I am not at all convinced that I am.”

“But you cannot marry an old man, Abby.” Her friend stared at her in horror. “Oh, no, really you can’t. There must be an alternative. He took one look at you—is that how it was?—saw you were young and pretty and destitute, and thought to hire himself a nursemaid at no expense. Men are quite horrid creatures. That silly Humphrey is all puffed up with conceit about being accused of being seduced by you, and has started to leer at me. Father and son both—it is too much.”

She picked up her brush from the dressing table and began to pull the pins from her hair.

“I shall be sure to give him a blistering setdown before I leave here,” Abigail said. “But the earl is not a doddering old man, Laura. The old earl died more than a year ago. This present one cannot be above thirty. I could have died of mortification. I mistook him for a secretary.”

Laura’s hands stilled and she stared at her friend in the mirror. “And he took one look at you and wanted to marry you?” she said. “An earl? And one of the richest men in England? Whatever is wrong with him?”

Abigail laughed merrily and perched on the edge of the bed. “Must there be something wrong with him?” she asked. “How flattering you are.”

Laura grimaced. “I did not mean it that way, Abby,” she said. “Oh, of course I did not. But there is something very peculiar in his behavior, you must confess.”

“Yes, there is something wrong with him,” Abigail said, sobering and frowning down at the floor. “There has to be. You should just see him, Laura. There cannot possibly be any more handsome man on this planet, and if anyone should be foolish enough to dispute that fact, she would realize her error as soon as he smiled. He has a dimple to weaken even the most firmly locked knees. And blue eyes rather like a summer sky. And yet he spoke to me for perhaps ten minutes and offered me marriage.”

“The day after tomorrow,” Laura added.

“The day after tomorrow.” Abigail’s frown deepened. “He said he thought I was the sort of woman who would suit him, Laura.”#p#分页标题#e#

“Did he?” Laura pulled the brush slowly through her hair.

“What did he see?” Abigail said. “A woman who is plain at the best of times but made downright drab by the brown cloak and bonnet. A meek and mute creature who had scarcely two words to rub together. A weak thing who remembered not to bristle even when he had the effrontery to lift his quizzing glass to his eye. That is the sort of woman who will suit him?”

She looked up at her friend, covered her mouth with one hand, and exploded into nervous laughter.

“I ought not to have said yes,” she said. “I am perpetrating a dreadful deception against him, Laura. What will happen when he discovers the truth?”

“Perhaps he is deceiving you too,” Laura said. “You saw a young and handsome man and assumed that he is some god. Perhaps he is as different from what you expect as you are from what he expects.”

“He is to come here tomorrow to take me shopping,”Abigail said. “I suppose I should see to it that we have a long and candid talk. That will be the end of my betrothal, of course. I did not realize how seductive would be the temptation to be rich. And to be somebody. I would be able to see Bea and Clara if I married him. We would be able to be together again. And perhaps I could do something for Boris before it is too late.”

“Shopping?” Laura said.

“For bride clothes,” Abigail said wistfully. “Some fine muslins, perhaps. And a velvet riding habit.”