The Ideal Wife(58)

And she looked startlingly pretty too.

“What a bouncer,” she said, pulling her hands from his. “You need not feel obligated to pay me compliments, Miles. I am glad you came home. I wished to talk with you.”

“That sounds serious,” he said. “Will you ring for tea? Connie and Pru will come tonight, by the way, though Pru is very apprehensive about being seen puffed out with her triplets. Mother had another engagement. Have you heard from the Chartleighs and the Beauchamps? Are they coming?”

“Yes,” she said, crossing the room to pull the bell rope.

The earl watched her with some appreciation. She looked altogether daintier and prettier with the new haircut. He felt an unexpected stab of desire for her.

“Come and sit down,” he said, gesturing to a settee, “and tell me what is so important.”

She seated herself straight-backed on a chair and folded her hands in her lap. The earl sat down alone on the settee.

“It is about money,” she said abruptly, and flushed again.

“I have been meaning to talk to you about it myself,” he said. “I am sorry you have had the embarrassment of having to broach the matter to me, Abby. I cannot expect you to have to refer all bills to me, no matter how small and petty, can I? I shall settle a quarterly allowance on you so that you may feel more independent. All your larger bills, of course, you may have sent directly to me. I want you to have pretty clothes and bonnets and such. You must not feel constrained.”

“How much?” she asked.

“How much quarterly?” he said, his eyebrows raised. “I do not have experience with such matters. How does a thousand pounds a quarter sound?”

She thought for a moment. “Fifteen hundred would sound better,” she said. “And could you pay it yearly, in advance?”

He looked at her closely. Her clasped hands, which looked relaxed enough, were white-knuckled.

“You want me to give you six thousand pounds now?” he said.

“And then you would not have to worry about me for a whole year,” she said. “You can afford that much, can’t you?”

“Abby,” he said, “do you have a special need of the moment that I can help you with? A debt?”

“No,” she said, and licked her lips. “Yes. Something to do with the girls. Something I wish to . . . to buy for them before they come from Bath. They have never had a great deal, and in the past two years life has been dreary for them. I want them to have a happy life from now on. I want to take care of them. I . . .”

“What is it that you wish to buy them?” he asked. “Can it be a gift from both of us? I am their new brother-in-law, after all. You do not need to spend all of your own money.”

“No,” she said. “It is nothing. Nothing that they . . .

Nothing that you . . . Ah, here is the tea. I hope there are some scones again. I am starved. Did I tell you that I was going to teach Victor to read, Miles? The little servant boy, that is. I spent a whole hour with him this morning, only to discover that I do not know at all how to teach someone to read. It is not easy. I shall have to ask Laura how it is done. I think Victor must have thought that I was a little crazy. And perhaps he is right. I have been meaning to ask you—may we take him into the country with us when we go? He is rather pale and puny. I am sure the country air and a little more of the outdoors would help him greatly. He can even—”

“Abby,” he said. “Yes. I think it a very good idea. And it is typical of you to have thought of it. But we will need a whole cavalcade of carriages to take everyone when it comes time for us to leave. How have you spent your day apart from having your hair shorn? Tell me about it.”

She launched into a tale of having her hair cut and wandering up and down Oxford Street afterward and running into an old acquaintance of hers—companion to a friend of Mrs. Gill’s—and making arrangements to go walking to St. James’s Park with her in the afternoon. With the companion, that was, not with the friend of Mrs. Gill. There followed an account of that stroll and every strange and eccentric character they had passed on the paths.

What was it? the earl wondered, listening to her rapid speech, watching her pretty, mobile face, and sipping on his tea. What was it that had set her at a distance from him? Was it just Jenny? Was he going to have to have patience and give her time to realize that Jenny was no longer a part of his life? Or was there something else?#p#分页标题#e#

Why did she have a sudden need of six thousand pounds? It was an enormous sum for a woman who a few days before had been a former lady’s companion facing destitution. What sort of a gift for her half-sisters did she have in mind? And why could she not share the idea with him?