The Ideal Wife(76)

The earl smiled. “One does not have to know Abby very long to know that she is a very precious gem,” he said. “Good fortune was smiling on me when she decided to pay me a call to remind me of a very remote kinship. We have an agreement?”

“It seems so,” Boris said, “though I wish there were some other way.”

“There is not,” the earl said. “Give me your direction and I shall call on you tomorrow. I shall tell Abby that everything is set up for tomorrow evening. You will call on her the morning after to delight her with your good fortune and the grand success of her plan. Shall we rejoin the ladies?”

“I suppose so.” Boris scratched the back of his neck. “Why is it that so often one could hug Abby and shake her all at the same time?”

The earl grinned. “I am becoming familiar with the feeling,” he said.





15



I WAS VERY VEXED WITH BORIS,” ABIGAIL said. “But I think the picnic went well, don’t you, Miles?”

The Earl of Severn sat back in his chair and twirled the stem of his empty wineglass between his fingers. “If the amount of food consumed was an indicator,” he said, “I would have to say it was a roaring success, Abby. What did Boris do to incur your wrath?”

“Oh,” she said, “he monopolized Laura’s attention during tea, and then afterward, when you came back from walking with him, he took her off for a stroll. It was most provoking.”#p#分页标题#e#

“While the ardent lover panted in the background?”he said. “But why did Gerald not bear her off while I was talking with your brother?”

“Because Lord Darlington was discussing horses with him,” Abigail said, “at great length. I could have screamed. However, I must not be impatient. They will have the whole of the summer in which to become better acquainted. And there was a definite spark there this afternoon, was there not?”

“Abby.” The earl smiled at her. “You see Gerald womanless and at the age of thirty and you feel that you must add a woman and happiness to his life. You see Miss Seymour, pretty and alone and making a dull living as a governess, and you want to add brightness and marriage to her life. Your feelings are admirable. But you cannot live other people’s lives for them, you know.”

“I don’t intend to,” she said. “I just wish to give them a chance to get to know each other and to realize how very compatible they are.”

“Gerald is in love with someone else,” he said. “And I believe that Miss Seymour is soon to be in that happy state too, if she is not already.”

Abigail stared at him blankly. “Sir Gerald?” she said. “In love? And not with Laura? With whom, then?”

“With someone he has known and been fond of for more than a year,” he said. “He is only now realizing, I believe, that he cannot live without her.”

She looked searchingly into his eyes. “A mistress?”she asked.

He nodded. “A sweet girl,” he said. “Of course, he would not expect to fall in love with his mistress, and has been quite blind to his feelings. He thinks he is opposed to marriage and to women in general. He is not—only to any marriage that does not involve his Prissy.”

“Oh,” she said, “and what about Laura? Where are we to find a husband for her?”

“I would imagine that we have no responsibility to find one at all,” he said. “But I think you have done just that already, Abby.”

She frowned. “I?” she said. Her eyes blazed. “And don’t go mentioning Humphrey Gill, Miles. You have not seen him. Besides, he is years younger than Laura.”

He laughed. “Abby,” he said, “is that a nose on your face? Can you see beyond the end of it?”

She looked at him in mute indignation.

“Your brother and your best friend had eyes for no one but each other this afternoon,” he said. “A blind man would have been affected by it. Indeed, they disappeared from sight for ten whole minutes after tea, and when they reappeared, her face was looking remarkably rosy—remarkably as if it had been thoroughly kissed, in fact.”

“Boris?” she said blankly. “And Laura?”

“I plan to put my disreputable cheat into action tomorrow night,” he said. “He comes highly recommended, Abby. He has never been caught in his life even by the sharpest of card sharpers. After tomorrow night your brother should be in a position to offer some sort of future to a young lady who cannot have very high expectations of a great fortune.”

Abigail folded her napkin very carefully and set it beside her empty dessert dish. “Laura,” she said. “And Boris. She would be my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law.” She smiled. “Are you quite sure.”