Abigail felt all her inner muscles tense with the effort of keeping her amusement from bursting forth into laughter. It made such a delicious mental image—the picture of the tall and athletic and handsome earl slapping an elegant glove in the face of short and fat Mr. Gill. There was something hilarious too in the idea of Mr. Gill being interested in pinching her bottom or kissing the back of her neck when there was Laura in the house.
But she sobered instantly. Should she not tell the earl something about herself? Should she not warn him?
“Yes, my lord,” she said.
The earl walked beside her to the front doors of his house a few minutes later and made her an elegant bow after descending the outside steps and handing her into his carriage. His hand was warm, well-manicured, strong.
The interior of the carriage was all dark green velvet and golden tassels and plush cushions. Abigail sank back into softness and smoothed her hands over the inexpensive brown cloth of her cloak.
Well, she thought. Well. Oh, good Lord in heaven!She did not know whether to give in to panic or to howl with laughter. Probably it would be wiser to do neither until she was safely back in her room at the Gills’.
“YOU HAVE DONE WHAT?” Sir Gerald Stapleton stopped so abruptly in the middle of the pavement that a lady and gentleman walking behind him almost collided with him. The gentleman glared at him and guided the lady safely past.
“I have offered marriage to an impoverished relative who called on me this morning,” the Earl of Severn repeated. “Miss Abigail Gardiner.”
“You knew her before?” his friend asked. “You discovered in her a long-lost youthful love, Miles? You are not about to tell me that she is a complete stranger, are you? You are, aren’t you?”
The earl motioned his friend to resume their walk toward White’s. They had met earlier, without design, at Jackson’s, the earl having gone there to spar, Sir Gerald to watch. “Do you ever stop to allow a fellow to answer a question?” he asked. “Yes, she was a stranger, Ger. But she is related to me in some manner. She did explain, but the explanation was complicated, and it pertained to how she was related to the old earl.”
“She must be a stunner,” Sir Gerald said, frowning his disapproval. “But are you mad, Miles? You’ll be sorry in a week. Can’t you look all about you and see how very few satisfactory marriages there are—especially for the husbands? What is wrong with your life as it is now? You have your independence, you are master in your own house, you are free to come and go as you please, and you have Jenny. You didn’t really make her an offer, did you? You merely thought that you might do so at some future date? Don’t. You want the advice of a longtime friend? Don’t.”
“Do you remember the woman I described to you last evening?” Lord Severn asked. “The one I would marry on the spot if someone would just place her there before me?”
“Dull and ordinary?” Sir Gerald looked suspiciously at his friend.
Lord Severn nodded. “Miss Gardiner is she,” he said. “I was immediately struck by the likeness, Ger. She is perfect. Not ugly, but plain. A little brown mouse. She has fine eyes, though. Quiet and disciplined and respectful without being cringing. Almost all she said to me was ‘Yes, my lord’ and ‘No, my lord.’ She has been dismissed from her employment because her employer’s husband has roving hands. She had come to ask me to help her find another post.”
“And you did,” Sir Gerald said gloomily. “You actually asked her, Miles? She said yes, I suppose. She would have to be insane not to have done so.”
“She said yes,” the earl said with a smile. “I thought you would be delighted for me, Ger. I thought we would celebrate together my narrow escape from Frances.”
His friend brightened. “Your mother will change your mind,” he said. “And she will find some way to get you out of this mad betrothal in short order. The woman will have to be paid off. And then you must tell your mama that you are not going to marry Frances either. You have to learn to assert yourself where females are concerned, Miles.”
“I will.” The Earl of Severn grinned. “I will have no trouble at all with Miss Gardiner, Ger. And my mother will have no power to change my mind by the time she arrives in town. I am going to be married by special license the day after tomorrow.”
Sir Gerald stopped abruptly again, removed his high-crowned beaver, and ran a hand through his short fair curls. “Devil take it,” he said. “The woman must be a witch. You are going to regret this for a lifetime, Miles. I will be saying ‘I told you so’ before the month is out.”