"Dashed if I can think how," Parks said.
Will raised his hand as if offering proof. "There you have it. Just what I was saying. Try not to express your opinions quite so bluntly, and you will have the women flocking to you, rather than flying from you."
"And are you such an expert on women?" Fitzsimmons said, challenge glinting in his eye.
Will's handsome face turned to granite. "Not at all. Anything expertise I may claim is thanks to my inestimable sister, and my mother before that. I am no philanderer, sir."
"Then where does the soldier's fearsome reputation as a ravisher of women come from?" he said with a smirk, obviously trying to bait the younger man.
Will shrugged. "Not just soldiers. Sailors as well. The glamour of travel, the romance, one would presume. And I am sorry to say, some excesses when taking the spoils of war, if you grasp my meaning."
"No one in our set is like that," Parks said in a firm tone. "If we soldiers got up to one iota of what we are rumored to we would never have won the war. Boney would have wiped out one half of us, and the clap the other."
The silence which followed throughout the room was one in which they could have heard a pin drop.
"Is this the thing you warned me about not doing, Will?" Parks said in a stage whisper.
Will's lips twitched as he restrained a smile. "Yes, afraid so, old son."
The Teagues and Lynch sisters glared at Will as though what had been said were all his fault, not Parks'.
As soon as was convenient, they indicated that they had finished their meal and were ready to go into the drawing room for coffee.
Fitzsimmons thought to linger for port and cigars, but Thomas shook his head. "We say and do nothing in this household that would not be suitable in the presence of the ladies."
"You had better tell that to young Parks, then," he said with a smirk.
"That was slightly unfortunate if taken out of context," ,Elizabeth said mildly, "but not overly shocking."
"Besides," her brother said, "it is no less than the truth. I was a soldier too, after all, as was Clifford and the rest of my particular set from Eton and Oxford. We were known as the Rakehells for a certain glamour and our pursuit of social justice, which got us into a few scrapes.
"But in the Army we did not conduct ourselves in a manner which would support the stereotype of the seducing soldier. I'm sure that none of these here gentleman who have also served would give me any cause to fear allowing my sister to remain in their company. Am I correct, Elizabeth?"
"You are, Thomas. I'm not some shrinking violet who does not know how the world works."
She did look uncomfortable, however.
Will took her arm, careful not to touch the bare flesh which peeped between the top of her long glove and the bottom of her sleeve for fear of acting upon his rampant desires. Never had a woman affected him so deeply with just one glance of her eyes, or the smell of her lovely womanly fragrance.
"I'm most sorry if he shocked you," he said in a low tone. "He is young yet."
"Not at all." She met his gaze, so alluring yet so bleak. "You can't be so old, Mr. Joyce, and yet, with the way you comport yourself, I might think you the most mature man here," she could not help observe.
His expression was bleak. "Do you think so? Ah well, it's been a long war. And even before that—"
"I say, Lady Elizabeth, what about some croquet?"
She tore her eyes away from Will to smile at the irrepressible Parks. "Only if we can find a few others to join us."
Monroe and Marcus Fitzsimmons agreed, but Will still seemed to favour one arm, she noticed. He slipped away from her side and went over to his sister.
Mitchell joined them, and they settled themselves on the sofa near the large French windows to play with the children.
Her eyes lingered on Will's broad back for a moment. She was sorry she had agreed to play and thus had excluded two such pleasant companions.
Then Fitzsimmons was smiling down at her, Parks took her arm, and the two blond men led her out onto the terrace at the back of the house and from thence onto the lawn.
Chapter Eight
Elizabeth enjoyed the game of croquet on the lawn and the lavish male attention of her new-found companions, but she could not help but wonder why she didn't feel any of the spark she had in the cave with either of the two men.
Both Parks and Fitzsimmons were gallant, and they touched her on occasion, yet there was none of the surging of the blood she had felt that bright yet stormy day.
After a time they came in for refreshment. She could not help observe how radically Will's appearance altered when he was playing with the children. It was almost indecent to be able to see someone's raw emotions so openly displayed.