He knew leaving London was only running away from the inevitable. Sooner or later she would find out the truth about him. He couldn't risk it now. Not when he still had hopes of winning her love…
Selfish though he knew he was being, he wasn't quite ready to surrender her to another man without a fight, no matter how much common sense and decency told him that as her guardian he should never even consider asking her to marry him.
Blake sighed again. He hardly knew what he wanted any more. Was it so unreasonable to wish to be happy? He thought once more of Arabella's lovely smiling face, her warm kisses. Despite the grimness of his errand, his heart lifted.
Arabella heard the front door open at about quarter to eleven, and hurried downstairs with her small valise, leaving the servants to carry down the other two portmanteaux.
"Nearly ready," she called, and then halted.
Adam and Oliver stood there smiling up at her. "How are you, Miss Neville? We thought we might tempt you to take a stroll with us in Hyde Park, that is, if you and your duenna were amenable."
"Very kind of you, I'm sure. But my guardian has some urgent business out of Town and we're leaving shortly. Some other time, perhaps, when we've returned?"
The two brothers shot each other a look which, if Arabella didn't know better, might have almost denoted alarm.
"And where are you off to? Somewhere pleasant, I trust," Oliver said smoothly.
"Bath first, then Somerset. My home, and some friends' houses."
"A bit chill perhaps in winter, but there is always much to amuse in Bath."
"Indeed. But we are going on business."
"We must go down to Southwood to tend to our own affairs. Perhaps we shall see you some time in the near future?" Adam said calmly.
She bowed. "I look forward to it."
He made a great show of kissing her hand. "I shall miss you enormously, my dear. Your inestimable beauty has lit up this otherwise dull city. My brother and I shall be bereft. But if we may call on you in Bath?"
"I'm not sure where we're staying. I can write to you," she offered, taken with his most lover-like manner, and that fact that though he was not nearly as handsome as Blake, he was physically similar to him in many respects.
"We shall look forward to hearing from you, then." He bowed.
Oliver kissed her hand once more and also took his leave.
She looked at Oliver's receding back. All of them tall, dark, handsome. All of them good dancers, good company. So why did her heart turn over only when she was with Blake? Was it because the other two had not kissed her? Yet, she amended. She could always….
Was it because she had been thwarted in her own desires that she was willfully longing for the one man in the world she couldn't have?
As troubling as that was to admit, she had to face the truth. Unless she tried to further her male acquaintance, she was going to have to spend three years as Blake's ward pining for him day after day, night after night.
And she might, though she doubted it, actually miss out on a good, or perhaps even a better man, if she did so. Not that she could imagine anyone better for her than Blake.
But he belonged to Leonore. There was no room in his life for Arabella. She sighed and went down to her sitting room. Where was he? Was he even now saying a tender farewell to his paramour?
She took up her embroidery hoop with a sigh. One tear rolled down her cheek unheeded.
"Damn and blast. If we hadn't happened to come along when we did, the pigeon would have flown the coop with us none the wiser," Adam said furiously to his brother as they rode away in their borrowed carriage.
"What can we do now?"
"Follow them, of course. We can't stay here in London. Every day we do so bites into our money even further."
"One or the other of us could duck out of the running. It would mean more money for the one who continued in pursuit of our quarry," Oliver suggested.
Adam shook his head. "With all the suitors she has, it will take both of us to fend them off. No, we go to Bath with all possible haste."
"We promised George we would get the carriage back to him by the end of this week."
"Tell him it's a family emergency, and we shall be back soon. We can also remind him that we know all about the little canary he is keeping in his cage in Islington. I am sure the Honorable Miss Jennings, she of the twenty-thousand pounds per annum, would also be interested to hear all about her.
"In fact," Adam added with a grin, "I think we might as well go give our regards to the little canary right now. Tell her George sent us. Why pay when we can have it for free? The price for our silence, don't you know."