Let Love Find You (35 page)

His mother had to have met many people the year she arrived in London for her come-out, people her age who would be middle-aged now. She would have needed a sponsor and a chaperone, and whoever they were, they were likely to have seen her with the golden-eyed man who’d been trying to seduce her.

Bloody hell, his uncle would have those names for him. He’d never asked because he’d been so sure all this time that Wolseley had been his father. But broaching the subject with Donald would have to wait until he returned to London. In the meantime, other middle-aged couples were visiting Norford Hall.

A
MANDA WAS LATE COMING
downstairs for the first official night of the house party because Alice had been late returning with the gown they had decided on for the evening. “I expected there to be other maids in the pressing room, which is why I went early, but I had no idea there would be so many that a line had formed out into the hall!” Alice said the moment she rushed into Amanda’s bedroom.

“It’s all right,” Amanda assured Alice. “I had a late lunch, so I’m not hungry yet for dinner. But I do want that gown to look perfect. How is it now?”

“Perfect indeed.” Alice helped her into it.

The blue velvet complemented her eyes, and the gown was a bit daring because it was a shade darker than the pallid pastels she and all the other unmarried young women were restricted to. The gown was not dark enough to raise eyebrows, but so well suited to her coloring that she would have picked it out even if she were married and allowed any color she wanted. She was so looking forward to
that
benefit of marriage. Pale colors
did
not
help her to shine, and she definitely wanted to shine tonight with Robert already in attendance, and hopefully Kendall arriving before the evening was over, if he hadn’t already.

As she walked down the house’s grand central staircase, she caught sight of Blythe Pace entering the parlor with her escort, who for once wasn’t Devin! Amanda hurried to catch up to them.

“Welcome to Norford Hall, Blythe,” Amanda said, then smiled at Blythe’s brother. “And you must be William!”

He bowed over Amanda’s offered hand. “We’ve met, Lady Amanda.”

“Yes, of course, Devin mentioned that. It’s just that I’ve met so many people over the last few years.”

William sighed dramatically. “It’s my bane to be forgotten by beautiful women!”

“Not a’tall.” Amanda smiled. “I
do
remember you now. And I’m delighted to see that you have recovered from your accident in time to join us here.”

He blushed slightly, evidently embarrassed that she knew about that, but Amanda quickly turned to Blythe and said with a grin, “Lord Oliver is here, if you haven’t noticed yet.”

“Where?” Blythe said excitedly.

Amanda glanced about the room and spotted Oliver chatting with John Trask and pointed Blythe in that direction. William chuckled. “I suppose it’s time I met this chap who’s turned my sister’s head. She’s done nothing but chew my ear off about him—”

Blythe poked her brother to silence, blushing, but was obviously so eager to greet Oliver that Amanda said, “I’m going to make my way to the buffet. I’ll speak with you both later.”

Blythe did indeed drag her brother straightaway to Oliver’s
side, and Amanda even caught Oliver’s look of pleasure when he spotted the younger girl heading his way, so Amanda had a feeling that eagerness went both ways. How nice for her friend!

But she wasn’t interested in the buffet yet. She’d also spotted Devin conversing with Lord and Lady Dowling when she’d looked around for Oliver, and he had some explaining to do about her riding lessons becoming common knowledge. She headed in his direction.

“Goodness, Devin, I’ve met so many people over the years, names elude me. You might ask Lord Culley. He and his wife were living in London at the time.”

Amanda was nearly tapping her foot, she was so impatient for Devin to finish his conversation with Lord and Lady Dowling and notice that she wanted a word with him. Should she intrude? Better than eavesdropping like this. How could he
not
see her standing to the side of him?

But he appeared to be in hot pursuit of information, and it was probably her fault, for reminding him about his mother the other day. He was trying to find friends of hers now, at least that’s what it had sounded like. To find out more about her because he’d lost her when he was so young? But then a more likely reason occurred to her. He could be trying to find his father!

“Here you are, and alone? Dare I hope you’ve arranged that just for me?”

Amanda whirled around and met Robert’s engaging grin. How the deuce could he call this “alone”? The parlor was so crowded right now you couldn’t turn around without bumping into someone . . . what was wrong with her? Was that actually annoyance she was feeling over being bothered by Robert Brigston instead of delight that he’d found her in a crowded
room? But he
was
keeping her from her current purpose, which was to find out how Jacinda knew about Amanda’s riding lessons, so she would rather talk to Devin. . . .

She sighed to herself and put her arm through Robert’s to lead him out to the foyer. Devin would just have to wait. She hadn’t had a chance yet to speak to Robert since he’d arrived. When she’d gone downstairs earlier to look for him, he’d apparently already been shown to a room and was getting settled in, but then she hadn’t waited around for him to appear, when she should have. Really, she needed to get her priorities straight, and Robert Brigston was one of them.

The foyer was crowded, too, of course it would be. Despite the size of the house and that probably a half dozen rooms were quite empty on the ground floor, people were still going to congregate near each other, and at the moment that meant near the parlor, where the bulk of the guests were gathered for the evening. Ophelia hadn’t arranged any entertainment for tonight other than a splendid dinner. She should probably have opened the ballroom for that, when more than half the guests had already shown up.

Walking Robert slowly down the hall, glancing in each room to see if any were less crowded, she began, “Let me say how delighted I am you could join—”

“She wasn’t ‘alone,’ as you put it, Brigston, and she’s certainly not going to be left alone with you.”

Amanda gasped, stopping in her tracks. Robert let go of her arm instantly, and she certainly couldn’t blame him. Devin’s words weren’t just rude, his tone actually sounded threatening! So he
did
know she’d been standing there next to him in the parlor
and
he’d heard what Robert had said to her.

She turned and saw that Robert appeared offended, and
rightly so. Devin, of course, didn’t care. Insulting people was a habit of his! But his tone hadn’t been contrived. He
did
actually look angry.

Robert struggled to compose himself in the face of such obvious animosity and made an attempt to make light of it by saying, “You know, old chap, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were interested in her yourself.”

“I’m interested in her happiness, but we’ve already had this conversation, haven’t we? If you want to have it again, we can do so—right now.”

Robert stiffened, but backed down immediately. He actually walked off without another word, leaving Amanda incredulous and outraged by Devin’s rude behavior. She looked up at Devin, but he was staring after Robert and she had a feeling he was about to follow him. Not before she gave him a piece of her mind!

“My name isn’t Blythe,” she said vehemently. “You aren’t my chaperone. I’m in my own home. What the devil d’you think you’re doing, scaring Lord Brigston off like that? What was that about?”

He took her arm and continued with her down the main central hall. In a moment they were out of anyone else’s hearing. Only then did he say, “I’ve told you he’s not for you. Why can’t you just trust me on that?”

“Why can’t you trust me with your reason for saying it?”

Their eyes locked. For a moment she thought he was going to confide in her. But instead he put her on the spot.

“Do you love him?” he asked bluntly.

“No, not—”

“
No
was sufficient. So do yourself a favor and don’t
try
to love him.”

They’d reached the end of the long hall. He wasn’t trying to find them an empty room to continue to speak privately in. He hadn’t even glanced in those they’d walked past. He simply turned them about to head back toward the crowd, albeit slowly now.

Whatever he knew about Robert, he obviously wasn’t going to share it with her. It could be no more than Robert wasn’t
his
choice for her, Kendall was. No, that would be a petty reason, and Devin certainly wasn’t like that. And it couldn’t be jealousy, much as she might like
that
possibility, when everything he was doing for her was to prepare her to be Kendall Goswick’s wife.

Reminded of Kendall, her earlier anger returned and she put him on the spot for a change. “My learning to ride at this late date in my life was confidential. I thought you knew that. So how is it possible that Jacinda Brown, whom I met for the first time today, knows about those lessons?”

He frowned. “She does?”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“No. I only mentioned it to Blythe, when she wanted me to escort her to a morning event and I had to tell her why I couldn’t. I was expecting you for another lesson. She must have mentioned it to Miss Brown, who’s tried to become chummy with her recently.”

No lovers’ tryst? That took a little heat out of Amanda’s reply, just not all of it. “Why would you tell even her?”

He raised a brow at her. “I wasn’t aware you were keeping it a secret.”

“Of course I was!” she whispered furiously. “It’s embarrassing enough that I don’t know how to ride at my age, but now Kendall might hear of it!”

He gave her a pointed look. “Why would that embarrass you when he will be highly flattered that you’d learn just for him?”

“I can’t let him know
that
! That’s something to tell him after we marry, not before.”

“Why?”

She huffed, “Obviously because it will make him think he’s already won me, so he’ll stop trying.”

He rolled his eyes at her. His good humor had apparently returned because she was aggrieved over what he would consider something silly. Her reaction
was
a bit overdone, she realized, yet she still felt as if she were going to explode with exasperation, or aggravation, or—oh, she didn’t know
what
had her so highly charged that she was looking for things to rail about, but something did and it didn’t want to go away. And being this close to
him
just seemed to make it worse.

Devin suddenly stopped. She followed his gaze and saw that Lord Kendall had just been let in the front door and was handing his coat over to the butler. She looked back at Devin to mention his arrival, only to see that Devin seemed to be wrestling with himself. Myriad emotions were crossing his features, all too fleeting to grasp, but he ended by dragging a hand through his hair and turning abruptly about, giving his back to the entry door.

Then he glanced down at her and with a sigh said, “Kendall is here.”

“Yes, I noticed,” she replied stiffly.

“I should take you over to him.”

“I can do that well enough on my own, thank you very much. This is my house. I’m allowed to mingle
and
greet guests—or is there a reason I should cross Kendall off my list, too?”

She was being sarcastic, yet she actually held her breath, waiting for his answer. He didn’t give it immediately. When he finally shook his head no, she walked away from him. She felt like crying. Did she really expect him to object to her pursuit of Kendall after that last kiss they’d shared? Well, she’d show him that she didn’t care. She could look after her own marital prospects.

She approached Kendall with a gracious smile. “I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t be back in time from Scotland to join us. I’m so glad you’ve returned in good time. Was this trip successful, too?”

He bent to kiss her hand. “Indeed, in fact, after this party I may have to see about enlarging my stable, or building a new one!”

Not a word in greeting or even a compliment? No, that was her fault! She’d introduced the topic of his trip, which of course made him think of his crowded stable. She would have to get used to that, if she picked him. Perhaps she ought to find out what he thought about her riding—without a sidesaddle.

“I’m looking forward to riding with you tomorrow. Norford Hall isn’t Hyde Park, but the grounds here are extensive.”

He beamed at her. “What a splendid idea! I confess, I was going to suggest it m’self.”

“Then let the butler get you situated. We’ll have a chance to talk more when you return for dinner.”

She ended that rather quickly, having spotted Mabel Collicott bearing down on her. . . .