An Earl In Want Of A Wife. Laura Martin

it?’

      She nodded. ‘When I was there all I could think about was getting away, coming to London, but now I’ve left it behind I miss the rolling green hills and the days filled with sunshine.’

      Daniel wondered what her upbringing had been like. From his subtle enquiries he’d found out she’d been raised the only child of the very wealthy Colonel Eastway. She’d always been destined to marry well, but to look at her you wouldn’t believe it. She seemed rather overwhelmed by the sudden attention and he had the impression that she hadn’t expected to be courted this soon.

      ‘Do you wish you were back there?’ he asked softly.

      She considered for a moment, then turned to him with a smile. ‘No. As much as I like to reminisce, it was time for me to leave, time for me to start the next chapter of my life.’

      ‘As a débutante in London.’

      He saw her grimace out of the corner of his eye.

      ‘Something like that,’ she said vaguely.

      They’d reached the entrance to the park and walked in through the archway. Daniel found he was enjoying himself more than he’d imagined. When he’d realised he was going to have to marry he’d been a little disgruntled to say the least. He didn’t want his life to change, he was quite content running his estates, spending time in London and making sure he didn’t make any lasting connections. The idea of having to marry was bad enough, although Daniel was a pragmatist and knew where his priorities lay, but he’d dreaded having to find and court a wife. He’d imagined some air-headed young miss that he’d have to listen ramble on about nothing. Amelia Eastway was not like that at all. In fact, he was rather enjoying himself.

       Chapter Five

      Lizzie slowly felt herself relaxing. She didn’t know what game Daniel was playing, but she’d decided she was having none of it. She was going to be courteous and polite, but she would not allow him to kiss her again. That would be madness.

      Walking along, her hand in the crook of his arm, Lizzie felt almost content. He was attentive and seemed to want to listen to what she had to say. Lizzie could almost convince herself she was having a good time. Just as long as he didn’t look at her intensely with his piercing blue eyes and shift towards her, Lizzie knew she could keep up a mundane conversation. She tried not to think what would happen if he attempted to kiss her again. She liked to think she was a strong young woman who knew her own mind, but twice she’d been utterly seduced by his kiss and she wasn’t sure how she would resist if he turned to her again.

      Luckily they were out in public, in full view of the world. He wouldn’t try anything whilst they were strolling through the park. Then Lizzie wondered if she could rely on that. For some reason he had decided to court her and she doubted it was because he found her wildly irresistible. Even if their meeting the night before hadn’t been engineered, Lizzie thought there was something driving Daniel today and her first guess was her dowry. Or at least Amelia’s dowry. She sighed. This was all getting to be a bit of a mess and she’d only been out in society for one day. She wished Amelia would return and sort it all out, but she hadn’t heard from her cousin since they’d disembarked the ship from India together, her cousin hopping into the first carriage she’d seen on the London dockside, and she doubted Amelia would make an appearance anytime soon. She would just have to deal with this debacle herself.

      She felt a bit sorry for the earl. Not that he was the sort of man who invited pity, but he was thinking he was courting an heiress with a substantial dowry, where instead he was wasting his time on a penniless orphan. She wondered whether he would switch his affections to Amelia when she returned, and found herself feeling more than a little put out at the thought.

      They stopped walking as they reached the Serpentine and Daniel led her over to a bench.

      ‘Sometimes I come here to think,’ Daniel said quietly.

      Lizzie regarded their surroundings with surprise. There was no denying Hyde Park was beautiful with its myriad of waterways and copses of trees, but Daniel hadn’t exactly picked the most secluded spot for his contemplations. They were sitting on a bench right next to the Serpentine, in a place where all the children gathered to feed the ducks. In the early-afternoon sunshine the children were whooping and shouting in delight as they threw bread to the obliging creatures.

      She glanced sideways and saw him looking wistfully at a group of small boys out with their nanny. One of the boys was only about three or four years old and tottered after his older siblings, trying to keep up with their games.

      Lizzie wondered momentarily whether this was all part of his plan, to bring her to Hyde Park and let her see how much he liked children, but then she dismissed the idea. She could tell this wasn’t all engineered. This truly was where he came to sit and think about the world.

      ‘I guess it’s because I miss the countryside when I’m in London,’ Daniel said with a shrug.

      ‘Do you spend much time here?’

      He shook his head. ‘I prefer the country to be honest, but I find myself in London more and more.’

      Lizzie wondered what his country estate was like. She’d left England before her third birthday and hadn’t been back since. Her home was the dry heat and lush green valleys near Bombay, but she doubted the English countryside was anything like that.

      ‘But enough about me,’ Daniel said with a grin, ‘I want to know more about you.’

      Lizzie shrugged and looked down at her hands. ‘I’m sure you know the basics.’

      ‘I don’t want to know the basics,’ Daniel said, leaning in closer, ‘I want to know something the rest of society doesn’t. Something that the masses will never know when they talk about you.’

      His smile was infectious and Lizzie felt herself beginning to properly enjoy herself. She rather suspected the earl was known to be flirtatious in nature, but right now she didn’t care. She was sitting on a bench with a handsome man, enjoying herself.

      Lizzie thought for a moment, wanting to select something suitably vague for the earl so there was no chance he would work out she wasn’t who she claimed to be.

      ‘When I was twelve I was bitten by a crocodile.’

      Daniel burst out laughing. ‘You’re joking?’

      Lizzie shook her head.

      ‘Well, you must be the only débutante that can make that claim. Truly unique. Now you have to tell me more, I’m intrigued.’

      ‘I was walking down by the river near our home. As usual, I had my head in a book and wasn’t really looking where I was going.’ Lizzie shuddered as she remembered the moment she’d realised she had stumbled into the path of a rather large crocodile. ‘For about thirty seconds it just looked at me with those terrifying little eyes and then it lunged.’

      She had thought she was about to die.

      ‘Luckily it was just a warning shot, a quick nip and then the crocodile backed off. I had some pretty deep teeth marks, but I didn’t lose my foot as many do.’

      ‘Even without an entire leg you would still light up any ballroom. In fact...’ Daniel paused, raised his hand close to his eye and positioned it so it obscured one leg from his view ‘...being the first one-legged débutante would probably make you the most interesting person to have graced society for decades.’

      ‘Your turn,’ Lizzie said. She was really beginning to warm to Daniel. She knew she shouldn’t allow him to flirt with her quite so openly, but it was nice being the centre of someone’s attention.

      ‘An interesting fact about me,’ Daniel mused.

      ‘Something hardly anyone else knows.’

      ‘I’ve been shot.’

      Lizzie’s