Regency Collection 2013 Part 1. Louise Allen

print was made. That tower at the right at the back has collapsed—in my grandfather’s day one of our tunnels ran under it and the thing caved in.’

      ‘Oh, my goodness!’ Lily stared at him aghast. ‘But how dreadful! What happened? Was there a claim against your family?’ No wonder Jack has no money.

      ‘The shock carried the old earl off with some kind of apoplectic fit. His son decided not to rebuild. There was no monetary claim as such, but we lost access to a large area of high-quality coal.’

      Lily opened her mouth to demand all the details, then closed it again firmly. If nothing else, loving Jack was teaching her tact. He pushed the print to the bottom of the pile, allowing her a partial glimpse of the title as he did so. … erton Castle.

      She should leave now she had told him her news. Aunt Herrick would certainly say so. Defiantly Lily went and curled up in one of the big leather chairs she had ordered set up on either side of the closed stove. ‘Jack, do come and sit down. It’s giving me a crick in the neck talking to you when you are standing right over there.’

      It seemed to her that he hesitated before he came across and sat opposite her. ‘I am glad to hear your good news, but you should go now.’

      ‘Oh, you are as bad as Aunt Herrick,’ she grumbled, tucking her skirts snugly around her ankles. ‘Don’t be so stuffy. I want to ask you something.’

      ‘Yes?’ he said warily.

      Lily chuckled. ‘That was not very gallant. You should have sounded eager to assist me.’

      ‘I never know what you are about to say or do. I have not known you long, Lily, just long enough to be cautious.’ He was smiling too, but there was a constraint behind it that she did not understand. ‘What do you wish to ask?’

      ‘If you will please act as my escort tomorrow night to Lady Frensham’s dance. It is not a ball, more of a rout party with dancing.’

      ‘No.’

      The rejection was so immediate that Lily blinked. ‘But I have not explained—oh, you are worried about not having an evening suit of clothes, but I am sure one of the fashionable tailors can outfit you in a trice, and naturally I would pay for it as I am asking you to oblige me.’

      ‘No.’ Jack crossed one leg over the other, sat back in the chair and looked as unmovable as a granite boulder.

      ‘Why not?’ she demanded.

      ‘If you feel I am under an obligation in return for my food and shelter, beyond the amount for my lodgings which I am paying to Mrs Oakman—’

      ‘You are what?’ Lily uncurled her legs and sat up straight.

      ‘You said that you would charge me what I was paying to the Green Dragon. I am giving it to your housekeeper.’

      ‘But … that was not what I meant, you exasperating man! I meant that I would take it out of whatever I and the trustees decide to invest with you.’

      ‘I dislike being in debt.’ Jack spoke calmly, but his eyes were the hard flint colour she had learned to recognise as a sign of anger.

      ‘We will talk about that later.’ Lily was not used to backing down from an argument, far less losing one. ‘I would like you to come with me because I would feel more comfortable with a male escort.’

      ‘Or that you wish to demonstrate that you can muster one? Will Lord Randall be there?’

      ‘I have no idea whether he will or not. I would simply like to show that I am not moping around, pining for him.’

      ‘I am sure you can adequately demonstrate that without my assistance. Buy a new gown, perhaps? I am sure the crown jewels of some minor duchy must be available at a price?’

      ‘I will not dignify that with an answer,’ Lily retorted. ‘You are just set upon being disobliging for some reason.’ How is it possible to be head over heels in love with a man who makes you want to throw the fire irons at him?

      ‘I am busy.’

      They sat in silence, Lily fuming, Jack watching her from beneath hooded lids. ‘Please?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘I will pay you for your time.’

      ‘What?’ Jack sat up abruptly. ‘I’ll be damned if you do! There are names for men who hire themselves out to ladies, and none of them apply to me.’

      ‘Oh for goodness’ sake, Jack! You are as prickly as a hedgehog! I want your escort to a social event, not your … your … body, you conceited man.’ And that was as brassy a lie as she was likely to come out with in many a long year, she recognised as soon as she said it.

      ‘Very well.’ The mobile mouth quirked into a smile. Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously and tried not to recall what those lips had felt like on hers. ‘One hundred guineas.’

      ‘How much? That is outrageous!’ Jack shrugged, still smiling. Obviously he thought she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted and was prepared to call her bluff. Lily bounced to her feet in an affronted swirl of skirts. ‘Out of the question. Since you are so disobliging, I will go without you.’

      She marched towards the door, forgetting the long skirts of her riding habit, and tripped over her own feet, somewhat spoiling the effect of her exit. She paused at the head of the stairs, chin up. ‘And minor duchies do not have crown jewels.’

      ‘Schleswig-Holstein,’ a mocking voice called after her. Lily slammed the door and retreated with as much dignity as she could muster.

      ‘Aunt!’ Mrs Herrick was sitting in the smallest salon with her feet up on a footstool and a novel in her hand, dozing.

      ‘Wha …? What, dear? Do not bounce so, Lily.’

      ‘Where, or what, is Schleswig-Holstein?’

      ‘Goodness, how would I know! Germany, I should think. Look it up on the globes in the study, dear. Why do you want to know?’

      ‘Just something Mr Lovell said.’

      ‘Discussing geography?’ Mrs Herrick asked vaguely, picking up her novel and pushing her cap straight. ‘That is nice, dear.’

      Chapter Eight

      Lily approached Lady Frensham’s party with some trepidation, not helped by a pessimistic Lady Billington prophesying doom throughout the short carriage journey.

      ‘I can place no reliance upon Sally Jersey remembering from one day to the next what she has promised,’ she remarked waspishly. ‘She is as changeable as spring weather and as empty headed as a pea goose. She has probably been sympathising with all of Randall’s friends and family and saying what a close escape he had. This will be worse than Lady Troughton’s; you should have retired to the country as I advised.’

      But Lady Frensham was, if not effusive, perfectly pleasant, and although Lily received some frankly curious stares, no one cut her except Mrs Cunningham, who pretended, somewhat unconvincingly, that she had not seen her.

      ‘Knows she made a mistake and does not know how to deal with it,’ Lady Billington opined. ‘The woman still smells of the shop—stop bristling, Lily, the whole point of our efforts are to make sure that you do not!—and she has no confidence, which is why she behaves so. Do not regard her.’

      So Lily did not. The evening seemed likely to be pleasant enough, although it would have been nice to have a man with her—Lily still felt vulnerable. What if there were others like Lord Dovercourt who thought she would be so desperate that she would allow any liberties in her pursuit of a title?

      And she missed Jack. To have quarrelled with him hurt, although she still could not understand just why that last encounter had seemed so difficult, so charged. Loving him, she felt as though his slightest look touched her bare skin, his smiles kissed her. And his