Almost a week and a half had passed since she first rejected Edward’s proposal. He’d been true to his promise, though, to give her time. Since that day when she’d told him she wasn’t with child, he’d called on her daily to act the part of the perfect gentleman courting the woman he hoped to marry. She hated everything about the pretense. Every time he spoke to her with polite interest, without even a hint of warmth in his voice, she became more convinced she had made the right decision in rejecting him. She couldn’t help but wonder if he had been disappointed in her when they’d made love, reinforcing her determination to keep holding him off until he finally gave up and returned home.
That day could not come soon enough. But despite everything, she didn’t regret giving in to her passion even though it hurt more than a little that Edward only wanted to wed out of a sense of obligation.
She tried to imagine any of the other men of her acquaintance performing a similar sacrifice—insisting that they marry even though no one knew of their liaison and there was no danger she was with child—and couldn’t do so. To a man, they all would have absented themselves as quickly as possible, relieved at how their near miss had turned out.
Edward Hathaway was far too noble, and she loved him for it. His daily visits, while frustrating in the extreme, were also a temptation to accept his offer of marriage, which still stood.
The first sign that he was serious in his intention of courting her was the bouquet of roses that arrived the morning after she’d visited him the second time. The simple but beautiful arrangement was not just an announcement to her of his intentions, but to the world at large. When it had arrived, she’d known it wouldn’t take long for word to spread that she had an admirer.
Helen chaperoned them during his visits, and it came as no surprise to Grace that her sister was utterly charmed by the captain. What woman wouldn’t be? That first afternoon, the tension between them had been high, their already awkward situation made worse by the fact that Grace kept looking for signs that Edward would have preferred to spend time alone with her sister. But even if he did, he showed no indication of it. When Helen had suggested they take a walk about the gardens, Grace had leapt at the opportunity to quit the stifling confines of the drawing room and their stilted conversation.
As the days passed, a different arrangement of flowers arrived each morning, followed by an afternoon of very proper, chaperoned visits. It didn’t escape her notice that Helen went out of her way to make sure she and Edward had some time alone together. But if her sister hoped that in doing so she was facilitating a love match, she was destined to be disappointed.
As the days passed, it got harder for Grace to see him and to be reminded about what could have been if they had met under different circumstances. Her despair was made worse when they returned from the most recent of their now-daily walks to find that her parents had finally arrived. As she and Helen stepped into the house and learned of their arrival, she was grateful Edward had taken his leave of them outside.
Grace turned to her sister, the stirrings of panic threatening to overwhelm her. “What do I tell them about Captain Hathaway?”
Helen shrugged. “They probably already know.”
The words had barely left her sister’s lips when a flurry of movement on the stairs told them their mother was descending.
“I was so hoping to see Captain Hathaway again,” Lady Kent said. “Why didn’t you invite him in?”
Grace couldn’t have heard her mother correctly. “You know Captain Hathaway?”
“Of course we do, my dear. Didn’t he tell you? He called on us in London because he had a letter from Freddie that he had to deliver personally. When we told him you had already returned home, he set out to visit you here.”
“He never said anything.” She looked at her sister, who shrugged to indicate that this was the first time she, too, was hearing about this.
“I assume he’s given you the letter? I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to receive it so soon after learning about Freddie’s death.”
Grace didn’t miss the look of concern on her mother’s face. “I haven’t read it yet,” she admitted.
Her mother drew her into a tight hug. “You take all the time you need, dear.” She pulled back and gazed down at Grace. “What is this I hear about the captain courting you?”
Grace groaned. “Not you too, Mama.”
“It is not a crime to want to see one’s daughter happy and settled,” she said with a slight lift of a shoulder.
“Captain Hathaway is being very kind to me, but he isn’t courting me.”
Her mother raised a brow. “I heard he was sending you flowers?”
Her mother’s ability to know everything that was going on never failed to surprise her. For a fleeting moment, Grace wondered if she knew about what had happened between her and Edward, but her mind shied away from that possibility. If her mother knew, she’d already be making wedding plans.
“How do you hear these things all the way in London?”
Her mother smiled in triumph. “I’ve decided to invite him for dinner tomorrow.”
Grace resisted the impulse to beg her mother not to. She knew that once her mother’s mind was made up, there would be little chance of her changing it.
“You have no objection?” Lady Kent asked.
Grace shook her head and resigned herself to an uncomfortable evening of intense scrutiny from her parents.
“Excellent,” her mother said. “I will have a footman deliver the invitation shortly. But first I must tell your father. He’s been very worried about you.”
Grace watched as her mother breezed down the hallway and entered her father’s study without knocking.
“They’re going to be so disappointed,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Helen had been watching their exchange in silence, but now that they were alone again, she dragged Grace into the drawing room. “Captain Hathaway cares for you.”
Grace immediately shook her head. “No he doesn’t.” She hesitated, wanting to confide in her sister, but decided in the end just to tell her the base truth about her current predicament. “He and Freddie were friends and Freddie saved his life. He feels honor bound to take care of me because of that.”
Helen looked at her as though she’d gone insane. “That man has not been visiting you every day out of a sense of duty.”
Grace wanted to believe her sister, but the way he’d been treating her recently convinced her otherwise. “He doesn’t love me. You’ve seen the way he acts toward me.”
“Grace, the man can hardly take his eyes off you. And when he thinks neither one of us is looking?” She fanned herself with an exaggerated wave of her hand. “Trust me when I say that while he may be acting the gentleman, his thoughts are anything but proper when it comes to you.”
Her foolish heart actually felt as though it were going to burst out of her chest at her sister’s words. “I don’t believe you.”
Helen released a dramatic sigh. “Tell me, how do you feel about the captain?”
Her feelings were still too new, and his reception of them too uncertain, for her to admit she loved him. Even to her sister. “I am not indifferent to him.”
Helen laughed outright at her sister’s equivocation. “Lord, the two of you are a pair. Each one crazy about the other but neither one willing to admit it.”
“I didn’t say I had strong feelings for him.”
Helen gave her an indulgent smile. “You didn’t have to.”
Grace winced. “Do you think Edward knows?”
Her sister’s smile widened, and Grace could have cut out her tongue for slipping and using his first name. “I think he is as oblivious to the truth as you.”
Grace had to consider the possibility that Helen was seeing only what she wanted to see. “What do I do? I’m not sure I believe you, but if there’s even a slight chance that he does have feelings for me…”
“He does, but I suspect you’ll have to pry them out of him.”
“How?”
“Well, we can start with tomorrow’s dinner. No more sensible outfits for you, dear sister. Tomorrow evening you are going to dress to dazzle, and then you are going to have to flirt with him.”
Grace cringed. “In front of our parents?”
“Of course. How better to make him squirm than have him realize what you are doing and know he cannot reciprocate unless he wants Papa to pull out his dueling pistols?”
“And if he doesn’t ‘squirm,’ as you so eloquently put it?”
“He will.” Helen’s expression could only be described as evil.
Grace considered her options carefully, but she really had no choice. If there was even the slightest possibility that Edward cared for her, she needed to find out. There would be no more running away for Grace Kent.