Page 81 of Appointment in Bath

Mrs. Stapleton nodded. “That’d be the gent who’s courting Lady Katherine. A handsome devil, if he’s as the housemaids describe him.”

“I suppose,” Meg said vaguely. It had been difficult to notice the raven-haired Lieutenant Heywood when Ivo was there.

Mrs. Stapleton seemed to sense the turn of Meg’s thoughts. “You’ll only have had eyes for Mr. Beresford,” she said. “He’s a handsome lad himself. And affable, too. Though, you’ll know that better than me. I’ve not seen him much since his return to Somersetshire.”

“You met at the vicarage dinner, I gather,” Mrs. Church said with a disdainful sniff. “That upstart Colfax has a good deal to answer for.”

Meg thought of how she’d really met Ivo, so many weeks ago on the banks of the river by Sefton Bridge. One moment she’d been near tears, struggling to stand, and the next he’d appeared on his great white horse to come to her rescue.

“Are you hurt?” he’d asked.

Meg couldn’t recall how she’d answered. Some stammering, blushing, reply no doubt.

It hadn’t mattered. Ivo had naturally taken charge of the situation. He’d caught her errant mare and helped Meg back into her sidesaddle. He’d even inspected her injury—a process which necessitated him raising the skirt of her habit and touching her stocking-clad ankle.

It was a memory that still made Meg’s pulse quicken.

But it meant nothing to him.

She meant nothing to him.

And she never would.

Meg had realized that tonight with complete clarity.

A knot of inexpressible grief formed in her stomach. But she had no right to be grieving the loss of Ivo Beresford. He’d never been hers to begin with. It had been a fantasy, nothing more. A girlish, romantic dream.

It was past time Meg woke up.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“I warned him to keep clear of her,” James said. “I told him he was putting us all at risk. My reputation—”

“You’re not my father,” Ivo shot back. “For God’s sake, you’re only two years older than me!”

“Your brother was right to warn you off,” their father’s stern voice cut through their bickering. “To encourage a connection with that family is a great piece of folly.”

The three of them stood in varying positions in the candlelit Beasley Park library. James was by the terrestrial globe, still in his evening clothes, though absent his coat and cravat. Ivo’s father was in a similar state, arms folded as he leaned back against one of the bookshelves, rows of imposing leatherbound tomes stretching up behind him to the second-floor above. Ivo himself remained firmly fixed in front of the cavernous marble fireplace, still attempting to thaw out after his icy walk to Letchford Hall and back.

As expected, he’d returned to find his father and James waiting for him, still simmering with displeasure at what Ivo had done. No sooner had Ivo entered the main hall than James had appeared to unceremoniously haul him to the library.

There, Ivo had spent the last ten minutes being dressed down, primarily by his older brother.

“I’m not encouraging anything,” Ivo said. “I merely invited a neighbor for a bit of merriment on a cold winter’s evening. We needed another lady for dancing and—”

“Whom do you think you’re addressing, Ivo?” Lord Allendale asked in a tone of perilous calm. “Do you imagine I’m not up to every trick?”

Ivo fell silent. Of course, his father understood. His mother likely did, too. Perhaps they all did. No doubt Ivo’s invitation to Meg had been utterly transparent. He hadn’t made it innocently—or ignorantly. He’d known exactly what he was doing in forcing her on them. At the time, it had seemed the only way for them to get past this.

But Ivo hadn’t been completely calculating.

When he’d sat beside Meg in the drawing room at Letchford Hall, when he’d held her bare hand in his, the invitation he’d extended had come from his heart, not his head. Whatever Meg was feeling tonight, he hoped she knew him well enough to recognize that.

Lord Allendale regarded Ivo steadily. Unlike James, no glint of repressed fury smoldered in his eyes. His emotions were, as ever, firmly under control. “Your brothers and sister are of an age to marry. I’ll not have the old gossip started up again.”

Gossip. Is that what he was worried about?

“Meg doesn’t care about any of that,” Ivo said. “She’s never mentioned—”