Page 40 of Lord Gabriel’s Undoing

Cecilia shook her head with another chuckle. “Not for want of trying. I pestered both Mama and Papa all this winter to allow me to come out this Season, but they both declared fifteen was far too young. However, Gabriel kindly assisted me in prevailing upon Mama to allow me to attend this party.” Her tawny eyes twinkled. “But I know it wasn’t out of filial kindness. He only did so because he wanted us to meet and become friends.”

Phoebe smiled. It would have been hard to resist Cecilia, and Gabriel had been counting on it. “I would love to become friends with you, Lady Cecilia.”

Cecilia glanced across at her mother, but she was well occupied and far enough away not to overhear their conversation. He’d taught her well about subterfuge over the years. “Might we dispense with calling each other ‘lady’? I know I hate being addressed in such a pompous manner. If you would be kind enough to allow me to address you as Phoebe, would you likewise call me just Cecilia?” She giggled. “Although my youngest sister, little Charlotte, who is only three, is still inclined to call me Cissy, which I have to admit I rather like. I don’t suppose there is anything one can shorten Phoebe to, is there?”

Phoebe must have been feeling more at home thanks to Cecilia’s natural charm, for she too giggled in the most girlish of fashions. A giggle that had Gabriel’s heart lurching yet again. “My cousin sometimes calls me Phoebs, but Aunt Fanny abhors that. Although I call Matilda Mattie in return and her mother doesn’t seem to mind me doing so.”

“Phoebe is such a pretty name,” Gabriel put in, not wanting to be ignored. “It means bright, radiant, and pure, and comes from the Greek sun god, Phoebus Apollo.” He’d had to look this up, which had taken a long time to do, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

Cecilia giggled again and gave Gabriel a sly poke in the ribs. “He likes to show off the classical education he obtained at Oxford whenever he can, but I can match him in some things. Papa is allowing me and my next sister, Honoria, to study the classics at home with a tutor. At home at Wentworth, I mean. The local vicar is a great scholar and comes in three times a week to teach us. I am currently struggling my way through The Iliad.”

“You are?” Gabriel said. “You never cease to amaze me. And what does your mother think of that?” As his stepmother probably didn’t know one end of a book in English from the other, it must have taken some persuasion on his father’s part to get her to assent to her daughter’s being educated in anything other than embroidery, painting watercolors, and playing the piano.

Cecilia wrinkled her nose. “What do you think she thinks? She does not approve but thankfully Papa is on our side. He says girls should have as good an education as boys.”

Phoebe nodded. “My papa thought so too, and that I should be taught to shoot a gun. But sadly my aunt doesn’t share his forward-thinking opinion, so all my cousin and I have been taught is a little French, music, and lots of embroidery. At which I’m frighteningly bad. I was considered a good Latin scholar by my papa. I envy you your chance to study.”

Gabriel, after his small contribution, contented himself with listening to the two of them as they talked. He was learning things about his favorite half-sister that he’d never have known. After all, he rarely went to Wentworth nowadays and before that he’d been up at Oxford doing his own studying. He must make an effort to see her and Honoria more.

Phoebe did seem to be getting on well with Cecilia, which was what he’d been hoping for. So far, it seemed his plan was working.

But things were not quite moving swiftly enough for him. He raised his eyes in enquiry to Cecilia, who was in on the plan, and inclined his head towards the window. Left to her, she and Phoebe would still be chattering when it came time for all the guests to leave.

“Would you like to see the garden?” Cecilia asked, in a hurry, but Phoebe didn’t appear to have noticed the slight awkwardness of the request.

He watched her take a glance outside. It probably wasn’t looking too enticing but at least it wasn’t raining, and the camelias were already out.

Phoebe nodded. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

“Would you like to come too?” Cecilia asked him, her eyes brimming with naughtiness, the minx.

Gabriel nodded and the three of them slipped out of the parlor door together, hopefully unnoticed.

Chapter Thirteen

Cecilia linked arms with Phoebe and led her down the stairs and into a room from which doors opened onto a wide, stone-slabbed terrace. Phoebe didn’t have high hopes of the garden from what she’d seen out of the window, but it was clear Cecilia, and probably Gabriel too, wanted to get her out of the house to somewhere more private. A thrill of excitement ran through her, partly due to being almost alone with Gabriel again, and partly out of her own well-camouflaged longing for a bit more adventure in her dull London life.

The camelias were a splash of much-needed color in the garden, so the three of them headed that way, Gabriel following the two young ladies down the wide stone steps that led down from the terrace. The only other splash of color was the abundant daffodils bobbing their heads along the borders.

“We’ll just stand here, admiring the flowers, where we can be seen clearly from the parlor windows,” Gabriel said. “Then no one will get suspicious.”

Phoebe, full of curiosity at this elaborate subterfuge on the part of the faux siblings, dutifully admired the gorgeous, rose-pink camelias. “How lucky, then, that they’re worthy of close examination.” She was feeling much more herself now she was away from that over-crowded parlor. Large numbers of people in a small amount of space was something she would never be comfortable with, no matter how much Aunt Fanny tried to make her.

Cecilia heaved a sigh. “They are indeed, but that isn’t why Gabriel arranged with me to bring you out here.” She looked up at her tall brother. “We can’t stay out here for long, so you’d better hurry up and explain to Phoebe what you have in mind.”

Phoebe looked up at Gabriel. She’d been assiduously trying not to look at him up to now, as each time she did her heart gave a little unruly leap and she could feel color rising to her cheeks. Every time she saw him he seemed to have grown more handsome. But there was no avoiding it now. She managed to keep her voice steady. “You did this with a purpose in mind?”

He nodded.

Oh, if only that purpose had something to do with liking her. But of course, it didn’t. It never would because she wasn’t pretty like her cousin. Not to mention the cricket bat incident. She steeled herself.

He shot a sideways glance towards the parlor window on the first floor. “When we were walking in the park, you said you wanted to come with me into St Giles and see for yourself the state people are forced to live in.”

Phoebe nodded, her heart beating so hard she was sure he would be able to hear it. “I did. And I would still like you to take me there.” How deliciously exciting it was to be plotting a clandestine visit somewhere that would horrify her aunt.

Gabriel nodded, as though he’d required her to reiterate her desire to see St Giles before he could do anything.

“So, it falls to me to help you do that,” Cecilia said, bending closer to pretend an examination of one of the blooms. “He’s taken me there, and I must tell you that it’s opened my eyes to suffering that’s unimaginable if you haven’t seen it for yourself.” She paused. “It’s changed the way I look at life…at my life and the way everyone I know lives. It will do the same for you, I think.”