Page 32 of Engaging Sir Isaac

“I suppose it must be. And good day.” She tugged away from him and kept walking, refusing to look back at him. Disagreeable, horrid man. Damaged. What if her family was out of favor? It did not make them useless. It did not make her worthless.

Her brisk walk away from him became a firm march, her head tilted up, and she kept her back stiff and straight. If she withdrew with dignity, she would be well enough. At least until she had to face her mother and explain what she had done. Why she had made an enemy of Lady Olivia.

But the marquess’s daughter had lied. Sir Isaac could not be capable of anything dishonorable. He did not deserve whatever problems her prying would cause. Lady Olivia had something against him, which reflected more poorly on her than it did her intended victim.

It no longer mattered. Millie would get well and truly out of the whole mess, go home to the strictures of her mother, the wounded silences of her father, and continue as she had for the past six years.

Seven years of weight, of worry, of being less than every young lady of her standing. All because Emmeline married for love rather than position and chose an honorable solicitor rather than a brutish lord. Emmeline might have escaped her unpleasant future, but she had left behind enough misery to make up for it.

Worse, she’d never once tried to explain herself to her sister, no matter that Millie had always looked up to Emmeline. Millie had always been there for her, as a friend as well as a sister. Well. Millie was used to facing life’s difficulties alone. She would manage. She had no other choice.

* * *

Although Isaac had promised Silas to discover Millie Wedgewood’s secrets, it was to Esther that he went immediately after parting from the mournful Miss Wedgewood. Esther possibly would have insight into solving the problem her new friend faced. Isaac could assuage Silas’s concerns over the matter another time.

But how to make certain Esther understood the situation? He could tell neither his sister nor his friend of Millie’s past. He had as good as promised to keep what she said to him in the lane a secret.

But he hadn’t promised to leave the situation entirely alone. How could he? Knowing her story, and the sort of people who lived in that house, he could save her from being put out in a humiliating and public manner. Perhaps even prevent her from returning home a failure. If Esther thought of a way to help.

The Earl and Countess of Inglewood might not have the same amount of clout as the Marquess of Alderton, but they both had friends in Society. Silas had a strong reputation as a man of honor. The couple’s championing of Miss Wedgewood’s cause, among a different set, might prove more valuable than the marquess’s influence.

If Esther gave her assistance to Millie.

Isaac entered the house with his usual casual air, and then wasted a quarter of an hour in search of his sister. Finally, he came upon Esther in the library. She sat at a writing desk near the window, busily scratching a letter upon paper. He entered the room at the same moment he called out his greeting.

“Essie, here you are. Do you know, I have been in half a dozen rooms in this house before finding you here?”

She looked up from her letter writing, one eyebrow arched at him. The expression reminded him of Silas, somehow. “If you would have asked any one of the servants they could have told you where I was. Why you insist on wandering about my house rather than ask for direction, I cannot understand.”

He grinned at her and came all the way into the room. “I suppose that would have been a quicker way to go about things.”

“And the way most people would have gone about it. Did Bailey not let you inside?”

The old Inglewood butler had. “Yes.”

“A single question to him—”

Isaac waved a hand to interrupt his sister’s lecture. “I know, I know. I was not thinking.” He winced the moment he said it as a triumphant gleam appeared in his sister’s eyes. She had often accused him of that very thing. Of the two of them, Isaac had struggled to put thought before action. It had nearly cost him his life and had certainly led to a great deal of heartache. “I did not return here to talk about my failings, Essie.”

His sister gestured to the chair nearest her desk. “Please, sit. It sounds as though you have a specific topic in mind. Though, when we saw each other half an hour ago, you seemed quite done with talking.” She rose from the desk and came to a chair beside his, the two of them facing one another over a little table with a stack of books upon it. “In fact, you were put out that I asked you to speak to Miss Wedgewood.”

“I was. But then I went and delivered your invitation for tomorrow evening as you requested.”

Esther’s eyes widened and one corner of her mouth tilted upward. “Oh?” A great deal of suggestion underscored that single syllable. Her eyes gleamed. “What did she say?”

Isaac’s posture stiffened at his sister’s expression, which went from delighted surprise to something far more calculating.

“Miss Wedgewood is a friend to you, is she not?” he asked, somewhat hesitantly. He did not like Esther’s response to his words at all. That canny gleam put him off.

“I would count her so, yes, or else I would not have extended so many invitations to her.” Esther folded her hands daintily in her lap as she spoke, not quite losing that scheming smirk. “Why do you ask? I know you were not overly impressed with her at first, but I thought at dinner last evening you had warmed to her somewhat. Even so, I worried you might not deliver the invitation.”

“Perhaps I was too quick to judge before.” Isaac shifted in his chair and tapped his fingers upon the arm of the furniture. “While I was speaking to her to extend your invitation, it became apparent that she is having a difficult time of things. In fact, Miss Wedgewood believes that she is soon to be dismissed as a guest. I am uncertain why, but she was quite out of sorts when I left her.”

“Oh dear. Out of sorts how?” Essie leaned forward, her eyebrows tilting downward with the weight of her concern.

“Sad. Quite sad.” Isaac well remembered the way Millie’s eyes had changed from bright and shining when she greeted him to dull and withdrawn by the time she took her leave. Just as she had that night at the Barnes’ home, when he had caused her harm with his words. He had made that moment right by apologizing. He would make this right, too. “I thought you might help her. Perhaps invite her here, as a guest in your home.”

Esther considered his suggestion quietly for several long seconds, to the point he was ready to ask it again in case she had gone temporarily deaf.