A Lady of Conscience (Somerset Stories, #5)

by Mimi Matthews

“I’m perfectly warm in my cloak,” she assured him. She hesitated before adding, “It’s you I worry about.” His brows lifted slightly. “Me?” “Do you often venture out into the snow without your coat or your neckcloth?”

Hannah nodded in immediate sympathy. She knew there had been tension in the house this evening, much of it owing to Lord St. Clare’s younger brother, Ivo Beresford, having invited the daughter of an estranged neighbor to their family party. “Horses have that talent,” she said.

He looked at her, frowning. “That depends.” “On what, sir?” she asked. James didn’t answer.

“I have none. Not for him.” Hannah gave her mother’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’re very sweet to worry, Mama, but you have no cause to. Whatever happens this season, I can promise you that Lord St. Clare is the last gentleman on earth I should ever choose to marry.”

Instead, he hadn’t come at all. It was difficult not to take it as a slight.

Ivo followed him for a few steps. “Good lord. You really came for her sake, didn’t you?” James flashed his brother an arctic glare. “Have you nothing better to do?”

“I trust I’m not too late to claim the next dance?”

“See how well we fit together?” Hannah’s heart quickened. “It’s owing

“A waltz shouldn’t be difficult.” “It isn’t with you.”

“I very much wish it,” he said. “Hannah.”

“It worked well for us when we danced together.” Hannah shook her head. She recognized his intentions were well meant. Even so, he didn’t understand. “Marriage isn’t a waltz,” she said. “It’s a partnership. I don’t desire to be led. And I don’t desire to change into something I’m not. When I marry, it will be to a gentleman who values me as I am.”

“I see I’m to be punished for my honesty.” “No. Indeed, I hope we shall remain friends. We are soon to be⁠—”

“Brother and sister, yes. So you’ve said.” He stood abruptly. His face was hard, his expression wiped clean of emotion. “If that is your final word, then I must respect it.” He gave her a stiff bow. “Miss Heywood.” He turned to leav...

“I-I wish my answer could have been otherwise.” He remained where he stood a moment longer before striding out of the room.

His father regarded him from across the distance. “That explains why you look as though you’d swallowed poison,” he said. “Sent you away with a flea in your ear, did she?”

Indeed, she hadn’t imagined that James could be hurt. The realization that she had been the one to do it—that she’d had that power over him—had rattled her to her core.

She gave him a hopeful look. “You wouldn’t have need of a donkey, would you?” James burst out laughing. Hannah started.

He held her gaze for a moment. “How can I be sorry when I’ve made you smile?” “I often do smile.” “Not like that,” he said. “Not at me.” Her expression was dimmed by a trace of self-consciousness. “Haven’t I?”

“Never.” He turned the horses back onto the Bath Road. “When you came to stay at Beasley Park, I often saw you laughing and smiling with my brothers. I confess, I was envious of them.”

“If you were mine, you would be my first and best concern. I would in all things endeavor to make you happy.”