Page 5 of A Suitable New Year’s Revenge (Ladies’ Wagering Whist Society #42)

After they all trudged back to the house, they dispersed to change into dry clothes. A little while later, Pine joined his mother in the drawing room where she was working on some embroidery.

“Good morning, Mama,” he said, giving her a little buss on her cheek.

“Good afternoon, my dearest,” she gently corrected him.

He pulled out his watch from his pocket. “Goodness! I didn’t realize it was past one.”

“What have you been up to that made you forget the time?” she asked.

“Ash, Marigold, Helena, and I went to the lake to see and hear about the improvements. What of you? Have you had a relaxing morning?”

“No,” she chuckled. “Silly boy, it’s the day after Christmas. I was up and out early delivering baskets to the tenants and a few others in town.”

“Oh, I completely forgot! Of course. Everyone is well—” he broke off what he was saying as there was a light tap on the door followed by the hesitant entrance of Helena.

Pine jumped to his feet.

“Am I disturbing you?” she asked.

“No, my dear, not at all. Please do come in. I was just telling Pine about my excursion to visit all the tenants this morning.”

“Oh, yes. My mother would always do the same if we were in the country at Christmas. If we weren’t there, she made sure our housekeeper, Mrs. Ferrier, would take care of it.”

“Did you not always spend the holiday in the countryside?” Lady Hazelton asked.

“No. My father didn’t like leaving our house in London. It was where all of his books were,” Helena told them.

“And you? Did you miss not going?” the lady asked.

“I’m afraid I didn’t really for much the same reason,” Helena admitted a little sheepishly. She looked adorable peering through her dark lashes.

“Somehow, I don’t think you’ve told me very much about your research. What is it that you do precisely?” Pine asked.

“Oh, you’ve asked, I just don’t think I’ve answered you for fear of boring you dreadfully,” she said with a broad smile.

“Wise girl,” Lady Hazelton approved.

“I’m afraid I learned that lesson the hard way, scaring off all potential suitors,” Helena admitted.

“But not Pine?” the lady asked suspiciously.

“He was kind enough to suggest a different top of discussion,” Helena said clearly making that up on the spot.

His mother just laughed and nodded. “He can be very diplomatic and charming when he wants to be.” She turned and smiled lovingly at her son.

“Yes, well, now I find myself rather intrigued,” Pine said. Oddly enough, he admitted to himself, he was. What was it that so fascinated this beautiful girl that she could barely speak of nothing else—even at parties.

“Are you certain you want to know?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he confirmed

An hour later Pine wasn’t certain he understood all that Helena had told him. She began by broadly outlining her studies and he’d been able to follow that, but then she seemed to forget herself as she got deeper into the subject. Pine stopped trying to understand and instead merely enjoyed watching her. Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement, and she became so animated, speaking somehow with her entire body. She would lean forward or back, gesture and shape the air with her hands as she explained her theories.

She was, in short, magnificent.

Dinner that night started out as a jolly affair with Pine sharing stories of the beau monde with Marigold, who would be making her come-out next spring.

When there was a lull in the conversation, Lord Hazelton broke it by turning to his youngest daughter. “Daisy, what did you study today?” he asked, giving her a paternal smile.

“I worked on my watercolors and had a lesson in deportment,” she told her father.

Helena noticed she didn’t mention her history lesson.

“Good. Very important lessons, I’m sure. And what of your pianoforte? Did you practice today?” he asked.

She scrunched up her nose. “I wonder if I should try a different instrument, Papa. I’m really not good on the pianoforte.”

“A harp is a very expensive instrument to buy and there aren’t any others which are appropriate for a young lady,” he told her.

“Miss Pemberton plays the violin,” Pine said. “Went to a musicale and heard her last season.”

His father frowned at him. “It’s not an instrument for a young lady,” Lord Hazelton reiterated. “And what of you, Marigold?” He turned his attention to his elder daughter.

“Pine, Ash, Miss Lawson, and I went for a walk down to the lake so Ash could show Pine all that is being done to improve it.”

“Ah, yes. Great plans are going forward,” his lordship said with pride.

In a sad way, Helena was not surprised that he made no mention of the fact that the plans were Ash’s ideas. He seemed like the sort of man who would take credit for the work of others.

He turned to Helena. “I don’t suppose Cumnor has such a fine lake, eh?”

Helena smiled. “We have no lake at all. We do, however, have an amphitheater built in the way of those of ancient Greece.”

Lord Hazelton’s beneficent smile disappeared.

“My mother designed it with my help, since I’m much more familiar with the Greek theatre. It couldn’t simply be a semicircle cut into the ground, you see. There also needs to be space for—

“It sounds like a ridiculous thing to build on an estate,” he said, cutting her off. “Probably destroyed a perfectly good field that could have been used for planting grain.”

“Actually, the field where it was built was completely useless, it was so filled with boulders. Under the top lay of soil was pure rock. We hired—”

“A waste of money, then. Goodness gracious, I’m going to have my hands full putting that estate to rights once your father is dead. When did you say the doctor expects him to—”

“My lord!” Lady Hazelton exclaimed. “Please be a little sensitive to the girl’s position. This is her father you are speaking of, and her home!”

“Bah, I just want to know if it will be before the spring planting so that I may—”

“Father!” Pine remonstrated. Lord Hazelton looked around the table at his family. It made Helena feel only slightly better to see that each and every one of them had the same expression of horror on their faces.

“Very well,” he relented.

Helena had never felt hatred in her heart, but it most certainly budding now. This man was even worse than Pine had told her. She was certain to enjoy annoying him. And why not start now, she thought with a little giggle.

She cleared her throat and then asked, “My lord, you don’t happen to have a copy of Antigone in your library, do you?”

He stared at her blankly for a moment and then with sudden understanding he opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again only to glare at her. “And what would you want with a copy of an old play?”

“I wanted to show it to Marigold. We were discussing my studies this afternoon while walking to the Lake and I thought she might enjoy reading that one. It’s quite one of my favorites.” She deliberately gave him her sweetest smile.

“Your—don’t be ridiculous, young women don’t have studies. Or certainly none more than art, music, and embroidery,” he snapped.

She tilted her head at him. “But I do. And while I did study sketching, I learned nothing of either music or embroidery.”

“Pine, I don’t understand how, among all the young ladies of the ton, you could have found the one who knows nothing of being a proper lady,” he said turning to his son.

“That is unfair, Father,” Marigold remonstrated. “Just because she doesn’t know how to play the pianoforte doesn’t make Helena any less of a lady.”

“Young ladies should know art, music, and embroidery,” her father reiterated.

“And household management,” Lady Hazelton added.

He nodded. “And household management,” he agreed.

“Which involves mathematics, management, economy,” Ash said. He turned to his mother. “Anything else that I forgot?”

She just smiled indulgently at her son but didn’t say anything.

“You have all gone mad. Women do not have the capability to engage in higher reasoning. They can barely learn a foreign tongue,” Lord Hazelton said, now sharing his anger with everyone around the table.

“ Seul un cochon ignorant pourrait penser ca, ” Helena said. “ Eine andere Sprache nicht zu sprechen ist Geistesverschwendung . I could go on in ancient Greek or Latin, but as they are no longer actually spoken languages—aside from the Latin spoke in church—I’ll spare you.”

Daisy slapped a hand over her mouth to hide her giggles. Ash turned away from his father, but she could see his shoulders shaking with laughter and Pine outright laughed.

Lord Hazelton bolted to his feet, threw his napkin onto the table, and stalked out the door.

“Oh, dear,” Lady Hazelton whispered. “That may not have been the cleverest thing to do, my girl.”

“Probably not…” Ash started.

“But it was funny,” Daisy finished for him.

“But Mother is right,” Marigold said, turning toward Helena. She had lost her smile and was now looking very serious. “I know you don’t care a great deal about what he thinks of you, but you should at least respect your future father-in-law.”

“She’s right,” Ash agreed. “You’re going to have to maintain good relations with him for, probably, a good long time. Making him angry like that isn’t going to make your life easy once you and Pine are married.”

Helena dropped her gaze to her plate. If only they knew that this was the whole point of her being here. She didn’t feel bad at all for showing Lord Hazelton how wrong he was in his opinion of women’s intelligence, but it did hurt to deceive the rest of Pine’s family. They were truly sweet and wonderful people. She hated lying to them.

Under the table, Pine placed a comforting hand on her leg. It sent heat shooting throughout her body, but most of all to her face where she was certain she had turned quite pink. She lifted her gaze to his.

“It’s all right, Helena,” he said softly. She was sure he was trying to support her, tell her that she was doing the right thing, what they had agreed she should do.

She gave a nod and even a little smile. “Thank you,” she whispered back. “It helps knowing you’re with me.”

“I am most certainly with you—in every way.”

Oh dear, that heat just got hotter and now there were tingles on her arms. What was happening to her?