Page 138

W hen Beroald presented himself at The Castle the next morning and asked the Troubridge’s very correct butler if he could speak to Viscount Eden, he was shown into the front parlor on the ground floor and left to wait.

The outrageousness of what he was about to do wasn’t lost on him, and he was more nervous than he had been as a cabin boy on his first voyage.

Eden was going to think he had lost his mind.

Which he had. Along with his heart. In the space of less than twenty-four hours.

It was madness, yet he had never been more certain of his feelings.

“Captain!” Eden’s voice brought him round from his blind contemplation of the front drive through the window. “You wanted to speak to me?” Eden came toward him with his hand held out.

The viscount was not an overly big man, being of no more than average height and slender build, and therefore Beroald topped him by several inches, in both height and girth. Miserably conscious of the age gap between himself and this man’s daughter, he swallowed and cleared his throat nervously.

He gripped the other man’s hand in a firm clasp and nodded. “I did. Thank you for your time.”

Eden smiled expectantly, and Beroald took a breath and plunged in. “I have come to ask you for your daughter’s hand.”

Eden blinked at him, the smile evaporating slowly from his amiable features. “I beg your pardon? You just met my daughter last night.”

Beroald flushed, acutely uncomfortable. “I am aware this must seem precipitous—”

“Precipitous? It’s preposterous!” said Eden, frowning. “Did Fen put you to this?”

Beroald’s eyes widened in shock. “No. Why would you ask me that?”

“Because it is just the sort of impetuous start she would go off on! I couldn’t mistake how taken she was with the fact that you’re a navy man last night and you were kind enough to answer all her questions, but I cannot think a man of your years and social standing would entertain for a moment my little hoyden as a wife.

Good heavens, Fen has no idea how to be a duchess! ”

Beroald smiled wryly. “I’ve no idea how to be a duke either, so that is no impediment to my way of thinking.”

Eden looked at him closely. “So why?”

“I love her,” he said simply.

Eden shook his head with a frown. “Captain, I am surprised that a man of your experience could be so foolish as to think a—” he hesitated as if floundering for the right words, “a fleeting attraction, an infatuation, could lead you to—”

“It is not a fleeting attraction, nor is it infatuation. I’m old enough to know the difference,” interrupted Beroald.

“That is part of the problem, Captain. I know that many men in my position would not think this, for it is not uncommon for an older man to marry a young woman. But Fen is my baby girl, and I want her to be happy in her marriage. You are by far too old for her.”

“I know.” Beroald acknowledged, with a grimace.

“How old are you, precisely?”

“Thirty-eight.” He braced himself for Eden’s reaction.

“Good God, you’re eighteen years her senior, old enough to be her father.”

“I know.” Beroald’s voice sounded hollow in his own ears.

Eden bent a fierce frown on him. “Did you think that because you’re a duke I’d overlook that? It’s absurd!”

Beroald stiffened. “No, my lord, I did not. Fenella doesn’t care about my title, and frankly I wish it to the devil myself.”

Eden paced to the fireplace and back. “There is something havey-cavey about this. I confess I have indulged her too much. Fen’s been up to her tricks, hasn’t she? Tell me truthfully, when did you meet my daughter?”

Beroald swallowed. “Down by the lake yesterday afternoon. She was sitting on her paddleboard in the middle of the lake when I saw her. She stood up on the board and fell in. I—I jumped in to rescue her. In my experience, very few people can swim.”

“Fen swims like a fish!” Eden said with a note of pride in his voice.

“Yes, so I discovered. But you see her shirt had got caught on a tree branch below the water and she was trapped. I got her loose.”

Eden raised his eyebrows. “I’m obliged to you!

The little minx, she promised me she’d not take that damned board out without me to watch her!

” He sighed, pacing away again. “But you see this just underlines what I already know. She’s not ready for marriage yet.

Her season proved that clearly. She had no interest in any of the young bucks who tried to make up to her. ”

“She’s not interested in younger men. She told me so.”

Eden snorted. “But she is interested in you?”

Beroald flushed again, but inclined his head.

“It’s an infatuation, nothing more. She will soon recover.”

Beroald gritted his teeth. He’d known this wouldn’t be easy and the rational part of him agreed with everything Eden was saying. But the part that had tumbled headlong into love with Fenella Eden in less than twenty-four hours rebelled. He knew her better than her father did.

“I know it sounds outrageous, my lord, but I believe our attachment to be both mutual and lasting.”

Eden turned and regarded him with searching eyes.

“I believe you believe that to be true, Captain. But only time will convince me you’re right.

I’ll give you three months to prove it. But if you let her run roughshod over you, it will never work.

Fenella needs a strong hand. She is as headstrong as she is innocent.

“And I give you fair warning: if you ruin her or hurt her, I will do you severe damage. And don’t think I can’t. Despite my years and size, I’m an excellent swordsman. I’d run you through in a heartbeat if you hurt my little girl!”

Beroald smiled. “I would do the same for her, my lord. Please believe me that I would never do anything to hurt her. I hope to win your consent with time and patience.”

“Good luck with that. Fenella has no patience!”

“I know, but I believe I can teach her the value of that virtue.”

“Do you?” Eden smiled faintly. “Maybe you’ll do after all.”

*

Fenella crouched at the top of the stairs and watched the captain leave the house, his head down. Her heart plummeted, and she ran down the stairs and entered the front parlor to confront her father. He was standing at the window his hands behind his back.

“Papa, what did you say to him?”

Papa turned toward her. “Spying, were you?”

She ignored that and came farther into the room. “You told him no, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

Her heart squeezed and tears stung her lids. “Oh, Papa! I love him! Don’t you understand?”

“I understand you have fallen victim to an infatuation. But you cannot possibly have formed a lasting attachment in such a short space of time. I’m sure he seems like the embodiment of a young woman’s fantasy, my dear—he’s a man in his prime—but think about the realities!

When you’re forty he will be fifty-eight! the same age I am now!”

“I don’t care for that!”

“You don’t now, because he’s still young and fit and handsome, but when he is old and grey and infirm, what then?”

She could feel the tears slipping down her face and the ache in her chest was making it hard to breathe. “It doesn’t matter! I will love him forever!”

Papa’s eyes clouded with pain. “Oh, my precious girl, I wish I could shield you from this heartbreak.”

She swallowed the sob that threatened and marshalled the arguments she had gone over in her head. She had known Papa would balk.

“Papa, you wanted me to make an eligible match. What better match than a duke? I haven’t enquired, but I am sure he is not poor, for he owns the property next to this one.

And you cannot quibble over his character because he is a thorough gentleman, honorable, kind, good, and strong.

He’s a leader of men who has distinguished himself in battle, a good strategist. He is educated and well-read, mature, protective, and thoughtful.

Oh, Papa, he is everything I’ve ever wanted!

He’s my soul’s mate, I just know he is. I knew almost the moment that we met.

He feels the same. We understand each other! ”

Her father took her hands in his and said gently, “I don’t doubt you believe that to be true, but it is too soon for you to know any of it, my darling girl.

You know that old saying: marry in haste, repent at leisure .

I do not wish you to regret your marriage, love.

I want you to be happy. I counsel you to wait, get to know him better and then see how you feel in a few months. ”

Realizing that nothing she could say would move him from that standpoint, she said in resignation, “Very well, Papa.” She kissed his cheek and retired to her room.

A few months seemed like an eon to wait to her.

Would Papa take her back home immediately to separate them and encourage her to get over her infatuation ?

The thought was unbearable. Casting herself down on her bed she cried into her pillow for a good half an hour.

Thoroughly soggy, she sat up and sniffed, found a handkerchief to blow her nose, and washed her face. Then she sat down to think.

*

Beroald spent the day on estate business and wondering how to pursue his courtship of Fenella at a pace satisfactory to her father.

He was as aware as Eden that Fen would not accept that easily.

Despite his attempts to concentrate on his work, he found his mind wandering to her every chance it got, and he missed her like an amputated limb.

He fell asleep that night still thinking of her and woke with a start to find her sitting on his bed in a shirt and breeches. How she got there was immediately obvious from the open window of his bedchamber through which the moonlight shone.

“Fen! What the bloody hell are you doing here?” He sat up, his bare upper body prickling in the heat from the warm night air coming through the window.

“We must go to Gretna Green since Papa won’t give his consent!” she said.

“Did he tell you he’d refused me?”