Page 3 of The Spring Promise (The Starlings of Starling Hall #1)

CHAPTER THREE

“M olly? Will is here to see you.”

Grace widened her eyes as if asking her: What is he doing here? Molly frowned, silently telling her younger sister to be quiet. Then, after she had smoothed her skirts and tidied her hair, Molly went to see what he wanted.

Will had not visited for over a month, and that hadn’t even been a private call. He had accompanied his mother to visit Molly’s mother. The Starlings and the Laceys had been friends forever, and until Celeste Morton arrived on the scene, there had barely been a week when Will did not knock at her door. That he was here now seemed like a portent.

Had something happened with Celeste Morton? Perhaps she had turned him down and he needed her sympathy—Huh! Or he had changed his mind—Unlikely!

Molly entered the cluttered sitting room. Her mother had been sorting through old trunks of clothing, thinking it would be a thrifty idea to use some of the material to fashion new garments, and the contents were spread everywhere.

“Molly! There you are,” Will said as he edged around a stack of ancient petticoats. He was smiling, but it wasn’t one of his real smiles. There was a tightness to his face, as if he was actually quite worried.

Despite all of her commands to herself about not becoming involved and vowing to set aside her love for Will, she immediately wanted to do whatever she could to make that look go away.

“Will? What is it?”

His smile wavered. “I…” He bit his lip. She expected him to make more of an effort to ask after her or at least pretend this wasn’t a visit with a selfish end in mind, but he didn’t seem to have it in him. “I need your help, Molly.”

“Is one of your family ill?” she asked. She loved the Starling family almost as much as her own, and the thought of one of them suffering was unbearable to her.

“No, they are in good health,” he assured her. “Couldn’t be better, really.”

Ah. It was about the flirt then, just as she had feared. Molly waited for him to explain, hoping she didn’t look as dejected as she felt.

“It’s Miss Morton.” Will cleared his throat, not meeting her eyes. “I want to marry her, Molly. She is so…” His face lit up, but he held back from going into the detail. Just as well, Molly thought, because she was beginning to feel quite queasy. “I am in love with her, but there is someone else sniffing around her, and I am afraid she will be taken in by him. He is a rake from London and I need to save her, Molly.”

For a moment, Molly couldn’t find her voice. It was worse than she had feared. Will truly was lost to her. He seemed to think he was a hero in a romance novel, gallantly rescuing his lady love. What could she do with that? How could she compete? And the worse thing was Will didn’t even know she was in love with him. Molly decided then that she wasn’t going to weep or wail, and she pushed back her shoulders and assumed a stoic pose.

“Who?” she asked.

“His name is Mark Hunter.” Will’s face darkened. “He is a cad, but Celeste seems to fancy him.”

Although Molly had guessed it must be something like this that had brought him to her door, the revelation still hurt. To know the only reason he was bothering to visit her was to ask her to help him win another woman. Her eyes blurred with tears and she blinked them back. He probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway, his head being full of his wonderful Celeste.

“He is your rival,” she guessed quietly, thinking of herself as well as Will.

He nodded, and strode across the room and back again, narrowly avoiding more piles of old clothing. He was always like this when something was troubling him, unable to keep still while the thoughts raced through his head.

Molly tried not to admire how he looked today, the fit of his beige pantaloons, blue superfine jacket and polished boots. Will had become very fashionable of late, and Molly suspected that was down to Celeste as well. The Will Molly had known before hadn’t been concerned with what he wore, and only noticed a hole in his sleeve when someone pointed it out to him.

He was continuing with his rant and despite her growing boredom with the subject of it, Molly tried to pay attention.

“When Miss Morton is alone with me, I know she favours me. I feel it.” He thumped a fist to his chest, where his heart would be. “But when Hunter is there, she is swayed by his smarmy manners and tall tails of the life he leads in the city. I doubt he’s done half of the things he claims to have done. He is determined to have her. He admitted as much to me just now. What’s worse, Molly, is she will be leaving Barton Lacey soon, returning to Shropshire. I am worried that before she goes he will propose and she will say yes. I’m running out of time. I need her to see that I am the better man.”

“So you haven’t proposed to her yet?” Molly asked, despising herself for hoping his answer was ‘no’.

“I almost did this morning. I called on her with the express purpose of asking her to be my wife.” Again, his handsome face darkened. “ Hunter was there.”

She turned away to hide her tangled emotions. Not that he had noticed. Will was too full of his own passions and longings, oblivious to those of his childhood friend.

Molly’s heart was already aching, and if she helped him to marry someone else… No, she could not do that. Better to tell him now and send him on his way. Then she could have a good cry.

“I’m not sure how I can help you, Will,” she said slowly. “I barely know Celeste, and I am not acquainted with Mr Hunter. I am afraid you will have to sort this out yourself.”

Will looked shocked, and for the first time, actually met her eyes. “Don’t say that, Molly,” he begged her. He sat down beside her and took her hands. They were as limp as dead fish, as bereft of vitality as the rest of her, but he squeezed them as if trying to bring life back into them.

“We have been friends for as long as I can remember. You are the one person I can rely on. Always.”

He looked flushed yet hopeful, his blue eyes shining, and Molly felt more than just a little sick. She was sure her smile had gone seriously awry. But once again, he did not appear to notice.

“What do you want me to do?” she said reluctantly.

“I had hoped you could distract Hunter. You are pretty, and he is a terrible flirt. You would have no trouble capturing his attention. And then, when Celeste sees his affections are so easily turned, she will realise that I am the better prospect.”

It was a decent plan, she supposed. If only it didn’t sting so much. Molly pulled a face, trying to tug her hands from his, but he held on tight.

“Please,” he begged, sounding desperate in a way she had never heard before. “Help me this once and I will…I will…” He chewed on his lip as he tried to think of a suitably tempting lure. “Please, I promise whatever you want from me will be yours! I swear it.”

Whatever I want from him? Except the only thing she wanted was the very thing he was about to give another woman. But she couldn’t tell him that. He would stare at her in guilt and dismay, and then in pity. Bad enough he had been oblivious to her feelings for him for all these years, but she could not bear for him to feel sorry for her.

“How do you know Mr Hunter will find me to his taste?” she said at last.

Will laughed. “How can he not?” Then, with a sly grin, “So you will do it? Help me?”

What could she say?

No! She could say no . She should say no!

But Will had been her friend forever and explaining to him now that she didn’t want any part of his plan because of her feelings for him would only break them apart. And then he would know about her feelings for him, and then he and Celeste would discuss it between them, and then they would shake their heads. The poor girl Molly. What a pity. What a foolish little girl…

No, just no .

“I will help you, Will,” she said quietly.

He almost bounced up from his seat. “Thank you, thank you , dear girl! I am engaged for a picnic with Celeste and her uncle on Saturday.”

“A picnic?” she repeated. “The weather has been so uncertain this spring. What if it rains?”

“Ah, it is a picnic in the conservatory. Sir Reginald wants to show us some rare plant he’s found.” He grimaced. “Will you come with me? Abby will be there.”

Molly smiled. Will’s sister was almost as dear to her as Will was. If things went awry, then she could stay close to Abby and ignore everybody else.

“You’ll see, Molly. It won’t be so bad. You might even enjoy yourself. And thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.”

He went on about his plans, but Molly had stopped listening. She was considering what she would wear to the picnic. Making Mr Hunter become infatuated with her seemed unlikely, but if she played her part, then at least Will could see that she had tried.

While the man she loved wooed and proposed to Celeste Morton.

He had made a promise to Molly—anything she wanted. And though she could not ask for the one thing she truly wanted—his heart—she would always have his trust and friendship.

Perhaps that promise would come in handy one day.