Page 64 of The Bridal Quest

"No," Irene told her firmly. "It does not. I am here to help find Lord Radbourne a wife—some other wife. I believe that he has finally accepted that I am not the proper candidate for that position."

"I see." Francesca nodded, looking at Irene shrewdly. "Well, I will be glad for your help. Everyone liked the idea of a ride about the estate tomorrow, but all the mothers are inclined to stay at home. So I will have four men and six young women to oversee, and I feel quite certain that Lord Hurley will be of no use whatsoever in that regard. I would enormously appreciate your help to chaperone them."

"Yes, of course," Irene agreed. "I intended to do so."

She watched as Gideon's group was joined by his great-aunt, who brought with her Lady Salisbridge and her daughters. Gideon turned his attention to them, making a perfectly acceptable bow. The conversation looked as if it was slow-going, but he remained, and if his expression was not enthralled, at least he did not appear as if he might bolt at any moment, even after Piers slipped away from the group.

Gideon was, Irene thought, making an effort. He was trying to get to know Francesca's candidates, the first step in choosing his wife. She was aware of a little prick of pain in her chest at the thought.

Was Francesca right? Was she jealous of these women and the attention Gideon was paying them? She told herself that was ridiculous. She had not dismissed any of the women as unacceptable for Gideon for any reason other than the ones she had given Francesca. She simply did not think that he would want any of them. None of them were right for him. None of them were good enough.

With, of course, one notable exception.

"Lady Calandra," Irene said to Francesca, almost forcing the words out.

"What?"

"I was just saying that I find the duke's sister quite attractive and very pleasant, not at all bland or boring. She is a woman I am sure will meet with Lord Radbourne's approval."

"Oh, Callie." Francesca waved a hand in dismissal. "She is not someone I selected for Lord Radbourne. There isn't the slightest reason for her not to marry exactly as she pleases. She has an extremely nice portion, and she is the daughter of a duke. Nor would Rochford ever urge her to marry unless she truly wanted to. She is the apple of his eye, no matter now stern he likes to pretend he is with her."

Irene tried to ignore the fact that her chest suddenly felt much lighter. "Then you do not think she would choose Lord Radbourne?"

"I would not believe so," Francesca replied, then added, "I suppose it is possible, but, well, I would think he is a trifle dour for her. And in any case, they are related, are they not? Not first cousins, of course—is it second or third? But I do not think she would even regard him as a potential match. I invited her and Rochford merely because they are relatives, and I thought having them here might make it seem more normal. Less like a ... well, what it is."

"Oh. Well." Irene struggled a little to keep her lips from twitching up into a smile. "Pity."

"Yes, isn't it?" Francesca added drily. She leaned in a little closer and murmured, "My dear Irene, I think that you must be rather better at lying to yourself than you are at lying to others."

Then, with a smile, she walked away.

Chapter Fifteen

Irene told herself that Francesca was wrong. She was not lying to herself about her feelings for Gideon. She was quite aware of how dangerously close she was to tumbling into love with him. But she also knew that she could not allow that to happen. She would not let her heart sweep her into making foolish decisions, as had happened with so many other women.

So she kept her distance from him, settling into the role of chaperone and helping Francesca with whatever task needed doing. She spent the first day touring the estate with the other young people, but she did not ride beside Gideon or talk to him. She watched as he rode alongside first one young woman, then another, talking to each one, even, she thought, flirting a little with Norah Ferrington. In the drawing room after supper that evening, she watched him exchange pleasantries with the girls and listen politely as they played the piano or sang, even standing beside Marian Salisbridge to turn the music for her. And the following day, through a session of lawn tennis in the warm August after-noon and then tea afterward, she watched him devote his attention to each one of the women in turn.

It surprised her somewhat that he was actually making an effort to mingle with the marriage candidates whom Francesca and his great-aunt had selected for him. He had apparently accepted her own refusal to marry him and was intent on pursuing someone more willing. He did not seek Irene out for conversation or even ask her for a dance when the girls cajoled Pansy and Odelia into letting them roll back the carpet in the center of the music room and engage in an impromptu party. Piers asked to stand up with her, as did Gideon's uncle Jasper and Mr. Surton and even Lord Hurley, but Gideon did not approach her.

It was a slight that, she realized, was noticed by others, for as she stood, watching the couples go through an energetic country dance, Lady Teresa came up beside her and said, "Fickle creatures, men."

Irene looked at her coldly. "I am sure I don't know what you mean."

"Do you not?" Teresa smiled and shrugged. "If you wish to pretend you had no hopes of landing him, well, who am I to deny it?" She paused, then went on. "It is just as well that you did not set your cap for him. Whoever he marries will not have his heart. He has a low-born mistress in London, and she is the one he loves."

"What?" Startled, Irene turned to look at Teresa in amazement. She realized then that she had shown too much of her feelings to this woman, and she shrugged, striving for an expression of indifference. "Many men have mistresses, especially before they marry."

"Well, he intends to keep her. Her name is Dora. I heard him arguing with Lady Odelia about her. Radbourne said that he would never give up Dora."

Irene felt for a moment as if she could not breathe, and the intensity of the pain that stabbed through her chest shocked her. Dora. It had been years, but she remembered that name clearly. It had been the one Gideon had spoken that very first time she saw him, the name of the woman whom he had warned her father to stay away from. The woman he had been so determined to protect that he had attacked a peer of the realm.

And now, so many years later, she was still his mistress. Clearly this Dora held his heart, and so no wife would ever be able to.

"Indeed?" she said at last, striving to keep her voice cool. "It would seem that he has the same problem as his father—marrying one woman while still bound to another."

Teresa's eyes flared with fury at Irene's words, and she turned and stalked away, leaving Irene feeling a trifle guilty over what she had said. She should not have been so cruel, she thought, even if Teresa had hurt her. But she had been unprepared for the pain it caused to hear that Gideon loved another woman, and she had lashed out without stopping to consider her words or the injury they would inflict.

Was what Teresa had said true? she wondered. Or had the other woman made it up only to hurt Irene, and to drive a wedge between her and Gideon? Francesca had been sure that Teresa wanted to keep Gideon from marrying Irene in the hopes that Teresa's son would remain the heir to Gideon's title. But Teresa must have seen that Gideon was no longer pursuing Irene, that he was, instead, dancing attendance on other women. There seemed, therefore, little reason for her to have made up such a story.