Indeed, he was.
“He has good looks,” Thea agreed without enthusiasm as she poked the rose’s stem into her arrangement.
“ ‘He has good looks,’ ” Mirabel repeated, mimicking Thea’s tone. “He’s an Adonis. Probably one of themosthandsome men I’ve ever met, andyouwish to toss him away on scatterbrained, selfish chits who won’t appreciate him?”
“Hewantsone of those scatterbrained, selfish chits,” Thea said, picking up the vase and escaping out the pantry door.
Mirabel followed, as Thea had expected her to do. Mirabel could be single-minded in the pursuit of an idea. “I don’t believe that is true,” she informed Thea. “He was asking me all sorts of questions about you. He’s very interested, and, Ibelieve, with something more than affection for an old friendship.”
Thea pulled up short. Mirabel almost ran into her. Thea faced her. “Now you are doing it a bit too brown,” she informed her friend. “Lord Lyon is not the curious sort. He wasn’t asking questions.” She set the bouquet on a sideboard in the dining room.
“He was in his mind,” Mirabel insisted. “I thought he would eat you up with his eyes when you came in holding those flowers. You did look quite charming, and I could feel the interestradiatingfrom him.”
“I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary,” Thea said, moving a daisy away from a rose in the bouquet, although heat rushed to her cheeks. “If anything, he seemed a bit tired.”
Mirabel hummed her disbelief. “And he likes your sons.”
“He likeschildren. That is why he wishes to marry,” Thea said, making a beeline for the dining room door and away from Mirabel’s tempting suspicions. She couldn’t think this way. She mustn’t. If Neal had been interested in her, then why had he kept his distance this past week when she’d been making arrangements for the house party?
“He gave your sons presents,” Mirabel pointedout, following close behind her. To Thea’s dismissive wave of her hand, Mirabel said, “A book is a very personal gift.”
Thea stopped in her tracks. “Books are not personal. Anyone can receive a book.”
Her words lacked conviction, and Mirabel pounced upon them. “Have you seen the price of books?Verypersonal. Of course, I would prefer rubies, but books would be the perfect gift for you.”
Starting down the hall again, Thea said, “These books had stories that would appeal to young boys.”
“Exactly my point. If a man wants to impress you, he should buy books for your sons, and Lyon knows it. You both might not admit it yet, but he wants to woo you—”
Her voice broke off as they rounded the corner into the main foyer and realized they had guests.
Lady Montvale, her husband, her daughter, and a good sampling of her servants had just arrived.
Any retort Thea had been about to launch at Mirabel caught in her throat at the realization they might have been overheard.
Her ladyship, still in her traveling coat and wearing a velvet cap embellished with rose ostrich plumes, began pulling off her gloves. “Who wants to woo you, Mrs. Martin?” she said.
Thea’s first impulse was to blurt out that Mirabel had been speaking nonsense.
Fortunately, Mirabel had a cooler head. “Yvette,” Mirabel said. “Lady Yvette. She is another option, but Mrs. Martin wouldn’t invite her for the house party. She said she wanted to give your lovely daughter, Lady Susanne—”
“Cynthia,” Thea broke in, realizing Mirabel’s mistake. Mrs. Pomfrey’s daughter was Susanne. “Lady Cynthia.”
“Oh, yes, Lady Cynthia,” Mirabel said, soldiering on. She smiled at the young girl who was truly pretty, save for the petulant set of her mouth and an air of laziness. “Lady Cynthia, what a pleasure to meet you. I am Mirabel, Lady Palmer.”
Lady Cynthia looked Mirabel up and down as if she’d been beneath her.
Oh, yes, here was a woman Neal could not love.
Thea stepped forward, and introductions were made. Mirabel entrusted her servants to show the Montvale servants to their quarters.
“Who is this Lady Yvette?” Lady Montvale asked Thea. “Is she a threat? And who else did you invite?”
Thea dodged her curiosity about Lady Yvette with some mumbled comment. She knew Mirabel had just made the name up. As to her otherquestion, it was answered as Lady Lila and her father Lord Corkindale arrived. Within the space of forty minutes, the foyer was a scene of comings and goings. Mrs. Pomfrey and her family were the next to arrive. She barely spoke to her good friend Lady Montvale, a sign the competition between them to bring their daughters to the attention of Lord Lyon was going to be cutthroat.
Two other young women arrived with their parents. Lady Jane Birdinger and Lady Sophie Carpsley were from well-respected families and very much of the same spoiled, indolent ilk as the other women.
In fact, Lady Lila stood out because she came across as bolder and more athletic than her peers.