Page 33 of More or Less a Countess
“Very good, Lord Dare.” Gibbs disappeared into the clothes press and came back out a moment later with the green coat cradled lovingly in his hands. “Perhaps lack of attention to dress could be considered a certain kind of madness, my lord?”
“Or excessive attention to it,” Nick shot back. “I’d be delighted to argue the point with you, Gibbs, but Lady Westcott awaits, and we both know patience isn’t one of her virtues.”
“Yes, my lord.”
After the usual tussle with Gibbs over his cravat, Nick at last made it downstairs. He paused outside the drawing room, surprised to hear the low murmur of feminine voices, but he twisted his mouth into a charming smile and pushed open the door. “Good afternoon, Aunt. I didn’t realize we had company—”
As soon as he saw who awaited him he froze to a halt, and the words died on his lips.
“Ah, here’s Lord Dare at last.”
His aunt smiled and held out her hand to him, but Nick hardly heard her. His gaze was fixed on a pale, dark-haired young lady who was seated to his aunt’s right. “Louisa.”
He knew at once he’d said the wrong thing, because Louisa’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment. “Good afternoon, Lord Dare.”
Lord Dare. Yes, of course. It wasn’t proper for him to address her by her Christian name anymore. They were no longer children, and he hadn’t laid eyes on Louisa Covington for more than two years.
Not since Graham’s funeral.
“I beg your pardon. Good afternoon, Miss Covington.” He managed a stiff bow. “Lady Covington,” he added, with a second bow for Louisa’s mother, who was watching him with a pinched expression on her thin face.
“Sit, my dear boy, and I’ll pour you some tea.” His aunt nodded toward one of the settees.
A sense of unreality swept over Nick as he lurched toward the settee and collapsed onto it just before his knees gave out. Louisa, Lady Covington, and his aunt, all taking tea together—it was so familiar, as if he’d somehow stumbled into the past when he opened the door of the drawing room.
But it wasn’t quite the same, and it never would be, because even as the four of them sat politely sipping their tea, they were each painfully aware something was missing, no matter how hard they all tried to pretend it wasn’t.
Someone.
Graham.
Graham was dead, and where he should have been there was only Nick, a pale imitation of his brother, the man who should have been Lord Dare.
“Lady Covington happens to be in town for the next few weeks.” His aunt passed him a cup of tea. “Rather unexpectedly, but of course she and Louisa insisted upon calling on you as soon as they arrived.”
“How kind,” Nick murmured, but the muscles in his neck corded with tension. The lie fell with smooth precision from his aunt’s lips, but he knew damn well there was nothing unexpected about Lady Covington’s sudden appearance in London. His aunt must have written to her as soon as he arrived, and now here she was, dragging Louisa along with her like a child tangled in her leading strings.
A heavy silence fell. Nick glanced at Louisa, and his heart heaved in protest at the look of despair on her face. She was no better at hiding her emotions than she’d been when they were eight years old, and it was painful to witness her humiliation at being offered up to Nick as if she were a sweet on a silver tray.
Lady Covington was assessing Nick with pale, icy blue eyes. After a long moment, she cleared her throat with a delicate little cough. “You’ve had quite a long sojourn on the Continent, Lord Dare. It’s lovely to have you back in England. Do you intend to stay for long?”
“No. Only long enough to tend to some business with the estate, and see that my aunt is comfortably settled—”
“Of course he’ll stay.” His aunt reached over to pat his hand. “He’s Lord Dare now, and the Dare Earldom is too extensive to be managed from a distance. The West Sussex estate was sadly neglected during his poor father’s illness, I’m afraid. It needs to be seen to, and of course there are the other, ah…obligations incumbent upon the heir of such substantial properties.”
Obligations.Nick’s throat went dry as the full weight of his aunt’s words slammed into him. The Dare Earldom, the country estate in West Sussex, Louisa Covington…the next forty years of his life unfurled with sickening clarity before his eyes.
Except it wasn’t his life at all. It was Graham’s.
Nick darted another quick glance at Louisa, whose face had flushed a dull red with quiet misery. She’d been one of his dearest friends growing up—he and Graham and Louisa had been inseparable as children. He’d taught Louisa how to ride astride, and how to climb trees and catch a fish with only a stick and a bit of string.
But it had been different for Louisa and Graham. They’d been madly in love from the moment they first laid eyes on each other, and one had only to look at Louisa now to see Graham’s ghost lived in every lonely corner of her heart still.
So this was to be his fate. He was meant to manage Graham’s earldom, and live on Graham’s estate with Graham’s former betrothed as his wife. To live Graham’s life, without a prayer of ever being able to do justice to it.
“Obligations, yes.” Lady Covington slid at glance at Louisa, but a frown creased her brow when she noticed her daughter’s expression. “I’m certain the present Lord Dare is more than adequate to the challenge. Don’t you agree, Louisa?”
Louisa was well aware only one answer was acceptable, and she gave it. “Yes, of course.”
