A quick smile flickered over her face. He was making idle conversation because she had been so quiet, and she had been so quiet because, for just a moment, she was at a loss for words. Her family and friends would have been astounded.
“Always does this time of year,” was all she could come up with immediately, but then she thought to ask, “Tell me, sir, I can understand why your cousin is here—his mama no doubt insisted he come visit, and she told us she would ask him to—but you, sir … whatever are you doing here?”
“What an odd thing to ask. Why does it surprise you that I accompanied my cousin?”
“You look like a London beau to me … I would have guessed you enjoyed London at this time of year too much to leave it.”
“Well, in that, you are wrong. I do enjoy London, but I have a country home …” As soon as the words were out he realized he had made a slip and hurriedly corrected it. “I like the country just as well.”
“A country home? Where, sir?”
“Just outside London … easy enough to get to,” he said vaguely. “Always wanted to visit the Isle of Wight, and when m’cousin asked, thought it would be a good opportunity.”
She laughed with obvious disbelief. “Fudge.”
“You don’t believe me … but then what other explanation is there?”
She sighed. “You are right. I can’t find one.”
“Now it is my turn,” he said.
“For what?”
“To ask a question.”
“What question?”
“Why it is you are not married?” He eyed her curiously.
She laughed without mirth. “Oh, it is easy enough to answer.”
“I understand that without a London season it might be—”
“Oh, do not mistake, I had a London season, when I was eighteen and my parents were still alive …” She interrupted to correct him.
“Then this is a mystery, and it leaves me baffled. You say you had a London season, what … three years ago if you were eighteen, so I wonder how it was I did not see you there, but then I stayed away from marriageable females.” He winked at her and added, “So then, you had a London season and mean to tell me you hadn’t any suitors?” He shook his head. “I find that impossible to believe. You are too beautiful a woman not to have been snapped up, with or without a dowry!”
She dimpled at the compliment. “Why do you assume I did not receive offers—for I most certainly did?”
“Then did your parents not approve of any of the London bucks that applied for your hand?”
“Oh they approved—even pushed me to accept one in particular … Buckingham—but I wasn’t in love with him.”
“Buckingham?” Ryker exclaimed in shocked accents. “Never say Buckingham proposed to you? He never said a word.”
“Yes, and I don’t suppose he would have mentioned it, as I turned him down.” She sighed. “But he did, along with another whose name escapes me. You see, for some strange reason, I took and became all the rage with the Haute Ton. I thought it odd, but there you are—one never knows what next the beau monde will chase after. At any rate, I believe Bucky thought it fashionable to court me, and then he got caught up in the frenzy of it. He was very much relieved when I turned him down, I do assure you.”
“Bucky? You called him Bucky?” Ryker was incredulous. “How did I miss you … how did I miss the entire thing? You know of course that Buckingham is probably the wealthiest man in all of England …” Ryker’s tone displayed his continued astonishment.
She laughed and then sighed sadly. “Yes, and it is most inconvenient that I could not fall in love with him, for it would have pleased my parents, but there you are. What is it that people are always saying about the heart? It wants what it wants.” She shook her head. “I suppose that is trite but true. At any rate, my heart was not in it …”
“I see. So then, you only mean to give your hand after your heart …” He went thoughtful for the flash of a moment and then said, “And then, of course, you never had another chance at a season. You lost your parents …”
“Ah, precisely. Yes, we lost our parents, and it was, for a time, devastating. We were all very close, and it was all so sudden. The grief was overwhelming for a time …” She looked away and bit her lip.
“And yet, you had to pick yourself up and see to your brother,” he said softly.
She gave him a half-smile. “Yes. Thank goodness for Jimmy. We had each other, and then of course we had Henshaw to see to, as my father had left things in a bit of a fumble.” She sighed. “And now, there is no dowry …”