“He’s going to continue to call on you.”
Alyssa sighed. “I wish he would not. I haven’t done anything to encourage him and everything I know to discourage him.”
Miranda gave a short laugh. “I must admit I’m a bit surprised that he’s being so persistent. His mother must be determined to have you for the next duchess; otherwise, Sussex would have given up. He certainly didn’t devote nearly as much effort into courting the last young woman he thought would make a suitable duchess.”
“Who was she?” Alyssa asked, more out of a sense of curiosity than anything else.
“Me,” Miranda answered.
Alyssa gasped. “Oh, Miranda, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“There’s no reason you should,” she answered. “He only called upon me four times, and that was years ago during my first season.”
“What happened?”
“Her Grace, the dowager duchess, did not approve. As you’ve no doubt noticed, I don’t look the part of a dainty debutante or of a darling daughter-in-law.”
Alyssa widened her eyes, and understanding dawned. “You love him.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.
“Not that he deserves it,” Miranda answered belligerently. “But yes, I love him. I think I’ve loved him from the first moment I met him and will probably continue to do so unto the day I die.”
“Does he know?” Alyssa asked.
Miranda shook her head. “He thinks I despise him,” she said. “And I like it that way.”
“But Miranda—”
“No, buts.” Miranda was firm. “I’d rather have his dislike and his contempt than his pity. I’m a wealthy marchioness in my own right. I don’t need to marry, and I certainly don’t need any man’s pity.”
“Did you accept my invitation to visit because you knew he would continue to pay me court?”
Miranda paused before answering honestly. “I didn’t know for certain if he would continue to court you, but… Well, anyone with half an eye—anyone except Sussex, that is—can see that you’re crazy about Griffin. Let’s just say I hoped if I were here, he’d remember I was alive and available.”
Alyssa smiled. “Then I’ll see what I can do about encouraging him to visit.”
* * *
The days and weeks and months passed, one rolling into the other.
The gillyflower, sweet pea, feverfew, chamomile, hollyhock, larkspur, mallow, nasturtium, and roses bloomed in the garden. Alyssa marked the days on the calendar, noting the blooms in the garden as a way of passing the time.
She took great satisfaction in the renovations, noting the newly designed and carefully tended herb garden with its well-defined borders of low-growing perennials. She kept detailed sketches of the wild, overgrown, and unruly beds that had yet to be redesigned, marking each plant with colored threads as to whether she intended to keep, relocate, or discard it. And Alyssa spent her time identifying plants and drawing the extensive sketches needed to keep track of their locations throughout the garden. Noting the blooming dates helped, for the greenery was often the same and only the colors of the blooms distinguished one species or variation of a plant from another.
Miranda and the Duke of Sussex often accompanied Alyssa on her garden expeditions. Miranda often pitched in with the chores of weeding the beds and gathering herbs for Alyssa’s concoctions. Sussex carried baskets of cuttings and carted easels and paints about the garden, moved chairs and benches and the occasional statue, as the ladies painted and sketched and planned the renovations of the established flowerbeds.
It was a glorious way to spend the late summer.
They often dined al fresco in the garden, and Miranda twice extended her visit. Miranda’s company kept Alyssa from working from sunrise to sundown, for the marchioness enlisted Alyssa’s aid with the numerous county charities.
One afternoon they moved the pianoforte into the redesigned section of the west lawn and hosted a garden party for the children confined to the Haversham poorhouse, and the next afternoon they hosted another garden party for the women confined there.
They rode each good day, exploring the countryside as Alyssa learned the boundaries of the estate and met the tenants and the villagers who worked there.
Miranda’s visit lasted longer than either of them expected—from Saint Swithin’s Day until the end of the season.
Surprisingly, the Duke of Sussex’s visit to his country home lasted almost as long. Both Alyssa and Miranda were surprised that the popular duke had forsaken the remainder of the season in order to keep them company in the country.
During the weeks Miranda was in residence and the duke was at home in the country, Alyssa became the mistress of Abernathy Manor. And as mistress and hostess of Abernathy Manor, she kept her word, inviting Sussex to the manor on an almost daily basis, using every excuse she could think of to persuade him to accept, then using just as many creative excuses to find ways of leaving him and Miranda alone and unchaperoned.