“Yes!”
“You want this woman, and you’re asking me for the best way to minimize the damage politically.”
Aaron grimaced. “I don’t care about the damage. I just want to pass my orphans resolution first. I need you to help me get her to wait.”
“Just ask her to wait.”
He shook her head. “You know her mother. Any understanding between me and Lilah will be all over London within the hour.”
That was true.
“And I cannot ask a woman to keep a secret from her mother. I just—”
“You can’t risk it. I understand.” And he did. Aaron had fallen for an inappropriate woman and his honorable nature had made it such that he would propose no matter what the consequences were. But he couldn’t choose his own happiness over food and shelter for orphans, so he needed a delay.
Or he needed a best friend who would turn the lady elsewhere, thereby saving Aaron from himself.
“I understand completely,” Jackson said. “You may rely on me.”
Chapter Eight
Gwen went upstairswith her mind swirling in chaos. It didn’t settle while changing her clothes. Indeed, even composing a letter to Mr. Wedgewood of the London Horticulture Society regarding the cultivation of daffodils barely occupied her for more than fifteen minutes. In the end, she could stand herself no longer and went to the one person who never failed to settle her thoughts: her half-sister Lilah.
She knocked gently on the door into the upstairs parlor and was bid enter. As she knew would happen, she saw Lilah seated at her escritoire as she decided on the next week’s meals. Mama had long since declared that Lilah managed the staff much better than anyone else in the household and Lilah was all too willing to bring the servants in line. She had been doing the menus—as well as a host of other household duties—since her adolescence. Except today, when she was staring out into space with her pencil unmoving where it pressed against the foolscap.
“Lilah? Is something amiss?”
“What?” The woman jolted before giving her a dreamy smile. “No, I was just daydreaming.”
Intrigued, Gwen pushed inside. “It looked like a very pleasant daydream.”
“It was,” her sister said, but then her expression fell. “But it was just a dream.”
“About what…?” She pressed, but her sister was ever circumspect.
“Just a kiss with a handsome man. No one of importance.”
Gwen dropped down on the settee beside her sister. “Which man? When? Tell me everything!”
Her sister focused on her. “Since when do you find my daydreams interesting?”
“Always. I just…” She shrugged. “I suppose I forget sometimes to ask. I get distracted and then—”
“And then everything else disappears from your mind.” Her sister smiled as she spoke to show she was teasing. “How was your visit with Aunt Isabelle?”
Gwen wrinkled her nose. “She wants me to get control of my dowry now that I’m a spinster.”
“You’re hardly that.”
“I’m definitely that, and I like the idea of being independent, at least a little.”
Lilah nodded. “Then you should talk to Elliot.”
“I already have. Aunt Isabelle made me write a letter to him last night. She didn’t want me to tell him she needs investors in her canals, but I think that’s what she really wants.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“She’s offered to teach me things if I give the money to her.”