“Or,” Thea said, “you could head out on the Marriage Mart and look for yourself.” The “Marriage Mart” was the name given to the round of social parties and engagements during the season when Parliament was in session. Many a match had been made at these events.
“I don’t want to do that,” he said, still not making eye contact with her.
A memory came to her of the two of them sitting on the same rock beside a running stream, their secret place. She’d been what? Fourteen? He must have been sixteen. She saw them, their heads together, laughing, drawing courage fromeach other. Their friendship had helped make her world sane, and then the next day, she’d escaped to meet him again as they had done every morning for the past month or more, and he hadn’t been there. She’d visited the site every day for the rest of her summer, and he’d never showed again.
No warning, no explanation ... and then, in the fall, she’d heard that he’d left for school and she’d stopped searching for him. She’d not seen him again until this moment.
“Then I shall need to know what you are looking for if I am to sift through the large number of women who would be very pleased to marry a wealthy, well-respected nobleman.” She heard herself sounding like a society matron planning a party. She liked the tone. It was distant and didn’t convey the turbulence of her own emotions.
His jaw hardened.
When he didn’t speak, Sir James prompted him once again. “Lyon, what are you looking for in a wife?”
His lordship stirred himself then to sit up. He answered, still addressing himself to Sir James, his voice low, almost inaudible. “Good family.”
How original,Thea wanted to say. Instead, she said, “Absolutely. And other qualities?”
There was a beat of silence. Thea felt herdisdain for this man growing. After the confidences they had shared, how could he sit beside her as if they were strangers? How could he be so bloody cold?
“I don’t want a cold woman,” he said, as if he’d divined her thoughts. “My mother was cold. Some say I am as well.”
But he didn’t used to be.A wave of sadness swept away her disdain.
“Good with children,” he continued. “Our children must be her priority.”
Something that hadn’t been true about his mother.
Thea resisted the urge to place a comforting hand upon his arm. If Neal hadn’t valued their friendship, he certainly wouldn’t want her pity now.
“And she must be someone I cannot like,” he said. “Admired by others ... butI must not like her.”
Warm thoughts of him vanished from Thea’s mind. “You don’t want to ‘like’ the woman who will be your wife?”
At last he faced her, his features set.“No.”
“My lord, that is a ludicrous, irresponsible position.”The words had just burst out of her, carried by her previous disappointments in him.
Apparently, few talked to Lord Lyon in such a direct manner. Sir James’s mouth dropped open.
His lordship sat up even taller. “I find it very responsible.”
“Then you are deceiving yourself,” Thea said. She’d gone this far, she might as well go further. “Not all marriages can be built on love, but those are the best. At the very least there should be the compatibility of admiration and respect. Oflikingthe person you take a vow before God to cherish and honor.”
“That is your opinion. It is not mine.”
Thea looked into his eyes and saw a stranger. “Whatever happened to that boy I once knew who believed in friendship?” she said. “That lad whose confidences I valued and whose opinion I trusted?”
“Let us take a moment to consider our words,” Sir James advised, as if wishing to avert a disaster.
“I can’t help you arrange such a marriage as this,” Thea went on, ignoring the lawyer. “Knowing what I do of you, it would not be right.”
“You know nothing of me,” Lord Lyon countered.
“I beg to differ, my lord. I may know more of you than you know of yourself.”
“And what would that be?” he challenged.
Thea sat back, realizing she was now on very sensitive ground. How welldidshe know him? How muchhadhe changed?