“Thank you,” Millie said sincerely.
“Now, you must decide what you wish that fate to be.”
Millie cast her gaze back out the window.
How was she to do so when her head and her heart refused to agree?
Chapter Nine
Neville hired aRunner to investigate Mrs. Cartwright’s letter, and then, on a tip from Asquith’s valet, he found Asquith at Asquith House’s stables. Both these things he managed in under two hours. From there, Neville intended to escort Asquith to Harbury’s, but Asquith had taken one look at Neville’s rag-and-bone shop clothes and insisted Neville go home and change.
You are about to ask Millie for her hand. Do you really want to do so looking not-quite-yourself and wearing pea green?
Neville could see Asquith’s point, and so, against his better judgment, he’d complied. However, as Gerard, Neville’s valet, swiped a sharpened razor across his cheek, sitting still proved more challenging than Neville had expected.
The soap’s pungent scent stung his nose, and the blade crackled across his skin. As his stubble was sliced away, he thought of Millie’s earlier proximity to another blade, one wielded with ill intent. He suppressed a shudder.
How had Millie not only gotten away from Willard, but managed to steal his knife, too?
“If you’ll pardon, my lord,” Gerard intoned dryly, “your huffing will not make things go any faster. What must be done, must be done.”
“Ah, but must I beshaved, as well as tidied and changed? That is the question.”
Gerard let out a world-weary exhale. “Asquith was quite right to send you to me. You looked a fright. No lady in her right mind would have accepted an offer of marriage from you.”
Ah, but would Millie accept him at all, clean-shaven or not? “Under the circumstance—”
“Under the circumstance,”—Gerard abruptly lifted his hands and glared down, razor poised—“you must takeextracare.”
Neville supposed that argumentcouldbe made.
“I have never known you to exaggerate, my lord. And if your description of the evening was accurate, the lady will be exhausted when you make your case. Possibly even overwrought.”
Neville kept himself from reacting. But Millie? Overwrought?Doubtful.
“In other words,” Gerard continued, “she will be in no condition to receive, let alone accept your proposal. If you wish to overcome those impediments, you must appear to your potential bride as the tidy center of gentlemanly calm.”
Gentlemanly calm.
No two words could be further from his present state.
Then again, who was he to argue?
Gerard was an excellent valet, a trusted retainer. He’d never steered Neville wrong before. Then again, Neville had never asked another lady for her hand.
Asquith had been even more blunt, telling Neville in no uncertain terms his garments were appalling, his gloves a disgrace, and he stank so badly of sweat and fear, Asquith’s newly acquired horse had taken an instant dislike to him.
The horse, in fact, was the reason Asquith had given for his mysterious absence throughout the day. Apparently, Asquith had wanted to buy the handsome stallion for some time. Early in the afternoon, he’d received word of a private auction. He’d setoff immediately, which was why Eliza and Adrian had not been able to locate him regarding Willard’s request to escort Millie.
A request which, of course, Asquith would have denied.
After Neville had related the evening’s events, Asquith set off to see Millicent as soon as possible. While he had promised Neville he would do what he could to put Millie in an accepting frame of mind, he had also made clear would not force his ward to make an immediate choice about her future.
For that, Neville must rely on his own powers of persuasion.
“Now,” Gerard continued, “just a little bit longer on the throat, and then you can finish telling me about your visit with the Bow Street Runner.”
What was there to say? He’d wanted to resolve John’s problem discreetly and on his own, but Mrs. Cartwright’s revelations and Willard’s aggressive attack on Millie made the Runner a necessary evil.