Her Secret Fantasy (25 page)

Things were looking awfully cozy over there.

“Actually, now that you mention it, Lily had a letter from her cousin just the other day, didn’t you, dear?” Mrs. Clearwell gave her an encouraging nod, trying to get her to talk to Derek.

“Cousin Pamela?” he asked, tilting his head in curious amusement. “And how is the family scribe?”

“Go on. Tell him about her letter. Pamela writes the most amusing letters!”

“Are they frightful?” Derek asked with a mock shudder.

“Only a little macabre,” Lily conceded, reluctantly succumbing to a smile.

“Do tell.”

The others looked at the two of them without the slightest inkling of what they were talking about.

Ridiculously pleased that Derek had remembered about her Gothic-writing cousin, Lily indulged his curiosity. “Cousin Pamela is in ecstasies over the uninvited guests who have taken up residence in the attic of the north wing of Balfour Manor.”

“Balfour Manor?”

“My home.”

“Her grandfather, the previous Lord Balfour, left it to her in his will,” Mrs. Clearwell boasted, nodding at Lily.

“Oh?” When Derek’s glance swung to her again, a strange look dawned slowly in his eyes.

“It’s the home I grew up in. We’re very lucky it wasn’t entailed. At any rate, we haven’t used that wing of the house in years,” Lily explained, barely noticing the change coming over him. “Unfortunately, there must be a few holes in the roof, for our visitors were spotted swooping in and out from under the eaves after nightfall.”

“Swallows?” Mrs. Coates inquired.

“Bats,” Derek said, guessing correctly, since he was privy to Pamela’s quirky turn of mind.

“You have a colony of bats in your attic, and your cousin is happy about this?” Gabriel asked in confusion.

“It’s atmospheric, Major.” Lily shrugged. “Our Pam’s a little strange. But we love her. The difficult part is that nobody knows what to do about these bats.”

“I do.”

Lily arched a brow at Derek. “Why am I not surprised, with all your hidden talents?”

Mrs. Coates and Lady Amherst did not appear to like her cheeky comment one bit.

Lily pressed her lips shut, supposing her words could be taken as more risqué than she had meant them.

“What is the correct method, Major?” Mrs. Clearwell asked, sticking to the subject before her charge got into another verbal altercation, this time to be outnumbered. “Smoke them out with burning peat?”

“No, in fact. It’s much simpler than that.” Derek was eyeing Lily darkly.

He did not look happy and she couldn’t figure out why. She thought the story about the bats would have amused him. Instead, that tension around the outer corners of his pale blue eyes and the firm line of his jaw hinted that he was annoyed about something. Maybe even angry.

Baffling man!

When he turned to Mrs. Clearwell, his tone was still polite. “The first thing you’ve got to do is close up those holes in the roof.”

“Easier said than done.” Lily shook her head, jumping in again. “The last fellow who came to appraise our roof situation said the whole thing needed to be replaced. It’s nearly half an acre of roofing, and the house is of Tudor vintage. The repairs have to be done properly in a manner that’s true to the period.”

He stared at her in shock. “Good God, that’ll cost a fortune. Have you told Edward this?”

“Derek!” Gabriel exclaimed at his brother’s blunt nosiness.

Lily was used to it. She did not take offense. “Is there something wrong?” she asked him quietly.

“No!” he exclaimed, obviously lying. “I’m just surprised. This is the first that I’ve heard about Balfour Manor. I mean, really, Miss Balfour, I had no idea you were the owner of a huge Tudor mansion!”

Lily looked at him in confusion. “So?”

“Never mind. I’m going to play cricket.” But as he marched off to join the trio of young men beckoning him over to join their team, he passed Lily with a cold glower like midnight in December.

“What?” she cried.

“You could sell the damned thing,” he snarled, then strode away.

Her jaw dropped.

“Major, darling, I’m parched!” Lady Amherst announced, dimpling at Gabriel. “Shall we get something to drink?”

“I’ll come along.” Mrs. Coates seemed to have had enough of Lily’s company, too.

“Er, yes, of course,” Gabriel obliged them. “Miss Balfour, Mrs. Clearwell, if you will excuse us.”

“Certainly. Major. Ladies,” her chaperone said ever so pleasantly. “Enjoy the picnic.”

Gabriel sent Lily an awkward and somewhat apologetic nod of farewell, then was whisked away by the worldly women he had on each arm.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Lily could no longer contain her exasperation. “He growled at me! Derek did.”

“Yes, I heard.”

“What a savage! He is
so
vexing!”

Mrs. Clearwell looked askance at her. “Especially when he’s right.”

“What?”

She shrugged. “If you sell the house, you don’t need Edward’s money, do you?”

“Sell the house? You must be joking.”

“I have never been more serious in my life. It’s time for you to wake up and face reality.”

“But…”

“But, but. Of course! The Balfour family pride. Au revoir, my dear. Just remember, when you make your bed, you’re the one who’ll have to lie in it.” With a nonchalant wave of her fan, Mrs. Clearwell drifted off to mingle with the other guests, leaving Lily alone.

She scowled, watching her chaperone fall in with a knot of lady friends.

Everyone had deserted her!

Sweeping her glance across the green, she spotted Edward still ensconced with Bess Kingsley and her rotund factory-owner father.

She’d have gone over to the tent to fetch a fresh goblet of punch, but poor Gabriel was over there with those two dreadful women.

Reluctantly, she looked toward the cricket field.

Derek had the cricket bat resting on his shoulder and was tossing the ball restlessly in one hand and catching it again, waiting for the game to begin. His teammates crowded around him seeking his counsel on the batting order, which she supposed made him their chosen captain—naturally.

Before long, the match was under way.

Lily shaded her eyes from the sun, watching the bowler take his hop and skip of a step as he made his throw; the ball flew down the pitch, then bounced once up to the striker, who stood with his bat at the ready. The wicketkeeper stood frozen, safely padded, in position behind him, and the umpire crouched nearby, watching all with an eagle-eyed stare.

Snick!

The hard brown ball glanced off the edge of the cricket bat and veered to where the fielders were least expecting it. With the growing crowd of spectators cheering them on, the two batsmen ran, tearing down the pitch, exchanging places, the striker still gripping his bat.

Derek’s “select eleven” quickly began running up the score.

Lily did not want to admit her pleasure in watching him at play, but the easy movement of his tall, elegantly athletic frame radiated certainty and confidence. A lock of his sable hair worked its way loose from the queue and trailed down charmingly to frame his handsome face as he squinted against the sun. He brushed it behind his ear impatiently, but before long, it had slipped free again in the breeze.

He wore light tan-colored trousers and a loose white shirt, the sleeves of which he had rolled up to his elbows for the game. He had removed his jacket, but not the red neckerchief loosely knotted around the base of his tanned throat.

When Derek stepped up to the batting crease, he eyed up the delivery with a fierce look, and then promptly slammed the ball into an unguarded region of the outfield.

The fielding team scrambled to chase it. Before they got hold of it, the soaring ball had bounced and flown again, rolling past the chalked edge of the boundary, and thereby winning Derek’s side four automatic runs.

Riveted, Lily watched him racing toward the bowling end. With the cricket bat in his grasp, it was suddenly easy to imagine him running at an enemy with a sword in his hand, charging into battle.

The sight left her breathless, but it also brought back to mind his determination to return to India and fight in the war, and, honestly, what if he died? She didn’t think she could bear it. But he wouldn’t listen to her.

Instead, he preferred growling at her.
Sell Balfour Manor?
She folded her arms indignantly across her chest. Three hundred years of noble family history auctioned off to the highest bidder?

I think not, Major.

He ought to understand about family pride.

As his fluttering admirers called out congratulations to him, he waved to his crowd of lady fans, and Lily decided it was time to amuse herself elsewhere.

Coxcomb!

She did not want to count herself among the crowd of infatuated females watching his every move.

With that, Lily stalked off to the archery field to distract herself and vent her frustration with the genteel bow and arrow.

A footman handed her a sleek ladies’ bow from the table where the equipment was laid, and then presented her with an arrow and gestured politely toward the targets.

Other ladies were enjoying the sport down the row to Lily’s right and left. She turned her attention to her target, refusing to look back at the cricket field where Derek’s harem kept up their enthusiasms.

She lifted the slender bow and drew her elbow back, taking keen aim. The arrow flew, striking quite near the center as she watched it, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand.
Ah!
There was something so satisfying about the sound it made as it pierced the target and stood, shuddering, in the second circle out from the bull’s-eye.

Not half bad.

Lily lowered the bow and accepted another arrow from the attendant, determined to put all males, Knight and otherwise, out of her mind, at least for a little while.

After loosing more than a dozen arrows, she was drawn into a polite conversation with some ladies who knew her mother. About half an hour had passed when she noticed from the corner of her eye that the cricketers had either quit or were taking a break. Stealing an oh-so-casual glance toward the oak tree, she spied Derek marching toward the house. She looked around for his brother and spotted Gabriel standing with Edward over by the stables.

Oh, of course, she thought. Edward was ever so proud of his pedigreed bloodstock. He wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to show off his horses to the highborn cavalry men.

But then Edward paused with a gesture to Gabriel as if telling him to wait a moment.

Lily perked up when her brawny suitor lifted his arm and beckoned her over.
Hm.
“I think Mr. Lundy may require my assistance,” she told the ladies as she pardoned herself.

“He certainly does,” one of them commented under her breath.

Lily pretended not to hear and went hurrying toward Edward. He was walking toward her, leaving Gabriel up by the stable.

Derek had disappeared inside the house.

“Yes, Edward?” she clipped out as she strode toward her big, bluff beau. “Is there something you require?”

As Lily joined him, Edward took her elbow and leaned closer with a distracted nod. He smelled of too much beer.

“Would you do me a favor?”

She gave him an aloof nod. “What is your will?”

“Go into the house and keep an eye on Derek Knight for me.”

She sucked in a low gasp at the request, because her first thought was that Edward suspected something…

“I can’t leave m’guests,” he mumbled, slurring his words with drink, “so you must do this for me. Watch that blackguard. Make certain he is not getting into anything he—shouldn’t.”

Guilt, she hoped, was not written all over her ashen face. A chill ran down her spine as she wondered if this was some sort of trick.

Had someone seen them together? Reported it to him?

But that was impossible. Edward would not be standing here staring into her eyes, waiting impatiently for an answer, if he knew how desperately she wanted Derek Knight.

“The staff won’t question you,” he said. “They know you have my trust. You remember what I spoke to you about the other day.”

“Yes, but Edward, I’m sure Major Knight is not after your gold—”

“Lily, can I count on you or not?” he interrupted. “Will you do this for me? Now?”

Gazing at him, she realized he was asking her in no uncertain terms to prove her loyalty by doing as he asked.

She swallowed hard and set her panicked confusion aside. “Consider it done.”

Edward gave a pleased nod at her speedy compliance.

Lily nodded back and walked away without another word, her heart pounding.
Oh, blast, I really don’t want to do this. What if Derek sees me following him? What on earth will he think I’m after?

But what choice did she have? This was her chance to remind the straying Edward of how valuable she could be to him. Besides, the sooner she could assuage her suitor’s paranoia, the sooner she might have some peace.

Then an awful thought dawned on her.

Oh, God, she didn’t want to have to find him in the arms of his latest amour! What if he had slipped away for another rendezvous with his beautiful companion, just like he had at the masked ball the night they met?

But maybe it was for the best. Seeing him in a torrid embrace with Mrs. Coates would certainly make it a great deal easier to eject Derek Knight from her heart for once and for all. Who could say? Maybe Edward
had
noticed her fascination with the major, and in his own crude way, was forcing her to face reality.

The reality that Derek had lots of women and probably always would.

But even as she thought these things, her heart refused to believe it. She had seen him with little Matthew. She had seen his kindness to that horse…

When she strode into the Lundys’ giant castle-house, she found that on this fine day, only a few guests and servants tarried inside. A cluster of elders in the neo-Gothic great hall had had enough of the sun and were busy bemoaning the foibles of the younger generation. They paid no mind as Lily hurried past them, glancing into the various rooms for any sign of the major.