A Question for Harry (22 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

From the diary of Lady Fiona MacKintosh – Apr 1893

I have submitted a letter to the editors of Ladies Journal cancelling my subscription to their periodical. If the fashion advice offered within those pages proves to be as fallacious as their advice to the tender hearts of Britain as well, I shall know that the whole of it contains nothing but drivel, just as Francis warned.

Hyde Park

Three days later

“I am doing all of this for you, you know
. I came to London …”

“I told you before, Lord Ramsay, that I intended to wait until the Season is over,” Fiona interrupted
. Pedestrians strolling by eyed them quizzically. The sight of a single young woman dressed to ride but leading her mount instead as she conversed with a man on foot must not have been a common one. “And though I did not ask you to come to London, I did request you to take this time to get to know my family. Instead of doing that, you’ve insisted on clandestine meetings …”

In turn, Ramsay interrupted her
, stopping her with a hand on her arm. “All your talk of waiting out the Season! If you had simply eloped with me, none of that would have happened! Why won’t you simply reconsider?”

“Good Lord Almighty,” Fiona muttered under her breath
. “Please do not ask me again!”

His
icy blue eyes were heavy on hers, petulant, containing none of the adoration Fiona had come to expect. Just as none of their conversations compared any longer the
lighthearted banter they had once shared. Though they had always parted with Ramsay’s good-natured apology, Fiona was beginning to see a side of him she could not like as his frustration grew.

Aylesbury’s accusation didn’t help.

“If you aren’t content to wait, Lord Ramsay, perhaps we should just end our association now,” Fiona said at last, ready to kick all of her plans to the curb and begin anew
. “Clearly it has become a source of contention between us. Perhaps if I understood the reason for your impatience?” she added, wondering if he would say anything that might substantiate Aylesbury’s allegation.

The tension dropped from his shoulders as he relented once again
. “I am simply eager to begin our lives together,” he reiterated the same reasoning she had heard from him before, but this time, with that accusation at the back of her mind, it all rang false.

“I apologize for all this, Lord Ramsay, but I truly feel that perhaps the time has come
…”

“What are they doing here?”

Fighting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration, Fiona realized that she was beginning to understand Aylesbury’s compunction to do the same. Turning, she saw Vin and Connor riding toward them. She should have known her time alone was limited; this time she was actually grateful for the interruption. “They are riding as escort for me and I need to go now. Unless you would care to join us?”

“Join you?” Ramsay scoffed
. “They hate me.”

“Why is that exactly?” Fiona asked, pushing again for some sign that Aylesbury might have been right all along.

Ramsay said nothing, merely glowered at her brothers as they reined in their horses close by.

“Ramsay,” Connor nodded in curt acknowledgement
.

Vin said nothing at all, merely glaring at Ramsay as he turned and walked away without a word of farewell
. A few seconds later, Vin kicked his horse into motion and pulled up alongside her suitor, leaning from the saddle to speak. Fiona couldn’t hear what he was saying but couldn’t find it in her to be curious.

“I said ten minutes,” she complained
, turning to Connor.

“You got five
. Be glad for it. Vin was ready to come over the moment Ramsay touched your arm.” Connor dismounted and took the reins of Fiona’s horse from her.
“You do not really plan on marrying Ramsay, do you Blossom?”

“Et tu, Connor?”

“He’s an utter toad.” Connor cupped his hands to help Fiona remount. “Completely lacking in character.”

“Ah, another member of the choir to sing me its sweet chorus!” she mocked
, as she pulled back the skirts of her black riding habit and stepped into her brother’s hands, letting him toss her up into the saddle. “Has everyone joined then?”

“
Seriously, Blossom,” he continued as he, too, remounted and came alongside her as Fiona settled herself in the sidesaddle. “You cannot love him. Not as you should.”

“But I thought such love sickened you?”

Connor shrugged. “More with some than with others, it seems.”

“Why do you all dislike him so
?” Fiona fiddled with her skirts casually, draping them over her leg but tense with anticipation that Connor might say something informative.

“There have been some concerns regarding Lord Ramsay’s motives,” Connor offered vaguely, giving some vindication to Aylesbury’s claim
. Fiona thought she might have been able to pry something more from him but Vin rejoined them.

“
Why did you feel as if you had to meet Ramsay out here like this, Blossom?” he asked.

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t feel free to meet
in a public park the man I intend to marry, Vin?” Fiona asked just to see if he might give away even something more than Connor.

Vin only rolled his eyes unaccommodatingly
. “Bloody hell, Blossom! Still?”

“I am content with my choice, Vin.”

“Bah! Contentment is for a hot bath and even that becomes chilly if you stay in too long,” he grumbled. “What can you possibly see in him?”

“He’s taller than me?” Fiona joked.

Vin and Connor both chuckled at that.

“Aye, no mean feat,” Connor allowed but gestured behind Fiona
. “But he isn’t the only one.”

“Lady Fiona!”

Fiona turned to find Lord Harrowby approaching on an enormous silver dapple Percheron some eighteen hands tall that brought images of ancient Viking warhorses to mind.  However, it was pleasing in proportion to the equally massive earl. Harrowby doffed his tall hat with a breathtaking grin as he pulled the beast to a halt. “Good afternoon, my lady. What a surprise and a pleasure to find you about.”

As it was the most fashionable hour to be seen on Rotten Row and the park was filled to the brim with riders and carriages, Fiona was sure it was no surprise at all
. But Harrowby was handsome enough to make the pleasure of their encounter mutual. “I’m sure you say that to all the ladies,” Fiona said as he kissed her outstretched hand.

“I’m sure I do,” he responded, his blue eyes twinkling as he grinned down at her
. His eyes traveled up and down her length with warm appreciation. “You have a fine seat, Lady Fiona.”

“Yours is
quite fine as well,” she returned giving him the same once over. It wasn’t hard to tell that Harrowby was hoping to fluster her, and Fiona suspected it was but another weapon in a well-stocked arsenal used to keep women blushing around him. She wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction and the earl must have sensed it, his practiced grin relaxing into a more natural smile.

Turning he greeted Connor and introduced himself to Vin before turning back to Fiona
. “I was sorry to miss our dance the other night.”

Fiona produced a quick lie about tearing her hem and having to spend more than an hour in the ladies retiring room to get it fixed
. “I’m sure you hardly missed me.”

Harrowby covered his heart with one hand
. “On the contrary, I was devastated. Why it took six – no, eight – more young ladies in my arms to ease my pain.”

“That many
? How scandalous.”

“My family has long been mired in scandal,” he said with a wink, falling in beside her as they continued down the crushed gravel lane bordering the south side of the Serpentine
. “My mother married my tutor after my uncle, the previous earl, disappeared – never to be seen again.”

“Yes, we MacKintoshs cut our teeth on scandal as well,” Fiona laughed.

“Perhaps we should be scandalous together,” the earl murmured in a low voice, leaning close to her ear so as not to be overheard by her brothers.

Fiona burst out laughing
. “My, my, Harrowby, you do know how to lead a woman on!” she teased, flashing a deep simple before she lowered her voice as well. “But I would wager that the last thing you are looking for is a noose in the form of a wedding ring.”

Chest rumbling in a pleasantly low chuckle, Harrowby favored her with a look of pleasure
. “You are a very astute woman. I can see if I were to welcome matrimony any time soon, I would have to be the hunter when it came to you.”

“Instead of the hunted
?” Fiona nodded. “Imagine the novelty.”

“Indeed, it would almost make such an endeavor worthwhile.”

“Almost.”

Harrowby laughed again as Fiona turned upon hearing her name called again
. This time it was Lord Temple who joined them astride the Appaloosa thoroughbred he had ridden last time Fiona had met him in the park.

“And another
. That makes at least two others,” Connor teased referring to Fiona’s comment about height. “So many choices.”

Fiona waved him off and greeted Temple warmly, introducing him to Harrowby
. “I haven’t seen you in days. I was afraid you’d left London.”

“No
, just meeting with Kimberley.”

“The Foreign Secretary? Nothing serious, I hope?” she asked.

“Nothing more serious than his tiresome garrulity,” Temple assured her with a slight smile. While the Earl of Kimberley was given to random verbal digressions, Fiona rather doubted such verbosity was alone enough to make Temple’s usually serious demeanor even more solemn than normal.

“My goodness, Lord Temple,” Fiona teased, hoping to lure him from his doldrums
. “How awful! Was there no escape?”

Temple smiled
. “I shall just have to tell him next time that I have an appointment to ride with the loveliest lady in London and cannot stay.”

“Let me know and I shall get the bicycles ready!”

Harrowby asked about that, setting off a lively conversation about bicycles and the future of transportation, but minutes later Fiona’s attention was snared by the sight of Aylesbury in the distance. Astride a sleek black Arabian, he was halted next to an elegant equipage with two ladies within. As parasols shifted, she was able to make out Miss Langston. He was speaking to her intently, practically leaning over into the carriage as Miss Langston shook her head dramatically. Finally, he sat upright and tipped his hat politely as the carriage jerked into motion and departed.

Even though he never so much as slouched in his saddle, Fiona could see the dejection in his posture and her unwilling heart went out to him.

“Will you gentlemen excuse me for a moment?”

“Are you all right, Harry?”

Aylesbury blinked, coming out of his sightless reverie as Fiona pulled alongside of him on a large black Frisian Aylesbury recognized all too well. “I didn’t know the countess had brought Angel to London with her.”