Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice (12 page)

“I have heard tell,” Lady Augusta replied, “that you have been at great pains to redecorate your dining room to your own tastes. I must say, we are all most eager to view it, however, wouldn’t it be
best if we were to wait for your other guests?”

For a moment, Colin thought she was jesting with him, and then he recalled that Analisa had not yet arrived. “Yes, of course, my sister; I daresay she shall arrive at any moment.”

“And what of the other gentlemen invited?” Miss Armistead asked. “Hadn’t we best tarry here for them, as well?”

Thunderstruck, Colin prayed the alarm he felt did not show on his face. “Oh, yes . . the other gentlemen. I don’t believe I have received acceptances from any of them. Perhaps Analisa has done.”

“What is it I am to have done?” Analisa asked as she entered the room.

Colin went swiftly to her side, drew her back into the hall, and firmly shut the door behind them as he dismissed the footman who lingered nearby; his attention seemed too sharp for comfort. “You shall be appalled when I tell you, but I failed to issue invitations to any save those already arrived. I don’t suppose you thought to speak to any of the gentlemen we considered, have you?”

“But of course not!” Analisa protested. “I had thought you had that well in hand. I can see that you are helpless without a woman to serve as your hostess.”

“I had thought you to be my hostess, Analisa. Was that not understood?”

“No, it was not. Need I remind you that I am just out of the school room and as such am unsuitable for such a role?” she asked, a bit cross. “Well! We shall simply have to make do but it shall seem very odd, there is no doubt of that. I pray that we might count on Lady Augusta to refrain from speaking of this to her friends. As for the others, they will all be gone from London by the end of the season and we may breathe far easier then.”

“Yes, but how might I excuse myself for such a lapse? There was so much conversation on the topic of having an even number of ladies and gentlemen, how do I explain?” Oh, no!” he cried as the whole truth dawned on him. “I told Cook that dinner would be for ten. I was very particular that she should have enough food for five hungry gentlemen. She will have my head on a platter, I have no doubt! And Evans! I insisted that he go out at the last minute and acquire more port as I was without
any doubt that more was needed.”

Analisa favored him with a most grave expression, whereupon her eyes began to twinkle and she dissolved into laughter. “Oh, Colin, it is above all things rich! I am persuaded we shall have a marvelous time, just the six of us, and no one shall be the wiser. But, yes, we must arrive at an explanation that bears scrutiny, to be sure!”

“I am most relieved that you have arrived at the same conclusion as have I,” Colin said a bit disdainfully.

“Yes, well,” she replied, quelling her laughter, “I believe we might do well enough if we simply tell them the truth.”

Colin silently considered this proposal but found he must reject it. He could hardly claim that his mind was so taken up with what should be Miss Armistead’s wondrous reaction to his having built a room around a painting she admired that he simply forgot to invite the gentlemen. No, that would never do. “I suppose I might say that I had some rather onerous business matters that claimed my attention.”

“Oh, Colin, you mustn’t! They know you have arranged to redecorate an entire room to be ready for this evening, and you have managed to do so in an exceedingly short period of time in spite of business matters, am I not correct?”

“Yes, I have, but just,” he said wryly. “I could claim that, in my eagerness to have everything perfect for tonight, the inviting of the others slipped my mind.” It was close enough to the truth to slip as easily from his tongue as the issuing of invitations had his memory.

“I suppose that will have to do. Now,” she urged as she adjusted his neck cloth and brushed a speck of dust from his coat sleeve, “you must simply loosen up. They will assume you are dissembling if you walk in there with your shoulders up around your ears.”

Colin took a deep breath and allowed his shoulders to drop. “Shall I pass muster, then?”

“Yes,” his sister said as she gave him a twinkling look. “I have always maintained that you are
the handsomest of my brothers.”

“I am your only brother, you dullard,” he taunted as he pulled her hand through to rest on his arm.

“Yes, but if I were to say what I am truly thinking, you should become unbearably puffed up.”

“Since I do not know what it is you are thinking, I am unable to comment as to your accuracy. However, I suspect I might say the same of you,” he said with a doting smile. “And now we shall sally forth and take our lumps, shall we not?”

Together they pushed open the door and walked into the salon.

“They are returned,” Lady Augusta announced as if the others in the room were quite blind. “Is there anything about which we should be aware?”

“Nothing untoward, Lady Augusta,” Colin answered. “Only, it seems that we might go into dinner immediately if it is quite ready. I must apologize for our uneven numbers. I was so eager to arrange matters in the dining room that I neglected to issue invitations to any besides those already present. It is unfortunate but there is nothing to be done about it but eat twice as much as intended. I pray Cook shall not take me to task for working her harder than was needful.”

“Then it shall just be us,” Miss Armistead replied. “I own, it is a pleasant notion and I find I am most anxious to take in the beauty of your newly decorated dining room.”

Colin was so well-pleased that he wondered how he could bear the thought of Miss Armistead going off to Scotland for any reason at all whatsoever. “Then there is nothing for it but to proceed.”

“Colin, I shall just pull the bell and remain here to let them know below stairs that we shall be waiting in the dining room,” Analisa said.

“Thank you,” Colin said with a wink for her eyes only. He hoped she knew how much he owed her and decided he must go out first thing on the morrow to arrange for flowers or chocolates or perhaps a jeweled pendant to be delivered to her without delay. “As it is a most casual affair, there is no need to proceed in any order,” he said in hopes that Miss Armistead would push her way past her
elders to be led into dinner on his arm. As she did not, he was left with nothing to do but throw open the connecting doors from the salon to the dining room. Lady Augusta stepped forward in what he supposed to be expectations that she should have his arm, but he held his ground and indicated that they should pass into the room ahead of him.

Last of his guests to enter was Miss Armistead, who uttered a gratifying gasp of delight as she turned about to take in all its charms. As her red gown swept the antique crimson and cobalt Persian carpet beneath her feet, he could not help but think how her ensemble might have been custom made for just such a room. Aside from the virtues of her gown, the blues and greens threaded through her long, red scarf were a perfect match for those of the draperies and the green of her eyes, as well as the emeralds about her creamy neck, all of which were of a hue with the velvet cushions of the chairs that encircled the table.

He knew the very moment that she realized the single painting in the room was the same they had first seen together at the book shop. She did not immediately say anything but moved to stand by it when she thought the other ladies, who were wandering about the room in abject admiration, would take no notice of her. She glanced over to where he stood, perhaps to ascertain whether or not he watched, and when she saw that he did, she appeared to pause to consider. The allure of the painting seemed, however, to be more than she could withstand and it was not long before she turned to regard it openly.

He found he could withstand it no less and found himself suddenly next to her, drinking in the vibrant scene. “Pray, do tell me if I have done wrong. I was persuaded you did not wish to own it.”

“Oh, but I did want it, quite desperately,” she replied, her gaze never leaving the canvas. “I merely felt it unwise to purchase it. You, however, have done no wrong in my mind; quite the contrary. I am gratified to know that it is here and so happily admired. You have masterfully arranged the entire room in celebration of it.”

“I am delighted that you noticed. It is a beautiful painting and I’m afraid I have a decided
weakness for all things beautiful. I hope it is not too bold of me to say that it brings me pleasure for reasons other than its beauty, as it never fails to bring you to mind each time I cast my eyes upon it.”

She remained silent for so long, he feared that he had, indeed, been too bold, and was relieved, when she spoke, to find that he had not.

“It pleases me to think that you shall remember me and that, when I think of this painting, as I shall every day of my life, I shall picture it here, in this room, its owner admiring it every bit as much as have I.”

A suitable reply was beyond Colin’s powers at the moment; so moved was he by her words that he was made to relive again the emotions he experienced when she first walked through the door that evening. He knew himself to be the least knowledgeable person when it came to determining what it felt like to be in love, but he could say, in no uncertain terms, that what he felt for Miss Armistead was unlike any sensibility he had ever known. It was certainly one far deeper than what he had felt for Cecily Ponsonby.

“Now it is I who fears she has done wrong,” Miss Armistead said quietly. When he did not immediately reply, she turned to gaze at him and he was astonished to see the same glow of admiration in her eyes for him as she demonstrated for the painting. They stood staring at one another so long that he forgot entirely every reason why he should not act on an overwhelming desire to put his lips to hers. Recalling their circumstances just in time, he noted that her cheeks turned bright red as she turned hastily away and he knew that she had somehow ascertained his longing.

“Sir, I see that you have pressed a pair of Nubian slaves into service so as to illuminate your painting,” she said over-brightly.

“I found I could not resist them. The blue of their jackets so exactly matches that of sky in the picture.”

“Or, one could say, the same as the color of my eyes,” Miss Hale remarked from where she stood behind them.

Colin hadn’t heard her approach and could not say how long she had stood there. It was a most discommodious sensation. “Yes, indeed, Miss Hale,” he said far more politely than he wished. “I am not the least loathe to admit that your eyes are of a deep hue not often found anywhere but in paintings.”

She smiled her pleasure at his compliment but made no further remark.

“I own myself surprised,” Miss Armistead said, perhaps in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction, “that a fashionable man such as you have no little, black boy to ride on the back of your carriage whilst you tool about London.”

“Me? What should I do with such a fellow? Besides which, it should be an expensive prospect. I’m told children that age eat their heads off.”

“Does this signify that you are in no hurry to fill your nursery?” Mrs. Armistead asked from across the room.

He was more than a little dismayed that his private conversation with Miss Armistead had become a battle royal, but he hid his ire well. “No, not at all. I am more than happy to feed my own children any amount of food, especially if it should make their mother happy.” He said this with a smile that he just managed to refrain from bestowing on Miss Armistead. “However, a servant is something else entirely. It’s a matter of economics. I find that little, old ladies with no teeth eat the least.”

“Well, this little old lady,” Lady Augusta chimed in, “has all of her teeth and she means to make the most of them.”

“Dear Aunt, you make yourself sound an ancient and we all know that is not the case in the least,” Miss Armistead insisted.

“Truer words were never spoken, Miss Armistead,” Colin readily agreed. “The four of you make an enchanting quartet, all of whom I hope to please with my plans for the evening.”

“I shall be most amused to see how you carry out the dancing portion of the entertainments,”
Analisa remarked. “I do not intend to sit idly by whilst you dance with each of us in turn.”

“Ah, Analisa, I see that you have joined us. So, what is it you suggest, then? That the ladies should dance with one other?”

“Why ever not?” Analisa asked with that twinkle in her eye that spelled her enjoyment of his predicament. “It shall doubtless prove
tres amusant
. This is why we are here
ensemble
, is it not? I should particularly enjoy getting to know Miss Elizabeth, as I should be most pleased to call her, a good deal better before she takes herself off to Scotland.”

“In that case, you shall have first place on my dance card,” Miss Armistead replied with an answering twinkle.

As Colin had immediately wished for that particular place, he found it difficult to share their amusement. “I have no wish to dampen your zeal, but the menu for dinner is such that you are all likely to be too full to take a step. That is, if you wish to spare me trouble with my cook. She is excellent when it comes to food, however, her temper leaves much to be desired.”

With those words, the butler entered the room. “Sir, if it suits you, dinner is now served.”

“Thank you, Evans, it suits me admirably.” Colin turned to take in his guests. “Shall we all be seated? Do feel free to ignore the place cards as at least four of them allotted are decidedly
de trop
.”

A chorus of laughter rose up at his words and there was a general hubbub as the ladies took their seats. Colin was surprised and a little injured when Miss Armistead eagerly took her place at the center of the table rather than at one of the two nearest his own position at the head. As a result, his dinner partners were Miss Hale and Lady Augusta, the two ladies he felt the least desire with which to converse. Mrs. Armistead took up the place across from her daughter and Analisa was farthest away, a circumstance that prompted a feeling of having been abandoned. However, he was confident that once the food began to arrive that there would be much to discuss.