Page 77 of An Inconvenient Vow

“No such thing!” he protested.

“Very well, it seems I was mistaken.” She patted his hand which held the reins. Was she placating him? Jeffree was not sure if that was a good sign or not. “It will be good to look upon Morecotte again,” she sighed. “I cannot wait to set the place to rights. It is sorely in need of my attention.”

Jeffree pondered this but could not think of a rejoinder. The place was a disaster, but clearly, she was fond of it. “You will have to take me to visit that mill pond,” he reminded her.

“What?” She half-turned her head, sounding startled.

“The one at the village.”

“Oh.”

“Have you forgotten our conversation so soon?”

“No, no, I just… I suppose I thought you said that in jest.”

“I was in deadly earnest.”

His words seemed to flummox her. She gave an uneasy laugh. “I hope I have not led you to believe it something it is not. If so, you will certainly be disappointed.”

“A smithy, a mill, and a duckpond was all you promised me,” he reminded her. Again, she seemed struck dumb by his words. “Sabina?”

“It is naught; I just did not think…”

“What?”

“That you were paying such close attention to me. To my words, I mean.”

“Certainly I am.” A silence rose between them that could only be described as awkward. Jeffree did not think he had ever thought that about a silence before. “You will be pleased to return… home?” he ventured.

“Yes, yes I will. I will certainly be keen to see—” She broke off from whatever she had been about to say abruptly.

“What?”

“How my sister has fared in our absence,” she said carefully.

He supposed she meant if Isemay Burrell had been reconciled to his uncle but had then decided that was impolitic to admit that to his heir. “Do you suppose they will have been married?” he asked without much interest. It had been ten days after all and time enough.

Sabina gave a faint splutter. “Would you think me very terrible if I answered, I hope not?”

“Terrible? No,” he answered. “In truth, you would be unwise to think otherwise.”

“Unwise?”

“If your sister should marry my uncle and provide him with an heir, then you will never be Duchess of Bethencourt.” Once again, his words seemed to stun her. “I know, unlike your sister, you have never aspired to the title,” he began calmly, but an impatient gesture from Sabina halted him.

“You misjudge her entirely. If you knew her then you would not think—” She broke off frustratedly. “Isemay is a talented musician,” she started again. “Your uncle admired her excessively and she was, of course, wonderfully flattered by his offer. He was kind and attentive in his wooing, and she truly thought she could make him happy. Of course,” she added awkwardly, “she knew he would also aid our father with his financial woes, and that was a consideration, but I assure you—”

“There is no need to assure me,” he cut across her words. “I will accept your word on it.”

She half-turned in the saddle again to look at his face, subjecting him to a searching gaze. “Thank you Jeffree,” she said a little stiltedly after a moment’s pause. “I appreciate that.”

He scarcely noticed, so much was his mind working over her words. Kind and attentive in his wooing? No one had ever described him thus in his life and it galled him no end that his Uncle Bevis should show more aptitude in this than he. He coughed to cover his chagrin. “If you believe their attachment to be sincere, why then do you no longer desire it?”

“I don’t know that I ever desired it,” Sabina admitted with a sigh. “Even if you put aside the disparity in their ages and station, I still could not see that… well, that they would not be rather tired of one another within a sixmonth. Isemay looks like an angel and plays divinely on her harp, but she can be very impetuous at times, and I think the duke really has no idea of it. He seems a man quite… er… timid in his outlook and easily shocked.” Jeffree maintained a tactful silence in the face of this accurate reading of his uncle’s character. “Then too, I had also lost faith in my parents’ judgment when it came to such things. After my own wretched experience of matrimony, I mean.”

Jeffree cleared his throat. “It is only natural you should feel thus.”

“You think so?” She sounded gratified, if a little surprised.