Free Edith Layton by The Chance Page B

had all the time in the world—or at least until the end of this Season—to pick a husband. Many things could happen in that time. She might even take Dalton. He needed a closer look. She deserved someone who doted on her after all the disappointment she’d had. And it wasn’t as if no one else wanted him, after all.
     
    Brenna drove back to Rafe’s house, her thoughts on where she’d just been. She laid her cheek against the carriage’s window glass to cool it, because her face still burned with embarrassment. It had been a demeaning interview. But necessary for Annabelle and herself. No wonder Rafe was fascinated by the lady. Her reluctant hostess had been beautiful, elegant, and yet seemed strangely vulnerable. She’d also been rude, even crude at times, and thoroughly vindictive. But she’d a right to be. She must love him very much, Brenna thought sadly. Well, but who would not?
     
    “You took my knight,” Brenna said with interest.
    Rafe sat back from the chessboard. “I did. Don’t see why you’re shocked. It was indefensible.”
    “She’s more than shocked,” Eric commented from a chair by the fireside, “she’s staggered. She usually beats men at the game. They’re so busy flirting they never see how clever she is.”
    “A blatant lie,” Brenna said calmly, though her eyes sparkled in the firelight. “It’s just that gentlemen don’t think we females can reason, and so while they humor us by playing chess with us, they don’t expect to lose. That’s when they do. Lord Dalton took me seriously. That makes him a good opponent.”
    “Thank you,” Rafe said.
    “And I didn’t lose yet,” she added.
    “You will,” Rafe said. “I see where you’re going, and you won’t get there. I’m an old soldier, Bren. I take every opponent seriously. Maybe if I’d only fought on battlefields, I wouldn’t. But some of our most clever foes were female, and they fought in ballrooms and in bedr—other places,” he said quickly. “Dam—drat, but you’re such a good companion, I forget your sex when we talk too!”
    Some of the sparkle went out of Brenna’s eyes; she looked down at the chessboard with concentration.“Don’t leash your tongue on my behalf,” she murmured. “I’ve spent the past three months visiting an army hospital. I’ve heard it all.”
    “I advise you to try to forget that, Bren,” Eric said. “The world isn’t like our friend Rafe. He appreciates loyalty. But there are too many who’ll think worse of you because of it. It was folly for you to leave home and hearth and race across the world on your own to see to me. I said it then, I’ll say it now. I wish you hadn’t, though I admit if you had not, I might not be here to wish it.” His smile was sad. “She chivied the nurses, Rafe. You should have seen her, just like a little border collie, nipping at their heels. She yapped at them too, if she had to.”
    “I do not yap,” Brenna said.
    “She was relentless,” Eric went on, ignoring her. “Brought me doctors when I needed them, water and food and comfort too. She came when she got word of my illness and stayed until she got me well. I didn’t dare die. She didn’t even get a chance to see the country. She didn’t miss a day by my bedside and hurried me home as soon as I left it for fear the climate would get me sick again. But though I appreciate it, I rue it, Bren, and you know it.”
    She shrugged. “I had a maidservant with me at all times. I stayed in a respectable home, with your friend’s wife and sister. I traveled from England with an older female as escort, though she was the most tedious creature on the planet, didn’t I? I did everything according to the rules.”
    Eric shook his golden head. “You left home, alone.Well, at least without a husband. And you came back without one. At your age? It isn’t done.”
    “Mama couldn’t go,” she said simply, “Nor could Papa or anyone else. What, was I to leave you there alone? I was the