Chapter Fifteen
That evening, Corin didn’t say much during dinner. Not that he said much of anything during any of the meals. Most of the time, he just offered a pleasant greeting and left it at that. He was much more interested in watching Candace and how she related to his mother and his brother.
And all of his careful observations made him conclude that he had been wrong about her. The truth was, she was a very pleasant lady. Earlier that day, while he had talked about how much his great-grandfather and his father had loved their wives, he’d caught a flicker of something that crossed her face. He couldn’t help but wonder about it. In fact, he thought about it all through the night.
It wasn’t until the early morning hours that he realized the flicker of emotion he’d witnessed was sadness. Reuben had been right. Deep down, she was sad. More than that, she was lonely. Whatever kind of marriage she’d had with her first husband, it hadn’t been a good one, so it stood to reason that the last thing she wanted was another marriage.
And a lady who did not want to be married would know better than to try something as reckless as going after a scantly clad gentleman in the den during a ball. Which meant she had been innocent of any wrongdoing. Whatever happened, it had been Stephen’s fault.
Corin owed her an apology for jumping to conclusions the way he had. He needed to give her a chance to state her side of things. In fact, that was exactly what he would do, and he was going to do it that very day.
That morning after everyone ate, Candace and Reuben went to play on the piano. After that, Candace spent some time with his mother working on the tablecloth. So it wasn’t until early afternoon that Corin finally got a chance to speak with Candace alone.
He stood in the hallway, outside her bedchamber while she changed into a new gown. When her lady’s maid left the room, he said, “Please tell Lady Durrant that I would like a moment with her in the drawing room.”
Candace’s lady’s maid nodded and went back into the room. He debated whether or not he should wait to see if Candace would say yes, but then, he decided to just go down to the drawing room and wait for her. If she chose not to show up, that was her right.
One thing was for sure: she wouldn’t like it if he waited by the bedchamber. So he went to the drawing room. Candace arrived there ten minutes later.
Noting her hesitation, he said, “You have nothing to worry about. I’m not going to say or do anything to hurt you.”
“Did I give you the impression that I thought you would?” she asked.
He couldn’t be sure if he had upset her or not, but if he was going to get things moving in the right direction, he needed to be careful with what he said next. “No,” he replied, “but after everything we’ve been through, I wouldn’t blame you if you wondered whether or not my intentions are honorable. I assure you, they are.” When she didn’t reply, he cleared his throat. “If it’s all right with you, I’d like to talk to you. We could do that on the way to the gazebo. I thought after talking about it yesterday, you might like to see it.”
For a moment, he was sure she was going to say no since she winced. But then, her expression relaxed. “All right, I’ll go with you to the gazebo.”
Relieved, he escorted her out of the manor. He waited until they were on the path heading for the gazebo before he spoke.
“I know things didn’t start out well between us,” he began. “I let my pride get in the way of really listening to what you were trying to tell me that night of the scandal. Do you mind sharing your side of things again?”
“I don’t know. What else can I share that I haven’t already?”
“I wasn’t really listening to you before, but I’m listening now.”
She hesitated but then said, “That cad Mr. Bachman found me entering Lord Edon’s townhouse and dragged me to the den. I tried to get away from him, but gentlemen are always stronger than ladies. Once we reached the door of the den, he shoved your clothes at me, opened the door, and threw me in there. I know you think I fondled you on purpose, but it was an accident. I tripped and fell on top of you. I had no intention of touching you…down there… But it happened before I could stop it. The last thing I want to do is be alone in a room with a gentleman, let alone you.”
She gave a slight shudder, and it suddenly occurred to him how difficult it was for her to be around gentlemen. She would never, under any circumstance, try to get one alone in the den. He felt like such a fool. He should have taken time to listen to her much, much sooner.
“I apologize for the way I treated you,” Corin said. “I should’ve known better than to trust what Mr. Bachman told me. He said you had been secretly in love with me and had wanted to have a dalliance with me in the den. I knew full well what kind of scoundrel Mr. Bachman was, but I let my anger over getting caught up in the scandal prevent me from listening to you.”
“I was under the impression that you wanted Mr. Bachman to bring me there so that you two could have a tryst with me.”
His jaw dropped. “No! I would never do such a thing. My reputation—my honor—is far too important to me. What would give you the idea that I would do that? Did someone lie about me?”
“No. No one ever said anything about you. I know some gentlemen who do those kinds of things.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Was your first husband one of those gentlemen?”
She glanced away from him, and he could tell by the shame in her face that her first husband had done that kind of thing with her. He was about to ask her how often her first husband had forced her to be with him and other gentlemen, but then, he thought better of it. The topic was much too personal, and by the expression on her face, it was too painful.
So instead, he let the matter go. He really knew all that he needed anyway. To add anything else would serve no other purpose than to satisfy one’s morbid curiosity, and to be honest, his curiosity wasn’t that morbid. He’d rather focus on pleasant things.
“Again, I apologize,” he told her. “I don’t know how to prove that I’m not a gentleman who does those kinds of things. I have never even been with a lady intimately. My focus has been on making money so I can secure my troubled estate. I barely even have time to attend dinner parties or balls, but I only do those to get business connections. The reason I was in the den was because Mr. Bachman told me a good friend of mine wished to discuss investments. I do that sometimes at the balls. My friend will bring another gentleman in where it’s private so we can talk about an investment. I was not in there that evening for a tryst.”
She studied him for a long moment then relaxed. “You seem sincere. I was around my first husband enough to know when someone is trying to deceive me, and you don’t have that look about you. I suppose I’ve been wrong about you all this time as well.”
Feeling much better, he smiled. “Can we start over?”
She returned his smile. “Yes, I’d like that. Before we do, though, I want to know why you were spying on me yesterday. Reuben may have thought you wanted to see the abandoned wing with us, but I’m not so easily fooled.”
Corin had been hoping Candace had forgotten about that incident. Well, if he was going to start over and earn her trust, he needed to answer her question. “All right,” he relented, “I’ll tell you. A few days ago, I got the idea that I might have misjudged you, but I had to be sure. And the only way I could do that was by following you around and watching how you treated other people. I figured if you treated other people well, then you weren’t the person I had assumed you to be.”
“Where did you get this idea?” she asked.
There was no way he was going to tell her about that book. Granted, the book was more instructional in nature than erotic, but even so, he wasn’t about to confess that he read such material. What he could do, however, was give her a partial truth. “Reuben and I were at the lake fishing, and Reuben brought it to my attention that I was wrong about you. He thinks very well of you, as does my mother. So I thought I should put aside my preconceptions and look for the things they saw in you. Despite his age, my brother is perceptive about people.”
“So when your brother wanted to show me the abandoned wing, you knew he could trust me, and that made you wonder if you could trust me as well?”
“Yes.’’
“Was that the only time you spied on me?”
He was going to have to tell her the complete truth on this one. “Actually, I have been watching you for a couple of days.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him, setting her hands on her hips. “Exactly where have you been spying on me?”
“I’ve only spied on you when you were in the drawing room and in the abandoned wing. I have never once spied on you when you were in your bedchamber. I assure you that I will never go to your bedchamber unless you ask me to go there.”
After a moment, she relaxed. “Make sure you don’t.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
With a nod, she continued their walk to the gazebo, and he followed.
“The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable,” he said.
“Being spied on makes me uncomfortable.”
“It would make anyone uncomfortable,” he granted. “You are well within your rights to be upset about that. But I’m not going to apologize for it because it convinced me that I had been wrong about you. I’m glad to know that I had married an honorable and good lady. There was one lady back in London who was deceitful on many levels. She manipulated everyone around her to get what she wanted. For two years I was terrified she was going to find a way to secure a betrothal to me. And she almost did. That was the night of the scandal where you and I got caught in the den together. That was her doing. Mr. Bachman was only her puppet. As much as I don’t care for Mr. Bachman, I care even less for her. There was no way I wanted to be stuck with someone like that for the rest of my life.”
“Who is this lady?”
“She used to go by Miss Barlow before her brother married her to Lord Erandon.”
“I know who you’re talking about. I’ve been to a few dinner parties with her.”
“Yes, we happened to be at the same dinner party that she had attended a couple of years ago.”
Candace’s eyebrows furrowed. “We were?”
“I didn’t remember it at first, either, until someone reminded me that I had met you before the night of the scandal. We originally met the evening of Lord Worsley’s dinner party. Captain Egan, who is now Lord Erandon, escorted you. I, the unfortunate gentleman, had to escort Miss Barlow to the dinner.”
“I’ve been to so many dinner parties over the years since my first husband’s death I can’t keep track of them all.”
“It wasn’t a memorable evening. It’s just as well that you don’t remember it.”
“If it helps, you did seem familiar to me that night of the ball. I just couldn’t remember your name. I had assumed you did a lot of social activities.” She chuckled. “After the scandal, I never forgot your name again.”
“The same is true for me.” Despite the grim situation surrounding their betrothal, he found himself chuckling, too. The mood lightened considerably between them, and since there was no more to really say on that topic, he turned his attention to the gazebo they were quickly approaching. “My mother has the gazebo painted every spring. She does it in memory of my father.”
“That’s lovely.”
“I never thought about it in the past, but you’re right. It is. My father was horrible when it came to managing money. He couldn’t seem to hold onto a single farthing. But one thing I do admire him for is that he was a gentleman who sincerely cared about the people around him.”
“Judging by the gazebo, I can see that. It’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s another thing about him. He had good taste in architecture.” When they reached the gazebo, he let her go in first and gestured to the landscape around them. “My mother’s favorite parts of this property are the wildflowers. This is the best spot you’ll find them. When my father ordered this to be built, he wanted her to be surrounded by as many flowers as possible.”
“He chose a nice location,” she said.
“Would you like to sit and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes?”
She nodded and went to the bench.
He settled beside her and continued to tell her more about his father and his mother. As he was talking, he realized his father had been a better gentleman than he had given him credit for. His father wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions and assumed Candace had played the part of a whore that night of the scandal. His father would have given her a chance to explain things. He would have carefully investigated the matter. For the first time in his life, Corin realized there were some things he could learn from his father.
Perhaps if he was more like his father when it came to his marriage, he and Candace might eventually have something as wonderful as his great-grandfather and father had: a love match. “Candace,” he said, turning to her, “there are many things I don’t know about you. Would you mind telling me something about yourself?”
“What do you want to know?”
He shrugged. “Anything. Tell me about your childhood, your interests, or how you learned to play the piano as well as you do.”
Her jaw dropped. “You know about Reuben wanting to play that piece for you, don’t you?”
“Yes, but don’t tell Reuben. I can tell it means a lot to him that he surprises me with it.”
“I should have realized you knew about that when you said you had been spying on me when I was in the drawing room.”
“There’s plenty I don’t know about you. What do you say? Would you satisfy my curiosity and tell me more about you so that I don’t have to keep spying on you?” He added a teasing tone in his voice in hopes of softening her up.
Thankfully, his ploy worked, for she smiled. “Yes, I suppose I can do that.” And from there, she began to tell him about the things and people she was interested in.