.
Robert was beginning to wonder if Davis’ obsession with Lacey was something that indicated something deeply strange in the man himself. He had been happy to engage in this scheme with Lacey from the beginning, especially given how hungry he was for her touch and even her smile, but within two weeks, he was similarly dedicated to simply keeping Davis away from her.
The damnable man popped up at all sorts of inopportune moments, and though Robert was beginning to think he was never going to be sorry for a chance to keep Lacey close to him, he hated to see the look of increasing fear and desperation whenever he appeared.
“Dear God, even my mother is beginning to think he is starting to wear out his welcome,” Lacey said to him in during a stolen moment in the solar. “I am so sorry about this.”
“Why in the world would you be sorry about this? You can't imagine that anything that man does is your fault.”
Lacey shot him a slightly wry grin. “I told you I would only keep you so long as it took Lord Exter to leave. This is taking a rather long time.”
Robert realized that he at some point, he had stopped counting the days until he could go back to London. He had thought that being in the country so very long would be stultifying, especially when it did not involve the round of hunts, soirees, and dances that always accompanied the ton's move to the countryside. Instead of being bored, Robert found himself oddly content with Lacey, whether they were playing chess, avoiding Lord Exter, or preventing her mother from finding out the truth of their bargain.
There was a kind of ease with Lacey that he had never experienced anywhere else in his life, and instead of being eager to leave, he found himself more and more irritable about the idea.
When Constance, Lacey's mother, brought up the idea of the Winsteads' ball, Robert's ears pricked up and a silent sigh of relief went through him.
“The Winsteads are a fine old family in this region of the world. The family boasts two eligible daughters who are very popular.”
Robert felt a stab of irritation when he saw Lacey droop a little at the breakfast table. Why in the world would someone as lovely and fascinating as Lacey ever droop at the idea of being compared to others?
“A ball sounds like just the thing to break up the monotony a little bit,” he agreed. “Perhaps I could see about the loan of some formal wear, as I did not come out prepared.”
In the end, Lacey took him into the east wing of Baling House and, with the help of a very young and very eager maid, wrestled out some carefully packed men's clothing. It was not nearly as dire a proposition as Robert thought it would be, and though to his trained London eye, the clothes were a touch older, the garments would fit him quite well after some minor alterations.
Robert glanced at Lacey when the maid scuttled away to deliver the clothing to the seamstress, and he was surprised to see a pensive look on her face. He crossed the floor to come stand close to her, and he lifted her face with the touch of his finger to her chin.
“Bright girl, what's the matter?”
She smiled at the nickname, shaking her head. “I'm only being foolish. The clothes were my father's, and I suppose it is a bit of a shock seeing you wear them.”
Robert frowned. “Does it bother you overmuch? I can still ride to the village and see whether they have something ready-made that might suit my needs.”
“No... it's a shock, but it's a good one. You don't look anything like my father. I would never mistake the two of you, but having you in his clothes is something of a comfort, perhaps? I do not know how to say it.”
“Lacey, you know that I would never want to make you uncomfortable or upset. If you say the word, I will change it.”
She smiled at him, then a sweet expression that melted something in him that had been frozen for so long.
“You look good. I wouldn't want you to change. I only wish there was a way to get out of the ball entirely.”
Robert frowned.
“Are you not sure what you want to wear? Or do you feel your jewels are too dull for the event?”
Those were the reasons he had always heard given by women who attended balls with him. Usually, it was a veiled request for some kind of expensive present, but if he were honest, that hardly seemed like something that Lacey would do.
She smiled wryly. “As a matter of fact, my gems and my clothes are very much up to the task of sparkling uselessly on my person. No. I'm just not very skilled at balls. I have all the grace of a wet cat, I'm afraid.”
Robert smiled, taking her hand and bringing it up to his lips for a kiss. “Now that I cannot believe.”
“Believe it, it's true. I'm rather hopeless at parties. Why do you think I grew so skilled at chess?”
“If you can master chess the way that you have, I have nothing but confidence that you will be able to master the intricacies of attending a ball.”
Lacey laughed and changed the subject, but Robert was struck with a strange feeling that she was downplaying her own charms. He brushed the feeling aside for the moment, but it stayed with him well into the evening. Finally, he gave up sleep and went to walk in the moonlit gardens.
During the day, Baling House was welcoming and lovely, gracious in every respect. In the night, however, there was something menacing about the place, as if the life of the house was all in the people who ran or walked through it. He found it suited his morose mood, however, as he wandered the halls and then made his way outside. The moon was up and full, giving the gardens a lovely kind of glow, and he felt soothed as he walked among the paved brick paths.
It would be better if Lacey were with me. The temptation to throw some pebbles at the window he guessed to be hers and see if she would come out and wander in the night with him was strong, but he decided to let her sleep. Despite the peaceful respite of the garden, Robert's thoughts still tended dark.
What would have happened if it was someone else on the road?
His mind kept coming back to the question over and over again, and sometimes, when Lacey apologized for keeping him or carefully reiterated that it was only a sham that they were engaged in, the question rang like a bell.
Would she have engaged in this farce with just anyone? Lacey wasn't a fickle woman, but she was proving to be far more wild and tempestuous than her letters had ever hinted at. If someone else had offered her a rescue, scooped her up from the road, would she have been so eager to claim them as her faux fiancé? Would she have kissed them as easily and as sweetly as she kissed him?
Robert knew that those questions were unworthy. In the end, he knew it was his duty as a gentleman to see it all through and help her. He only wished he could untangle his heart from the tenacious chains looped around it.
He was just preparing to return indoors when he realized he was not alone in the garden. There was another figure there as well, one that stood so still he guessed at first that it was a statue. Then he realized with a start that it was Davis, who stared up at the building in an attitude of despair. With a feeling like ice water dripped down his spine, Robert realized that Davis was staring at the wing where Lacey slept.
The first thing that Robert felt was a burst of protective rage, but he reined himself in.
My emotions are getting the better of me. I've never been this tied in knots over a chit of a girl before.
Still, he approached the other man. After all, there was no harm in passing a moment, even if that moment was terribly late by country hours, after all.
Davis jumped when Robert hailed him, but he recovered quickly enough. There was, Robert decided, something melancholy about the man. In the moonlight, his pale hair glinted silver, and he looked a little like a ghost.
“It's late to be out.”
Davis shrugged. “I could say the same for you. What keeps you from your bed this evening?”
It was Robert's turn to shrug. “Restlessness, I suppose. What are you looking at?”
Instead of denying it, Davis smiled wryly. “I assume you can guess. My thoughts are full of Miss Lacey at the moment, and when they are, I find that I can come here and comfort myself by watching her window.”
“How very Romeo of you.” Robert wondered briefly if the man truly was in love with Lacey after all. Would Lacey be more interested if Davis wasn't so damn pathetic or if he simply reined himself in a little?
“I know it's foolish of me, but I cannot seem to help myself. She occupies my thoughts day and night. The best I can do lately seems to be to avoid irritating her as best I can.”
Robert wondered how in the world he had gotten into this position, but he was possessed of a faint urge to help Davis. “Look, it may be for the best if you simply leave. She's a determined woman, which I'm sure you know well.”
A shadow fluttered over Davis’ face, there and gone, and Robert blinked, wondering if it was a trick of the moonlight, if it had even been there at all.
“That I cannot do. At least... I cannot do it yet. At the moment, all I can do is wait and watch and hope. It is what lovers do, after all, isn't it?”
“I suppose so.” Robert shook off the slight feeling of unease that nibbled at the back of his mind. “But either way, our beds are calling us. Shall we call it a night, Lord Exter?”
Robert put a little force into his tone, and after a reluctant moment, Davis nodded, bidding him a good night. Harmless or not, something about the man watching Lacey's window in the night bothered Robert.
Jealousy, plain and simple. You're losing your head over all of this.
He was already more involved with Lacey than he should be for this scheme. If he wasn't careful, he was going to be left like Davis, mooning over Lacey in the evening while she did her level best to avoid being alone with him.
Would she object though?
It was difficult to imagine her kissing Davis the way she kissed him, but then again, that was the price that he’d exacted. It had seemed like a bit of fun when he'd come up with it. Now it felt like a heavy weight hung around his neck, holding him back.
Robert remembered what Lacey had said about jewels and gowns. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to start treating her a little more like the women he knew in London. She deserved fine things, and the thought of giving them to her delighted him in a way he hadn't expected.
Before he finally fell into bed, he dashed off a quick letter to a firm he’d had some business with in London, and when he fell asleep, he thought of what Lacey would do when she was presented with something beautiful.