A week after the ball and Rowland was still no closer to discovering the identity of his lady in green, as he had come to name her.
Twice he had forced his uncle and Jasper to peruse the list of invited guests and account for each one's whereabouts during the time in question. Rowland had now reduced his hunt to a small list of five possibilities. Each one of these ladies had not been seen by any three of the gentleman as best as they could remember, had the possibility of matching the limited description, and were titled.
“Perhaps it is time to abandon the search,” Mr. Vaughan said as he stood up to look out the study widows and soak in some sunshine. “We have been at this for days. Would it not be better to just forget her altogether?”
“Your uncle does have a point,” Jasper also spoke up. “If the lady in green wanted to be found, we would have found her by now. It was no secret by the end of the night that you had been enchanted by her.”
“I won’t give up until I find her,” Rowland said with resolve. “How can you ask any less of me? She is the one, the one that you, Uncle, insisted I find upon returning to England.”
“I didn’t insist on you finding the one, just a one, anyone in fact,” he said with a smile of pride at his ingenious play on words.
“Yes, and what happened to selecting the easiest option so as to return to the Indies?” Jasper asked with a raised brow. He had always contradicted Rowland’s schemes from the beginning.
“That was before I met her. Now everything has changed. How can one settle for a dimly lit cage when one was allowed to run free in the sun?”
Colonel Jasper smiled in a knowing fashion. He had suspected something like this would eventually happen to his friend. Jasper was a little disappointed that it was not with the woman he had thought would be a good match for Rowland, but Jasper was just glad that he had found someone to be passionate about.
“You sound quite ridiculous when you speak like that,” Mr. Vaughan said, turning back to his nephew.
No amount of lightning striking would ever be enough to prove to the older gentleman that finding interest in the opposite sex was more than just a fleeting moment.
He walked back over to the desk and held up the list of names for inspection again.
“If you would pick but one name on this list, I can assure you, Rowland, you would find sufficient happiness for your needs.”
“I don’t want just sufficient for my needs anymore. Uncle, I want to find her.”
“Well, I am finding that possibility more and more unlikely as the days pass, my dear nephew. Choose one or let us be done with this,” Mr. Vaughan added smacking the paper.
“I can’t do that. I cannot find solace until I know who the lady in green is. She has quite bewitched me,” Rowland added with a lopsided smile as he looked at the names. For all he knew, he was staring at the written manifestation of his future wife.
“Clearly she has bewitched you,” Mr. Vaughan said with a scoff before excusing himself from the room.
“I’m sure you find me just as maddening as Uncle James,” Rowland said to his friend after Mr. Vaughan left the room.
“I do,” Jasper stated simply. “But maddening is far better than indifferent, in my opinion.”
Rowland’s uncle continued to encourage the Duke to focus on something real and tangible. Instead, Rowland spent many sleepless nights replaying the encounter in his head. He was sure that if he did it enough times, he would remember something he had missed so far. Some kind of clue that would give away the lady’s identity.
Sadly, this was not the case. Instead, he became more and more frustrated as the memory seemed to slip between his fingers.
“Lady Hendrickson has invited us over for a dinner party,” Mr. Vaughan said over dinner two weeks after the ball.
Rowland waved off the idea indifferently.
“It might be a good idea. If nothing else, it would be worth getting you away from Bassen Park for the night.
You are beginning to turn into a recluse, dear nephew,” Mr. Vaughan added.
“And how would spending the night listening to Miss Hendrickson drool on about her accomplishments improve my standing in society?”
“Well, I am sure we will not be the only ones to attend a dinner party. Even a small gathering will have a few other guests. The society might brighten your mood some, you have been very cross as of late. There are also the other ladies of the house to consider.”
“Who, Lady Louisa who despises me, or Miss Mary who has her eyes set on another?” Rowland said in reference to the Colonel who was not present that night for dinner. “Where is Jasper?”
“I believe Lady Louisa and Miss Mary went to town to tend to some of Mrs. Vance’s business. Colonel Jasper offered to be their transportation. Those two have really taken quite a liking to the one another,” Mr. Vaughan said in a whimsical tone that was not normal for him.
It was enough to catch Rowland’s attention.
“I suppose it would be a kind thing to do for Jasper.
After all, it would give him another chance to win over Lady Hendrickson. The woman seems so against Jasper, and I can’t fathom why.”
“I agree that Jasper is a gentleman of great character. He is also a commissioned officer,” Mr. Vaughan reminded him.
“He has already informed me of his plans to sell his commission and settle down,” Rowland countered. “Surely that isn’t Lady Hendrickson’s only objection, though. It would be a ridiculous thing to deny two people in love simply because his means of support involved moving away from one’s home. She has some other objections to him, though I don’t know what they could be.”
“Perhaps she doesn’t relish the fact of the youngest marrying before the eldest,” Mr. Vaughan said, giving his nephew a look that said far more than his words.
“I won’t even dignify that innuendo with a response,” Rowland said trying his best to sound irritated but in fact knowing that his uncle was only teasing.
“No,” Rowland said with a heavy sigh, “as much as I would rather not, I see we must go. I will send my acceptance with the morning post. I am willing to suffer the night at the hand of Miss Elisabeth’s insufferable conversation, and Lady Louisa’s disdain, but only because Jasper is such a good friend.”
Mr. Vaughan nodded his approval.
“And just think,” he added after a moment of silence, “your lady in green may very well be a guest as well. This could be the moment you have been searching for all these weeks.”
Rowland rolled his eyes inwardly at his uncle’s teasing. He had, in fact, created his own method of discovering the girl.
He still had the list of ladies from the three counties that were being considered as the lady in green. Rowland had already acquired invitations to two of the five estates and would not encounter any obstacle in securing the last three.
He would visit with each lady and her family. He was sure if he could only speak with the lady in green once more, he would know in an instant it was her. A simple visit to each house was all he would need to exclude ladies from the list one by one until the lady he desired was found.
To Rowland, it worth suffering through one unenjoyable night at the Hendricksons’ home, if afterward he would be able to find the lady in green.
Rowland had never considered his life could change so much in only a moment. Perhaps it was as Jasper had said, simply the fact that the lady ran from him, that made him so obsessed with finding her. Deep down he knew that there was more to it than that however.
There was something about that lady that was so familiar, almost a tangible memory of knowing her before that night. He was sure that his feelings for the lady were not merely a manifestation of desiring something unknown. She was known to him on some level.
The warmth of summer was beginning to peak, and Rowland feared if he didn’t find the lady in green by the end of the year, she would slip from his grasp forever.