“I leave the choice of whether she accepts your invitation or not to my sister’s judgment.”
Mr. Thorne had not sat back down since Avery entered the room. “I will not take any more of your time,” he said, turning to her. “Lady Jessica, will you drive to Richmond Park with me tomorrow?”
There was, as everyone was saying, something of a mystery about him. He was a man who must surely have an interesting story to tell. But he was perfectly respectable, as Avery had just said. He was a gentleman, a relative of Lady Vickers. It was not, perhaps, quite wise to grant him such a favor upon a very slight acquaintance, but she could not resist the chance to learn more of that story. If, that was, he was willing to tell it. She wondered irrelevantly what her answer would be if it were Mr. Rochford standing there asking to take her to Richmond Park.
But there was a silence waiting to be filled.
“Thank you, Mr. Thorne,” she said. “I will.”
“At one o’ clock?” He bowed after she had nodded, took his leave of Avery and Anna, and strode from the room.
“Well, this is an interesting turn of events,” Anna said a few moments after the door had closed behind him. “I would have wagered upon Mr. Rochford’s calling this afternoon, if anyone, but it is Mr. Thorne who came instead.”
“I suppose, Jess,” Avery said, “it was Rochford who sent the flowers.”
“It was,” she said.
“Yes,” he commented, strolling closer and looking at them again, but with the naked eye this time. “It is as I would have expected.”
He did not explain. He did not need to. Jessica had had the same thought.
“I wonder why Mr. Thorne went to America,” Anna said, “and why he has returned—and to London instead of to his home, wherever that is, though he has hardly ever been here before.”
“Perhaps Jess can twist his arm for information when she drives out with him tomorrow,” Avery said, turning his lazy gaze upon his sister. “Were you even introduced to him last evening, Jess? I did not see you dance with him.”
“I did not,” she said. “Lady Parley presented him to me, but it was just before Mr. Dean claimed his set, and there was no chance to exchange more than a few words.”
“Ah,” he said. “But you made a significant enough impression upon him that he came today to lay his heart at your feet.”
“How absurd,” she said. “But the truth is, I had seen him before last evening. He was at the inn where I spent the night on the way home from Abby and Gil’s, looking for all the world like a cit—nothing like his appearance last evening or today. He had already reserved the only private parlor at the inn, but Mr. Goddard arranged with the landlord to persuade him to give it up to me. I daresay I was not meant to come face-to-face with him, especially while he was arguing the point with the landlord, but I did. And he did eventually quit the parlor after Mr. Goddard had hustled me upstairs to my room.”
“Edwin was uncharacteristically careless,” Avery said. “I will have a word with him.”
“Nonsense,” Jessica said. “He was such a scrupulous guardian that I almost imagined, except when I looked at him, that he was you.”
“But how romantic,” Anna said with a laugh, “that when Mr. Thorne saw you again last evening, Jessica, he immediately asked Lady Parley to present him. And today he has come here to invite you to drive to Richmond Park with him. Perhaps none of it would have happened if Mr. Goddard had not been careless, Avery. Though I am sure Jessica is right and he was no such thing.”
“Romantic!” Jessica said, tutting and shaking her head. “I do not believe Mr. Thorne and romance can ever be realistically uttered in the same breath.”
Though she knew she would look forward to tomorrow. It was not often that she found any gentleman attractive and intriguing, yet she found Mr. Thorne both.
Her life had suddenly acquired color. Not one but two new gentlemen had arrived in town, and both of them were showing an interest in her. More to the point, she was feeling some interest in them. Had it ever happened before? She did not believe so. Perhaps there was hope for her this year after all, without her having to settle for someone who did not particularly attract her.