been entirely wrong. His family seemed in as good of spirits as ever. He had been as astonished as they when he had knocked on the door, only to find them preparing for a house full of guests.
As a matter of fact, they had to rearrange his bedroom for him once more, as the maids had been in the process of preparing it for one of the couples who were to join them.
They had assumed that he would be overjoyed by the party — for Elijah had always been known to love company. Little did they know that he had been looking forward to some peace and quiet.
That, however, did not seem to be part of his near future. At least, not until after Christmas. A Christmas that would hopefully pass quickly.
When he returned to the party, it was nearly time for dinner, and he wanted nothing more than to approach Miss Merryton to lead her in and to reacquaint himself with her. He cursed his memory, which, no matter how hard he wished it, was never going to be the same again. It had been annoying, but up to this point, he hadn’t much cared. Now, though, he had something to care about, for it seemed he had lost full memories of Joanna Merryton. Memories which, according to his sister and Miss Merryton, were not particularly good ones to begin with.
He retook his seat across the drawing room, his eyes half shuttered as he watched her speak with Caroline, who was likely apologizing for his behavior yet again. He was so intent in his study that he nearly didn’t notice Cecily and her husband approach.
“Elijah! How wonderful to see you! We are such old friends we can dispense with formalities, can we not?” she gushed. Cecily always gushed, as though every time she spoke to someone it was the height of excitement. He supposed it wasn’t the worst trait a person could possess, but it did become rather annoying after a time — especially when he knew that she was just as likely to turn around and gossip about everything she had just learned after one of her conversations. “I’m not sure if you have even met Robert before, have you? Or, should I say, Lord Danvers?”
“Ah—” Elijah couldn’t entirely remember, but fortunately Danvers solved the problem for him.
“Of course, Kentmore and I go back to our school days at Eton. How are you, old chap? Heard you had gone off to war. Wasn’t sure if we’d be seeing you here, after hearing the tales of your injury. That was a bad bit of luck. Good to see you’re in fine health.”
Eli was somewhat taken aback that the story of his misfortune had already circulated through England. But, then, news of other’s misery seemed to travel faster than anything more pleasant.
“All is fine,” Elijah said with what he hoped was an easy smile. “A small injury, and I was ready to come home as it was.”
“Oh, yes!” Cecily exclaimed, bringing her hands together in front of her as she looked down at him with a benevolent smile. “I could hardly believe it when I heard you had been hurt. You always seemed to be… untouchable.”
Elijah pressed his lips tightly together, hoping his expression wasn’t a grimace. As he looked around to see if dinner was going to be served anytime soon, he noticed that Joanna had drifted closer toward him, and he wondered if she could hear their conversation — and if she would even care about it if she did.
She was speaking to Admiral Cuthbert at the moment, however, and he knew from experience that it was difficult to hear anything else when the admiral was in close proximity. He was a man Elijah could never forget, as the admiral had been such a close friend of his father for many years now.
He could practically hear the admiral bellowing in Miss Merryton’s ear, but then, the admiral bellowed so much that one became used to the sound. Eli was just preparing to rise and save her — although he doubted she would see it as such — when his younger brother, Alexander, appeared beside her, offering his arm, no doubt to lead her in to supper.
Elijah fell back into his chair, feeling sorry for himself, even though any cause for discord between him and Miss Merryton was entirely of his own doing.
If only he were more like Alex. Alex, who always seemed to do the right thing, even