adequate activity to quiet his mind when he had too much on it. He’d never seek to play in earnest with other men, but alone, he could easily pass the time there.
He might do so, once he found Eloise and saw to her. She’d seemed more fatigued than he would have liked of late, and more than once, he had considered cancelling the house party. But between his determination to help Edith and his aunt’s insistence on having the event, he’d let it all continue.
Time would only tell if it was a worthy endeavor.
He strode down to the main level only to find that Eloise was nowhere to be found. None of the servants had seen her recently, and she was not in her rooms. Considering she was no horsewoman, and never walked to the village, there could be only one place left.
Shaking his head, Graham left the house, wanting to laugh and growl at the same time. His aunt refused to accept that she had limitations and that she would do well to obey them. She would walk the gardens and then be nearly bedridden the day after in recovery. For all her declarations of not being sickly, her constitution was not one of strength on even the best days. More than once, he had considered bringing her to London to see better physicians than what they had in nearby Linfield.
Eloise would not hear of it and swore by Dr. Benson and his treatments. Graham had no complaints about the man himself, but his aunt had not had improvement to her health and stamina in some time. It was entirely possible that nothing could be done by any physician, but he would have given a great deal to try.
“Good day, milord!” one of the gardeners’ assistants called from the hedgerow with a wave.
Graham nodded with a smile, enjoying the fact that he did not have to force it or remind himself of politeness. Here at Merrifield, Lord Radcliffe smiled at his tenants and servants, and could even be prevailed upon to speak with them.
The same could not necessarily be said for his neighbors, but there was no sense in giving up his reserve on all fronts.
He ducked as he entered the garden through the smaller entrance, not wishing to circle all the way around to the main gate. Scanning the paths and low bushes, he frowned, seeing nothing and no one. His aunt would not have gone through the maze, unless she had completely lost her ever-sharp faculties, so she must have been on the other side of the garden behind the roses.
With all the meandering paths his mother had laid down during her renovation of the garden some twenty years ago, it would take him as long to reach the roses as it would have done to go around.
Nothing for it, though.
Graham walked quickly on the stones, hopping over the low bushes where he could, glancing up at the windows purely out of habit. Any of his guests would have thought him unhinged, and Molly would have found him laughable. He wasn’t sure which of the impressions he would prefer to have left, but it would be best for all concerned if he were not seen at all.
Eloise would pay dearly if he were.
Rounding the last of the bushes and lifting the low-hanging wisteria out of his way, Graham moved into the last part of the garden, only to stop in his tracks.
Eloise sat on a bench at the end of the lane he presently stood on.
And she was not alone.
Striking green eyes raised from the private conversation and widened as they clashed with his gaze.
Holy heavens.
Graham swallowed, his fingers sliding against each other by his sides. Edith looked even lovelier than she had upon her arrival, a simple cream calico gown enhancing every aspect of her. She had forgone the deep green traveling cloak from before. The brilliance it had lent to her already magnificent eyes had left Graham unable to present the warm and welcoming greeting he had intended. All he had managed was his habitual reserve, bare politeness, and looking her over as though something might have happened to her since he’d seen her last.
He’d meant to ask her about her state rather than look it over. He’d meant to show her how pleased he was that she had come, that she was here, and that he could spend some time getting to know her in this place. He’d managed none of those things.
And now