“As long as we are discussing matters of a somewhat personal nature involving Mr. March, there is something I feel compelled to discuss with you.”

Lavinia braced herself. “If this is about your connection with Mr. Sinclair, could we wait until some other time? I know that you are in love with him. However, he appears to be a responsible and entirely honorable young man, and I very much doubt that he will ask for your hand until he feels himself to be comfortably situated.

“Given his rather precarious career as an assistant to Tobias, that may take some time. Until then, I really do feel that it would be best if you”

“This is not about my relationship with Anthony,” Emeline interrupted with surprising forcefulness. “It is about yours with Mr. March.”

“Lavinia stared at her. She blinked a couple of times and finally managed to recover herself. What on earth are you talking about?”

“Please, I am no longer a child. Furthermore, our sojourn in Rome as companions to that dreadful Mrs. Underwood gave me an excellent education in worldly matters. I am well-aware that you and Mr. March have formed a very intimate connection.”

“Ah. Yes. Well.” She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. This was ridiculous. She was a woman of the world, after all. She cleared her throat. “The exact nature of my association with Tobias is an extremely personal matter, Emeline.”

“Yes, of course.” Emeline’s gaze did not waver. “The thing is, although it is certainly personal, it is not exactly a secret, if you take my point.”

“It would be somewhat difficult to miss your point. Where is this conversation headed?”

Emeline took another deep breath. “It has not escaped my notice that you and Mr. March are spending more and more time in each other’s company of late.”

“Our professional partnership requires a close association at times.” Lavinia strove to achieve an off-putting, suitably repressive tone, in the faint hope that it might discourage Emeline. “We must consult frequently on various inquiries. You know that very well.”

Emeline did not look put off or discouraged. Her fine dark brows formed a determined line. “I feel that I must be frank. We both know that it was not your professional relationship that required the two of you to travel together to Beaumont Castle.”

“I am rather tired.” Lavinia rubbed her temples with her fingertips. “Could you please tell me why you are suddenly so concerned about my association with Mr. March? For heaven’s sake, I thought you liked the man. Indeed, if memory serves, you thought a good deal more highly of him the first time we encountered him than I did.”

“I do like him. Very much.” Emeline put down her teacup. “It is not my feelings for him that we are discussing.”

“Mmm.”

“Aunt Lavinia, tell me the truth. You are in love with Mr. March, are you not?”

“Mmm.”

“And he appears to be in love with you.”

“Mmm.” Lavinia glanced toward the door, wondering if she could plead sudden illness and make a dash for the stairs.

“Everyone knows why two people who have formed an intimate connection would accept an invitation to a large house party.”

“Indeed.” Lavinia clutched the arms of her chair. “Long walks in the fresh air. The chance to commune with nature. The opportunity to enjoy jolly rustic entertainments.”

“I am not that naive, Aunt Lavinia, and well you know it. It is common knowledge that house parties provide opportunities for ladies and gentlemen who are involved in romantic liaisons to be private with each other. Do not try to tell me that that is not precisely what you and Mr. March planned to do at Beaumont Castle.”

“Whatever plans Mr. March and I might have made in regard to our personal entertainment were drastically altered by Lord Fullerton’s demise, I assure you.”

“I understand. But the point is, you did have some plans.”

Embarrassment sparked into annoyance. “Accepting the invitation to Beaumont Castle was Tobias’s idea, not mine.”

“But you agreed to the journey,” Emeline insisted. “You must have known what it would entail.”

“Enough.” Lavinia pushed herself up out of the chair and went to stand at the window. “What is the aim of this exceedingly personal interrogation?”

“Forgive me, but I feel I must be blunt,” Emeline said quietly. “I expected that when you returned from Beaumont’s house party, you and Mr. March would announce your intention to wed.”

Lavinia’s mouth went dry. The floor suddenly seemed to shift under her feet. She reached out and grasped a fistful of drapery to steady herself.

“You expected what?” she finally managed.

“You heard me,” Emeline said. “I assumed that Mr. March would ask you to marry him in the course of your visit to the Beaumont estate.”

“Lavinia whirled around. Whatever put that notion into your head?”

“I have lived with you for several years, and I feel I know you well enough to state without hesitation that this connection you have formed with Mr. March is unique.” Emeline rose to her feet. “I realize that you have had one or two minor flirtations over the years, but none of them amounted to much. Certainly none of those other gentlemen was even allowed to get into the habit of joining us for breakfast on a frequent basis. You never went off to house parties with any of them.”

“Emeline!”

“You have as much as admitted that you are in love with Mr. March, and he appears to be quite fond of you. I had every right to assume that this connection would lead to marriage.”

“Every right?” Lavinia realized she was crumpling the drapery.

Very carefully, she released the fabric and smoothed the folds. “Yes, well, your assumption was incorrect.”

Emeline’s expression became one of astonishment mingled with outrage. “Do you mean to say that Mr. March has not even mentioned the subject of marriage?”

“No, he has not.” Lavinia elevated her chin. “Furthermore, there is no reason why he should do so. Indeed, I do not expect an offer of marriage from him.”

“You cannot mean that, Lavinia.”

“The thing is, Emeline, our current arrangement suits both Mr. March and myself very well.”

Emeline spread her arms. “But as it stands, your arrangement is little more than an unconventional liaison, an affair. It cannot go on forever.”

The note of censure in her tone was extremely irritating, Lavinia thought. “I do not see why it cannot continue indefinitely. A great many ladies engage in long-standing affairs.”

“Not you, Lavinia.”

“Bloody hell, you need not look so scandalized.” Feeling the need for another medicinal glass of sherry, she stalked back to the cabinet and yanked the door open. You know very well that, although a lady of your years and status would be ruined by such an unconventional liaison, as a widow I may do as I please in such matters.”

“I am well-aware that Society has a different set of rules for each of us,” Emeline said stiffly. “But that does not mean that it is proper for you to bestow your… your favors upon Mr. March without some understanding concerning the future of your relationship.”

“Good lord, Emeline, you make me sound like a member of the demimonde.”

Emeline had the grace to blush. “I did not mean to imply any such thing. But I must tell you that I assumed from the outset that Mr. March’s intentions were honorable.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake.” She splashed sherry into the glass she had used earlier. “They are honorable.”

“I fail to see how you can say that if he has not asked you to marry him.”

“I cannot believe that you are presuming to lecture me on the subject of proper decorum and behavior.”

“It distresses me greatly to say this, but I fear we must consider the possibility that Mr. March may be deliberately taking advantage of you.

That was too much.

“Advantage? Of me?” Lavinia swallowed the sherry and set the glass down hard. “Does it occur to you that I may be the one taking advantage of Mr. March?”

Emeline’s lips parted in shock. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Consider the matter from my point of view” Lavinia headed for the door. “As things stand now, I have everything a woman in my situation could possibly want. I enjoy a close connection with a gentleman, but I do not need to make any of the sacrifices that are so often required of a married woman. I retain all of my rights, both legal and financial. I can come and go as I please. I operate my own business. I answer to no man. Frankly, Emeline, there is a lot to be said for this sort of arrangement.”

Shock bloomed in Emeline’s eyes.

Lavinia did not wait for her to recover. She went out into the hall and swiftly climbed the stairs.

It was only when she was alone in the sanctuary of her bedchamber that she acknowledged to herself that she had lied through her teeth to Emeline.

Not that all of the things she had just said to her niece were not true and accurate as far as they went. There were indeed a great many excellent reasons why she was better off unwed.

But none of them was the real reason why she feared marriage to Tobias.

Eleven

“Evidently country life does not agree with you, March.” Lord Crackenburne’s bristling gray brows bunched above the rims of his spectacles. “Let me see if I have got it all straight. In the course of the single night you spent under Beaumont’s roof, a mysterious death occurred, you found evidence that a new Memento-Mori Man is at work, and a lady from your past managed to involve you in an awkward situation in front of your good friend Mrs. Lake.”