Tempted

“I agree to try,” Evan said, rising. He looked at his father’s extended hand and shook it.

“Good. We’ll discuss the canal later.”

Evan opened his mouth, then closed it and went up to his room, shaking his head.

“You just had to do it, didn’t you?” Bose demanded. “You had to argue with him.” He tossed a pair of Evan’s boots to the floor with enough force to draw a complaint from him.

“Mind what you are about.”

“Disappearing for half the morning, then arguing the entire way through breakfast. What could you have been thinking of?”

“My head was turned, and I did apologize.”

“There should have been no need. I thought you were past such raw-recruit antics. I shall most likely never win Joan now. Don’t expect much dinner, is all I can say, for she is in tears in the kitchen, expecting us to be thrown out at any moment.”

“Bose, you are an admirable traveling companion, and sometimes even a passable batman, but your intelligence gathering leaves much to be desired,” Evan said, as he straightened his stock and searched out his riding crop.

“Don’t even speak to me. I shall hope to be taken on as a groom here. I wash my hands of you. What do you mean, intelligence?”

“Any moderately well run establishment would allocate at least one footman to stand outside a door where a crucial conference is being held, and keep the maids from crying into the shelled peas by reporting that everything is going to be fine.”

“It is? But you just had a rousing fight with him.”

“Yes, that’s what he likes about me. At least that’s what he says.”

“That makes no sense. Are you sure you have it right?” Bose asked, as Evan was about to leave.

“Seems odd to me, too, but he wants us to stay. He means to leave the place to me to run. Of course, I shall be instantly saddled with a family who doesn’t like me, with one exception. But that’s no worse than breaking in a new troop, don’t you think?”

“I’m sure there is a difference, but I don’t know what all it might be,” said Bose in awe.

“No sense borrowing trouble from tomorrow in any case. Of course, there’s no saying what might happen at dinner.”

Lady Mountjoy had watched Evan and Judith ride out and had waited by the morning-room window so that she could speak to her sister directly once they returned. When they came up the back steps of the house, Judith saw Helen staring at them and wiped the smile from her glowing face.

“Angel, leave us a moment,” Helen Mountjoy commanded a few minutes later, planting herself in her sisters’ bedroom.

Angel grimaced at Judith on her way out, drawing a smile from her. Judith was sitting on the bed in her shift and reached for her tired blue evening frock. Helen helped her pull it over her head.

“Where did this riding habit come from?” Helen asked as she turned to shake out the creases from the long green skirt hanging by the mirror.

“Evan bought it for me,” Judith said calmly, thinking of their first ride and how Evan had praised her natural riding ability.

“That’s not proper. It’s also very dangerous.”

“So I told him, but somehow he managed to talk me into it. I keep going over it in my mind, and I can’t quite make out how I agreed to it. It must have been when he threatened to buy me a red one.”

Helen sat on the bed beside her sister. “I know you are very sensible in the ordinary way, Judith, but he’s a man.”

“I know,” Judith said, combing her hair.

“And a soldier.”

“Yes, I know,” she said emphatically.

“I fear he may persuade you to some indiscretion.”

Judith went pink in the face, but not from anger. “After being tricked once, I could never be taken in again. Besides, Evan is different from Banstock. Evan is a war hero. While Banstock’s troop never left England.”

“And Evan is stronger. He could take what he wanted, and you could never stop him.”

“But he would not do such a thing under his father’s own roof. Besides, I feel I know him already from his letters, and from Gram talking about him. I think he will be a very good friend to me.”

“Friend? Does he know the sort of relationship you have in mind?”

“Do not worry. I shall keep him at arm’s length. He will be the big brother I never had.”

“Do you mean to stick by your decision never to marry?”

“We did agree that it is best this way. At least I will never have to deceive anyone.”

Helen hesitated as she ran her fingers in circles on the coverlet. “You don’t mean to tell Evan the truth, then?”

“And give him a disgust of me? No, I could not bear it.”

“I don’t like him, Judith. I tell you, I don’t like him.”

“Merely because he is a soldier and strong?”

“He is also dangerous,” Helen said ominously.

“Nonsense, Helen,” Judith said, as she rose to arrange her hair. “I can handle him.”

“I don’t mean physically dangerous. When he arrived, I tried to send him packing.”

“You didn’t!” Judith whirled. “I know you don’t like him, but this is his home.”

Helen pushed herself to her feet with much less grace than her sister. “Well, it didn’t work. Then, when Hiram introduced us, Evan acted as though we had just met.”

“But that was very kind of him.”

“It was very clever of him. I warn you, Judith, behind those sad, hurt eyes lurks a formidable intellect.”

“You make it sound as though he is plotting against us.”

“He is a soldier and not one to miss the main chance. What better way to entrench himself here than to marry you?”

“But that’s silly! We’ve only just met. Besides, I will never marry.”