Deceiving the Viscount

Chapter 5

Julia tugged on the sleeves of her walking dress as her abigail, Susan, fussed with her hair, making it just right in preparation for her walk with Healey, and tried not to let her delight show. It wasn't a bone-deep sort of pleasure she was feeling, the kind that came from seeing the one you love. It was more a gleeful kind of victorious sensation, the kind that stemmed from knowing you had the right of things.

A gentle scratch on the door sounded. "Yes?"

A footman appeared. "Miss Marlowe, Mr Shearing is enquiring if you are home to callers."

Curses escaped before she could stop herself. That odious man always had the most horrid of timings, always appearing where she didn't want him to. But now that Healey was waiting for her in the drawing room, she could hardly send Shearing away. Besides, Mother enjoyed Shearing's company and wouldn't be pleased to have the man turned away.

Huffing, she nodded and then turned back to look at the mirror, her buoyant mood ruined. She pressed her lips together and forced herself to relax her face so that she would appear a picture of serene calmness.

Satisfied by the poised and polite mask, she nodded to her reflection before turning to the footman. "Yes, please allow Mr Shearing in. And have someone alert Mother." She looked back at the mirror, and caught the expression on Susan's face. She rolled her eyes "Yes, I'm well aware of what you think is my folly in not being enamoured with Mr Shearing when he is...handsome" she made a face at that word "but you should know that a pretty face does not a good man make." She toyed with the small pieces of jewellery laid out in front of her. "We barely tolerate each other's presence, and only do so because of our parents' friendship and the close proximity of our properties."

"And the matter of the unspoken agreement of uniting the two properties through marriage."

Julia's lips pressed into a line of distaste. "Yes, and that matter."

"But if her ladyship really wishes you to marry Mr Shearing, why does she still encourage male callers and the like? Why spend all this money on a Season in London?"

"Why indeed." Julia picked up a bracelet that Shearing had gifted her on her last birthday, twisting it here and there. "I cannot begin to fathom Mother's thoughts. Maybe she is scheming." At her maid's frown, she sighed. "By parading me in front of a whole lot of other eligible men, she hopes to elicit some sort of...jealousy in Shearing. To force him into proposing so that he might secure my hand before someone else does."

The look on Susan's face was quite laughable and Julia chuckled. "Do you not think Mother is capable of such behaviour?"

"It isn't my place to think such things, Miss."

She sighed. "Of course it isn't." She glanced at the clock in her room. "I think a suitable amount of time has passed and Mother should be in the drawing room with the two gentlemen, don't you think?" She nodded at herself. "Then, off to battle it is."

Garrett glanced at the man seated opposite him in the drawing room while he waited for Miss Marlowe to make an appearance for their walk. It was twice in two days that he'd seen the man. Was it merely a coincidence? He suppose it must be, if Shearing's relationship with the Marlowes was anything to go by.

Curiosity snaked through him as he studied the man who was reading a book plucked from one of the shelves the moment they finished exchanging pleasantries. As if it were his own house. Garrett leaned back against the settee. What exactly did Shearing hope to achieve by constantly being around a woman he disliked? Was he merely just a family friend or was there something more? Would Shearing be an obstacle to his wooing of Miss Marlowe?

Did he care?

"My Lord Healey," Garrett started a bit to hear his name, "I'm certain that since you're well aware that staring is not polite, yet the fact that you've been looking so long at me can only mean two things. One, you have something you wish to say but you cannot. Or two, you are completely enamoured of me and cannot help but be drawn to my handsome visage."