Seducing an Angel

"I still miss that life on occasion," Kate added. "I used to teach the very young children at the village school. We used to dance at assemblies that were for everyone, not just for the gentry. Meg is very right. It was a healthy way to grow up. /Not/ that either of us is complaining about the good fortune that befell us when Stephen inherited the Merton title, of course."

"I am certainly not complaining," Stephen said. "There is much privilege in the position. There is also much responsibility and much opportunity to do good."

He looked at Miss Haytor as he spoke. Perhaps it was not a wise thing to say, as she might well be thinking that his position also gave him much opportunity to do ill, but he smiled at her, and it seemed to him that she had lost much of her prunish look in the half hour they had been there.

And Rome, to use the old clichГ©, had not been built in a day.

It was time to leave. He could see Meg preparing to stand up. But before she could do so, there was a knock on the front door, and they all turned their heads to look at the sitting room door, as though it offered a window through which they might see who the new caller was.

After a few moments the door opened and the maid appeared again.

"Mr. Golding, my lady," she said, "to call on Miss Haytor."

Miss Haytor jumped to her feet, her cheeks suffused with color.

"Oh, Mary," she cried, "you really ought to have called me out. I will come – "

But it was too late. A gentleman came past Mary into the room, and then looked acutely embarrassed to find it occupied. He stopped abruptly and bowed.

Cassandra got to her feet and hurried toward him, both hands outstretched, her face glowing.

"Mr. Golding," she said. "It has been a long time, but I do believe I would have known you anywhere."

He was a small, thin, wiry man of middle years and unprepossessing appearance. His dark hair had receded from his forehead and thi

"Little Cassie?" he said, setting his hands in hers and looking as delighted as she. "I would /not/ have known /you/ except maybe for your hair. But you are Lady Paget now, are you not? Miss Haytor told me that when I met her yesterday. I am sorry about your husband's passing."

"Thank you," she said, and she turned to present him to her other guests, her face still bright and happy and quite incredibly beautiful.

She explained that he had been her brother's tutor for a short while when they were children, though now he was secretary to a cabinet minister.

"I came to pay my respects to Miss Haytor," Golding said after he had made his bows. "I did not intend to walk in on you and your visitors, Lady Paget."

"Do have a seat anyway," Cassandra said, "and a cup of tea."

But he would not sit down, clearly intimidated by the company.

"I merely came," he said, "to see if Miss Haytor would care to join me for a drive out to Richmond Park tomorrow. I thought we might take a picnic tea."

He looked at Miss Haytor, clearly uncomfortable.

"Just the two of us?" she asked, the color still high in her cheeks, her eyes bright. She looked really quite handsome, Stephen thought. She must have been a pretty girl in her day.

"I suppose it is not quite the thing, is it?" he said, turning his hat in his hands and looking as though he would be glad of a hole opening at his feet to swallow him up. "I just do not know who else I could ask to accompany us. I suppose I could – "

Begi

"If you have no great objection," he said to Golding, "and if Lady Paget has no plans for tomorrow afternoon, perhaps she and I could join the two of you on your picnic. The ladies could be each other's chaperone."

"That would be very decent of you, my lord," Mr. Golding said, "though I do not wish to impose."

"It is no imposition at all," Stephen said. "I only wish I had thought of it for myself. Now all we need, Golding, is to have two ladies agree to accompany us." He looked inquiringly from Miss Haytor to Cassandra and back again. "I ought to have asked you first, Miss Haytor, if you mind my being one of the party. Do you?"

He shamelessly smiled his most charming smile at her.

But he could see from her eyes that she very badly wanted to go.

"You are quite correct, Lord Merton," she said sternly. "If Cassie is with me, I will be able to chaperone her and see that she comes to no harm. Mr. Golding, I would be delighted to come."

They all looked questioningly at Cassandra.

"It seems," she said without looking at Stephen, "that I am going on a picnic tomorrow."

"Splendid," Golding said again, rubbing his hands together, though he still looked horribly embarrassed. "I will have a hired carriage outside the door at two o'clock, then."

"Perhaps," Stephen said, "since you are presumably supplying the tea, Golding, you will allow me to supply the carriage?"

"That is decent of you, my lord," Golding said, and he bowed himself out of the room without further ado.

"It is time we all took our leave," Meg said, getting to her feet.

"Thank you for tea and your kind hospitality, Lady Paget. And it has been very pleasant to meet you, Miss Haytor."

"It has indeed," Kate said. "I wanted us to share some teaching stories, Miss Haytor, but we have not had a chance, have we? Perhaps next time."

"I will look forward to tomorrow, ma'am," Stephen said, making her a bow before following the others out of the room. Cassandra was with his sisters.

He let Meg and Kate go out to the waiting carriage while he lingered in the hall to take his leave.

"I have always had a weakness for picnics," he said. "Fresh air. Food and drink. Grass and trees and flowers. Congenial company. They are a powerful combination."

"The company may not be very congenial," she warned him.

He laughed.

"I am sure," he said, "I will like Golding very well indeed."

She half smiled at his deliberate misunderstanding of her meaning.

"I meant myself," she said. "You must know that I do not want to go, that this new… relationship you spoke of last night is doomed to failure. We ca

"Lovers ca

She did not reply.

"I have a need to make amends," he told her. "Instead of bringing some joy back into your life, I did the opposite, Cass. Let me make amends."

"I do not want – "

"We all want joy," he said. "We all /need/ it. And there is such a thing, Cass. I promise you."

She merely stared at him, her green eyes almost luminous.

"Tell me you will look forward to the picnic," he said.

"Oh, very well," she said. "If my doing so will make you feel better, I will say it. I will not sleep tonight for eager excitement to have the picnic begin. I shall say my prayers for good weather every hour on the hour."

He smiled at her and flicked her chin with one finger before hurrying outside and climbing into the carriage to take his place opposite his sisters, his back to the horses.

"Oh, Stephen," Kate said when the door had been closed and the carriage rocked into motion, "I did not understand this morning. Or perhaps I /chose/ not to understand. Are none of us to have a smooth road to matrimony and happiness, then?"

"But it was a rough road that led three of us to happiness, Kate," Meg said quietly. "Perhaps a smooth road does not do it. Perhaps we should /wish/ this rough road on Stephen."