“Your sister has many admirable qualities, I’m sure,” he said.
“She’s the belle of Derbyshire.” Miss Appersett tugged on her worn leather gloves. “A beauty of some repute.”
“Is she indeed.”
“If that was your only requirement, you would have done better to court her.”
He gave a derisive snort. “I doubt she’d have had me.”
Miss Appersett’s eyes flew to his, a hint of accusation in her gaze. And something else, too. Some flash of emotion he couldn’t interpret.
His heart gave a queer double-thump. “Besides, beauty wasn’t my only requirement.”
“No? What other reason could you have had for approaching my father?”
He shrugged. “I suppose I thought I could make you happy. Apparently, I was wrong.”
A shadow of vulnerability passed over Miss Appersett’s face. For the barest moment, she looked far younger than the self-possessed lady he’d lately squired about town. “If I hadn’t ended our courtship, would you have done?” she asked.
A damnably awkward question. Especially when he’d already agreed that they didn’t suit. He ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Perhaps. Eventually. I don’t know.”
“You can’t have been very comfortable.”
“Is courtship meant to be comfortable in your world?”
Any response Miss Appersett might have given was arrested by a firm rap on the office door. It shook the doorframe and rattled the glass, causing them to jump away from each other as if they’d been caught in the midst of committing a crime.
Walter Murray popped his ginger head into the room. “Forgive the interruption. The carriage has arrived. Shall I have the driver wait?”
Ned silently cursed his friend’s bad timing. “We’ll be right down.”
Walter withdrew, leaving the door open behind him. A not-so-subtle hint that Ned must observe the proprieties. As if he needed reminding. Miss Appersett’s visit already verged on the scandalous. It was going to be a pretty trick to bundle her into the hansom and send her back to Green Street without arousing any more attention.
She seemed to read his mind. “It was unwise of me to come here.”
“Yes. And, if I may add, very unlike you, Miss Appersett.”
Her expression cooled. “And may I add, Mr. Sharpe, that you don’t know me at all.”
He inclined his head in silent acknowledgment. An excruciatingly civil gesture that was precariously close to mockery. “Indeed, ma’am.” He held the door open for her, wide enough to accommodate her skirts.
But Miss Appersett made no move to exit. She merely stood there, her hands clutched in front of her and her bosom rising and falling on an agitated breath. Twin spots of color rose high in her cheeks. She looked rather magnificent. “In answer to your question,” she said, “I don’t know if courtship is comfortable in my world or anywhere. The truth is, you’re the first gentleman who’s ever asked leave to court me.”
Ned’s hand fell from the door. He couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d hauled off and slapped him across the face.
Was it possible? Could it be true?
He cast his mind back to his first meeting with Sir William. Ned had called on him in Green Street. Had asked leave to court his eldest daughter. All the while, painfully aware that he was not quite one of them. Not quite good enough.
“My daughters have many admirers, Mr. Sharpe,” Sir William had said.
And yet…
He’d never explicitly stated that there were rivals for Miss Appersett’s hand. He’d implied it, of course. Had made Ned feel he must compete. Must prove himself better than all the rest. Indeed, it was after that first meeting with Sir William that Ned had purchased that damned etiquette manual.
“No one?” Ned asked her. “In your entire three-and-twenty years? I find that hard to believe.”
“Believe what you will,” she said. And then: “I have no dowry, sir.”
“I’m aware,” he said. She made no reply. A long silence hung between them, prompting him to say, somewhat indecorously, “I understand that your father lost it on speculation.”
Miss Appersett flinched. “Is that what he told you?”
“It isn’t true?”
“Not precisely.” She hesitated. “If you must know, my father used my dowry to have Appersett House fitted for gas.”
Ned blinked. “He what?”
Her blush deepened. “It was once a showplace. One of the finest estates in Derbyshire. My father means to make it so again.”