To Angelika, that ring looked like a lump of glass. She had no idea why Lizzie loved it so. “Since the moment he met you, it’s always been yours. It looked hideous on me, and perfect on you.” She smiled as Lizzie leaned against her in silent thanks. Larkspur Lodge flashed behind her eyes when she blinked. “Back to the topic. Will is desperately handsome, and perfectly endowed. I made sure of it.”
Lizzie snorted. “He thinks you are rather beautiful, and he’s right. You glow with a new magic, fairy queen. I have never seen you look so well.” She rubbed a hand between Angelika’s shoulder blades. “The gardening lads think so, too.”
Angelika reapplied herself to shredding dandelions into sour-smelling piles of yellow. “Yes, he does find me fair, but he doesn’t remember any other women. I am his current and only favorite.”
Lizzie kept going. “You are of marrying age.”
“Maybe too old.”
“You’re not. When he kisses you, you feel like pulling his clothes off.” Lizzie tossed a dandelion in Angelika’s face.
“Definitely yes.”
Lizzie revealed her point: “And you are spending your time attempting to find his wife. I don’t understand it. He should be crawling on hands and knees to win you.” She raised her voice on this last part, and Will’s head turned. “Good, he should listen,” Lizzie grumbled, putting her forearm across her eyes.
Angelika bristled with protectiveness. “Leave him be.”
“I hate seeing you this way, Jelly. You are in your old pattern of falling in love with men who will never notice or return it. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that ancient bookbinder.”
Angelika screeched, “You swore we’d never speak of it!”
A boy up a ladder dropped his paint tin.
Lizzie continued. “Will is a handsome, polite man, but I don’t see any fire in his heart. You need someone who will fight to the death for you, and I’m sorry, my dear, but I think that person will be Commander Keatings.”
“It was your idea to invite him to our grand dinner.” It was confirmed when Lizzie’s lip curled. “You wench. Mary’s having conniptions over it. Sarah is polishing all the silver, looking like she could cry.”
Angelika dropped down to lie flat on her stomach and closed her eyes, feeling the warm sun on her back and the wool blanket on her cheek. “It’s not going to be grand, though, is it, with Victor running the show. It’s going to be odd, and Christopher will know we are . . . odd.”
Lizzie sounded thoughtful. “You care what he thinks. He must be the first suitor you’ve had that you did.”
“Christopher is not my suitor. Will is.”
“So, if I am understanding you right, Commander Keatings is the first gorgeous man in your entire life you didn’t fall in love with at first sight? He is the exception. Isn’t that interesting? If I were Will, I would be very worried.”
Angelika sniffed. “He doesn’t have to worry about a thing.”
Lizzie kept pushing. “I want you to know what it feels like to be desperately wanted. That is what love is, Jelly. Knowing that he will fight for you—and I do not see Will fighting. Do you know what Vic would do if another handsome man was sniffing around my skirts at a dinner?”
Angelika considered the question. “He’d most likely break his own hand in a fistfight, and then I wouldn’t see the pair of you for two days.”
Lizzie’s dark eyes flared with energy. “Three days. I don’t see that passion in Will. I see him calmly trimming overgrown ivy and being polite at breakfast.”
“All love is different.” Angelika could still feel the squeeze of his hand on her waist and the indecent rock of the carriage. “He doesn’t kiss in a polite way.”
“Why should he even get to kiss you?”
“His situation is complicated. I revived someone with no memory but very high morals and ethics. Anyhow, is this how engaged ladies occupy their time these days? Entertaining themselves with their friends’ affairs?”
Her temper was hidden cleverly in this little jibe. Will burned for her; she knew he did.
Lizzie said, “I want us to be married at the same time, then waddle around with matching stomachs. This time next year, we could have our babies lying out here with us, and we could learn how to be mothers together. Believe me, Vic is hard at work on that project.” She exhaled strangely and grew flushed. “I wish I could tell someone about what goes on between us. It’s too much to keep to oneself.”