Richard wondered if she was issuing a warning. If he was a fortune hunter, he should look elsewhere.
“I visit with my cousins, of course,” she continued lightly, “but they are all in the south of England. I don’t believe I have ever traveled past Norfolk.”
“It’s a very different landscape in the north,” he told her. “It can be quite desolate and bleak.”
“You are not proving yourself an enthusiastic ambassador for your county,” she chided.
He chuckled at that. “It’s not all desolate and bleak. And the parts that are are beautiful in their own way.”
She smiled at the description.
“At any rate,” he continued, “Maycliffe sits in a rather pleasant valley. It’s quite tame compared to the rest of the county.”
“Is that a good thing?” she asked with an arch of her brow.
He laughed. “We’re actually not too far from Darlington, and the railway that is being built there.”
Her blue eyes lit up in wonder. “Are you? I should love to see that. I read that when it is completed, one might be able to travel at fifteen miles per hour, but I cannot credit such a speed. It sounds frightfully dangerous.”
He nodded absently, glancing over at Daisy, who was still interrogating poor Winston about the Russian prince. “I suppose your sister thought that Miss Elizabeth should not have refused Darcy’s first proposal.”
Iris stared at him blankly before blinking, and saying, “Oh, yes, the book. Yes, you’re correct. Daisy found Lizzy to be most foolish.”
“What do you think?” he asked, and he realized that he truly wished to know her opinion.
She paused, taking the time to choose her words. Richard did not mind the silence; it gave him the opportunity to watch her as she thought. She was prettier than he’d supposed at first sight. There was a pleasing symmetry to her features, and her lips were far rosier than one might guess, given how pale the rest of her was.
“Given what she knew at the time,” Iris finally said, “I don’t see how she could possibly have accepted him. Would you wish to marry someone you could not respect?”
“Certainly not.”
She nodded officiously, then frowned as she regarded Winston and Daisy again. Somehow, they had managed to get quite a bit ahead. Richard couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but Winston had the look of a man in trouble.
“We will have to save him again,” Iris said with a sigh. “But this time you must do it. I’ve exhausted my knowledge of Russian politics.”
Richard allowed himself to lean toward her, close enough so that he could murmur in her ear. “The Treaty of St. Petersburg defined the boundary between Russian America and the North Western Territory.”
She caught her lip between her teeth, clearly trying not to smile.
“Iris!” Daisy called out.
“It appears we won’t have to stage an interruption,” Richard said as they closed the gap between the two couples.
“I have invited Mr. Bevelstoke to the poetry reading at the Pleinsworths’ next week,” Daisy said. “Do insist that he attend.”
Iris stared at her sister in horror before turning to Winston. “I . . . insist that you attend?”
Daisy gave a petulant snort at her sister’s lack of resolve and turned back to Winston. “You must attend, Mr. Bevelstoke. You simply must. It is sure to be uplifting. Poetry always is.”
“No,” Iris said, with a pained frown, “it’s really not.”
“Of course we will be there,” Richard announced.
Winston’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Richard assured Daisy.
“The Pleinsworths are our cousins,” Iris said with a pointed look. “You might recall Harriet. She played violin—”
“Second violin,” Daisy cut in.
“—in the concert last night.”
Richard swallowed. She could only be talking about the one who could not read music. Still, there was no reason to think this boded ill for a poetry reading.
“Harriet’s a bore,” Daisy said, “but her younger sisters are darling.”
“I like Harriet,” Iris said firmly. “I like her a great deal.”
“Then I am certain it will be a most pleasant evening,” Richard said.
Daisy beamed and looped her arm once again through Winston’s, leading the way back to the Cumberland Gate through which they’d entered. Richard followed with Iris, setting their pace more slowly so that they might be able to speak privately.