Like No Other

Chapter 12: Reconciliation and Implications

                         

        When they retreated the room and completely out of earshot, it was the singular opportunity Lord Stokeford was seeking from the moment he entered the drawing room. And yet now that he could have Miss Davis solely to himself, he was deprived  the power of speech. That this slip of a chit seemed to affect him a great deal was something his lordship could neither grasp nor comprehend. But then, he reflected, he wasn’t at all accustomed to render flatteries or to fall on one knee and ask prettily for a damsel’s forgiveness for causing her distress, and blamed his inexperience at this matter for the suspicious hammering of his heart, and the lack of idea what to say next.

        Finally he found his voice and started his discourse by clearing his throat, but the words came stumbling out nebulously. “Caro—“ clears throat again, “that is, Miss Davis, I just wanted to…to… Well, you see, there’s something I… About the other night—”

        Surprisingly, he was somehow interrupted by Caroline’s own contrite voice saying, “I am terribly sorry for my behavior earlier, my lord!” 

        His lordship was bemused. “I beg your pardon?”

        “I’m afraid I’ve not been…well, agreeable on your entire visit, sir,” She heaved a sigh of remorse. “Only that I shouldn’t have been evading your company, and I…I lied about writing a letter to Papa, for I never jotted down a word, and—oh dear—it was all pointless scribbling, and I wasted paper and so much ink just for the pretense! Indeed, I deserve to have my ears boxed!”

        The Earl, having a little difficulty to discern the very point of these utterances, only murmured, “Well, wouldn’t that hurt?”

        A peal of laughter was let out.  She said: “I daresay it would, but it is no less than I deserve.”

        “No, you deserve none of it. I rather believe that I do,” he replied firmly and looked squarely into those wide green eyes with utmost earnestness. “Miss Davis, I was the one who had been disagreeable and acted very crude to you that night at Almack’s. Indeed my behavior was deplorable, but what’s done cannot be undone,” there was a glint of regret in his eyes. “And I sincerely apologise for it.” 

        He ended this pronouncement with a deep bow, to which Miss Davis replied hurriedly, shaking her head: “O-oh, no! No! I should be the one who must beg your pardon! You see, I—I was trying to avoid you, because I said some dreadful things to you, and I am very much guilty!” Her gaze fell to the ground, and she added in a subdued tone: “It’s only that I think it unbearable if you would start to treat me coldly.”

        This admission, so candidly put, quite disarmed the Earl like nothing ever did before. To think how a girl of no more than seventeen summers could be so honest to her true feelings, while others of her age must have been polishing themselves up in perfecting the art of folly and affectation, so unpretentious, and quite brave to confide it to someone whom she thought she might have hurt, was something of a novelty to him. But then, Stefan mused wryly, Miss Davis resembled none of those society misses who knew nothing but superficiality.

        He also didn’t fail to notice the hurt that was imbued in that admission, and was made painfully aware of his conscience being pricked to a greater degree.  

        “Caroline,” he said softly, taking the liberty of calling her name without permission, and realizing dazedly at the same time how natural it felt on his lips. 

        Miss Davis turned up her head, only to locked gazes with him again, and realized dazedly the proximity of where they stood. In that moment then was the chance to openly observe his every feature—of how handsome was that countenance, and even more so, had it been but without its usual grimace, or the dispassion that made his eyes bereft of the radiance they ought to have, and thinking that in the short while of their acquaintance how it already etched into her memory, and would well be remembered even after leaving all the gaieties of London and be shelved again to the comforts of her home in the country.