The period between luncheon and the obligatory appearance in the Park was a quiet time they were coming increasingly to appreciate as the Season wore on. Whenever possible, they tended to spend it together, a last vestige, Caroline thought, of the days when they had only had each other for company.
Sarah sighed. She laid aside her hat and looped the completed daisy chain around her neck. Cramming
her headgear back over her dark curls, she said, "Well, what are we going to do?"
Three pairs of eyes turned her way. When no answer was forthcoming, she continued, explaining her
case with all reasonableness, "Well, we can't go on as we are, can we? None of us is getting anywhere."
Arabella turned on her side better to view her sisters. "But what can we do? In your case, Lord Darcy's not even in London."
"True," returned the practical Sarah. "But it's just occurred to me that he must have friends still in London. Ones who would write to him, I mean. Other than our guardian."
Caroline grinned. "Whatever you do, my love, kindly explain all to me before you set the ton ablaze. I don't think I could stomach our guardian demanding an explanation and not having one to give him."
Sarah chuckled. "Has he been difficult?"
But Caroline would only smile, a secret smile of which both Sarah and Arabella took due note.
"He hasn't said anything about me, has he?" came Lizzie's slightly breathless voice. Under her sisters' gaze, she blushed. "About me and Martin," she mumbled, suddenly becoming engrossed in her petit
point.
Arabella laughed. "Artful puss. As things stand, you're the only one with all sails hoisted and a clear
wind blowing. The rest of us are becalmed, for one reason or another."
Caroline's brow had furrowed. "Why do you ask? Has Max given you any reason to suppose he disapproves?"
"Well," temporized Lizzie, "he doesn't seem entirely… happy, about us seeing so much of each other."
Her attachment to Martin Rotherbridge had progressed in leaps and bounds. Despite Max's warning
and his own innate sense of danger, Martin had not been able to resist the temptation posed by Lizzie Twinning. From that first undeniably innocent kiss he had, by subtle degrees, led her to the point where,… finding herself in his arms in the gazebo in Lady Malling's garden, she had permitted him to kiss her again. Only this time, it had been Martin leading the way. Lizzie, all innocence, had been thoroughly enthralled by the experience and stunned by her own response to the delightful sensations it had engendered. Unbeknownst to her, Martin Rotherbridge had been stunned, too.
Belatedly, he had tried to dampen his own increasing desires, only to find, as his brother could have
told him, that that was easier imagined than accomplished. Abstinence had only led to intemperance. In the end, he had capitulated and returned to spend every moment possible at Lizzie's side, if not her feet.
Lizzie was right in her assessment that Max disapproved of their association but wrong in her idea of the cause. Only too well-acquainted with his brother's character, their guardian entertained a grave concern that the frustrations involved in behaving with decorum in the face of Lizzie Twinning's bounteous temptations would prove overwhelming long before Martin was brought to admit he was in love with the chit. His worst fears had seemed well on the way to being realized when he had, entirely unintentionally, surprised them on their way back to the ballroom. His sharp blue eyes had not missed the glow in Lizzie's face. Consequently, the look he had directed at his brother, which. Lizzie had intercepted, had not been particularly encouraging. She had missed Martin's carefree response.
Caroline, reasonably certain of Max's thoughts on the matter, realized these might not be entirely clear
to Lizzie. But how to explain Max's doubts of his own brother to the still innocent Lizzie? Despite the
fact that only a year separated her from Arabella, the disparity in their understandings, particularly with respect to the male of the species, was enormous. All three elder Twinnings had inherited both looks
and dispositions from their father's family, which in part explained his aversion to women. Thomas Twinning had witnessed firsthand the dance his sisters had led all the men of their acquaintance before finally settling in happily wedded bliss. The strain on his father and himself had been considerable. Consequently, the discovery that his daughters were entirely from the same mould had prompted him to immure mem in rural seclusion. Lizzie, however, had only inherited the Twinning looks, her gentle and often quite stubborn innocence deriving from the placid Eleanor. Viewing the troubled face of her youngest half-sister, Caroline decided the time had come to at least try to suggest to Lizzie's mind that there was often more to life than the strictly obvious. Aside from anything else, this time, she had both Sarah and Arabella beside her to help explain.
"I rather think, my love," commenced Caroline, "that it's not that Max would disapprove of the connection. His concern is more for your good name."
Lizzie's puzzled frown gave no indication of lightening. "But why should my being with his brother endanger my good name?''
Sarah gave an unladylike snort of laughter. "Oh, Lizzie, love! You're going to have to grow up, my
dear. Our guardian's concerned because he knows what his brother's like and that, generally speaking, young ladies are not safe with him."
The effect of this forthright speech on Lizzie was galvanizing. Her eyes blazed in defence of her absent love. "Martin's not like that at all!"
"Oh, sweetheart, you're going to have to open your eyes!" Arabella bought into the discussion, sitting up the better to do so. "He's not only 'like that,' Martin Rotherbridge has made a career specializing in being 'like that.' He's a rake. The same as Hugo and Darcy Hamilton, too. And, of course, the greatest rake of them all is our dear guardian, who has his eye firmly set on Caro here. Rakes and Twinnings go together, I'm afraid. We attract them and they-" she put her head on one side, considering her words "-well, they attract us. It's no earthly good disputing the evidence."
Seeing the perturbation in Lizzie's face, Caroline sought to reassure her. "That doesn't mean that the
end result is not just the same as if they were more conservative. It's just that, well, it very likely takes longer for such men to accept the…the desirability of marriage." Her eyes flicked to Sarah who, head
bent and eyes intent on her fingers, was plaiting more daisies. "Time will, I suspect, eventually bring
them around. The danger is in the waiting."
Lizzie was following her sister's discourse with difficulty. "But Martin's never…well, you know, tried
to make love to me."
"Do you mean to say he's never kissed you?" asked Arabella in clear disbelief.
Lizzie blushed. "Yes. But I kissed him first."
"Lizzie!" The startled exclamation was drawn from all three sisters who promptly thereafter fell about laughing. Arabella was the last to recover. "Oh, my dear, you're more a Twinning than we'd thought!"
"Well, it was nice, I thought," said Lizzie, fast losing her reticence in the face of her sisters' teasing. "Anyway, what am I supposed to do? Avoid him? That wouldn't be much fun. And I don't think I
could stop him kissing me, somehow. I rather like being kissed."
"It's not the kissing itself that's the problem," stated Sarah. "It's what comes next. And that's even
more difficult to stop."
"Very true," confirmed Arabella, studying her slippered toes. "But if you want lessons in how to hold
a rake at arm's length you shouldn't look to me. Nor to Sarah either. It's only Caro who's managed to hold her own so far." Arabella's eyes started to dance as they rested on her eldest sister's calm face.
"But, I suspect, that's only because our dear guardian is playing a deep game."
Caroline blushed slightly, then reluctantly smiled. "Unfortunately, I'm forced to agree with you."