So that’s what he wanted, was it? The perfect match.
Not surprising. After Abigail had unfriended her to join a group of proper ladies, she and her new group of friends had seen fit to torture Lily at every opportunity. They’d put nettles in her skirts, made sure she didn’t get the best invitations, bumped into her on the dance floor on the rare occasion she was asked to dance.
That’s when she’d hidden along the wall and met Marigold and Daisy.
And what had Merrick done? He’d courted Abigail.
It wasn’t as though Lily had wanted Merrick to court her. He was her friend, that was all. In fact, he wasn’t even that. He’d been her older brother’s friend, but she’d thought they’d had a friendship of their own as well. She’d always seen him as her fiercest ally, even after he’d gone off to tour the continent.
But she’d learned the truth when he’d returned to London that season a changed man. Rather than be her friend and take her side against the merciless snobs of the ton, what had he done?
He’d courted the very woman who had seen to her social humiliation.
She’d die before she tried to join that woman’s circle now, and having Merrick ask it of her now only strengthened her resolve.
“But I thought you’d found the perfect match already,” she said, her smile cool and detached. “Are you not still courting Lady Abigail?”
His face flinched in pain, every muscle tightening as a muscle in his jaw ticked. “As a matter of course, I am not.”
She cocked her head to the side, shock warring with curiosity. “Did you end it?”
He reached up and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “That is none of your business, Laura.” Then he turned to leave.
None of her business? He was no longer courting her sworn nemesis? Her friend-turned-enemy?
He wasn’t going anywhere.
Lily needed to hear this story.
Chapter Two
Lily would follow him.
Merrick knew she would follow him, and yet he still tried to make his escape.
Daisy, the sweet young lady he’d been escorting on the garden tour, was safely back in the care of her parents, his friend, the Duke of Dolan, was no longer being spied upon by a pigheaded, overgrown child with uncommonly bright red hair, and he still had plans to escape the crush of this crowd for a few blissful hours before this evening’s entertainment began.
But he should have known all hope of a quiet rest was an impossibility the moment he’d spotted Laura—or rather, Lily—peering through those rose bushes.
“Merrick, I am talking to you,” her voice called out.
He flinched. A part of him wanted to keep ignoring her as she all but ran alongside him, but he was keenly aware of the looks they were getting from those garden tour attendees who were already heading back to the great house—no doubt sharing his same wish for a little peace and solitude.
Two words that this brash redhead had never comprehended.
“Merrick, I—”
“Do stop shouting, Lily,” he said under his breath, finally caving to the inevitable as he came to a stop near the entrance to the gardens. Still in full view of the others for respectability but far enough apart from the crowds to be overheard.
Lily scowled up at him, and it was an expression he knew well. It was the only look he seemed to get from her these days. Once upon a time, she’d have greeted him with a smile. That freckled, upturned nose of hers would have wrinkled in delight at the sight of him. Her laughter would have made him smile in turn.
He had to confess that her green eyes, fringed with long dark lashes, always sparkled, whether in anger or camaraderie. The slightly upturned shape of them was marred now as they crinkled in irritation but that made them no less lovely.
“I was not shouting,” she said, crossing her arms with a huff. “However, if you keep avoiding my questions, I very well might start.”
He glared down at her, taking in the stiff posture and the chin tilted up in defiance…
She would do it.
That was the really aggravating thing about his former friend. Lily did not make idle threats. He shifted closer to her, noting how she held her ground.
Of course she did.
“I do not see how my relationship with Lady Abigail is any of your concern.”
It might have been, once upon a time, but when it came to Lily, he’d realized years ago that it was no use living in the past. Like it or not, they had grown apart. And while some might have moved on amicably, accepting their differences, amiability was not in Lily’s nature.
Her brother, Sebastian, his closest friend during his school days, used to say she was a force of nature. Merrick had always laughingly agreed. It was the trait he’d once loved best about her.
Until she’d turned against him and shunned him as a friend.
Now that same quality that he used to find so endearing was just...exhausting.
He rubbed the back of his neck as he eyed the great house longingly. So close to reprieve and yet so far away.
“Just tell me what happened, Merrick,” she said with a sigh of exasperation.
As if he were the aggravating one here.
“Why?”
She pursed her lips and he could all but see her searching for a good answer.
She had none. They both knew it. His activities had ceased being her concern two years ago when he’d returned from his tour of the continent to find that she was embracing her life as a wallflower with the same zeal she’d previously only exhibited toward riding.
He went to turn away again but her hand on his arm stopped him.
He froze.
Or rather...he burned.
It had been years since she’d willingly touched him, and the feel of that physical contact was more startling than anything she could have said.
And seeing that she’d made a hobby out of attempting to shock him with her words at every turn…that was saying something.
“Please, Merrick,” she said. “Tell me what happened. Did you end things or…did she?”
He did not have to see the sneer to know it was there. He still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened between Abigail and Lily during their first season because neither had thought fit to tell him.
All he did know was that Lily had even less love for Abigail than she did for him—again, this was saying something, considering she’d been treating him like some traitorous villain for the past two years.
He sighed loudly in lieu of an answer. He could admit that a little part of him was tempted to confide in Lily. He’d been in a bad state ever since Abigail threw him over when his older brother, the heir to the estate—showed an interest in her.
Merrick could have told her that his brother’s intentions were not in earnest. His brother, Simon, was a notorious flirt—it was a family trait, his father liked to joke. Merrick liked to charm the ladies as well, but he knew better than to string along a lady of virtue and good standing like Abigail.
Simon did not.
He’d allowed her to believe that she might have a chance right up until their father confirmed the arrangement between Simon and the Duke of Gorem’s eldest daughter. The daughter wasn’t as beautiful as Abigail but she had the sort of pedigree that made her the perfect Marchioness material.
Merrick looked down at Lily and for one moment he actually considered telling her the whole humiliating tale. If anyone could make him laugh about such a thing, it would be her.