The Wayward Miss Wainwright

“You should marry her and be done with it.”

At her words, Rotherham almost choked on his tea. “What? Nonsense. Impossible. We clashed from the moment we met, and I’m not surprised. Helena Wainwright is a most headstrong woman.”

She wagged her head from side to side. “Whyever not? Helena comes from a good family. After all, your brother married her sister. I don’t think there’s any rule against marrying someone related to an in-law, is there?”

He tried to get a word in edgeways. “That’s not the point—”

She had apparently warmed to the task of enumerating Miss Wainwright’s virtues. “Helena’s a fine looking gel. Good figure, splendid hazel eyes, all that chestnut hair. She’s intelligent and well read, can ride anything on four legs—what else could any man ask for? You could do worse, Rotherham, and you haven’t done very well up to now.”

Rotherham placed his teacup down before he received any further verbal onslaughts to jolt his composure.

“Miss Wainwright is all the things you have described and possibly even more. I have no doubt she will make someone a very happy man. She has many wonderful qualities.” He coughed and slid his finger around the top of his neckcloth. “However, I have no intention of marrying Miss Wainwright, and in fact, I’d have been pleased if she’d found a husband these six months gone already.”

His godmother shot him an arch look. “I don’t know how you can say such a thing when you chase away any potential suitors by glaring at them in that ferocious way of yours.”

His mouth fell open in disbelief, and he hastily snapped it shut. “I assure you, Aunt Mildred, I most certainly do not glare at people.”

She wagged a reproving finger at him, a shrewd gleam in her eyes. “Oh yes, you do. At Lady Summerville’s soirée, that handsome young viscount—I can’t remember his name—tried to get an invitation to Rotherham Park to meet Helena. He’d heard someone sing her praises. You put a spoke firmly in his wheel. Even when Violet asked you to invite him, you refused—most churlishly, in fact. You even said Helena was just the governess.”