A Fiery Dalliance

III

The table laughed, but Perrie and Lily both had colour in their cheeks as they looked to their father.

"To a future spinster," Joe toasted, as he looked directly into Perrie's eyes, though he laughed as though he were jovially joining in on Adam's joke.

Adam chuckled, before saying, "It would be wrong of me to hope."

"Papa!" cried Lily.

"Adam, don't utter such complete hogwash!" Cecily scolded. "I don't even want that word mentioned in this house after what I had to ensure with Susanna. My daughter, Mr Parish, was nearly four and twenty when she married. Perhaps she was already four and twenty?" Cecily paused in reflection. "I seem to have been so traumatised by the shock of having such an elderly bride, I cannot recall. I thought I was going to have to marry off a grey-haired daughter." She shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "No," she said firmly, "Perrie is an absolute diamond. Certainly, she has a few ... dozen ... rough edges. Nothing that a lovely dress and a tiara or two won't hide."

The colour that had filled Perrie's cheeks from her father's sentimental toast turned completely crimson at her grandmother's comments to the table. Ordinarily she would not have cared, but there was a certain smirking bloodhound sitting opposite her who was enjoying this all too well.

"I am one for a challenge, Grandmamma." Perrie decided to take back control. She would not allow Joe Parish to see her embarrassed. "If I happen to be five and twenty before I find a gentleman who does not make me want to vomit at the sight of him, then I will have beaten Aunt Susanna's record." She put on a smile, before saying, "Aren't you hungry, Mr Parish?"

"I ate a particularly large midday meal. I am saving myself for the meat course, my lady, but I thank you for your kind attention." Joe had managed to unclench his jaw to speak to her in a somewhat cordial tone.

"But the soup is so delicious! I insist that you try some!" Perrie urged, her grin returning as it was no longer her squirming in her seat.

"I hardly think anyone wants to eat when you speak of such things as sickness, Perrie," Grace interjected, putting down her own spoon. But in saying that, her mother had inadvertently given Joe permission to acquiesce to Perrie's request.

"I don't mind, Mama," Alice replied, shrugging, as she continued to slurp her soup in a way that would have given Mrs Liscombe a nervous complaint. It was practically symphonic to hear.

"But I must say, it is refreshing to hear you interact with our guest so kindly, Perrie," Adam said proudly. "You two must have settled your differences today and for that I am glad. It will make for a much more peaceful household."

Perrie and Joe briefly glared at one another before they both turned to Adam.

"Weren't you going to explain why he is here, Papa?" prompted Perrie.

Adam nodded with a knowing smile. "Yes, I haven't forgotten. Mr Parish's father and I were at school together years ago. The Viscount wrote to me –"

"Viscount?" Perrie exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock as her head snapped back to stare at Joe.

Joe Parish, the stupid boy who had been her mortal enemy for most of her life, was the son of a viscount? How had she never known this? And what on earth had he been doing at a church school in the Ashwood parish?

"What of it?" Joe muttered.

"I never knew ..." That meant that Joe Parish was a peer, and that technically he would be styled as 'Honourable'. Perrie did not know if she would ever be able to stomach the idea of Joe being honourable.