A Secret Ambition

XXIV

"Sir Richard." Adam's tone was as discourteous as Lily had ever heard it.

"Your Grace." Sir Richard was bound by rank to bow his head to Adam, and his slimy air vanished to one of subtle intimidation.

Lily wondered if Sir Richard was now thinking of his behaviour in Callan's office in a different light. What would happen to him if Adam found out that he had accosted Lily? Lily wanted nothing more than to tell her father what this man had done, but to do so would be to reveal far too much. And that was, yet again, her own fault.

Adam stared at the man with a daunting gaze. He gave himself airs in front of Sir Richard in a way that Lily knew he would not ordinarily behave. Adam did not respect Sir Richard. Lily wondered when they would have had occasion to meet, but then supposed that rich peers all seemed to know of one another.

"I just had the good fortune of making the acquaintance of your daughter. She is charming. A young woman of many talents, I understand." Sir Richard spoke first in an awkward, yet conversational, tone.

"Lady Cecily is certainly very young," Adam bit back, his arm tightening around Lily. "Is it your intention to search for a wife during the Season?"

"I have no urgent need," Sir Richard replied, "though if one enchanting lady were to draw my attention, then I would most definitely entertain the idea. I should like to be as fortunate as you have been one day." He bowed his head towards an unamused Grace. "There are certainly many glittering gems in this ballroom tonight, your own diamond included."

Sir Richard seemed to regain some of his slimy confidence, Adam's question having opened the door for such a line to escape. Perhaps Sir Richard wasn't intimidated by Adam.

But Adam wasn't bound by propriety in that moment. He cared very little for it. "You would do well to look elsewhere, Frogmore."

Sir Richard, to Lily's surprise, laughed. "I could say the same to you, Your Grace. I have heard about your most recent investment. I find it ... curious, to say the least."

"We shall leave you to ponder, then," Adam rebuked, before urging Lily away. "Good evening." As they moved away from Sir Richard's ability to overhear them, Adam murmured, "He is not a suitor I would entertain, Lily. Not only is he a goblin, but he is older than me."

Lily could not disclose to her father the true abhorrence she felt towards Sir Richard. Even if she had not had such an experience with the man, she would never have considered a man so many years older than herself.

She could also not disclose to her father that she truly felt she could not consider any man. Not any other than him. As she walked with her father, Lily could feel the eyes of the room on her. She could hear her name, her formal name, being whispered by gentlemen trying to work up the nerve to arrange an introduction.

Lily knew that this was going to be an extraordinarily long and painful summer.

When they returned to her grandmother, Cecily was animatedly conversing with a young gentleman and a woman who appeared to be his mother. Cecily's eyes widened warmly upon noticing Lily's return, and she reached out for Lily eagerly.

Lily had a part to play, and she swallowed down her feelings. Adam released her as she joined her grandmother, and Cecily said in a sparkling tone, "Oh, dear Cecily has returned." Cecily was thoroughly enjoying referring to Lily by her given name.

It helped in an odd way to be called 'Cecily' in this setting. It made her feel as though this was the charade, and not the character that she had invented when she had known Callan. She felt more herself as Lily Bennett then she ever would as Cecily Beresford.