His Heart's Delight by Mary Blayney

invited comment by simply raising her
eyebrows.
    Morgan spoke very quietly. “I am telling you,
Grandmama, that if I had ever been more than mildly tempted to form
an attachment with Miss Christiana Lambert, that conversation with
her mother put an end to it. Conversation? It was a monologue.”
    Her lips twitched but she did not encourage
the subject. “The daughter reminds me of Maddie and your
mother.”
    And so it was with his grandmother, no
subject off limits. “Where are your spectacles, Grandmama? Her hair
is dark, not blond. For Miss Lambert everything is anticipation and
delight. Maddie observed life. Miss Lambert embraces it.”
    “Not the looks, no, Morgan. That inclination
to trust, to see things as magic. Your mother was the same.”
    Grandmother might welcome the reminder, but
he did not. He lived with the fact that Maddie had never known her
first Season, had never walked in Hyde Park.
    “Do not dwell on it, Grandmama, it does no
good.”
    She rapped his hand. “I am not being morbid.
Some days I am more a part of their world than this one. They are
not gone so much as waiting.” She recalled herself to the present
before Morgan could grow seriously worried about her state of mind.
“You should not have singled the girl out the way you did,
boy.”
    “Yes, it was stupid, but I assure you, not
intentional.” He bent closer. “And surely even you will agree that
a morning of Mrs. Lambert is punishment enough, especially when her
delightful daughter was in the same room and I was allowed nothing
more than the briefest of hellos.”
    “Leave the gel alone, Morgan.”
    Morgan hid his irritation behind his
gamester’s mask and waited for more. He would have thought his
grandmother would be thrilled at his courtship of an eligible
chit.
    “Christiana is too young, too impressionable,
and much too taken with your dancing style.”
    Is this what the two of them had been talking
about while Mrs. Lambert prattled on? It was hard to believe that
Christiana had felt comfortable gossiping with his grandmother.
“And how is it that you became her confidante so quickly?”
    “She sees some parallels in our
situations.”
    Morgan laughed out loud at that absurdity.
“Pardon me, Grandmama? You are an aging widow and she is an
eighteen-year-old virgin. Where are there parallels?”
    She snapped at him. “We both think you are
impertinent.”
    He took her hand and kissed it. “I am sorry,
ma’am. I would not hurt you for all the world.”
    “And we both know you are much too charming
to be safe.”
    “Did she say that?” He was surprised at how
much he wanted to know.
    “She had no need to. No woman would deny it.
Even her tiresome mother was bewitched.”
    He bowed and held his tongue.
    “However, even an appealing rogue like you,
Morgan, can not expect to find a match so quickly. She tells me she
has a beau from home and is not seeking a match.”
    He shook his head. “Is there a girl in
England who does not have a beau from home, Grandmama?”
    “He is on the Peninsula and she intends to be
loyal to him.” She paused a moment and then added, “An innocent
flirtation is not your usual style, my boy.”
    It had been years since she had lectured him
on propriety, or was it that she was turning protective of her
newest protegee? Morgan held on to his good humor by reminding
himself that she lived through her grandchildren now. He should be
grateful that she was not trying to bring them together. He took
her hand and held it with both of his. “I can see that you are
sorely disappointed that your newest friend does not need your help
in finding a husband.”
    She pulled her hand from his and let her
irritation show. “Your cynicism is not one of your more attractive
traits, Morgan.”
    He straightened, ready to give up his efforts
to restore her good humor. “Grandmama, dearest, I am near
twenty-seven years old and have been in Town long enough to know
what is acceptable and what is not.”
    She