A Fallen Woman (6 page)

‘I know she is. I just -’ s
he stopped abruptly when her two daughters
entered the room arm in arm. ‘Ah, there you are, my dears. Just in
time.’

Charlotte
looked a picture, her face glowing at the prospect of seeing her
betrothed again. Nothing to worry about there. Lady Sheridan’s
glance came to rest on Rachel’s face; yes, she looked a little pale
but in many ways it suited her. There had always been something
ethereal about her eldest daughter and the events that had shaped
her life had left her with an air of almost fragile beauty. In
truth, she was still every bit as lovely at one and twenty as she
had been at eighteen. The patterned cerulean blue gown of Indian
muslin with its long, tight sleeves suited her slender figure while
the color highlighted her eyes perfectly.

She met her
mother’s eyes and smiled. ‘Is the prospect of seeing Charity
casting you into the doldrums as much as it is me?’ she inquired
cheerfully.

‘Shh,’
Lady Sheridan protested. ‘She has a dreadful habit of arriving when
one least expects it. It would be typical of her to be coming
through the door the moment we say something unkind.’

But when
Mortimer did walk through the door, not a minute later it was not
Charity and James that he ushered in but two gentlemen, slightly
flushed from the cold, their clothes suggesting that they had
elected to ride instead of travel inside the coach that had
accompanied them.

Lord Casterton’s face lit up at the sight of
Charlotte and he
immediately started forward, his hands going out to her. As
Charlotte was already in motion towards
him
, they met halfway and to Rachel, there
was a moment when she thought they would fall into each other’s
arms. It seemed as if they recalled themselves an instant before
committing such a social solecism but her lips twitched at the
sight of the pair trying to behave with propriety under the
watchful eye of far too many people. If the pair had been alone,
she had no doubt they would have been locked in an enthusiastic
kiss by now, propriety having been firmly put aside.

‘
How… how very good it is to see you again, Sir,’ Charlotte
observed, voice a little tremulous.

‘And you
Miss Sheridan,’ Adam returned, his eyes devouring his beloved’s
face.

‘Yes this is all v
ery proper,’ Lord Sheridan said mildly. ‘But I do
think an embrace would be more the thing, under the circumstances.
Go ahead and kiss the girl, dear boy. She has been hovering in wait
for you since the crack of dawn.’

‘Papa!’
Charlotte protested, but Adam laughed and swept her into his
arms.

It was only then that Rachel’s eyes
traveled beyond the pair to fix on
the tall figure that had remained just inside the door and she felt
a small start of surprise at the sight of him.

Nash Guthrie, 9
^th
Earl of Worsley had also arrived.

In many ways Worsley looked much the same as he had when
she had seen him nearly three and a half years ago but those years
seemed to have subtly changed him in a number of ways. It was
difficult to say what it was, precisely
that was so different. His hair was
still the same nut-brown she remembered, but it had been expertly
styled to complement his rather square face. Nothing extreme about
that, but it was the most tangible thing she could put a name to.
Rachel had an inkling that the changes were more on the inside;
something had changed
within
him. He looked harder somehow, as if the boyish
lines had been smoothed away and there was a shuttered look about
him that had certainly been missing when he had pursued her during
that hectic London Season.

He was no
longer an eager boy anymore and she felt a momentary flash of
regret that she may have had a hand in chasing that delightful
naivety away. Was it possible he had taken her refusal so much to
heart? It seemed arrogant to think so; surely life itself had
played a part in shaping him and she had just been one piece of the
whole.

The happy couple fell apart at last, Charlotte blushing,
Adam grinning and a
lmost as one, everybody else seemed to recall that Lord
Casterton was not the only new arrival. As if on cue, Lord Sheridan
moved forward, hand outstretched.

‘Worsley
,’ he said with easy amiability, ‘it is good to see you
again.’

Finally,
a smile came and the earl held out his own hand. ‘Lord Sheridan.
Thank you for having me here. I apologize for the short notice and
hope it won’t be an imposition during such a busy family
occasion.’

‘Not at
all, not at all. Plenty of room and we’re delighted to have you,
aren’t we my dear?’

This was to his wife who had also
come forward to greet the new arrival
as Rachel dropped back just a little, giving herself a few moments
to gather her composure. She could not imagine why she should feel
so flustered at the sight of Worsley. So much time had passed since
she had last seen the man and, while it had not been a happy
parting, she was sure he had mended his heart quickly enough. A man
in his position would have had plenty of help and the emotions of
gentlemen in the throes of first love were often exaggerated.
Generally speaking, time usually set them to rights, or so she
believed. In truth, Rachel did not know a great deal about men or
their habits for all that she had once been the object of so many
men’s desires. But it seemed a reasonable assumption at the time
and, if she had thought of it in particular, in the time that had
followed.

When Worsley had finished greeting her parents and
Charlotte, congratulating her on her forthcoming nuptials, he
finally turned to her. Rachel was disheartened to see some of the
warm
th die
out of his face.

It seems that he holds a grudge, after all. How
unfortunate. I can on
ly hope that it does not taint the celebrations.
But surely he wouldn’t be so foolish? Oh dear… how very tiresome
that he should be Adam’s greatest friend!

Rachel fixed a smile in place and gave him a small curtsey.
‘Good afternoon,
my lord . I hope you had a pleasant journey
here?’

‘
Perfectly agreeable, Miss Sheridan.’

When it
became apparent that nothing else was to be forthcoming, Rachel
felt at something of a loss. This hardly followed the norms of
social interaction. Even the most socially awkward usually tried
their best to provide a little polite conversation. Drat the man,
was he really going to behave like an ungracious mushroom?
Fortunately, her mother had been hovering – without appearing to
hover, Mama being particularly good at that sort of thing – and now
stepped forward to smoothly take up the conversational
burden.

‘I am
sure you are both chilled to the bone after your ride. The weather
has turned bitter, has it not? I have ordered some tea to warm you
up again.’

‘Unless you’d prefer claret or some such,’ Lord Sheridan
offered.
‘I’ve disinterred some excellent finds in the cellar in
anticipation of your return, Casterton. Remember I was telling you
about that brandy I thought I’d laid away years ago? I hunted it
down yesterday.’

‘Oh, well done
, Sir,’ Adam said amiably, his arm still around
Charlotte. ‘But tea will do me very well.’

Rachel wondered
if they would separate upon sitting down or if her sister would end
up on her soon to be husband’s knee.

‘
Worsley?’ her father inquired.

‘
A glass of claret would go down very well,’ he agreed with an
easy smile, his expression clearing when he looked at his host once
more.

As they all went to arrange themselves for the promised
refreshments, Rachel took
a chair that was a little way back from the group
and tried to reconcile the earl’s churlish attitude towards her –
for it was
entirely
directed at her, that much was obvious – with her memories
of the man. He couldn’t have made his distaste for her more obvious
for, while he was charm itself to her parents and Charlotte, he
barely glanced her way.

There
could only be one reason for his churlishness; that unfortunate
marriage proposal.

It was disappointing that he had not recovered his
equilibrium after so long a time and sobering that she had
apparently devastated one more person during that ghastly week of
chaos. A kind of dull weariness settled on her, a mantle of
lethargy that had been a familiar companion for many months after
her time in London. She determined to throw it off, knowing that
she would have to endure a week of discomfort in the face of this
new source of disapprobation. Usually she only had to contend with
Charity’s enmity during family gatherings, for Charity took
considerable pleasure in pointing out her shortcomings, even coming
up with new ones on the rare occasions she visited. Rachel had no
doubt that if her ruin had happened
before
James’ wedding to Charity, the horrible
creature would have refused to enter into the union. The woman (who
was no more than three years older than Rachel herself but carried
herself with such portent that it felt like twenty) was very
conscious of her own respectability and even more concerned with
her husband’s. It must be a source of considerable annoyance that
James continued to see his family after Rachel’s fall from grace
but there were some things even her easygoing brother refused to
countenance, and cutting his own family was doing it far too
brown.

This gathering would be different, of course. Usually
Charity’s patent disapproval was always tempered by the family
rallying round to support Rachel. They all considered Charity a
necessary evil, something that must be endured if they wished to
see James and everybody took great pleasure in subverting her
conversations. It was always entertaining, listening to one of her
family lead Charity away from whatever topic she was focused on,
frustrating her with ever increasing irrelevancies and
observations. Liza was particularly good at it, although one had to
be careful she did not go too far and push Charity into one of her
sick megrims. James bore the brunt of such occasions so they all
tried very hard not to go too far. But this visit would see Charity
with at least one supporter. It would be difficult to escape both
Worsley’s enmity
and
that of her sister-in-law and there was always the
following evening’s dance to be endured. Dealing with two people’s
hostility would be doubly unpleasant, while seeing neighbors she
had not seen for years was enough to make her spirit quail. She had
been quietly dreading the whole affair, even though she was the one
that had encouraged her mother to go ahead with the
arrangements.

Leaning back in her chair, Rachel
ruefully reflected that being a
social pariah had its drawbacks. If she’d been in possession of a
stauncher character she would have taken herself off somewhere. The
carriage house was empty at the moment and she briefly toyed with
the idea of removing into it whilst the festivities were underway.
A moment’s reflection produced one major drawback to this excellent
scheme. Her family would never allow her to do such a thing. If
they had not distanced themselves immediately after her shocking
behavior with Salinger, they were hardly likely to do so
now.

She sighed, returning her gaze to Worsley (for he was not
difficult to look at, especially when his face was lit up with a
smile, as it was just at this moment as he listened to something
her lively sister Liza was saying – the shy young man had blossomed
into a very attractive creature indeed). How could she fix this?
Would it help if she found a quiet moment to apologize to him? The
idea of bringing up anything so personal with a man who clearly
disliked her was hardly appealing but she knew it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it was one thing she could do to try and
make amends for the past. She would try and offer her
apologies.
If
the opportunity presented itself. And
if
she found the courage.

After a time, Liza came and propped herself on the arm of
Rachel’s chair. She
had been told on innumerable occasions that young ladies
did not sit thus, but such admonishments fell on deaf
ears.

‘
What’s wrong?’ she demanded with her customary
bluntness.

Rachel smiled.
‘Why should anything be wrong?’

‘
You are too quiet and you are sitting a little apart. Is it
because of him?’ Liza tilted a small chin towards
Worsley.

‘Not at
all. I am sitting back a little so that I can better enjoy Adam’s
and Charlotte’s reunion. They are like two lovebirds cooing
together, don’t you think?’

It was
the right ploy to distract her sister. Fond as she was of both
Charlotte and Adam, she found their doting affection to be entirely
sickly. Predictably, she curled a lip. ‘Is that what being in love
is all about? I suppose it is not as bad as Mrs. Radcliffe makes it
out to be but it is still very silly.’

‘Elizabeth Sheridan, how do you know what Mrs. Radcliffe
writes about?’ Rachel demanded, slightly appalled. ‘You know
perfectly well Mama said you were not to read such
things.’