A Little Deception (27 page)

Oswald clicked his tongue. ‘Poor Helena. And you at the
height of your beauty. Is there nothing I can do to ease this terrible burden
of yours?’

Angrily, she slapped away his hand while she narrowed her
eyes, gazing into the distance at Rose who appeared the picture of self
satisfied smugness as she fingered the handsome diamond necklace Rampton had
given her for her wedding. A Rampton heirloom. Meanwhile, the best Helena had
received from Charles was an all but worthless gold chain.

 
Following the
direction of Helena’s disconsolate gaze, Oswald chuckled. ‘Nothing so desirable
as the unobtainable, is there?’

‘Unobtainable?’

Her tone should have warned him to tread warily, but Oswald clearly
thrived on danger. ‘Well, word is that Rampton is unfashionably mad for his
wife. I hardly think he’ll slip between the sheets at a crook of your little
finger.’

‘Mad for his wife?’ Helena repeated, ignoring his other
insinuation for though she’d once desired it her interests had been very
definitely swayed in a different direction. ‘It might interest you to learn
that the charming Lord Rampton has promised to appear enslaved in public only
until such time as his wife is enceinte.’

‘Listening at keyholes, dearest?’

It was Helena’s turn to feel smug. ‘Not on this occasion.
Her maid told me. Or words to that effect. Behind closed doors all is not
smelling of roses as their outward display of felicity would suggest.’

Indeed, as they watched, the pair looked the very picture of
marital harmony.

‘That’s a very lovely necklace your sister-in-law is
wearing,’ Oswald remarked. When Helena did not reply he went on, ‘So, has your
husband graced your lovely neck with a precious memento of your London tour?
You’re due to draw anchor soon, aren’t you?’

‘A gentleman would have observed by now that I am surely
dying of thirst,’ Helena said, rapidly tiring of the conversation. ‘You have
not even offered me refreshment.’

‘I had thought to offer you something else.’ His voice was
suggestive as his thin mouth stretched into a smile. His pewter eyes darted
over her, lizard-like, assessing. Keeping her in suspense.

‘Tell me,’ she demanded.

‘I am offering you any jewel your heart desires.’

She snorted. ‘Much good that would do me when I could never
wear it.’

Oswald gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I’m in thrall to your
beauty and your cunning, Helena, but you’re not being terribly clever right
now. I could procure diamonds you could take back to your little island home.
Or …’ he paused. ‘You could sell it. You’d like a necklace like Lady Barbery’s,
wouldn’t you, Helena, since your lily-livered husband hasn’t provided you with
the promised diamond choker?’ When he brought his head so close she could feel
his breath on his cheek, she did not move away. Her heart was hammering as he
went on, softly, his voice full of promise. ‘Like the diamond necklace Lady
Barbery pretended was stolen and which she sent to Lady Chesterfield. A little
plan in which your intervention had the opposite, perhaps, of what was desired.
Is that what happened?’ He gave a crack of laughter as he caressed her arm and
Helena swung round.

‘Do it, if you think you’re so clever. I want one for me to
keep, and one which Rampton will find in his wife’s possession.’ Her body
crackled with the delicious idea of it all.

‘I have nothing against Cousin Rose.’

‘I do.’ Impatiently, she swung back to Oswald. ‘Rose leads a
charmed life. Look at her tonight, dripping with jewels while I have only
this.’ It had become a compulsive gesture to finger the gold chain around her
neck when she watched others parade their jewels as if such wealth were nothing.
‘My husband will never have the funds to do justice to my beauty. But Rose,’
she pointed to her sister-in-law weaving leisurely through the crowd, smiling
at her husband beside her, ‘Rose has her heart’s desire, all thanks to me … and
I can’t bear it.’

When Oswald took her hand between both of his and brought it
up to kiss, she did not pull it away. Oswald wanted to perform some act that
would please her. No doubt he wanted to be rewarded but she could deal with
that another time. Right now, she sensed her opportunity. Her heart had never
thundered with such passion. ‘My dear Oswald,’ she whispered, keenly aware of
his desire which she must nurture while holding him at bay. ‘Just think how
grateful I would be with a diamond collar…or two.’

‘Very grateful? I would hope so for the risks are great.’

She allowed him a few seconds in which to soak in the
promise of her warm, fragrant cheek which she pressed briefly against his neck.
She sighed, twining one hand up behind the back of his head while the other
trailed from his breastbone to his thigh. ‘I would think you the cleverest man
in all England.’

***

With pleasant smiles glued in place there was nothing to
indicate to the casual observer that Lord and Lady Rampton were anything but
the most content of newlyweds. While they did not always attend the same ton
parties they were seen sufficiently in one another’s company, their manner
suggesting a most harmonious union. Yet reproach dripped from every utterance.

‘Have you seen how happy Arabella has been since his offer?’
Rose bit her lip, anxiously, despite her question. It had all been so sudden.

‘She didn’t look very happy yesterday,’ Rampton remarked mildly.
‘I found her in tears in the drawing room.’

‘Yes, because Edith wants to return to the West Indies with
Helena. They were both torn. Edith has been with us since before Arabella was
born. But Edith’s family is there….’

‘Arabella says you’ve promised to find someone to attend
her?’

Rose nodded.

‘Who? Beth?’

Rose rolled her eyes and Rampton chuckled at her obvious
aversion. ‘Dismiss her if you dislike her. You’ll not offend Mama. But haven’t
any of the other girls volunteered to attend Arabella? Weren’t you going to ask
them?’

Rose sighed. ‘I spoke to them this afternoon. No one wants
to go. Arabella is such a sweet-tempered girl. And for some of them it would
have constituted a very real elevation in position.’

After a moment’s silence Rampton said, ‘Don’t lose too much
sleep over it, my dear. This wedding will never take place.’

Rose gritted her teeth as they passed a throng of revellers,
‘Your arrogance astonishes me. You might hate him but my sister happens to love
him. And to me, that counts for much, much more.’

Rampton gripped her none too gently by the upper arm as he
steered her along a more private path. ‘You shall have your proof. As for your
remark regarding my arrogance, I find it wounding. I had warned you on several
occasions that he was an undesirable suitor. Little did I know matters were
proceeding behind my back until the betrothal was all but announced. Since,
however, you need proof I am arranging it.’ He frowned down at her. ‘Do you
remember the very first time I warned you against him? I hardly even knew you
then!’

‘That was simply an excuse to entice me to be alone with
you.’

Rampton gave a wry smile at the memory. ‘That may have been
part of the reason,’ he admitted. ‘But do you think even I would besmirch the
good name of an acquaintance for such ulterior motives?’

Rose, who was feeling increasingly uncomfortable and
beleaguered for her part in Arabella’s impending nuptials, could only whisper, ‘Your
reasons for hating him are personal.’

One eyebrow lifted disdainfully. ‘Give me credit for some
finer feelings, Rose.’

‘I do,’ she whispered, her voice heavy with irony. ‘You
displayed them to me only last night.’

Referring to it made her blush. Their love-making had been
fuelled by lust and anger though from a physical point of view it had been
satisfactory in its culmination. She studied the half moons of her fingernails
and felt the weight of her unhappiness upon her shoulders. All satisfaction had
quickly drained from her when Rampton had rolled off the bed and left, instead
of nuzzling close as he used to do.

She felt she was in the wrong. But so was he.

Fireworks lit the dark sky. The crowd murmured their
anticipation for the next burst but Rose had no heart for the entertainment. She
raised her head and said, ‘I’ve been told Celia Baxter was the opera dancer who
was your mistress before Yarrowby took her over.’

Rampton’s mouth dropped open. ‘Good God, Rose, do you seriously
think I would stand in the way of your sister’s happiness because of personal
animosity?’

He seemed to withdraw, though he had not moved. ‘You
insinuated something to the effect that personal dislike was at the heart of my
objections but you’ve clearly been digging deep.’ His dark eyes smouldered as
he gripped her shoulders. ‘The reason for our altercation, I assure you, went
far deeper than
Celia Baxter
?’

‘That’s not what everyone believes.’

‘Including you, it would appear. How terribly sad, Rose’ - his
eyes were dark, his voice husky with anger - ‘that you would honestly have so
little respect for my integrity that you believe me capable of such pettiness?’

Rose shrank away. ‘What else was I to believe? You gave me
no other explanation.’

Rampton released her so suddenly that she stumbled backwards
and nearly fell. He did not see her. He was already striding away and once she
had regained her balance she had to run to catch up with him. She could not let
this argument go unresolved.

‘What was I supposed to think, Rampton?’ she demanded,
moving in front to block his path. ‘You simply told me he was unsuitable. You
made insinuations without hard evidence. Either I had to accept your edict or
find out for myself.’

Rampton barely allowed his progress to be checked. As he
walked around her he said, ‘I had assumed I’d found myself a wife who would
value the judgement of her husband.’

‘So you are now suggesting that the real reasons are so
terrible they could not be revealed to my innocent little ears.’ Rose’s tone
dripped scorn as she added, ‘And now poor Arabella is to pay for my lack of
faith in you? Is this a lesson in morality, Rampton? That a good wife will
simply obey her husband without question because he tells her she should?’

‘Arabella will pay no price, my love.’ Rampton’s tone
matched Rose’s scorn with irony. ‘I’ve told you. She will not wed Yarrowby.’

Rose gave a strangled laugh. ‘I see. Then why are we here?’
Struggling to keep up with him she indicated Yarrowby’s great mansion and the
peacock-and-guest-strewn lawns with a sweep of her arm.

‘Because my plan has not yet come to fruition. Come, my
love.’ He took Rose’s hand and laid it upon his arm. ‘Your sister is beckoning
to us.’

Rose glanced across the lawn and saw, to her dismay, that
Arabella, radiant with happiness and flanked by Charles and Helena, was waiting
for them.

‘I see. Ever the knight to the rescue,’ Rose murmured,
stifling her anger, her misery. ‘You know best … you have a plan …’

‘Yes,’ Rampton said, conversationally, smiling as the
distance between them and Arabella closed. ‘I predict that very soon Arabella
will lose her heart to another.’

‘Oh, you do, do you? And who might this be?’

‘My brother. Good evening, Arabella.’ He greeted her with an
extravagant bow. ‘I believe Felix is to paint your portrait.’ With an indulgent
look at Rose, he added, ‘It seems that painting your beautiful sister has
whetted his appetite.’

Arabella dimpled. ‘I will be the envy of the ton and, like
Rose’s portrait, I hope it will be a happy reminder to my husband of his good
choice in a wife.’

ROSE
PACED THE Aubusson carpet and pondered her dilemma. Arabella had left not two
minutes before – breezed out would have been the more appropriate
description – on her way to Mayfair to sit to Felix. Clearly she was
thoroughly enjoying the sessions and, while Rose had wanted to warn Arabella
against Felix, Rampton’s caution carried weight. Arabella was old enough to
make up her own mind, he’d said. Unless Rose had a very strong case for
Arabella marrying Yarrowby, rather than for Arabella making a match to please
herself, Rose could rest assured that Felix was not a young man to undermine
Rose’s good work merely for the pleasure of it.

Now the reason for Rose’s diminished spirits stood before
her: a downcast girl whose enthusiasm and dedication to her work, good humour
and surprising skill in arranging a complex coiffure had deeply impressed Rose.
She had thought of employing Polly for herself and to find Beth some other
employment, however Polly appeared to have formed a fondness for Arabella. Rose
had thought the girl would be delighted to attend Arabella after her wedding
but was now surprised by her obvious aversion to the idea.

‘But Polly, not only would your wages be greatly increased,
your position would be far superior. If you stayed here it might take years
before you became a personal dresser.’

‘That’s as may be, ma’am, but I don’t wish to leave.’