Amanda Scott (22 page)

“Goodness, why would he not come?”

“Because he often does not do the things I think he will do,” Adriana said candidly. “Whatever shall
I
do, Sarah, if he simply makes up his mind to the fact that he chose a bad wife? What if, having left, I find I cannot go back?”

Sarah, hiding a smile, did what she could to soothe these fears, but Adriana refused to allow herself to be consoled. Insisting that she would be but poor company, she saw her friend and Miranda off that afternoon to pay calls without her. Though Sarah had agreed that some solitude might do her good, she had insisted that Adriana not allow herself to fall into the sullens.

“We have been invited to a concert at the Pavilion this evening, and I mean to see that you go with us,” she said firmly. “Alston won’t let anyone else see his displeasure with you, of course, but you will give the tattle-mongers food for scandal if you hide yourself away now that they know you are here.”

Adriana agreed, deciding that the best way to deal with the emotions still churning within her was to take a good long nap. Thus, she retired to her bedchamber, slipped out of her muslin gown and into her bed. When the sound of the door opening, then shutting again, awoke her two hours later, she stretched, opened her eyes, and turned over, expecting to see Sarah’s tirewoman.

Chalford leaned back against the door, his arms folded across his chest, his eyelids drooping as he surveyed his wife. “Are you enjoying your stay in Brighton, my dear?”

“Joshua!” She sat up so quickly her head swam. “My lord, what … that is, how … ?”

“Perhaps you believe I ought to have had myself properly announced,” he suggested gently.

She stared at him, trying to see into his eyes, hoping they would give her a clue to his mood. She had read that eyes were like lamps, like windows of the soul, but where Joshua was concerned, the lamps were too often dim, the windows shaded. Even when he straightened and she could see his dark-gray eyes clearly, there was no more than a sort of flintlike look to indicate that he might be angry.

“I certainly didn’t expect to see you just now in this room, sir,” she said, striving for that same calm and wishing her heart weren’t thudding in her chest. Surely it pounded so hard, he ought to be able to hear it.

“I told Clifford’s people that I would announce myself. The footman kindly showed me the way to your door so that I might surprise you.” He moved toward her.

Adriana felt as though her thudding heart had suddenly leapt into her throat. She reached for the fallen blanket, thinking to cover herself, but her hand stopped of its own accord. “Joshua, please, my lord, I know you must be angry, but—”

“I was not overjoyed to find you gone,” he said, cutting in with that same even tone as he came to a halt beside the bed, “but your note explained your feelings well enough. I had not realized I had been behaving selfishly. I apologize. I never intended to force you to such drastic action.”

“Oh, no, it was not like that, truly!”

“No? Then you must explain to me how it was.”

She stared up at him, wide-eyed. “Joshua, are you or are you not angry with me? Have you come to take me back?”

“Why, no, my dear, on the contrary, I have brought your abigail, albeit under some protest, and your clothes.”

“Then, you don’t want me back.” She fell back against her pillows. “I was afraid that you would not.”

“What nonsense is this, Adriana? I will grant you that since I have been in the habit of directing persons who expect to be directed, I am out of the habit of considering wishes other than my own. When you first accused me of behaving selfishly, I thought you merely a trifle spoilt through having had so little parental guidance over the years, and I did not take your words to heart. I ought to have listened. You have succeeded in making that fact quite clear. I brought your clothes because I knew you could not have carried many with you on such a hasty journey—certainly not enough for a fortnight in Brighton.” He paused, smiling down at her. “I can’t be away that long, I’m afraid, but I can spare a sennight to please you, I believe.”

“D-do you know how I got here, Joshua?”

He looked out the window. “An ill-judged choice of transport, certainly, but I daresay, in view of my prohibitions, the only one you could manage. I didn’t know you numbered any of the Gentlemen among your acquaintance. You will no doubt laugh when I tell you that my first thought was that Braverstoke had conveyed you here aboard the
Golden Fleece.
Had he not chanced to call soon after Miskin discovered your letter, which had been blown to the floor by a draft from an open window, I should have labored under that misapprehension rather longer than I did.”

“But how then did you discover—?”

“Young Jacob is not yet sufficiently practiced in the art of deception to sustain a prolonged interview,” he said. “I’d have been here late last night, but we were becalmed near Bexhill.”

“You brought the
Sea Dragon?”
When he nodded, she knew why Nancy was with him under protest. Sitting up again, she looked at him searchingly. “Joshua, are you truly not angry with me?”

His mouth tightened a little before he said, “I believe I understand your actions. I don’t pretend to applaud them.”

She had a sudden urge to beg his pardon for what she had done, but she ruthlessly suppressed it, telling herself it was only because he had stirred her compassion by seeming a little upset to think he had behaved selfishly. The fact was that he had behaved, if not selfishly, then certainly with arrogance. Lessons were often painful, but if he had learned one and had done so without a fuss, so much the better.

When her conscience suggested to her that she was miffed at having failed to arouse his temper by her actions, she turned a deaf ear. It would have been easier for her, certainly, if he had reacted as predictably as Alston had, or as her father would have reacted under similar circumstances, but she told herself firmly that she was grateful not to have enraged Chalford and proceeded to act accordingly.

There was no question of removing to another house, first because every house in Brighton was bespoken for the rest of the summer, and second, because Sarah and her husband made it clear that they would be mortally offended if Adriana and Chalford went anywhere else. After the Pavilion concert, they returned to Clifford House, where Adriana and Joshua bade good night to their host and hostess and went upstairs. At the door to the blue bedchamber, Joshua said briefly, “Come to me after you dismiss Nancy. I am in the room next to this.”

She had first to endure a severe scold from her abigail, the effect of which, added to Joshua’s casual command, was to make her rather wary when she entered his room. He greeted her warmly and dismissed his man, but once in bed, with her head upon his shoulder, he asked gently, “What happened at the Pavilion tonight to set Alston goggling at me in such a way?”

“I think he was surprised to see you,” she said carefully. When he did not respond, she tried to explain. “He was angrier with me than you are. He said I acted improperly in coming here without you, so no doubt he expected you to be angry, too, or not to come after me at all. He suggested, in fact, that you did not even know my whereabouts. When he saw you so cheerful tonight and being so attentive to me … well, I daresay he was surprised, that’s all.” She waited, hardly daring to breathe.

“I must continue to surprise him,” Joshua murmured, turning his head to claim her lips.

It was all she could do not to bite him. If he noted her stiffness toward him at all, however, he treated it only as a challenge to his skill, and his skills being what they were, it was not long before she responded to them. If, by the time they slept, he had rather more scratches across his back from her long fingernails than he had ever suffered before, he no doubt put those down to his lady’s unbridled passion.

By morning Adriana was feeling stimulated and not a little challenged herself, for a night’s reflection had convinced her that Sarah had been right. Teaching Joshua a lesson had not been enough. She had felt little satisfaction at hearing him acknowledge his failure in the past to heed the wishes of others before making decisions on their behalf. The fact was that she had known exactly what to expect from Alston when he discovered even part of what she had done, and she had not had the least notion what to expect from Joshua, though he knew the whole. That, in a nutshell, was what challenged her now. He was her husband; she ought to know him better.

There was a certain amount of euphoria to be enjoyed, too, of course, for not only had Joshua followed her, but he had promised her a week in Brighton, and she was certain she would convince him, before the week was out, to stay longer. In the meantime, she decided, it would not be entirely out of the way to attempt to discover the limits of his tolerance. Therefore, when Clifford bore Joshua off with him to Donaldson’s Library, informing the ladies that they would take a dip in the sea before returning, Adriana promptly suggested another expedition to Madame’s little shop. Sarah laughingly agreed but warned her not to draw the bustle too tightly.

“I mean to purchase as much as I can in the time we are here,” Adriana informed her. “I’ve no idea when the next opportunity will arise, and I have little faith that a Hythe seamstress will please me as well as Madame does. And do remind me, Sarah, if I forget, to have the bills directed to Joshua.”

Not only with regard to her wardrobe did Adriana give herself free rein. As the days passed, the town began to fill with members of the
beau monde,
and the amusements to which the Cliffords and their guests were invited grew in number. Adriana blithely turned her attention to the enjoyment of every pleasure.

On Friday the four joined a riding party, including George and Sally Villiers, Miranda, the handsome Mr. Dawlish, and a number of others, for an outing on the cliff. That evening the gentlemen dined with his royal highness at the Pavilion, where they were later joined by their wives for tea and coffee, with entertainment provided by his royal highness’s own band.

On Saturday morning at eleven o’clock the town was suddenly alarmed by the reports of two signal guns, followed immediately afterward by the drums of the Gloucester Regiment beating to arms. Within a quarter of an hour Brighton was in a complete state of defense. At the first shot, Adriana and Sarah had leapt to their feet, but Joshua and Clifford had both laughed at them, telling them it was merely one of Prinny’s attempts to test the readiness of his troops to defend against invasion.

“He’s enjoying the threat as much as Aunt Hetta is,” Joshua told Adriana. “He explained the entire plan to us over dinner.”

“’Tis a pity,” Sarah said tartly, taking her seat again, “that he did not warn the town. I daresay that any number of people will have been frightened out of their wits.”

But although many persons they met that day talked about the incident, none seemed particularly alarmed by it. The general reaction was approval of the speed with which the troops had responded. That night at the theater, the prince was cheered by the crowd when he entered his box with his party.

Seated far to the left of the royal box with Sally, George, the Cliffords, and Joshua, Adriana expected to enjoy the evening quite as much as she had enjoyed her previous visit to the theater. Having paid no heed to the billing, she noted with some dismay that the title of the play was
The Provok’d Husband,
but the antics of Sir Francis Wronghead and Lady Townley soon had her laughing as hard as anyone else in the audience. By the last interval she was recovered enough to enjoy agreeable flirtations with Mr. Bennett and Mr. Dawlish when they paid their respects, and after the play, when the Clifford party adjourned with some others to the Villiers’ house on the Marine Parade for a late supper, she conversed animatedly with her supper partner.

Twice before supper ended, she encountered Joshua’s steady gaze from across the table. The first time, he smiled at her. The second time, just after she had patted her dinner partner’s hand by way of emphasizing some small point or other, she thought when she looked up quickly that he looked a little hurt. The look vanished so quickly, though, that she could not be sure, and when they returned to Clifford House, he behaved so normally that Adriana wanted to shake him.

“You ought to be thoroughly shaken, Dree,” hissed Sarah when, going up ahead of the gentlemen, they met briefly on the landing. “If I were ever to behave as you have been behaving these past days, Mortimer would throttle me.”

Smiling ruefully at her friend, Adriana sighed and went to her bedchamber, to give herself up to Nancy’s ministrations.

On Sunday they attended the Chapel Royal and then joined their friends to observe a military review on the cliff, after which they attended an al fresco supper, retiring early so as to be refreshed for the prince’s birthday celebration.

On Monday morning, they hurried through breakfast, for the festivities were to begin soon after ten o’clock when a roll of drums announced a general military review of troops from the surrounding counties, all of whom began gathering on Newmarket Hill. When Adriana and Sarah met Lord Clifford in the hall, Joshua was not with him.

“Still in the morning room,” said Clifford in reply to his wife’s query. “Glaring at his post. Bills, I reckon.”

“Nonsense,” said Sarah, glancing anxiously at Adriana. “He does not glare.”

“Frowning, then,” said her amiable husband. “I’ll fetch him.” He did so, and Chalford came at once, apologizing with apparently unimpaired cheerfulness for having kept them waiting.

The review itself began at noon, and the Clifford House party arrived well beforehand in order to enjoy conversation with their friends before the Prince of Wales’s arrival at one o’clock. His highness, mounted upon a splendid bay charger, was accompanied by his brothers, the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Clarence, as well as a numerous cavalcade of military officers, private gentlemen, and foreigners of distinction.

“A splendid spectacle, all in all,” pronounced Lord Clifford afterward in the carriage on the way back to the house.