An Improper Suitor (14 page)

‘I am hardly the type of gentleman to compel a lady against her will,’ he said, trying to keep the sullenness out of his voice. ‘You are, of course, free. However, I hope you will continue to take advantage of my mother’s hospitality until you are certain you are completely safe from Neave.’

‘Today was the last day of the wager. Surely after today I will be safe?’

‘I cannot answer for his actions. It is possible. But it might be better not to tempt fate.’ He recognized her hesitation. ‘You need not worry that I will embarrass you with my presence,’ he said, his voice laden with irony. ‘Now that we have nothing more to fear, there is no longer any reason to escort you to any events.’ He paused and
examined
her. ‘You will have what you have requested time and again. I will leave you alone.’

She shook her head. ‘I am sorry if I was impatient with you,’ she said. ‘I am aware that I am greatly indebted to you in more ways than one. I know that I have behaved badly. I hope you will forgive me.’ She offered him her hand.

Her confession touched him unexpectedly. He took her hand and raised it to his lips. ‘Perhaps, if things had not started as they did,’ he said, ‘our connection might have gone in a different direction. As it stands …’

She nodded. ‘Yes.’ He wanted to ask her what she meant. But she pulled her hand away, gently. ‘Thank you for everything,’ she said. She slid away, across the floor, out of his grasp, out of the room.

What was it about the way she moved that drew his attention?

He supposed he was not likely to find out.

The thought should have brought with it relief. Instead, he felt an unaccustomed sadness, as though something warm and sunny had disappeared from his life. 

Julia waited one more day before returning to her home in Grosvenor Square. She preferred to take no risks, and besides, Lady Bullfinch needed rest. Lionel, true to his word, stayed away, despite Lady Thorwynn’s assertion that he was expected for dinner. A place was set for him, but he did not appear. The empty seat remained throughout the dinner, a reminder of his absence. Julia could not help feeling that the dinner conversation flagged a little, without him.

Lady Thorwynn had been the best of hostesses, and her kindness unlimited, but Julia was glad to return to her home, to be on familiar ground again. She had lived in her grandmother’s townhouse from the time she was three, except for occasional stays in the country with friends of her family. The familiar picture of her mother stared down at her from the top of the wide stairway and a pang passed through her.

She mounted the steps and gazed into her mother’s warm
honey-brown
eyes. It was a picture painted before her mother had met Julia’s father. ‘I did the right thing, Mother. You would have been proud of me,’ she whispered. The expression in the honey eyes did not change. Julia stood still for a long moment, waiting. Then, with a sigh, she turned away.

As though she had been away for a year, not a few days, Julia inspected the house, making a list of work that needed to be done. She fell into neglected household tasks with unusual energy, throwing the household into a frenzy of spring cleaning.

She was in the dining-room arranging flowers when Rumbert
announced a visitor.

‘Miss Neville to see you,’ said Rumbert. ‘I took her to the parlour.’

‘Thank you, Rumbert,’ she said.

She found the young woman pacing the parlour, obviously in a state of agitation.

‘What is it?’ cried Julia.

Amelia crossed the room quickly. ‘Thank
goodness
you are home,’ she said, her brow wrinkled with anxiety. ‘I came as quickly as I could when I learned what had happened. I had no idea you were involved in their schemes, you see, so didn’t say anything before, but when I heard them talking—’

Clearly it was not an emergency. Relieved, Julia put her arm around the girl’s shoulder, and led her to the settee.

‘Come, sit down. I’ll ring for some tea, and then you can tell me all about it,’ she said, reassuringly.

‘Oh, but you don’t know—’

‘I know you’ll tell me, by and by,’ she said. She tugged the bell pull. ‘Whatever it is, it can wait until we have some tea.’

Despite her soothing attempts, Miss Neville stood up again and began to wander around the room, picking up objects and staring at them, then putting them down again. Perhaps she should not have called for the tea. Julia doubted she would drink any of it.

The tea tray arrived. Julia poured and handed Amelia a cup.

‘Perhaps you would like to tell me what this agitation is about?’

She began an incoherent narrative that Julia could not make head or tail of. All she understood was that her parents would force her to marry an ogre – an earl – a very ugly old man with half his teeth
missing
and warts on his face – if she did not obey her mother. By
marrying
another earl, also an ogre, but quite young.

‘If you don’t sit down, Amelia, I’m afraid I won’t comprehend a word that you’re saying.’

She sat down then. Julia supposed that now that she had started the narrative, she was growing calmer.

‘Could you start again? With the ogre – I mean old man earl?’

‘If you saw him,’ said Miss Neville, leaning forward in an effort to convince Julia, ‘you would know why I could never, never marry him, apart from being very old.’ She stopped to consider this. ‘Some
people who are very old look nice and kind. But this man doesn’t look kind at all. He just looks ugly and
beastly
.’ She shuddered. ‘He used to be one of Prinny’s friends, before they quarrelled. At least, that’s what Papa said. I think that is why he wants me to marry him. Because he has a lot of influence at court.’

‘Not if he’s quarrelled with the Prince Regent,’ said Julia. ‘Look what happened to Beau Brummell.’

‘That’s what I thought. Not about Beau Brummell, but the other part. But Papa has political ambitions, you see, and he’d do
anything
to get closer to Prinny. He has some plans he wants implemented, and he is constantly seeking to get close to the Regent. You know how they are saying King George cannot live long—’

‘Yes, yes, I know that,’ interrupted Julia. She did not want to hear Lord Medlow’s opinion on the court or the royal family.

‘Anyway, my father was adamant. He went so far as wanting to draw up the papers. But Mama objected.’

That surprised Julia. She would have imagined Lady Medlow delighted to sink her teeth into someone so powerful.

‘Mama thinks he smells of the shop,’ Amelia explained. ‘There’s a grocer somewhere in his ancestry, she says, or something like that. Anyway, she managed to make Papa promise to put the whole thing off. She convinced him that there was no hurry. I hadn’t even had a Season, you see. Mama is sure I’ll find someone just as good. They brought me to London, to make my come out, and be presented at court, which is, of course, important to Papa. And if I receive an equal or better offer of marriage, then I would not need to marry Lord Frugford.’

Julia had heard of Lord Frugford, though she had not met him. According to the
on-dits
, he was a lecher.

‘That day in Hyde Park.’ She took a deep breath and looked at her hands. ‘I swear to you it was not my idea at all. My mother
threatened
me if I did not do it.’ She rose again and began to pace. ‘It was no accident. My fall, I mean. At least, I did
really
fall. But it was because I pricked poor Stargaze with a nail, and he went wild. I was sorry to hurt him, but Mama insisted it was necessary.’ She looked hopelessly at Julia. ‘You hate me now, don’t you?’

Julia shook her head. But her thoughts were racing. That explained
at lot of things that seemed odd at the time.

‘She was with me at the park, you see, and she sent the groom to fetch something, so he couldn’t immediately catch up with me. We knew Thorwynn was riding in the park. All he had to do was chase after me and Lady Nattleham would do the rest.’

‘But you
fell
,’ I said. ‘Suppose you had fallen badly and hurt
yourself
?’

Amelia grinned. ‘I am an
excellent
horsewoman. I can do tricks on a horse. One of the grooms in the stable used to belong to a circus, and when I was small he taught me how to slide down to either side of the horse without falling.’ Her eyes gleamed. ‘That’s what I did. I slid off the horse and crumpled to the ground.’

‘Did your mother know this?’

‘Of course.’

Julia thought better of her for this at least. If she knew her
daughter
would come to no harm, then her actions were less despicable.

‘And then you happened upon us and the whole thing came to nothing.’ She frowned. ‘I was very glad of it, for I don’t wish to marry Lord Thorwynn, either.’

Julia looked puzzled. ‘Surely he’s a better option than Frugford.’

‘Oh, much better,’ said Amelia, quickly. ‘I know he’s your friend, and I’m sure he is very agreeable, but he – he frightens me.’

‘Frightens you?’

‘He has a way of looking at you as if you are an insect below his notice. I like him a bit better now, after we talked in the theatre, for he was quite kind there. But I still don’t want to marry him. Especially
now
.’

She tried to puzzle out what Amelia meant by that last statement, but decided she did not know everything yet.

‘What I fail to understand,’ Julia said, ‘is why you came to tell me this so suddenly, and why it threw you into such agitation.’

Amelia grew confused. ‘Agitation?’ she asked, puzzled. Something must have occurred to her, because she gave a little laugh. ‘No,
that
wasn’t what made me agitated,’ she said, as though it was perfectly obvious.

So there was more. Julia had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

‘My mother was very vexed when the attempt did not succeed. She
had put a great deal of planning into it. She did not want to give up. So she planned for Lord Thorwynn to be caught in a compromising situation with me.’

‘In the library, at the Kinleigh ball,’ said Julia,

Amelia nodded. ‘Yes. My mother wrote a note suggesting an
assignation
by a lady. I was to be very naughty and soft talk him and
somehow
bring him to embrace me or kiss me, though I had no idea how I would accomplish that. But when I opened the door of the library I found you were there already. You had your back to me and didn’t see me.’

Julia remembered that moment’s panic and despair. It was a wonder she had not noticed the door opening. She had been jumping at shadows.

‘So I crept away and went to find Mama and Lady Telway to warn them. I couldn’t find them, and someone claimed me for a dance. It was someone Mama didn’t approve of – Captain Neave, whom I think you know – so I took advantage of her absence.’ Her eyes lit up and her face brightened. ‘He’s a very amiable gentleman, not at all silly like so many of the others. I think I may come to like him.’ Then she remembered why she was here, and the brightness disappeared. She pouted. ‘Mama remonstrated with me
all
the
way
home in the carriage. How she couldn’t rely on me for anything and other such things. But how could I have made Lord Thorwynn kiss
me
when
you
were already in the library? It stands to reason. But there was no convincing her. No use explaining
anything
to her when she’s
irrational.’
She grimaced. ‘She said
I’d
put her in an awkward situation. As if I
planned
it all. She saw you with Lord Thorwynn, and would have so loved to embroil you in a big scandal, but she’s determined not to let you have him.’

Well, that explained why there had been no scandal. ‘What is it, then, that brought you to me today?’

‘I heard them discussing something about using you to make Lord Thorwynn offer for me. I felt I had to warn you. I
can’t
continue to play her game. And I
don’t
want lose your friendship. I value it highly.’

Julia smiled at her warmly, glad of her affection.

Amelia paused, frowned, and added, naively, ‘Apart from the fact
that I have no other friends in London, I wouldn’t have
anyone
to go out with.’

Julia’s mouth twisted ruefully. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘I won’t hold you responsible for your mother’s plans. I know you don’t agree with them.’

‘Not at all,’ cried the girl, anxiety clouding her face. ‘The problem is, they’re hatching another plot.
That’s
why I came. I don’t know what it is, and this time they aren’t going to tell me, so it may be more difficult to thwart their plans. I know you have some interest in Lord Thorwynn, and I wouldn’t ruin that for
anything
.’ She walked to the window, looked outside briefly, and then turned. ‘Besides,’ she said, with a mischievous twinkle, ‘as I said before, I have no desire to marry Lord Thorwynn.’ She shuddered elaborately.

Had Amelia actually called him an ogre, earlier? It seemed
incredible
. But meanwhile, Julia really needed to clarify matters with the young debutante, once and for all. ‘As for Lord Thorwynn, I have no interest—’

‘You don’t need to pretend with me,’ said Amelia, looking
mischievous
. She took a seat close to Julia on the settee. ‘Don’t worry. Your secret is
safe
. I would never mention a word to anybody.’

It was no use arguing. Amelia had made up her mind. In any case she was discreet, and she liked Julia well enough not to wish her harm.

They parted on the best of terms. The confession had taken a load off Amelia’s back, to judge by the way she almost skipped down the stairs as she walked out. Not a cherub at all. More like a kitten, with some good, healthy claws.

Meanwhile, Julia puzzled over Amelia’s certainty that she had an interest in Lionel. She shrugged. She supposed Amelia was basing it on the kiss her mother had interrupted in the library.

The memory of the kiss evoked a small quiver that passed through every inch of her. Odd, that she should remember it now that the
relationship
between them had ended. She found herself lingering over that kiss. Reliving the sensations that had passed through her at the time, interrupted so abruptly by Lady Medlow. And to her dismay, she found herself longing for more.

Lionel downed his third glass of brandy. It burned its way through his throat. Damn, but it was good to rid himself of all those
entanglements
. The last two weeks had been like some strange nightmare in which he played a role, but didn’t understand the rules. That Swifton hoyden had led him on a merry chase. Well, he was certainly glad it was over. Now he could enjoy life again.

‘You’re very distracted this evening,’ remarked Benny, amusement plain on his face. ‘I’ve called you twice, but you haven’t heard me.’

‘I very much doubt it,’ said Lionel. He picked up the decanter, and saw that it was empty. ‘You’ve been drinking rather a lot,’ he commented to Benny, and signalled the waiter for another bottle. ‘I’m simply relishing my lack of commitments.’

‘Why are you scowling so darkly, in that case?’ asked Benny. ‘And why are you hunched up over your brandy like a miser?’

Lionel drew himself to his full height, or as close he could, given that he was seated, and that he had swallowed down his brandy very quickly. ‘I’m scowling because I know if I see that Swifton chit again, I’m going to strangle her.’

‘Well, you need not see her again. Not for a very long time. You are hardly on visiting terms, and you have no more reason to attend any balls. It’s unlikely you’ll run into her. That should cheer you up.’

It should have, but it didn’t. He tried to account for that lingering feeling of – something he couldn’t put his finger on.
Malaise
? No, hardly that.
Agitation
? No, why should he be agitated?
Unease
? That was it. He searched about for a reason. He found one. Aha. ‘I’m not yet sure she’s safe from that snivelling scoundrel,’ he said.