Anne Barbour (23 page)

He picked up his hat from where it rested on an occasional table near the door and lifted Tally’s chin lightly with one finger.

“No, no—do not trouble yourself, Lady Talitha. I shall see myself out. I look forward to our meeting in five days, my charming little friend.”

With a final, brutal squeeze of her shoulders, he released her, and still with that cruel smile on his lips, he bowed himself from the room.

Tally, unable to stand, sank into the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands.

Chapter Nineteen

Jem, the undergroom, was feeling sorely put upon. He had been roused from his bed at an unholy hour to accompany Lady Talitha on another of her unreasonably early rides, and on a morning that was coming on to mizzle if he knew anything of the matter. She had not been her usual friendly self on their canter to the Park, but had ridden with eyes straight ahead and a strained tightness about her mouth, which was ordinarily lovely and smiling.

Now she had dismounted and was walking with the gentleman who had met her among the trees a few minutes earlier. Jem knew him as that toff among toffs, the Viscount Chelmsford, a frequent guest at the Thurston home, as the undergroom was fond of mentioning to his cronies at the Running Footman.

Tally glanced around at the gray mist dripping from the leaves of the little glade in which they paced, and the thought skittered through her mind that the day perfectly reflected her dismal mood.

After Crawshay’s departure the day before, she had thought long and hard about what course of action she should take. That she would accede to the man’s vile extortion was, of course, out of the question.

After hours of desperate thought, Tally could still see no way out of her predicament, and had at last come to the wrenching conclusion that her short tenure as a budding caricaturist was over. When Crawshay arrived at Lady Crewell’s ball for their rendezvous, she would simply not be there. She would not even be in London, but would by then have gone to earth at Summerhill. She imagined it would take little time after that for Crawshay to spread her name through every drawing room in Mayfair.

She must tell Jonathan of her coming exposure. It would not be fair to him to be put through the strain of worrying about his own secret. She would behave with the utmost composure in his presence, assuring him calmly that wild horses would never drag his secret from her lips and that he could consider his position in the ton as safe as houses. She would behave as though the passionate scene in the carriage had never taken place, for now a reconciliation with him was impossible. Even if they were to settle their differences, she could not bear to think of him saddled for the rest of his life with a veritable pariah.

After bidding him a dignified farewell, she would sweep out of his life forever to spend the rest of her life in good works. She would forget all about Jonathan and his smoky eyes, and the warmth of his smile, and the feel of his arms about her.

With these staunch resolutions in mind, she held herself carefully as she watched him stride cleanly over the grassy slope. Though it was all she could do to keep from running to him and hurling herself into his arms, she greeted him coolly, allowing nothing to show in her face beyond an expression of calm courtesy.

With an almost unbearable pounding of his heart, Jonathan observed Tally’s slender figure waiting still and straight in the mist. After one of the worst weeks of his life, his heart had lifted when he had received her note requesting a tryst at dawn, for he assumed at once that his contrary little love was seeking a reconciliation.

He had done a great deal of soul searching over the past several days. Tally’s outburst in the carriage, coming as it did after an admission of her love that had left him shaken and hungering for far more than her kiss, had baffled him. He understood her need to express the talent that fairly bubbled from her fingertips, but how could a woman who professed to love a man place ideas of a career ahead of a traditional marriage in which she would find fulfillment in providing a loving home for her husband and children?

Tally had compared her yearnings with those of his own. He surely had not been prepared to abandon his literary endeavors when he thought himself in love with Clea. He had not burdened her with them, of course; he had merely kept them a dark secret. Turning away from his writing would have been like severing a hand. He realized with some remorse, that the same must be true of Tally’s drawing talent. Of course, he thought self-righteously, he had not asked her to give up her drawing. He had merely requested that she not accept remuneration, or allow sketches to be published for the whole world to gawp at. Was that so unreasonable? The next moment, he realized uncomfortably that he would never have been content, now that he had become a figure of some literary renown, to scribble little pieces for the sole edification of his nearest and dearest. No, he mused ruefully, one could talk of art for art’s sake, but recognition of one’s talent by the outside world was sweet.

Still, she needn’t have ripped up at him. Was he some sort of monster that she could not have discussed the matter reasonably with him? It was not until some time later that the thought occurred to him that he had been speaking that night not with the rational, clear-thinking Tally that he knew and loved, but with a sensitive young woman who had just been through a shattering experience. Her nerves must have been rasped to threads, and the consuming embrace they had shared, as well as their declaration of love for each other had no doubt led to an understandable seesaw of emotions.

How could he, an acknowledged wordsmith whose experience with women was wide and invariably empathetic, have blundered so crudely?

Well, he thought fiercely, he had been granted a reprieve, and by the Lord Harry he would make the most of it. He would make Tally realize that she was more precious to him than anything else in the world, and if she wished to make a paying career of dancing in tights on the stage of the Pantheon Theater, so be it.

Thus, his first instinct as he saw her waiting for him in the mist, was to greet her with arms open and ready to envelop her in a welcoming embrace. He stopped short, however, on observing her definitely unloverlike mien, contenting himself with grasping both her cold hands in his.

Tally withdrew them hurriedly and brushed away from her cheek the feather that drooped disconsolately from her riding hat.

“I appreciate your meeting me so early, my lord. I have a matter of import to discuss with you which requires more privacy than we might be accorded at Richard and Cat’s home.”

Jonathan gazed down at her and smiled despite himself. “I take it I am still in your black books if I have once more been reduced to the status of “my lord.” “

Tally flushed, but returned his gaze steadily.

“I have not asked you here to discuss our—our personal relationship—Jonathan. I’m afraid I have some very bad news.”

As the two slowly paced the damp sweep of lawn, Tally told Jonathan of Crawshay’s visit, and of his demands. At the end of her recitation, she turned to him and observed in dismay that his face had hardened, and the muscles in his lean jaw were tense.

“I cannot say that I am surprised,” he said harshly, “I doubt that there is any form of perfidy to which Crawshay would not stoop. I just wish that I had impressed on him a little more thoroughly the unwisdom of his despicable little stratagems. How dare he threaten you! I believe I must have another little session with him.”

“Jonathan!” cried Tally in consternation. “You’re not — you must not punish him! It wouldn’t take him five minutes to put two and two together. Then we would both be at his mercy!”

A taut silence stretched between them, until Tally saw with relief that the fire had faded from Jonathan’s eyes. She continued in a calm voice.

“I have told you this only because I wish to assure you that, although my own name will become known as having been involved in the creation of
Town Bronze,
your own need not be revealed. I intend to remove myself from London, and thus will not be available for the prying and poking of the gossip mongers.”

For a long moment, Jonathan stood silent, regarding her with his heart in his eyes. Then he reached very slowly to touch her cheek with one gloved finger.

“Oh, my little darling, what an ordeal you have been through.”

Tally quivered at his touch and at the tenderness in his voice, but she forced herself to step away from him. She lowered her eyes lest he perceive the longing in them.

“Please,” she murmured, almost panting with the effort it took not to lift her arms to him. “It is an ordeal that will soon be over.”

She moved toward the place where she had left her little mare, Blossom, tethered. “I must go home now. I hope to catch Richard before he leaves for Whitehall. He must be apprised of Miles Crawshay’s intentions.”

She found her way blocked as Jonathan stepped lithely in front of her.

“We will go together, Tally, but I think we can take a moment to discuss you and me first.”

He placed his hands lightly on her shoulders. “I was wrong, my darling,” he said softly. “I will not ask you to give up what has become a brightly promising career. I see that to have asked such a thing of you was inexcusable.”

Tally’s eyes filled with tears, but she held herself rigid in his grasp. “I fear, my lord,” she said in a controlled voice, “that I rather mistook my own emotions on the—the occasion of our last meeting. I must confess the events of the evening quite overset me, and I allowed myself to—that is, I behaved in a manner totally foreign to my nature. I would greatly appreciate it if you could contrive to forget what happened.”

It had taken her hours last night to perfect that little speech, and now, regarding Jonathan, she was not at all sure it had met with success. She was quite sure that it had not, when instead of retreating in stoic acceptance as any gentleman of sensibility should have, he pulled her to him.

“Foreign to your nature, Lady Talitha?” he murmured, his breath warm on her cheek. “Would you have me believe that you are a milk and water miss?”

He brought his mouth down on hers in a kiss that spread a slow fire throughout her body. All her resolutions fled as though they had never been, and she pressed against him, reveling in the feel of his muscled hardness. Her arms wound around him, and her lips moved beneath his, opening in welcome acquiescence.

It was only when the sounds of an approaching group of riders sounded through the fog that Tally came to a sense of her surroundings. She stiffened in Jonathan’s embrace, and he released her immediately. He retained her hands in his grasp, however, and stood smiling down into her eyes.

Tell me again,” he said unsteadily, “about your mistaken emotions. Tell me that you do not love me.”

Tally’s gaze, as she met his, was luminous. She shook her head, and tried to speak through the tears that gathered in her throat.

“I cannot—for I love you with all my heart, Jonathan, and that is precisely why I am leaving London. I cannot be with you--you must not be with me—when all the world turns its back on me.”

Jonathan’s expression grew stem. “Is that what this is all about?” he asked harshly. “Do you think I would be unwilling to face the consequences of Crawshay’s poison? Don’t you know that you mean more to me than the good will of what is so absurdly called the Polite World?”

“But, Jonathan....” began Tally.

“But, my love....” Jonathan drew a long breath, and suddenly assumed a more cheerful mien.

“As you were saying, we must intercept Richard before he leaves for Whitehall. We shall put him in possession of the facts, and then put our heads together in order to come up with something to spike Miles Crawshay’s guns.”

“No!” Tally put a hand against Jonathan’s chest, as though to physically restrain him. “I will not have you involved in this. This is my problem, and I shall see it through myself.”

As though she had not spoken, Jonathan swept the restraining hand into his own and planted a hurried kiss on the corner of her mouth.

“But, I am involved. You are mine now, to protect and cherish, and I intend to do both to the utmost of my ability. Besides, I am partly responsible for your predicament, you know. Yes, I am,” he continued in response to her look of startled inquiry. “For if I had not convinced Mapes that you were the very person needed to bring Clifford and Clive to life, you would never have embroiled yourself in so much trouble by inflicting Granny Posey on an unsuspecting public.”

With that, he swung a temporarily speechless Tally into her saddle and sprang to the back of his own mount. Gathering up her reins, he led the way from the Park, a bewildered Jem bringing up the far rear.

Richard, intercepted as he was about to leave home, listened to their news with all the attention they could have wished. At the end of their stirring account, however, his reaction was not in the least what they might have expected.

The three were ensconced in Richard’s study. Richard sat at his desk, fingers steepled before him, gazing abstractedly into the empty air, as Tally and Jonathan watched him in growing puzzlement. At last, he raised his eyes, and, to their astonishment, broke into a peal of delighted laughter.

“Richard!” gasped Tally indignantly. “Have you gone mad—or did you not understand what we have just told you?”

“On the contrary, my dear,” he replied. “You have just brought me the best news I have heard for many months.”

His guests simply gaped at him in stunned incomprehension. Richard rose and began to pace slowly in the space behind his desk.

“It goes without saying, that what I am about to tell you must remain in this room,” he continued after observing their assenting nods. “We at the Foreign Office have been interested for quite some time in Miles Crawshay’s activities. He came to our attention some three years ago, after his return from the Peninsula. One began hearing of his heroic activities in the Battle of Corunna, which was odd, because the fellow was cashiered at the time for cowardice under fire. His unit came under heavy artillery fire and suffered severe casualties, while our lad himself was seen scuttling to the rear, leaving his men to face the enemy.”