Christmas Carol (9 page)

“I was trying to show him that Lady Caroline
has some backbone,” Carol retorted. “I was hoping he might treat
her better.”

“I am not aware that he has been treating her
badly.” Lady Augusta’s eyes bored into Carol’s. “I very much doubt
that your motives were as altruistic as you pretend. Montfort is,
after all, a devastatingly handsome man.” She paused, still
watching Carol.

“I am not interested in handsome men,” Carol
said. “I had my fill of them six years ago.”

“In more ways than one,” Lady Augusta
agreed.

“If you intend to stand there and throw that
old incident with Robert Drummond in my face again,” Carol told
her, “then I am going to leave.”

“Carol, you
must
learn to be honest
with yourself. It is the very first requirement for the success of
my project. Admit to your true feelings for Montfort.”

“I don’t have any feelings for him,” Carol
declared. When Lady Augusta sadly shook her head, Carol threw up
her hands. “All right. If you want me to say it, I will. He’s
handsome. He’s sexy. He is also manipulative and demanding. Is that
why Lady Caroline has been cool to him?”

“Has she been cool to him?” Lady Augusta
tilted her head to one side, apparently fascinated by this
disclosure.

“That’s what he said.”

“Why do you suppose that is, Carol?”

“How should I know? You’re the one who has
all the information on this situation. And you are the one who
hasn’t told me what I need to know about the relationship between
those two. I had to talk Nicholas into revealing what little I do
know about their arrangement. It’s just a business deal. But you
knew that, didn’t you?”

“What do you intend to do about it?” asked
Lady Augusta.

“Do?” Carol stared at her. “You tell me. This
is your mission, not mine.”

“I suppose it is too much to expect you to
understand all of it at once,” said Lady Augusta.

“I don’t understand
anything
, because
you aren’t telling me what I need to know,” Carol cried. “You
haven’t really explained what our purpose here is, you only set me
down among strangers and left me to figure things out for myself.
It isn’t fair. Look, do me a favor. Just send me back to my own
time.”

“Neither of us can return until we have
accomplished what we were sent here to do.”

“
What
were we sent here to do?” If
there were something at hand to throw, Carol would have thrown it
at the older woman in outraged frustration.

“We will know it when we have done it,” Lady
Augusta responded with infuriating calmness. “Now, you must excuse
me, Carol. There are household duties to which I must attend.” She
waved a hand in dismissal. Carol refused to move.

“Is this all you wanted to say to me?”
Receiving no answer, Carol asked another question. “How long will
we be here?” she demanded.

“As long as it takes,” was the cryptic
answer. Lady Augusta turned away, thus discouraging any further
probing on Carol’s part. As if by magic, the servant Marie appeared
to hold the door open and stand waiting until Carol passed through
it.

This interview left Carol, once she calmed
down a bit, with the sense that in spite of the tart inquiries Lady
Augusta had made, she did not really disapprove of what Carol had
done in the library with Montfort.
Why
she did not
disapprove, Carol could not guess, and she was pretty sure that
Lady Augusta was not going to supply any more clues. What Carol
needed to know about Lady Caroline, she was going to have to find
out on her own. The only fact of which she could be certain was
that she would remain in the nineteenth century for a while. Which
meant she would see Nicholas again, when he came to take her for a
drive that afternoon. The pleasant anticipation she felt at the
prospect frightened her.

“I don’t know what to wear,” she said to
herself as she made her way down the corridor toward her
bedchamber. “More important, I don’t know what to expect or how to
behave.” When she reached Penelope’s door she stopped and knocked
on it.

“Help me,” she begged as soon as Penelope
opened the door. “What shall I wear when Nicholas comes?”

“I knew you would ask,” Penelope said,
laughing. “You always do. And I always give you good advice, don’t
I?”

With Penelope’s assistance, and by pretending
to be a bit distracted and sleepy after the ball in her honor,
Carol got through a morning and early afternoon that included calls
by three young women who claimed to know the Hyde sisters well.
These visitors were full of the latest gossip about betrothals,
marriages, and social events amongst the aristocracy. Carol
listened avidly to their conversation and tried to remember
everything she heard. When her responses weren’t right, Penelope
was there, gently laughing, to supply sisterly aid. Carol
discovered that though their visitors were a bit silly and giddy,
Penelope was dependable. She was beginning to treasure
Penelope.

She did not even mind Penelope’s teasing over
the arrival of a huge bouquet of flowers sent to Lady Caroline by
Nicholas. Carol was able to respond with a pointed comment of her
own when, a short time later, a slightly smaller offering was
brought to the door for Penelope from Lord Simmons. It was so
delightful to have a companion to whom she could talk, whom Carol
knew cared about her, that for an hour or two Carol almost forgot
she was not Lady Caroline Hyde.

Thanks to Penelope’s suggestions, by the time
Nicholas called for Carol in late afternoon she was properly
dressed in a gray and blue striped gown with a long, dark blue
woolen pelisse buttoned over it and a matching blue bonnet that had
a large bow arranged beneath her chin.

She had not the faintest idea what kind of
carriage Nicholas was driving, but the single seat to which he
handed her was by Carol’s standards a high and precarious perch and
she held on tightly at first. He drove with such assurance and ease
that after a while she began to relax, understanding that this
light, sleek conveyance was the early nineteenth-century version of
a young man’s sports car. Before long she could even begin to enjoy
the ride.

Taking her cue from Nicholas, she bowed and
smiled at the people they passed. As they rode along she also
watched Nicholas out of the corner of her eye, waiting to catch the
right moment to raise an important issue with him. She was planning
to strike another blow for Lady Caroline. In the meantime, she
could admire the imposing figure he presented in his bottle-green,
many-caped greatcoat and beaver hat.

Nicholas turned into the park, where he
slowed the horses and moved into a line of carriages of various
types, all of them carrying people who were out to see and be seen
while enjoying the fine, cold day. This, Carol decided, was as good
a time as any to speak her piece.

“I have a bone to pick with you, sir,” she
announced.

“I beg your pardon?” He sent a surprised
glance her way. Carol bit her lip, wishing she had been more
careful in her choice of words. Nicholas had probably never heard
that particular expression before this day.

“What I mean to say,” she corrected herself,
“is that I believe you and Lord Simmons are manipulating Lady
Caro—manipulating me and my sister in order to force me to marry
you.”

“Caroline, have you gone mad?” He gave her
another quick look before turning his attention back to the horses.
“Simmons and I are attempting to provide Penelope with the happy
future she wants and deserves. You cannot object to my efforts in
her behalf, because you have repeatedly endorsed them. As for you,
our betrothal is publicly known. I have no need to manipulate you
into anything.”

“Doesn’t a woman have any right to make her
own decisions?” Carol cried.

“Certainly, she has,” Nicholas replied. “You
could have refused to marry me.”

“I see.” Carol spoke sharply. “Case closed,
then. There is nothing more to discuss.”

“On the contrary, I think there is a great
deal more to say,” he responded in a low, compelling voice. “We
will
marry. The kind of marriage we have is up to us. I do
confess that I began by expecting the usual polite arrangement we
see so often in society. After last night, however, I have begun to
hope for more.”

“More, my lord?”

“I have begun to dream of a marriage in which
my wife expresses the warmest feelings toward me,” he told her. “I
know it is not fashionable for husbands and wives to care deeply
for each other, but I now believe that you and I could do so, once
we learn to know each other completely. Are you willing to try,
Caroline? Will you trust me not to betray your heart?”

In the instant when he leaned toward her to
look into her eyes, Carol saw beneath the veneer of dominant male
and calculating man of the world to a reservoir of kindness and
tenderness that lay hidden deep within the man. Nicholas wanted to
love Lady Caroline, if only she would let him. But Carol was not
Lady Caroline and could not answer for her.

“I—I don’t—I’m not sure—” In vain she fumbled
for the right words. She could not find them. With grief she
watched him pull back and saw his eyes turn cool again.

“I am aware that the idea is new to you,” he
said. “Perhaps you will think on it and give me your answer at some
later time.”

Before Carol could make any further response,
they were hailed by a voice from a carriage moving past them in the
opposite direction. Nicholas pulled his horses to a halt, and the
other carriage stopped, too.

“My Lady Falloner. Lord Falloner.” Nicholas
raised his hat. “Good day to you.”

In the carriage now halted next to them Carol
recognized the elderly lord with the gouty toe and his wife who had
been at Lady Augusta’s ball. Carol bowed to them in imitation of
the nobles she had been observing during this drive.

“Well, well,” cried Lord Falloner to Carol.
“You are as rosy and pretty as ever, I see. Late hours never do
seem to affect the young. Tell me, my dear, are you planning to
attend Lady Lynnville’s ball tonight?”

“Aunt Augusta, my sister, and I will all be
there,” Carol replied.

“I wish I could ask you to save a waltz for
me,” Lord Falloner said, “but my gouty toe will not allow me to
dance. Would you inform your aunt that I hope to partner her at the
whist table this evening?”

“Of course, my lord. I will give her the
message. Do you also intend to play cards, Lady Falloner?”

“I shall be busy serving as chaperone to my
niece,” the lady replied.

When the other carriage moved on, Carol
returned her attention to Nicholas. She was grateful for the
interruption. It had given her a chance to catch her breath so she
could turn the conversation to less intimate subjects than the
future marital relations between Nicholas and Lady Caroline.

“Will you also be at Lady Lynnville’s ball?”
she asked.

“I am planning to attend.” Leaning closer to
her Nicholas added, “I wish I could ask you to save every dance for
me.”

“If you want me to, I will.” Good intentions
or no, she could not help her response, not when he was looking
right into her eyes. He really was remarkably handsome when he
smiled in that teasing way.

“It would be most improper.” Taking the reins
into one hand, Nicholas used the other to cover her fingers.
Through the leather of his gloves and hers she could feel his
warmth. The sensation left her weak. “Lately, Caroline, you have
become the most tantalizing woman. Is it your intention to create a
scandal?”

“Could we?” She grinned at him. His hand
tightened over hers. “I mean, can an engaged couple actually become
social outcasts just for dancing together too often?”

“I begin to think that for your sake I would
gladly flout all propriety,” he said. When she curled her fingers
around his, he added, “Have a care, Caroline, or you will drive me
mad.”

“I don’t know how long I will be here,” she
murmured, thinking out loud. “This won’t last forever, and when I
am gone, I will never again have the chance to learn what this life
is like, or what it’s like to know you.”

“I hardly expected philosophical speculation
from you,” he responded, looking surprised.

“I want to discover everything I can about
you before it’s too late,” she said. “Nicholas, where will we live
once we are married?”

“In my house, as we have already decided,” he
said. “At Montfort Place.”

“Is it here in London?”

“Yes, Caroline, you know it is. Has this
something to do with our earlier conversation?” She could tell he
was perplexed by her odd questions. She was also aware of the flare
of renewed hope in his eyes. It was painful to remind herself that
the hope was for Lady Caroline, but having made up her mind to
learn as much as she could about him, she would not stop.

“I want to see your house.” She took his hand
in both of hers and held it against her bosom. “Please, Nicholas. I
want to know what it looks like so I can imagine you living there
when I’m not—” She caught herself and stopped speaking just in time
to avoid revealing too much.

“Very well,” he said. “But you must release
my hand before we cause any more raised eyebrows amongst the
ton
. People are staring at us.”

“Is everything we do food for scandal?” she
asked.

“You know how you ought to behave in public,”
he replied with just a touch of severity in his voice. “While I
welcome your expressions of warmth in private, I do not want us to
become the subject of gossip. This caution is for the sake of your
reputation, my dear.”

“Of course. I should have realized.” What she
had seen and heard while in the drawing room of Marlowe House with
Penelope and her friends earlier in the day ought to have taught
her that young women were expected to be more restrained. Letting
go of Nicholas’s hand, Carol folded her own hands together in her
lap. “I am sorry, Nicholas. I wasn’t thinking. But will you show me
your house?” she asked again.