Jack of Hearts (25 page)

“Lydia is eleven and Helen is almost seventeen.”

“Then they are young enough to enjoy Astley’s. And Lady Helen is old enough for the theater and museums,” said Elspeth with a smile.

“Yes, I’ll have to keep them busy with sight-seeing and away from the Pantheon bazaar, although I am sure shopping is high on their list of preferred activities,” Jack responded ironically. “Perhaps you would like to join us on one of our outings, Elspeth? Miss Heriot? I would greatly appreciate the support.”

“We would be happy to, wouldn’t we, Anne?”

Anne nodded. She could hardly refuse, and accompanying his cousins was hardly encouraging him in his suit.

“Is your supper dance taken, Miss Heriot?”

Anne glanced at her card, although she knew it wasn’t. “No, it doesn’t seem to be.”

“Then may I claim it?”

“I would be delighted, my lord.”

* * * *

Anne’s card filled quickly, and she was very happy that Lord Windham and the baron were among the first to approach her. Both asked for the supper dance, and it was frustrating to have to tell them it was already spoken for.

When the time came for her dance with Leighton, he looked down at her with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Miss Heriot, much as I would enjoy dancing with you, I am wondering if you would enjoy a walk around the room instead? I had hoped to be your supper partner and have the opportunity for some conversation.”

“I would be very happy to skip a dance, sir,” Anne confessed.

Leighton took her arm, and they strolled around the periphery of the dance floor.

“Did you and your daughter enjoy the holidays, my lord?”

“We did. We spent them at my late wife’s parents. I have always thought it important for Eliza to keep in touch with her grandparents.”

“That is very good of you,” Anne said warmly. “It must have been painful at first?”

“It was. Eliza was only five when my wife died.”

“I am sorry. I know what it is like to lose a mother.”

“Well, it was a long time ago, Miss Heriot. But because of Eliza’s youth, I have tried to keep her interests to the fore. Now that she is older, however, I am able to think more of my own needs.” Leighton put a subtle emphasis on “own” and covered Anne’s hand with his.

“How old is Eliza?”

“She is fifteen and very impatient to grow up,” laughed the baron. “She is in London with me this spring, you know, and I am hoping that the two of you could meet.”

“I would very much like that.”

“Good. I want you to get to know each other, for Eliza is getting to the age when she could use a…friend to look up to. I have already told her how much I admire you.”

Anne flushed with pleasure.

“But enough of my concerns. How were your holidays?”

“I spent them with the Astons, who are not too many miles from Heriot Hall.” Anne hesitated. “But I returned home to some disturbing news.”

The baron gave her a concerned look.

“My companion, Miss Wheeler, had a riding accident, which was not an accident at all. Someone had cut the saddle girth.”

“Why would anyone wish to harm Miss Wheeler?”

“It was my saddle she was using.”

Leighton stopped and looked down at Anne with shocked concern on his face. “Miss Heriot, why would anyone wish to hurt you?”

“There has been some trouble at one of my mills. Sergeant Gillen, my groom, suspects one of the men there, whose fiancée was recently dismissed.”

“I hope this man has been dismissed too!”

“He has, but not by me,” Anne added ironically. “There is no proof that he had anything to do with the accident. And there is another suspect—my cousin, Joseph Trantor. He managed the mills for my father and has continued doing so.”

“What would his motivation be?” asked the baron, a puzzled look on his face.

Anne hesitated. She and Leighton had hinted at their mutual interest in one another, but they had never spoken directly of it.

“Joseph would like me to marry him, but I have discouraged him from proposing, for I don’t love him.”

“Yet love is not, I believe, your prime consideration in marriage,” the baron commented delicately.

“No, but some sort of liking and compatibility should be. I don’t dislike Joseph, mind you, but our ideas are very different, and he has no sense of humor. A sense of humor is necessary in marriage, don’t you agree?”

“You know that is one of the things I most enjoy about your company, Miss Heriot.”

They continued walking, and Leighton said solicitously, “I am glad you are here in London and out of personal danger, Miss Heriot. Whenever you decide to marry, your husband will be able to take the weight of the mills off your shoulders. A lovely young woman like yourself shouldn’t be carrying such a burden.”

“Oh, but I don’t see the mills as a burden, my lord.

“I am beginning to think that I need to become more involved. In fact, I have visited twice and am determined to institute some reforms.”

“I see,” Leighton said thoughtfully. “Of course, it is a way to occupy yourself before you have a family, Miss Heriot.”

“Indeed.”

When the baron returned her to Sarah, Anne realized she was feeling very much in charity with him on some points. The way he so obviously cared for his daughter, for instance. And the way he had sounded genuinely concerned for her own safety. On the other hand, she was irritated by his assumption that the mills merely served to fill her time until she had children of her own.

“You look distracted, Anne. Didn’t you enjoy your stroll with Baron Leighton?” asked Sarah.

“I did, Sarah. I like him more and more. But I like Windham also,” Anne confessed with a rueful smile. “And both of them have hinted at their interest in becoming more than friends.”

“But neither of them is as precipitate as Lord Aidborough?” Sarah commented with a twinkle in her eye.

“Hardly!” Anne laughed.

“Speak of the devil and here he comes,” teased Sarah, as Jack approached them.

“Good evening, Miss Heriot, Miss Wheeler. I trust you have been enjoying the ball? I noticed you did not dance this last set. Miss Heriot. If you are fatigued, you and I could take a turn about the room also.”

Damn the man! There was a veiled challenge in his voice and an amused look in his eye, and she was never one to turn down a challenge. She wasn’t sure she wanted another waltz with him, but she would not let him get away with his subtle criticism of her stamina or her last partner.

“I am quite looking forward to our dance, my lord.”

“Do we leave you alone, Miss Wheeler?”

“Not at all. Here comes Captain Scott to claim his dance.”

Anne told herself she should be able to control her response to Lord Aldborough, but as soon as he put his arm around her waist, she felt that unwelcome yet terribly pleasurable warmth emanating from his fingers.

“Captain Scott seems very interested in Miss Wheeler,” Jack commented as they glided over the floor.

“Yes, I am hoping something might develop.”

“Scott is a good man. But I don’t see the same gleam in Miss Wheeler’s eye that I see in his when they are together.”

“I am afraid she may be more interested in another soldier,” Anne told him without thinking.

“Oh? I haven’t noticed anyone else in uniform in her company.”

“I mean my groom, Sergeant Gillen,” Anne said, her tone clearly disapproving.

“And you are not happy?”

“I would love to see Sarah settled with someone who would give her what she deserves as the granddaughter of a viscount.”

“And is marriage always a business transaction to you, Miss Heriot? What if she cares for the sergeant?”

Anne pulled away a little in irritation, but Jack’s hand held her firm.

“As a member of the
ton
, who only view marriage as a business transaction, I hardly think you have the grounds to criticize me, my lord. I am very fond of Patrick, but Sarah deserves more.”

“Perhaps Miss Wheeler wants love as well as security.” Jack looked down at Anne with a gleam in his eye. “My grandfather married for love. So did my father. Indeed, it is a tradition in my family.” His voice was teasing, but his eyes were warm with something other than humor, and Anne had to lower hers.

“It is sad, then, that you have to break the family tradition, my lord.”

“It does seem that way,” Jack replied easily.

Anne was not quite sure what to make of the subtle emphasis he placed on “seem.” Had it been anyone else, she might have wondered if he was attempting to convey a message. But Jack Belden was notorious for collecting hearts, not giving his away. She decided that the turns of the waltz and the disturbing sensations she felt when he held her had made her a little giddy.

They finished their waltz in silence, and then Jack found them a place near Elspeth and Val. “I will be right back with your supper plate, Miss Heriot.”

Anne looked around her. Sarah was off in a corner with Captain Scott, and she gave a little smile of satisfaction and hoped that the captain was as competent at wooing as Lord Aldborough thought he was at soldiering.

Val and Elspeth were opposite and were involved in conversation with Lord and Lady Hythe, so when Jack returned and sat next to her, Anne had no recourse but to be drawn into what felt like a tête-à-tête.

After a few commonplaces about the quality of the lobster patties, Jack’s tone became more serious.

“Has Sergeant Gillen had any luck with his investigations?”

This was one topic that Anne felt comfortable discussing with Lord Aldborough, given their conversation at Christmas.

“Patrick spoke with Ned Gibson, who claims he was ill in bed and has his fiancée as a witness.”

“Not necessarily the most trustworthy of witnesses, you must admit,” Jack commented.

“No. But nothing further has happened…that is, no further attempts to harm me have occurred,” Anne corrected herself. “But I decided to visit the mills again myself. I spoke to several of the older workers. The men didn’t say much, but one woman was very outspoken. Mrs. Talbot was quite persuasive, and on her advice I decided to sack Peter Brill, the foreman.” Anne hesitated. “She was also a great champion of Ned Gibson.”

“Then you kept him on?”

“I did. But this last week another accident occurred in the sorting shed, and Ned Gibson saved a little girl from injury. In the process, however, he was insubordinate and threatening to both my cousin and the overseer, so Joseph dismissed him.”

“Did you let it stand?”

“I felt I had to. I had no time to make further inquiries myself, since we were leaving for London the next day.”

“I think I have more doubts about that cousin of yours than about Ned Gibson,” said Jack ironically.

“I confess that I believe him too harsh myself.” Anne grew silent and looked down at her plate, where her lobster sat half-eaten, and then over at Jack. “I am letting our conversation become too serious, my lord.”

“Not at all.”

Anne hesitated again and then said, “I have been doing a lot of thinking about the mills since our last conversation.”

Jack looked down at her, and the combination of genuine interest and sympathy in his eyes encouraged her to continue.

“I was very resistant at first, but the more I thought about my workers, especially the children… Doesn’t it seem wrong to you that small children should be working such long hours and at such dangerous jobs?”

“Actually, it is something I have given some thought to, ever since I saw a new chimney sweep, who couldn’t have been more than six, being beaten on the soles of his feet to make him climb.”

Anne shuddered. “And yet without the children’s wages, families would suffer. The only solution I can think of is to cut their hours without reducing their wages.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “A rather radical solution, and one that would no doubt cut into your profits, Miss Heriot. What will your cousin think? And for that matter, what if your future husband doesn’t approve?”

“I would make it clear that decisions about the mill are mine.”

“Yet legally a husband controls his wife’s property.”

“I will have it written into the marriage contract, then,” Anne said stubbornly.

“That could lead to unhappiness were you in serious disagreement. And you also challenge one of society’s most deeply held beliefs.”

“Which is?”

“Why, that the production of goods and wealth are of the highest value, not people.”

“I have never before questioned society’s values or examined my own. I am ashamed to think that all these years the labor of little children has contributed to the ease of my life.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Miss Heriot. We all benefit from the labor of others. I admire you very much for your willingness to question things,” Jack said quietly, but with such warmth and approval that Anne blushed.

“Nonsense, Lord Aldborough. ‘Tis little enough I intend to do. And it will make very little difference in the larger picture. There is not much a woman can do to change things. Except through her husband, of course,” Anne added tartly.

“Which is why choosing a husband should be done carefully.” The seriousness of Jack’s tone was tempered by one of his most charming smiles.

“Indeed,” Anne agreed blandly, not rising to his bait.

Jack was about to say something else when Elspeth leaned over and addressed them both. “Val and I were just talking about our plans for later this week. We have never been to the Tower and were wondering if you wanted to invite your cousins to accompany us. I am sure Lady Helen especially would be enthralled by the romance of the place, and Lady Lydia should enjoy the menagerie.”

“I don’t know that I’d call it romantic to visit someplace where so many have lost their heads, Elspeth!” said Anne.

“I think it is just what the girls need—a little taste of English history and a mangy lion or two,” said Jack with a laugh.

“Then let us do it. What about Thursday morning, Anne?”

“I have been only once, years ago when my father took me. I was probably the age of your younger cousin, Lord Aldborough. I do remember getting the shivers, but whether that was from the cold and damp or the guard’s stories, I can’t recall!”