Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed (10 page)

Overcome, Jane astonished both herself and him by hiding her burning face in the shoulder of his jacket. Though the music went on for a while, all movement and conversation stopped. Lord Wraybourne was himself frozen, for the moment, with surprise at finding Jane in his arms. Nonetheless, he recovered quickly.

“I think Jane is overheated. We will walk in the gallery for a little while.”

He then took her swiftly from the room, discouraging any attempt to accompany them and ignoring the knowing laughter behind.

“Lord Wraybourne,” Jane protested, trying to escape from his side. “What will people think?”

“That you are hot and wish to cool down a little. Truly, it was too warm in there. There is no need of a fire in the grate on such a mild night.”

With her new sophistication, Jane retorted, “They will think you are out here making love to me.”

He smiled. “I will if you want me to.”

“Of course I don’t!”

She was quite unaware of how magnificent she looked, with her cheeks tinted rose and her eyes flashing.

“Why not?” he said lightly but with a glow in his eyes. “We have already seen how disastrous it is to be unprepared for compliments. Imagine if that had happened at a grand ball or Almack’s.” Jane shuddered. Still, she knew that the problem was not the flattery, but the flatterer.

“Now what,” he said softly, “if you are the recipient of a little lovemaking and cause a scandal by screaming or fainting?”

“But that would never happen,” Jane declared triumphantly. “Sophie tells me all the men will be terrified to tamper with Lord Wraybourne’s betrothed.”

He laughed. “Sisterly exaggeration, I assure you. I’m willing to lay odds some poor rash fellow will be carried beyond discretion by
you
, Tiger Eyes.”

Jane could feel the pounding of her heart and no longer had any idea of how to handle the situation.

He placed a gentle finger beneath her chin. “What if you found yourself in a secluded corner during a ball,” he said softly, “and a gentleman said you have the softest and sweetest lips in the world.”

“I would leave,” she answered breathlessly and, after a delay which made him smile, turned to do so, but he caught her hand and swung her back, hard against him.

Held tight against his body, she stared up at him, her eyes enormous and lips softly parted.

“At this point,” he went on gently, “you really should scream. But then, everyone would come running, and I would have to call the rascal out. The scandal would be dreadful. Would it not be better to endure one little kiss?”

Jane scrambled for control of her wits. “I fear you are a practiced seducer, Lord Wraybourne,” she whispered, with a gallant attempt at lightness.

“Oh, I haven’t even
tried
to seduce you yet, Tiger Eyes.”

His head began to lower, but at that moment they heard the music room door open. He unhurriedly released her and moved away.

“You see,” he said smoothly, “this would probably happen at a ball as well. Someone always interrupts. Ah, Maria, you’ve recalled your chaperone duties? How kind of you. I think Jane is quite recovered.”

Jane was not at all sure that described her condition. She had a powerful wish Lady Harroving had delayed just a few moments longer in finding them.

 

Later that night, Lady Harroving and Mrs. Danvers were lounging in comfortable undress in the former’s
boudoir,
sipping at chocolate.

“Well, she’s a dull miss,” Lady Harroving remarked with a sly smile. “David is already tiring of her. He’s hardly spent a moment with her, and I found them standing out in the gallery, feet apart, looking very uncomfortable.

“When I first heard I was supposed to bring the chit out,” she continued, “I didn’t see the advantages. But it should be easy to allow her to commit any number of
faux pas,
whilst appearing, of course, to take every kind of care. She has only to follow Sophie’s example, without having my cousin’s worldly wisdom, to be quite undone.”

Phoebe contemplated her friend and patron. “Nothing would please me more than to see her derided, but do you think that would cause David to cry off? He could not. To make his marriage unhappy helps me not at all. I do not wish to merely return to being his mistress.”

“It was a great mistake to take him to your bed at all,” said Lady Harroving severely. “I’m sure he would have offered for you had you but held him off.”

Mrs. Danvers merely shrugged.

“My point is,” said her ladyship, “that there will be no question of crying off if she runs off with a fortune-hunting officer or some other scoundrel.”

“She wouldn’t!” declared her friend, aghast.

“She’s just the kind of sulky miss capable of any wildness. I’ve seen these quiet ones before. Do you remember Lady Liza Yelland? Such a little nun until she went to Town, and then, after two major scandals, her father had to double her dowry to get Lanchester to marry her. You know David. If the girl can be encouraged to behave with a lack of decorum, he will cut up stiff. If he attempts to correct her it will put her back up, and she’ll soon be well on the way to hating him. She doesn’t want to marry him. That’s obvious. And I cannot see that he can possibly want to marry her now he’s had a chance to see her in Society. In fact, we will be doing them both a charity. All we need is a clever seducer, and I know a few of those. I did think of Ashby, but I know he wouldn’t do it with David being his friend. Speaking of our Adonis, my dear. Do I gather you have been playing Aphrodite?”

Mrs. Danvers smiled and licked chocolate from her shapely upper lip. “I have to amuse myself, Maria. Randal and I are old friends. He knows he can always depend on me if he has a really interesting idea. Speaking of which, how was Sir Marius? I have not yet managed to be seduced by him.”

“He never seduces anyone. I had to seduce
him
!” snorted her ladyship and then stretched sensually. “He’s such an interesting man!”

“Tell me all about it,” invited Mrs. Danvers, avidly.

T
HE JOURNEY NEXT day from The Middlehouse to London was a far less decorous business than the journey from Carne. Jane and Sophie travelled in one luxurious coach, accompanied by their maids. Lady Harroving, Mrs. Danvers, and their maids travelled in another. Two sim pler carriages had started out earlier in the day containing those other servants essential to their employers’ comfort in Town.

The gentlemen with their attendants journeyed in their own curricles, and a race was made of it from one stop to the next. The coaches, though each drawn by four fine horses, could not keep up with the lighter sporting vehicles. However, engaged as they were in chewing over the previous stage and their good or ill luck, while enjoying flagons of home brew, the gentlemen didn’t seem to mind waiting for the ladies. As the high-spirited party sat to luncheon at the Bull in Gerrards Cross the gentlemen were still arguing about the previous stretch.

“I would have beaten you if it hadn’t been for those damned sheep, Randal,” said Sir Marius with grim certainty.

“You’re a poor loser,” was the jaunty reply. “
I
had the presence of mind to go across country and bypass them.”

Sir Marius grunted. “Which only proves you’ve the devil’s own luck. You could have broken an axle!”

Mrs. Danvers favored Lord Wraybourne with an intimate look. “And where were you, David? I was used to think you a formidable whip.”

He shrugged with a smile. “It was my turn for the bad luck. I began to feel a wobble from the wheels and found one of the pins working loose. I had to take it easy till I found a wheelwright to fix the rig. Now I’ll show my mettle.”

“Do you think you can beat me?” asked Lord Randal with shining eyes.

Lord Wraybourne laughed. “I know I can, for I have before. Today I may.”

“So clever with words,” taunted the younger man. “Let’s have a bet on it, David.”

“Certainly.”

“Count me in,” said Sir Marius firmly. “I’m a better whip than either of you fribbles. Will you join us, Lord Harroving?” But the older man declined, to his wife’s disgust.

“What stake, gentlemen?” she asked eagerly.

After a moment’s hesitation Lord Wraybourne said, “Fifty pounds. The two losers to pay a pony each.”

“Saving your blunt now you’re to be a married man?” teased Lord Randal, confirming Jane’s suspicion that Lord Wraybourne might be purse-pinched. “Fifty it is.” He paused a moment and looked round at the company. “To be used for a gift for the winner’s lady.”

Eyes bright with mischief he stretched a hand to Lady Sophie. “My lady, may I wear your colors?”

Sophie pulled out a delicate white lace handkerchief and passed it to him, saying dramatically, “Strive well, my champion!”

Lord Wraybourne turned to Jane. “Are you willing to condone this insanity and honor me with your colors, my dear?”

Jane hesitated a moment, sure she would be condemned for joining in with such behavior. But as there appeared to be no protest, she shyly tendered her handkerchief, which was plain, edged with pink embroidery.

Sir Marius smiled ruefully at his predicament. “Maria,” he said at last. “I can hardly champion a married lady. Mrs. Danvers, will you honor me with your handkerchief?”

“With pleasure, Sir Marius. And by great good fortune it is trimmed with green.” She graced him with her intimate smile. “I wish you all good fortune and freedom from livestock. You may buy me an aquamarine with the purse. It is my good-luck stone.”

The three gentlemen tucked their colors in the buttonholes of their driving coats and called for their vehicles. Within minutes they had swept out of sight.

Sophie passed the journey in a fever of excitement to see whether Lord Randal had won. “He will buy me a gold bracelet,” she declared. “What will you choose if David should win, Jane?”

Jane was miserably sure that the heavens were going to fall in long before she benefited from such ill-acquired monies. Gambling was above all things abhorrent to Lady Sandiford.

She managed to say, however, “I think I would leave the choice of gift to Lord Wraybourne.”

Sophie considered that. “You are cleverer than I, Jane. That is much more subtle and dignified and will ensure that the gentleman must spend some time thinking of your tastes and wishes.”

Jane blushed and stammered a disclaimer. She had made her reply from fear, having no idea what fifty pounds would buy or what would be a suitable gift from a man to his betrothed. Sophie, however, was thinking for the first time that there were things she could learn from her new friend.

When the carriages drew to a halt before the Harrovings’ mansion on Marlborough Square, Sophie could hardly wait for the steps to be let down before dashing into the house. Following more slowly, the other ladies found the four gentlemen at their ease, enjoying a fine claret.

“Well?” demanded Sophie. “Who won?”

Lord Wraybourne shook his head. “No patience, Sophie. Just like Randal. He tried to pass the stage too soon and ended in the ditch. Lost twenty minutes.”

Lord Randal smiled apologetically and returned her handkerchief, but she cheerfully let him keep it, “as a reward for a bold attempt.”

“Sir Marius?” queried Mrs. Danvers.

“Now Sir Marius is not a hasty man,” said Lord Wraybourne weightily. “Like you, Phoebe, he is clever and cool-headed. He waited till just the right time to pass the stage.”

“You won, Sir Marius!” she exclaimed.

“I am afraid not, Mrs. Danvers. David is right. I waited till just the right moment, when I had a clear view of the road and a good breadth to pass in, but he had already gone through on an idiot’s chance. There was no way, David, that you could have known you could pass there.”

He turned to Mrs. Danvers. “May I keep my insignia, Ma’am, as a memory of the one time David Kyle took a risk I was not willing to take?”

Laughing, she agreed.

Lord Wraybourne came over to Jane with his colors. “I hope you will allow me to keep this, Jane. In truth, I am not likely to take such a risk again, but it will be pleasant to remember in my old age.”

She murmured her assent, and when he asked what gift she wanted, she made the same reply that she had given Sophie and earned a smile.

“I shall afford it careful thought. I hope you will forgive me, Jane, if I am not always in attendance for the next few days. I have a number of matters to attend to after being out of town. I am sure you will be busy with new gowns and new friends, but if you have need of me for any reason, you have only to send round a note to Alton Street.”

Jane was happy with this arrangement. It would certainly take her time to find her equilibrium among her new companions, and she would manage a great deal better without the turmoil her handsome husband-to-be seemed to stir within her. Jane’s resolution only lasted until the next afternoon, however, when she’d donned her first fashionable outfit and was delighted to discover that Lord Wraybourne would be with them for their introduction to the fashionable parade in Hyde Park. She wanted him, above all men, to see her looking so fine.

The gown was made of cream-colored muslin, flounced around the bottom. The gathered bodice was hidden beneath a rust-colored velvet spencer, and the high frilled collar framed her face. Her cream straw bonnet was trimmed with velvet ribbons to match the spencer, and cream slippers completed the outfit which had been awaiting her at the
modiste
’s. Upon surveying herself in the mirrors, she saw a young woman of fashion with some claim to beauty. Perhaps she did, after all, have a chance to gain her husband’s true affections.

Lord Wraybourne was gratifyingly quick to comment on her elegance.

“But I have few other clothes,” she told him with a grimace as he settled her on the seat of Lady Harroving’s smart barouche and then took his place beside her. “Madame Danielle, the
modiste,
said that most of the colors chosen for me by my mother were unsuitable.”