More than a Mistress/No Man's Mistress (45 page)

“Yes, you have come,” she said. “But why, Charles, when I wrote and told you not to?”

“How could I stay away?” he asked her.

“And yet,” she said quietly, accepting the glass of lemonade he had taken off a tray for her, “you did not come when I most needed you, Charles. Oh, yes, I know.” She held up a staying hand when he would have spoken. “You did not see the point in coming when you did not know where to look. It was sensible to remain at home.”

“Yes, exactly,” he agreed. “I have come now when I can do some good. I am happy that Lady Webb has arranged this ball for you. It is only fitting that Lady Sara Illingsworth be presented to the ton. But it is unfortunate that an event such as this exposes you to every rake and fortune hunter who cares to ask a dance of you.”

“The guest list was prepared by Aunt Harriet,” Jane explained. “And every partner I have had tonight has been approved by her. You insult her by saying such a thing, Charles.”

“Well,” he said, “you were waltzing with the Duke of
Tresham, Sara, and he was taking inappropriate liberties with his eyes. Besides which, he had no business leading you into a waltz of all things. He will be causing you to be called fast. I know that he had a hand in finding you and bringing you here, so I suppose Lady Webb had no choice but to invite him. But he must not be encouraged. A man such as he has no honorable intentions toward any decent woman, believe me.”

Jane sighed and sipped her drink. “Charles,” she said, “I will not quarrel with you. We have always been friends, and I am grateful that you have cared enough to come all this way. But you really must not pass judgment on people you have not even met before, you know.”

“His reputation is enough for me,” he said. “Pardon me, Sara, but you have been gently nurtured and have lived a sheltered life far from places like London. I can understand that an experience like this tonight is exciting for you. But you must not abandon your roots. You belong in the country. You would not be happy here forever.”

“No,” she agreed, smiling softly into her glass. “You are right.”

“Come home with me, then,” he urged her. “Tomorrow or the next day or next week. Just come.”

“Oh, Charles,” she said, “I do wish you had read the letter I sent. I cannot go back to Cornwall. That phase of my life is over. I hope we can remain friends, but there—”

“He is not the one for you, Sara,” he said urgently, interrupting her. “Believe me, he is not. He could bring you nothing but unhappiness.”

“Which is exactly what I would bring you, Charles,” she told him gently. “I feel a deep affection for you. But I do not love you.”

“Love is something that grows between two married people,” he said. “Affection is enough on which to start.”

She set a hand on his arm. “This is neither the time nor the place, Charles,” she said. “I have already missed one set of dances. If I do not return to the ballroom soon, I will miss another, and I would hate that.”

“We will speak tomorrow, then,” he said.

How she wished he had not come to London, she thought as he escorted her back to the ballroom. But she said no more.

Later in the evening, she was seated for supper at one of the long tables in the dining room, in company with friends and acquaintances, when Charles came to take the empty place opposite her. Jane smiled at him and introduced him to the people around them. He was quiet for a time while the rest of them chattered and laughed on a variety of topics.

Baron Pottier announced his intention of removing to Brighton for the summer, after the Season was over. It was where the Prince Regent went, and where half the
ton
followed him.

“Will you be going there, Lady Sara?” Lord Pottier asked.

“Oh, no, I think not,” Jane said. “I would rather spend the summer in the country.”

Viscount Kimble, seated at her side, caught her hand in his and raised it to his lips. “But Brighton would be empty of all attraction without you,” he told her, his eyes twinkling. “I shall simply kidnap you and take you there myself.”

“Oh, no, you will not,” Lady Heyward said, laughing. “If there is any kidnapping to be done, it is I who will be doing it—with Heyward’s help. Not that he would agree
to do anything so dashing or dangerous, of course. With Ferdie’s aid, then. We will kidnap Lady Sara and Tresham and bear them off to St. George’s for a grand wedding. Will we not, Ferdie?”

Lord Ferdinand, seated across the table, next to Charles, grinned. “I would need the assistance of half a regiment of burly military types, Angie, if I were to try trussing up Tresham,” he said.

Viscount Kimble sighed soulfully. “Alas,” he said, “do not forget all about me or my heart will be broken, ma’am.”

Jane laughed at him, and the conversation would doubtless have moved on to another subject. But Charles, perhaps not recognizing the light, teasing tone of the conversation, chose to speak up.

“As Lady Sara has said,” he told the group, “she will be returning to the country for the summer. Perhaps sooner.”

“Oh, yes,” Lady Heyward agreed, laughing. “After the wedding. Now really, Ferdie—”

“Lady Sara will be returning to Cornwall. With me,” Charles said with enough emphasis to attract the attention of everyone seated at their table. “We have long had an understanding.”

“Charles!” Jane said sharply before explaining to the group at large. “We have been friends and neighbors all our lives.”

“Tresham might have a thing or two to say about your
understanding,
” Baron Pottier said. “Are you really going back to Cornwall, Lady Sara? Jardine notwithstanding?”

“I believe I will be able to protect my own betrothed
from any further impertinences from that direction,” Charles said.

“Charles,
please …
”

“Oh, you are mistaken, sir,” Lady Heyward said merrily. “Lady Sara is going to marry my brother even though they have quarreled and have danced together only once this evening—”

“Stow it, Angie,” Lord Ferdinand said. “The lady is looking embarrassed. Let’s change the subject. Let’s talk about the weather.”

But Charles was not to be deterred. He actually stood up, scraping back his chair with his knees. And somehow the action attracted general notice in the crowded dining room and the noise level dropped noticeably.

“Lady Sara Illingsworth will not be the object of any London buck’s gallantries for much longer,” he said, indignation vibrating in his voice. “I will be taking her home where she belongs. Not to Candleford, but
home.
”

Jane would have closed her eyes in mortification, but she glanced first at a dark-clad figure standing in the dining room doorway. He must have been on his way out, but he was standing still now, his quizzing glass in one hand, his attention on Charles.

“Mr. Fortescue,” Lady Lansdowne asked from the end of their table, “are we to understand that you are announcing your betrothal to Sara?”

Jane’s eyes locked with Jocelyn’s in the doorway.

“Charles—” she said aloud.

“Yes, ma’am,” Charles said, raising his voice and speaking now to an audience of every single guest at the ball. “I have the honor of announcing my betrothal to Lady Sara Illingsworth. I trust everyone will wish us happy.”

A swell of sound in the dining room replaced the silence. But then Jocelyn took one step forward and a hush descended once more.

“No, no, no,” he said, every inch the Duke of Tresham again. “I would wager that Lady Sara has not consented, and it is not good
ton
, you know, Fortescue, to make such an announcement unless the prospective bride has done so.”

“Of course she has consented,” Charles said testily. “We have had an underst—”

“
Have
you, Jane?” The ducal quizzing glass swung her way. “How naughty of you, my love.”

Jane heard a feminine gasp at the duke’s use of the endearment. While Jocelyn was actually
enjoying
himself, Jane was wishing for a black hole to swallow her up.

“She is
not
your love,” Charles retorted, “and I would thank you for not—”

“Ah, but she is,” Jocelyn said, taking a few more steps forward and lowering his glass. “And I must protest most forcefully against your imagined betrothal to her, my dear fellow. You see, much as I commend you for the concern you have shown for her well-being, I really cannot permit you to marry my wife.”

There was another swell of sound, but it died away quickly to a chorus of hushing noises. No one wanted to miss a word of this drama, which would be repeated endlessly and with blissful relish in dozens of drawing rooms and gentlemen’s clubs for days, even weeks to come.

“What?”
Charles had turned pale, Jane saw in a quick glance at him. He was looking at her across the table. “Is this true? Sara?”

She nodded almost imperceptibly.

He stared at her for a few moments while there was another small swell of sound and more hushing noises, and then he turned without another word and stalked from the room, brushing past the duke as he went.

“Come, Jane.” Jocelyn held out a hand toward her and she went to him on legs that were not quite steady. He was smiling as she had never seen him smile before—openly, warmly, radiantly.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said as his hand closed about hers, “allow me, please, to present my wife, the Duchess of Tresham. Ma’am?” He bowed to Lady Webb. “I do beg your pardon that my hand has been forced. Jane insisted that nothing be allowed to spoil yesterday and today for you since you have worked so tirelessly to plan her presentation and her come-out. Both, of course, would have had to change for a married lady. And so I agreed that we would delay our announcement until tomorrow.”

He settled Jane’s hand on his arm and covered it with his free hand before looking around at all the gathered guests, though his eyes rested on his brother and sister as he spoke again. “We were married by special license this morning. We had a quiet wedding, as we both wished, with only my secretary and her grace’s maid in attendance as witnesses.”

He smiled down at Jane—that warm, wonderful, defenseless smile again—and raised her hand to his lips. There was already noise and movement in response to his announcement.

“My love,” he murmured while he still could, “I was already quite determined to have my bride in my own home and my own bed for what will remain of our wedding night when your ball is over. I am no saint, you see.”

“I have never wanted a saint,” she told him. “I have only ever wanted you, Jocelyn.”

He leaned toward her, his eyes on fire, and whispered with passionate intensity in her ear. “My love and my life. My Jane. And at last and forever
my wife.
”

There was only a moment—a timeless moment—in which to smile radiantly at him and to realize with a shock of reality that it was really true. She was married to Jocelyn, her love, her heart’s desire, her soul’s mate. She was happier than anyone had any right to be. He was
her husband
.

And there was no further need to hide the fact.

Then Aunt Harriet was hugging her and shedding tears over her and scolding her and laughing. And Lady Heyward was catching her in her arms and talking a mile a minute. Lord Ferdinand was grinning at her and kissing her cheek and calling her sister. Viscount Kimble was pretending to clutch his broken heart and was also kissing her cheek. Jocelyn’s friends were all pumping his hand and slapping his shoulder. His sister was crying all over his waistcoat despite his protests and declaring that her nerves would not stand the shock and she had never been more happy in her life and she would organize a grand wedding ball for next week and just let Heyward try to stop her, provoking man.

Everything became a blur after that as everyone moved back to the ballroom, congratulating the newly married couple, bowing, curtsying, shaking hands, hugging and kissing as they went. The resumption of the dancing was considerably delayed.

Finally they were alone in the dining room with Lady Webb, Lord and Lady Lansdowne, Lord and Lady Heyward, and Lord Ferdinand. Jocelyn drew Jane’s shining
new wedding ring from a pocket of his waistcoat, lifted her left hand, and slid it onto her ring finger, where it had resided so briefly during the morning.

“With this ring, my love,” he said, and dipped his head to kiss her lips in full view of their small audience. He looked up at Lady Webb. “Now, ma’am, do you suppose the orchestra can be coerced into playing another waltz?”

“Absolutely,” Aunt Harriet said.

And so they waltzed again—alone for the first five minutes, while everyone watched.

“I repeat,” Jocelyn said as the music began—a slow, dreamy waltz tune this time, “you look almost like a bride, Jane. In fact, you look exactly like a bride. Mine.”

“And the ballroom looks as if it had been decked out for a wedding ball,” she said, giving him back look for look. “Ours.”

And then he did something truly outrageous. He dipped his head and kissed her hard. He lifted his head, smiled wickedly at her, and kissed her softly. And then again with all the yearning and all the hope and all the love Jane knew was in his heart—and her own.

“She will never reform the dangerous Duke of Tresham,” some unidentified voice said with startling clarity as Jocelyn twirled Jane into the dance.

“But whyever would she want to?” a female voice called back.

HE PICTURESQUE VILLAGE OF TRELLICK, NESTLED
in a river valley in Somersetshire, was usually a quiet little backwater. But not on this particular day. By the middle of the afternoon it appeared that every villager and every country dweller for miles around must be out-of-doors, milling about the village green, enjoying the revelries.