ROMANCE: Romantic Comedy: Love in 30 Days - The Best Plans Don't Always Work! (Plus 19 FREE Books Book 13) (44 page)

She swept past him to take up the enormous stack of cards from the silver dish on the small stand near the front door then she headed up the stairs, her skirts trailing and her voice still raised in a mutter.

When she’d vanished from sight Henry said, “Well at least I know I shan’t risk Mother’s disapproval if I slight the Woolridge daughters.”

“You should,” Oscar said. “Their father has pushed the family right into debt. His only hope now is for his daughters to land rich husbands who will be willing to pay off some of his creditors. If they had a better title than they do that would not be so large a consideration but it they don’t and it is. I hear Duke Rivington’s daughter is out for her Season as well, and he’s also hoping for a good monetary match. She’d be much more suited to you, and she’s very lovely from what I hear.”

Oscar walked away and Henry sighed. Marriage was business, and while he thoroughly enjoyed business he did not see where he had to court a woman like he was mounting a full-scale financial plan.

Only that was precisely the way that it was.

He would do well to remember that he was a very rich man, and while he had money what he did not necessarily have was the most-respected of titles.

His paternal great-grandfather had been a merchant, of all things, and while his thriving businesses had made him very rich he had not been content with that.

He’d married the daughter of minor and very indebted lord and when his father-in-law passed away with no other heirs he’d inherited the title. He’d kept his businesses though, and through the generations it had only grown larger and more prosperous. When Henry had been twenty he had also gone into the family business, and branched out as well, turning his already rather shockingly large allowance of ten thousand pounds a year into a stunning forty thousand.

In other words, he and his family were entirely wealthy, and being that he was a noble, and a very rich one, he had become a target for every eligible young woman in London.

He’d managed to escape marriage so far and at twenty-four he was considered a confirmed bachelor, and something of a rake. His mother often despaired and his father urged him to marry a woman whose title would bring more luster to their own.

Henry thought that foolish. They were welcomed everywhere in the country, and if anyone even remembered that his family had come up from the merchant-class they conveniently forgot to be disagreeable about it in light of the money that spilled from their coffers.

He headed up the sweeping staircase, his shined boots making barely a sound on the runners. He entered his bedchamber, a vast and wide room furnished with dark and masculine furniture where he was greeted by his manservant Clark.

“Shall I take your coat Sir?” Clark inquired politely.

Henry glanced at the mirror. He was taller than average, standing well over six feet in his stockings, and his shoulders were wide and broad. His waist and hips were narrow however and his legs lean thanks to the exercise he believed in so firmly and the dark brown breeches, well-tailored shirt and brown waistcoat, adorned with gold trim and buttons along with the snowy ascot gave him a dashing air.

He said, “Yes, please. I do believe I shall go for a ride in the park.”

Clark nodded and began to help him out of the clothes and into a set more appropriate for horseback. Once ready henry headed out again, calling for someone to bring his horse.

Lady Wallace, on her way into the kitchens to supervise the activity there paused and said, “Henry, do me a favor please. Do not go riding that horse through park like you’ve no manners at all.”

He grinned. “I shall endeavor to be polite Mother.”

She gave him a quelling look. “You must know that every young lady who watches you ride through that park as though you’ve taken leave of your senses becomes instantly infatuated with you and then comes to call on
me
.”

He gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, teasingly, “I would wager that they’d come to call if I rode a donkey through the park while singing nonsense songs Mother.”

“Oh you,” she flapped her hands at him. “Oh, have I told you the news?”

“Let me guess. There’s another ball. Or someone has become engaged already though the Season’s hardly started. Or perhaps someone wound up face-down in a punchbowl filled with social disgrace.”

She flapped a hand at him. “No. The Stauntons arrive today and they are bringing their niece.”

He blinked. “Annalise?”

His mother smiled. “You remember her then.”

Of course he remembered her. She’d come to visit the Stauntons at their country estate a few years before. Like their London townhouse the Staunton’s country estate sat close to the Wallace’s, and Annalise had come riding across the borders of the Wallace estate hell-bent for leather on a wild and charging stallion. Her reddish-gold hair had escaped its bounds and when she flew past him he’d been stunned into muteness, sure he was witnessing the earthly ride of a fabled Valkyrie.

She’d been young then, only sixteen, and as impudent and saucy as a child. She’d driven her aunt and uncle to near-madness with her escapades. He recalled all too vividly the day she’d climbed up an apple tree to save a stranded cat, giving him a glimpse of frothy white petticoats and stockings as she did so.

“I see,” he said slowly.

Lady Wallace sighed. “The girl will be lucky to land a husband with her reputation. She does have good title however and she did inherit a large allowance from her father’s estate.

“I hear her brother, who’s so much older than she, and his wife are very fond of her and would likely be happy to allow her to stay there as an old maid forever. Oh, that reminds me, the brother’s wife, drat I can never recall her name, is with child and I must be sure to remember that when I go to call.”

Henry lifted an eyebrow. “Reputation?”

“Oh yes, I’m afraid she’s quite the bluestocking and once, at a dinner party in the country, she even interjected herself into a conversation on politics! And not only did she tender her opinion on the matter she debated her position quite clearly long after she should have excused herself so the gentlemen could enjoy their port and cigars.”

Henry said, in as mild a voice as possible, “Quite shocking.”

Her head bobbed up and down. “Yes, it is. She doesn’t draw or paint or play an instrument either. Her education seems to be solely in books.”

“And politics,” Henry put in, knowing he was going slightly too far.

She shook her head warningly and said, “You! Yes, that too. Ah well, anyway they arrive today and I thought since you and she had struck up something of a friendship you’d be happy to pay her a call.”

“I see.” He kept his voice neutral.

Lady Wallace said, “Not to put too fine a point on it Henry, you must marry, and soon. We are not getting any younger, your father and I, and you are the only child I was ever allowed to bear. There has not been one young woman that you’ve taken a liking to over the years and quite frankly I am beginning to despair ever seeing you happy.”

He was happy.

That was the whole point.

He was quite happy not being saddled with a wife he had had to woo through a series of balls and suppers and theatre outings, and all while under the watchful eyes of Society and other young women and mothers all jockeying for his attention and time and affection.

“Yes Mother,” he said simply and headed for the door before she could say anything else.

The tree-lined street ahead of the townhouse was a scene of utter excitement. Laden carriages rolled through the circular drive and up to the lovely stone façade of the large and impressive home next door. Servants scurried to get the carriages that held luggage and household help and items to the back and side entrances while the carriages holding the family waited patiently on the street.

Henry’s horse, housed in a stable tucked away down a back alley, waited patiently at the gate and he headed for the large roan stallion with a smile of real pleasure lighting his handsome face.

He mounted and took the reins then set his hat on his head. He walked the horse closer to the carriages bearing the Staunton crest, his eyes running over them admiringly. They were the new Phaetons, lovely and light, well-sprung and appointed.

Annalise!

He would know that cloud of red-gold hair anywhere. Her curls had been tamed into a neat style that left her long white neck bared and her face, as she turned to him, was as creamy and fine as ever.

Her dark-blue eyes lighted on his face and then swept to the horse below. He smiled and drew closer but a footman leaned off the side of the carriage and said, “Begging your pardon sir, but the young lady is ill.”

Ill?

His eyes went back to her. She sat alone in the carriage, and it was obvious that she was covered by many rugs. “Oh, I see. Thank you.”

He walked the horse back to the next carriage where Lord and Lady Staunton sat and rapped on the window. Lord Staunton opened it a bit and said, “I do say, it’s Henry, isn’t it?”

“At your service Lord Staunton. I trust your trip was not overly long or tiresome.”

“It’s always long and tiresome. I much prefer the country but the Season can’t be missed.”

Henry said, “Indeed sir. I was inquiring after the health of your niece.”

Immediately Lady Staunton spoke up, her tone far less cordial that her husband’s. “She’s quite ill I’m afraid but it shall pass soon.”

“Perhaps I could call on her…” Henry began.

Lady Staunton cut in. “When she’s no longer so poorly I will be letting her receive visitors. I shall add your name to the list of course.”

The window closed, leaving him flummoxed and a little irritated. Whatever could be the matter with her?

The carriages rolled along and he started toward the park. She’d grown up to be the beauty he had always known she would be, that he had been able to see clearly. He hadn’t been able to see much of her figure past the slender shoulders and arms but he doubted she’d grown fat. She was far too active to do that.

There’d been that same spark in her face too. She’d been so filled with life, and with joy in life, that it had often made him feel staid. Her laughter had always rung out and yes she’d been fearsomely intelligent, but that had made her all the more appealing to him.

She had been so unlike any other young woman he had ever met, and he wondered, as he cantered toward Hyde Park, if the memory of Annalise was not what had held him back from marriage all those years.

Granted she’d been too young for marriage, and she’d not been a flirt at all. She’d simply done whatever she took it into her head to do and she often left him breathless at both her daring and her willingness to try whatever pleased her.

She could rise like the devil himself, and once he’d caught her swimming in a small stream he’d hidden behind a set of bushes to keep her from seeing him and he’d watched her swim with her long skirts trailing behind her and her hair hanging in disarray.

She was a charming little liar too. When he’d run into her later, on her way back home, she’d excused her soaked gown and hair by saying she’d fallen from her horse and right into the stream.

Well, he thought, at least with Annalise around the Season might prove to be fairly lively after all.

A frown creased his handsome face as he remembered something. Annalise had sworn, more than once, that she would never engage in a Season in London, and she’d find her own husband without her aunt or mother hanging off her arm and thrusting her toward bachelors.

Could it be that she wasn’t ill at all but simply refusing to be married off?

**

Henry! Annalise sat back in the carriage, a smile lighting her face for a moment before it faded away. Once she’d fancied herself madly in love with him, and she’d been sure she’d saw something like love in his eyes when he looked at her.

Oh but that had been a long time ago, and now things were so different. She wasn’t the carefree young girl she had been, and he was one of the most eligible bachelors in London, and beyond.

He’d want a wife soon, and while he might not ever discover her terrible secret she would know, and she couldn’t bear to deceive him.

She’d have to marry eventually, of course. She had some money left to her from her father and she could support herself for some time. Her older brother Roger would, of course, allow her to stay on in the family’s country manor for as long as she liked but she knew that, with things the way that they were, that would become unacceptable eventually.

She’d hoped to see him, Henry. She’d hoped to be able to see his handsome figure riding toward and he had done exactly that and when he had he had stirred every feeling she’d ever had for him.

But those feelings had to be suppressed, for both their sakes.

The carriage went to the back of the house and she was hastily removed and hustled up the stairs, her long cloak trailing around her. The servants, all but her constant companion and maid since childhood, Lucy.

Only Lucy really knew the situation, and she would make sure nobody else knew it.

The fear eating at Annalise, the fear that had become her highest emotion as of late, came rushing back in as she was led to her bed and quickly undressed. A gown and bed jacket were placed upon her body and she hustled under the covers and surrounded by a mound of pillows.