Sally James (12 page)

'I know nothing against him,' Kate retorted, 'and in any case why should that affect my cousin?'

'I don't suppose you know,' he said with a sigh. 'Your aunt probably sought to protect you. Darcy's an irrelevance, even though he haunts gaming hells, and there are rumours he's so deep in debt he’ll be fortunate to escape a debtor's prison. As for his sister, unlikely though it seems now, Amelia Limmering was a beauty when she came out. She was betrothed almost at once, and then she apparently decided she would prefer your cousin. Her father would not permit her to break her engagement, so they ran away together, and when her fiancé gave chase William killed him. And it was not a duel. He lay in wait and shot him through the back of the head.'

Kate was white with shock. 'I don't believe you!' she said furiously. 'If that is the case, why was William not charged in the courts? Why was he not accused?'

'Amelia swore they had been together all the time, in bed together. There was no proof, but some years later William, when in his cups, boasted that he'd killed a man. Of course, her defence ruined her own reputation, and they were married very swiftly and quietly, but since then the more fastidious hostesses have refused to receive them. Perhaps now you can understand why I want my wife to cut that connection.'

'It's all wicked speculation,' Kate declared. 'I expect it began with a silly rumour, and people believed and embroidered it, and if they, I mean William and Amelia, deny it people simply think that itself is proof of guilt. It's monstrously unfair!'

'Whatever the rights of it, I know what I believe. Now I've explained the reason for forbidding you to see Amelia Byford again, so do as you're told and get your bonnet and cloak while I order the curricle. Your maid must pack a small valise and the rest of your luggage can be sent tomorrow.'

Chapter Ten

He went from the room and Kate, her thoughts whirling, slowly followed. How could she escape from this loathsome school? And why should she believe malicious rumours about her own cousin? She would not believe, she suddenly resolved, until she had asked him directly.

She peered down the stairs. The entrance hall was empty. Adam had vanished towards the stables, to give orders, she presumed, about the curricle. She had only a few minutes. There was no time to fetch her bonnet, and if she tried the butler might be in the hall when she returned. Even if he could not physically prevent her from leaving the house, he would immediately start a hue and cry. If she could escape now it would be some time before they realized she had gone, and by then she would be safely with Amelia.

She darted down the stairs and across the hall, wrestled with the door and dragged it open, and without looking round her sped along the side of the Square. Then she forced herself to walk. She would be conspicuous enough without a bonnet and alone, she didn't have to aggravate that by running.

Fortunately to reach Park Street she had only to cross the Square and walk a short distance, but many riders were making for the Park. Although she kept her face averted and her eyes cast down, she was aware of several curious glances, and even a couple of hesitant greetings. She was heartily thankful when she arrived at her destination and her knocking brought an immediate response.

'Lady Byford, please. She is expecting me,' she announced, pushing past the hesitant footman who was clearly debating whether this unconventional caller ought to be admitted.

To Kate's relief Lady Byford appeared at once, drawn from a small room off the hall by Kate's raised voice.

'My dear, what brings you here, and in such a state?'

'Amelia, I've come to you, I need you to rescue me!'

'Come upstairs and tell me all about it.'

In the privacy of the drawing room Kate explained she was being hauled off to the detested Academy that very day, and Lady Byford exclaimed in horror at the highhandedness of Adam Rhydd.

'Has my cousin said he'll help me?' Kate asked urgently.

'He isn't home yet, but you can have no doubt of it. Tell me, child, are you utterly determined to reject the Earl’s offer? It would be a great thing for you, and it would protect your fortune.'

Kate shook her head vigorously. 'Not if he were the last man in the world, and went down on both knees to implore me to marry him,' she declared extravagantly.

'Somehow I cannot imagine Adam Rhydd going down on his knees to beg a favour from any woman. He's far too proud and overbearing.'

'He is detestable, overbearing, arrogant, and thinks he has only to say he will marry someone for them to be prostrate with astonished delight,' she declared. 'Amelia, how would you like to be told you must marry someone, and you have no choice in the matter, and if you do not agree money which should be yours would be taken away from you?'

'It happens in a sense to many girls whose parents still arrange marriages for them,' Lady Byford said slowly, 'as it almost happened to me.'

Kate glanced curiously at her. So perhaps that part of Adam's account had been true. But before she could find a tactful way of asking Lady Byford was continuing.

'It's usually where big estates are involved, of course, but in these more enlightened times that is less common, and thank goodness few girls are actually forced into matches they really detest.'

'I am not going to be one of them!'

'Tell me,' the older woman asked slowly, 'if the Earl of Malvern had behaved in the manner of a more conventional suitor, would you have been so vehement against him?'

Kate stared at her in astonishment. 'What in the world do you mean?'

Lady Byford wrinkled her brow. 'I'm not quite sure, but I suspect it is not the man so much as the manner of his telling you he means to marry you that has antagonized you.'

'No, of course it is not,' Kate replied indignantly. 'Why on earth should you think that?'

'Because he is so handsome and charming and attractive, as well as enormously rich now, that I cannot understand why you dislike him so,' Lady Byford responded.

'You think that if he spoke soft words, and set about wooing me with false smiles and promises I would be taken in?' Kate demanded.

'Not taken in, exactly, but less prejudiced, more willing to consider the idea.'

'I am not prejudiced in any way,' Kate denied indignantly.

'No, no, of course not,' Lady Byford hastened to reassure her.

'And I certainly cannot be bamboozled by false words. I don't want to have to listen to pretty speeches which, in Adam's case, would certainly be false, for he is the most shocking flirt and must have made protestations of love to innumerable girls. But Amelia,' she went on, seizing her new friend's hand, 'don't let us quarrel. I owe you so much for promising to help me.'

They discussed and rejected several plans, until Lady Byford suddenly lifted up her head and appeared to be listening intently.

'Hush, my dear. I hear someone at the front door. It is most probably William. How astonished and delighted he will be to find you here, child.'

'I hope so,' Kate murmured, suddenly realizing the burden of the task she was planning to place on the unknown Sir William's shoulders.

'You need entertain no doubts on that score. I think I will go and explain the situation to him if you will excuse me for a moment, or he is likely to vanish into his library and we will not see him until dinnertime.'

She left the room and Kate breathed a deep sigh. A few minutes later, though, when Lady Byford re-entered the room she was followed not by Sir William, but by Darcy Limmering, resplendent in a driving coat which, Kate calculated swiftly, must have at least fifteen capes.

'It wasn't William, and I believe you and Darcy know one another.'

He smiled and came across the room to take her hand in his. 'Miss Byford, Amelia has told me what has happened, and you can be sure I will do all I can to assist you.'

They spent some time discussing the situation, then Darcy begged to be excused saying he must change out of his driving clothes.

Lady Byford took the opportunity of questioning Kate closely about the life she had led with her aunt, her grandfather's attitude to her in the short time she had known him, and present conditions in Malvern House.

'For if we are to help you it is necessary for us to know as much as we can,' she explained.

It was an hour later before Sir William Byford arrived home, just after Darcy, exquisitely dressed in buttercup yellow pantaloons, a dark brown coat which fitted him so tightly that Kate wondered how he managed to get into it, and an orange flowered silk waistcoat, had returned to the drawing room.

Lady Byford went to acquaint her husband of Kate's arrival, leaving Darcy and Kate together.

'I imagine you cannot yet have seen much of London,' Darcy said, rising from the sofa where he had been sitting beside Amelia, and strolling across to the fireplace where he spent some time inspecting the folds of his cravat in the ornate mirror which surmounted it.

Kate was able to observe him better now, and while they talked about the few places she had managed to visit in London, she admired the elegance of his attire. A faint thought crossed her mind that broader shoulders, such as those possessed by Adam Rhydd, would make the padding in his coat unnecessary, and his thin legs appeared sadly deficient in muscle. She told herself firmly that he was still young and would no doubt grow fatter with age as the Earl of Malvern had.

They talked of London, and Darcy began to make enthusiastic plans for showing some of the more exciting sights to Kate.

'You don't want to bother with the Tower, and all those wretched old buildings, and hundreds of churches,' he said dismissively.

'I did find some of them rather tedious, when Aunt Sophie took me to the City one day,' Kate admitted. 'But I do want to see the Tower. I long to see the dungeons where Queen Elizabeth was imprisoned, and the poor little Princes murdered.'

'That can be fun,' Darcy allowed. 'In fact, I mean to write a poetic drama one day about Queen Elizabeth,' he added nonchalantly.

'You do write poetry!' Kate exclaimed.

'I try,' he said modestly. 'I am not ready yet to publish anything, though. But why do you say it like that?'

Kate blushed. 'I'm not sure, except that when I first met you I thought you looked like a poet.'

Darcy walked slowly across the room towards her.

'I dare not say what I thought of you the moment I saw you, or you might be deeply offended,' he said in a low, slightly unsteady voice.

Kate glanced quickly at him, saw the warm look in his eyes, and looked hastily away. During their previous meetings he had been no more particular in his attentions than the many others whose compliments she had shrugged off with ease, believing them to be lightly meant. Besides, apart from that disastrous occasion with Martin, she had never been completely alone with a young man. Then she thought of the occasions when she had been alone with Adam, and frowned.

She'd had little experience of young men until she came to London. Thomas didn't count, she'd known him all her life. Only a couple of Aunt Sophie's elderly friends in Oxfordshire had ever shown any gallantry towards her. Their heavy compliments she had been able to laugh at, and accept as they were meant, even teasing one ancient General about them, but this was different. Darcy's look was so intense that it caused her heart to beat rather fast, and a flush to start rising from her neck to colour her face softly.

Fortunately Darcy seemed to realize that he was either annoying or embarrassing her. To her relief he began to enumerate the many delights of London which he thought more suitable for her entertainment now she wasn’t staying with the stuffy Rhydds.

'There's Astley's Amphitheatre, which is very exciting, and the Opera, of course, if you like that sort of thing. I prefer the play, and there's Vauxhall, but of course you've been there. All of these are much more interesting than what you have been taken to see. I suppose if you are in mourning you ought not to go to balls, not at Almack's, in any case, but really they are rather slow. The masquerades, where you would be masked, you know, so that no one could be offended or look askance, are much more fun.'

Before she could reply Amelia came back into the room bringing William, a short plump man, with her. He strode across the room and clasped Kate's hands in his own as she rose to greet him.

'My dear Kate, Amelia has been telling me your dreadful story. Thank Heaven you came to us. You were very wise.'

Kate sighed with relief. She had been fairly certain, from Amelia's attitude, that William would support his wife, but now she had direct confirmation.

'Cousin William, I am so very grateful to you both,' she exclaimed.

'It is the least we can do. Now, while Amelia finds you an evening dress to wear and you both go and change for dinner, I intend to go at once to Malvern House and acquaint them with where you are. They must be concerned at your long absence, and badly as you have been treated there, it would not do to leave them to worry any longer over your whereabouts. I will instruct them to pack your clothes and send them round here tomorrow. In the meantime I am sure Amelia can lend you everything you require.'

'Oh, thank you both,' Kate said joyfully. 'I know I shall be happy here.'

'If you are not it will not be our fault. Darcy, my dear fellow, forgive me for not greeting you before. Do you care to come along with me?'

The men left the room, and Amelia escorted Kate up the stairs to a small bedroom. The house was much smaller than Malvern House, but it contained a great deal of new furniture and had clearly been refurbished throughout only recently.

Amelia found a rather ancient black silk dress, which she suggested Kate ought to wear.

'It is almost the only black one I possess, but you cannot dine in the one you are wearing. I dislike mourning and usually get rid of the clothes just as soon as it is possible to do so. This was one I had when my brother Cyprian died. He was killed at Waterloo. For you are in mourning, child, and it would soon get about if you wore colours . The servants gossip terribly, you see. By tomorrow you will have your own clothes. My maid will be along to help you when she has dressed me. Thank goodness we had not planned to go out tonight.'