Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening (Summerset Abbey Trilogy) (5 page)

Lady Balfour arched her eyebrows. “Whatever for?”

“Oh, I’m moving to London to take a job. Or
volunteer
, to be more precise. I am going to work at the Rodgers Settlement House.”

Lady Reinhardt, who had remained silent until now, audibly gasped, and even Mrs. Asquith’s dead bird seemed to look at Victoria reproachfully.

Next to her Kit stifled a laugh, and Victoria felt the devil rise up in her.

“Well, I never heard of such a thing!” Lady Cash said.

“Oh, yes.” Victoria nodded. “I’m going to be a lady bachelor. My nurse from prison will be living with me.”

The silence dropped into the room like a bomb. The women glanced at one another, unsure as to what to do or say next. Victoria was, after all, the niece of their friend the formidable Lady Charlotte, and the daughter of a knight.

“Victoria, are you shocking my guests?”

Every head in the room turned toward Mrs. Kittredge’s low, sultry voice. It was early afternoon and Mrs. Kittredge wore a peacock-blue tea outfit with insets of lace as if it were state dress.
As always, the style was slightly oriental, with kimono sleeves and a low bodice. She wore her dark hair back with a wicked straight fringe across her forehead that accented her dark-almond eyes. The expression on her face showed amusement, but her eyes held a warning that Victoria caught immediately. She would allow Victoria to go only so far as she found it entertaining, but anything that would threaten her own status was out of the question.

Victoria understood. Mrs. Kittredge had taken her husband’s fortune and turned it into a stepping-stone into society, and her position was precarious. As unorthodox as she was, she still played by the rules, and now that her husband was dead, and the aristocrats no longer relied on his business to make money, her position was more precarious than ever.

Victoria kissed Mrs. Kittredge on the cheek, as did Kit.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. I had an unavoidable delay. Thank you all so much for coming. Where is that unfortunate butler with the tea?”

As if in answer, the butler appeared in the door with a tinkling tea cart.

“Victoria, would you do us the honor of pouring tea, darling? Gertrude, wherever did you get your cunning hat? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Victoria poured tea as graciously as she could muster while Kit fidgeted next to her. He hated this sort of thing and avoided it like the plague. Again she wondered what they were doing here.

She handed him a cup. “You owe me one,” she whispered.

He gave her a cheeky grin. “So, have you found a flat?”

The other women went quiet, listening. “Yes, actually, in Chelsea.”

“Isn’t Chelsea full of unemployed actors and opium dens?” Lady Balfour sniffed.

Victoria nodded eagerly. “Oh, I hope so! How exciting! Did you know that Percy Bysshe Shelley used opium?” She recited:

Silver key of the fountain of tears,

Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild;

Softest grave of a thousand fears,

Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child,

Is laid asleep in flowers.

“Bravo!” Kits burst out, clapping. Victoria nodded.

Mrs. Kittredge blinked. “Just so.” She cleared her throat, then, looking pointedly at Victoria, said, “So when are you and Kit going to announce the engagement?”

Victoria froze, her tea raised halfway to her lips.

“Mother!”

Kit’s voice was indignant, but a shot of anger ricocheted through Victoria’s chest nonetheless. He had to have set her up for this. How else would his mother have been led to believe that an engagement was imminent? How
dare
he lead his mother to believe they were to be married?

His mother shrugged elegantly while her guests watched wide-eyed. “It’s a legitimate question. You two have spent every available moment together for months.”

Victoria was reeling. Suddenly her former perception of Mrs. Kittredge shattered. The woman clearly didn’t care one whit about her reputation if she was willing to start a family row in front of these gossips.

“Oh, we’re never getting married,” Victoria managed to spit out, finally bringing her tea to her lips. It tasted like tar and betrayal.
“We’re just jolly good friends. I don’t know that I believe in matrimony.” She took a long sip. “And if I were to marry, it certainly would not be to Kit.”

She set her tea down and gave a hollow laugh. She fixed Kit with a stare. “I’m sure he feels the same way. Why, we’re practically brother and sister. More tea anyone? . . . No? Very well. I apologize for my appalling manners, but I’m afraid I must be going. I have to go see my solicitor about signing the papers on my lady-bachelor flat.”

She stood, and next to her Kit popped up like a jack-in-the-box.

“I’ll see you out,” he said, tripping over the carpet in his haste to escape.

After bidding farewell to the women and wondering how long it would take the story to reach her aunt, Victoria followed Kit. Once they were away from the sitting room, she doubled up her small fist and punched him in the arm. Hard.

“Ow!” Kit clutched his arm. “What in the devil was that for?”

“That was for setting me up!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

She went to hit him again, but he caught her hand midair. He held her easily as she struggled.

“You told your mother you wanted to
marry me
? After I’ve told you repeatedly that I don’t want to marry? Did you tell her to corner me in front of those women to humiliate me? Or worse, to apply pressure? What kind of friend are you? What kind of
man
are you?”

“Of course I told my mother I wanted to marry you. That’s certainly no secret, though why I would want to spend the rest of my life with a lunatic is suddenly beyond me,” he spat back, unwilling to back down.

Stung, she jerked her arm away. She would absolutely not give someone control over her life or abdicate all of her freedom to appease social custom. Especially not just as she was about to escape her uncle’s authority. “It doesn’t matter if you want to marry me or not because I’ve already told you, very definitively,
no
!”

Kit’s jaw tightened and her stomach clenched at the pain she glimpsed on his face. She couldn’t help but soften, suddenly longing to reach her hand out and touch his face just to make the look go away.

“You have made that abundantly clear. I just happen to think you are going to change your mind.”

She gasped, all sympathy forgotten. “You, sir, are the one who is deranged. Of all the egotistical blather!” Her hand itched to slap the smug look off his face, but instead she turned on her heel and stalked away.

“Does this mean we’re not going to see the Russian ballet tomorrow night?”

Outraged, she whirled around, only to find him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. His blue eyes were an-noyingly amused. He was such an insufferable tease! He recited:

What’s friendship? The hangover’s faction,

The gratis talk of outrage,

Exchange by vanity, inaction,

Or bitter shame of patronage.

Alexander Pushkin! How dare he use her own trick against her, quoting the celebrated words of another to add punch to his own argument. She turned and stalked out the door.

“I’ll have the motorcar pick you up at seven,” he called.

“Don’t bother. I have my own!”

Of all the conceited . . . she wouldn’t go, of course. She wouldn’t. But she already felt herself weaken as the driver opened the door for her. Of course she would go. He had box seats and she did so love the Russian ballet.

R
owena kept her eyes closed against the morning sun. She lay on a chaise lounge on the vast Summerset lawn, sipping an iced tea and reflecting on the many things she had yet to do to prepare for the wedding.

After her and Sebastian’s interlude, the wall of lethargy she had built up around herself had come tumbling down. Shaken out of her previous trance, she felt ready to begin the next chapter of her life. Maybe her aunt was right. Maybe the only true freedom a smart woman had was through a good marriage, and for all intents and purposes, her marriage to Sebastian had every possibility of being brilliant, if not necessarily passionate.

So, for the first time since the engagement, she actually looked forward to her wedding, if only as a means to an end. Being the mistress of Eddelson Hall, though it was not as grand as Summerset, would be a welcome distraction, and best of all, Sebastian’s wedding gift to her was a hangar that would hold her Vickers aeroplane. Thoughts of Jonathon grew less and less frequent, and they were no longer accompanied by a stabbing pain; instead, she felt only a sense of regret and loss when he entered her mind.

It was indeed past time to get on with her life.

Aunt Charlotte, languid and unusually quiet, flicking
through a periodical, lay next to Rowena, while Elaine lay on her other side. Victoria and Eleanor were off furnishing their London flat, and as happy as Vic sounded, Rowena knew her sister wouldn’t be back until a week before the wedding, which was now only six weeks away.

A shadow fell over Rowena and she glanced upward from under the protective brim of her straw cartwheel hat, purposefully designed to keep the sun from touching her pale skin. It wouldn’t do to get tanned or coarse before the wedding, as Aunt Charlotte was always telling her.

“Colin!” Elaine cried, leaping from her chair. Her brother pulled her up in a hug. “What are you doing here? I thought . . .” She stopped midsentence and glanced nervously at her mother.

Rowena, too, glanced at her aunt, wondering what she would say. It had been over a week since Colin had finally broken the news to his parents about joining the army, and Aunt Charlotte had dramatically ordered him off the property.

“I sent for him,” Aunt Charlotte said calmly.

“I knew you couldn’t live without me.” Colin grinned. Only he could tease his mother like this.

“You flatter yourself. Your father talked me into having you here. Apparently I behaved too rashly in his mind.”

“Admit it, Mother. You would miss me.”

His mother gave an indelicate snort. “Actually, I begged your father to use his connections to save you from your folly, but he has decided that the army may be exactly what you need. And while it’s clear that you need some more discipline in your life, there are undoubtedly other ways more suited to your title and less fraught with peril.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “What is it with men and their obsession with playing soldier?” She directed this toward Rowena and Elaine, but they both knew better
than to answer. She pointed an elegant finger at Colin. “You are going to regret this, young man, mark my words.”

“Yes, Mother.” Colin sighed.

“Do you want to join us?” Elaine asked, her voice anxious. “We can have the servant bring you a lounger.”

Colin shook his head. “No. I want to talk to Father. I got my orders and I know that he, at least, will be interested in my assignment.” He cast his mother a sidelong look, which she ignored.

“I’m very interested,” Rowena said.

Colin seemed proud of himself and preened as if his drab, olive-green calvary uniform were evening formals. “You are now looking at a member of the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards and I will be stationed in Lucknow, India.”

Another snort from his mother told Rowena her aunt was less than impressed with her son’s assignment.

“That’s wonderful!” Rowena exclaimed, even though she wasn’t sure if this really was good news. She just thought that someone should make up for his mother’s disapproval.

“Then we could come visit you!” Elaine said, clapping.

Aunt Charlotte stood. “Maybe you would actually be able to find a husband in Lucknow, darling. I’m sure they aren’t too picky out there in the middle of nowhere.”

With that, Aunt Charlotte turned on her heel and sauntered off as if she hadn’t just sent a poisoned arrow into her daughter’s chest.

Elaine’s eyes fill with angry tears.

“Don’t be upset, Lainey,” Colin said, slipping an arm about his sister’s shoulders. “She’s angry with me and taking it out on you.”

Elaine gave a bitter laugh. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I’ve never been able to please her. How could I? I’m not a boy.”

Rowena shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure she loves you. She just has a hard time showing affection.”

“And yet she seems to have no problem showing it to Colin. Well, most of the time. She’s just angry with him right now.” Elaine shrugged. “I shouldn’t be surprised by what she says, but sometimes I still am. Silly me. But enough of that. I’m not going to ruin my brother’s visit crying over something I can’t change.”

She linked her arm through her brother’s and held out her other arm to Rowena. “Let’s go find something alcoholic to celebrate my brother, who is surely the handsomest second lieutenant in the First Dragon or Dragoon or whatever it is.”

Rowena stood and joined her cousins. “Are you going to be here for the wedding?” she asked. “If not, we’ll have to find someone to take your place, and I’m not sure Annalisa Watkins will like that.”