The Fortune Hunter (28 page)

“But this is.” He lifted her bonnet from her hair and turned it so she could see the shattered back. In the dim light from the doorway, his smile took on a devilish tilt. “And I would gladly buy you a new hat, any time you wish, in exchange for your kisses.”

A shout kept her from having to stammer an answer, because she had not been sure what to say. Philip nearly ripped the door open.

“Nerissa! Thank goodness, you are safe. We have been searching every inch of the Upper Rooms for you. We … Hamilton!”

Instead of explaining to his flabbergasted brother, Hamilton said only, “Get your carriage, Philip, and follow us to Laura Place. I think all of us have had enough excitement for one night.”

Philip nodded, astonishing Nerissa, for she doubted if she could have restrained her curiosity so readily. When he stepped back, she saw the tension lining his face. She suddenly wanted nothing more than for the four of them to sit in her parlor and enjoy a cup of tea while they laughed together over her misadventure.

As soon as she walked into the foyer, listening to Hamilton explain quickly what had happened to his brother, Nerissa knew she would be denied that simple pleasure. Mrs. Carroll was standing by the staircase, her apron thrown up over her face as she wept. Beside her, Frye was wringing her hands in dismay. The rest of the staff, from the cook to the footman, were clustered around them.

“Miss Dufresne!” cried Frye, and pushed past the others as Nerissa hid her ruined hat behind her. She discovered she needed not have worried about her abigail noticing its battered state, because Frye gasped, “It's terrible! So terrible!”

“What is terrible?”

“
That!
”

Nerissa turned as the older woman pointed to the far side of the foyer. With a gasp, she tossed her hat to the floor and ran to the open door of Cole's book room. She stopped, paralyzed with shock, as she stared about the room. Every drawer had been emptied, every book pulled from the shelves. When she saw the torn sheets scattered on the floor, she pressed her fingers to her lips. All of Cole's work … everything he had struggled to design since he had been in short pants … all of it was ruined!

Behind her, Annis moaned, “Who would do such a thing?”

“Mallory clearly has had a busy evening,” Hamilton said as he bent to pick up a tattered book. He closed it and set it on an otherwise empty shelf.

Philip straightened from where he had been righting a chair. “Mallory? The calf's head who stole Nerissa tonight? Damn you, Hamilton!”

Nerissa turned to stare at the younger man in astonishment. Annis put her hand on Philip's arm, but he refused to be calmed. Grabbing a book from the floor, he shook it in Hamilton's face. Nerissa was startled when Hamilton did not push it away.

“This!” Philip snapped, barely able to spit out each word past his stiff lips. “This is what your desire for revenge has wrought! You have lowered yourself to hiring thugs to abet you in this worthless scheme to find thirty thousand pounds that you truly have no need of. Are you happy with what your obsession has brought you?”

Nerissa took the book and set it on a table. “Enough, Philip. What is done is done. Tomorrow, Frye,” she added to her wide-eyed abigail, who was being oddly reticent, “we will see what we can do to clean this up. I don't want Cole to see this.” Turning to the housekeeper, who was still crying loudly, she said, “Mrs. Carroll?”

“Yes?” She dabbed at her eyes with the corner of her apron.

“Please have some tea …” She looked at Hamilton and smiled sadly. “… and some brandy brought to my sitting room. Then see that everyone is calmed down.”

“Yes, Miss Dufresne.” Backing out of the room, she herded the other servants toward the kitchen.

Frye stayed long enough to ask, “Shall I have the Watch alerted?”

“If you wish,” Nerissa answered, “although I don't think we need to worry about this happening again.”

When Annis and Philip started up the stairs, Hamilton put his hand on Nerissa's arm and drew her back into the room. He closed the door and turned her to face him.

“Don't be so naïve,” he warned in a low voice. “Mallory may not be finished.”

Panic flitted through her. “You think he might come back?”

“We cannot be certain until I hear from Townsend that he has sent Mallory on another assignment. Until I do or until your brother returns from London, you should come to Windham Park.”

“Windham Park?” she gasped. “But, Hamilton, that's impossible! If I were to go with you there—”

“
Blast convention!
” His fingers curved along the side of her face and tilted her eyes up so she could not avoid the fierce emotions in his. “You have had a harrowing experience, Nerissa, and you need to get away from the poker-talk that is sure to flutter about Bath in the wake of this evening.”

“No one saw us.”

“Except Lady St. John who was coming out of the Upper Rooms as Philip let out his roar.”

Nerissa blanched. The countess was an incurable gossip. “But to go with you alone would ruin what little reputation I may have left.”

His voice softened to a husky whisper. “As much as I would delight in having you all to myself, we shall not be alone. Philip will go with us, and as he would not be able to pull himself from Annis's company for even a moment, she must come also.” Gently he brushed her cheek with his fingertip. “I do own to having sympathy for them, for I know the torment of being far from the side of one who fills my thoughts.”

She watched his lips form each word and had to struggle to think of anything but their warmth against her mouth. “Mrs. Ehrlich will never agree to Annis traveling under those circumstances.”

“Then we shall invite all of the ‘Polite World' to the Park to join us.”

“How will that prevent the gossip?”

His arm swept around her waist, and he tugged her to him. “If my suspicions are correct, Philip has set his cap on your bosom bow and will ask her to marry up with him any day.”

“He has given up his plans to buy that commission?”

“I can't be certain of that, for soldiers are allowed a wife.” As his hand stroked her back, sending new flurries of fierce need along her, he said against her ear, “A visit to the country with his beloved might persuade Philip to rethink his plans. Then the
élite
can enjoy talking about him and Annis while I convince you to use your tasty lips for other purposes.”

As his mouth slanted across hers, she knew she was ready to agree to anything he wanted, as long as they could share this glorious enchantment. She knew, as well, how dangerous it would be to lose more than her heart to him, and she wondered if she risked more by staying in Bath or going to Windham Park.

Chapter Sixteen

Beyond the dressing-room window, the gardens of Windham Park spread outward in every direction. Sunlight sparkled brightly on a pool which had a fountain in its heart. Water sprayed skyward more than fifteen feet before falling back into itself. Surrounded on every side by flowering bushes and topiary, the garden was sure to offer more delights to anyone who wandered through it.

The curved roof of a Grecian-style temple could be seen on the far side of a stand of tall trees. When they had driven up to the magnificent house, Nerissa had noticed that it was set in a rose garden. The vines were past flowering, but she could imagine their glorious colors in the spring.

Windham Park was even more incredible than Nerissa had guessed from passing it on the road leading south from Bath. The front façade was a castellated fantasy with a square Norman tower amid the more gently rounded towers at every corner. Bay windows jutted out from the house at every angle and rose from the ground to the battlement-furnished parapets at the top. The country home announced the wealth and prestige of Hamilton's title that went back, unscathed by dishonor, into the dim reaches of history.

But she was not thinking of the grand staircase hall or the smooth lawns as she stared out of the window in the bedchamber she had been given to use. She stared past the temple and the orchards and the brook meandering at its edge to the distant hills that were faded to a purplish-blue. Among them, Hill's End was situated. She would trade all this elegance for her home, which would not be hers much longer.

“Everything is unpacked,” Frye said as she closed the door to the cupboard.

Nerissa turned from the window, letting the yellow drapes fall back into place. Frye was a dull spot among the exuberant colors of the main bedchamber, on the other side of the door, for the Chinese silk wallpaper was a dazzling tapestry. A matching fabric swathed the bed, which seemed dwarfed by the rest of the chamber. A hearth, with a carved, black marble mantel, was topped by the small statues which were set on the tables and chests along the walls. Even the collection of furniture could not hide the Oriental rug.

“Would you like some tea to take the dust of the road from your throat?” Frye continued, fluttering around the dressing room like an oversized songbird.

“I think that would be a good idea now that I have bathed.” She smiled. “I didn't want to appear in that august hall tonight for dinner looking like a dirty urchin.”

A knock on the door to the hallway rang against the high ceiling like distant thunder. Frye motioned for her to stay where she was. “I shall answer it. You need to rest, Miss Dufresne.”

Nerissa nodded. Frye had been even more solicitous of her than usual since her abigail discovered the lump on Nerissa's head this morning while brushing her hair. Not satisfied until she heard every detail of the distressing evening, Frye had been surprisingly pleased with Hamilton's invitation to the country.

“I doubted the wisdom of two young women living alone like this,” Frye had said with her favorite frown. “'Tis a wonder you have not come to trouble before this. I shall arrange for any messages from Mr. Pilcher to be forwarded to Windham Park, so you may know when it is prudent to return to Bath.”

Quarreling with Frye was the last thing Nerissa had wanted to do, so she had listened quietly and looked properly chagrined. She would do the same now, because Frye's advice was wise. Her head still ached, and she could not keep her hands from trembling when she thought of her abduction.

The rapping continued, growing more persistent. “Do go quickly and answer the door, Frye, before our caller wears the skin right off his or her knuckles.”

Frye hurried through the bedchamber to the door to the hallway, and opened it only enough to peer around it. When she saw Miss Ehrlich on the far side, she ushered the young woman in with a smile. Miss Ehrlich was attired in a pink gown and a blue silk bonnet with a pert feather on one side.

Frye started to explain that Miss Dufresne was preparing to rest when the door to the dressing room came ajar to reveal Miss Dufresne pulling on her wrapper. Just as she was about to chide her lady for coming out into the bedchamber when she had no idea who might be calling, Frye heard Miss Ehrlich gulp back a sob.

“I must speak with you, Nerissa,” choked Miss Ehrlich and looked at Frye beseechingly.

“Excuse us, Frye,” Nerissa said.

The abigail did not hesitate. The mottled color of Miss Ehrlich's face warned that she was about to cascade into tears. With a sigh, the maid went out of the room. Miss Dufresne had handled crises more appalling in the past few days than a young wet-goose.

Thinking much the same thing, Nerissa urged Annis to sit on the window seat. With her silk wrapper rustling beneath her as she also sat, Nerissa said, “Pluck up, Annis, and tell me what is amiss.”

“'Tis Philip.”

“Philip?” Such an answer was one she had least expected, especially when Annis was wearing the hat that Philip had given her. She patted her friend's hand. “Annis, you know that breezes are part—”

“We have not had an argument. 'Tis … 'tis …” She collapsed into more sobs.

Putting her arm around Annis's quivering shoulders, she murmured, “If Philip said something to you that distresses you, you should know—after watching your sisters being wooed—that such misunderstandings are usually quick in passing. Philip is a fine man. He would not do anything to hurt you intentionally.”

“He is a wonderful man.” Tears oozed from her dark eyes as she whispered, “I believe I love him.”

“That is no surprise.” Nerissa smiled gently. “Not to me or to anyone who has seen you two together, but that does not make it any less wonderful, for it is increasingly obvious that he has a
tendre
for you.”

Annis raised her eyes, and Nerissa saw the grief in them. “Then how could he do
this
to me?”

“Do what?”

“This awful thing.”

“Awful?” she choked as horror filled her. Had she been too lenient in her attention to Annis and her gallant admirer? Her promise to Mrs. Ehrlich to keep close watch on her youngest daughter careered through her head like a taunting refrain that refused to be forgotten. Certainly she should have been able to trust Philip with Annis, for he had been unable to hide his admiration for her.

With a quiver of dismay, she rose. She rubbed her suddenly icy hands together as she listened to Annis's weeping. Charmed by Philip's gentle smile, had she let herself be betwattled into forgetting that he shared Hamilton's sire? The strong emotions that coursed through the viscount must boil within the younger man's blood, too. If he had compromised Annis and now was determined to—

“Enough!” she snapped to herself. In the same sharp voice, she demanded, “Annis, tell me what Philip has done to turn you into a watering pot!”

Annis looked up, startled in mid-sob by Nerissa's adder's tongue. Blinking rapidly, each motion freeing yet another tear, she choked, “He is planning to buy a commission and go off to the War.”

“I know.”