She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, then another. “If Felicity asks, will you tell her that the evening was lovely and I was pleased the entire time?”
“She worries about you.” He had seen the truth of that for himself.
“She wants to make everything perfect for me while she can.” Angelina opened her eyes once more and met his gaze. “And I want her to have the comfort of believing she has.”
“You have my word, as your one-time honorary brother, she will hear nothing but positives from me.”
Angelina reached over and squeezed his hand. “You always were a welcome coconspirator. I am pleased to know that hasn’t changed.”
“We did land ourselves in the suds more often than not, didn’t we?”
“We did, indeed.” She sighed, her hands interwoven once more. “We’ve missed you at home, William. I do wish you would come back.”
He was grateful to be reunited with his childhood playmates, but he was not the least ready to return to his parents’ home and the painful loneliness of being there without them. “Do let me know when you are ready to depart the ball. I will happily summon the carriage.”
A sad sort of smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I believe I am ready now, more’s the pity. I can feel myself wilting by the moment.”
William sought out Mrs. Banbury, sending her to fetch her daughter while he sent word to the stables to send his carriage around. In less than a half hour, they were at the door of the Banburys’ rented London house. Angelina leaned heavily against him, her strength quickly disappearing. Mrs. Banbury looked on with an unsurprised sadness.
Felicity appeared on the landing above. “You are home sooner than expected. Is something amiss?” she asked as she hurried down the stairs.
“I am only a little tired.” Angelina somehow managed to sound less exhausted than William knew her to be.
Felicity reached her sister’s side. “Was it a nice ball?”
“Lovely,” Angelina said. “It was just what I always imagined a ton ball to be.”
Felicity embraced her. “I am so happy for you. Next, we’ll take that ride through Hyde Park, and I’m certain William will help us find a musical evening and a theater to attend that you will enjoy as well.”
“Of course I will,” he assured them.
Mrs. Banbury slipped her arm around Angelina. “Time to rest, dear. You have had a tiring night.”
Angelina was led away, she and her mother moving slowly up the stairs. Felicity remained behind, watching their ascent.
“She looks worse tonight than usual.” Felicity rubbed at her face. “I hope it is simply the exertion.”
“She was in very good spirits throughout the ball. I believe she is only tired.”
Felicity turned away from the stairs, pacing in the entryway. “She still has so much on her list of wishes. How are we to fulfill them all if she grows tired so quickly?”
“I believe you would do best to let her decide what she does and when.”
She waved that advice off. “I want only to make these things possible. She can actually do whichever she decides upon.”
“Unless she feels so much pressure to follow through with your plans that she takes on more than she ought.”
That brought Felicity’s gaze back to him once more. “I have placed no pressure on her.”
She likely didn’t realize how much Angelina wanted Felicity to feel she was being helpful and thoughtful. The two sisters were participating in a self-turning wheel of overwhelming expectations. Angelina had asked him not to say anything that would dampen Felicity’s spirits where she was concerned, and he meant to keep his word.
He was enjoying spending time with the Banburys and reclaiming this bit of his past. But the deeper he involved himself in their lives, the closer it would pull him to home. Angelina had already suggested more than once that he ought to return, and that suggestion had, for one terrifying moment, proved tempting for the first time in five years.
No. He needed to keep his distance.
“Do let me know when Angelina is ready to take her ride in the park.” He had made that promise already and didn’t intend to break it. “I am at your disposal.”
Felicity did not prove ready to leave their discussion on that note. “I need help finding her a musical evening, as I said, and we haven’t a box at the opera or theatre or know anyone who does. And she has spoken more than once of wishing to attend Almack’s. That last wish I have absolutely no ability to make happen. None.” Franticness touched her tone and posture. “What am I to do? Mother might manage to cultivate connections sufficient to secure vouchers, but that could take years. Angelina doesn’t have years. She has six wishes for this Season. Only six. I’ve managed two—three with your offer of driving through Hyde Park. How am I to make these last three come true?”
He was being pulled in again. How could he help it? She loved her sister. Her sister loved her. Theirs was not to be the typical tale of two sisters growing old together, being aunts to each other’s children. And they were his childhood friends. He’d missed them and cared about them, and they needed his help.
Ah, lud. He couldn’t turn his back on them.
“I will do what I can,” he said with a quick bow. “A good evening to you, Felicity.”
He would help, but he would guard his increasingly fragile wall. Home was not a happy place for him; he couldn’t afford to be pulled back into that emotional purgatory. What, then, was he to do?
Chapter Five
“You look simply heavenly,” Mother said, looking over Angelina with maternal regard.
“Not yet,” Angelina said with a wink in Felicity’s direction.
Mother shook her head, nudging them both toward the door of the bedchamber the sisters shared. “Mr. Carlisle will be here soon.”
“He has been so very kind,” Angelina said. “We could not have done so many things as we have without his assistance: the ball, the musical evening he has recommended next week, this ride in the park.”
“He always was a sweet boy,” Mother said. “It is a shame he has stayed away from home since his parents passed on.”
Felicity hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. He had been gone often since leaving for school, but now that Mother had pointed it out, the last five years became clearer. William hadn’t been back since the late Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle had died. Not even once.
Poor William.
He arrived within mere moments of them reaching the entryway. Angelina would not be required to expend her energy standing about waiting for him. William was wonderfully felicitous, offering Angelina his arm and walking with her on one side, Felicity on the other, out to his waiting high-sprung carriage.
He handed Felicity up first. “If you will slide to the end of the bench, Angelina can place herself between us. That should provide her a shield from the wind and save her the added effort of moving to the far side.”
They were quickly situated.
William set the carriage in motion. “I did warn you, did I not, that I drive like an octogenarian?”
“You did,” Felicity answered, “and we are fully prepared to be both bored and unimpressed.”
“That is my goal for the afternoon.” He drove at a sedate pace but not so slowly that anyone would actually find it frustrating. “And would you care to be introduced to anyone in particular should we pass him or her?”
“I don’t know about Angelina, but I would very much like to meet someone who is both boring and unimpressive.”
“I believe we already have,” Angelina quipped.
William laughed out loud. They had done so much of that when they were children. It was good to know it still happened so easily between them all. As Angelina’s health continued to deteriorate, they would need more reasons for cheer.
The carriage reached Hyde Park, and their speed changed from calm to stationary.
“Heavens,” Angelina said, breathless. “I’ve never seen so many c
arriages in one place.”
William leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. “There is a reason it is called ‘a crush,’ my friend.”
Angelina set her hand on his arm. “I cannot tell you how relieved I am that the term refers to the number of carriages, not the result of reckless driving.”
He smiled back at her. “I am not only an unhurried driver; I’m also a careful one. The others here can crush each other all they wish. We will return home safely.”
“But not truly home,” Angelina answered quietly.
William instantly grew more tense, his posture more rigid. Just as he had at Gunter’s, he quickly changed the topic of discussion. “I am hopeful that my friend Mr. Whitehall will be among the throng this afternoon. I would very much like to introduce him to you, Angelina. Felicity has met him on one occasion.”
Felicity answered. “If you can assure me that Mr. Whitehall will tell us embarrassing stories about you, I will be quite pleased to see him again.”
“He knows a great many,” William acknowledged with a smile.
“Lest you’ve forgotten,” she said, “so do I.”
He glanced at her before returning his gaze to the very busy road once more. “What stories?”
“There was that time when we climbed the elm tree behind the vicarage, and you caught your trousers on a particularly thick limb and rendered yourself unable to descend without tremendous embarrassment.”
Angelina grinned at the memory.
“I distinctly remember you laughing instead of helping,” William said.
“It was funny.”
“As was that time you took strawberries from the conservatory and hid them in your pinafore pockets.”
Felicity couldn’t hold back her amusement. “Is it my fault I forgot they were in my pocket? It was a busy day.”
“Even busier after my father’s dog bumped into you and crushed the berries, convincing everyone that he’d desperately wounded you.”
“I thought your mother was going to swoon.”
William shook his head, smiling in amusement. “Years passed before she could laugh about that. Father, on the other hand, was in a fit of hysterics within minutes.”
Angelina leaned toward Felicity and whispered, “It is good to hear him speak of his parents.”
“What are the two of you gossiping about?” he asked.
“You,” Felicity said. “What else?”
“What else, indeed.”
A gentleman on horseback rode up next to them. “Well met, William.”
“I had hoped to cross paths with you,” William said. “You have made Miss Felicity Banbury’s acquaintance, but you have not yet met her sister, Miss Banbury.”
He managed the appropriate dip of the head whilst maintaining full control of his mount. “A pleasure, Miss Banbury.”
“Angelina, this is Mr. Leonard Whitehall. He and I have known one another since our days at Eton.”
Angelina smiled and offered an expression of pleasure. “We were promised embarrassing stories about our mutual friend should we cross paths with you, Mr. Whitehall.”
“Were you?” Mr. Whitehall turned his gaze on William. “You wish me to humiliate you in front of your friends?”
“They wish you to humiliate me.” He leaned forward enough to look at Felicity seated on the other side of Angelina. “Is that not correct? A bit of humiliation heaped upon your friend would, no doubt, set you up for life.”
“You will convince Mr. Whitehall that I am a horrid person.”
“I could never manage that, as no one who is at all acquainted with you would ever believe you were anything other than delightful.”
His kind words and warm smile sent the oddest shiver over her. Her heart leaped about in her throat. Very unexpected.
“I understand you attended the Crawfords’ ball, Miss Banbury,” Mr. Whitehall said. “I am sorry not to have been there so we might have conversed.”
“It was a lovely evening,” Angelina said. “I am so pleased to have been invited.”
“The Banburys will be attending the theater in my box the evening after next,” William said. “You ought to join us.”
“You should,” Felicity said. “Then we needn’t spend the night with only William for company.”
She looked at William out of the corner of her eye. He was grinning just as she’d expected he would.
“Your sister told me you were as playful now as when we were children. I am discovering she is correct in that.”
“Is this a pleasant discovery or a disappointing one?” Felicity asked.
“Relieving.”
She hadn’t expected that answer and didn’t quite know what to make of it.
“I will not detain you any longer,” Mr. Whitehall said. “Until the evening after next.” He tugged at his hat brim, then rode off.
“I like him,” Angelina said. “And it is lovely to meet a friend of yours from your years away.”
“Don’t tell me you missed me?” he asked, laughing.
Felicity had most certainly missed him—more than she’d realized before crossing his path in Town. As they continued their slow circuit of the park, she could not stop her mind from slipping back to the many days she’d stood at the end of the drive leading to Carlisle Manor after William had left for Eton or during his half-decade absence following his parents’ passing. She’d longed for him, worried about him, wished he were there still.
Her excitement at seeing him in the little park near their rented Town house ought to have told her how much her heart still longed for him. Other friends from Lindsworth had left, some taking up residence at other family holdings, but she could not imagine being as pleased to see them as she had been at the unexpected sight of dear, kind William.
“I think Hyde Park might be a disappointment to our Angelina.” William’s voice cut into Felicity’s thoughts, pulling her back to the present. “The poor dear is done in.”
Angelina’s posture was slumped. Her eyelids had grown heavy.
“She hasn’t the stamina she ought,” Felicity said. “I only hope she’ll be equal to the remainder of her wish list.”
Angelina’s head nodded as she attempted to keep herself awake. This happened more often lately. Felicity feared her sister’s endurance was nearly gone. What if they had to return home before she could accomplish all six of her wishes for the Season?
“We had best cut our time in the park short,” Felicity said. “She should rest.”
William expertly moved around the crowds and stopped carriages until he reached a road branching off the main one. They were soon free of the crush of carriages. Angelina had slumped entirely, leaning against William’s shoulder, quite asleep.
“I worry about her,” Felicity said.
“I am beginning to as well. She is breaking my heart.”
Those words returned to her long after Angelina was home and sleeping soundly in her bed. Angelina was breaking William’s heart. He had shown her great kindness and was clearly fond of her. He had always been something of a brother figure to them. His absence from home since his parents’ passing spoke of continued mourning. He couldn’t cope with loss and grief. Felicity’s inclusion of him in Angelina’s final Season would simply bring him more pain.
Chapter Six
“Those Banbury sisters are rather stunning,” Leonard said two evenings later at the theater as they awaited the arrival of the Banbury family.
“They were darling as little girls.” How well William remembered. “I confess, until seeing them here in Town, I generally thought of them as they were all those years ago. It has been a little jarring coming face-to-face with them so grown.”
“The elder Miss Banbury appeared quite content seated beside you in Hyde Park the other day.” Leonard wiggled his brows. “A fellow could grow accustomed to that, I’d imagine.”
“I think you mean a lady could grow accustomed to being cozily situated beside me.” Again, he assumed his feigned mien
of arrogance.
“Have you considered hiring out your Hyde Park accompaniment services?” Leonard asked dryly.
“Should I amass overwhelming gambling debts, I will consider that as a solution to my financial woes.” He pretended to ponder deeply. “Do you suppose Miss Banbury would be willing to serve as a reference?”
“I suspect she would, though that Miss Felicity is more likely to laughingly dissuade people. She seemed to rather enjoy needling you.”
It was true. “Felicity and I are good friends. We have been all our lives.”
“She wasn’t as sweet toward you as her sister, though. Either the two are very different people or they have very different views of you.”
He hadn’t really thought of that before. The sisters weren’t actually so very different. Both had clever senses of humor; both liked to tease and jest. Angelina’s poor health had rendered her quieter and more subdued than her sister, but not fundamentally different. Was Leonard correct, then? Did Felicity think poorly of him? The possibility struck him with greater force and disappointment than he’d expected. Hers was a friendly teasing, a fondness. Wasn’t it?
He hadn’t time for answering that unexpected question. The Banburys arrived. Even Mr. Banbury had joined them that evening—something he’d not yet done. All the expected bows and curtsies were exchanged.
“I have so missed the theater.” Mrs. Banbury pressed a gloved hand to her heart as her eyes cast about the expanse of the house. “What a treat.”
An idea formed on the instant in his mind, and he seized it. “Why do not you and Mr. Banbury and Miss Banbury sit at the front of the box,” he suggested. “Your view will be so much better.”
“Oh, how generous of you.” Mrs. Banbury then turned to her husband, eyes wide. “What an evening this will be for us and Angelina.” She dropped her voice. “Were we wrong to bring Felicity, do you suppose? We will not be judged poorly for a young lady not out coming to the theater?”
An Evening at Almack's Page 18