by Mary Balogh
"Oh, dear," Claudia said, settling her skirts and her children around her, "Clarence is going to bowl. And he must ever take a run in of twenty yards in order to do so. I am afraid that he quite forgets that he and his thirtieth birthday parted company some time ago."
"He bowls with such flair, though, Claudia," her aunt said soothingly. "I wish they had not put Ernest out quite so close to the boundary. He never seems able to make a catch, and he gets so upset with himself if he drops one."
Angela giggled and spoke confidentially to Diana. "When I was here last," she said, "I simply worshiped Lord Crens-ford. I was only fourteen, you know, and he ten years older. I thought him quite splendid. He did not know I existed."
"Well," Diana said with a smile into the bright, pretty face beside her, "I am sure he must know you exist now, Angela. It would be very strange if he did not."
"I think he must be shy," the girl replied. "Allan and Russell and Lester are very attentive—I think perhaps they admire me a little—but Lord Crensford avoids me. He never looks quite into my eyes. Do you think he is shy?"
"I think perhaps he is," Diana said, closing her eyes and groaning as Ernest, who had been poised below a hovering ball right on the boundary for what seemed like endless seconds, lost the ball in the sunlight, and let it drop out for a six.
Most of the ladies applauded with some enthusiasm. Not for Ernest's error, but for the splendid way in which Lord Kenwood had begun his stint at bat.
"It really does not seem fair, does it," Lady Knowles said, beaming happily, "that gentlemen who are handsome and charming so often seem able to do everything else well too?"
Lord Kenwood was leaning indolently and modestly on his bat, one padded leg crossed behind the other. Looking quite annoyingly handsome, Diana thought. And it was true. It did not seem fair. Poor Ernest was searching the bushes for the lost ball.
Fortunately, she thought spitefully at the end of a long game, the marquess had scored only twenty runs before Clarence shattered the wickets behind him with a particularly fast-paced ball. And his team lost to Clarence's by ten runs. A quite satisfactory conclusion.
But Claudia and her mother had taken the restless children back to the house half an hour before, and Angela had somehow got herself into the center of a loudly chattering group of young girls. And she was in imminent danger of having her mother-in-law suggest that she take the marquess's arm for the walk back to the house. She crossed the lawn with some haste to where Lord Crensford was pulling his coat on over his shirt.
She linked an arm through his when he was finished. She liked to be with Ernest. He was always cheerful and always quietly affectionate. And safe. He reminded her quite a lot of Teddy, though the two brothers had looked nothing alike. Ernest had always been characterized by his prominent nose and his unruly fair hair, which no amount of brushing would seem to tame into a fashionable style.
"Are you quite exhausted?" she asked. "You did a great deal of running."
"A very tactful way to comment on my game, Diana," he said, smiling ruefully at her. "I am afraid cricket was never my strong point. I was one of those boys at school who was always picked last for a team. Did you see me knock down the wickets with a back swing of my bat? But of course you saw. I wished at the time that there were a hole somewhere close by deep enough to hide my head in."
"Oh, come now," she said. "You did score six runs, Ernest, even if you were not the hero of the hour. And your team won. You beat the Marquess of Kenwood for all his glorious six and two fours."
"You sound as if you don't like him much," he said. "Don't you, Diana?"
She shrugged. "I don't know him well enough to know whether I like him or not," she said guardedly.
Lord Crensford coughed. ''You need to watch out for Jack, you know," he said.
"What?" she said sharply. "No, I do not know, Ernest."
"You have been spending some time with him," he said. "That's Mama's doing, I know. And it's awfully hard to fight against Mama when she has her mind set on something."
"Ernest," she said, "what about the marquess?"
He ran one hand through his hair, leaving it standing in curled spikes on his head. "Oh, well, you know," he said, "Jack is something of a rake, if you will pardon me for using such a word in a lady's hearing. It's inevitable, I suppose, given his good looks and all that. Females go wild over him."
"Do they?" she said quietly. "And do you think that I have gone wild over him, Ernest?"
"You?" he said. "No, no, Diana. You have too much sense. But no woman seems to be safe with him. I thought it only fair to warn you."
"He has no morals at all?" she asked.
"Oh, I daresay he has morals," he said, looking decidedly uncomfortable. "All gentlemen have morals, Diana. He just doesn't use them much where females are concerned, that's all. He almost fought a duel with old Percy, you know, over Percy's wife. Jack even went as far as to name his seconds. But then she ran off with an army captain and Percy withdrew his challenge. A nasty business, though."
"And was the marquess guilty?" she asked.
''Well, of course he was guilty,'' he said. ''He never tried to deny it. But look, Diana, I shouldn't be saying this. I shouldn't have started it. It's not at all the sort of thing you should have to listen to."
"Why did you tell me then?" she asked.
He said nothing for a while, only took a deep breath. Diana idly watched Clarence walk along ahead of them, carrying on his shoulder his son, who had come running down from the house as soon as the game was over.
"No reason," he said. "I would just advise you to stay away from him, that's all, Diana."
"I have been trying," she said, "but without much success, I'm afraid."
"It's wise of you to try," he said. "No good can come of it, you know. He will only break your heart."
"No, he certainly will not," she said firmly. "I would have to have some feelings for him before he could do that, Ernest."
"That's true," he said, brightening. "The only trouble is that most females seem to end up having some feelings for Jack."
"Well, not this female," she said. "You may count on it. And you can be my knight defender, Ernest. You can protect me from him. Will you? Prevent me from being alone with him and all that?"
"He would probably flatten me the first time I tried it," he said. "But I'll do it anyway, if that is what you want, Diana. I have to look after you, don't I, with Teddy gone. Do you miss him?" He covered one of her hands with his own.
"Yes," she said softly. "At times like this I miss him dreadfully, Ernest. I feel so very—unsafe."
"Well, you don't need to," he said. "I can't bring Teddy back for you, Diana, though I wish I could. But I can protect you as he would have from someone like Jack."
"Thank you, Ernest," she said, smiling warmly up into his face and feeling safe for the first time since Claudia had asked her if she had met Jack.
7
"The gall of the man," Diana said indignantly to Bridget a few hours later, when her maid was arranging her curls at the back of her head for the evening. "The very gall, Bridget. To come to a respectable house like this and expect decent people to associate with him."
Bridget clucked her tongue. "Shocking it is, mum," she said. "It's what comes of being too handsome, very like."
"I would wager the countess, my mother-in-law, does not know he is a rake," Diana said. "She surely would not have allowed him to come here if she had. I should tell her, should I not? But I don't believe I could get my tongue around the word outside the privacy of this room. Oh, to think of it, Bridget."
Bridget shook her head to indicate that she was indeed thinking about it.
"I might have known," Diana said, "when he showed no shame after mistaking his room at the inn, but actually made a joke of it at poor Reverend Ingram's expense. Yes, he did, Bridget. I did not tell you of that before, did I? That showed a very base instinct. And of course I might have known even earlier when you told me about the barmaid.
"
"She was a very common piece, mum," Bridget said. "No respectable girl would allow a gentleman to kiss her and place his hand on her bosom in the middle of a public taproom, would she?"
"No, indeed," Diana agreed, having worked herself into a very satisfactory state of righteous indignation. "I shall not speak with him again, Bridget, and I shall refuse his arm if he offers it to me on any occasion whatsoever. Even if her ladyship goes to extraordinary lengths to arrange it. I shall have nothing more to do with the Marquess of Kenwood at all."
''Very wise, mum," Bridget said, standing back to admire her handiwork on her mistress's hair. "Though he is a very handsome gent, to be sure. And if that man"—Bridget referred to only one mortal as that man—"looks at me one more time along that thin nose of his as if I am no better than a scullery maid, I shall disgrace myself and poke my tongue out at him, mum. I give you fair warning. He never has said he was sorry for what happened at that inn. Accusing me of being a thief, indeed!"
"Like master, like man, I suppose," Diana said, and felt vastly comforted by her lapse into spite.
* * *
"A beautiful evening for a stroll, yes," the Marquess of Kenwood agreed. And a moment later, "Yes, indeed, there do seem to be more stars than usual in the sky tonight. An extraordinarily clear evening."
It was very easy to converse with Miss Nancy Decker, he found. She said the obvious with grave good sense and seemed perfectly satisfied to have him repeat her observations after her. And she had a pleasant enough voice and a mildly pretty person.
It would be more amusing to have Mrs. Diana Ingram on his arm, of course, he thought, looking at the lady, who was walking ahead of him with Mr. Thomas Peabody. But there were compensations. It had certainly been amusing to watch her smile dazzlingly and quite shamelessly at the older man as soon as the countess announced during dinner that they all simply must walk the mile to the old castle afterward since the structure looked at its most romantic in the moonlight.
Mrs. Ingram had been sitting beside him at the time. Not that he had led her into the dining room. She had made a quite noticeable lunge for Lester's arm when dinner was announced and had looked comically chagrined when the oblivious Lester had seated her in her usual place.
She had smiled dazzlingly at Peabody, who sat directly across the table from them. "The castle really is beautiful, sir," she had said. "Have you seen it before?"
Hardly words of great profundity. But of course they had been accompanied by that smile. Shameless hussy! Peabody had almost swallowed his wine glass together with the wine.
"Once, when I was here a few years ago," he had said, "but it was during the daytime."
A most witty and fascinating conversation, Lord Kenwood had thought, eyeing his food with continued amusement. She so clearly had decided that being stiff and unapproachable with him—as she had been for the past four days—was not sufficient punishment for the embarrassment he had caused her at a certain inn. He was to be more aggressively cold-shouldered. Dear girl. She needed a helping hand.
"You must take Diana on your arm, Peabody," he had said amiably. "She will doubtless be able to show you the castle at just the right angles for maximum effect."
He had won a full and inscrutable look from those dark gray eyes for his pains. But it had all been arranged with the minimum of fuss. He really must take up matchmaking some time—perhaps during his dotage, when the pleasures of the chase on his own behalf had palled. Good heavens, would that day ever dawn? Ghastly thought.
"Yes, indeed," he agreed with Nancy, "it is almost as bright as daylight. But far cooler than during the day. More comfortable for a walk, I would say."
There would have to be some switching of partners when they reached the castle, of course. He was far too experienced a hunter to rush his fences, but nevertheless those fences must be jumped. He had played Diana Ingram's game for four days already. It was time to take the initiative. And what better place and time than a moldering old castle in the moonlight? Romantic, the countess had called it? He could think
of another more appropriate word. He did not believe in romance.
But really, he discovered when the castle came into sight, he was not going to have to use any great ingenuity after all.
Bless the countess!
"There it is!" she announced to the group that had been trooping along behind her, her voice full of triumph as if they did not all have eyes and had not seen for themselves. ' 'And did I not tell you all that it looks most splendid in the moonlight?"
A dozen voices murmured their assent and appreciation.
It really was rather magnificent, too. It was a massive fourteenth-century fortress, which had at some time in the dim past also been the family home. Indeed, it did not look quite the ruin the marquess had expected. The four circular bastions at its corners still looked remarkably whole as did the stone walls between with their battlements and arrow-slit windows.
Two square towers and a huge arched gateway were at the center of the front wall. A stone causeway led to them over a wide, dried-up moat.
"It is quite frighteningly magnificent," Nancy said in some awe.
"Yes, indeed it is," he agreed.
"It is a pity the moon is behind us," the countess said. "It would look far more romantic poised over one of the towers, would it not? But no matter. Now, you will all wish to step inside and see the courtyard. But you must be very careful, especially since we do not have full daylight. There must be no climbing whatsoever, dears. It would be too dangerous. Now let me see."
The marquess, who had been wondering how he might best interest Peabody and Nancy Decker in each other, sensed what was coming and relaxed.
"Ernest," the countess said decisively, "you must lead the way since you would know the place blindfold. Take Angela on your arm, dear, since she is the youngest and will therefore need the most assistance. Diana, my dear, do take my arm for a minute and just gaze with me at the splendor of it all."
The guests began to follow Lord Crensford and Angela in pairs across the great causeway. The marquess watched in amusement as Ernie threw his mother a drowning look, offered his arm to a pert and smiling Miss Wickenham, and proceeded on his way, his arm held stiffly out to the side, while his companion
was already chattering away to him. Poor Ernie! But really, hadn't he taken a good look at the girl?
"Thomas," the countess said, "Diana is a romantic like me and loves to just gaze. You will wish to explore the courtyard. Do go along and do not mind us. And take Nancy with you. Nancy, take Thomas's arm, dear. I do assure you that it is the steadiest one in the group, and that causeway is really quite high above the moat, though there is no water in which to drown yourself, of course."
The two of them reacted just like puppets on a string, the marquess thought, glancing in some admiration at his hostess. It was likely that they did not even realize that they had been manipulated. It was equally unlikely that Diana Ingram shared their ignorance. Her back had stiffened noticeably.
Diana knew what was coming as surely as if the words had been spoken already. And she was quite powerless to prevent them. She might as well be dumb and paralyzed.
"Jack," the countess said on a sudden thought, "you have not seen the castle before, have you? You really must not waste such a lovely evening on something as prosaic as exploring the courtyard. You can do that by daylight. What you must see is the moat on the north side. There is still water back there. And of course it will look at its most splendid tonight with the moonlight on it. Oh, dear, if I were only not feeling so weary after a busy day. Age must be creeping up on me." She laughed merrily.
The marquess smiled and clasped his hands behind his back. Why contribute to the conversation when she was doing so excellently well on her own?
Diana waited tensely—and hopelessly.
"Diana!" The countess was struck by inspiration. "Of course, dear, you can show Jack the way around to the back. You have been there several times before."
>
"Perhaps everyone would care to walk around there after seeing the inside," Diana said, trying to keep her voice cool. But she felt something very like panic.
"And they would all surely spoil the atmosphere," her mother-in-law said. "It will be just perfect tonight, dear, in the quiet of evening, and Jack really should see it for the first time at its best. Run along now, and don't feel that you must hurry. You know the way home if the rest of us have started back already. How kind you are, dear, to relieve me of those extra few steps."
''It would be my pleasure, Mama,'' Diana said, her voice as brittle as her spine as she took the marquess's arm. Could he not have said something? Pretended fatigue? Expressed an eagerness to see the courtyard? But no, of course, he was enjoying all this.