Falling for Mr. Townsbridge (The Townsbridges, #3)

by Barnes, Sophie

  Fearing her legs might give way beneath this added piece of shocking information, Margaret crossed to Athena’s bed and lowered herself to the edge of it. “They’ve formed an attachment?”

  “I believe so. Yes.”

  “But how?” Margaret tried her best to grasp what her daughter was saying. “She works in the kitchen, and he’s been so busy since he returned from Lisbon, we’ve hardly seen him. So when on earth would he even have managed to speak with Mrs. Lamont for long enough to allow a tendre to develop?”

  “I, um...I’m sure I don’t know,” Athena said.

  Her cheeks were a shade too pink for Margaret’s liking. She narrowed her gaze on her. “What aren’t you saying?”

  “Nothing.” She coughed. “From what I gather they met in the kitchen a couple of times. He escorted her to the market once.”

  “And?”

  Athena puffed out a breath. “Very well. If you must know I may have orchestrated a private meeting between them before Eloise left for France. William joined Eloise and me for our morning outing one Sunday while you, Papa, and Sara were attending church.”

  Margaret felt her eyes widen in dumbfounded shock. “Have you learned nothing from meddling in other people’s affairs?”

  “Only that it can have an excellent outcome.” When Margaret opened her mouth to comment, Athena hastily added, “Charles and Bethany would have been miserable had I done nothing to help them. You know it’s true.”

  “While I may be willing to agree, this situation is entirely different.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, because...” Margaret stared into Athena’s fiery gaze and sighed. “Class differences matter whether or not they ought to. You cannot pair a servant with a nobleman, Athena. Not successfully, at least.”

  “I don’t see why not as long as they care for each other more than about what other people might think.”

  Margaret slumped. “I’ve always prided myself on my strong constitution, but I may need smelling salts to get through this.”

  Athena sat. She took a deep breath and expelled it. “There’s something else.”

  “If you tell me she’s with child I’ll—”

  “No, no. It’s nothing like that. It’s just...” A defeated look overcame her. “Eloise made me promise not to say anything because she feared she’d lose her job if you knew.”

  “What. Is. It?”

  “Well, she’s not exactly ordinary.”

  “And that means...?” Margaret did her best so remain calm and patient, but it was becoming increasingly hard with each passing second.

  “You cannot tell William,” Athena said with uncharacteristic sternness. “You cannot use what I am about to tell you to force a match. He has to want her for who she is as a person, because he loves her and is prepared to marry her no matter what. Do you understand?”

  Margaret gave a nervous laugh. “Please don’t tell me I hired a foreign princess to cook for me, Athena.”

  Athena grinned. “It’s not quite that glamorous, Mama, but I do need for you to give me your word before I reveal anything more.”

  “Of course. I promise to keep whatever you’re going to tell me a secret.”

  “All right.” Athena bit her lip. She didn’t look happy about betraying Eloise’s trust, and for a second, Margaret was tempted to tell her she didn’t have to. But she hesitated a moment too long and then Athena said, “Eloise Lamont is the Marquis de Villeneuve’s granddaughter.”

  A whoosh of fluttery heat swept through Margaret. “So she’s titled.”

  “Not really. Her grandparents perished at the guillotine, along with her aunts and uncles. Only her mother survived, rescued by a footman and his father, the Villeneuve chef. The title no longer exists and Eloise refuses to use it for her own personal gain, partly because she doubts anyone will believe her story, but mostly out of respect to her father and grandfather.”

  “I understand. She loves her family dearly and would never want to suggest they’re not good enough. But what you’ve just told me does change things. She’s a far more appropriate match for William than I would have thought. Not—” she raised her hand to stave off Athena’s alarmed protest “—because I suddenly approve of her based on her connection to a title, but because this means she knows what being a member of the upper class entails. As a lady, her mother will have raised her with some sense of awareness. I’m certain of it. And that means Mrs. Lamont will know what she’s getting herself into if she marries William.”

  “Only we can’t persuade him one way or the other by giving away her secret.”

  “No, but if he truly cares for her as much as you have suggested, then perhaps we can guide him toward a revelation.”

  “Why, Mama...” Athena smiled slyly. “I do believe you’re starting to think like me.”

  “God forbid,” Margaret murmured, but she smiled at her daughter and suggested they go find her brother.

  WILLIAM STARTED DOWN the front steps of his house. He was determined to chase Eloise and convince her to change her mind. Until he recalled the basket of vegetables she’d left behind. He also had to close the door and lock it. Exasperating tasks that delayed his progress.

  His brain was still reeling. He’d planned everything so carefully, had thought it all through until he’d been certain Eloise would agree to what he suggested. After all, he’d offered her the immediate answer to her dream. With his help she’d be able to open her culinary school now instead of ten years in the future. Additionally, this would allow them to be together, and judging from the manner in which she’d responded to his kiss, there was no doubt in his mind that she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her.

  Except she’d said no. More than that, she’d run off as if he’d struck her.

  It made no logical sense, which had to be why he’d responded in anger. Because he’d been so excited to start a new life with her by his side, her response had hurt. It wasn’t right, of course. He’d allowed jealousy and heartache to take control, for which he owed her a most sincere apology. Perhaps French Landscapes in Color could help in that regard.

  Reaching Townsbridge House after deciding to take the long road back for the sake of gathering his thoughts, William trudged up the front steps with heavy footfalls. He entered the foyer.

  “May I take your basket, sir?” Simmons inquired.

  William started. He’d completely forgotten about the thing. “If you’d please take it down to the kitchen, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Of course, sir.” Simmons departed and William set about taking his hat off and removing his gloves.

  “You’re back.” Athena’s terse voice prompted him to turn as if he’d been pushed. Displeasure dimmed the usual brightness in her eyes to a murkier shade of brown. “Mama and I would like a word.”

  William set his hat and gloves aside on the hallway table. “Can it wait until after breakfast?”

  “Considering there’s a good chance there won’t be any, no.”

  William laughed. “Of course there’ll be breakfast. To suppose there won’t is absurd. Why, even during Eloise’s absence we received something. Nothing as wonderful as her fare, I’ll agree but—”

  “William.” She gestured toward the parlor door.

  He gave a weary sigh and walked through it, surprised to feel his heart jolt the moment the door clicked shut behind him. His gaze settled on his mother, who appeared unusually stiff this morning. His mind scrambled. Good lord. Had something dire transpired?

  The very idea gave a raspy edge to his voice. “Is everything all right?”

  “Not at the moment,” his mother said, “but I hope it will be.”

  “Have you spoken to Eloise since her return from France?” Athena asked.

  A nervous prickle spread like a rash beneath his clothes. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because she has quit her position,” his mother told him with the exacting bluntness of an executioner’s blade.

  A painful jolt tore its
way through him. “She’s gone?”

  “She departed about twenty minutes ago with admirable haste.”

  William wasn’t sure how he managed to cross to the nearby chair when he couldn’t feel his legs or his feet. Indeed, it was almost as if his consciousness was hovering somewhere above his body, watching his tragic life unfold from a distance.

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered, finding the seat and relaxing against the sturdy frame the chair offered. “I’d no idea this would happen. It’s not at all how it was meant to be.”

  “So you did speak with her?” Athena prodded.

  William shrugged. “She wanted to open a culinary school, and I thought to make that dream of hers come true.”

  His mother regarded him with unnerving sharpness. “How?”

  “I planned on using the house Papa helped me buy. The idea was for Eloise to turn it into her business.”

  Athena and Mama both stared at him in stupefied wonder.

  “That’s actually a sweet gesture,” Athena eventually said. “Ridiculously generous, but wonderfully romantic.”

  “I thought so,” William grumbled, “but Eloise didn’t agree. She fled when I showed it to her this morning and—”

  “Hold on,” his mother said. “You said you meant on moving out.”

  “I do,” William replied.

  His mother narrowed her gaze. “So what you’re saying is that this incredible gesture you made involved you taking up residence in that house together with Eloise while she...cooks for you?”

  “And teaches her students,” he added since this was a very important point.

  Mama raised her eyebrows. “I won’t even bother addressing how you planned on poaching one of my servants, because there are clearly far more important issues to discuss, like the fact that you are an absolute dolt, William Townsbridge.”

  William sat up a little bit straighter. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything less sickening to a woman’s ears than being told she can have her heart’s desire as long as she’s willing to warm a man’s bed.”

  Athena gasped. Her features transformed into stark disappointment. “You asked her to be your mistress?” And then she was suddenly upon him, hitting him wherever her hands could reach while William shielded himself as best as he was able. “How could you? How could you suggest such a thing when she deserves so much more? How could you mistreat her so? How—”

  “Athena.” Mama’s voice broke through her daughter’s angry tirade. “You’re not helping.”

  Athena brushed a stray lock from her forehead and took a step back. “I ought to call you out, William.”

  His mother almost choked on her own voice. “There will be none of that. Good grief. As if the situation isn’t bad enough without my youngest daughter challenging her brother to a duel.”

  “What’s that?” Roxley stood in the doorway, his soothing gaze sweeping across each person.

  A sigh of exhaustion left William’s mother, then she quickly explained the situation while Roxley patiently listened. Once she was done, he looked straight at William. “How do you feel about her?”

  “What?” William asked. His father’s calm voice, coming on the heels of Athena’s abuse, was startling.

  Roxley rolled his eyes and gestured with his hands as if William needed the added movement to help him comprehend basic English. “How do you feel about Eloise Lamont, Will?”

  “I don’t know. I...” He gave his father a helpless look.

  Roxley offered a sympathetic smile. “Be honest with yourself and know that no matter what, your mother and I are on your side. Our children’s happiness is of the utmost importance to us, even if there may be a scandal. We’ll weather that storm together if we must.”

  “Charles and James warned me to keep my distance from her,” William said. “They urged me to forget her unless I loved her.”

  “That’s not the worst advice,” his mother said. “Love is a powerful emotion. A great deal can be overcome in its name.”

  William swallowed. His gaze drifted away from his mother and toward Athena, then back to his father. All three regarded him with rapt expectation, like spectators watching a tightrope dancer, waiting to see if the artist would make it across the void in one piece or fall to their death.

  Closing his eyes, William did his best to block them out – push everything from his mind until only Eloise filled it. He wanted to protect her and keep her safe. He wanted to be there for her, not only today or tomorrow, but always. And he wanted to make sure she never experienced heartache again. Or if she did, then he wanted to be there to help her through it, to give her strength and whatever comfort she needed.

  The idea of her being out in the world somewhere alone caused his heart to lurch with immediate dread. He hated it, hated the not knowing where she was or if she was even all right. Where would she find work next and with whom? Would they treat her kindly or would they be cruel?

  She was a young woman, stunning and willful, yet too small to overpower a man who might force himself on her. William balled his hands into fists. She was his. She would always be his because...

  He opened his eyes with a start. “I love her.”

  Athena grinned, Margaret smiled, and Roxley emitted a satisfied grunt.

  Panic charged through William with the force of a runaway carriage, not because of the emotion itself – that part was oddly freeing – but because of how badly he’d botched things. He loved her – the way she joked with him until he laughed, the carefree happiness he experienced in her company, how normal she made him feel – yet all he’d offered was an indecent position as his lover. And to make the matter more insulting, he’d tried to bribe her by dangling her dream in front of her nose. If her feelings for him were even a fraction as strong as his feelings were for her, she would have been crushed by what he’d proposed.

  “God, I’m awful,” he muttered. “I’ve treated Eloise abominably.”

  “Then I’d suggest you try righting that wrong,” Roxley said.

  Mama nodded. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “You must go after her, Will,” Athena exclaimed with bubbly excitement.

  William stood, ready to do precisely that – prepared to travel as far and wide as it would take in order to bring her back. He frowned. “Did she say where she was going before she left?”

  Silence replaced all sound.

  Eventually his mother whispered, “My conversation with her was so swift I did not think to ask.”

  William looked at Athena while quiet despair filled his lungs.

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’ve no idea.”

  He glanced at the clock. Hell and damnation. “It’s been almost an hour since her departure. For all I know, she could be on her way back to France by now.”

  “She’ll need to gather her wits first,” Athena said with reassuring confidence. “Eloise isn’t the sort of woman who acts without thought. She came to England because she was better able to find good employment here among the upper class households. So I believe her first course of action will be to rent a room somewhere, after which I expect her to list her availability with an employment agency.”

  William tried to dismiss the annoyance he felt at the thought of Eloise having to find lodgings on her own. He’d put her in an awful, possibly even dangerous, position.

  Focus.

  “In other words, if I search the employment agencies in the area, I ought to be able to track her down.” After all, she was a French cook – the best he’d even known – with a salary only few could afford. This limited her opportunities to a very specific part of Town. “I’ll start right away.”

  “Why are you all in here?” Sarah asked as she entered the room. “Is breakfast not ready yet?”

  William groaned. He hadn’t the energy to go through all the details again.

  “I’ll explain it later,” Athena told Sarah.

  “I should go,” William said.<
br />
  “Have a slice of toast first and some tea,” his mother suggested. “Every task is more easily accomplished on a full stomach.”

  “I’ll ask the maid who managed the cooking while Eloise was away to start on it right away,” Athena said. “It won’t be as good, but at least we won’t go hungry.”

  William sighed. Instinct told him to race off immediately in search of the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But his mother was right, and if Athena was correct in her estimation, Eloise would try to find a place to stay first, which meant she probably wouldn’t visit the first employment agency until later in the day.

  Calmed by the fact that he was sure to find her somewhere nearby at some point today, he agreed to have some breakfast before heading out.

  TWO WEEKS LATER, WILLIAM wanted to strangle Athena for giving him false hope. He also wanted to stab the next person who told him to calm down. Especially when they suggested all would be well.

  Nothing was well. He certainly wasn’t and neither was his search for Eloise. The woman had vanished – disappeared – as if she’d never existed at all. Except she had. When he closed his eyes he could still taste her skin on his lips, could still smell her sweet fragrance like some sort of torturous memory imbedded in his brain. And not knowing where she was, if she was healthy or ill, safe or in danger, able to make ends meet or struggling to get by, was putting him in a crazed state. Never in his life had he worried so much about another person or longed for someone so dreadfully much. It was like having his heart ripped from his chest and tossed into an empty void.

  Pushing his horse into a faster gallop, he rode across the far side of Hyde Park with Charles and James close behind. His brothers had stepped in to help inquire after Eloise at the various employment agencies. When that idea had failed, they’d searched every tavern, inn, and potential boarding house London had to offer while also asking the men at their various clubs if their wives had recently hired a new French cook. The answer was never what William hoped for.

  “Perhaps you should get away for a bit,” James suggested once they’d slowed their horses to a trot. “You look haggard.”