by Laura Martin
‘She did. And she has very good references.’ He paused as if hesitating. ‘But she’s probably a little too distracting for the male members of staff.’
Louisa nodded, trying not to be too pleased.
‘Seems a shame to eliminate her just because she’s pretty,’ Louisa said.
‘We’ll keep her as a maybe.’
The door opened and the third of the prospective companions was shown in.
‘Good morning, Mrs Crawshaw,’ Robert said. ‘Please have a seat.’
This woman was more what Louisa expected a companion and chaperone to look like. She was well past middle age, heavy around the middle and had a kindly face.
‘Would you tell us a little about yourself?’ Robert asked.
‘Pardon?’ Mrs Crawshaw said.
‘Would you tell us a little about yourself?’ Robert repeated, much louder.
‘Until recently I was companion to Lady James, living in Chelsea. I’d been with her ladyship for many, many years.’
Louisa thought she saw Mrs Crawshaw’s eyes starting to water at the memory of her late employer.
‘I have no family,’ Mrs Crawshaw continued, ‘and I’m always completely dedicated to my employer.’
‘What do you like to do, Mrs Crawshaw?’ Louisa asked.
‘Pardon, my dear, I’m a little hard of hearing.’
‘What do you like to do?’
‘Well, I used to like to embroider before my eyesight started to deteriorate and I love to go to social events, to watch all the vibrant young people dancing and having fun.’
Louisa felt a little sorry for this woman who had no family and it sounded as though no real life outside her job. If she was her companion, Louisa had no doubts she would be able to get away with anything. The older woman had atrocious hearing and it didn’t look as though her eyesight was much good either. Mrs Crawshaw would be easy to evade. A chaperone for appearances’ sake only.
Louisa wondered why it was quite so important to her to have a companion she could evade easily. The main reason they were searching for someone was to avoid any scandal around her living with Robert alone in his house. She told herself it was in case she decided she wanted to leave in a hurry. She still hadn’t decided what to do in the long term. The last couple of days spent in the safety of Robert’s house had been wonderful, but she knew it couldn’t last for ever. Already she’d allowed herself to get caught up in the fantasy and already she’d been hurt. She was the only person she could rely on and eventually she would have to leave and make her own way in the world, otherwise she risked growing too close to Robert. If that happened, the eventual betrayal, in whatever form it came in, would be all the much harder to recover from.
‘What did you think?’ Robert asked once Mrs Crawshaw had left.
‘I liked her,’ Louisa said. The older woman had seemed harmless enough and Louisa had no doubt she would get all the freedom she desired with Mrs Crawshaw as her chaperone.
Chapter Twelve
Robert took a deep breath before getting down from the carriage. Since returning from the war he’d attended only a handful of social events. There had been one or two dinner parties he’d been unable to get out of and one very disastrous ball he’d spent a grand total of thirty-five minutes at.
Tonight was going to be difficult. Actually, difficult was an understatement. It was going to be close to impossible. He glanced at Louisa as she took his hand and stepped from the carriage and reminded himself why he was doing this—for her.
She was nervous, too, he told himself. Once again she’d been twisting her hands together throughout the entire carriage ride to Mrs Knapwell’s house. He’d tried to put her at ease, but his own misgivings about the evening hadn’t helped him to be reassuring.
‘What if I say something wrong?’ Louisa asked, her fingers digging into his arm.
‘You won’t,’ he said.
She pulled a face at his lack of advice.
‘It’s only a small gathering,’ he tried to reassure her, ‘and Mrs Knapwell will ensure you are not overwhelmed. She knows you have not come out into society so she will not seat you with anyone but the most pleasant.’
Louisa turned her face towards him, panic in her eyes.
‘I won’t be sitting with you?’
Momentarily Robert felt a surge of happiness that she felt so much more at ease with him than anyone else.
‘Normally at these events the seating is decided beforehand by the hostess. Most likely we won’t be sitting together.’
‘What if I let slip where I’ve been all this time?’ Louisa asked. ‘Or if everyone thinks I’m mad?’
Robert could see she was working herself up into a state.
‘One little mistake and everyone will know I’ve been in an asylum for the last year.’
Robert knew how catastrophic that would be. One slip and Louisa would be a social outcast. People would talk about her behind her back, exclude her from balls and dinner-party guest lists and make her life a misery. He knew this, but he also knew Louisa. She would be just fine. She was a strong, confident woman who had overcome so much already; she could deal with a few members of the ton looking at her inquisitively.
He stopped at the bottom of the steps, turned to face her and gripped her gently by the upper arms. He could feel the warmth of her skin on his hands through the thin silk of the dress and had to resist the urge to run his palms down the entire length of her arm until he met the bare skin at her wrists.
Focus, he told himself.
‘No one will think you’re mad because you’re not mad Louisa,’ he said firmly.
She looked as though she were about to protest.
‘You’re not mad,’ he said. ‘We even have the paperwork to prove it.’
He relaxed a little as Louisa smiled at his comment.
‘You’re going to be absolutely fine. You’re a beautiful, charming woman who everyone is going to adore.’
‘Really?’ She said it with such innocence and lack of guile Robert wanted to sweep her into his arms and carry her back home.
‘Really.’
Louisa gave him an uncertain smile and took a deep breath. She was ready. Now all he had to do was give himself the same sort of pep talk.
They ascended the steps and the door was opened immediately by a smart-looking footman. Robert felt Louisa tighten her grip on his arm as they stepped over the threshold, but she maintained her poise and her sunny smile. To everyone else she looked like a confident debutante, not a scared young woman who’d spent the last year languishing in the Lewisham Asylum.
‘Lord Fleetwood, Miss Turnhill, I’m so pleased you could make it,’ Mrs Knapwell said.
She was standing in the hallway, ready to greet her guests as they arrived.
‘You look lovely tonight, Miss Turnhill,’ Mrs Knapwell said.
Robert felt Louisa relax a little beside him and silently thanked the older woman for knowing how to put Louisa at ease.
‘You’re the last of my guests to arrive,’ she continued, ‘so why don’t I take you into the drawing room and introduce you to everyone.’
Mrs Knapwell linked her arm through Louisa’s and led her into the drawing room. Robert felt surprisingly bereft as she left his side. The feeling was soon forgotten as he followed the two women into the room.
It was only a small gathering. Robert counted ten other people besides himself and Louisa, but already he felt out of place.
He scanned the faces in the room and realised he knew most of the assembled people. The ton was a small, intimate group with very few additions over the years. Most of the people here he knew from his short time attending social events before he’d left for the war.
‘Fleetwood, been an age, old chap,’ a familiar voice said fro
m behind him.
Robert turned and found himself looking into the face of Harry Baldwin, a man he’d been at school with. Suddenly his throat felt dry. Baldwin had known him when Greg was alive. In fact, the three boys had often played sports together.
‘How the devil have you been?’
Baldwin had spoken in unnecessarily elaborate language even as a boy.
‘Not bad,’ Robert replied.
He hated making small talk.
‘I hear you’ve acquired a ward.’
Both men turned to look at Louisa, who was currently being introduced to a woman Robert knew to be Lady Grey and a younger woman he assumed was her daughter.
‘Delightful young thing,’ Baldwin murmured appreciatively.
‘She’s off limits,’ Robert growled immediately.
‘Earmarked her for yourself, have you?’ Baldwin asked. ‘Sensible chap. She’ll be ever so grateful to you for taking care of her.’
Robert remembered why he and Baldwin had never really been friends.
‘I haven’t earmarked her. She’s just off limits.’
Baldwin looked at him appraisingly for ten seconds, then shrugged.
‘I’m on the hunt for a gal myself. Need to settle down and start producing heirs. Keep the old man happy.’
Robert thought this was a ridiculous reason to get married, but didn’t say anything.
‘Need a docile mare, though, don’t want to tie myself to a harridan.’
Robert grunted. His attention was still fixed on Louisa. She looked happy enough. Mrs Knapwell was keeping her moving around the room, staying close to her side.
‘See you haven’t become any more articulate with age, Fleetwood. The war can’t have changed you much.’
‘Good catching up, Baldwin,’ Robert said, clapping the other man on the arm before striding away, leaving Baldwin staring after him with an open mouth.
Robert knew he should feel remorse at leaving the man in the middle of the conversation, but if he’d stayed a moment longer he knew the conversation would have turned to the war and he didn’t know how he would respond to any insensitive questions. He might have ended up punching Baldwin, something he couldn’t allow himself to do at Mrs Knapwell’s dinner party.
‘Lord Fleetwood, as I live and breathe. I haven’t seen you for an age.’
Robert tried not to let frustration show on his face as a woman in her midtwenties stepped into his path. He glanced again at Louisa. At the present moment she looked as though she was coping. He had a few seconds to exchange pleasantries with this woman, whoever she was.
‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ she asked.
Robert peered at her face, trying to recall exactly who she was.
‘You cut me deep, Lord Fleetwood,’ she said with a coy smile. ‘but it was a few years ago now, and I think I could forgive a man like you anything.’
Still Robert couldn’t place her. Her face looked familiar, but he didn’t have a clue who she was.
‘It’s Emilia Ruddock, or Lady Gillingham as I am now.’
Emilia Ruddock. Of course, how could he have forgot. She had been a coy debutante during the Season he’d actually attended a few balls. She had been a flirt then, toying with all the young men. So she’d gone ahead and married Lord Gillingham.
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ he said.
She shrugged. ‘Dear Gillingham left me well provided for. So now I’m able to have fun with whomever I choose.’
Robert didn’t think any woman had ever been so obvious in her attentions before.
‘You’re looking well, Lord Fleetwood.’
He opened his mouth to return the compliment, but closed it again promptly. He didn’t want this woman getting the wrong idea. The last thing in the world he wanted was an affair with a merry widow.
‘This is the point where you tell me I look well, too,’ she prompted him.
‘I’m sure you have plenty of suitors to pay you compliments, Lady Gillingham.’
She threw her head back and laughed loudly, drawing stares from the other guests.
‘Indeed I do, Lord Fleetwood, but a lady can never have too many compliments. Especially from a man such as yourself.’
Robert wondered how he could extract himself from Lady Gillingham’s company.
She reached forwards and dusted an imaginary speck of dust from his jacket, allowing her hand to linger on his chest.
‘I’ve always had a penchant for military men, Lord Fleetwood. It’s something about the way they hold themselves. And the feeling that although they’re so controlled and rigid on the outside, once you strip away the layers they might just lose control.’
‘I’ll be sure to tell any military men I meet of your admiration.’
‘You tease me,’ she said, pouting ever so slightly. ‘But I warn you, Lord Fleetwood, I’m a lady who knows what she wants.’
He raised an eyebrow.
‘And tonight I want you.’
‘I do hate to disappoint,’ Robert said, stepping back out of arm’s reach, ‘but tonight my only role is to chaperone my ward, Miss Turnhill.’
Robert gestured towards Louisa.
‘Good looks, a brooding manner and a kind heart,’ Lady Gillingham said. ‘You’re not making yourself any less appealing.’
‘It was nice to see you again, Lady Gillingham,’ Robert said blandly, then quickly bowed and stepped away before she could say anything else.
He wondered who else was going to corner him before he could reach Louisa. Already he’d been propositioned by a merry widow and had nearly punched an insensitive twit from his school days. Surely the other guests couldn’t be quite so awful.
‘Fleetwood.’
Robert froze.
‘It’s good to see you.’
Robert turned to look at the young man who was addressing him.
‘It’s been too long.’
‘Dunton.’
Robert stood completely still, trying to compose himself. This was what he’d been dreading. It was bad enough having to face Mrs Knapwell, but Dunton was probably worse. This man knew exactly what had happened. He knew just how foolish and neglectful Robert had been. He’d seen everything.
‘How have you been?’
Robert shrugged. ‘You know.’
Dunton looked him in the eye and nodded. ‘I know.’
‘What have you been doing with yourself?’ Robert asked.
‘Spend most of my time running the estate.’
‘I thought your brother inherited.’
‘He did,’ Dunton said, ‘but he’s useless with money. Nearly ran the place into the ground with all his schemes whilst I was away. I run it for him now.’
‘I bet it’s prospering.’
Dunton shrugged modestly. ‘It’s getting back up to full strength.’
They stood silently for a few moments.
‘I’ve often looked for you at social events,’ Dunton said eventually.
‘I don’t go to many.’ That was an understatement.
‘And this is Major Dunton,’ Mrs Knapwell said, coming up beside them.
‘Major Dunton, this is Miss Turnhill. She’s Lord Fleetwood’s ward.’
Robert’s old comrade turned and gave him such a look of incredulity Robert almost smiled.
‘Major Dunton served in the army with Lord Fleetwood and my son.’
Louisa bobbed into a quick curtsy and looked at Dunton curiously. Robert made a mental note to keep the pair of them as far apart as possible.
‘Have you met everyone?’ he asked Louisa.
‘I think so,’ she said. ‘Mrs Knapwell’s been ever so kind introducing me.’
‘Nonsense, my dear, it’s my job as your hostess.’
Mrs Knapwell patted Louisa on the arm in a motherly fashion, then slipped away.
‘You’ve got a ward?’ Dunton asked, turning back to Robert.
‘Why does everyone react like that?’ Louisa asked, laughing.
‘I’m not exactly the kindly guardian type,’ Robert said gruffly.
‘You’re the best guardian a girl could wish for.’
Robert glanced at Dunton and saw his old friend was grinning.
‘Fleetwood as a guardian. You must tell me all about it.’
Robert stepped forward, ready to do anything to keep Louisa from chatting to Dunton.
‘If you would like to make your way to the dining room,’ Mrs Knapwell announced, ‘dinner is ready to be served.’
Robert silently thanked her for her perfect timing. He stepped forwards to take Louisa’s arm, ready to escort her into the dining room, but already Louisa had placed her hand at Dunton’s elbow. He felt a surge of anxiety mixed with the unfamiliar tang of jealousy.
He was just about to follow them closely into the dining room when a voice said by his ear, ‘It looks as though you have the pleasure of escorting me in to dinner.’
Robert suppressed a groan. Louisa had been whisked away by the one person he didn’t want her to talk to and now he’d been cornered by Lady Gillingham. The night was a disaster and it had only just started.
Chapter Thirteen
Louisa felt slightly more at ease as she walked into the dining room on Major Dunton’s arm. Mrs Knapwell had spent the last quarter of an hour introducing her to the other guests and Louisa didn’t think she’d made a fool of herself or said anything she shouldn’t have. All the time she’d been conscious of her secret bubbling under the surface. If she let slip even the slightest hint of where she’d been this last year, she would be a social outcast.
‘How long have you been living with Fleetwood?’ Dunton asked as he pulled out her chair for her.
‘Less than a week,’ Louisa said, wondering who would be sitting either side of her.
She hadn’t really liked the predatory-looking Lady Gillingham, but everyone else had seemed perfectly pleasant. She was pleased when Major Dunton sat down to her right. He had known Robert during the war and might tell her a little about it.