by Anne Ashley
Although conscious of the light pressure on her waist the instant the musicians struck up a chord, which immediately resulted in everyone taking up their positions in readiness for the commencement of the dance, Ruth was not in the least alarmed by that gentle hold. Why on earth should she have been? She was no stranger to Hugo’s touch. Why, he had assisted her in and out of carriages on a score of occasions, sometimes going so far as to clasp her waist in his large hands and lift her quite off her feet with effortless ease, she reminded herself.
Moreover, she didn’t feel in the least concerned about performing a dance she had never attempted in public before. After Sarah’s careful tuition earlier in the week she felt she was admirably following Hugo’s lead without the need to stare down at her feet. Consequently, she couldn’t quite understand why so many pairs of interested eyes appeared to be following their every movement.
‘Hugo?’
‘Yes, my angel.’
‘Why do you suppose people are staring at us? It isn’t as if the waltz is still frowned upon, at least not by the vast majority. What’s more, I think we’re performing the dance rather well together, don’t you?’
‘Admirably well, my angel. You are a born dancer, naturally graceful. And, as for myself, I believe I waltz tolerably well.’
‘Indeed, you do,’ she assured him, secretly pleased by his compliment, for it clearly proved he had been watching her earlier in the evening.
‘Then, of course, we make a striking couple, even though I do say so myself,’ he opined, sounding very well pleased about something. ‘Being taller than most, I quite naturally stand out in a crowd. And your innate elegance sets you quite apart from the vast majority of your sex. There are several here present tonight who would do well to attempt to ape your taste and graceful carriage. I have yet to see you look less than impeccably groomed.’
Ruth could feel herself going quite pink with pleasure. Perhaps because Hugo was not a gentleman given to uttering flowery compliments, his opinion on her appearance was all the more gratifying. Even though she didn’t for a moment doubt his sincerity, she felt the need to point out that she hadn’t been so elegantly groomed when first they had met.
‘Nonsense!’ he countered abruptly, clearly having had no difficulty remembering. ‘You even managed to wear that sadly outmoded gown you donned for dinner that evening with a dignified air. I doubt there is a modiste in London who wouldn’t relish the dressing of you!’
Understandably enough, after that supreme praise, Ruth began to feel somewhat gratified by the attention they were receiving and to a certain extent ceased to notice. Even when the dance came to an end and Hugo found them a secluded table in the adjoining salon, where a superb buffet supper had been laid out, she paid little heed to the whispered asides and knowing looks darted at their corner of the room, so engrossed was she in what Hugo was telling her about his past exploits with his good friend Viscount Kingsley. It was only after she had returned to the main salon and was immediately heralded by Lady Constance that the real reason for the attention she was continuing to receive finally became crystal clear.
‘Why, my dear, aren’t you the sly little puss!’ the Dowager declared, rapping Ruth playfully across the knuckles with her fan the instant she had sat beside her again. ‘When am I to wish you happy? Or haven’t you settled upon a date quite yet?’
It took every ounce of self-control Ruth possessed not to gape at the matron. ‘I—I beg your pardon, ma’am. I do not perfectly understand.’
‘Oh, come now, child! I do not think you can keep it secret after tonight. It will be all over town by morning. Of course, I would be telling an untruth if I said I hadn’t had my suspicions already. Why, he was most attentive towards you on the evening of my little dinner party, rarely letting you out of his sight. Not only that, Colonel Prentiss seldom comes to London, and has never been known to escort a lady about before. What is more, he’s never been known to stand up with a lady. Why, he could not have made it clearer to the world that he considers you his possession already had he had his family’s coat of arms embroidered all over that beautiful gown of yours!’
Chapter Ten
The following day Ruth was the last to put in an appearance at the breakfast table. Hugo, always a reasonably early riser, even on those rare occasions when he did visit the capital, had consumed his first meal of the day some little time before. All the same, he had decided to await Ruth’s arrival, primarily because he wished to discover if her mood had improved by any significant degree from the night before, when he had received his first ever dagger-look from those large brown eyes of hers. She had chosen, also, to seek her bed fairly smartly once the party had drawn to a close, when it had seemed that it was as much as she could do to issue a distinctly frosty goodnight.
Not that he could blame her, of course. It had been a distinctly underhanded trick for him to have played on the poor unsuspecting girl, he was obliged silently to own. The wonder of it all was that, unless he was very much mistaken, she hadn’t had a clue as to what he had been about until that latter conversation with Lady Constance Styne had taken place. Which was most strange now he came to consider the matter. She was a sharp-witted little madam who, generally, didn’t require matters explaining to her.
Perhaps, though, he continued to ruminate from behind the folds of the Morning Post, she’d never suspected a thing simply because she trusted him implicitly and hadn’t considered him capable of such devious stratagems to attain his ends.
But what was a red-blooded male supposed to do? All at once his conscience smote him, yet he couldn’t bring himself to regret his actions. He was now firmly convinced that she was as much in love with him as he was with her. Softened by deep affection, her eyes had betrayed the extent of her feelings at the commencement of the party. Something, though, continued to trouble her, preventing her from making that final commitment to be his wife. She needed more time, and he was still prepared to grant her that. What he wasn’t prepared to do was sit idly by and watch other men attempting to pay court to her.
She was without doubt a stunningly attractive female who stood out from the mainstream of young women who flooded to town at the start of each Season, hoping to achieve a suitable alliance. He wasn’t blind to the fact that she hadn’t been without a dancing partner throughout the first part of the evening. It had pleased him to see her dancing, enjoying herself. He had even gained a certain satisfaction knowing that a great many other men found her as appealing as he did—as long as evident admiration of her looks didn’t prompt one of them to attempt to further his acquaintance. To that end he had shown the world that, as far as he was concerned, she would now be spending the rest of her life with him.
The door opening interrupted his thoughts and he peered above the folds of the newspaper to see the object of his musings entering the room. One glance at the distinctly frosty expression was sufficient to convince him that she was nowhere near ready yet to forgive him and that he was going to have to work hard to regain her approval.
Then, of course, his sister—curse her!—hadn’t exactly helped matters, he continued to reflect. Throughout the latter part of the previous evening Sarah’s mouth had been set in that inane smile of someone smugly satisfied with life in general. She was even smiling broadly now as she asked Ruth if she had recovered her spirits after the rigours of the party. Thankfully, Merry, after helping Ruth to some coffee, succeeded in changing the topic of conversation by suddenly announcing he fancied a day or two at the races.
‘Care to accompany me, Hugo? We could stay over and return to town the following day...or, better still, the day after that.’
It suddenly occurred to Hugo then that for the remainder of his life he would not have just himself to consider and automatically turned to discuss the matter with his chosen life’s helpmeet.
‘I quite fail to see what it has to do with me,’ Ru
th returned, determined, it seemed, to maintain that icy barrier between them. ‘I’m not your keeper, Hugo...just as you are not mine...not yet, at any rate.’
‘Quite true, my angel,’ he concurred with deliberately provocative affability. ‘But might I remind you of the reason we came to London in the first place. I don’t think we should lose sight of that initial purpose, at least not for a while.’
Her smile could not have been sweeter as she looked at him directly for the very first time since taking her place at the table. ‘I shall take leave to inform you that I’ve never once lost sight of our objective in coming here,’ she assured him. ‘But I rather fancy you did last night. I gained the distinct impression during the latter part of the evening that everyone seemed to suppose that you had come up to town for some definite purpose of your own and that congratulations were in order. Now, why was that, do you suppose?’
Not only did Sarah’s face disappear behind the folds of the Ladies’ Journal with lightning speed, there was a distinct choking sound emanating from Merry’s end of the table.
Hugo, however, had himself well in hand. He had fought too many military campaigns in recent years to be rattled by what he deemed a slight skirmish. Besides which, he was determined to bring her out of her sulks. The most effective way, of course, would be to get her on her own at the earliest opportunity, as his relatives’ evident levity was doing precious little to help the situation.
‘My darling girl, I’ve spent far too little time in the capital even to begin to attempt to comprehend the mental workings of members of the ton. Deriving the utmost pleasure from exchanging scurrilous gossip, which more often than not has no basis in fact, they are a law unto themselves.’
He rose to his feet. ‘I am in possession, however, of the precise direction of a certain person engaged in the medical profession, and his good sister. So, if you should care to accompany me I shall be back in an hour with my friend the Viscount’s curricle.’
‘Why don’t you ride, Hugo?’ Merry suggested, after glancing out of the window at the small garden at the rear of the house, now bathed in bright spring sunshine. ‘There’s a hack in the stables up to your weight and there’s that sweet-natured mare that Sarah seldom rides nowadays. You’re both welcome to make use of them if you wish?’
Ruth met Hugo’s half-questioning, half-hopeful glance with a suddenly lowering feeling in the pit of her stomach, while at the same time accepting that he was going to find out about her shortcomings sooner or later. Better to admit to it now and get it over and done with, she decided.
‘That’s kind of you, Merry, but I’m afraid I’ve no habit with me. As it happens, I’ve never possessed such a garment in my life, simply because I don’t ride.’
‘Don’t choose to, or cannot?’ Hugo put in bluntly, thereby preventing his sister from offering the use of her own garment.
‘I was never granted the opportunity to learn,’ she admitted, holding her head high, and was amazed to see not the expected look of blatant disenchantment at her evident failings, but an expression of delighted surprise flickering over wholly masculine features.
‘How splendid! I shall attain the greatest pleasure in teaching you myself. But not today,’ he decided. ‘For the present, it would serve us better if we concentrate our efforts on solving that little mystery.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Ruth concurred affably, while rising from the table with a glint in her eyes that suggested strongly that her sweet smile might not have been wholly sincere. ‘And I think it would be mutually beneficial if I accompanied you on foot to Berkeley Square, don’t you?’
There was the suspicion of a twitch beside Hugo’s mouth. ‘But you’ve hardly eaten any breakfast.’
‘Does it really surprise you that I have little appetite this morning?’
‘If Aggie is otherwise engaged, I can arrange for one of my maids to accompany you,’ Sarah offered in a decidedly unsteady voice, thereby halting Ruth’s progress across to the door, and she turned, eyes glinting brighter than ever as she encompassed them all in one sweeping glance.
‘Oh, I rather fancy we can dispense with the proprieties now, don’t you? After last night few will be surprised to discover me in your brother’s sole care.’
* * *
The walk to Viscount Kingsley’s very fashionable town house would normally have taken Hugo no more than twenty minutes or so. Quite naturally he had been obliged to moderate his pace so that his chosen life’s companion had no difficulty in keeping up with him. Moreover, he felt that maintaining a more sedate stroll would grant her more opportunity to give voice to those pent-up emotions she’d done her utmost to suppress thus far.
When, however, Berkeley Square was growing increasingly closer and she had made not the least attempt to remonstrate with him, he decided it behoved him to offer sufficient inducement to vent her spleen.
‘You know it does no good whatsoever to keep things bottled up inside, my love. Like as not it will result in a fit of the vapours, followed by a prolonged stay in bed.’
‘I’ll take leave to inform you—you wretch!—that I’ve never suffered with nerves in my entire life and have no intention of doing so now because of your dastardly behaviour!’
She shot a sideways glance in time to catch that telltale twitch at the corner of his mouth yet again and knew at once that she had allowed herself to fall victim to a well-baited trap. Which, understandably, only served to fuel her sense of ill usage.
‘Hugo, how could you? And after you’d promised me more time, too!’ Angry though she was, she refused to screech at him like some belligerent fishwife and maintained beautiful control over her voice. ‘How long will it be before the whole of the polite world considers we’re betrothed?’
‘No confirmation has passed my lips,’ he avowed, sounding supremely virtuous. Ruth, however, was decidedly unimpressed.
‘Actions speak louder than words,’ she countered. ‘For a gentleman, who has never once been known to stand up with a female before, to suddenly take to the floor for the first time in his life... Your intentions could not have been made more clear had you placed a note of our betrothal in every journal!’
‘Now, loath though I am to do so, I must take issue with you here. I’ve been seen to dance the waltz on numerous occasions in Paris and later in Vienna, when the Duke asked me to be amongst those who accompanied him there.’
As he rarely alluded to his experiences during his many years in the army, this very interesting revelation instantly diverted her thoughts. ‘I didn’t know you were so closely connected with Wellington. You’ve never mentioned anything about it before.’
Hugo considered for a moment. ‘Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say we were ever what you’d describe as bosom friends. There were plenty of others much closer to him. But, as we’d known each other a good many years, I suppose I was someone he knew he could trust...but that’s beside the point... What I’m trying to tell you is that I’ve danced on countless occasions in the past. I even waltzed at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball on the eve of Waterloo, as it happens.’
She regarded him now with distinct suspicion. ‘That might well be so. And I’ll go further and say that your execution of that particular dance would suggest you’re no novice. But you haven’t been known to take to the floor in this country. Refute that, if you dare!’
He didn’t attempt to try and, when that smile she found so endearing began flickering about his mouth, she could feel those lingering feelings of resentment ebbing away.
‘Well...’ He paused to kick at a convenient stone in his path, resembling nothing so much as a mischievous schoolboy caught out indulging in some harmless prank. ‘What the deuce was I supposed to do? I’d spent half the evening watching a string of fellows standing up with you, all of whom I suspect were eligible enough. A fine sort of a chap I’d be if I stood by and all
owed some flashy marquis’s son to steal the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with from right under my nose, without putting up some sort of a fight. Especially as I’d waited such a confounded long time to find her.’
As he was staring steadfastly down at the ground, he quite failed to see her take her bottom lip between her teeth in an attempt to stop it trembling. ‘Besides,’ he continued, the toe of his boot making contact with another hapless pebble, ‘I might not be every female’s idea of a handsome knight in shining armour... Well, I don’t expect I’m any girl’s, really. But at least I’m no dashed fortune-hunter! I don’t doubt word’s got round by now about your recent inheritance. I’m not suggesting for a moment there won’t be plenty of fellows who’ll pay court to you just because you’re a fine-looking filly. But, inevitably, there’ll be those whose intentions aren’t so honourable. And the last thing I wish to see is you fall victim to some dashed fortune—’
Not only did Hugo cease speaking, he also stopped dead in his tracks, thereby obliging Ruth to do likewise. ‘Good gad! It isn’t that, is it? Because I’ll tell you plainly I’d take you with only the clothes on your back... Much rather, if I’m honest! I’ve told you before I’m no pauper, my angel. Don’t be concerned that I cannot keep us both in comfort for the rest of our lives.’
As they were now attracting no little attention from passers-by by standing stock-still in the middle of the walkway, Ruth didn’t hesitate to entwine her arm round his, encouraging him to move on.