The Gilded Web

by Mary Balogh

“Do you mean Molly Sugden just now in the Peterson cottage?” his brother asked with a grin. “I have never given her any encouragement at all, I swear. She is altogether too buxom for my taste.”

  Lord Amberley laughed. “You must admit that she showed unusual devotion,” he said. “I wish I had counted the number of curtsies she bobbed in your direction. If I can count that high. I had two, one when I entered and one when I left.”

  “I can’t help it if I am the handsomest Raine in the family,” Lord Eden said.

  “And the least modest,” his brother said. “And there is Anna, Dom. She has a sad case of hero worship. I don’t believe any other person exists in this world for her but you.”

  “She will grow out of it,” Lord Eden said. “Wait until she is taken to London to be presented. She will have all the bucks swarming around her. A very fetching little thing, Anna. Give her time to acquire some curves and some allure, Edmund, and she will be slaying male hearts by the score.”

  “What about Susan?” Lord Amberley asked.

  “What about Susan?” His brother frowned.

  “She is smitten, Dom,” the earl said. “And you have been doing nothing to discourage her, as far as I can see.”

  “Oh,” Lord Eden said, “so there was a serious point to this conversation after all. You are wrong, though, Edmund. She is not smitten, and I have not been encouraging her. She actually started to cry yesterday when I told her I should not kiss her. She was hurt that I would think she wanted such a thing. You need have no worries on that score.”

  His brother looked incredulously at him. “You told her that you should not kiss her,” he said. “Meaning, I suppose, that you had worked yourself and her into a happily romantic mood in which a kiss seemed the obvious next step?”

  “Yes, well, you know,” Lord Eden said, “we were down in the valley, Edmund, and nothing would do but everyone else had to cross the stepping-stones to the other side. Susan would not go across. I had to stay with her. What else could I have done? It was deuced quiet and shady down there, and Susan is such a pretty little thing. I would have had to be made of stone not to want to kiss her. But she did not want to be kissed, so no harm was done.”

  “Dom,” Lord Amberley said, “are you two-and-twenty or twelve years of age? What did you expect her to say? ‘Please’? Any self-respecting female would have reacted just as she did if a man said that he should not kiss her. Any woman with any pride, that is. Of course she wanted to be kissed, numbskull. And now she probably wants it more than ever. You are both playing hard to get, but I don’t believe you even realize the fact.”

  “That’s utter nonsense!” Lord Eden said uneasily. “I wouldn’t trifle with Susan’s feelings. And I can’t marry her.”

  “Because she is the daughter of a tenant farmer?” his brother asked. “It would not be the most advantageous match imaginable, it is true. And many people would look askance. But you have a comfortable fortune, Dom. If she is what you want, marriage is not impossible.”

  “Yes, it is,” Lord Eden said, staring fixedly ahead. “I have other plans.”

  “The army?” Lord Amberley asked.

  “That too,” his brother said. “But I was referring to other plans. I am still determined to free you, Edmund, as I said I would when we were still in London. I still plan to marry Miss Purnell myself.”

  “Indeed?” Lord Amberley broke a short silence. “And what does Alex have to say to this, Dom?”

  “She has not said no,” Lord Eden said. “I have every hope that she will say yes if she can just get over the feeling that she will be acting dishonorably to break off her engagement to you. You could talk to her, Edmund. And you need not feel as you did in London that you must do the noble thing for my sake since you are the elder brother. I want to marry Miss Purnell. I love her. I think.”

  “I see,” Lord Amberley said quietly. “I seem to be standing in the way of a mutually happy match, then.”

  “Yes,” Lord Eden said, glancing at him uneasily again, “you are, Edmund.”

  They turned into Amberley park and rode side by side in silence.

  “You are not offended?” Lord Eden blurted at last. “This will be the best outcome for all three of us, will it not? You will be free again, and Miss Purnell and I will marry according to our inclination.”

  “If you say so,” Lord Amberley said. “Don’t forget, though, that I am betrothed to the lady. Until there is some announcement to the contrary, I am committed to that relationship. And to protecting her honor. Be careful, Dom. Don’t do anything to compromise that honor. Not again.”

  Lord Eden winced. “Admit you will be happy to be released,” he said.

  Lord Amberley smiled rather grimly. “My feelings at least are my own private property, Dom,” he said. “We will leave this topic of conversation for now, if you please.”

  Lord Eden glanced at him, not feeling quite the hero he had expected to feel at this moment.

  “There is another thing,” Lord Amberley said as they began to ride down the slope into the valley.

  His brother groaned.

  “About the army,” the earl said. “When are you planning to buy your commission, Dom?”

  “Eh?” Lord Eden looked with some surprise at the other. “You know Mama would have an apoplexy if I did, Edmund. Though Miss Purnell has been helping me build my courage. I shall have to prepare Mama very carefully over the winter. Perhaps next spring.”

  “Perhaps Bonaparte will be defeated by next spring,” Lord Amberley said. “Why not sooner, Dom? If you really are determined to go, Mama and Madeline must face your leaving sooner or later anyway.”

  “Yes.” Lord Eden glanced uneasily at his brother. “I have to make the decision, don’t I? I am no longer a boy. But I don’t want you to be caught in the middle, Edmund. I don’t want you speaking up for me and incurring Mama’s wrath. Worse, if I should be killed”—he drew a deep breath and kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead—“if I should be killed, I don’t want you blamed at all.”

  “I would not dream of treating you as a child and arguing for you to either Mama or Madeline,” Lord Amberley said. “But once your decision is made, Dom, and once you have spoken to them, I shall support you. If they come to me asking me to plead with you, I shall tell them I am more proud of my brother than I ever thought to be.”

  “Really?” Lord Eden’s face had brightened to boyish eagerness. “You would not think me irresponsible, Edmund?”

  “Irresponsible?” Lord Amberley said. “To give up your comfort and your safety to fight for your country against tyranny and oppression, Dom? To be willing to give up your very life? I am consumed with admiration.”

  Lord Eden grinned at him and turned his horse out of the roadway as they reached the valley. “I am going for a gallop down to the beach,” he said. “I shall see you later, Edmund.”

  Lord Amberley watched him go, feeling as if he had a lead weight in his stomach. Dominic and Alex! She had not said no, Dom had said. He thought she would say yes if she were free to do so.

  She was officially his betrothed, and he was not even free to flatten his brother and relieve him of his front teeth for such words. He had already promised to let her go after the ball the following week. Not just to allow her to break off their engagement, but to do it himself if he was not convinced by that time that she would be happy with him or that there was a reasonable chance that he could make her happy.

  It would be terrible enough to let her go and see her disappear from his life. It would be dreadful beyond words to see her the bride of his own brother. And the happy bride. Dom seemed to think that it would be a mutually happy union.

  Well, then. So be it.

  Lord Amberley turned his horse in the direction of the house. He would not even be able to be assured that she was safe and secure. She would be the wife of a soldier. Perhaps even in Spain following the drum. Somehow he could not imagine Alex married to a soldier and sitting comfortably at home while he risked his l
ife every day. She was just the sort of woman who would go, too.

  And he loved her. He had known it surely for several days. He had known at least that he had a physical passion for her, that he desired her. Perhaps it was only as a result of the previous day’s conversation that he had also learned to appreciate her character, the strength of purpose that made her want to stand alone rather than be protected from the nastier side of life.

  Perhaps it was only now, today, that he could fully love her. And he did. She was today as necessary to him as the air he breathed, even more necessary to him than the beloved home he was approaching.

  Damn Dominic! And damn his stupid sense of honor that would not let him remove those teeth and break his brother’s nose and a few ribs for good measure! Lord Amberley felt a vicious and quite uncharacteristic need to punish someone.

  LORD EDEN FOUND MADELINE in the conservatory an hour later. He almost did not see her. She was hidden behind a large fern. Only the movement of her hand as she pulled the needle through the cloth she was embroidering betrayed her presence.

  “Here you are, Mad,” he said. “I have been searching for you everywhere. What on earth are you doing sitting so quietly here on your own?”

  “Sewing,” she said, without looking up.

  “I can see that, you goose,” he said. “But why alone like this and hidden from view?”

  She shrugged. “It’s a horrid day,” she said. “I don’t feel like going out.”

  He seated himself on the window seat beside her and looked at her searchingly. “What is it?” he asked. “And don’t say, ‘Nothing,’ as you are about to do. We can see through each other’s lies in a glance; you know that.”

  She jabbed her needle into the cloth and set down her work in a heap beside her. “I am so unhappy, Dom,” she said.

  He reached out and took her hand in his. “I thought you were rather enjoying yourself,” he said. “Forbes seems very taken with you, and you were busy flirting with him during the picnic yesterday. I expected to hear that you are head over ears in love—again.” He grinned.

  But she did not look up to see his expression. “He kissed me,” she said.

  “And that is cause for such misery?” Lord Eden said. “You didn’t like it, I gather. That is no matter for grand tragedy, Mad. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. What about Jennings?”

  “It was Mr. Purnell who kissed me,” she said.

  “Oh.” He sat beside her silently for a while and then squeezed her hand. “Do you want to tell me about it, Mad?”

  “He hates me,” she said. “I don’t know why, Dom. I have never done anything to offend him. Well, I have said a few nasty things, I suppose, but they have been a result of the hatred I feel in him, not the cause of it.”

  “‘Hate’ is a pretty strong word,” Lord Eden said with a frown.

  “I know,” she said. “But I chose the word with care, Dom. He hates me. I can tell every time he looks at me or talks to me. I don’t know how I was trapped into being alone with him yesterday. I have been trying to avoid him. But somehow it happened.”

  “And he kissed you,” Lord Eden said. “You are not making much sense, Mad. That does not sound like the action of a man who hates you.”

  “It wasn’t really a kiss,” she said. “It was an insult. It’s hard to explain, Dom. It was horrible.”

  “He didn’t try anything more than that, did he?” he asked, his voice turned hard. “If he did, Mad, tell me. I’ll draw his cork for him, guest or no guest. He is not my guest, anyway. This is Edmund’s house.”

  “No,” she said. “He just kissed me. And then told me to stay away from him. And then apologized.”

  “I should give him a good drubbing anyway,” Lord Eden said angrily. “Who does he think you are?”

  “No,” she said wearily. “Leave it, Dom. Please leave it.”

  “Stay away from him, then,” he said. “There are other people to entertain him, Mad. Concentrate on falling in love with Forbes or Jennings or even Watson. Enjoy yourself.”

  He did not hear her mumbled reply.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I love him,” she said.

  There was an appalled silence. “Purnell?” he said. “You love Purnell?”

  “I hate him,” she said. “I am afraid of him. And I am obsessed with him. I can’t understand it, Dom, or myself. Or him. He is horrid to me and thoroughly cynical about everything. I know he hates himself. I think he is very unhappy.”

  “That is no reason for making everyone else around him miserable,” Lord Eden said indignantly. “Especially my sister. Can’t you just forget him, Mad? Let him look after his own problems?”

  “No,” she said, looking at her free hand, which she spread in her lap. “I can’t, Dom. I have tried. I tried to fall in love with Captain Forbes yesterday. Usually it would be easy to do. Normally by now I would be swinging from clouds and hearing wedding bells. But not this time.”

  “Well, then,” he said, “someone else. Soon you will meet someone else and it will happen again.”

  “Maybe,” she said bleakly. “But I don’t think so. I love him.”

  Lord Eden swallowed and squeezed his twin’s hand again. He could think of nothing to say. Least of all the news he had come to give her. That could wait for a while. He had decided to stay until after the ball anyway. He had some unfinished business here at Amberley before he could rush off to war.

  “What about you?” Madeline asked, looking up at her brother eventually. “I think you are in love with Susan, aren’t you?”

  He looked at her and smiled nervously. “She is a sweet little thing, isn’t she?” he said. “She has certainly grown up since I saw her last.”

  “Susan is a sweet conniving little thing,” she said. “She is out to get herself a husband above her station, Dom.”

  “Oh, come now,” he said. “That is unfair, you know, Mad. She can’t help being pretty and charming. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to better oneself. But she certainly isn’t flirtatious or conniving. What a ridiculous idea. She won’t even call me by my given name or let me kiss her. Are those the actions of a conniver?”

  “Yes,” she said, and smiled unexpectedly. “But it is cruel of me to say so, Dom, when you have such stars in your eyes. Enjoy your flirtation. You will not marry her anyway, I know. At least, I hope I know. You will tire of her soon enough. You always do, and all your flirts are almost identical to Susan in every way.”

  “There is no one else like Susan,” he said indignantly. “And I am not flirting with her, Mad. I can’t. I am going to marry Miss Purnell.”

  She grimaced. “Oh, no, Dom,” she said, “you cannot possibly be still entertaining that idea. It’s ridiculous. Far too much time has passed. And I think that she and Edmund are admirably suited. I really do. And I think they are developing a regard for each other. You will only make a cake of yourself if you try to play the hero and rescue her from an unhappy match. Just like Don Quixote.”

  “I like her,” he said. “I think we will make a good match. And she has not said no, you know. I have told Edmund too.”

  “Told Edmund?” she said. “That you are going to try to take Miss Purnell from him? Didn’t he throttle you?”

  “No,” he said. “He was remarkably civil about it. I would say he was relieved, Mad.”

  “And Alexandra has not said no?” she asked. “You have asked her, then, Dom?”

  “Yesterday,” he said, “at the picnic. I think she is relieved too.”

  “Oh, Dom,” she said, grabbing for his other hand and holding tightly to both of them, “there will be a terrible family rift over this. You cannot expect Edmund to take this lightly, you know, for all his seeming relieved. He will be the laughingstock. You can’t do it. It would be better far to let him marry her, even if they do not love each other. They are both very honorable people. They will respect each other and probably even develop an affection for each other. Perhaps more. Who are we to
say? Don’t do it, Dom. Please don’t. Oh, I know you have conceived the notion out of a sense of honor, but really it would be a dreadfully dishonorable thing to do. It really would, Dom.”

  He squeezed her hands in return. “Don’t take on so, Mad,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t know what to think or what to do. I am a man already—in years anyway. But I feel so much like a boy still. I can make up my mind to something, and then I talk to someone else and have my mind changed again. And I never know if it is weakness or wisdom to listen. I wish everyone would leave me alone to do my own thinking and my own deciding.”

  Madeline released his hands and put her arms up around his neck. She laid her cheek against his. “Oh, I am sorry, Dom,” she said. “I am truly sorry I have made you feel inadequate. Your trouble is, not that you are immature, but that you are very sweet and sensitive. You hate to hurt anyone. You want to please everyone and take the burden of the world upon your own shoulders. You are just like Edmund in that way. But it can’t always be done, dear. Other people have to carry their own burdens for themselves. Sometimes you have to allow other people to suffer, Dom, even if they are people you love. Sometimes you can make the situation worse by trying to intervene.”

  “Or interfere,” he said. “But if I have caused the suffering in the first place, Mad?”

  “Look, Dom,” she said, removing her cheek from his and looking earnestly into his eyes, “you compromised Alexandra, you offered for her, and she refused you. I imagine you probably apologized too. Your obligation ended there. You have to accept that. She refused you. What happened later between her and Edmund is between them. If there is a problem, it is his. And hers. Not yours, and not mine, even if we love both of them and want to see them happy. They are not our responsibility. They are adult, sensible people. They will work it out for themselves.”

  He drew a deep breath and blew it out from puffed cheeks. “Don Quixote, eh?” he said. “And I am not immature!”

  “Don Quixote was a dear,” she said. “Easily my favorite fictional character. Just as you are my favorite real character, Dom.” She gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek.