by Brown, T. J.
Victoria poured tea as graciously as she could muster while Kit fidgeted next to her. He hated this sort of thing and avoided it like the plague. Again she wondered what they were doing here.
She handed him a cup. “You owe me one,” she whispered.
He gave her a cheeky grin. “So, have you found a flat?”
The other women went quiet, listening. “Yes, actually, in Chelsea.”
“Isn’t Chelsea full of unemployed actors and opium dens?” Lady Balfour sniffed.
Victoria nodded eagerly. “Oh, I hope so! How exciting! Did you know that Percy Bysshe Shelley used opium?” She recited:
Silver key of the fountain of tears,
Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild;
Softest grave of a thousand fears,
Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child,
Is laid asleep in flowers.
“Bravo!” Kits burst out, clapping. Victoria nodded.
Mrs. Kittredge blinked. “Just so.” She cleared her throat, then, looking pointedly at Victoria, said, “So when are you and Kit going to announce the engagement?”
Victoria froze, her tea raised halfway to her lips.
“Mother!”
Kit’s voice was indignant, but a shot of anger ricocheted through Victoria’s chest nonetheless. He had to have set her up for this. How else would his mother have been led to believe that an engagement was imminent? How dare he lead his mother to believe they were to be married?
His mother shrugged elegantly while her guests watched wide-eyed. “It’s a legitimate question. You two have spent every available moment together for months.”
Victoria was reeling. Suddenly her former perception of Mrs. Kittredge shattered. The woman clearly didn’t care one whit about her reputation if she was willing to start a family row in front of these gossips.
“Oh, we’re never getting married,” Victoria managed to spit out, finally bringing her tea to her lips. It tasted like tar and betrayal. “We’re just jolly good friends. I don’t know that I believe in matrimony.” She took a long sip. “And if I were to marry, it certainly would not be to Kit.”
She set her tea down and gave a hollow laugh. She fixed Kit with a stare. “I’m sure he feels the same way. Why, we’re practically brother and sister. More tea anyone? . . . No? Very well. I apologize for my appalling manners, but I’m afraid I must be going. I have to go see my solicitor about signing the papers on my lady-bachelor flat.”
She stood, and next to her Kit popped up like a jack-in-the-box.
“I’ll see you out,” he said, tripping over the carpet in his haste to escape.
After bidding farewell to the women and wondering how long it would take the story to reach her aunt, Victoria followed Kit. Once they were away from the sitting room, she doubled up her small fist and punched him in the arm. Hard.
“Ow!” Kit clutched his arm. “What in the devil was that for?”
“That was for setting me up!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
She went to hit him again, but he caught her hand midair. He held her easily as she struggled.
“You told your mother you wanted to marry me? After I’ve told you repeatedly that I don’t want to marry? Did you tell her to corner me in front of those women to humiliate me? Or worse, to apply pressure? What kind of friend are you? What kind of man are you?”
“Of course I told my mother I wanted to marry you. That’s certainly no secret, though why I would want to spend the rest of my life with a lunatic is suddenly beyond me,” he spat back, unwilling to back down.
Stung, she jerked her arm away. She would absolutely not give someone control over her life or abdicate all of her freedom to appease social custom. Especially not just as she was about to escape her uncle’s authority. “It doesn’t matter if you want to marry me or not because I’ve already told you, very definitively, no!”
Kit’s jaw tightened and her stomach clenched at the pain she glimpsed on his face. She couldn’t help but soften, suddenly longing to reach her hand out and touch his face just to make the look go away.
“You have made that abundantly clear. I just happen to think you are going to change your mind.”
She gasped, all sympathy forgotten. “You, sir, are the one who is deranged. Of all the egotistical blather!” Her hand itched to slap the smug look off his face, but instead she turned on her heel and stalked away.
“Does this mean we’re not going to see the Russian ballet tomorrow night?”
Outraged, she whirled around, only to find him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. His blue eyes were an-noyingly amused. He was such an insufferable tease! He recited:
What’s friendship? The hangover’s faction,
The gratis talk of outrage,
Exchange by vanity, inaction,
Or bitter shame of patronage.
Alexander Pushkin! How dare he use her own trick against her, quoting the celebrated words of another to add punch to his own argument. She turned and stalked out the door.
“I’ll have the motorcar pick you up at seven,” he called.
“Don’t bother. I have my own!”
Of all the conceited . . . she wouldn’t go, of course. She wouldn’t. But she already felt herself weaken as the driver opened the door for her. Of course she would go. He had box seats and she did so love the Russian ballet.
chapter
four
Rowena kept her eyes closed against the morning sun. She lay on a chaise lounge on the vast Summerset lawn, sipping an iced tea and reflecting on the many things she had yet to do to prepare for the wedding.
After her and Sebastian’s interlude, the wall of lethargy she had built up around herself had come tumbling down. Shaken out of her previous trance, she felt ready to begin the next chapter of her life. Maybe her aunt was right. Maybe the only true freedom a smart woman had was through a good marriage, and for all intents and purposes, her marriage to Sebastian had every possibility of being brilliant, if not necessarily passionate.
So, for the first time since the engagement, she actually looked forward to her wedding, if only as a means to an end. Being the mistress of Eddelson Hall, though it was not as grand as Summerset, would be a welcome distraction, and best of all, Sebastian’s wedding gift to her was a hangar that would hold her Vickers aeroplane. Thoughts of Jonathon grew less and less frequent, and they were no longer accompanied by a stabbing pain; instead, she felt only a sense of regret and loss when he entered her mind.
It was indeed past time to get on with her life.
Aunt Charlotte, languid and unusually quiet, flicking through a periodical, lay next to Rowena, while Elaine lay on her other side. Victoria and Eleanor were off furnishing their London flat, and as happy as Vic sounded, Rowena knew her sister wouldn’t be back until a week before the wedding, which was now only six weeks away.
A shadow fell over Rowena and she glanced upward from under the protective brim of her straw cartwheel hat, purposefully designed to keep the sun from touching her pale skin. It wouldn’t do to get tanned or coarse before the wedding, as Aunt Charlotte was always telling her.
“Colin!” Elaine cried, leaping from her chair. Her brother pulled her up in a hug. “What are you doing here? I thought . . .” She stopped midsentence and glanced nervously at her mother.
Rowena, too, glanced at her aunt, wondering what she would say. It had been over a week since Colin had finally broken the news to his parents about joining the army, and Aunt Charlotte had dramatically ordered him off the property.
“I sent for him,” Aunt Charlotte said calmly.
“I knew you couldn’t live without me.” Colin grinned. Only he could tease his mother like this.
“You flatter yourself. Your father talked me into having you here. Apparently I behaved too rashly in his mind.”
“Admit it, Mother. You would miss me.”
His mother gave an indelicate snort. “Actually, I
begged your father to use his connections to save you from your folly, but he has decided that the army may be exactly what you need. And while it’s clear that you need some more discipline in your life, there are undoubtedly other ways more suited to your title and less fraught with peril.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “What is it with men and their obsession with playing soldier?” She directed this toward Rowena and Elaine, but they both knew better than to answer. She pointed an elegant finger at Colin. “You are going to regret this, young man, mark my words.”
“Yes, Mother.” Colin sighed.
“Do you want to join us?” Elaine asked, her voice anxious. “We can have the servant bring you a lounger.”
Colin shook his head. “No. I want to talk to Father. I got my orders and I know that he, at least, will be interested in my assignment.” He cast his mother a sidelong look, which she ignored.
“I’m very interested,” Rowena said.
Colin seemed proud of himself and preened as if his drab, olive-green calvary uniform were evening formals. “You are now looking at a member of the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards and I will be stationed in Lucknow, India.”
Another snort from his mother told Rowena her aunt was less than impressed with her son’s assignment.
“That’s wonderful!” Rowena exclaimed, even though she wasn’t sure if this really was good news. She just thought that someone should make up for his mother’s disapproval.
“Then we could come visit you!” Elaine said, clapping.
Aunt Charlotte stood. “Maybe you would actually be able to find a husband in Lucknow, darling. I’m sure they aren’t too picky out there in the middle of nowhere.”
With that, Aunt Charlotte turned on her heel and sauntered off as if she hadn’t just sent a poisoned arrow into her daughter’s chest.
Elaine’s eyes fill with angry tears.
“Don’t be upset, Lainey,” Colin said, slipping an arm about his sister’s shoulders. “She’s angry with me and taking it out on you.”
Elaine gave a bitter laugh. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I’ve never been able to please her. How could I? I’m not a boy.”
Rowena shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure she loves you. She just has a hard time showing affection.”
“And yet she seems to have no problem showing it to Colin. Well, most of the time. She’s just angry with him right now.” Elaine shrugged. “I shouldn’t be surprised by what she says, but sometimes I still am. Silly me. But enough of that. I’m not going to ruin my brother’s visit crying over something I can’t change.”
She linked her arm through her brother’s and held out her other arm to Rowena. “Let’s go find something alcoholic to celebrate my brother, who is surely the handsomest second lieutenant in the First Dragon or Dragoon or whatever it is.”
Rowena stood and joined her cousins. “Are you going to be here for the wedding?” she asked. “If not, we’ll have to find someone to take your place, and I’m not sure Annalisa Watkins will like that.”
They walked for a moment across the wide expanse of Summerset’s manicured lawn toward the conservatory door. “Oh, I think they are going to make sure I am home for the wedding. Both mine and yours.”
Elaine stopped short and hit her brother in the arm. “You wicked! Who?”
Colin pulled away and laughed. “Haven’t you guessed? Annalisa, of course!”
Rowena’s eyes widened. “How did that come about? What a sly boot she’s been! She hasn’t said a word.”
Elaine squealed. “I adore Annalisa. At least it’s not Daphne,” she said referencing another member of the Clever Coterie.
Colin snorted. “Daphne? Hardly. One doesn’t marry girls like Daphne. Besides, Mother would make mincemeat of her.”
“When are you planning on telling Mother and Father?” Elaine asked.
“I already told Father. That’s one of the reasons I’m back here. He thinks my upcoming nuptials will appease Mother.”
“I don’t think anything will appease Mother.”
Elaine’s voice was dry, but Rowena could detect the hurt underneath. She wondered briefly what her relationship with her own mother would have been like. Her memories of her mother were hazy at best, as she had died shortly after Victoria was born, but she did know her father, and any woman he chose would have to be loving and special indeed. Her heart ached for her cousin and rather dimmed the happiness she felt for Colin. “When are you getting married?” she asked.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Annalisa and I don’t care to have a big wedding, but you know Mother, she is going to insist—but we don’t want to wait. After some preliminary training here, I’ll be sent off to India, and we would like to be married before then so she can follow me as soon as our affairs are in order.” He stopped walking and looked at Rowena, his blue eyes pleading. “We were wondering if we could combine our nuptials with yours and Sebastian’s?”
Elaine clasped her hand over her mouth in excitement, and Rowena laughed at the expression on her face.
“That would be brilliant!” Rowena told him. “It would be such fun to be standing up there with you and Annalisa. I must speak with Sebastian, of course, but I can’t see that he would have a problem with it.”
Colin reached out and squeezed her hand. “Thank you, Rowena! Timing-wise, it works out perfectly. And best of all, the wedding will be grand enough that Mother won’t feel cheated.”
Elaine did a little jig between them. “No, best of all, it takes the pressure off of me for a bit. Ha!”
She linked arms with Rowena on one side and her brother on the other. “Come, let’s telephone Annalisa and give her the good news so she can make the trip out and we can start planning.”
They were nearing the conservatory when they heard a cry and the crash of china against its brick floor where afternoon tea was being set.
“There goes another maid,” Elaine murmured. “Mother hates it when they break her china.”
But then a keening noise filled the air, and Rowena’s stomach knotted. The three picked up their pace and hurried through the wide-open doors of the conservatory, then, as if in accord, they all stopped in shock, staring at the tableau before them.
Rowena could hardly reconcile what she was seeing. Her cold, manipulative, austere aunt Charlotte was doubled over in her husband’s arms while an unearthly moaning came from her open mouth.
Charlotte spotted them in the doorway and put up one hand in a claw. “You stupid boy!” she screamed at her son. “You stupid, stupid boy!”
Hortense, Aunt Charlotte’s lady’s maid, rushed into the room and put her arms about her mistress.
“Take her upstairs,” Uncle Conrad ordered. “I will be up shortly to check on her. Give her some laudanum, if necessary.”
“It won’t help, it won’t help,” Lady Summerset sobbed as she was led out of the conservatory.
A wide-eyed maid appeared out of nowhere to clean up the mess covering the red tiles.
Rowena could feel Elaine trembling next to her, and Colin was as white as a sheet. Lady Summerset was never out of control. Never.
“Was that about my wedding?” Colin asked, his voice tight.
Uncle Conrad shook his head, and Rowena noticed that sweat had beaded on his forehead. “No. I had just delivered some news. I didn’t know how hard she would take it. I had no way of knowing.”
His voice broke and Elaine rushed to his side. “What is it, Father?” she cried.
For the first time Rowena spotted the crumpled paper in his hand. She stared at it, knowing that whatever it contained had caused her aunt’s undoing and her uncle’s grim countenance.
Her uncle held his fist up and stared at the paper. “Britain just declared war on Germany.”
Rowena froze and Elaine gasped. Colin remained motionless.
Even the maid, on her knees before them, stopped cleaning the broken bits of china.
Elaine finally found her voice. “Why on earth would we do that?�
��
“Haven’t you seen the newspapers, Lainey? Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany invaded Belgium. It’s a tangled knot of alliances.” Colin turned to his father. “I didn’t think Germany would invade Belgium.”
Rowena looked from her cousin to her uncle, horror rising in the pit of her stomach. “I thought Belgium was neutral.”
Her uncle nodded, his eyes bleak. “And like a house built of cards, all the countries fall.”
Elaine turned to her brother, shock and confusion marking her pretty face. “What does this mean for you? Will you not be going to India now? I don’t understand . . .”
Colin turned to his father. “I should get back to London. I don’t know what exactly the army is going to do with me now. They will be mobilizing and may not want me to ship out to India if they are bringing the 1st King’s Dragoon home.”
Elaine whimpered and Rowena took her hand.
Uncle Conrad nodded, though his mind seemed far away. “Don’t forget to say good-bye to your mother. She’s quite upset, you know,” he added accusingly, as if they hadn’t just witnessed his wife’s breakdown. “But it’s because she loves you, and she’s worried for your safety. War isn’t child’s play, my boy.”
Colin nodded and, after a squeeze to his sister’s shoulder, left the room. With a nod to Elaine and Rowena, his father followed him.
Rowena and Elaine stood frozen, still holding hands.
* * *
The world had gone mad, Prudence was sure of it. Overnight, it seemed, London had given birth to thousands of soldiers. Prudence tried to shut the sounds and sights of war out of her head, but newspaper boys, screaming headlines in their high-pitched voices, trumpeted the latest combat news on every corner.
Apparently war sold newspapers.
She picked up a pound of tea, wincing at the price. During the first couple of weeks following Britain’s declaration of war, people had panicked and bought everything they could get their hands on, causing shortages and skyrocketing prices. Even though things had settled down a bit, prices remained inflated, and Prudence worried that they would have to dip too heavily into her savings just to survive. That money was needed to pay Andrew’s tuition to veterinary school, but even that wasn’t her biggest concern. Her worry was that Andrew would enlist.