Amanda Scott

by Madcap Marchioness

  Alston brushed past the butler into the room, dismissing with a gesture the suggestion that he might care for refreshment. “Sarah,” he said abruptly, looking down his nose at her, “I stand upon no ceremony with you. I wish to be private with my sister.”

  “Do you, indeed, sir?” Sarah inquired with a lifted eyebrow. “This is still my house, I believe.”

  Adriana shook her head. “Don’t expose yourself to his ridiculous temper, dearest. He can scarcely eat me, after all.”

  “Very well,” Sarah said, rising to her feet. The skirt of her blue muslin gown swirled about her legs as, moving toward the door, she turned just before she reached it to speak again. “Porson will be just outside if you need him, my dear.”

  “I have never been more shocked in my life, Adriana,” Alston announced before the door had clicked shut behind Sarah and the butler. “Whatever are you about?”

  “Do sit down, Alston,” she said calmly. “I’ve no wish to strain my neck looking up at you.”

  “Your wishes, dear sister, are of the supremest indifference to me,” he said, moving several steps nearer. “You are behaving badly, and I mean to see that you cease to do so at once. Where is your husband?” When she did not speak, he snapped, “A home thrust, is it not? But I will have answers, my girl, and I will have them now. Then you will return to your home. First, I wish to know who was so misguided as to assist you in this latest start of yours. Tell me that, if you please.”

  “No, I will not,” she replied, her temper rising to meet his, as it had always done. “That information is of no concern to you. And as to where Chalford is, I presume at Thunderhill, unless he has begun his journey to Brighton. As Miranda no doubt informed you, I do not know precisely when he will join me here.”

  “I should be most surprised to learn that he even knows you are here,” Alston said. “Does he?”

  “Yes, of course he does.”

  “Then, pray inform me as to when he changed his mind about allowing you to visit Brighton. It is not so long since he apologized to me for denying you this pleasure, my dear. I told him not to distress himself, that forgoing a pleasure would do you good. How do you like that, eh? I’ll wager you did not know he had confided in me, did you?”

  He was so near now that he loomed above her, and Adriana knew that if she did not move, she would lose her temper altogether. Flinging her magazine aside and getting to her feet, she said, “You seem to forget, sir, that you no longer have the right to call me to account for my actions. Only Chalford has that right, and what he does or doesn’t do is no business of yours.” She turned away, her demeanor as haughty as his own.

  Alston’s hand shot out before she took a step. Grasping her hard by the shoulder, he spun her around to face him. “You’d like me to ignore your starts, wouldn’t you? But things are not always what we like. I am still your brother, and I still have every right to force you to behave in a manner that does not disgrace our family. When you offend me and mine, when you hold us up to public ridicule, then you may well believe that I will hold you to account. Indeed, you deserve to be beaten for your folly in showing yourself here at this house without Chalford.”

  “Take your hand off me, Alston. I haven’t the least notion what you are talking about.”

  “Oh, don’t you? Well, that’s all of a piece with the other, I suppose. How do you think it looks for my sister to show herself, alone, in Brighton without my so much as knowing she meant to come here? Answer me that. You came to Clifford’s house, avoiding mine. How do you think the tabbies will respond?”

  She managed to pull away at last, her eyes sparkling with greater wrath than ever. “I don’t care what they say. I came where I knew I would be welcome and where no one would question my motives. And what, may I ask, is so dreadful about my being here without Chalford? I am sure I am not the first wife to live outside her husband’s pocket.”

  “What you do after you have produced an heir for him is one thing, but having developed a reputation as an unconscionable flirt, despite my attempts to curb you, you dare not compound matters by behaving loosely so soon after your wedding.”

  “Oh, not an ‘unconscionable’ flirt, surely,” Adriana said, her voice now dangerously calm.

  The note of warning impressed the viscount not a whit, however, its only effect being to inflame his already lacerated temper. He was an articulate man, and he did not spare her, but she merely bowed to the storm, knowing from experience that his fury would blow itself out. His description of her actions and her character might have reduced a weaker woman to tears, but Adriana would have scorned to cry. Nonetheless, by the time he finished his diatribe and took his leave of her, her hands were clenched into tight fists and her face was drained of color.

  It was thus that Sarah found her. “My dearest,” she exclaimed, “what has he done? I ought never to have left you.”

  Adriana drew a long breath. “Your presence would not have deterred him,” she said, her voice perfectly normal. “If I look a trifle pulled about, ’tis from no more than the effort to restrain my own temper. Sarah, I have never seen him so angry, though God knows I have infuriated him time and time again.”

  “But he has no right to come the master over you anymore, Dree, so whatever he said, you need not heed him. No doubt that is why he seemed angrier than usual. He recognizes his impotence, his lack of authority.”

  “You may be right about that,” Adriana said with a rueful look, “but I own there was a deal of truth in the things he said, and he does not know the whole. Chalford will know.” She grimaced. “I may get that whipping yet, Sarah. Alston said I deserved one, just as you predicted he would, and I have just rather uncomfortably recollected Chalford’s once suggesting that George ought to beat Sally frequently. He said he—George, that is—was a fool if he didn’t take a firm hand to her.”

  “Well,” said her friend with a look of fond amusement, “Chalford will not beat you. I daresay he will not be best pleased over the way you got here, but you have said yourself that he never even raises his voice to you. And you have given him cause before, have you not? More than once, I’ll be bound.”

  “You know I have.” Adriana bit her lower lip. “The fact is that he wants a nice submissive wife, willing to bow to his every wish—indeed, willing to throw herself heart and soul into his precious castle. I cannot. I spent too many years confined at Wryde with responsibilities that … well, that …”

  “That were too great a burden for any young girl to carry,” Sarah finished for her when she hesitated. “You tried to become mistress of Wryde and mother to Miranda, all at once.”

  “Well, Papa was grief-stricken—”

  “Port-stricken, more like,” Sarah interrupted acidly.

  “And Alston,” Adriana continued as though there had not been an interruption, “could scarcely have been expected to come down from Oxford just to take us in hand. He did what he could during his holidays, of—”

  “I remember how it used to be when he came home,” Sarah interrupted, “so you needn’t try to make me think him a pattern card imposed upon by circumstances. You used to flee to us almost the moment you heard his horses’ hoofbeats on the drive. Mama was used to say you and Miranda would have been better to have lived with us or with some relative rather than at Wryde.”

  “Papa would never hear of any other plan, and indeed, I felt it my duty to stay, particularly after he gave himself up to his gout and began to remain at home. Even so, the place nearly went to rack and ruin before Alston married Sophie and finally was able to take charge. You know,” she added thoughtfully, “I never before thought about how kind it was of him to take us to London. Perhaps, like Joshua, he would liefer have stayed at Wryde.”

  “Stop it, Adriana, you are becoming maudlin.” Sarah’s voice was sharp. “If you think for one minute that Sophie would prefer ruralizing in Wiltshire to puffing off her consequence in London or Brighton, then you must be all about in your head.”

  Adriana gave
herself a shake. “Forgive me, Sarah, I am talking pure nonsense. I know it as well as you do. The fact of the matter is that I will babble about anything and everything rather than consider what is really on my mind. Since Alston took his leave, all I can think about is that Joshua may soon be here, perhaps in as much of a fury as Alston was, which I confess has me in something of a quake, since I don’t know what form his fury takes. Or, worse than that, he might not come at all.”

  “Goodness, why would he not come?”

  “Because he often does not do the things I think he will do,” Adriana said candidly. “Whatever shall I do, Sarah, if he simply makes up his mind to the fact that he chose a bad wife? What if, having left, I find I cannot go back?”

  Sarah, hiding a smile, did what she could to soothe these fears, but Adriana refused to allow herself to be consoled. Insisting that she would be but poor company, she saw her friend and Miranda off that afternoon to pay calls without her. Though Sarah had agreed that some solitude might do her good, she had insisted that Adriana not allow herself to fall into the sullens.

  “We have been invited to a concert at the Pavilion this evening, and I mean to see that you go with us,” she said firmly. “Alston won’t let anyone else see his displeasure with you, of course, but you will give the tattle-mongers food for scandal if you hide yourself away now that they know you are here.”

  Adriana agreed, deciding that the best way to deal with the emotions still churning within her was to take a good long nap. Thus, she retired to her bedchamber, slipped out of her muslin gown and into her bed. When the sound of the door opening, then shutting again, awoke her two hours later, she stretched, opened her eyes, and turned over, expecting to see Sarah’s tirewoman.

  Chalford leaned back against the door, his arms folded across his chest, his eyelids drooping as he surveyed his wife. “Are you enjoying your stay in Brighton, my dear?”

  “Joshua!” She sat up so quickly her head swam. “My lord, what … that is, how … ?”

  “Perhaps you believe I ought to have had myself properly announced,” he suggested gently.

  She stared at him, trying to see into his eyes, hoping they would give her a clue to his mood. She had read that eyes were like lamps, like windows of the soul, but where Joshua was concerned, the lamps were too often dim, the windows shaded. Even when he straightened and she could see his dark-gray eyes clearly, there was no more than a sort of flintlike look to indicate that he might be angry.

  “I certainly didn’t expect to see you just now in this room, sir,” she said, striving for that same calm and wishing her heart weren’t thudding in her chest. Surely it pounded so hard, he ought to be able to hear it.

  “I told Clifford’s people that I would announce myself. The footman kindly showed me the way to your door so that I might surprise you.” He moved toward her.

  Adriana felt as though her thudding heart had suddenly leapt into her throat. She reached for the fallen blanket, thinking to cover herself, but her hand stopped of its own accord. “Joshua, please, my lord, I know you must be angry, but—”

  “I was not overjoyed to find you gone,” he said, cutting in with that same even tone as he came to a halt beside the bed, “but your note explained your feelings well enough. I had not realized I had been behaving selfishly. I apologize. I never intended to force you to such drastic action.”

  “Oh, no, it was not like that, truly!”

  “No? Then you must explain to me how it was.”

  She stared up at him, wide-eyed. “Joshua, are you or are you not angry with me? Have you come to take me back?”

  “Why, no, my dear, on the contrary, I have brought your abigail, albeit under some protest, and your clothes.”

  “Then, you don’t want me back.” She fell back against her pillows. “I was afraid that you would not.”

  “What nonsense is this, Adriana? I will grant you that since I have been in the habit of directing persons who expect to be directed, I am out of the habit of considering wishes other than my own. When you first accused me of behaving selfishly, I thought you merely a trifle spoilt through having had so little parental guidance over the years, and I did not take your words to heart. I ought to have listened. You have succeeded in making that fact quite clear. I brought your clothes because I knew you could not have carried many with you on such a hasty journey—certainly not enough for a fortnight in Brighton.” He paused, smiling down at her. “I can’t be away that long, I’m afraid, but I can spare a sennight to please you, I believe.”

  “D-do you know how I got here, Joshua?”

  He looked out the window. “An ill-judged choice of transport, certainly, but I daresay, in view of my prohibitions, the only one you could manage. I didn’t know you numbered any of the Gentlemen among your acquaintance. You will no doubt laugh when I tell you that my first thought was that Braverstoke had conveyed you here aboard the Golden Fleece. Had he not chanced to call soon after Miskin discovered your letter, which had been blown to the floor by a draft from an open window, I should have labored under that misapprehension rather longer than I did.”

  “But how then did you discover—?”

  “Young Jacob is not yet sufficiently practiced in the art of deception to sustain a prolonged interview,” he said. “I’d have been here late last night, but we were becalmed near Bexhill.”

  “You brought the Sea Dragon?” When he nodded, she knew why Nancy was with him under protest. Sitting up again, she looked at him searchingly. “Joshua, are you truly not angry with me?”

  His mouth tightened a little before he said, “I believe I understand your actions. I don’t pretend to applaud them.”

  She had a sudden urge to beg his pardon for what she had done, but she ruthlessly suppressed it, telling herself it was only because he had stirred her compassion by seeming a little upset to think he had behaved selfishly. The fact was that he had behaved, if not selfishly, then certainly with arrogance. Lessons were often painful, but if he had learned one and had done so without a fuss, so much the better.

  When her conscience suggested to her that she was miffed at having failed to arouse his temper by her actions, she turned a deaf ear. It would have been easier for her, certainly, if he had reacted as predictably as Alston had, or as her father would have reacted under similar circumstances, but she told herself firmly that she was grateful not to have enraged Chalford and proceeded to act accordingly.

  There was no question of removing to another house, first because every house in Brighton was bespoken for the rest of the summer, and second, because Sarah and her husband made it clear that they would be mortally offended if Adriana and Chalford went anywhere else. After the Pavilion concert, they returned to Clifford House, where Adriana and Joshua bade good night to their host and hostess and went upstairs. At the door to the blue bedchamber, Joshua said briefly, “Come to me after you dismiss Nancy. I am in the room next to this.”

  She had first to endure a severe scold from her abigail, the effect of which, added to Joshua’s casual command, was to make her rather wary when she entered his room. He greeted her warmly and dismissed his man, but once in bed, with her head upon his shoulder, he asked gently, “What happened at the Pavilion tonight to set Alston goggling at me in such a way?”

  “I think he was surprised to see you,” she said carefully. When he did not respond, she tried to explain. “He was angrier with me than you are. He said I acted improperly in coming here without you, so no doubt he expected you to be angry, too, or not to come after me at all. He suggested, in fact, that you did not even know my whereabouts. When he saw you so cheerful tonight and being so attentive to me … well, I daresay he was surprised, that’s all.” She waited, hardly daring to breathe.

  “I must continue to surprise him,” Joshua murmured, turning his head to claim her lips.

  It was all she could do not to bite him. If he noted her stiffness toward him at all, however, he treated it only as a challenge to his skill, and his skills be
ing what they were, it was not long before she responded to them. If, by the time they slept, he had rather more scratches across his back from her long fingernails than he had ever suffered before, he no doubt put those down to his lady’s unbridled passion.

  By morning Adriana was feeling stimulated and not a little challenged herself, for a night’s reflection had convinced her that Sarah had been right. Teaching Joshua a lesson had not been enough. She had felt little satisfaction at hearing him acknowledge his failure in the past to heed the wishes of others before making decisions on their behalf. The fact was that she had known exactly what to expect from Alston when he discovered even part of what she had done, and she had not had the least notion what to expect from Joshua, though he knew the whole. That, in a nutshell, was what challenged her now. He was her husband; she ought to know him better.

  There was a certain amount of euphoria to be enjoyed, too, of course, for not only had Joshua followed her, but he had promised her a week in Brighton, and she was certain she would convince him, before the week was out, to stay longer. In the meantime, she decided, it would not be entirely out of the way to attempt to discover the limits of his tolerance. Therefore, when Clifford bore Joshua off with him to Donaldson’s Library, informing the ladies that they would take a dip in the sea before returning, Adriana promptly suggested another expedition to Madame’s little shop. Sarah laughingly agreed but warned her not to draw the bustle too tightly.

  “I mean to purchase as much as I can in the time we are here,” Adriana informed her. “I’ve no idea when the next opportunity will arise, and I have little faith that a Hythe seamstress will please me as well as Madame does. And do remind me, Sarah, if I forget, to have the bills directed to Joshua.”

  Not only with regard to her wardrobe did Adriana give herself free rein. As the days passed, the town began to fill with members of the beau monde, and the amusements to which the Cliffords and their guests were invited grew in number. Adriana blithely turned her attention to the enjoyment of every pleasure.