Testing Miss Toogood

by Stella Cameron

  “Did you follow the boy?”

  “No. I decided—”

  “Good.” Dominic cut him off. “We think alike. No point in getting into something unless we’re sure we can catch the man red-handed.”

  “As you say,” Nathan said. “Let’s hope we can resolve something this evening. Tomorrow I intend to go to Sodbury Martyr. I have business there.”

  Dominic turned cold.

  “Hattie ascertained that a maid, who has been working for her while Snowdrop looks after Fleur, read letters sent by Fleur’s family. The maid’s name is Blanche and Hattie says the girl confessed to sharing the contents with the aunts after they arrived. They asked what she knew, of course. Since she told the truth the girl’s to be given another chance.”

  “I’ve been too preoccupied.” Dominic shook his head. “I heard what the aunts said about Fleur’s family and I should have done something about it.”

  “Mmm.” Nathan’s bald stare wasn’t intended to reassure. “Fleur will have to be told the truth.”

  “I’ll be glad to do that,” Dominic said.

  Nathan stood and gave one of his secretive smiles. “I’m sure you will. My mission will be to make sure Squire Pool decides Letitia Toogood will make his son, Christopher, an excellent wife. You can tell Fleur that, too. Now I must see how the preparations for the ball are progressing and try to keep the ladies and the staff calm.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It’s part of my job, remember? When I return from the Cotswolds it will be time to take care of another matter. I cannot see a girl like Fleur return to that village unmarried after the Season, and I’m afraid it could happen because she shows no particular interest in any of the men who call. She likes Franklin Best but not enough to marry him. It seems the rest don’t make much impression at all.”

  Dominic knew he must not reveal his feelings but desperation gnawed at him. “What exactly do you intend to do about Fleur?”

  “I’m not ready to discuss it yet,” Nathan said. “We’ll talk within a few days. I shall be expecting to hear your plans for the monastery once our current unpleasantness is solved.”

  Dominic knew when he was being baited. He seethed, and only minutes after Nathan left, Dominic strode from his study—and all but collided with Fleur. She turned about as if confused, and showed signs of rushing away.

  “Good morning, Fleur,” he said, and she stopped. “I think we have a fine day for our ball preparations. I expect you’ve heard all the activity going on.”

  “Good morning.” She faced him and her pallor concerned him. The wound on her forehead had bruised but it wouldn’t detract from her appearance that evening. Not that he cared what anyone else thought of her.

  He found his voice again. “It has been discovered that someone read your letters from home.” Dominic explained exactly what had happened and a flush rose in her cheeks. “Please don’t be embarrassed. Nathan is going to see the squire mentioned. He will make sure Letitia and Christopher have nothing more to worry about there.”

  “How?” She looked hopeful and fearful at the same time. “I cannot allow anyone to make my parents feel indebted.”

  Nathan was right to see something very special in this girl. “That won’t happen. Nathan knows how to be subtle. I assure you his visit will never be mentioned by the squire or anyone else.”

  Her eyes shone through a sheen of tears. “Thank you then. I shall also thank Nathan when he returns.”

  He lowered his voice. “Have you thought about what I said last night?”

  “Constantly. But I know what’s right and what’s wrong and I also know that sometimes, what we want the most can make us eternally unhappy.”

  “Not this time,” he told her urgently.

  “Let it go. It will be for the best.”

  He saw that she would leave him there, and that her mind was made up. With great care, convinced she would push him away, Dominic rested his fingertips on the soft, white side of her neck. Fleur bowed her head a little and stood still.

  He turned his fingers and brushed lightly with the backs of them, then left them there, unmoving, a curl at her nape caught between finger and thumb.

  A moment more and she sped away.

  Another movement caught his eye. Just barely, he saw Nathan move quickly across the end of the corridor.

  So his brother was his rival. Fate had an evil sense of humor but now Dominic must play his own game. He strode into the hall—in time to see Nathan bend over Fleur and place her hand beneath his elbow.

  “McGee,” Dominic roared, producing the butler almost instantly. “Kindly tell the Marchioness and the Dowager that I have business in Town. I shall return in plenty of time for this extravaganza.”

  30

  Dominic cleared his throat and made sure his expression was bland. If he appeared smug then later, when an unexpected lady guest arrived, some member of his family would make connections he didn’t want made.

  The hour grew late but the ball at Heatherly was the event of the evening, perhaps of the Season, and most guests would arrive late after making rapid rounds of other parties. They would save the best for last and stay a long time.

  He suffered another inspection by Merryfield who picked more invisible specks from his master’s black coat.

  “May I go now?” Dominic asked, but he smiled at his man.

  “I should think so, milord,” Merryfield said and opened the door. “The timing should be perfect.”

  Dominic nodded and left his rooms. He went directly to Fleur’s door and knocked, knowing full well that every female member of the family would be gathered there.

  His mother opened the door and frowned at him.

  “I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t reassure my charge on such a night,” he said, and congratulated himself on his smoothness. The Dowager inclined her head and opened the door wider.

  He walked in, saw Fleur before a full-length mirror and stiffened his suddenly weak knees. Fleur looked back at him in the mirror and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. She busied herself twitching the skirts of her flame-red chiffon gown.

  Both of the blue chairs in the room had been turned for the aunts to sit in and have an unimpeded view of Fleur. Each of them repeatedly dabbed at their eyes with lace handkerchiefs.

  “Mrs. Neville told us the red was your idea,” Hattie said, gorgeous herself in dark green satin flounced and beaded at the hem.

  Dominic didn’t find it easy to speak but he said, “I believe I did mention it.”

  Leaning on the arm of Aunt Enid’s chair, Chloe propped her chin and wriggled back and forth. She looked at Fleur with admiration. “I’m to go to the ball, Uncle Dominic,” she said. “Snowdrop will look after me.”

  “But not for long,” Hattie said, wagging a finger. “Just long enough to see all the ladies and gentlemen.”

  Chloe gave Dominic a twinkly smile he couldn’t resist. “I’ve always liked you in navy blue, Chloe,” he said. “It suits your coloring.”

  The child dimpled.

  The Dowager looked at Fleur from all angles. “There’s no adornment on the gown,” the Dowager said. “So plain and so clever. I am not sure about this.” She lifted a diamond collar from its box.

  “What about this instead?” Dominic said, and produced a blue velvet box. “I had decided tonight was an appropriate time to give Fleur a gift to celebrate her Season and, in honesty, I did know a little about the dress.”

  If only Fleur didn’t appear to be steadily losing her composure. He removed a necklace from the box, approached her and lifted it over her head. When it settled in a V to match her neckline he fastened the chain of perfect diamonds so that a single, large, teardrop-shaped gem rested perfectly in the shadow of her decolletage.

  Every woman in the room sighed—except Fleur. Fleur met his eyes and he waited for her to tell him she couldn’t accept the necklace. Instead she said, “Thank you, you’re much too kind to me,” and his heart stopped beating
in that instant.

  The aunts twittered about what a thoughtful “boy” he could be when he tried. Hattie and his mother watched his face, and Fleur’s, and he was sure they saw too much.

  “Very well,” he said lightly. “I shall go down to help Nathan be a perfect host. Don’t be too long. We shall need your company.”

  He hadn’t fooled one of them with his excuse for the gift but Dominic found he didn’t care what anyone thought. Tonight he felt pleased with himself, apprehensive, threatened, but pleased. He also felt as if every nerve and sinew in his body sprang as he moved. This could be the night when they caught The Cat, but the burden of protecting Jane Weller weighed heavily on him.

  Slipping around a group of loud gentlemen, he entered the ballroom. As he’d assumed, the Beau Monde arrived in droves, chattering and exclaiming as they climbed the flower-draped staircase to join the other guests. From their jolly countenances he decided he had been right in thinking they would have made the rounds of a number of parties before arriving at Heatherly.

  Nathan spied him and made a “help me” face, but before Dominic could reach his brother, Lady Barbara Jacoby and her mother accosted him. Groaning wouldn’t be the thing. Raven-haired Barbara could hold her own in any group of lovely girls but he wished she would find another man to lavish with her longing.

  “Everything is quite beautiful,” Barbara told him. “You said you’ve never seen such buffet tables at any function, didn’t you, Mama?”

  “The Dowager has always put on the perfect do,” the woman said. A waltz began and she fell silent, giving Dominic a meaningful look.

  Barbara lowered her big, brown eyes and he saw her tremble. Damn it all. “I don’t suppose you’re free for this dance?” he asked, and with that he went unwillingly to the dance floor.

  With the aunts, Hattie and the Dowager surrounding her, and Chloe holding Snowdrop’s hand, Fleur suffered through the master of ceremonies’ loud announcements of their names.

  The dance floor lay below a gallery where blue-and-silver chairs surrounded tables with bowls of roses at their centers. Flunkies circulated, some wafting fragrant-smelling potpourri burners, others removing empty glasses and plates. More tables and chairs circled the dance floor on its own level.

  “Where should we sit?” the Dowager asked.

  “Down there,” the Misses Worth said at once. “We like to be in the middle of everything,” Miss Prunella added.

  “On any other occasion, that would be in the middle of nothing at all,” Miss Enid commented. “Since we never go anywhere.”

  Miss Prunella ignored her and they made their way slowly down wide steps and to a table in the second row from the dancing. Immediately gentlemen emerged to help the ladies get seated. Fleur couldn’t help smiling at Franklin Best who was the first to reach her, but her smile disappeared at the sound of a braying laugh. She couldn’t believe Mr. Mergatroyd had come at all but there he was, trailing a handkerchief from an upraised hand.

  A Mr. Stanton, whom Fleur remembered from several events, bowed over her and asked to see her dance card. Dutifully she put it on the table but the gentleman seemed slow to remember that it was not Dominic’s diamond he’d asked to see.

  “I see young Dominic is already cutting quite the figure,” Miss Enid said in her unforgettable, squeezed tones. “Pretty enough girl he’s dancing with. Who is she?”

  “Lady Barbara Jacoby,” Hattie said. “I think she has a serious case on him.”

  Fleur saw Dominic, a striking figure in black and the only man likely to tie his hair back to keep it from his shoulders. And the girl was more than pretty enough. Lady Barbara looked even more beautiful than when Fleur had last seen her dancing with Dominic. “I might be bold enough to say she’s in love with him,” Fleur said, hurting too much to curb her rash tongue. How could she presume, even for a moment, to think she’d make him a suitable wife?

  “Pish posh,” Hattie said. “Every woman in the room is in love with him—and with Nathan, from what I can see.”

  “I’d be in love with both of them if I wasn’t taken,” Snowdrop announced, swaying the skirts of the lovely mint-green dress “her Albert” had bought for her. She caught the amused looks of Hattie and the other ladies and said, “There I go again, forgetting my place.” Her naughty smile made them all chuckle.

  The chatter continued and Fleur was almost grateful when Franklin gleefully told her the next dance was his and flourished her card in front of her nose. With her hand decorously placed on the back of his wrist, he led her through the marvelous brilliance of the ladies’ dresses, and past perfectly dressed men, many in dashing uniform.

  He faced her, put one hand at her waist, and whirled her into the waltz. “It seems everyone only wants to waltz these days,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “I agree with them.” Franklin’s expression was gentle and engrossed in Fleur. “Why would a man want to trot all over the floor trying not to fall over his feet or miss a step when he can whirl a girl around like this?”

  “You are so agreeable,” she told him. “I love the waltz. It’s gay and makes the best of all the swirling dresses. I’ll tell you a secret, though. I never waltzed before I came to London and I’m sure my parents would disapprove.”

  Franklin twirled her with even more vigor. “You must have been born an expert at the waltz,” he said.

  When she had seen the ballroom for the first time, after she’d arrived at Heatherly and Dominic showed her around, she hadn’t gone down to the level of the dance floor and didn’t realize how deeply it stretched beneath the gallery. There were open doors around the sides. “I hadn’t noticed the doors until now,” she said to Franklin.

  He glanced about. “Yes, they open onto balconies.”

  “Yes,” she said, “of course. I’ve seen the balconies from outside, but I didn’t realize they were outside the ballroom. I expect you can walk down to the grounds from there. How lovely.”

  “It is,” he said and she thought he seemed sad now. “Do you know anything further about when your sister may visit? I shall keep my word and make sure she gets enough attention.”

  “I’ve written back but it’s too soon to hear from her again,” Fleur said. She saw Dominic and Lady Barbara dancing for the second time in a row. “I doubt if Rosemary will be able to join me while I’m here but thank you, Mr. Best.”

  “Do you think you might call me Franklin?”

  “Franklin, and I’m Fleur.”

  “I know. Thank you. The name is perfect for you.”

  No matter how Fleur tried to stop herself, she searched for Dominic at every turn, and found him easily enough. He laughed with his pretty partner and she looked at him with open admiration.

  Franklin swung Fleur around again and there he was, Dominic, not feet from her and looking straight at Fleur over Lady Barbara’s head. He raised his chin and stared. Fleur stumbled over Franklin’s feet but kept her eyes on Dominic’s. His intense, silent communication undid her. She wished she didn’t regret being with him the previous night, and in ways she didn’t. But she detested that the most memorable night of her life must be ruined by the conventions of Society—even as she knew she had been wrong not to stop the love-making.

  The only graceful way to cope was to finish the Season, keeping her distance from Dominic, thank the wonderful family for their kindness and go home. Once she was out of sight she would soon be out of mind. He would get over the guilt.

  “Franklin, may I sit down, please?”

  “Of course.” Immediately he ushered her from the floor and found another chair for the table, which had become crowded. “Sit there. Would you like some lemonade? Have you eaten? You don’t look too robust, Fleur.” He glanced at the bruise and cut on her forehead but didn’t mention it.

  “Lemonade, please,” she said, realizing how thirsty she was. She had not missed the vigilance of the men Dominic and Nathan had chosen to be on watch this evening. Franklin frequently swept his attention
across the room, as did Nathan, and Noel DeBeaufort, who stood behind Hattie.

  Gussy Arbuthnot and Victoria Crewe-Burns were already at the table. Nathan didn’t do a good job of pretending he didn’t see the way Gussy looked at him. Olivia Prentergast and her officer stood nearby. Fleur had heard that they were to set a date for their marriage.

  “Are you happy?” Hattie whispered, close to Fleur’s ear. “I mean entertained, anyway. I think there is something else on your mind and I wish you would confide in me.”

  “I am very happy,” Fleur said although Hattie was one of the last people she wanted to lie to. “I will never be able to thank you and your family enough for all you have done for me.”

  “Oh, I think you will,” the Dowager said, making Fleur jump and look over her shoulder to where the lady sat close behind her. “Difficult decisions must be made but made they shall be. Trust us, Fleur, and trust your family. Whatever happens will be for the best.”

  Fleur frowned at Hattie who wouldn’t look at her. They were hatching plots and that made Fleur nervous.

  “Oh, my,” the Dowager said, keeping her voice low. “Nathan.” She looked up at him until he bent over her. “Do you see who is here? An invitation was sent, an invitation is always sent, but she never accepts.”

  Nathan sank to his haunches beside his mother and looked gingerly over his shoulder.

  “Not there,” the Dowager said. “Just arriving.”

  The rapid drain of color from Nathan’s face intrigued Fleur a great deal. She ought to chastise herself for her curiosity but Society was so interesting. She looked to the top of the gallery stairs where a very slender woman stood, holding the bannisters. She wore black and all Fleur could make out from here was blond hair and a graceful carriage.

  “Lady Mary Eaton,” Hattie said. “I’m glad she’s here. It’s wrong that she decided to shut herself away for good after Charles Bennet was killed.”