An Escapade and an Engagement

by Annie Burrows

  She looked at him and nodded. It was the best she could do. But it seemed enough for Richard, who smiled at her with all the tenderness anyone could expect from a newly engaged man.

  She wanted to weep for him.

  ‘Well, then, congratulations, I suppose,’ said Berry, a little doubtfully.

  Lucy stayed silent, but the spark of jealousy in her eyes said it all.

  And Lord Lavenham made an angry sort of growling noise as he took his seat at the head of the table.

  Lady Jayne bristled. She knew he had never liked her. And now he probably thought she was some kind of a drunken…slut, who could only get a proposal by creeping into a man’s bed at night. And the glower on his face as Watkins hurried over to pour his coffee would only confirm everyone’s suspicions about what had gone on the night before. And tell them that he thoroughly disapproved.

  It was the outside of enough. If Richard did not care, then neither would she give a fig for what any of them thought. Anger gave her the strength to lift her chin and freeze them all out.

  Richard watched her pulling on her public armour with disappointment. He much preferred her all flustered and shy.

  But he had seen pain flit across her face, too. She hated the thought of having to marry him. He only had to think of how many times she had protested when both her chaperone and his grandfather had insisted it was the only way out of the mess.

  He might be getting his heart’s desire, but it was coming at a very great cost to her.

  Being discovered together like that had solved the problem of how he was going to get her to marry him. But he had wanted to win her heart, not force her compliance. He wanted her to be thrilled at the prospect of marrying him. Not looking haunted. Ashamed.

  He glared at the other occupants of the breakfast table, who were adding to her distress with their mixture of avid curiosity and blatant disapproval.

  For two pins he would throw the whole pack of them out of the house!

  But there were another two days to go of this house party. And the matter between Berry and Miss Twining was not quite settled. Besides, if he turned them out in anger they would all go straight back to Town and start spreading the kind of malicious gossip about Lady Jayne that would taint their marriage for years to come. It would be better to carry on as normal.

  ‘Do we have anything in particular planned for our guests’ entertainment today?’ he asked his grandfather.

  Lord Lavenham glowered at him for a moment, before replying, ‘With the weather being so unpredictable, I thought to have some targets set up on the lower lawn for some archery. Not too far for the ladies to run back to the house if it rains.’

  Under cover of a muted chorus of approval, Richard leaned and whispered in Lady Jayne’s ear.

  ‘Since nobody else is likely to want to brave the weather, I think we should go out for a ride together. I need to talk to you privately. Will you meet me at the stables?’

  It was so different from the way he’d ordered her to meet him clandestinely before. And her feelings about doing so had completely changed. She needed to speak to him. If they put their heads together, surely they could come up with some way to extricate themselves from this unholy mess.

  ‘Of course,’ she said.

  If nothing else, she owed him an apology.

  Several apologies.

  * * *

  ‘You look lovely,’ he said, when she walked into the stable yard an hour later, wearing the same riding habit he’d admired so much before. The military style of it reminded him, again, that she would have made a wonderful soldier’s wife. Though if he had still been a serving soldier—a pang shot through him—he might never have met her. He thanked God, for the first time, that he had been obliged to sell his commission. What would his life have been like had she never come into it? It didn’t bear thinking about.

  Lady Jayne was eyeing Ajax with a troubled expression as his groom led him to a mounting block.

  ‘Is he safe for you to ride?’ she asked, as the beast flung its head up and down, then skittered sideways on the cobbles in his delight at getting out of his stall.

  ‘Oh, yes. He’s just eager to get going. He will enjoy our gallop as much as we shall.’

  ‘Gallop? Are you sure? Richard, last time we went out you were on that awful slug of a horse…’

  ‘Last time I went out,’ he corrected her, ‘Ajax and I came to an understanding.’ He clapped the horse on the neck. ‘Didn’t we, old boy?’

  ‘You rode Ajax last night? When you went after…?’

  Richard shot her a look, warning her not to discuss last night’s events in front of the grooms. Then he swung himself up into the saddle with an athletic grace that almost made her gasp.

  A groom helped her mount, and they had hardly passed out of the stable yard before Richard turned to her with a grin and said, ‘Race you?’

  ‘Do you mean it?’ She had never had anyone willing to race with her before.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Well, because…’ She nibbled at her lower lip. When she had gone to live with her grandfather he had decreed it was unlady-like to go careering all over the place astride her pony, and had set a groom to teach her the technique of riding side-saddle. It had been one of the worst restrictions he had enforced upon her behaviour.

  But Richard wanted to race?

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘The Workings,’ he said, and dug his heels into Ajax’s flanks.

  ‘That is not fair!’ she cried as he set off.

  And Mischief seemed to agree. For the next few minutes both she and her horse were equally determined to catch up with the males of the party. By the time she reined in at The Workings she was so exhilarated she scarcely felt any of the aches and pains that had so plagued her at breakfast.

  ‘Oh, you beast!’ she said, laughing down at Richard, who had already dismounted and was unlocking the door to the pavilion. ‘You cheated.’

  He came and helped her to dismount.

  ‘You would surely not wish me to let you win a race, would you?’ He took Mischief’s reins and led her to the iron ring set in the wall to which he’d already tethered Ajax.

  ‘No, but neither do I think you should take unfair advantage. I was riding side-saddle, you know, which is very far from easy.’

  ‘But I have a wounded leg, which cancels out the disadvantage of your awkward saddle.’ Having securely tethered both horses he turned and made his way back to her.

  ‘But you still set off without giving me due warning,’ she protested. ‘And anyway, you said your leg was not that bad.’

  ‘I do not think riding side-saddle is that bad, either. I have seen ladies riding side-saddle leading the hunting field. Looking quite magnificent.’

  He ran his eyes over her figure in a way that made her acutely aware of the fact that he’d already seen most of it naked. She felt herself blushing with pleasure at his blatant appreciation. Not only had that statement indicated he didn’t object to behaviour her grandfather decried as hoydenish, but Richard also seemed to have pleasant memories of that morning’s interlude.

  Pleasant enough that he was not dreading consummating their marriage, anyway.

  ‘I think you are getting away from the whole purpose of coming out here,’ she said, before his kindness went to her head and she started to entertain the misapprehension that he actually wanted to marry her.

  ‘The purpose?’

  The w
hole purpose of coming out here had been to get her alone and hopefully persuade her that marrying him was not such a bad idea. The way she’d run straight to him when she’d been so frantic about Milly proved she trusted him. And the fact that some of her concern was for his feelings also indicated that she cared for him to some extent. For a while there, last night, he had begun to hope she was beginning to feel physically attracted to him, too… But then, when she had looked so appalled at the prospect of marrying him, he had worked out what must really have been going on in her head. Alcohol often had the effect of making people feel amorous. And half-asleep, and probably waking from a dream about the man she did love…

  The guilt he’d felt then had all but crushed him. How could he have taken advantage of her trusting nature? How could he have deceived himself into thinking she was truly responding to him when she had been so sleepy, so befuddled…?

  ‘Is this a dream? Are you going to kiss me?’

  He had only to recall the shock on her face when she’d fully woken—the number of times she had said no!

  She had not really been aware of what she was doing. Or, more importantly, with whom.

  ‘You must tell me what has become of Milly,’ said Lady Jayne earnestly. There was a tension in the air between them she did not know how to deal with. A look on his face she wanted to dispel. ‘She has not come back. And neither has Lord Halstead. Yet nobody seems to have got wind of the fact they ran away together.’

  ‘Well, apart from the fact that they did not, they have far more juicy gossip to discuss today, do they not? Our supposed night of drunken debauchery.’

  She hung her head. ‘At least my foolish behaviour has resulted in some good, then. Everyone is so busy sniggering at me they have hardly noticed Milly is missing.’

  ‘Well, nobody is ever very interested in the fate of a lady’s companion. And Lord Halstead had the foresight to leave a message to the effect that he had been called away on urgent business. But they will never connect her disappearance with that of Lord Halstead anyway—not once she has married my valet.’

  ‘Your valet? I don’t understand. Why would she do something like that?’ As if it wasn’t bad enough for Milly to run off with another lord, now he was telling her she was marrying someone else entirely.

  He glanced up at the sky. ‘Shall we go inside? It looks as if it’s going to rain any minute.’

  He opened the door for her and she preceded him into the summer house built to take advantage of the view down into the valley and the canal that ran along its floor.

  ‘Yes, thank you, Richard. But… Well… Though I can see that marriage was a better option for Milly than…’ She trailed off uncomfortably and walked across to the window. ‘But to your valet?’

  ‘Don’t you recall me telling you that the man came hotfoot from London when he thought Milly had disappeared? It turns out that the poor sap has been head over ears in love with her for months, but never dared speak up because he thought he had nothing to offer her. Which showed me that—’

  ‘Wait a minute… That is the end of the tale, to be sure. How did you prise her away from Lord Halstead?’

  ‘With remarkable ease. He took one look at my face, understood I meant what I said, and beat a hasty retreat.’

  ‘I suppose the pistol you took with you had nothing to do with it?’

  He grinned. ‘I might have had it in my hand when I told him I took exception to his sneaking off in the middle of the night with one of my guests.’

  She could just picture the scene. Richard could be downright intimidating when coming across couples meeting clandestinely—even without a pistol to back up his words.

  ‘And then Milly decided she’d rather accept your valet’s proposal?’ She frowned in perplexity.

  ‘Not quite. To start with I was just seeking a way to get Milly out of Courtlands. I was so angry with her. I decided to track Fred down and get him to take her back to Town. She didn’t want to go, needless to say. She even tried to make me believe it would break her heart to be forced to leave my side,’ he finished, with a distinct curl to his lip.

  ‘You didn’t believe her?’

  ‘I have known for some time that she doesn’t love me.’

  ‘No!’ She walked over to him and seized his hands, her eyes full of sympathy.

  ‘Oh, yes. In fact I think she said it at first in a blind panic. You know—when I told her and Fred that because I’d come into the title I would have to remove to Lavenham House and find a suitable wife. I think she really thought I would just turn my back on the pair of them. And she employed the one weapon she knew I was powerless to resist.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she breathed. ‘I know just what you mean. If someone says they love you, when nobody else ever has, it gives them a terrific hold over you…’

  ‘Exactly so.’ His voice gentled. He took her to the window seat and they sat down, still holding hands. ‘She had got to know me well enough by then to understand the power of such a declaration. But even when she first made it I wasn’t completely sure I believed her. I had always thought I was…well, her ticket out of a nasty situation. We were about to push into France. She’d seen how brutally the Portuguese and Spanish peasants treated the French soldiers and anyone associated with them. She was just starting to become a woman, and a target for men’s lust. Her father wanted her safely out of the way in case the French populace gave a similar reception to English troops. I don’t blame him for that. Or her for going along with his plans. I couldn’t have asked for a better nurse, or a more cheerful companion through all the months I spent recovering. But she never wanted me for myself. Only what I could provide for her.’

  ‘Cream horses and a box at the theatre,’ put in Jayne. ‘She was just the same over the red-satin dress. She’d seen one once, and promised herself if ever she had the means she’d get herself one just like it. Without once thinking about how inappropriate it was, or what she might have to do to earn it.’

  ‘She came to her senses when she saw the state Fred had drunk himself into after he’d not been able to dissuade her from running off with Lord Halstead. That reached her in a way perhaps nothing else could have done. He absolutely worships the ground she walks on. And it turns out she needs a man to worship her more than cream horses or red-satin dresses. Though it helped when I promised to secure their future prosperity by buying them a tavern for a wedding present,’ he added dryly.

  ‘A tavern?’

  ‘Yes. It is every soldier’s dream to leave the army and own his own tavern. By the time I left Milly was full of plans for their new venture.’

  ‘She will make a great success of it, I’m sure,’ said Lady Jayne bleakly.

  Milly was a competent person. Richard had told her once before that she was well able to look after herself. And she could just see Milly ordering supplies, bustling about and charming her customers.

  ‘But I warn you,’ he said sternly, ‘I don’t want you to go seeking her out and having any kind of association with her in future. She is capable of causing you no end of trouble.’

  ‘I don’t care about that!’ She reined in her flash of temper, lest he think it was directed at him. ‘I just don’t think I will ever be able to forgive her for the way she used you and betrayed you.’

  His heart swelled with love. Though he was not going to read too much into her reaction. She considered him her friend. He looked down at their linked hands. She would feel as outraged on behalf of anyone she
considered her friend. It was the kind of person she was.

  ‘I am so sorry, Richard, for the way it has turned out,’ she said, looking at his downbent head. ‘It is humiliating to discover that a person who has said they love you has only been using you all along.’ And then to find himself compromised into marriage, while he was still trying to recover from Milly’s perfidy.

  She wanted to put her arms round him and kiss away his hurt. Milly had said all she would have to do would be to offer him that sort of physical comfort and all would be right with his world.

  But then Milly hadn’t really been in love. She didn’t understand that there was no substitute for the person you loved. Besides, she didn’t want to be a substitute for anyone else. She didn’t want Richard to be thinking of Milly when he kissed her.

  ‘We’re trapped in such a terrible situation.’ She let go of his hand to rub at her forehead.

  He looked up at her sharply.

  ‘I only wish I could think of some way out.’

  Panic chilled his gut into a block of ice. She was so resourceful she would soon come up with dozens of ways to wriggle out of this marriage—if he didn’t put a stop to it right now.

  ‘There is none. So do not even bother trying to think of escaping,’ he said sternly. ‘Your reputation would never recover if I did not put a ring upon your finger now. And mine would be irrevocably tarnished. People would think I was the kind of man who would turn my back on a woman after seducing her. Do you think I want that kind of notoriety?’

  ‘N-no. Of course you don’t. But it is so unfair! You did not seduce me. And I do not want you to have to pay the price for my own reckless…stupid… Oh!’ She leaped to her feet and began pacing up and down in agitation. ‘There must be some way out.’

  ‘Well, there is not one. We have announced our betrothal to our guests. In spite of his protests my grandfather will even now be sending the official announcement to the papers. It is too late to stop him.’