His grin widened. “Science.”
“Your experiments…”
“Oh, yes. Hmmm. I think I’m feeling the need for a bit of experimentation right now…”
Chapter 24
The next morning Janelle huffed, “You’ve got that look on your face again, Edwina.”
“Hmmm?” Edwina tried to pull her mind away from memories of toe-curling, wet kisses and the caress of Prescott’s magical fingers, as she blindly watched the countryside sail by through the window of the coach.
“You look as if someone sprinkled fairy dust on your head and you’re in an enchanted haze.”
Turning away from the view, Edwina glanced across the carriage and was thankful to see that Prescott was still sound asleep in the seat beside Janelle. His head had fallen forward, his soft auburn hair listing over his forehead, and his face was relaxed, his lush lips slightly parted. With each bump in the road, his hair would quiver and his breath would catch as if he’d been slightly roused, then he would immediately fall back to sleep. The man managed to look adorable even in slumber.
Not that they’d done much sleeping last night. Other nocturnal activities had taken precedence, and Edwina didn’t miss her rest in the least. In fact, she felt practically electrified.
“There you go again.” Janelle waved a hand. “How are you to keep your wits about you at the Kendricks’ if your head is in the clouds?”
Edwina forced her brow to furrow and her gaze to focus. “Why, you’re being positively ridiculous, Janelle. I’m perfectly alert and the plan is foremost in all of my thoughts.”
“Good, because we may have a bit of a wrinkle.”
Now that got Edwina’s full attention. “What kind of wrinkle?”
Janelle’s blue-green eyes veered over to ensure that Prescott was still sleeping. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of him. Just in case…well, in case he didn’t agree with our tactics.”
“What are you talking about, Janelle? We can trust Prescott.”
“Of course we can trust him, Edwina.” Janelle waved a hand as if Edwina was being ridiculous. “It’s simply that I have it on good authority that Lady Pomfry was lately added to the guest list and—”
“Really?” Edwina straightened.
“Yes, and that same authority informed me that Lady Pomfry is intent on reclaiming a certain man’s attentions.” She motioned to Prescott. “You know who that might be.”
Edwina swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Do you believe…?” Looking at Prescott, she whispered, “You don’t think he still has feelings for her, do you?”
“It’s hard to tell with him. He keeps his cards facedown, this one. What I do know is that he likes the ladies he chooses to escort in the first place. And they did have quite the affair.” Janelle shrugged. “So I’m sure to some extent, he’s fond of her.”
A tightness suddenly constricted Edwina’s chest and she wondered why her stays felt so snug.
“Which is why I wanted to decide the matter before we inform him of our intentions,” Janelle continued. “If we decide, that is, to inform him in advance of how we’re going to deal with her.”
“Deal with her?”
“She might become a nuisance, but more importantly, Lady Pomfry might interfere with the plan.”
Edwina scratched her chin. “To be fair, I’m not sure that she will have a negative effect on our efforts. In fact, her involvement adds a certain…drama to the events, possibly providing diversion to cover our true activities.”
Janelle tilted her head. “Perhaps. But it also might bring a bit too much focus on you two, thereby making it all the more difficult to execute the plan. If Lady Pomfry is intent on Prescott, then the two of you might not be able to slip away unnoticed.”
“Would you be willing to act as an intermediary? Deflect her away if she becomes too overbearing?”
“You know I’m far too nice to make such pretenses, Edwina. Besides, she’s a shrewd woman, not so easily deterred.”
“Well, we must ask Prescott to reject her soundly.” Edwina liked that notion. Very much. “Give her the cold shoulder.”
“Prescott told me that he already gave her a firm congé, but she, very obviously, didn’t accept the rebuff.”
“Do you have a better idea, then?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” Janelle lifted her kidskin reticule from the floor. Pulling out a small satchel, she held it in her gloved hand.
“What is that?”
“Cat hair.”
“Cat hair? What do you propose to do with that?”
“Knock the fox out of the henhouse. I have it on good authority that if she’s anywhere near a cat, she falls into a fit of sneezes, her eyes go big as plums and she can’t stop itching.”
Edwina chuckled, she couldn’t help it. But at the look on Janelle’s face, she sobered. “You’re actually serious?”
“If we put some in Prescott’s pockets, then she’ll be unable to go near him. And think of how unattractive she’ll be.”
“I would not impose such suffering on anyone and, besides, don’t you think it’s a bit much?” Edwina raised her brows. “I mean, we’re all adults here…”
Stuffing the satchel back into her reticule, Janelle sniffed. “Ginny said that you wouldn’t do it, but I wanted to offer the option just in case things got difficult.”
“Well, I thank you for your initiative but doubt that we will have any use for such tactics.”
“There was someone else lately added to the guest list, Edwina, and I cannot decide if it’s significant or not. I would have had it sooner, but Lord and Lady Kendrick only completed the guest list last night.”
“Nothing like waiting until the last minute with an assemblage of guests heading toward your home.”
“Lord Kendrick is the kind of man who enjoys a bit of chaos. He’s bored unless there is something to become frantic about. Luckily for him, Lady Kendrick is the exact opposite. I often wonder how they manage, but by all accounts, they’re quite content.”
“Hmmm. Based upon the short notice, I would presume that this event is of Lord Kendrick’s making. So who is this new guest?”
“Sir Lee Devane.”
“Devane?”
“Yes, Devane.”
“What…?” Prescott roused, lifting his head and inhaling deeply. Yawning into his hand, he blinked bleary eyes. “Yes, what now?”
Janelle shot her a quelling glance. “Edwina and I were just discussing the fact that Sir Lee Devane will be joining the group in Essex.”
“Sir Lee? I’m not acquainted with the man. Who is he?” Edwina was relieved and a bit surprised to see that there was no hint of distress or emotion in Prescott’s emerald gaze in response to the name.
Janelle scratched her chin. “I would think that as an orphan you would seek out every family that shared your surname.”
“Janelle!” Edwina chided, her cheeks heating guiltily for thinking the same thing. “Don’t be such a nosing ninny.”
Prescott shrugged. “I don’t mind, Edwina, it’s a reasonable question given my background. But to answer you, Janelle, I might care about the name if I actually had an interest in finding my family. Which I don’t.” Straightening his coat, he looked out the window. “And besides, Devane was not my father’s name.”
Janelle leaned forward. “So you know who your father is?”
“Don’t answer that if you don’t wish to,” Edwina interjected. For all of her curiosity, she didn’t want to open old wounds that could pain him. “It’s really none of our business…”
After adjusting the hat on his knee, Prescott shrugged. “I don’t usually discuss such things, but here, now, well, I consider myself among friends.”
“You are.” Edwina smiled and her cheeks heated with warmth.
Janelle shot her a quizzical glance, then turned to Prescott. “Most assuredly you are among friends. I consider everything we say to be of the utmost confidence. Now tell me, who is your father?”
“His name was Ronald Ives.”
“That can traditionally be a woodsman’s name…” Janelle raised a brow questioningly.
“He was a gamekeeper, actually.”
“And your mother?” Janelle demanded. “What of her?”
“A gentleman’s daughter who was cast off by her family for marrying beneath her.”
Janelle tapped her finger to her chin. “So you’re not a bastard?”
“Only to those who annoy me.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes and Edwina could tell that he was making light to cover what had to be painful for him.
“Why don’t you use the surname Ives?” Janelle inquired.
Edwina shifted in her seat. “Really, Janelle, your prying knows no bounds!”
Prescott stared out the window a long moment, his gaze lost in memory. “After my parents married, well, Ives wasn’t around for long. He would send money now and again, but never bothered to know me. After my mother died of typhus—”
“Oh, how dreadful.” Edwina raised her hand to her mouth and Janelle shot her a quelling glare. “I’m so sorry.”
Prescott tilted his head, not meeting her eyes. “Thank you, Edwina.” He stared out the window. “After she died, I lived with a neighbor for a while, then when the money stopped coming, she left me at Andersen Hall. When Headmaster Dunn asked me my name, I simply picked the first one to pop into my head.”
“Devane.”
“Yes, it was scratched into a Bible my mother left me. A beat-up old edition that she’d said she found in a circulating library and had forgotten to return.”
Edwina’s heart pinched. “You must have been very angry with your father to spurn his name like that.”
“He’d ruined my mother’s life.”
“And yours.”
Prescott shrugged, brushing it off. “I hardly knew him enough to care. Besides, from all my mother told me, I’m better off having been without him.”
“I’m so sorry,” Edwina murmured.
His gaze was cool. “Don’t be. I’m not. I was so much better off than most; I had Andersen Hall and Headmaster Dunn.”
She didn’t believe him and it took all of Edwina’s self-control not to reach out to comfort him. For all of his offhand discourse, she knew that it could not have been easy for him. A flash of resentment shot through her, directed at his wretched family. How could they forsake a wonderful man such as him? Fools.
Pursing her lips, Janelle’s eyes narrowed. “Who were your mother’s people?”
“I don’t know.” Prescott exhaled. “Mother refused ever to speak of them, except to say that they cared more about pride and honor than their own flesh and blood.”
“So all those stories floating around town about you are wrong?”
Prescott’s smile was tight. “People like tall tales. I let them believe what they will and usually don’t discuss the truth; it’s far too tedious.”
“It doesn’t sound tedious to me,” Edwina cried. “It sounds downright tragic. And unsupportable. How could your mother’s family have tossed her out like that? Especially with a baby?”
“They probably didn’t know about me.” Prescott looked away. “I came long after the rift.”
“They might have guessed there would be a child!” Edwina crossed her arms, not knowing where to put all of this anger. “To abandon you goes beyond all reproach.”
“What Prescott’s family did was not, regrettably, uncommon.” Shaking her head, Janelle folded her hands in her lap like a cleric making a sermon. “I hate to say it, but Prescott isn’t the only one with relations who put great stock in pride, honor and fear of embarrassment. You’ve already tested your father, Edwina; I don’t believe that you’ve much of his indulgence left.”
Edwina looked away, anger and distress warring inside of her. She hoped that her father would do right by his daughter and never forsake her. But knowing him, he might see cutting her off as the right approach under certain circumstances. It was a good thing the engagement with Prescott would be long over before she had to face her father.
Somehow the thought only added to Edwina’s distress.
Janelle sniffed. “Which is why I believe that your little plan, Edwina, is going to smash egg right in your self-satisfied face.”
Prescott gently laid a hand on Janelle’s arm, as if to say, “enough”. “So what do you know of Sir Lee, Janelle?”
“He worked in the Foreign Office.” Janelle sniffed. “Keeping an eye on all foreigners’ whereabouts and performing other activities my connection was unwilling to discuss. All he did say was that Sir Lee’s activities were quite clandestine.”
Edwina stiffened. “Could he be the blackmailer? He certainly would come across many sensitive things in that post.” He also might have had contact with Ginny’s former lover Gérardin Valmont through his work at the Foreign Office.
“It’s entirely possible.” Janelle scratched her chin. “I propose that I get to know Sir Lee and appraise his character.”
Leaning forward, Edwina urged, “Prescott, if you would do the same? You’re good at gauging temperament and I would very much like to know what you think.”
“Of course. We can also make Sir Lee’s rooms the first on the list to be searched. In his position in the Foreign Office he may have traveled to Paris, hence the François Millicent shoes. He’d surely bring them along to such a gathering.”
Noises could be heard through the opened window and Edwina peered out. “We’re nearing Witham, our last stop to change horses before we reach our destination.” A small flutter of nerves quivered in her middle and she leaned back in the seat.
Prescott’s eyes met hers, filled with compassion and soothing. “The sooner the better, Edwina, to remove the sword of Damocles from over your head. All will be well. I promise you.”
Guilt twisted inside her gut. “I have a confession to make, Prescott…”
“Edwina…” Janelle warned with a glare.
“Prescott, I’m not being blackmailed, but someone I love dearly is.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry I lied. I just couldn’t allow you to say no and didn’t, well, didn’t feel that I could breach my friend’s trust.”
“Ginny?”
“How…?”
His eyes shifted to her, then Janelle. “I suspected as much when the two of you were so ‘cloak and dagger’ at the ball the other night. And Ginny’s the one person who seems able to draw you two together and make you more protective than a pair of mother hens.”
“You’re not angry?”
He shook his head. “In your place I might have done the same.” His smooth lips lifted at the corners. “Although I would have done a better job at pretending to have a salacious past.”
Looking out the window, she pursed her lips to stop them from lifting. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or insulted.”
“I have to agree with you, Prescott.” Janelle wagged her finger. “Edwina is not a very credible actress.”
“I know. It’s one of the things I like most about her.”
One of the things? There are more? Pleased, Edwina looked up, her gaze meeting his, and that familiar excitement flashed within her. His emerald eyes were filled with merriment, tinged with affection. Had he only been teasing? Or was she not the only one whose feelings were engaged? If his were, too, if only a little…her heart swelled at the possibility. But no, she was reading too much into the innocent little comment. Or was she?
He smiled. “Edwina doesn’t alter her mien when she engages different people. A duke gets the same kindness as a shopkeeper. And, whether she’s alone with me or out in the bosom of the haut ton, she always treats me with the same consideration. A rarity, in my experience.”
Janelle pounded her hand on her thigh. “But don’t you want to know Ginny’s secret, Prescott? She would want you to know, since you’re placing your neck on the guillotine for her. She said as much to me the other day.”
Prescott’s face looked doubtful
. “I don’t think there’s any benefit—”
“She had an affair with Gérardin Valmont.”
His eyes widened. “The infamous anarchist who published that dreadful book about the royal family?”
“The very one.” Janelle nodded.
“Even though the newspapers like to bring up his name every time a new voice cries out in dissension, he was barred from the country almost twenty years ago. Their affair must have been ages past and wouldn’t necessarily taint her reputation…”
“He’s the father of Ginny’s daughter, Judith, born during Ginny’s marriage to Lord Ensley. If Judith’s fiancé’s family learns of it, the wedding would be off, her daughter shunned and Ginny, well, she might as well become a hermit.”
Grimacing, Edwina shook her head. “Judith would never forgive her mother and it would be a disaster from which Ginny might not ever recover. Not socially anyway, which would destroy her.”
“It wouldn’t be good for The Society for the Enrichment and Learning of Females, either,” Janelle added with a sigh. “It’d be a disaster.”
Prescott’s emerald eyes blazed with determination. “Then we will ensure that no one learns of it.”
“Edwina is right.” Janelle beamed. “You are the stuff heroes are made of, Prescott Devane.”
“Janelle!” Edwina’s cheeks flamed.
“A hero, eh?” Prescott scratched his chin, smiling. “You said that?”
“I, ah, I was jesting…well not really, but…” Tossing up her hands, Edwina sighed. “At this rate your head’s going to be as big as one of those flying balloons.”
Grinning, Prescott leaned back and closed his eyes. “I can live with that.” That silly smile remained on his lips the whole way to the Kendrick estate.
And Edwina didn’t mind in the least.
Chapter 25
“I must confess, I expected the man to be taller,” Janelle murmured under her breath as she and Edwina strolled down the tiered steps leading to the garden.
“And younger,” Edwina added, holding her hand to the brim of her hat to block the afternoon sun. “He has to be almost seventy years of age.”
Sari Robins - [Andersen Hall Orphanage] Page 20