"He means well," she said. "Or perhaps he doesn't mean well — but it doesn't matter."
"It does matter. If I hadn't been here, he would have said more. I don't like or trust the man… Jane, if he should call again, please don't see him alone."
"Whatever can you mean — do you think that —"
"Tommy Keaton's been communicating with Lord Alex. Then, Horace Killock appears at your door. Please do as I ask, and don't see him alone."
Ferrymore Manor
Catherine, Henry, and Jane were on their way to Norfolk through cold, drizzling rain. Bunny had chosen to remain in London to finish her shopping before she returned to York.
Lord Ferrymore's August house party would be small, Catherine told Jane. "At this time of the year, it's just the Ferrymores' close friends for the start of shooting season. They have larger parties in October for their pheasant shoots. Lady Ferrymore is a close friend of Mother's, so we must accept their invitation. Kelly's escorting Lady MacKenzie and Lady Margaret… Ferrymore wants to show off his pheasants, which will be fattening up nicely… At the close of the harvest, he'll want to clear his land of rabbits and rooks. There'll be some enjoyable shooting for the guns."
She glanced at Henry. "A small party is ideal. It will serve to introduce Lady Margaret — and you too, Henry, to important members of the ton. My dear sister, I wish you to —"
Henry rolled her eyes. "Oh cut line, do. As if I needed more instructions on how to behave. Need I remind you? I learned etiquette at my school. The school you sent me to… I'm eager to see Ferrymore's stables. He's selling off several horses," Henry said, rubbing her hands together.
Jane noticed the book on Thoroughbred bloodlines which lay in Henry’s lap. Henry’s tone became disgruntled. “But there won't be anything worth buying. Ferrymore knows horses, and he'll keep his best hunters and brood mares."
"You're not —"
"Of course not," Henry said quickly. "I merely wish to see his horses."
Catherine narrowed her gaze on her sister, and Jane hid a smile. She knew that the two would argue about horses for the next half hour at least. Catherine would forbid Henry to buy any of Ferrymore's horses, and Henry would fire up…
I'd never thought to marry again, Kelly had said. She pushed his image out of her mind. Whether Major Baker-Cornhill married again or not was no concern of hers.
Suddenly she realized that Catherine and Henry were looking at her expectantly, and she hadn't heard a word. "I beg your pardon — I was wool-gathering."
Catherine smiled. "Henry was just telling me that you've brought your guns. The men will tramp through the marshland for the birds, but we could make up a small party of ladies for rabbiting, if you've a mind?"
"Certainly," Jane smiled. When she’d told Henry that she could shoot, and shoot well, Henry had believed her when she saw Jane’s Mantons.
Finally they reached Ferrymore Manor, and Lord and Lady Ferrymore came out to greet them.
They were both tall. His lordship was dark-browed and red-faced, with piercing blue eyes. His complexion revealed that he spent many hours outdoors as suited a country nobleman who only came to town for the season, and then unwillingly. He smiled a welcome, and nodded when Lady Ferrymore introduced him to Jane. "Lady Jane," he said, and bowed over her hand.
His wife nudged him aside, and linked her arm with Jane's. "I'm so pleased that you could come, my dear." Lady Ferrymore was a decade younger than her husband. Jane had met her several times when she'd schooled her ladyship's niece for her comeout a couple of years earlier. She dressed in a style which had been popular at the time of her own comeout, but which suited her. Jane had always found her kind, and liked her immensely.
Lady Ferrymore introduced them to the housekeeper, who guided them upstairs to their rooms, which were extensive, well-furnished; all were provided with private sitting rooms. Jane had expected Ferrymore Manor to be a small house, but the Manor was both large, and grand.
They'd arrived in the early evening. Lady Ferrymore was holding back dinner for them, so Catherine told Jane and Henry that they had to dress quickly.
When Jane, Catherine and Henry returned downstairs to the small salon where the guests had gathered before going in to dinner, Lady Margaret bustled over to greet them. "There you are — I was wondering whether you had arrived," she said, and to Jane's surprise, she embraced her.
"Henry tells me that you shoot," Lady Margaret said when she released Jane. "Kelly has a prejudice against ladies' shooting — so I will rely on you to change his mind for me. Why should ladies not shoot?"
Jane nodded. She was bemused at Lady Margaret's welcome, but she didn't see Kelly anywhere in the room.
"Some of the men went out for the day. They may be taking dinner with the neighbors," Lady Margaret explained.
Lady MacKenzie strolled across the room to greet Jane too. She was addressed in dark blue silk, with glittering diamonds at her throat, in her hair, and at her ears. Jane blinked. Obviously the lady wasn't a pinchpenny when it came to jewels, although those might have been gifts from her late husband.
To Jane's surprise, Lady MacKenzie made shift to engage her in polite conversation. "I'd forgotten something," she told Jane. "I remembered how well I knew your mother. Many years ago, of course…"
Jane knew instantly when Kelly had entered the room. She turned her head. He was talking to Ferrymore and another man, but he met her gaze. She looked away immediately.
When she next looked in his direction, she saw him exchange glances with Doyle, who was standing at the side of the room impassively. Then he and Doyle left the salon.
Meggie and Henry were occupied in chatting with their heads together. Catherine strolled over to Jane when Lady MacKenzie went to greet a friend.
"Doyle says that there is still no sign of Madame," Catherine said quietly.
"Do you think that Tommy is involved?" Jane still couldn't believe it of him. Madame had been in fear for her life, but surely she had to be mistaken? She couldn't see Tommy as a murderer.
Catherine shrugged. "I don't know… I too wish it were not so."
Then another lady came to speak to Catherine.
Jane wasn't alone for along. A gentleman she had met in London engaged her in conversation. The gentleman escorted her in to dinner, where Jane found herself sitting beside Kelly. She felt unsettled at that, but she had had long experience of maintaining her poise.
He nodded to her, and then turned to talk to the lady on his other side. Taking a cue from him, Jane discovered that her dinner partner on her other side was a local squire.
He was looking forward to the pheasant shooting later in the year he told her. "Ferrymore's breeding them — that's the way to do it now, if you want to have a good shoot. He promises us several thousand birds. Will you be returning to Ferrymore Manor for the pheasants?"
"I don't know," Jane admitted.
Although Catherine had said the the house party was small, Jane estimated at least fifty people sat down for dinner.
"My sister's been plaguing me to teach her how to shoot. She tells me that you shoot." Kelly said to her when the covers were removed for the next course. "It's not very well done of you. I've no wish to see Meggie with a gun in her hand."
She might have taken him seriously if his eyes hadn't been laughing at her. "Yes, I shoot. I learned from Alex. It's a useful skill — very often at Kennystowe, if we didn't shoot our dinner we would have had a meager repast."
He studied her. "So things are in desperate case for Alex — that's why he is so keen on finding the treasure."
"Yes. But mostly treasure hunting is a game to Alex. I'm sure that he'd sell to Mr. Killock if he weren't so convinced that the treasure exists — and if it does exist, he means to find it."
"Do you believe that the treasure exists?"
"No — I'm not romantic."
"You're a good shot?"
"I hit what I aim at," she admitted.
"And sometimes you hit what you d
on’t aim at too?"
She nodded her thanks to the footman who just set a plate down for her, and concentrated on the roast duck. It was delicious, she decided. However, there had been something in Kelly's tone. What did he mean?
Then the squire on her other side asked her question, and she had to turn to him.
Red-haired Lady Gamlinghay was also was of the party. Jane had felt someone's gaze on her, and she looked up, right into the lady's sharp blue eyes. Those eyes had narrowed on her in such a threatening manner that she blinked in surprise.
She knew that the lady had taken her in dislike, so she focused on her duck. When she next looked up the lady was still staring at her. How rude. She raised her own eyebrows and met Lady Gamlinghay's gaze. Surely the silly woman didn't think to intimidate her?
When the ladies left the gentlemen to their port and cigars and retired, Catherine took her elbow. "Watch little Lady Gamlinghay, she's taken you in intense dislike."
"I'm aware. She glared at me during most of dinner. I've never exchanged more than a word or two with her, so — "
"It's easy enough to understand. She looks on Kelly as her own possession." Catherine chuckled. "You're a rival."
Jane blinked. A rival? She blushed. She thought about that for a moment, and became a little angry. "Surely –" she began, but Catherine had already moved away.
"I sat between a vicar, and a schoolboy," Henry grumbled to Jane. "Ferrymore's invited half the county. You should be aware that they're all here for the gambling, and some of them are desperate gamesters. Avoid the gaming rooms."
In her years of bringing out the daughters of the aristocracy, Jane had become something of an expert at cards. It intrigued her that Henry was warning her away. "Very well then," she smiled. "I won't play cards."
Unfortunately, when Lady Ferrymore insisted that she partner Major Baker-Cornhill for whist against her hostess and another gentleman, she couldn't refuse.
Chapter 11
The day after they arrived, Jane took the girls out for a morning ride. The day was fine, with an early mist which soon burned off.
"Now you'll teach me how to shoot," Henry said when they'd surrendered their mounts to their grooms, and entered the breakfast room.
"Me too," Lady Margaret said.
"No, indeed not," Jane responded. "Not without your brother's agreement, Lady Margaret."
"But —"
Jane held up her hand. "No, my dear — no."
Glancing around, Jane saw that the large room was mostly empty. Only three guests, an older lady and two gentlemen, were seated at the long table. Several footmen were ready to help the guests, so they were soon seated, and provided with plates of kedgeree, garnished with chutney and sliced hard-boiled eggs.
Lady Margaret was persistent. "Very well, but I may accompany you when you teach Henry, may I not?"
Jane sighed. "Yes — but only with your brother's permission."
To Jane's annoyance, an hour later Lady Margaret told her that her brother had agreed. "Kelly thinks it's complete foolishness… He says that I may accompany you, but I'm not to touch a gun, and I'm to do exactly what you and Mr. Doyle tell me to do."
Catherine had agreed that Jane and the girls could go out shooting as long as Cormac and Doyle accompanied them. "Don't go out without telling me where you're going — and take a groom from the estate with you. The marshes can be treacherous."
Rabbits came out to feed at dusk, so Jane took the girls out for shooting practice in the early afternoon. Doyle and Cormac accompanied them, with two grooms from the Ferrymore estate. The grooms took them to the base of the small hill. They said that it was a safe area which many of the gentlemen used for shooting practice.
Earlier, before luncheon, Henry had come into Jane's room while Jane was readying her guns. After checking them, Jane casually loaded them.
Henry stared, wide-eyed. “I’m so envious of your Mantons… they’re the very best shotguns, are they not?”
"Yes," Jane said noncommittally. She wouldn't be drawn by Henry's questions about the source of the guns.
The guns were a gift from a lady whose daughter Jane had tutored. The lady was not of the beau monde, but rather of the demimonde — Jane had no intention of telling Henry that, nor telling anyone else. She'd promised the lady that she would keep the secret.
She smiled slightly, because not only did the lady's daughter marry into the ton, her new husband, who adored her, was an elderly baron. He'd introduced his wife to the lady Patronesses of Almacks, as well as to the Prince Regent.
The Mantons were were Jane's reward. When Alex had first seen the guns, he'd said: "you can't sell them, no matter how dire our situation becomes. They're yours, and one day you must pass them on to your own son."
"To your son my dear, because your son will Kennystowe's heir," Jane had responded. Whenever she thought of her conversation with Alex, she felt downhearted. By the time a Kennystowe heir was born, it was likely that they would no longer possess his patrimony.
When Doyle saw the guns, his brows lifted, and he stared at Lady Jane with a new respect. "My lady –" he became speechless.
Jane chuckled. She broke them, and wrapped them in one of her cloaks, then placed them in a canvas bag. "You're welcome to try them, Mr. Doyle. However, I'd like you to hide them when we leave the house. I’ve no wish to inspire gossip.”
The shooting practice area was several miles from Ferrymore Manor.
When they arrived, Doyle set up a broken branch on a tree stump as her target. She walked away, gauged the distance, then walked even further back from the target.
Glancing at Doyle, she saw that he was shaking his head in disbelief. It amused her that he doubted her. She calmly sighted the first gun, and the target branch flew into splinters. Then she fired again, and hit the stump.
After Doyle had set up another target, she casually did the same with the second gun. The men congratulated her heartily, and the girls looked at her with wide eyes. She grinned. "Well now… Henry, before you shoot, you need to practice loading your guns."
They returned to the house two hours later, and Henry followed Jane into her rooms. "I have an idea," Henry said. "I think it's most unfair that the major refuses to allow his sister to shoot."
"Isn't your shoulder sore?"
Henry nodded. She lifted her right arm, and winced.
"My dear, that's why the major prefers that his sister avoids firearms. You need to be careful that you're not injured… He rightly forbids it. He wishes her to make a good marriage, rather than be considered an oddity." She paused. "As you would be too, if it became known that —"
Henry chortled. "You've forgotten Catherine. She would never allow anyone to call me an oddity… most of the fashionable world is afraid of her." She thought for a moment, and frowned. "Sometimes I'm a little afraid of her too… Catherine can be frightening."
That made Jane laugh, because it was true. Catherine believed in swift and certain retaliation if anyone hurt one of her sisters, and she would never want to rouse Catherine's anger either.
Lizzie entered, and helped Jane to changed into an afternoon gown in the bedroom. Jane left Henry in her adjoining sitting room, after she'd promised that Henry could watch her cleaning her guns ready for the rabbit shooting at dusk.
"I have an idea," Henry said, after Lizzie had left them.
"What?" Jane opened her bag of cleaning cloths, gun oils, and the other accouterments of gun cleaning.
"A bet… Between you and Kelly. He's a good shot, of course, because he's had so much practice. But so are you."
"No."
"But listen, do — why not? Think of the money we could make." Henry sat on the small sofa, and leaned towards Jane earnestly. "You know what a demon Catherine can be about money — and I know that she's right of course. I have my allowance, but Jane — there's a horse of Ferrymore's that I must have. She's a wonderful mare, with just the bloodlines I need, and —"
“No, Henry."
"Please think about it." Henry hesitated for a moment. "I know that you're concerned about money for Kennystowe. I've told you that the people who come to these parties at Ferrymore are sad gamesters. You may be certain that there would be a great deal of money placed on such a bet."
"Catherine would never allow it, and —”
"Nonsense. Catherine would think it amusing. Why not? You’re scarcely a young miss — no one would think anything of it.”
"So you're determined to ensure that I become an oddity?"
"I'm determined to make some money," Henry said firmly. "You're an excellent shot. I've seen Kelly shoot — I’d say that you are fairly evenly matched. Here's the thing. Everyone will bet on Kelly. I'll bet on you both, and hedge my bets. It's the wise thing to do, but I'm sure that we would get wonderful odds on you. No one would ever suspect that you could out-shoot the major."
"No!" Jane glared at Henry, so that the girl realized that her decision was final.
Henry pursed her lips, and narrowed her gaze.
A shooting match against Major Baker-Cornhill was such a ludicrous idea that Jane thought no more about it.
A wager
Jane and the girls went out rabbiting that afternoon. None of the other ladies wanted to go out, most were recovering from the journey, and wished only to rest before dinner and a night of gaming.
As before, they were accompanied by Doyle and Cormac. Doyle had recruited two tenant farmers from the estate. He pointed out that they were likely to know where the fields with the most burrows were located.
They joined the main party of shooters, and won some mild attention, but all the men were focused on their guns and the wagers they'd made amongst themselves. They assumed that the women had come to watch.
Kelly hadn’t joined the party. Jane was annoyed at herself for looking for him.
Doyle moved his mount alongside Jane’s. “My lady," he said quietly. “The men suggest that we might do better if we leave the main party to hunt on the other side of the village. They’ve assured me that there are fields there that no one’s shot over yet.”
The Lady And The Military Man_Conquer My Heart Page 13