A Lady of Notoriety (The Masquerade Club)

by Diane Gaston - A Lady of Notoriety (The Masquerade Club)

  She held his arm tighter. ‘Those must have been difficult days.’

  ‘Difficult,’ he agreed. He stopped and lifted her chin up with a finger. ‘Difficult, but happy. I do not regret a moment of it.’

  ‘Truly?’ She was surprised.

  He started walking again. ‘Only the end,’ he murmured. ‘When you were gone.’

  She lowered her head. ‘I made so many mistakes. I should have told you who I was that first day.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ he asked.

  ‘I was cowardly.’

  ‘Cowardly?’ He sounded surprised.

  She’d promised she would be honest with him. ‘I knew you would hate me. I did not want to face that. Oh, I did not want you to be forced to accept care from someone who had been such a torment to your family, but mostly I did not want to face being disliked.’

  He squeezed her hand. ‘Instead, you wound up being nursemaid and costing yourself a lot of money.’

  ‘Not a lot of money,’ she said. ‘At first I thought it would only be for a day or two. It didn’t seem like such a bad thing to pretend I was not Lady Faville for a day or two. But then—’

  He interrupted. ‘But then I refused to have my family contacted and you were stuck with me.’

  ‘But you also became my friend,’ she added. ‘I did not want to spoil having a friend.’

  She glanced up into his face. His expression was puzzled, but full of sympathy. How rare, to be looked upon with sympathy.

  Likely she did not deserve it. ‘A wise woman once told me that even little lies grow big. That is why one should not lie. I knew that and still I did it.’

  They came upon a patch of spring flowers and discussed the variety of each. She was no better than he at naming flowers. Perhaps she would add gardening to the list of activities to pursue when she returned to the country.

  ‘I should tell you that Toller is coming to work for me,’ she said later. ‘He is coming in a few days.’

  ‘Toller?’ His brows rose. ‘I am surprised. He seemed so very attached to Thurnfield.’

  She smiled. ‘I think he is rather attached to a Swiss lady’s maid.’

  ‘Ah.’ He laughed. ‘I take it you do not really need another footman, but you hired him anyway.’

  She felt her face turn red. ‘One can always use another footman.’

  * * *

  Hugh glanced down at the woman walking beside him, blushing at his suggestion that she’d hire a footman to please her lady’s maid. Was this the same woman who’d pursued Xavier so relentlessly? Xavier said it had been because she thought they would have made a handsome couple.

  And so they would, a contrast of dark and light, the handsome man and beautiful woman.

  He walked in silence for a while, unable to forget her past and unable to reconcile her with the woman she seemed to be now.

  He finally spoke. ‘What was it like for you to see Xavier again? I assume the pianoforte shop was the first time you’d seen him.’

  She did not answer right away. ‘I felt I deserved his anger and suspicion.’

  That was not the answer he sought. ‘You were unrelenting in your pursuit of him two years ago. Was that all you felt?’

  ‘I felt sorry he had to encounter me. I am certain he would have preferred never seeing me again.’ She said this without any tone of resentment.

  He stopped and made her face him. ‘Daphne, what I want to know is, do you still want him? Did that attraction you had for him return?’

  She turned away while he spoke, but slowly lifted her gaze to his. ‘No. That left me a long time ago. After the fire. The fire I caused, I mean.’

  He believed her. He was unsure how long it would last, but at this moment he was entirely certain she spoke the truth.

  ‘Daphne,’ he whispered, wanting more than anything to touch his lips to hers and feel their warmth, their singular taste.

  She glanced around and stepped away. They were in plain view and there were people who would see.

  He smiled and leaned down to her ear. ‘Perhaps later.’

  The colour rose in her face again, making her even more beautiful than she’d been a minute before.

  ‘We should walk,’ she said.

  They continued on the path and were halfway to the Serpentine when Hugh spotted another couple walking in their direction.

  ‘Blast.’

  ‘What is it?’ she asked.

  ‘My mother and General Hensen.’ Of all the luck. His mother would be walking in the park at this same moment.

  ‘General Hensen? I remember him from the Masquerade Club.’

  They were still some distance away, but close enough to recognise faces. His mother had seen him, he was certain. He was equally certain she had noticed Daphne.

  ‘We do not wish to encounter my mother, however,’ he said. Ned had been rude enough to Daphne. There was no telling how his mother would behave. ‘Let’s turn here and leave by the Grosvenor Gate.’

  They could do so without looking as if they were fleeing. Which they were.

  ‘I understand,’ Daphne said. ‘You do not wish to be seen with me.’

  She was correct. He did not wish to explain something he did not understand himself, and his mother would demand an explanation of why he was strolling through Hyde Park with Lady Faville.

  * * *

  Their camaraderie disappeared. After spying his mother, it seemed to Daphne that all Hugh wanted was to take her home and be rid of her.

  The dagger twisted in her heart again, but she understood. His mother would hate her. What other choice would a mother have?

  If only Daphne could shut out her past and its consequences. If only she could truly emerge as Daphne Asher and start anew, then perhaps she would have a chance to be with Hugh.

  He walked her to her door.

  She offered her hand to shake. ‘Goodbye, Hugh.’ It seemed she was always saying goodbye to him.

  He took her hand, but pulled her into an embrace. ‘I am sorry our walk was cut short,’ he said. ‘May I call upon you tomorrow?’

  Her eyes widened. ‘Call upon me?’ She would see him again? ‘Yes. Yes. Of course.’

  He leaned down and lightly kissed her on the lips.

  Chapter Eighteen

  By the time Hugh returned to the Masquerade Club, the message was waiting for him. From his mother. Summoning him to dinner.

  He was not fooled. She’d seen him with Daphne.

  He might skip dinner, send his regrets, spend these next few days with Daphne and leave the family out of it, but that seemed a cowardly thing to do. He’d face his mother and explain.

  If he could.

  * * *

  He arrived at the appointed hour and was ushered in to the drawing room. To his surprise, Ned and Adele were there, with Xavier and Phillipa. So this was to be a family meeting? Family pressure.

  He glanced from one to the other. ‘What? No Rhys and Celia? Or are they not family enough?’ More likely they would inject some sanity into the situation to which his mother would object.

  ‘Rhys had to leave town,’ Xavier said. ‘What is this about, Hugh? None of us knows.’

  Hugh crossed the room and poured himself a glass of claret from a crystal carafe on the side table. ‘I expect we will find out soon enough.’

  A short time later, his mother entered the room on the arm of General Hensen. ‘So good of all of you to come.’ She glanced at Adele. ‘Are you feeling well, my dear?’

  ‘Mostly,’ Adele responded. ‘Well enough to attend the opera with you and the general, I am sure.’ The opera was the big entertainment of the evening, after which the Masquerade Club would flood with more patrons.

  His mother smiled. ‘Excellent.’ Her gaze rested
on Hugh for a moment, but she addressed them all. ‘I am so glad you could come, because this seems to be a family matter we should discuss together.’

  ‘What is it, Mother?’ Ned asked.

  She turned to Hugh. ‘Tell them, Hugh.’

  He did not waver. ‘Tell them what, Mother?’ He knew precisely what she meant.

  She lowered herself into a wing-back chair, as regal as a queen on her throne. ‘Do not play coy with me, Hugh,’ she scolded. ‘Tell them who you were with in the park today.’

  He took a sip of his wine. ‘You tell them, Mother. I expect you will imbue the story with more drama than I.’

  She narrowed her eyes at him and turned to the others. ‘The general and I saw Hugh walking in the park with Lady Faville.’

  ‘Lady Faville?’ Adele piped up. ‘Isn’t she the one who tried to burn down the Masquerade Club?’

  ‘It was not quite like that, Adele,’ Phillipa said.

  ‘Hugh!’ Ned turned on him. ‘You sought out her company when you knew I wanted you to have nothing to do with her?’

  ‘It was not for you to tell me what to do,’ Hugh shot back.

  Ned straightened in outrage. ‘As head of this family, I dare say it was my concern.’

  His mother gave Ned an approving look, but her expression turned stern when she addressed Hugh again. ‘Why you were with that woman, Hugh?’

  He glared at her. ‘What if I told you I was courting her?’

  ‘Courting her?’ his mother cried.

  ‘Are you mad?’ Ned took an angry step towards him.

  ‘I did not realise you knew her,’ his sister said, her voice tight, but absent of Ned’s and their mother’s outrage. She, over all of them, was entitled to be outraged.

  He had no wish to hurt her. ‘I became acquainted with her before returning to London,’ he responded.

  He was still not ready to share the whole story. In fact, he much preferred his family’s typical uninterest in his affairs.

  ‘Oh, yes, Xavier said she had been on the Continent.’ Phillipa glanced at her husband. ‘He also said you saw her at one of his shops today.’

  Ned pointed to Xavier. ‘She has come back to try to ruin our sister’s marriage, you mark my words.’

  Xavier raised both hands. ‘I want nothing to do with her.’

  ‘She is dangerous!’ Ned insisted.

  What right had he to judge her?

  His mother broke in. ‘She is not the sort of woman we would desire to be a part of our family, so courting her is out of the question.’

  Hugh had forgotten. Ned had inherited his priggish behaviour from their mother.

  She went on. ‘I presume you were merely taunting us with the idea of courting her, but Ned is correct. She is dangerous. We managed to keep the whole affair of the fire out of the newspapers, but there is no telling what new scandal she might bring upon the family. If she is currying your favour, Hugh, undoubtedly it is so she can contrive to be near Xavier.’

  ‘Are you certain, Honoria?’ the general asked. Brave man. ‘She seemed a charming woman to me when I met her years ago.’

  His mother gave him a quelling look.

  ‘Remember, she nearly destroyed the Masquerade Club,’ Ned told him. ‘Where would the family be if she had succeeded?’

  ‘I absolutely forbid you to see that woman!’ his mother said. ‘Think of what talk there would be. Think of how dangerous it would be to give her such access to Xavier. It will ruin Phillipa’s happiness.’

  Hugh turned to Phillipa. ‘Do you think she seeks access to Xavier?’

  She shrugged. ‘I do not know what to think, but I certainly believe it is possible that is her motive—’

  Xavier broke in. ‘No matter what, she will not ruin Phillipa’s happiness, because I will not allow that to happen.’ He took Phillipa’s hand in his. ‘I caution you, Hugh. Daphne has a way of using her charm to get what she wants. She can play a role quite convincingly.’

  ‘See?’ Ned broke in. ‘She is duplicitous.’

  His family’s worries were ones that hid deep inside him, Hugh had to admit. At the same time, he yearned for the Daphne he’d known at the cottage, the Daphne who had looked so vulnerable at the piano shop and who had walked with him in the park this afternoon. The more his family spoke against that Daphne and told him what he must do, the more Hugh chafed at their words.

  He put down his glass. ‘Was there any other reason for summoning me here?’ he asked his mother.

  ‘This is enough of a reason.’ His mother sniffed.

  Mason, the butler, who undoubtedly had been listening to the whole exchange, knocked on the door. ‘Dinner is served, my lady.’

  His mother rose. ‘Thank you, Mason.’

  The butler bowed and was about to leave.

  Hugh stopped him. ‘Mason, would you get my hat and gloves? I am not staying.’

  ‘Not staying?’ His mother’s eyes flashed.

  He walked over to her and grasped her hand. ‘I know you mean well, Mother, but you must not dictate our lives.’ He turned to his brother. ‘You neither, Ned. I cannot stay.’

  He strode to the door.

  Ned reached it first and spoke quietly so only he could hear. ‘I don’t mean to dictate, Hugh. I—I do not wish to see you or the family hurt. Is—is that not my role?’

  Hugh had forgotten that Ned was still learning to be the Earl of Westleigh, but too many emotions warred inside him to be charitable to his brother at the moment.

  His voice softened, though. ‘Say no more, Ned.’

  He left the room. Mason waited in the hall with his hat and gloves. He took them and walked out the door.

  He was two houses away when he heard a voice behind him. ‘Hugh!’

  It was Phillipa.

  She caught up with him. ‘Are you all right?’

  He nodded. ‘We did worse to you when Mother tried to force you to do what she wanted and Ned and I did not protect you.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘I am sorry for it.’

  She waved her hand. ‘That is all past.’

  He expected her to press him about Daphne, but she did not.

  He put an arm around her. ‘It is chilly out here. You should go back.’ He walked with her, but paused at the door. ‘She bought your music, Phillipa. Before she went to the pianoforte shop.’

  Her brows rose. ‘My music?’

  ‘She said she owed it to you.’

  ‘That seems odd.’ She peered at him. ‘I feel I must say something, but I do not wish to influence you one way or the other.’

  He stiffened.

  ‘Back at the Masquerade Club, when I was masked and she called me Lady Songstress, I sometimes thought she truly wanted to be friends, but it was so hard to tell, because she tended to be whatever people expected her to be. And she expected people to be whatever she wanted them to be. Xavier never gave her the least encouragement, but she truly believed he would be hers, because she was beautiful and she wanted it. When she discovered he loved me, a scarred woman, it shocked her.’

  ‘And she started the fire,’ he added.

  ‘She set herself on fire, too,’ she told him. ‘Did you know that? Her skirts caught fire and she was so terribly frightened. It was far worse for her than for Xavier and me.’

  Poor Daphne. No wonder she’d been terrified when the inn caught fire.

  She patted his cheek. ‘I cannot forgive her, I’m afraid, but, for what it is worth, my dear brother, I sometimes felt sorry for her.’

  ‘Sorry for her?’ His brows rose.

  She shrugged. ‘She seemed pitiful to me, sometimes.’

  He leaned forwards and kissed the scar that ran from the corner of her eye almost to the edge of her lips. ‘Thank you, my dear sister.’

 
She went back inside and he set off again, walking the short few streets to the Masquerade Club off St James’s Street. When he entered the club, the delicious odour of Cook’s fare for the night reached his nostrils. Cummings, MacEvoy and some of the croupiers were all busy setting up. They would open at eleven, but the place would only fill after society’s events were over and people with more money than sense came to seek the excitement of the gaming tables.

  He thought of walking in the park that day in the fresh air, with the scent of green grass, spring flowers and leaf-filled trees wafting around him. To remain in the closed, lamp-lit rooms of the gaming house seemed akin to the prison of his former blindness.

  MacEvoy approached him. ‘Everything is ready, Mr Westleigh, or almost so. We’ve replaced the faro box with a new one that does not stick. The cards come out one at a time. We tested it.’ He went on detailing a dozen other matters that he and the others had seen to, matters that now seemed inconsequential to Hugh.

  That itch to be free returned with great intensity. ‘MacEvoy, tell me, can you run the house without me tonight?’

  MacEvoy nodded. ‘Certainly. We’ve done so before on occasion. I’ll walk the floor and one of the croupiers can act as clerk.’ He indeed acted as if the request was nothing.

  ‘Good.’ He put his hat back on his head. ‘I will be off, then. Likely I will see you tomorrow.’

  MacEvoy did not even seem concerned where Hugh might spend the night. ‘Right. See you tomorrow. All will be taken care of here.’

  Where was Hugh to spend the night? At the moment, he cared for nothing but being free to walk wherever he pleased. No obligations. No dictates. No destinations.

  He stepped back out into the evening air. In moments it would be dark, but he did not care. He wanted only to empty his mind, to set aside his family’s voices and his own doubts. He wanted to shut his eyes to visions of Daphne—warm, loving Daphne and cool, conniving Daphne. He walked up Bond Street where shops remained open and the pavements were nearly as crowded as daytime. When he crossed onto Oxford Street, though, he knew where he was heading.

  To Daphne’s house.

  He wanted to be with her in spite of his family’s warnings, his own doubts. When he was with her, none of that mattered.