by Nikki Poppen
The other letter he’d received was from Garrett, posted during the latter week Gannon was at sea. Creditors had been highly concerned about the earl’s absence from the country. Garrett assured him he’d scotched those concerns before they could become dangerous rumors. Yet such news was a sharp reminder of his purpose in Newport. The lure of Miss Audrey St. Clair was not a distraction he could afford.
Still, even knowing better, he could not banish the images of the prior evening completely. She’d been a breathtaking vision in her pale yellow gown at the Casino ball. Everything about her appearance had been orchestrated to perfection, from the way the color of the gown complemented her complexion to the blue trim that matched her eyes in subtle precision. She had been artistry in motion, a living, moving canvas for Worth’s renowned craftsmanship.
But she was more than a mere mannequin come to life. He’d seen both her panic and her passion last night, and both had intrigued him, filling his restless night with suppositions. What was in this for her? What did she need her freedom for? He’d instinctively felt that her laughter on the ballroom floor was masking something deeper. She needed this plan to succeed because she had another plan that depended on it, but what that was, Gannon had no idea.
Lionel poked his head around the doorframe of the sitting room. “There you are. I thought I might find you here” Lionel nodded at the letters. “Not bad news, I hope?”
“No” Gannon dismissed the missive from England with an easy wave of his hand. “Just news from home-all the usual” Creditors, debts, a flagging bank account-nothing at all that the Carringtons dealt with.
“Good. I am glad to hear it. Stella’s waiting for us so we can be off for the Casino. There’s tennis today”
Gannon rose and smiled good-naturedly. “And I thought the London Season was busy”
Lionel clapped him on the back. “It takes some getting used to. The ladies keep a highly regimented schedule: morning rides at nine, shopping at the Casino at ten, swimming at Bailey’s Beach at eleven, and dancing until sunup” Lionel laughed. “Thank goodness it’s only for six weeks a year. How did you like the St. Clair chit last night?”
“I liked her quite well,” Gannon said as they strolled through the wide halls of Rose Bluff to the entry, where Stella had the low-sided phaeton waiting. He found himself reluctant to discuss Audrey in terms of an object to be appraised.
Lionel raised an eyebrow at his friend’s meager description. “That’s all? She’s an excellent choice. You could do no better.”
Gannon took offense at that. “No better? In terms of what? Looks? Money? Connections?”
Lionel stopped in his tracks and threw his hands up in surrender. “Whoa! I didn’t mean to raise a sensitive subject. I thought you were here for a wealthy bride.”
Gannon faced his friend squarely. “I am, but I don’t have to like it, and I don’t have to subject any likely prospects to the same lowering experience I am becoming all too familiar with. We are people, after all, and entirely more than the sum of our balance sheets” Where had his cold detachment gone? He sounded like Audrey espousing her dislike of titled Englishmen.
“I am sorry, Lionel, I have lost my temper,” Gannon apologized swiftly. “It is proving to be much harder to complete my mission than I had anticipated.”
Lionel looked blankly at him. “Surely it’s not the lack of willing candidates.”
“No, it’s not that at all. It’s me,” Gannon confessed. There was Audrey, desperately in love with her freedom, and there was the nightly sight of the elegant and inanely happy Carringtons themselves serving as poignant reminders of what Gannon had elected to sacrifice.
Lionel pierced him with a shrewd stare. “Ah, I am beginning to see. Well, perhaps the lovely Miss St. Clair will be at the tennis match this morning.”
Gannon shook his head. “I have it on good authority she’ll be at the polo grounds this afternoon”
“Then maybe things aren’t a complete loss after all,” Lionel offered, gesturing that Gannon should go ahead of him into the phaeton.
Gannon said nothing, merely climbed into the car riage and sat opposite Stella, complimenting her on the cut of her ensemble in an attempt to dislodge Lionel from the topic and change the conversation.
The match was already into its third chukker when Gannon and the Carringtons arrived later in the afternoon. Various styles of open carriages lined the perimeter of the field, filled with women holding delicate parasols over their heads to ward off the summer sun while their escorts studied the game. Today’s match was an intraclub game between the Reds and the Blues. An occasional Hurrah! broke out from the crowd as someone’s preferred team scored a goal, but otherwise Gannon thought people were more absorbed in their own conversations than they were in the match.
During the three-minute intervals between chukkers, some daring souls alit from their carriages and mingled. Gannon took advantage of the interval to seek out the St. Clair phaeton. He found it almost immediately. It was the conveyance surrounded with young men vying for Audrey’s attention. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who found Audrey’s brand of beauty attractive. But he was the only who had carte blanche with her mother.
Violet caught sight of him nearing the carriage and gestured toward him with her closed fan, much the way Gannon imagined Moses had raised his staff over the Red Sea. The effect was the same. “Good afternoon, Camberly. Are you enjoying our American polo?” she called out. The people gathered around the carriage parted to make way for the earl, a few of the younger men muttering under their breath.
Gannon approached and took Violet’s gloved hand, bending over it gracefully. “I am enjoying the match very much,” he replied. “This place is a delightful venue for it.”
“Of course you’d like it,” Audrey put in. “It’s an old farm” There was a conspiratorial gleam to her eyes that Gannon took up at once. He bowed in her direction. “You remember our conversation from dinner. I am flattered. Perhaps I could persuade you to show me about the grounds-that is, unless the match is too riveting.”
Audrey seized on the invitation, gathering her skirts about her and moving toward him. He was ready to help her down. “I’d love to. Mother, we’ll be back shortly”
Gannon noticed she didn’t wait for Violet’s approval, but the woman was smiling with supreme contentedness. “We’ll stay in sight, ma’am,” Gannon added, recalling Audrey’s warning from the prior night.
“This place is technically called Glen Farm,” Audrey began as they strolled arm in arm. “It’s an old manor farm that dates back to the 1600s. There’s nearly seven hundred acres here.”
“It’s lovely,” Gannon said, meaning it.
“Is it like Camberly?” She turned her head toward him, tilting it upward beneath her parasol.
“A little. Camberly is much larger. We have a home farm, a village, a church, fields, even a mill.” Gannon couldn’t keep the edge of pride from his voice.
“Is it entirely self-sufficient?”
“Nearly so. At least it was,” Gannon conceded as they neared a small pond, still within view of the polo field but out of earshot. “Now, tell me your plan.”
Audrey found a large stone and sat down, taking care to spread her skirts. She made a fetching picture in her pale blue carriage dress and wide-brimmed hat, but it seemed to Gannon that she took an inordinately long time to begin.
“Before I start,” Audrey said, “are you willing to do what it takes to see this plan succeed? There is a modicum of risk involved.”
“I am willing. You know I am.” Gannon smiled in reassurance.
Audrey drew a deep breath. “All right. The problem, as I see it, is that my parents want me married, preferably to you or someone like you, and neither you nor I wish to be married to each other or otherwise at this time. In addition, you need huge sums of money, true?”
Gannon nodded, although he was starting to think that if he had to marry, he’d pick Audrey. She was beautiful, witty, and plain
spoken. He could fall in love with that. He suspected he already was. But mentioning it would be premature, and it would certainly hamper her plan, whatever that might be.
“The solution needs only be temporary. We have to survive until the end of the Newport Season. For purposes of my plan, I have defined survive for me as escaping an engagement and for you as remaining unmarried but in possession of enough money to save Camberly. To this end, I propose the following solution. First, you court me intently and exclusively. Let my parents and everyone else assume there will be an offer at the end of August. This will assuage my parents’ need to find me a suitor, protect me from any unwanted proposals, and ensure my freedom when we publicly break things off at summer’s end.”
“And my money?” Gannon asked, more for form’s sake than anything else. He’d willingly squire this multifaceted girl around just for the pleasure of her company if he hadn’t been faced with a disastrous situation of his own. Being with Audrey provided surprises at every turn.
“Tut-tut, my impatient one, I am not finished yet,” she scolded him with a coy look. “In exchange for your exclusive attentions, I will see to it that you’re provided with the opportunity to make investments of the safest and highest order. I will show you how to do business in America.”
Gannon shook his head. She wasn’t the only one who could drive a bargain. “I need numbers. What are we talking about here? I need twenty-five thousand additional pounds a year to keep the estate debt free” He rather thought the number would swamp her. He personally found the sum staggering.
Audrey cocked her head to one side, considering. “You’ll need more than that. We’ll want to have something left to invest for the future. You need more than one year’s bankroll,” she said thoughtfully. “I can make you a hundred thousand British pounds.”
Gannon hardly dared to breathe. “Are you sure?”
Audrey smiled broadly. “Well, you’re going to have to work for it. I am counting on your charm. I can only open the doors for you and coach you a bit. But I am a mere woman, and there are limits to what I can do”
Gannon laughed. “I don’t believe that for a minute.”
Audrey extended her hand in the American gesture. “Shake on it? Partners?”
“Partners,” Gannon affirmed, taking her hand. After all, he’d already lost everything else. He would be no worse off if her gambit failed than he was now. And he had a backup plan. He could still marry-although the idea was becoming more and more unpalatable to him by the day, and it was all Audrey’s fault.
Audrey shook Gannon’s hand with a confidence she didn’t necessarily feel on the inside. If things went awry, it would be all her fault. The plan made sense, but it was one thing drafting it on paper and another actually launching it. Her freedom and his fortune were at risk. If the plan backfired, she could find herself betrothed to this man and toted off to England.
She wondered if Gannon realized the risk she took in trusting him to act his part. And she was trusting him. Maybe not with money and an estate, which were very real things to weigh in the balance of their scheme, but she was trusting him with something just as valuable. If he chose to trap her at the end of the summer and refuse to cry off as they’d agreed, she’d have no recourse. After a summer of courting, it would be impossible to persuade her mother to back down. Violet would force the courtship to its logical conclusion if Gannon didn’t play the jilt. Oh, yes, she didn’t have money involved, but her risk was just as real.
Still, she didn’t relish failing Gannon. The money he had available to stake on their venture was not replaceable. If she made a misstep, his funds would disappear and not be replenished.
“So, we’re partners,” Gannon said, releasing her hand after a brief squeeze. “What next?”
Audrey drew a deep breath. This was it. The game started now, the great gamble for her future. “Tonight. My family has been invited to Caroline Astor’s for dinner and a night of cards”
Gannon raised his dark eyebrows at the mention of the great hostess herself. “Astor’s? So soon?”
Audrey shrugged negligantly. “It’s a small gathering, very informal.” She gave him a wink. “Mrs. Astor won’t serve more than eleven courses tonight.”
Gannon laughed. “Only eleven? Heavens, I’d better eat a huge lunch, or I’ll starve to death”
Audrey tossed him a saucy look. “Enough! I’ve heard about your English Seasons. It’s not as if the peers are all that frugal when it comes to setting the table. Tonight is just for close friends. It will be a select group and just the right sort of people for you to connect with in a situation where you can sit and talk”
Gannon gave her a piercing perusal that made her uneasy. She hoped he didn’t sense her nervousness. “You’re sure you know what you’re doing?” Gannon said.
She smiled. “Absolutely. I learned business at my father’s knee. We weren’t always rich, you know.”
They turned and headed back to the carriages and the polo field. “Really?” Gannon looked sincerely interested.
“Really,” she affirmed. “I remember growing up north of Manhattan-out in the country, in a small but respectable brick house-until I was twelve. My father ran the local dry goods store. We were always comfortable, but one day, when I was eight, a textile mill opened not far from us, and father invested in it. Within a few years, he owned the mill, he bought another, developed connections to sell fabric, and things took off from there”
“That’s incredible,” Gannon said, a thoughtful look on his face.
“That’s how it happens for many of the men who are here now.” Audrey waved a gloved hand toward one of the carriages they neared. Her voice dropped as she gave Gannon a biographical survey. “That woman’s husband made his fortune in wholesale grocery. They’re worth three million dollars now after a lifetime of porting vegetables from country to city.” She nodded in greeting to a woman who waved from another vehicle. “They made their money in dairy products.”
“Cows?” Gannon asked, incredulous.
He didn’t cover his surprise fast enough. “You’re shocked,” Audrey said. “Is it my talk of money that has you agape or the cows?”
“Both, I suppose,” Gannon admitted honestly. The American millionaire and the methods of how he acquired his fortune were quite foreign commodities in his world of the peerage. “It’s not as if I don’t work,” he offered up defensively. “It’s just that I never thought of making money from it.”
“Things are different in America,” Audrey said mysteriously.
“Yes, I can see that they are” Gannon gave her a look that unexpectedly warmed her and left her with the feeling that he wasn’t talking exclusively about business anymore.
They’d reached the St. Clair’s phaeton, and Gannon handed her up under Violet’s scrutiny.
“Will you be joining us tonight at the Astors’?” Violet asked as Gannon saw Audrey settled.
“It will be my pleasure. I appreciate the invitation’s being extended. I hope that it won’t be an imposition,” Gannon said with the right degree of humility.
Violet smiled with delight, fixing Audrey with a pleased gaze. “Caro welcomes all my friends,” she returned.
Audrey cast a quick glance at Gannon. She hoped he read all the messages contained in that simple sentence. From the short bow he made over her mother’s hand, she was sure he had. Tonight would be important. For them both. There was money to be made and rumors to be hatched.
Audrey dressed carefully for the evening in a peach gown of summer silk trimmed in tiny seed pearls to complement the simple pearl necklace that lay against her collarbone. The ensemble was ideal for an elegant but supposedly “informal” gathering at Beechwood.
During the short drive down Bellevue Avenue to Caroline Astor’s Italian-styled villa, Audrey mentally ran through her game plan. She’d been dining at Beechwood since she was old enough to put her hair up. Tonight’s dinner would follow the same pattern these evenings always followed. Guests
would arrive a half hour before dinner and gather in the drawing room. Dinner would be a three-hour affair that allowed Caroline to parade her chef’s excellence and her bank account’s depth in front of her guests on the most expensive china in her extensive collection. Afterward, card tables would be set up, and everyone would engage in games of whist while exchanging the latest gossip.
Normally, the affair would bore her. Audrey could guess everything that would occur, right down to the conversations people would hold and whom they would talk about. But tonight, having the key to that knowledge was an advantage she wouldn’t hesitate to use. Tonight, she was looking forward to dinner because Gannon would be there.
She hastily reworded her thoughts. The evening would be exciting not simply because Gannon was there but because of the challenge the evening posed on his behalf. She must keep their relationship in perspective and not lose sight of their mutual goals. Although they needed each other, that didn’t necessarily make them bosom beaus. Gannon was still potentially dangerous to her. She’d do best to remember that she’d concocted this plan to keep her friends close and her enemies closer. Unfortunately for Gannon, he fit into both categories.
Gannon was already there when the St. Clairs arrived. It appeared he was just minutes ahead of them, greeting Caroline with his excellent manners and presenting her with a small, exquisitely wrapped box, which she accepted as her due before gesturing to Violet. “Violet darling, we must give Camberly a party-something English to remind him of home,” she said. “Mr. McAllister can draw up the lists and the plans and consult the schedule for sometime in a couple of weeks. I think a picnic shouldn’t be too hard to manage”
“A fabulous idea,” Violet concurred, admirably hiding the elation Audrey knew must bubble beneath the surface of her cool demeanor.
“Audrey, be a dear and introduce Camberly around,” Caroline suggested in her imperious tone.
Audrey didn’t miss the calculation. Caroline and her mother had already decided the earl was to be hers. It sent a tremor of fear through her to know how quickly her fate had been decided and managed by the two of them. She wasn’t the first girl to have her future so adroitly arranged, but she had a plan. It stiffened her resolve to know that only her plan stood between Vienna and a marriage in which her personal feelings were of no consideration.