by Julia London
“Good evening, Lady Caroline.”
“Good evening, Highness.”
“You look...” His gaze traveled down the length of her. “Very well, indeed,” he said at last. But his eyes said something more. Or maybe she imagined it, wanting him to mean more. Blast it, she didn’t know what she wanted from this man! To leave her be or take her into his arms?
“Will Lady Norfolk be joining us?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” Caroline said, turning her attention to the window.
He moved to stand beside her and look out, too. They stood that way for several long and silent moments. Or maybe only a single moment. Caroline was losing track of time—all her senses were trained on his presence beside her. “You like children,” she said.
“Pardon?”
“I saw you playing with the girls earlier.”
“Ah.” He turned around, putting his back to the window so that he could face her. “I do like children, very much. Do you?”
“Yes.” She tapped a finger against her wine glass. “Do you ever think of having your own? What they will look like?”
He gave her a curious smile. “I suppose I have. Doesn’t everyone, at some point?”
She didn’t, really. She assumed she would have them, but with no real prospect of it, she didn’t think much about what her future children might look like, who they might be. “Well... I wish you and Lady Eulalie many happy, healthy children.”
Leopold’s countenance sobered instantly. “Yes.” He glanced away.
Caroline instantly felt contrite. She hadn’t meant to be rude; she’d meant to be polite. But given the turn their acquaintance had taken, it sounded a bit...petulant. She’d only said what was in her thoughts. What was so much in her thoughts suddenly. “I’m sorry—”
“No, don’t be,” he said quickly. “It’s a fair point.” He turned his gaze to her again and smiled sadly. “I find no joy in the inevitability of a match I did not seek.”
It surprised her that he would confess something like that to her. Of course it wasn’t a match he would seek—princes weren’t allowed to marry whomever they pleased. It hadn’t been that long ago that the Royal Marriages Act had been passed to keep royals from marrying people deemed unsuitable for the royal family. Leopold’s own brother had taken a great risk when he’d chosen Eliza—he could have been stripped of his investiture if his father had demanded it.
She suddenly felt a strange sort of sympathy for Leopold. How awful it must be to know all his life that the most important relationship he might have likely would not be of his own choosing. “Matches rarely are what we seek, I suppose.”
He gave her a distant smile. He glanced down at his glass and asked, “What about you, Lady Caroline? Is there a match you seek? Children you want?”
She shook her head. “I should like children one day, of course. But if I am honest, I don’t see it happening.”
He chuckled, as if she were being precocious. “Why not?”
“I don’t know, really, but when I picture my life, I see only me and Beck.” She smiled, ashamed to admit that was true. “We’re an odd little pair, my brother and I.”
“Circumstances have a way of bonding siblings to each other. For me and Bas, it was the box we were forced into as royal sons. For you and Beck, I would think it the tragic loss of parents at such a young age.”
That was true and perceptive of the prince—she and Beck had been inseparable all their lives, really. Beck had only been fourteen when their mother had died, their father gone long before that.
“How is Lady Norfolk?” he asked.
“She is...” Distraught. Devastated. Caroline shook her head. She was feeling so many confusing things just now. “She is very pregnant.”
“Ah. Perhaps she will feel at ease on the morrow when I take my leave.” He glanced around them, then said softly, “I heard them arguing last night, so I’m rather clear on her thoughts about me.”
“Oh dear.” If Augusta had been as plain with her husband as she had been with her, then Leopold knew everything. “I think only the birth of this child will put her at ease, really. She’s not herself.”
He lifted his glass of wine. “To Lady Norfolk’s health.”
“To her health.” She touched her glass to his and their gazes met—and held. It felt almost as if they were suspended in a space where only they existed. She could feel the same energy thrumming between them as she’d felt when he kissed her in the coach. A flush that betrayed her was creeping into her cheeks.
The spell was broken by the butler, who entered and announced rather grandly to His Grace the Duke that supper was served.
“Ah, splendid,” Norfolk said, and strode across the room to offer Caroline his arm. “Shall we?”
In the dining room, Caroline was seated directly across from Leopold. She lost track of the conversation—something to do with horse racing, of course. She kept looking up and catching Leo’s gaze on her. She watched how he laughed and teased his friends, how he respectfully offered his thoughts and advice when asked. Who was this man? Was he the same man who took a woman from a brothel for his pleasure? The more she was near him, the more she felt as if she didn’t know him at all.
She couldn’t stop stealing looks at him. In the glow of the candlelight, she couldn’t stop wondering what if.
What if, what if, what if.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The impending birth of a child can be the most anxious of times for the entire household, including any servants, as they often bear the brunt of familial discomfort and uncertainty. Word reaches us that a young chambermaid disappeared from her post after suffering harsh treatment from her mistress in Arundel. How curious that the lass would disappear at the same moment an illustrious and princely guest took his leave of Arundel.
Ladies, two eggs, whipped to a cream, should be applied vigorously and directly to the scalp for two minutes, rinsed with lukewarm water, and followed by Kaylor’s head cream. The result will be hair that feels like silk and curls much easier.
—Honeycutt’s Gazette of Fashion and
Domesticity for Ladies
LEO HAD SPENT a good portion of the afternoon sniffing out where Jacleen might be, but in this monstrous castle, it was not unlike looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. But Leo had a stroke of good luck when a maid carried in platters of food and tea for the duke and some of the local gentry who had come to call. She had a patch of green on her collar. She was slight and pale, with shadows under her eyes. She looked rather wan.
He watched her place the platter on a long table as instructed by the butler, and as she turned to go, Leo blurted, “Miss!”
The maid and the butler both turned to him, surprised.
“I’ve a shirt to be ironed,” he said quickly. It was the sort of order he had probably barked any number of times at Constantine Palace. A servant was a servant, there to do what was needed, and he rarely gave it any thought.
“Not her,” Henry said, appearing on his right and placing his hand on his shoulder. “She’s a kitchen maid. Janey will iron your shirt. Peterson,” he said, directing his attention to the butler, “send Janey to the prince’s suite.” Peterson nodded and gestured for the kitchen maid to go.
Henry laughed at Leo. “Traveling without a valet, Your Highness?”
“It is often more expeditious to leave him in London,” Leo said. “But he did warn me this might happen.”
Henry chuckled and wandered off to speak to some of his other guests.
Leo was certain that was Jacleen. So she was a kitchen maid. Now what? He couldn’t very well appear at the kitchen door and ask for her, could he? Perhaps he could pretend to be in need of something. No, that wouldn’t do. Henry had assigned a young footman to tend to Leo, and the lad watched him like a dog, trying to anticipate his every need.
; And frankly, Leo was having a devil of a time escaping his host. After Leo had offered his apology for having offended his wife, Henry laughed. “She’s easily offended. You mustn’t pay the ladies any heed, Leo.” He certainly didn’t and proceeded to parade his friend the prince before his neighbors.
Perhaps later tonight, he thought. In Constantine Palace, kitchen workers slept near the kitchen. Work began at four o’clock in the morning in a large palace, and it kept them from padding around and disturbing those who were sleeping. He suspected the same was true of Arundel, give or take a half hour.
He settled on that, then. He would say he’d gotten hungry in the night and make his way to the kitchen, if he could find it. He’d already instructed Kadro and Artur to be ready at first light to escort him to London. Which meant he only had twelve hours left to find Jacleen.
Leo was so worried about his plan that he forgot about the shirt. When the maid Janey came to collect it, he was wearing it. Another blunder.
“I’m to iron a shirt, Your Highness,” she said cheerily, dipping a curtsy.
“Oh. Ah...” He looked around, seeking something she might iron, and finding none, glanced back at her and smiled sheepishly. “As it happens, it didn’t require ironing.”
“No?”
“The valet must have done it before I left. Or...or perhaps a footman here saw to it. I do beg your pardon.”
“Aye, Your Highness,” she said, undoubtedly relieved that she didn’t have to add the task to her list of chores. She curtsied again and turned to go.
“Girl,” Leo said abruptly. She turned back. “Janey, isn’t it?”
“Aye, Your Highness.” She smiled faintly.
Leo frantically tried to think of how to ask her where Jacleen might be. But the girl was staring at him, and he couldn’t think of a way to ask that didn’t seem entirely suspicious. He could imagine her hurrying back to the butler. Mr. Peterson, I think you should know that the foreign prince was asking how he might find Jacleen’s room! The thought appalled him, and he shook his head and smiled a little. “Nothing. Thank you.”
When she’d gone out, he dragged his fingers through his hair. “So, then,” he muttered aloud, “you are on your own, sir. For the sake of the kingdom of Alucia, I pray you manage without purchasing a ruin or a crate of live birds, or having to pay another one hundred quid. Or further damage a reputation that was, until recently, at least decorous.” He put his hand to his chest and bowed to himself. “Somewhat,” he muttered. “Don’t compliment yourself too heartily.”
He determined there was nothing left to do but wait until after midnight. Leo went down to dinner, joining Beck and Henry in the family’s private salon. But he bored of their conversation about racehorses and picked up a book, La Cousine Bette. He read until a footman opened the door and Lady Caroline entered the room. She entered like a queen, frankly, in a silk gown that seemed to move like a cloud around her as she walked.
She was lovely, a beauty by any standard. It did seem odd to Leo now that he didn’t remember meeting her in Chichester. He was generally very quick to notice beautiful women. So much so that a paramour had once accused him of seeing only the surface of women. Leo had thought about it and had agreed with her, much to that woman’s chagrin. But it was a truth—he’d never been in a position to form a meaningful connection with a woman for obvious reasons. He had to marry in Alucia and for Alucia, and any relationship he engaged in, romantic or otherwise, could be exploited. So he’d kept his interests to the physical.
If he was to judge on that criteria alone, Caroline Hawke met all his preferences.
Another reason he might not have noticed Lady Caroline that long ago evening was because of the habit he’d developed over the last few years of drinking far too much. It was a side of him that he did not like to admit to or examine, really, but alas, it was also truth. He drank to fill long, tedious hours of having nothing important to do. He drank to numb his feelings about being the spare prince with no meaningful responsibilities. But since his return from Alucia, he had noticed he didn’t have the same desire to fill those hours as he once had. Moreover, this recent change in his long-standing habit had made his mornings brighter and his days more coherent. He rather liked it.
And besides, something else occupied his thoughts now. Something important. He was determined to find these poor young women.
After speaking to Isidora and learning how she’d come to be in a brothel of all places, Leo’s mind had been made up. He couldn’t fathom men so unfeeling as to participate in such a scheme. And then to learn that one such man had been a friend of his, well...that left him feeling strangely ill. One assumed one knew his friends.
He would find these women and return home with them. He would help them face the men who had done this to them. He didn’t know how he’d possibly manage that, either, as he’d never tackled anything of importance in his life, and had deliberately steered clear of responsibility.
There was, as wisdom taught them, a first time for everything.
Which brought him around to thinking about Caroline again, as she, too, was a first of sorts for him. There was much more to her than a beautiful face and flawless figure. She had aroused his curiosity in new ways.
He had begun to realize, as he tried to bumble and maneuver his way through this new life of his, that he’d allowed himself to become intrigued by her. She was brash and impossible. Beautiful and sophisticated. Interesting. Furthermore, she’d accomplished something few people, if any, ever accomplished with him, and that was to turn his initial impression of her on its ear.
Since returning to England, he’d actually enjoyed his encounters with her and had found her impertinence strangely tantalizing. Refreshing, even. He had come to adore the spark in her and the way she went about her life in the most outrageous manner she could possibly get away with. And it went without saying that the rather constant thought of kissing her was popping up far too frequently, creeping in beside his more urgent thoughts of how to free the Weslorian women. Those two things made for uncomfortable bedfellows, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t deny his attraction.
Tonight, however, she was not quite as vivacious as he was accustomed to finding her, and that intrigued him. She was somber. Fatigued, perhaps? He noticed that she scarcely said a thing over supper. But then again, neither had he, as Beck and Henry were ridiculously absorbed in all this talk about horses and summer races.
It wasn’t until they had decided to have a go at the card game Commerce that Caroline finally perked up. Particularly when she began to win. That was when her eyes began to sparkle again in the low light of the candles. She delighted in winning, and when she delighted in anything, she was especially beautiful. When she laughed, the blond ringlets danced around her face, as if they were delighted, too. And when she crowed with victory and dragged her winnings across the table, she was entirely alluring.
She won three hands in a row and cackled each time. She said they were all “typically male” in being surprised by her win, and that she had “cocked their hats,” and had “catawamptiously chewed them up.”
“What does that even mean?” Beck had complained. “It’s gibberish, Caro.”
“It means I beat you, and I beat you soundly,” she said gaily.
Beck snorted. “You’ve been calling on your American friends, again, haven’t you?”
“Yes!” Caroline cried triumphantly. “They are very interesting women. You should make their acquaintance, Beck.” She stood up from the table, sweeping the coins she’d won into her hands. “This ought to purchase a new bonnet. Thank you, gentlemen.” She curtsied.
“Wait, where are you going?” Beck complained. “That is my winning, too, Caro. I gave you the money to start.”
“How right you are. How terribly thoughtless of me.” She carefully counted out two pounds and dropped them like pebbles onto the table before Hawke.
“There is your investment returned, sir. The rest belongs to me. Good night, gentlemen!”
Leo rose, too. “I think it time I bid you all adieu, as well. I leave at dawn’s light and it is well past the time I should be abed.”
“What, so soon?” Henry asked. “But you’ve only just arrived, Highness! I thought we might ride down to the village tomorrow.”
His old friend was keen to have him stay, but Leo also suspected Henry would likewise be relieved when he left, given his wife’s feelings. “I’ve some Alucian state business to attend to.” Oh, but that wasn’t true at all. He had no official business that he knew of, but he had some very pressing unofficial business and he was running out of time.
Beck and Henry said their good-nights, then Henry signaled for a footman to refill their whisky glasses as Leo followed Caroline out of the salon. She paused in the hallway and glanced back at him.
“If you like, I’ll carry your coin for you,” he offered.
“Do you take me for a fool, sir? A lady learns very early never to hand her winnings to a gentleman. The next thing you know, he’ll want to invest it for you.”
“Very astute of you.”
They began to stroll along as if at their leisure, his hands clasped at his back, her hands cupping her coins. “I didn’t take you for a gambler,” he remarked.
“Really? I’m very much in favor of it. How boring life would be if one never gambled on anything.” She cast a quick smile at him, her eyes shining with amusement. “I sincerely hope, however, that you don’t sit at the gaming tables often. You played so terribly I shudder to think what the cost is to your royal coffers.”
“I beg your pardon, I was dealt very bad hands,” he said with a grin.
“Ah, the standard cry of the vanquished.” She laughed again and the warm sound of it slid down to his groin.