by Mary Balogh
Today she had been more reckless than usual. She had told him that she was going to marry one of the cousins, perhaps even him. She had thrown down the gauntlet. There could be no backing down now even though she had no wish whatsoever to marry any of them, even Gussie, her particular friend. In fact, the idea of marrying Gussie was downright embarrassing. But she would have to marry one of them just to prove to Daniel that she could do it If she went back on her word he would doubtless believe that none of them had wanted to marry her.
So she was going to have to lure one of them into offering for her. She was going to have to betroth herself to one of them. She might break it off afterward, of course, if it proved to be just too intolerable, but for the next month she would have to play the game. It was a thoroughly objectionable thought.
And she had Daniel to thank for it all. She glanced along the table at him despite herself and grudgingly conceded that his slim, muscular figure showed to advantage in black. She had not noticed before just how rich a brown his hair was. Well, he was handsome, she thought crossly. That did not mean that he had a pleasant character.
“Julia,” Camilla said when Uncle Paul turned to speak with Aunt Eunice at his other side, “you are upset, aren’t you? I can hardly blame you.”
“Upset?” Julia looked at her in surprise. She had scarcely stopped prattling and laughing.
“You are too bright, too cheerful,” Camilla said. “I recognize the signs. I used to do it sometimes in the months following Simon’s death when I was afraid that people were going to press their sympathy on me.”
It was hard to imagine Camilla prattling and laughing. She was sweetly grave and had been even as a girl, even before she had met and become betrothed to her captain. Well, perhaps not quite so grave.
“You must not let it worry you,” Camilla said. “As Mr. Prudholm pointed out, there is no compulsion on you to marry anyone. Unless you are dreadfully attached to Primrose Park, that is. Are you?”
“I am rather,” Julia said. “But in the nature of things a woman expects to leave her home when she grows up.”
“In order to marry,” Camilla said. “Not just because the man of the house has died. Though it happens often enough, I suppose. But don’t let any of them harass you, Julia. I don’t think any of them will, though Freddie might. Just don’t allow it. If I can help, do call on me. A female companion at your side will dampen anyone’s ardor, you may be sure.” She smiled.
“Thank you.” Julia gave her first genuine smile of the evening. “It is all rather embarrassing, you know. Everyone is going to be watching me for the next month and wondering who will offer for me and whom I will choose. What if no one offers? That would be a little mortifying.” She giggled rather nervously.
As if to prove one of her points Aunt Millie was nodding and smiling encouragingly at her all through dinner as she had done every time she had spotted Julia since that afternoon. And everyone was watching her curiously, Julia thought self-consciously looking about her and finding that almost no one was. She looked down at her empty plate and wondered how many courses had already been eaten and what they had consisted of.
But she need not have worried about the cousins ignoring her, she discovered when dinner was over. Stella and Viola called her to the pianoforte when the ladies adjourned to the drawing room and they took turns playing and singing. Frederick, Lesley, and Augustus joined them there when the men came in from the dining room soon after. Frederick leaned indolently on the pianoforte while Augustus turned pages of the music for Viola and Lesley sang once with Stella. He had a pleasant tenor voice. The earl wandered out onto the balcony close by the pianoforte, Julia noticed out of the corner of her eye. She was glad he had not joined them.
But things were not the same as they usually were, she thought crossly after a while. She always enjoyed herself immensely when all the cousins were together. But now no one was behaving quite naturally, including herself. Freddie was lolling against the pianoforte, his dark eyes watching her from beneath lazy eyelids, one lock of dark hair down across his forehead. Les was smiling at her more than at any of the others. Gussie was avoiding her eyes and pretending she was not there. Stella and Viola were laughing a little too merrily and a little too loudly. And Daniel was standing silently out on the balcony. What noise she expected him to be making when he was out there alone she did not stop to ask herself. But she could feel his presence there almost like a heavy hand pressing against the back of her neck.
“Warm, Jule?” Frederick asked, smiling lazily at her. “Yes, I am,” she said. “There seems to be no air coming through the windows at all.”
“Aunt Millie shut all except the French windows,” Viola said. “You know how terrified she is of drafts.”
“The air will be cool outside, though, Jule,” Frederick said, his voice almost a caress. She looked sharply at him but he was still standing there being Freddie. “Come on. I’ll take you out for a stroll in the gardens.”
“All right,” she said warily. Normally she would have accepted such an invitation with alacrity and without suspicion despite the fact that she had been aware of Freddie’s reputation for a long time. But this was not a normal situation. However, a beginning had to be made somewhere. “Thank you, Freddie.”
He pushed himself to an upright position with apparent effort. Lesley was frowning down at a piece of music. The girls pretended to have heard nothing. Augustus turned away to gaze nonchalantly at a picture on the wall.
“That is the best idea anyone has had all evening, Freddie,” another voice said. “It is delightfully cool outside. I shall join you and Julia if I may. Stella, would you care to come too?”
He must have been standing out on the balcony with his ear pinned to the curtain, Julia thought indignantly, looking at the very handsome form of the earl and noting with satisfaction that he must be all of two inches shorter than Freddie and his hair at least two shades lighter. And he did not have that interesting lock of hair across the forehead or the dark bedroom eyes that Freddie could use to such effect. Of course, he did have blue eyes, and he did have the aristocratic nose. But even so...
“I’ll come too,” Viola said. “Les?”
Frederick chuckled when the six of them had left the drawing room and he was leading the way downstairs, Julia on his arm. “I can guarantee you one thing, Jule,” he said. “You are going to be better chaperoned during the coming month than you have ever been in your life. How are you going to like that, eh?”
She could hear the earl talking to Stella just behind them. What she would really like to do was turn and resume the afternoon's quarrel with him. She knew what he was about. He did not want to have anything to do with her himself, but he was going to make very sure that she had no chance with any of the other cousins either. He just could not bear the thought of her becoming one of the family. And he would die before he would see one of them become owner of Primrose Park. He would prefer to see it pass to Grandpapa’s chosen charity.
Well, they would see about that, she thought.
“I always thought chaperons a foolish idea,” she said. “Especially when one is at one’s own home with one’s own family. I don't think we should tolerate having chaperons about us, Freddie.”
Which was a very bold and probably a very rash thing to say to Freddie of all people, she thought as he slanted her a grin.
5
That was an invitation if ever he had heard one, Frederick thought. A not very proper invitation from a lady who had been brought up to behave properly. But one could always expect the unexpected from Jule, bless her heart.
It had been rather like a blessing from heaven, that will. Not so much the five hundred pounds, which was a negligible sum, but the prospect of owning Primrose Park. And the competition could only whet his appetite, for gaming, gambling on the outcome of what was not at all certain, was the breath of life to Frederick.
If the stakes were high and if he had a good chance of winning and if he could not af
ford to lose—then a game became irresistible. This game was irresistible. Primrose Park was the prize. Winning Julia was something that could be done, if he exercised care. And he certainly could not afford to lose. He was in dun territory and only one step ahead of his creditors. His best way out of the mess—marrying a wealthy wife—had seemed not an option, given his reputation. Until his uncle had presented him with the chance of marrying Julia, that was.
And she had just issued an open invitation.
“How about a stroll to the lake and back?” he suggested when they were all out on the terrace and had gathered in a group. “I believe the air is warm enough.”
There were murmurs of assent and they all set off along the terrace, past the rose arbor, down the sloping lawn, and in among the trees. Except that now, outside the house, Frederick maneuvered matters so that he and Julia brought up the rear. And eventually, before everyone else reached the lake, they were not even doing that. It was the simplest thing in the world to dodge behind a tree, holding Julia by the arm, move off to one side with her at a steady trot, dodge behind a few more trees, and consider that the two of them had well and truly lost the others. It was almost dark. In a matter of minutes it would be fully so.
Julia was laughing softly. “Oh, well done, Freddie,” she said. “I always did believe that chaperons were made to be lost. You did it almost too easily.”
“What was Dan up to?” he asked, stopping to lean back against a tree. He folded his arms across his chest and lifted one booted foot to set flat against the trunk. “Protecting your reputation, Jule? Or protecting his own interests?”
“Trying to spoil everything for me,” she said. “He is quite detestable, Freddie, and I hate him. He has always been unbearably stuffy for as long as I have known him.”
“You had better not marry him, then,” he said. “You would worry each other into an early grave, Jule. If I remember correctly, Dan’s objection to you always used to be that you were not nearly stuffy enough—though he did not put it in quite those words. Do you remember the time you fell into the lake out of a tree branch?”
“I jumped in,” she said, “because you dared me to, Freddie.”
“Did I?” he said. “It sounds altogether likely. I do remember Dan standing on the bank looking like a Bond Street beau as you fished yourself out looking for all the world like a drowned rat. He told you that it might have taught you a lesson if your head had collided with a large stone at the bottom of the lake.”
“That was the time Gussie called him a pompous ass,” Julia said. “After he was safely out of earshot, of course. You boys were always a little afraid of Daniel’s fists. I thought it a fitting description anyway and have only been sorry that it is not good manners for a lady to use such language in public.”
He laughed. “I didn’t bring you out here and dodge chaperons and trees only to reminisce about our growing years,” he said.
Julia frowned. “Why did you bring me out here, Freddie?” she asked. “We might as well have it out in the open. You are not going to tell me that you have conceived a violent and undying passion for me, are you?”
“Since you put it that way, no,” he said. “Decidedly not. I can see it would not work. You are too perceptive by half, Jule. I should be able to look at you like this”—his eyes gazed meltingly into hers from beneath drooped eyelids and then slowly roamed upward to her hairline and downward to her mouth—“and touch you like this”—one hand reached out so that his fingertips feathered along one side of her jaw and cupped her chin lightly while his thumb touched her lips—“and murmur that you have grown up under my very nose and become an enticing and a beautiful woman without warning. And then your knees should buckle and you should be my slave for life.” He dropped his hand.
“How foolish,” she said. “Do other women fall for it, Freddie?”
He chuckled. He was almost glad she had not. He did not like a game with high stakes to be too, too easy. “By the dozen,” he said. “But you would be onto my game in a flash, wouldn’t you?”
“You have no fondness for me, then?” She sighed. “What a shame.”
“Oh, I did not say that,” he said. “I am very fond of you, Jule. I always have been. And you really have grown up in the last few years. You are enticing enough to make any red-blooded male’s pulse quicken.”
“Am I?” She smiled at him. “And do you want to marry me, Freddie?”
He smiled at her lazily. “The thought has its appeal,” he said.
“Because I am beautiful and pulse-quickening and you are fond of me?” she asked.
“But of course,” he said softly.
“Not because of Primrose Park?” she asked. “And not because of the state of your pockets?”
He reached out one hand and cupped her chin again. “Who told you my pockets were to let?” he asked. “Anyone? Or has my reputation preceded me here and you have drawn your own conclusions? It is not true, you know. I like to gamble now and then but never more than I can afford to lose. Are you afraid I would gamble Primrose Park away?”
She looked steadily back into his eyes. “Yes,” she said. “You would marry me for Primrose Park, wouldn't you, Freddie? Don't say no. I know you would be lying.”
He removed his hand and touched one finger lightly to her nose. Julia was no one's fool. “I really am fond of you, Jule,” he said. “You should know the truth of that. We would deal well together.”
“I would deal well with Gussie too,” she said. “Or even with Les. And perhaps with Malcolm too. Not with Daniel, I must admit. But with any of the others. What could you offer me more than that, Freddie? I am curious to know.”
“A title one day,” he said. “You would be a baroness, Jule. Not that I wish any ill health on my father, of course.”
“I could be a countess with Daniel or a future baroness with Malcolm,” she said. “What else, Freddie?”
He grinned suddenly. “I have been trying to avoid the obvious answer, Jule,” he said, “because I am a gentleman. But if you insist, I will oblige. A damned good time in bed, that’s what I can offer you. It’s a promise. And don’t pretend that the idea does not appeal to you at all. You are twenty-one years old, aren't you? You must have dreamed of being treated to a good time between the sheets.”
“Oh, for shame,” she said. “You never were a gentleman, Freddie. You never were. But you have never so blatantly tried to put me to the blush.”
“I’ll wager I have succeeded too,” he said. “It’s a pity it is too dark to see your complexion, Jule.” He reached out suddenly and captured one of her wrists. He slid his foot down the tree trunk and set it on the ground. “Come here and let me show you something.”
“What?” she asked warily.
“Let me show you how pleasant a kiss can be,” he said.
“I know how pleasant a kiss can be,” she said. “I am no green girl. Do you think I have never been kissed, Freddie?”
“Probably not as I am going to do it,” he said. “If you want a preview of what I can offer you, Jule, come here.”
Julia took a step forward at the same moment as the Earl of Beaconswood’s voice spoke. “Ah, here you are,” he said. “We lost you in the gathering darkness. You are wise to shelter here. There is a cool evening breeze coming off the lake. It would be as well to get back, I believe, before the ladies take a chill. Do you want to walk with Stella, Julia?”
Frederick was amused. Disappointed too, yes—he would have enjoyed kissing Jule both for the sheer pleasure of doing so and for the chance to begin his campaign in earnest. But there was plenty of time. And with someone as sharp as Jule it was as well to move slowly, cautious inch by cautious inch.
In no time at all they were all headed back to the house again, Lesley with Viola, Stella and Julia together, Frederick and the earl behind the others.
“Let me get this straight, Dan,” Frederick said when the others had walked on out of earshot. “Are you trying to stop me from winning this compet
ition because you want the prize? Or are you trying to stop it because you don’t want anyone to win?”
“It was just not the thing,” the earl said, “taking her off into the darkness of the trees without a chaperon, Freddie. Aunt Millie should have spoken up as soon as you suggested the walk. Or else my mother or one of the other aunts.”
“Perhaps;” Frederick said, “they remember that Jule is of age. Or perhaps they trust me not to hurt her.”
“I know what you were about to do with her,” the earl said. “I have both eyes and ears in my head, Freddie.”
“I was going to kiss her,” Frederick said. “Is it so strange for a twenty-six-year-old man to want to kiss a twenty-one-year-old woman when she is both lovely and willing? And when he intends to marry her?”
“Until this afternoon,” the earl said, “you had no more thought of marrying, Freddie, than of entering a monastery. I won’t have you toying with Julia’s affections. She is not up to your experience.”
“I would hope not.” Frederick chuckled and clapped a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “I can’t make you out, Dan. Do you want Jule for yourself? I can’t quite imagine it. You seemed in a fair way to getting yourself a leg shackle in London no more than a couple of weeks ago. If you don’t want Jule, then you should be happy to leave her for one of us. It’s time she was married, and we are all fond of her, you know.”
“And of Primrose Park,” the earl said. “And of its rents.”
Frederick tutted. “Now that was below the belt, Dan,” he said. “I have yet to meet the man who did not feel that life was lived more comfortably when he was in funds. Of course I am fond of Primrose Park and its rents. That does not mean that I am not fond of Jule.”
“Just don’t step out of line with her,” the earl said. “She can’t look after herself. She does not have the sense. She never did. And since she doesn’t, then I have to look out for her. I am head of this family after all. And she is one of it even if not by blood. Uncle made her one of the family. So watch your step, Freddie, or you will have me to reckon with.”