Gayle Buck

by The Hidden Heart

  The earl was left speechless by Lady Caroline’s thorough and uncomplimentary reading of his character.

  Lady Caroline turned back to the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits, who had listened with every evidence of growing interest. Lady Caroline shook her head in a tolerant fashion, smiling as she did so. “My lord is not nearly as cold-blooded as he wishes all of us to believe, as I am certain you are already well aware, madam. But of course, you must already have suspected why it is that he has never mentioned me! While it is true that I am a great friend, I am also a female, which is undoubtedly a shocking combination for one with my lord’s studied attitude of carelessness.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande shot another glance at her grandnephew, catching an impression of outrage, swiftly hooded. “Indeed, so I find it in truth, and in particular when I recall that his lordship claimed ignorance of the existence of any lady worthy of pursuit. I believe that you indicated the scarcity of such in the breadth and width of all of England, did you not, my lord? I am disappointed in you, sir, for I had believed our relationship to be such that you would have felt able to confide even your most negligible thoughts to me.”

  There was a short silence while the earl weighed his options. He could express his outrage over Lady Caroline’s slanderous maligning of his character by delivering a stiff set-down, or he could swallow his indignation and play the role that she had outlined for him. He decided to take the jump. With a sigh he said, “I am beginning to wonder just what I have done to myself in bringing you here today, Lady Caroline. In the space of fifteen minutes you have managed to shred my reputation, wound my sensibilities, and set me up for a raking-down by my illustrious and high-minded great-aunt, who, as I recall, is particularly fond of ringing a peal over the head of anyone who is so misguided as to think himself qualified to govern his own life.”

  The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits unbent enough to give a cackling laugh. She did not comment upon the earl’s accurate observation and instead confined herself to a pronouncement of judgment. “I find Lady Caroline to be charming.” She turned to the younger woman with a thin smile on her face. “You will stay to luncheon if you please, my lady. I would very much enjoy talking more with you.” It was not a civil request, but rather a dictum couched in polite language.

  Lady Caroline let out a careful breath. She met Lord Trilby’s eyes, the quizzical expression of which was tempered by a reflection of her own sense of relief. The first hurdle had been successfully met. “Thank you, your grace. I would be delighted,” she said quietly.

  As Lord Trilby seated himself in a wing chair, he remarked, “I suspect that between the pair of you, I am to be further pilloried. I shall resign myself to the inevitable, therefore, and put my energies into proving my reputation for indifference.”

  It had not taken him above a heartbeat to realize the object behind Lady Caroline’s surprisingly aggressive style in this first meeting with the grandduchess. Once more he was impressed with her quick understanding of a difficult situation.

  When he had presented her to his great-aunt, he had seen instantly that the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits fully intended to reject all civil overtures. Lady Caroline had dispensed with the merely polite, and boldly carried the field to the grandduchess. The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits respected strength more than anything else, and she had therefore chosen to allow Lady Caroline the benefit of the doubt.

  Assessing the result, Lord Trilby could only admire Lady Caroline’s strategy. She had at one stroke acknowledged a long acquaintance between them and established herself as one too secure in her own position to fear anything that the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits might muster forth.

  It had but remained for him to adjust his own manner to reflect Lady Caroline’s, and the thing had been done. Before many more hours the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits would be entirely convinced of the authenticity of the supposed match between Lady Caroline and himself.

  The Earl of Walmesley anticipated the remainder of Lady Caroline’s visit with equanimity. He was already considering whether future performances would be necessary. But then his peace of mine was once more cut up.

  The grandduchess said softly, “Lady Caroline, I observe that you do not wear an engagement ring upon your finger.’’

  Lady Caroline’s eyes flew to the earl’s face. His lordship appeared as startled and consternated as she felt. She had not a single thought to offer. Lord Trilby stared down at her, appearing equally at a standstill. She felt herself ready to sink. In the next few moments would come unendurable humiliation, for what could she possibly say that would sound halfway reasonable for such an obvious oversight.

  Damn Miles and his easy assurances, she thought, more distressed by her own culpability than by the lack of foresight shown by the earl.

  “Well, my lady?”

  The grandduchess’s voice was inexorable.

  Lady Caroline turned her head slowly until she met the elderly woman’s cold stare. It would be far better to own up to the deception at once, she thought, than to squirm and writhe in the tightening net of yet more lies while the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits probed mercilessly for the truth.

  Lady Caroline opened her reluctant lips. Already she imagined she could feel the scorching heat of the grand-duchess’s scorn. “I am sorry, madam. I wish with all my heart that—”

  Lord Trilby’s hard voice cut across hers. “You do not have to say a word, Caroline. I am perfectly capable of speaking in my own defense.”

  While Lady Caroline practically gaped at him, he got up from the wing chair and sauntered over to the mantel. With his studied movement, the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits transferred her sharp attention from Lady Caroline to the earl. Suddenly Lady Caroline realized that that had been his lordship’s intent, and she was grateful to him for it.

  “I am waiting, my lord.” There was no compromise in the grim voice or in the arctic hauteur of the grandduchess’s eyes.

  Lord Trilby smiled slightly. The expression in his eyes was guarded. “I have no doubt at all of that, madam. It is a feeble excuse at best, as you will naturally point out to me. I originally thought it best not to reveal my engagement to Lady Caroline to you, for reasons well known to us both and which are best left unsaid if we are to maintain civility.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande gestured her acknowledgment. However, her smile remained cold. “Yes, it is true that we have not yet come to agreement upon the oft-discussed subject of your impending marriage.”

  Lord Trilby made a mocking bow. “When you announced plans for your visit, and the object of it, I had no alternative but to inform you that I had formed an understanding with a young lady. But still I concealed Lady Caroline’s identity from you, for I suspected that given the opportunity, you would make your presence felt in her ladyship’s life.”

  The grandduchess covered with a cough the home force of the earl’s observation.

  Lord Trilby smiled briefly. “You did not accept the news as I had anticipated, madam. I thought that you would be overjoyed that I had at last begun to fulfill your long-held ambition for me. However, from your letter it was quite painfully obvious that you did not believe that such an understanding existed.”

  “No, nor do I believe in it now,” the grandduchess said forcibly. “Lady Caroline is a charming lady and has put herself forth in a very creditable fashion. One who was less observant, perhaps, might have succumbed to the pretty tale. However, I am not yet in my dotage, Miles. I have the wit to understand the meaning of a finger naked of the requisite proof.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande held up a weary hand. “And pray do not insult my intelligence further by insisting that the pretty bauble is at the jeweler’s to be cleaned or to have its loosened stones reset. I should not believe it, you see.”

  The Earl of Walmesley allowed the faintest of smiles to touch his lips. “Indeed, I had no such intention. I meant to tell you quite truthfully that I have not given a ring to Lady Carolin
e at all.”

  Surprise flashed across the grandduchess’s face. She glanced curiously at Lady Caroline, who had averted her face. What could be seen of her cheek had flushed rose. It would have been apparent even to the least discerning eye that Lady Caroline was suffering acute embarrassment.

  “I do not understand this in the least,” the Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande said disapprovingly. She did not like obscurities. She was invariably made cross by the few things that escaped her swift comprehension, and this instance was proving no exception. “You tell me that you have an understanding with Lady Caroline. Her ladyship confirms this, yet she has no ring. Why is this, Miles? You have not told me why, sirrah. I shall know the reason upon the instant, my lord!”

  “I have not your approval, your grace,” Lord Trilby said simply.

  There was a short silence while the grandduchess digested this most astonishing of statements.

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande contemplated the pleasurable feeling that the earl’s declaration had given rise to in her heart, but reluctantly she set it aside as being false. In sudden fury she stared at her grandnephew for his temerity in playing to her vulnerabilities. “Pah! I do not believe it for a moment, my lord, do you hear? I have observed you for all of your life. Your stubborn nature is well known to me. You have rarely sought my opinions. Never have you sought my approval! No, I do not believe it!’’

  “But I value your approval, madam.”

  Lady Caroline’s voice was soft, and yet immediately riveted the grandduchess’s attention. “I know how very fond his lordship is of you, and I suspect that you hold him in high esteem, as well. It would not rest well with my conscience if my understanding with his lordship were to drive a harmful wedge between you.”

  That much at least was true. Lady Caroline thought, attempting to assuage her conscience.

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande stared coldly at Lady Caroline. Her ladyship had dared to interrupt the scolding that she had intended to unleash on the earl. The impertinence was utterly remarkable. But it seemed that Lady Caroline felt no shame, for she met the grandduchess’s fierce eyes with a calm expression. The grandduchess snapped, “You have refused to accept a ring from my grandnephew?”

  Lady Caroline glanced apologetically at the earl, who was regarding her with a rising brow. “Not in so many words, madam. But our understanding is at the moment a relatively private matter, and as you have yourself observed, an engagement ring would most definitely call attention to it.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande appeared to stiffen even further. “A private matter, my lady? Am I to understand, then, that you deem my grandnephew not worthy of you?”

  “Not at all!” Lady Caroline exclaimed, truly disconcerted. “It is just that Lord Trilby has never . . . that is, he does not pretend to . . .” She saw with each disjointed utterance, the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits was growing steadily grimmer and colder of expression.

  With a wild look she appealed to her companion in deceit.

  The Earl of Walmesley felt it incumbent upon him to step into the breach. “I am such a never-may-care, you see, madam,” Lord Trilby said apologetically.

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande shot a sulfurous glance at him. “As I am all too aware,” she agreed cuttingly. “Many times have I observed that selfsame thing about you, Miles, which has in turn led me to lament the lack of vigor and fortitude it bespeaks. Any relationship, whether personal or political, requires those singular traits of strength if one is to weld the connection successfully.”

  “I am all too aware that I am something of a disappointment to you, madam,” Lord Trilby said stiffly.

  “Pah! You know nothing about it, my lord! Nothing at all! Would I demand to see your progeny about you if I held you in contempt?”

  The grandduchess appeared to be genuinely distressed. His affront forgotten, Lord Trilby stepped forward hastily to catch up her withered hand. “Your grace, it was not my intent to overset you.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande gave a wavering cackle of laughter. She snapped her fan against his sleeve, indicating that she wished to be freed, and his lordship obliged with a rueful look. “You never intend to do so, Miles, but you have still managed it on several occasions. Now, you must tell me this. Is anyone outside this room aware of the understanding between Lady Caroline and yourself?”

  Lord Trilby glanced at Lady Caroline. A faint smile suddenly tugged at his lips at her look of guilty consternation. “Lady Caroline has dutifully informed her aunt, Mrs. Burlington.”

  Lady Caroline bent her head, biting her lip in order to keep from smiling. It was infamous of the earl to refer to her lamentable indiscretion so blandly, as though it had not been the beginning of this outrageous situation that she found herself caught up in.

  The grandduchess flashed a sharp look between the pair. The earl’s reply had astonished her and given rise to a germ of belief in their story. “Indeed! I am very much surprised to hear this, my lady.”

  “It was an unfortunate indiscretion on my part, your grace,” Lady Caroline said. She threw a reproving glance at the Earl of Walmesley when he laughed. “My aunt very much wishes to see me wedded and in my own establishment, and I fear that I have raised hopes that may yet prove unfounded.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande regarded Lady Caroline for a long moment. Finally she asked, “Then I am to assume that this understanding between you and my nephew depends entirely upon my approval of the match?”

  “Yes,” Lady Caroline agreed. Almost instantly she realized her error, but it was too late.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lord Trilby closed his eyes for a pained second.

  The grandduchess’s expression became all amiability and her previous harshness was gone as though it had never been. “My dear Lady Caroline, this has been a most enlightening conversation. I am so very glad that we three have had this amazing little talk. You are staying to luncheon, of course.”

  “I had already asked Lady Caroline to join us,” Lord Trilby said.

  “I shall naturally be happy to do so,” Lady Caroline said, inclining her head.

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande bestowed a smile of immense affability upon Lady Caroline. “I will introduce you to my protégée, my lady. Fräulein Gutenberg is most fascinated by England and all things English. I know that she will be delighted to make your acquaintance, especially in light of your long friendship with Lord Trilby, with whom she is also quite fascinated. She has many questions about English gentlemen, you see, and I feel certain you are in a position to educate her.”

  Lady Caroline allowed her brows to lift in politest disbelief. “I am honored by your confidence in me, madam.”

  The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande showed her teeth in her original predatory smile. Her eyes were bright as she glanced at her companions’ faces. “Pray do not fear that I shall give the game away, my dears. It would be in thoroughly bad taste for me to be so insensitive as to disregard your wishes and publicize your private understanding, so naturally I shall not say a word about it to Fräulein Gutenberg. We shall simply allow her to remain in the dark for a time.”

  Lord Trilby looked startled and he would have said something if the grandduchess had not ruthlessly pressed on. “Yes, I think that would be the wisest course, for if I should not give my approval to the match that you have made for yourself, Miles, you will still require a suitable bride. And it would be cruel indeed to make it so obvious to Fräulein Gutenberg that she was second choice. I am certain that you must agree, my lord.”

  “I doubt whether my opinion makes much difference in the matter,’’ Lord Trilby said, rather grimly. He was neatly trapped by his own and by Lady Caroline’s half-truths. Though he had succeeded in establishing Lady Caroline as his intended, as he had hoped, it still would not free him of Fräulein Gutenberg’s speculative scrutiny. The irony did not escape him.

  “None whatsoever, my
lord.” The grandduchess’s smile widened while she watched the inscrutable mask drop into place over the Earl of Walmesley’s countenance.

  She transferred her attention to Lady Caroline. “I am actually rather glad that you have so precipitately told your aunt about the tentative engagement, my lady.”

  Lady Caroline warily regarded the grandduchess. “Indeed, madam?”

  “Oh, indeed. I look forward with great eagerness to meeting a member of your family. We shall have Mrs. Burlington over for a small intimate dinner party. Miles, you shall arrange it, of course.’’

  Lord Trilby’s mouth twisted in a faint smile. “Of course,” he agreed.

  The door opened and there was the swish of skirts.

  “Ah, here is Marie! My dear Fräulein, come meet Lady Caroline Eddington.”

  Lady Caroline looked around, curious to have her first glimpse of the lady that had been chosen for Lord Trilby. She felt her smile freeze. She did not know what she had expected, but certainly nothing Lord Trilby had said had prepared her for the young lady who crossed the room with such ineffable grace.

  Fräulein Gutenberg was easily one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. Lady Caroline could not take her eyes off the young woman, while confusion and outrage vied inside her.

  Lord Trilby had scarcely referred to Fräulein Gutenberg except in a dismissive fashion, and his reticence had given her the vague impression of a rather dowdily turned-out and plain young lady. Lady Caroline had been prepared to greet the Fräulein with a friendly manner best calculated to put at ease a timid girl who was perhaps feeling overpowered by the grandduchess’s stronger personality. She was totally unprepared for the self-possessed creature who claimed her place beside the grandduchess and who offered Lord Trilby a smile of possessive recognition.