A Chance Encounter: A rash decision changes their lives forever.

by Buck, Gayle

  Sir Thomas gave the slightest cough and Lady Athene threw her husband a knowing glance. “But I am warned that I run on. We shall talk later.”

  She gave Joan’s hands another squeeze and turned then to Lady Ratcliffe. She saw at once that her forthrightness toward Miss Chadwick had put Lady Ratcliffe out of curl, and she set herself to cajole her ladyship into a better humor. “Lady Ratcliffe, it is truly a pleasure to see you again. Mama always has such kind things to say about you. And Augusta! You are always in such amazing good looks. I cannot begin to tell you how envious I am of you. What an absolutely dazzling toilet. You must impart to me the name of your modiste. She is a genius, truly.”

  Lady Athene drew the Ratcliffe ladies toward the drawing room, on the way pausing to pay her respects to her grandmother. “Grandmamma! Why, I did not perceive you before. But of course you would be here. Where else, indeed?” She cast a knowing glance backward at the viscount and Joan.

  Lady Cassandra gave her impudent granddaughter short shrift. “You are a menace, Athene.”

  Lady Athene only laughed as at a grand joke and continued on in her usual style. “Oh, Thomas will agree with you, my lady. Will you not, my dear?”

  “Indisputably,” murmured Sir Thomas with unimpaired good nature. He signaled the nursemaid and his valet to collect his wayward children. The older boys went protesting loudly until the nursemaid promised to have a sticky treat brought to the nursery for them all.

  Lady Dewesbury bestowed a kiss on the toddler, who earnestly informed her that he was to have a treat, too, and a hug on each of the older boys. She waved them upstairs before she turned to her adult guests. “Let us all go into the drawing room. Hudgens will have had refreshments sent in. I know that you must all be parched,” she said gaily. She was always happiest when the house was full and her talents as a hostess could be given wide rein.

  There was a general slow exodus in the direction of the drawing room, the earl drawing Lord Ratcliffe and Sir Thomas with him with bluff goodwill. Lord Humphrey and Joan did not immediately join the others.

  “Shall I make good my escape, my lord?” Joan whispered.

  “It’s as good a time as any,” said Lord Humphrey, smiling. He lifted her hand to his lips. “I shall make your excuses, but I warn you I shall not remain long unscathed without you to ward off some of my sister’s frank curiosity.”

  Joan laughed. “I shall return as soon as I may,” she promised. She turned to the stairs then, but her progress was impeded.

  The other gentleman, after making his bows to the Ratcliffe ladies, had stood looking on with a cynical glint in his eyes. Now he stepped directly into Joan’s path. As he did so, he threw an amused look at the viscount. His lean face bore the lines of dissipation about his eyes and mouth and his manners were careless to the extreme. “Do I not also rank an introduction to your betrothed, cousin?”

  Lord Humphrey regarded the gentleman with a singular lack of warmth. “Joan, this is Mr. Vincent Dewesbury, my cousin.”

  “How do you do, sir,” said Joan politely. She was quite cognizant of the viscount’s patent dislike of his cousin, and so she was wary of displaying too much warmth. There was something, too, that instantly set her on the alert against the gentleman. Instinctively she knew that she had finally met one of the wolves that young maidens were always warned about.

  Mr. Dewesbury raised Joan’s hand and brushed his lips across her fingers lightly. Still retaining her hand, he looked directly into her eyes. His clear green eyes were disconcertedly penetrating. “Believe me, the pleasure is entirely mine,” he said deliberately.

  Joan colored slightly. She recovered possession of her hand. “You are kind, sir.”

  Mr. Dewesbury’s smile widened. His white teeth flashed briefly. There was a satirical look in his eyes. “Kind? No, I am not kind. You may ask Humphrey.”

  “Come, Joan. We are set to join the rest of the company,” said Lord Humphrey, tight-lipped. He took her arm and bore her off to the drawing room. Joan threw a despairing glance up at his face and resigned herself to the fact that she was not going to have the opportunity to remedy her windblown appearance, after all.

  Without comment, Mr. Dewesbury sauntered after them. Upon crossing the threshold, he was instantly hailed by Lady Cassandra.

  “Ah, Vincent! Sit beside me, my dear sir. I always derive huge enjoyment from your peculiar brand of humor,” she said.

  “I am happy to oblige, as ever,” said Mr. Dewesbury, with a tinge of sarcasm edging his acceptance. Lady Cassandra chuckled, completely armored against such as him. Mr. Dewesbury gave a half-shrug and seated himself on the settee beside the peppery old woman. She commanded him to procure a cup of chamomile tea for her from the tray, which he did with nonchalant elegance, never allowing his irritation to be seen that he was forced to rise again so quickly.

  Lord Humphrey handed Joan to a wing-back chair near the grate and stationed himself close beside her, leaning his shoulders against the mantel. The butler offered refreshment to Joan and the viscount, both of whom refused.

  Lady Athene was as usual talking and she shifted slightly to include her brother and his betrothed in her conversation. “I was just telling Mama that Bethany cannot be here, Edward. Her confinement is upon her at last and naturally Robert and the other children remain close by until she is delivered.”

  “Thank God for small favors,” said Lord Humphrey fervently.

  Lady Dewesbury scolded him over the general laughter. “Really, Edward, one would think that you were not at all fond of your eldest sister and her family.”

  “Of course I am fond of Bethany and Robert and the girls. But I am fonder of them all at a distance. Admit it, Mama! My nieces are perfect little monsters,’’ Lord Humphrey said, pretending to shudder.

  Lord Dewesbury gave a hearty laugh. Joan regarded the earl in open astonishment. It was the first time that she had ever seen other than a forbidding expression upon his face. She thought that his lordship was really quite a handsome gentleman when he was not going about looking so dour.

  The earl was not aware of her regard as he said, “Edward has you there, Charlotte. Robert disclosed to me their last visit to us that they have seen four governesses in as many months. When those girls are old enough to leave the schoolroom, Bethany will have the devil of a time getting them taken off her hands.”

  “I dearly love my granddaughters,” Lady Dewesbury said with dignity, sipping her tea. “They are perhaps a bit spoiled and headstrong, but I am certain those qualities must be tempered with time.”

  “Robert hopes for another girl,” Sir Thomas murmured, his eyes fixed contemplatively on the ceiling.

  Lady Dewesbury’s expression altered radically at his revelation, causing another burst of laughter. She gathered herself, a small smile teasing at her own lips. “Laugh at my expense if you will. I still maintain that my granddaughters are as perfect as can be.”

  “Of course they are,” said Lady Ratcliffe. She met Lady Dewesbury’s swift astonished glance. “We are all of us quite certain that our own progeny and their children, too, are deserved of accolades. That is why we always stoutly defend them and their interests.”

  Lady Dewesbury flushed. She turned her shoulder on Lady Ratcliffe. “I have been thinking for some minutes about it. Perhaps I should go to Bethany and remain with her for a week or so.”

  “Oh, decidedly not,” exclaimed Lady Athene. “Bethany charged me strictly to persuade you not to come. You know that she never has the least trouble, Mama, and besides, we agreed between us that you are needed more here at Dewesbury. I do not recall there ever being such a strange turnabout in the family, but there it is. One could never have foreseen such a thing, could one? Edward, you shall tell me later every detail of your little romance with Miss Chadwick. I am agog with curiosity.”

  An odd, muffled sound emanated from Miss Ratcliffe. All eyes turned on her, with varying degrees of sharpening interest or dread, depending upon the owner’s character. But Miss
Ratcliffe thoroughly disappointed those who anticipated at least a minor tantrum. She only rose to her feet, carefully setting aside her unfinished tea and biscuit. “I fear that I am developing the headache, Lady Dewesbury. I hope that you will excuse me.”

  “Of course, dear child,” said Lady Dewesbury, hiding her sense of relief that there was not to be a reoccurrence of the hysteria that they had all been treated to some days before.

  “Poor darling! I shall go up with you, Augusta, and see you made comfortable,” said Lady Ratcliffe, also putting down her teacup.

  “Thank you, Mama. But I had hoped that I might prevail upon one of the gentlemen to escort me,” said Miss Ratcliffe. Her lovely eyes lifted, to come to rest commandingly upon the viscount’s face.

  Joan felt herself stiffen and she tried hard not to allow her disapproval, her outrage, show in her expression. She thought Miss Ratcliffe’s tactics quite unashamedly forward, especially when she directed them at a gentleman who was announced to be betrothed. She turned her head, waiting to see how the viscount would handle this newest of Miss Ratcliffe’s importunities.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Lord Humphrey was to all appearances absorbed by the small fire in the grate and he was slow to react, even to the small pool of silence that had fallen about the company.

  Miss Ratcliffe was heard to give a smothered exclamation. The earl cleared his throat, but Lady Dewesbury shot such a bright forbidding glance at him that he subsided farther into his chair. His face took on all the expression of stone. Sir Thomas looked at the ceiling, by his example hoping to hold his wife’s tongue in check. Lord Ratcliffe’s hand fell onto his wife’s arm. She looked around at him, then irritably turned her shoulder. Lady Cassandra regarded all of them with unholy amusement lightening her gray eyes.

  Vincent Dewesbury was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. “I hold myself completely at your service, Miss Ratcliffe,” he said suavely, rising and covering the distance between them. He held out his hand.

  Miss Ratcliffe was caught in the coils of her own trap. Her eyes glittered, but her obvious temper was not evident in her sweet voice. “Why, thank you, Mr. Dewesbury. It is a pleasure to associate with a true gentleman.’’ With that rather clumsy shot in the viscount’s direction, she placed her fingers delicately upon Mr. Dewesbury’s arm.

  He firmly drew her hand through his elbow so that they were in nearer proximity. She glanced up at him quickly, then away when she met his cynical gaze. His expression was bland as he walked with her out the door.

  Lady Ratcliffe watched her daughter’s exit with a small frown marring her broad brow. “Perhaps I shall just go along to see Augusta safely into her room,” she said. She hurried after her daughter and Mr. Dewesbury.

  When the door had closed behind his wife, Lord Ratcliffe snorted. “I do not know what Aurelia expects Dewesbury to be able to accomplish between here and the upstairs. In a house full of servants, too.”

  “I suspect that if my rascally nephew were to try to steal a kiss or two, Augusta would be quite able to put him firmly into his place without the least difficulty,” Lord Dewesbury said with heavy humor.

  Lord Humphrey was set to contribute his own opinion regarding Miss Ratcliffe’s powers of survival, but he swallowed back the biting words. Considering the situation, his opinion would hardly be well-received by either his father or Lord Ratcliffe.

  “Really, Greville! What an odd way to speak of dear Augusta,” said Lady Dewesbury reprovingly.

  “Oh, but how utterly true! Why, when I recall how Augusta was used to cut up at poor Vincent when we were all children together, I wonder that he dares to say a word in her presence,” Lady Athene said, making her third choice from the array of cakes and biscuits that had been provided along with tea.

  “Vincent is no longer a sensitive child,” said Lady Dewesbury.

  Lord Dewesbury coughed. “No, he is not that,” he agreed.

  Lady Dewesbury threw the earl a look of exasperation. A pucker formed between her brows. “I don’t know why Vincent is here. He is always welcome, naturally, but he visits so rarely these days. I wonder what has brought him at this particular time? Athene, have you any notion?”

  “I haven’t the least clue, Mama. He did not come with us, you may be assured. A young family is not the sort of company that my cousin keeps,” Lady Athene said on a laugh. She popped the remains of a biscuit into her mouth.

  “Curiosity,” uttered Sir Thomas. He bowed in Lord Ratcliffe’s direction. “Begging your pardon, my lord.”

  Lord Ratcliffe waved aside the simple apology. “Oh, don’t think to insult my pride, Sir Thomas. It has taken quite a battering, but I have found it almost liberating.”

  Lady Cassandra ignored Lord Ratcliffe’s levity. “Vincent comes to do mischief, mark my words. Miss Chadwick, you would do well to watch your back. You are just the sort of delectable morsel to appeal to one of Mr. Dewesbury’s cut.’’

  Joan spluttered on a disbelieving laugh. “Come, ma’am! I am hardly one likely to interest such a worldly gentleman as Mr. Dewesbury seems to be.”

  “Oh, come, Grandmamma! Vincent is what is known as a ‘bad man’ and all of that, but you cannot accuse him of anything worse than being a libertine and I have never yet heard that he preys on the innocent or the respectable,” Lady Athene said. She smoothed her sleeve. “Still, I do think he holds a certain fascination.”

  Sir Thomas shot up his brows. “Does he, indeed!”

  Lord Humphrey was frowning. He had not liked his grandmother’s advice to Joan, bringing up as it did quite an unpleasant possibility. “I have never liked Vincent above half.”

  “Lord, why should you?” retorted Lady Athene. “The feeling has been mutual since you were both boys, vying over Augusta’s pretty golden head. When I recall how many times Vincent drew your claret and played such mean tricks upon you and . . . Well, it just shows one, does it not? We are all set in our roles as children. There is no hope for it at all, for just look at Edward and Vincent, still at loggerheads whenever they chance to meet, circling each other like stiff-legged hounds.”

  “I have never vied for one single hair belonging to Augusta,” Lord Humphrey said from between his teeth.

  “Oh, no, of course not. I do beg your pardon. How silly of me, to be sure,” Lady Athene said, rolling her eyes heavenward. She rose from her place, shaking out the skirt of her pelisse. “I am still quite deplorably damp. I am certain that Nurse must have taken proper care of the children and made sure that they were dry, but I am always such a worrier. I shall just run up to the nursery before going to rest before I must change for dinner. It is just family here, so I know that I may make my excuses without giving offense. Thomas?”

  “Quite,” said Sir Thomas, also rising. He lingered to take a polite exit from the earl and the others.

  Lady Dewesbury also rose, to walk with her daughter to the drawing-room door. “We dine at the usual hour, Athene, so do not think that you must hurry.”

  “Still keeping town hours, Mama? How utterly fatiguing. I shall be half asleep before ever we are through the first course,” said Lady Athene cheerfully. Her voice dropped, but not enough to prevent those behind from hearing her next words. “It is such a turnabout, is it not? So unlike Edward! Has Papa been out with his fowling piece? I do so like fowl of all sorts. One’s figure suffers from beef, you know.”

  The Earl of Dewesbury reddened at his daughter’s words. He growled something unintelligible.

  Throwing his father-in-law an apologetic glance, Sir Thomas hurried to take his wife’s arm. “Come, my dear Athene.”

  “Have I disgraced myself again, Thomas? Ah, well. When I reach Grandmamma’s age and continue to speak my mind as she does, everyone will think me an eccentric as well,” said Lady Athene.

  Lord Humphrey had the audacity to laugh. He saluted his sister with a brief gesture of one hand to his brow. “Bravo, Athene!”

  His sister threw him a puzzled glance over her plump s
houlder as Sir Thomas escorted her out of the room.

  Lady Cassandra glared at the viscount before her glance swept the others in the room. She discerned amusement in all their faces. “An entire generation without respect for their elders,” she snapped.

  “Come, Mama. What do you expect? You have often said how like yourself Athene is,” said Lady Dewesbury in a reasonable tone, returning to her chair.

  “I do not recall ever making such an error in judgment, daughter,” said Lady Cassandra at her haughtiest.

  Joan stood up, judging that her own chance to exit had come at last. “Lady Dewesbury, pray excuse me as well. I was walking in the garden earlier and I, too, am a bit worse for the turn in weather.”

  “Of course, Miss Chadwick.”

  Lord Humphrey at once offered his arm to Joan and walked with her out of the drawing room. He escorted her to the bottom of the stairs and there lingered a moment. “I apologize for thwarting your escape earlier,” he said.

  “No matter, my lord. I was quite interested in all that was said. I am learning a great deal about your family,” said Joan.

  Lord Humphrey grinned. “You are learning more than you ever bargained for, I’ll wager.”

  Joan laughed and shook her head. “No, but—”

  What she would have said was forever lost, for the front door crashed open. On a flurry of wind and rain, two slim figures dashed inside. The young male turned swiftly and slammed the door closed, cutting off the blowing rain.

  The young lady attempted to shake off her soaked pelisse. Her straw bonnet hung bedraggled and sad about her face. “Really, Neville! What a perfectly ghastly notion! Trust you to think of something so corkbrained. Only look at my bonnet!”

  “Corkbrained, was it? Then why didn’t you just stay with the carriage until someone had been sent for you? I shall tell you why! You couldn’t bear that I would be having a small adventure all to myself,” retorted the young man.

  “Adventure! Why, what is so grand about running through a summer storm and trouncing through nasty puddles, I should like to know,” demanded the young lady.