Hot color rushed into Blanche’s cheeks, and she didn’t reply.
Athena gave a cool smile. ‘Enjoy him while you can, my dear, but I fear that your dream of securing both the man and the house are doomed to be dashed. He really is simply amusing himself with you, for you are too inconsequential a little drab to hold him for long. He’ll discard you and move on to the next dalliance, and you will have ruined yourself for nothing.’
‘Why don’t you just leave?’ cried Blanche. ‘Haven’t you done enough?’
‘Exactly what have I done, my dear? I was a loyal and loving sister, which is a role you’ve taken on yourself, have you not?’ Athena turned suddenly as the sound of hooves drummed through the night. Jonathan, Colonel Cummings, and the soldiers were riding out of the stableyard behind the house, and making across the park to intercept Roderick at the fork in the lane. Athena looked sharply in the other direction, where her brother’s curricle lamps had now vanished among the trees.
‘He isn’t free yet, my lady,’ said Blanche quietly.
‘No one drives as he does, my dear. He’ll give them the slip, make no mistake of that.’
Some footmen, led by Evans, were hastening at last from the house toward them, and Athena gave Blanche a final cool glance. ‘Good-bye, Miss Amberley. We won’t meet again, for you will soon sink without trace. Don’t imagine that you’ve won him, for if you think that, you’re more of a fool than I already take you for.’
She walked away just as Evans and the footmen ran up. The butler looked down anxiously at Sir Edmund. ‘I’ve sent a man for the doctor, Miss Amberley. Is Sir Edmund still completely unconscious?’
‘Yes, Evans, I fear he is.’
He nodded at the men. ‘Pick him up very carefully, now, for he may have a broken bone.’
Blanche relinquished him as they bent to carry him back to the house. As she got up out of the snow, she saw Athena take her white fur cloak from another footman by the porch and then climb into the waiting carriage. The coachman cracked his whip, and the four bays strained forward, taking the gleaming black carriage swiftly away from the house. as it drove past Blanche, Athena did not look out at her, but gazed ahead.
The cold winter air seemed suddenly to touch Blanche, and she shivered as she walked slowly back toward the house. Deborah came out to meet her.
‘Are you all right, Blanche?’
‘Yes.’
Deborah looked anxiously at her. ‘The doctor will be here soon. I’m sure Sir Edmund….’
‘I love him so very much, Deborah,’ broke in Blanche, her voice catching.
‘I know,’ replied Deborah gently, taking her arm.
‘You-you know?’
‘Blanche, I can see it in your eyes every time you look at him, just as I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you.’
Blanche halted. ‘In his eyes?’ she whispered.
‘He loves you, Blanche, I know he does.’
‘I wish I could believe that,’ murmured Blanche, turning to look back at the lights of Athena’s carriage.
‘What has she been saying to you?’ asked Deborah quickly, perceiving the glance.
‘Nothing of importance,’ replied Blanche softly.
‘She’s a spiteful, vindictive chienne, Blanche, and you mustn’t believe anything she says.’
Blanche shivered again. ‘Let’s go inside,’ she said quietly.
Doctor Paulet came with every haste, and Blanche and Deborah waited with Evans and Sir Edmund’s anxious valet in the passage while the doctor carried out the examination in Sir Edmund’s bedchamber.
It was a fine chamber at the rear of the house, above the oriel window of the grand chamber. The fire blazed in the hearth and all the candles had been lit, so that the room was warm and bright. Its walls were paneled with rich dark oak, and hung with fine Arras tapestries. The four-poster bed dominated the room, for it was an immense piece of furniture with curtains and a canopy made of the richest dove-gray brocade. Sir Edmund lay unconscious, and had still made no movement when the doctor completed the examination and drew the coverlet over him before going to admit those who were waiting outside.
He addressed Blanche, whom he knew well, and whom he could not help still regarding as the mistress of Amberley Court. ‘I cannot find any broken limb or sign of other internal damage, Miss Amberley, except, of course, for the wounds sustained at Vimiero during the summer. I have already attended him since his arrival here, and know those wounds precisely, so that I can state quite categorically that no further damage has been sustained to them.’
Blanche closed her eyes with relief, for that had been her greatest fear. ‘Are you quite sure, Doctor?’ she asked.
‘Beyond all doubt, Miss Amberley.’ He looked at Sir Edmund again. ‘There is a bruise on the side of his head, caused, I have to believe, by being knocked down by the curricle. It has rendered him temporarily unconscious, but he will soon recover, I’m certain. I will dress the bruise and leave instructions, then I will leave, for there is nothing more I can do. I will call again in the morning to see how he has progressed.’
‘Very well, Doctor Paulet.’
As the doctor took some bandages and a jar of ointment from his bag, Deborah suddenly heard something from the park outside. She opened the casement and looked out.
Blanche turned as well, for the distinct sound of hooves and wheels drifted in on the cold air. She gazed out across the park toward the postern gate, and her heart almost stopped as she saw Roderick Neville’s curricle driving slowly through the snow, the team of two kicking up clouds of white as they went.
They both stared in unutterable dismay, but then Deborah gave a small cry of excitement. ‘It isn’t Mr Neville, Blanche, it’s Jonathan!’ Turning, she gathered her skirts and flew from the room.
Doctor Paulet finished attending to Sir Edmund’s head wound, and then closed his bag. ‘There is nothing more I can do, Miss Amberley.’
‘Thank you, Doctor.’
‘Not at all.’ Inclining his head, he picked up the bag and went out, closing the door softly behind him.
She looked out of the window again. The curricle had passed out of sight into the stableyard and all was quiet again, so she closed the casement and drew the heavy velvet curtains across.
The fire shifted in the hearth, sending a shower of brilliant crimson sparks fleeing up the chimney into the night, and she pulled her shawl around her shoulders as she went to stand by the bed, looking down at the face of the man she’d so swiftly come to love with all her heart. She hardly knew him, he’d really only entered her life a few days ago, but in that short time he’d come to mean everything to her.
Unbidden, Athena’s voice echoed in her head. The ways of high society are evidently totally unknown to you, otherwise you would understand more how people like Edmund and I go on. I would never be foolish enough to think I had sole claim to his bed, dear; indeed, I’d have been amazed if I had. There were others before you, and there’ll be others after you, for you are simply a passing diversion. Did you know that you were the subject of a wager?
The door opened suddenly, and Jonathan came in with Deborah. He came to stand by Blanche, looking down at the bed. ‘There’s no change?’
‘No.’
‘Deborah tells me the doctor says he hasn’t been badly injured, just knocked on the head.’
‘Yes. Jonathan, what happened? Why were you driving the curricle?’
‘Because Neville is now on his way to Cheltenham under guard.’
‘You caught him?’
He drove right into our clutches. In his haste to get away, he actually took the wrong fork in the road, and almost ran us down by the lychgate. If it hadn’t been for that, he’d have gotten away after all, for he was going like the wind itself.’
‘You caught him by the lychgate?’
‘Not exactly. He was going so fast that we scattered before him, and he drove right over the hill and down toward the river, where he suddenly realized he could go
no further. He left the curricle and tried to make for the bridge over the creek into the bishop’s land, but some of the soldiers cut him off and so he turned to dash the other way instead, but we’d blocked that escape as well, so he was only left with the fishing house. He didn’t realize that it jutted right over the water nor did he know how decayed and unsafe it is, for he dashed onto the verandah as if it had been built only yesterday of the sturdiest oak in the land! It gave beneath him, and he fell, but he just managed to cling to the rail. He was ours then, all we had to do was pull him up. The colonel ordered me to drive the curricle back here to tell you what had happened, and then he took Neville under arrest to Cheltenham.’
‘Is it really all over, Jonathan?’ she asked.
He slipped an arm around her, squeezing her tightly. ‘Yes, Sis, my name will soon be fully cleared, Deborah and I are reunited, Mr Jennings’s financial affairs are, thanks to Sir Edmund, about to be more than healthy again, and my army career is set to proceed as I wish.’ He looked down at Sir Edmund. ‘I intend to be an even younger major-general than he, Blanche, and one day I hope to be the brilliant commander that Sir Arthur Wellesley is now. The army is everything to me, Blanche, everything, and if I’d lost it…’ He smiled at her. ‘Who’d have thought it, eh? Jonathan Amberley, one of Gloucestershire’s most eligible young men, without a military thought in his head two years ago, now so engrossed in army life that he’d die if he was denied it.’
She returned the smile. ‘Jonathan, I trust that you’ve inquired if Deborah feels the same way?’
Deborah nodded. ‘Oh, he has, and I’m more than content to be an army wife.’ She came to put a gentle hand on Blanche’s arm. ‘Please come down with us.’
‘I’d rather stay here. I-I know that it isn’t strictly very proper, but….’
Deborah nodded. ‘We understand,’ she said, glancing at Jonathan in a way that defied him to protest. Then she gave him a smile. ‘You go on down, I’ll follow in a moment.’
As the door closed behind him, Deborah turned to Blanche again. ‘Please don’t worry about Sir Edmund, Blanche, for the doctor says he will be all right.’
‘I know, it’s just….’
‘I do understand, you know.’ Deborah smiled at her. ‘If I were you right now, I’d be doing exactly the same.’
‘Would you?’
‘Of course. Here, take this to remind yourself of something important.’ Deborah pressed something into her hand.
Blanche looked down to see a small sprig of holly, four shiny dark green leaves with a cluster of scarlet berries. ‘Remind me of something important?’ she repeated, puzzled.
‘That this is going to be the most wonderful Christmas ever. It will be, you know, for I have no doubt whatsoever that all this is going to untangle as sweetly as any of us could have wished.’ Turning, Deborah slipped quietly from the room and once again the door closed.
Blanche’s fingers closed over the stem of the holly and she gazed down at the man she loved so very much, then she bent to kiss him softly on the lips. She closed her eyes, her whole body aching with love, then she straightened again. There were tears on her cheeks as she slowly left the bedside to sit on a chair by the fire, leaning her head wearily back.
The firelight danced in her gray eyes and shone with copper lights on her silver-blond hair as she gazed at the garlands of ivy, mistletoe, fir, and laurel festooned along the mantelpiece. The most wonderful Christmas ever? How could that possibly be? Athena’s scornful voice echoed in her head. Did you know you were the subject of a wager? He said that you would not succumb to his advances until the new year, but I was sure you ‘d surrender before Christmas. Were those the words of a spiteful, defeated lover? Or was there a grain of truth in them? How could someone as insignificant as Blanche Amberley hope to win a man like Major-General Sir Edmund Brandon? Oh, he’d told her he held her in high regard, and there had been times when he’d treated her with undue tenderness, but she knew nothing of what was really in his heart. He was a man of the world, experienced, confident, and possessed of the sort of looks and charm that would lure any bird from any tree, so why should she be anything other than the passing diversion Athena claimed?
Tears shimmered in her eyes, but she didn’t cry. The minutes passed, and the warmth of the fire enveloped her as she drifted into a dreamless sleep, exhausted after all that had happened in the past few days.
Half an hour went by, and still she slept, but Sir Edmund began to stir on the bed. His eyes flickered and opened, and he turned his head to look at the clock on the mantelpiece. He saw her, and for a long moment he gazed at her, taking in every detail of her face and hair, and the demure but becoming gray gown she wore.
Slowly he sat up, wincing as he became aware of the bruises on his head. Tentatively he touched the bandage, and then pulled it off, for if there was one thing he could not endure it was a bandage around his head. Then he ran his fingers through his hair, looking at Blanche again before getting from the bed and going to her.
He bent over the chair, reaching down to put his fingertips gently to her cheek. She didn’t move, and he smiled a little. ‘Blanche?’ he whispered.
She stirred and looked up at him, her gray eyes large and confused for a moment. Then she gave a swift gasp and rose to her feet. ‘Sir Edmund, you shouldn’t have left the bed, you’re not well enough….’
‘I’m perfectly well, Blanche. A slight headache maybe, but no more than that.’
‘I’ll tell the others….’
He caught her hand. ‘No, don’t go just yet.’
She hesitated, and then turned slowly back to face him.
His blue eyes searched her pale face in the firelight. ‘I remember running toward Neville’s curricle, but then nothing more. What happened?’
She explained all about the accident, and about Roderick’s subsequent capture by the fishing house.
‘He’s in custody now?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Where is Athena?’
She lowered her glance. ‘She left some time ago, Sir Edmund.’
‘I suppose that was inevitable, given the circumstances,’ he murmured. Then he put a hand to her chin, turning her face toward him. ‘Why are you here now, Blanche? Why haven’t you gone home to your father?’
‘I-I had to see that you were all right.’
‘My valet could have done that.’
She drew away from him. ‘I wished to do it myself, Sir Edmund. After all, this has all happened because of my brother, and I feel….’
‘Obliged?’ he finished for her. ‘Is that what you were going to say?’
‘No, of course not.’
‘Then what? Why have you remained here watching over me, Blanche?’ His thumb caressed her skin.
‘Because….’ But she couldn’t say it, she couldn’t confess her love, she was too afraid of rejection. Even now, when his eyes were so warm and dark, and she trembled at his touch, she was afraid to bare her soul to him.
‘Oh, Blanche, it’s time for one of us to be honest about all this, and I am prepared to be that one. Last Friday … dear God, was it only last Friday that you entered my life as if for the first time?’ He gave a brief, incredulous laugh, and then began again. ‘Last Friday, I walked into the dining room of the Saracen’s Head, and my life was changed beyond redemption. I saw the woman I was to marry behaving like the ill-tempered, conniving shrew she really is, and I saw you, Blanche, a woman I’d hitherto believed I disliked, standing up to my unpleasant bride-to-be with such admirable spirit that I could not help but be impressed by you. My eyes were opened, not only to the truth about Athena, but also to the fact that you were everything I wished, and everything Athena could never be. From the the moment I looked into your eyes again, I wanted you, Blanche. I desired you so much that the mere thought of you was a torment. I knew I had no right to feel as I did about you, and I resolved to stifle all emotion where you were concerned, but fate forced me into your company time and time ag
ain, and on each occasion I was left wanting you more than the time before. I should have been stronger, I should have resisted all temptation, but I couldn’t, and I was guilty of saying and doing things which no man of honor should have done. I was supposed to be marrying Athena, but when I held her, it was you that I embraced, and when I kissed her, yours were the lips I tasted. She was right to accuse me of desiring you, but wrong to think it was only desire, for I loved you too.’
Blanche stared at him, and Athena’s spiteful parting words fled into the wintry night. An incredible joy was all around her, and she felt as if the world had stopped. ‘Do you really mean what you say?’ she whispered.
He took her face in his hands. ‘How can you doubt it? Can’t you hear it in my voice? I adore you, Blanche, and I need you. There isn’t anything I can do to cast you out of my heart, for you’ve taken possession. You are everything in the world, and beyond, and I don’t want to be parted from you for so much as a moment. Now look into my eyes and deny if you can that you love me too.’
‘I love you with all my heart,’ she said softly, ‘and I think that I loved you from that moment in the Saracen’s Head, although I didn’t know it. But I know it now – oh, how I know it now. You’ve filled my thoughts constantly from the time you entered that dining room, and although I didn’t want to love you, I couldn’t help myself. But I didn’t think you could possibly love me, not when you had someone like….’
‘Athena? How can you possibly compare yourself unfavorably with someone like that? Oh, my darling, you’re worth a thousand Athenas.’ He pulled her close, his arms enclosing her in an embrace that was both tender and aflame with passion. His lips moved ardently over hers, inviting a response that she was powerless to resist. Nor did she want to resist, for it was ecstasy to be in his arms. The sprig of holly was still in her hand as she linked her arms around his neck to return the kiss.
A Christmas Courtship Page 23