Corey McFadden

by With Eyes of Love

  “Of course, people aren’t like animals, fortunately for us men. We have to work at getting babies. Night after night—all that humping and pumping, no rest for the weary.” He paused and gave her a gleaming smile. “I’m sure your delicate sensibilities are shocked at all this, Caroline, but you’ll be pleased to know all this infernal delicacy and tiptoeing around disappears in the privacy of the marital bedroom. Why, we can say anything we please to one another. Very relaxing and great fun, really. No secrets, at all. Chamber pots, bleeding cycles, what-have-you. Have you ever heard a man break wind, Caroline? Most entertaining, I assure you. We have contests sometimes at White’s when we’re foxed. The staff has to air the place out by morning....”

  “Julian, that’s enough!” Caroline lurched to her feet, literally shaking all over. “I will not be spoken to like this! You are beneath contempt!”

  “Oh, sorry, Caroline, I get like this when I drink. I drink too much, have you noticed? Can’t control myself at all. But I have a damned fine time of it. Damned fine!” He raised the snifter and drained off the rest of it. He tossed the empty glass to the table. The delicate crystal shattered into a million pieces. “Hah, there’s another damned thing busted for your mama to pay for. Don’t blame little Harry for that one, Caroline.”

  He turned and perused her carefully, looking her up and down, his eyes coming to rest on her own. He moved toward her slowly, not allowing his eyes to leave hers. Now there was more fear than rage mirrored in their depths. “I get quite randy when I drink, as well, Caroline,” he said, allowing his voice to sound husky, as if with desire. “Can’t get enough of it. Usually use whores for my pleasure, but it’ll be nice—cheaper—having a wife to service me whenever I want. And I want it often.” He gave her a slow, knowing smile and continued his advance. “Give us a little kiss, Caroline. I can teach you what to do. First, I stick my tongue in your mouth....”

  With a shriek, she bolted, ripping at the door handles as if the hounds of hell were on her heels. The doors slammed shut behind her, rattling the bric-a-brac around the room. He could hear her footsteps pounding up the staircase. He stood for a moment and stared at the door, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth. He should, by rights, be utterly disgusted with himself. He wouldn’t dare talk to even one of London’s whores like that, much less to a delicate young lady of the ton. But Caroline deserved it, he had to admit. And he strongly suspected it had been a most profitable few minutes’ effort. She would cry off after this. She would have to….

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Oh, my dear Mrs. Carberry. You would not believe how distressed I am to be the butt of such a poor jest at my own expense. I ask you, what have I ever done to deserve this utter lack of respect from these young people? Why, I am the very soul of kindness to them, nothing less! Isn’t that true, Mr. Randall?”

  “Oh, indeed it is, Lady Haverford, indeed it is.” Edgar refrained from rolling his eyes, but it was difficult. The woman had been nattering on in this vein for a good quarter hour. She’d collected quite a crowd of ladies by this time, all cluck, clucking and tsk, tsking. Every time a new lady arrived, Lady Haverford obligingly started her tale all over again from the beginning. It grew more elaborate with each telling, and with each telling, Dolly Haverford’s enjoyment grew as well. She loved being the center of attention.

  They had arrived rather early at the Assembly Rooms this evening, and staked out a good position where they could see and be seen by all entering and leaving. Edgar had duly escorted her in her carriage. At least they had had time to work out some of the more difficult details of the tale on the way over. In the meanwhile, Edgar had managed to extricate himself as one of the villains of the piece. He was now a sad and unwilling dupe just like poor Dolly. He didn’t much fancy being a dupe, but it certainly beat being a villain.

  “But, Dolly, I thought you said at the time that Caroline was all mussed about, and Julian Thorpe had his arms around her,” argued a tenacious newcomer to the scene. Edgar felt sorry for the poor orchestra players who were playing their hearts out in the small musicians’ balcony, to no effect. The room grew more and more crowded with each passing moment. There were, as far as Edgar knew, no competing fancy private entertainments scheduled this evening, which would mean the large rooms would be fair to bursting at the seams in an hour or so.

  “Oh, good heavens, nothing so naughty as that, Miss Worth. Caroline’s attire was quite perfectly intact, such as it was, of course. You know my opinion of how these young girls today go about with entirely too much bosom....”

  “But, Dolly, I know you said you saw Julian with his arms about her. I distinctly remember because it made me feel quite faint.”

  “Miss Worth, you feel faint at the suggestion of rain coming,” Dolly said dryly, clearly unwilling to give up the center of attention, not to mention control of the story. “I did, indeed, see Julian put his arms about Caroline, and, of course, I said so. But you will recall I said that he did so after Mr. Randall and I, and, of course, her mother, Bettina Quinn, had arrived on the scene. Apparently they deliberately waited until we arrived to stage this little scene. Why, the very idea that I should be the butt of this wicked little joke....” and she was off again, full circle. Lady Haverford had great stamina, Edgar had to give her credit for that.

  “But why on earth, would they do such a thing?” Mrs. Blanchard mused. “Caroline Quinn, I grant you, is a headstrong girl, but such a poor hoax makes no sense at all. Why, she has most of the ton toasting her upcoming nuptials, I declare. And Julian Thorpe seems a levelheaded sort. I can’t see why they would put themselves in such a silly, not to mention dangerous, position.”

  “Exactly, Henrietta! Precisely why I did not wish to believe it myself,” Dolly Haverford crowed, as if she had been waiting for this very point to be raised. Edgar had been waiting for it, as well, but with far more trepidation than Dolly seemed to feel. It was, of course, the absurd part of the tale.

  “Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret....” She leaned forward and lowered her voice to a stage whisper. All dozen or so ladies leaned in toward her. From the musicians’ balcony, it must have looked like a flower closing up at dusk.

  “It seems Caroline has her heart quite set on young Rokeby—you remember—they were all but declared last year when his stable burned down, and he had to leave suddenly. But you all know Bettina. It seems she favors young Thorpe—saw him as a bird in the hand, don’t you know. Julian and Caroline found that quite amusing, as they have been friends since childhood, and want nothing to do with each other in that regard.”

  Edgar did so wish she’d stick to the script. One could get in trouble with this freewheeling invention.

  “But, apparently Bettina has been relentless in her attempts to throw them together, nauseatingly so. So, they decided to teach her a lesson. Threw themselves together right in front of her. Although I must say, I do not see why I had to be the butt....”

  And she was off again. Actually, the story had gotten pretty good at that. Most of the ladies were nodding, thin-lipped, quite ready to condemn an entire generation for dreadful judgment and antics unworthy of the better bred. Miss Worth still looked a bit confused, however. Perhaps he might have a go at her, himself, later this evening, to make sure she climbed into the lifeboat with everyone else.

  “Bettina must have been beside herself,” one of the old biddies, Mrs. Carberry, he thought, offered helpfully.

  “Oh, indeed. Why we nearly had to carry her out of the maze, prostrate.”

  “Oh, that’s right, Lady Haverford, didn’t you say the country cousin had fainted in the maze? Was she a part of the scheme, or a dupe?”

  “Oh, a dupe, no doubt, Mrs. Carberry. She was quite insensible for a few minutes. In fact, that’s when I should have realized something was up. Recall that I said at the time that Julian went immediately to the cousin when she fainted. He was most attentive to her. I suspect he had not realized she would be lured into the maze as well. I
believe he’s quite smitten with the cousin, you know, certainly not Caroline.”

  “I suspect Caroline’s hand in that part,” Edgar found himself offering. “She’s been quite jealous over all the attention Miss Elspeth Quinn has garnered this Season. Personally—” He leaned in and lowered his voice to make sure they would all pay rapt attention, and he was not disappointed. “I think Caroline had Elspeth imported from the country to make herself look young and fresh by comparison. I think she has been greatly annoyed that the ploy had quite the opposite effect.” He observed the group, weighing their reaction to this bit of salacious on dit. As he hoped, he saw heads nodding and lips thinning. Caroline deserved their censure for more than they knew, and Elspeth deserved their alliance.

  “But this naughty little escapade nearly caught them in their own trap. Why, Bettina has all but said the two are betrothed,” Miss Worth put in. At least she seemed to be coming round to the new version.

  “Indeed. Why it would serve the two of them right to be leg-shackled together for the rest of their lives,” Dolly Haverford pronounced. They had all pitched their voices a bit louder to compete with the musicians, who were, in turn, competing with an ever-growing crowd. It was growing warm, too. Or, perhaps Edgar was feeling he’d been on the griddle a bit too long. At least they hadn’t focused on his part in all this.

  “Why, Mr. Randall, you were there with Lady Haverford, weren’t you?” Henrietta Blanchard announced loudly. All eyes turned to him. The room got suddenly very hot, indeed. “What did you think of all this nonsense?”

  “Well, I must say I thought it quite queer at the time. Didn’t ring true at all. Why, I know full well that Julian Thorpe and Miss Quinn want nothing to do with one another in that regard. The girl is over the moon about Rokeby—can’t think why—he has the wit of a brick, but you know how les demoiselles can be, And dear Julian is, indeed, quite smitten with the Quinn cousin. He’s already written to the mother to offer for her.” He paused briefly, waiting for this stone to sink. He saw the light go on in several pairs of eyes. “And, too, it simply did not look right. I believe my eyesight is a bit stronger than that of the dear ladies, who were, as they will, nattering to one another as we entered the maze...” he paused and bestowed a conspiratorial smile on Dolly Haverford, one inveterate gossip saluting another. “But it appeared to me at first glance that Julian and Caroline were just waiting for something, not standing particularly close. They sprang into action on sight of her mother and Lady Haverford. And Julian looked positively horrified to find Miss Elspeth Quinn there. I must say”—he was warming to his role now—“that I, too, feel that I have been unfairly singled out as the butt....”

  “Did you say young Julian is smitten with the Quinn cousin, Mr. Randall?” one of the biddies interrupted peremptorily, getting, as he had hoped they would, to the heart of the matter.

  “Oh, indeed, so I understand, Jane.” Lady Haverford seized control of the floor again. “That was part of the reason Caroline and Julian decided to act when they did, although to be sure, they had intended for Bettina to be so outdone with Julian’s alleged ungentlemanly behavior that she would foist him, herself, onto the cousin. But, as you can see, the best-laid plans....”

  From something of a distance, Edgar could see that Thomas and Robert had entered the Assembly Rooms. Indeed, they were hard to miss. Every lady in the place should look to her own comparatively drab attire in shame. His feet itched to take him away. He looked around at the group. It had grown in the last few moments by another half dozen ladies, and he could hear it all starting over again. “Oh, I have been sadly abused, Tabitha,” Lady Haverford was saying. “To have been the butt....”

  Surely he could make his escape now. With a general bow in the direction of precisely no one, he spun, gracefully, he hoped, and very nearly knocked into Herself, the Viscountess Alderson. Gad, but the woman knew how to turn up at the most inopportune times!

  “Mr. Randall,” she said, doing that marvelous thing with her eyebrows. He simply must figure out how it was done.

  “Ah, and a good evening to you, your ladyship. I do so hope you are well, this evening,”

  “Wouldn’t be here if I weren’t, of course,” she snapped.

  By now, naturally, all conversation among the biddies had ceased. A viscountess preceded everyone in the ladies’ circle, and her appearance at Edgar’s shoulder was more interesting, even, than the subject at hand. Scandals, after all, could be so short-lived. Or revived, if boredom necessitated.

  “Good evening, Dolly, Henrietta,” she said, nodding distantly around the rest of the circle.

  “Oh, good evening, Lady Alderson.” Lady Haverford beamed around the circle, clearly delighted at the personal recognition.

  “Please do not allow me to interrupt your animated discussion. Do go on,” she announced, as if calling for a performance. To Edgar, who was at least marginally a part of these doings, the cue was obvious, but no one else seemed to pick up on it.

  “Oh, madam,” gushed Dolly, “we were just discussing how sadly abused I have been by these young people and their sorry little jest. You all may remember”—she beamed around the circle again—“that it was Viscountess Alderson, herself, who explained to me that what I had seen was a charade, nothing less! Isn’t that right, your ladyship?”

  “Indeed, it is.” Viscountess Alderson gave a slight tap with her cane for emphasis. “Why, I feel much abused myself in this matter. I had thought that there was to be an announcement of Miss Caroline Quinn’s betrothal to Julian Thorpe at my ball last night, but what the young people had secretly planned was to announce his engagement to the cousin instead—what’s that child’s name, Mr. Randall? Sweet thing, very mannerly.”

  “That would be Miss Elspeth Quinn, madam, lately of Weston-under-Lizard,” he replied without missing a beat. Deftly done, m’lady, thought Edgar, giving the Imprimatur to the heretofore-ignored Elspeth. The biddies would fall all over her after this rare sanctification.

  “It was meant to be a surprise, and, I must say, a cut down, to all of us,” the viscountess went on. “Bettina Quinn most of all. Apparently some sort of set down to Bettina for what Caroline considered untoward meddling—the very idea that a mother has not the right to meddle in her daughter’s marriage plans! I declare I don’t know what these young people today can possibly be thinking. Why, civilization, itself, is on the very brink of destruction, if a mother is not to select her daughter’s husband.”

  He edged himself out of the circle. His work was done here. The biddies were hanging on the viscountess’s every word, nodding and frowning at the perfidies of the Younger Generation. Elspeth was Saved. Caroline was in the briers, as was Julian, apparently, but it was the sort of high-handed escapade that was to be expected of Young People, and soon forgotten. He supposed there would be some confusion and skepticism among the young people themselves. But in the face of a united front of old biddies determined to believe the viscountess’s version, they would have to yield. Speaking of whom, perhaps now would be a good time to bring Thomas and Robert into the new version. And, besides, he had a bet he needed to call off. It seemed no one had won after all.

  * * * *

  It had been, Elspeth thought to herself, a most uncomfortable carriage ride from the Quinn home to the Assembly Rooms. Barely a word spoken among the three Quinn ladies, none of them civil. Caroline sat in a corner of the carriage huddled in a dark ball of rage. Elspeth had even heard her cousin muttering to herself along the way. Aunt Bettina was clearly befuddled and alarmed by Caroline’s behavior. She had attempted several light remarks and had been utterly rebuffed by her daughter. Now Bettina, too, sat in a huddled ball, as if afraid to make further social effort. Elspeth, herself, could hardly bring herself to notice. The two ladies could have been riding stark naked on the top of the carriage for all Elspeth could care. She could barely keep from singing out loud. Again and again, the most unmaidenly images from this afternoon’s most unorthodox bath rose before her mind�
��s eye. She was grateful that the dark of the carriage prevented her companions from seeing the blush and smile that seemed to have taken up permanent residence on her face. Julian loved her! He would set everything to rights; he had promised. Indeed, she had reason to believe he had already set the wheels in motion. Harry had come sneaking into her room again, early this evening, and had reported that Mr. Thorpe was downstairs in the drawing room speaking to Caroline. Elspeth would have given the world to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out how to manage it without running a terrible risk of being caught out.

  Elspeth had waited by her door inside her bedroom after shooing Harry away. The boy had gotten entirely too much of an education on this visit, she thought, ruefully. He had left her bedroom door slightly ajar, and she did not shut it. Her patience was rewarded a few moments later by the sound of heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. Elspeth peeked out into the dark hallway in time to see her cousin flying by, her face a mask of rage. Caroline ran full tilt into her own bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her. Elspeth could hear the sound of the bolt being shot home. Oh, how she longed to find out what had transpired, but she knew she would have to be patient. Best to let dear Julian handle matters himself. After all, they would have the rest of their lives for him to regale her with the details.

  She dipped her head as the carriage passed under a street lamp that threw its light into the dark interior. Again, came the feel of him pressed hot and hard up and down the length of her, and she nearly gasped at the thought as her stomach fluttered with a heretofore unknown pleasure. A lifetime of Julian touching her....

  “We need not stay long if you are indisposed, Caroline,” Aunt Bettina offered somewhat timidly.

  “I am perfectly ‘disposed,’ Mama. We will stay as long as I wish to,” Caroline snarled in the dark, and Aunt Bettina held her peace.