by Amelia Grey
She had taken special care when arranging her hair and dressing for the day, not for Lord Waldo, but because she wanted to please His Grace. She wore a blush-colored dress trimmed with delicate white lace around the neckline and the capped sleeves. She would don a matching, long-sleeved pelisse that buttoned high up her throat before she went out for the carriage ride.
“And what is your age, Lord Waldo?” Constance asked.
“Twenty-eight last month,” he said proudly.
“And your brother, the duke, has he bestowed lands or an allowance on you yet?”
He threw his shoulders back and beamed. “Yes, both. My brother has been quite generous to me and has promised to be even more so once I have an heir.”
Henrietta couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps it was a good thing the duke wasn’t at home. Constance was questioning Lord Waldo as if Henrietta were her daughter. She didn’t think the poor man could have withstood questions from both of them. One of his pale brown eyes constantly twitched, and he nervously kept wetting his lips in a most annoying way. Henrietta actually felt sorry for him. She would do her best to put him at ease once they were alone in his curricle.
When Henrietta had all she could take of the questions Constance was asking, she rose and said, “I think we should be going, don’t you, Constance?”
Constance and Lord Waldo stood up, too.
“Yes, by all means,” Constance said, looking at the clock on the mantel. “We certainly want you back well before dusk begins to settle.” She turned to Lord Waldo. “A couple of hours should be plenty of time for you to see all the important people who might be in the park today, don’t you think?”
“Yes, Mrs. Pepperfield. I’ll not return Miss Tweed late, I assure you.”
“Good. Since Blake is out of the house, Henrietta, I will be here when you return.”
They walked to the vestibule, and Henrietta picked up her pelisse. Lord Waldo immediately tried to help her with it but dropped it before she could put her arm through the sleeve. After much fumbling, Henrietta managed to don her pelisse and button it. She placed a blush-colored bonnet on her head. Constance handed her her gloves, cape, and parasol, and she and Lord Waldo walked out the door.
“You are absolutely fetching, Miss Tweed, and I count myself the luckiest man in London to be with you today.”
Henrietta smiled at him as they approached the carriage and said, “Thank you, Lord Waldo. I think the blue skies and beautiful sunshine might have something to do with that. We’ve had so much rain and so many gray clouds recently that the loveliness of the day spills over into our attitudes, don’t you think?”
“Begging your pardon, Miss Tweed, but I don’t think the day has anything to do with your beauty. You were just as beautiful last night, and you will be just as beautiful tomorrow.”
“You are far too generous with your praise, Lord Waldo. However, I will simply accept it graciously.”
As they reached the carriage, a small dog popped out of a crate and barked, startling her.
Lord Waldo reached down to the floor of the open carriage and lifted the dog out of the cushioned wooden box. The long-haired, white dog barked and happily licked Lord Waldo’s face.
“This is Tulip,” he said, “though I call her Tooley most of the time. My brother doesn’t mind. She’s a West Highland white terrier.”
“She is a darling little dog,” Henrietta said, backing up slightly.
“I know. My brother told me to bring her along with me. He said that all ladies love dogs, and caring for dogs shows that a man has compassion.”
“That’s wise counsel from your brother,” she said, thinking that Lord Waldo mentioned his brother a lot. She remembered how close he had stayed to his brother at the two parties she had attended.
“I’ll tell him you said that. He’ll be pleased. Here, let me help you into the carriage and then you can hold her.”
“Well, ah.” Henrietta hesitated. “All right, perhaps I can hold her for a short time.”
He held Tooley in one arm and held out the other hand for her to take.
“Thank you,” she said and allowed him to help her up the steps and into the carriage.
Lord Waldo picked up a small blanket from the crate, plopped it over her new pelisse, and then placed the dog in her lap. Henrietta looked down at the terrier and realized she should have told Lord Waldo that she usually had bad reactions to most dogs and all cats. After being around them for only a short while, her eyes would run water, and she would start sneezing. She could only hope that, because Tulip was a small dog, she wouldn’t have any problem.
Tulip, with her cute little face, stared at Henrietta and barked happily again.
Lord Waldo climbed up into the carriage beside her. He opened her parasol and handed it to her. He then took the leather ribbons from the floor and snapped the rumps of the two gray mares. With that, they took off at a breezy trot, with the dog barking.
“That bark means she wants you to rub her back. She likes to have her neck scratched, too, while she rides in the carriage.”
Henrietta stared at the mound of barking fluff and hoped that, since she had her gloves on, maybe petting Tooley for a few minutes would not bother her.
“She certainly seems friendly enough,” Henrietta said, stroking the dog’s back with her free hand. The dog calmed, laid her head down, and snuggled into Henrietta’s skirts, making herself comfortable.
“She loves people,” Lord Waldo said, keeping the horses clipping along at a brisk pace. “See, she thinks you are the most beautiful woman in London, too.”
Henrietta laughed. “I don’t think she cares what either of us looks like, but she does seem to be enjoying the ride.”
Lord Waldo glanced over at Henrietta and smiled. Some of his nervousness seemed to have passed, now that they were out of the house. His eye wasn’t twitching, and he had stopped wetting his lips after every sentence.
“I’m glad His Grace wasn’t home to visit with us before we left. Your chaperone made me nervous enough.”
“You didn’t seem nervous,” she lied, knowing that she shouldn’t, but how could she agree with him?
“Really, you didn’t notice?” He threw his shoulders back and sat up a little taller in the seat. She could see his confidence grow.
“You did quite well holding your own with Constance. She could probably make most men quake in their boots. I found her quite intimidating the first time I met her, but now I don’t feel that way. I think she is beautiful and confident, and she’s knowledgeable about most things in life.”
Henrietta’s fingers sifted through the dog’s long hair as the carriage bumped along. She couldn’t help but remember how delicious it had felt when she combed through the duke’s hair with her hands the night he was in so much pain.
“They are both quite intimidating, you know.”
She threw him a questioning glance. “I’m not sure who you are referring to?”
“My brother and your guardian.”
She had no idea about the Duke of Rockcliffe, but she certainly agreed that Blakewell could be that way—if allowed.
Henrietta felt the need to bolster Lord Waldo’s confidence once again. “I see you as formidable as either of the two dukes. You have no need to feel inferior to them.”
He turned to her, his eye twitching again. Her comment had been made to try to put him at ease, but it had only made him nervous again.
“You do?”
“Yes, of course,” she answered, stretching the truth one more time.
“But dukes are the ones with all the power.”
“Look, there’s the first entrance into the park,” she said, grateful for any reason to change the subject. “Spring is so beautiful here in Hyde Park, and the sky is such a pleasant shade of blue today. There’s not a cloud to be seen. And see how many people have already arrived to enjoy the afternoon. My goodness, there must be hundreds of people here.”
“My brother suggested we drive aroun
d the park twice to make sure we are seen by everyone, and then we should stop and find a place to sit and enjoy our refreshments.”
“Once again, your brother seems to have offered the perfect idea. That sounds wonderful to me,” she said, thinking that would be a good time to put some distance between her and Tooley, who seemed perfectly content curled on her lap.
Lord Waldo guided the horses through the east gate and onto the road that led to the Serpentine. The carriage traffic was thick as their curricle fell in behind a fancy closed carriage driven by a liveried driver and drawn by a pair of matching bays. The grassy areas of the park were packed with elegantly dressed people. Some of the couples strolled around the grounds of the spacious park with their children and pets, while others rode horseback or in two-seated carriages. Still others had found shaded areas to spread their blankets and enjoy the contents of their luncheon baskets.
Henrietta and Lord Waldo rode in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the activity in the park. Lord Waldo would occasionally wave to someone in the distance or yell a hello to someone in a passing carriage. All Henrietta could think was that she wished she were in the park with Blakewell, as she continued to rub Tooley and scratch her neck.
After two trips around the park, Lord Waldo stopped the carriage and handed off the horses to a groom. He helped Henrietta and Tulip down from the carriage, and carried the blanket and food basket while she carried her parasol and the dog. They found a shade tree and spread the blanket. As soon as she sat down, Henrietta’s eyes began to water and her nose felt stuffy. She took a handkerchief from the black velvet reticule that swung from her wrist and dabbed at her eyes.
She tried to set Tooley aside, but the little dog did not want to be put down. “Go run and play,” she said, but Tulip wasn’t interested. The terrier was obviously too newly enamored of Henrietta to leave her lap.
Lord Waldo sat down a respectable distance from her and started emptying the contents of the basket onto the blanket. While he busied himself, Henrietta took time to really look at him. He wasn’t an unattractive man at a distance, but in the cold light of day, she could see that as far as handsomeness, he paled compared to Blakewell. Lord Waldo’s body was thin. He didn’t fill out his shirt and coat. He appeared to be the same size from his shoulders to his hips, while Blakewell had broad, muscular shoulders and lean, narrow hips.
Lord Waldo must have spent little time outside as his face, neck, and hands were pale compared to Blakewell’s sun-kissed, golden-colored skin. She looked at Lord Waldo’s hands, pouring wine into a pewter cup. His fingers were long and bony, so unlike the strong, masculine hands of the duke.
“Here you are,” Lord Waldo said, giving her a cup of wine.
She sniffled and said, “Thank you.”
Suddenly Henrietta sneezed twice. “Bless you,” Lord Waldo said.
Henrietta sneezed again.
“It must be the sunshine and fresh air making you sneeze. Here, eat a little of this kidney pie and cheese. A little food will help you. My brother said wine, kidney pie, and apricot tarts were the best food for an outing in the park with a captivating young lady.”
She smiled and took the plate from him. Tooley stared at the plate. Maybe if I feed the dog, Henrietta thought, she would get up and nose around the grounds. Henrietta couldn’t believe Tooley didn’t want to mark her territory.
While Lord Waldo ate and talked about his brother, Henrietta smiled, nodded, and answered in all the right places, but her symptoms worsened, and her sneezes became more frequent. She drank the wine but finally put the plate on the ground as far from her as she could reach and placed Tooley right in front of it.
Henrietta brushed the white dog hair from her pelisse and gloves while the little dog downed the food in a matter of seconds. Lord Waldo seemed not to notice or, if he did, he didn’t care that she had fed the terrier her food.
Tulip sniffed around their picnic area for less than a minute and then perched herself right back on Henrietta’s lap. She wagged her tail and barked happily. Henrietta couldn’t deny little Tooley her affection when she looked so intently at her with those dark, bright eyes.
“I do say, I think the new blossoms are making you sneeze a lot. Do you always sneeze so much when you are outside?”
“No, never, I mean yes, sometimes, when everything is in bloom.” She couldn’t very well blame her sneezing and watery eyes on the dog now, since she didn’t speak up and say anything right from the beginning.
“I think Tulip is as enchanted with you as I am. She hasn’t left your lap all afternoon.”
“I believe she likes to be held.”
“My brother has spoiled her. When he is at home, Rockcliffe walks around holding Tooley all the time.”
“Mmm,” she said, growing very tired of hearing about Lord Waldo’s brother.
Lord Waldo wiped the crumbs from his lips and put the remnants of food back into the basket. While doing so, he maneuvered himself so that he was suddenly sitting very close to her. Henrietta knew his intentions. He was going to kiss her. She didn’t want him to, yet she did. She had to know if any other man could elicit the passion in her and make her feel the way Blakewell made her feel.
She watched as his face slowly descended toward hers. She had plenty of time to stop him or turn her cheek to him, but she remained still and allowed his lips to lightly brush against hers. Nothing happened. There was no feeling other than awkwardness. She smiled to herself, and without warning she sneezed, making Lord Waldo jump and the dog bark.
“I’m sorry, Lord Waldo, but perhaps we should cut our outing short and return to the house. I don’t think my sneezing and watery eyes are going to get any better this afternoon.”
A pink blush stained Lord Waldo’s cheeks, and he blinked rapidly. “I think you’re right. Perhaps we should try it another afternoon. I can see your eyes are starting to swell. Tooley will miss her walk in the park, but she’ll understand. I think we should leave.”
Henrietta’s symptoms continued all the way home, but she was actually growing quite fond of the little dog. When they arrived at the town house, she gave Tulip a last rub on her head and placed her in the cushioned crate. Lord Waldo helped Henrietta down from the carriage and walked her to the door.
She sniffed. “Thank you for a pleasant afternoon, Lord Waldo. I’m sorry we had to cut the day short.”
“I think it was for the best,” he said, opening the door for them to step inside. “You’re not looking so well. I wish the day hadn’t been quite so in bloom.”
“Henrietta, you’re home,” Blakewell called to her from the top of the stairs.
She turned toward him and smiled. It thrilled her just to see him.
He hurried down the stairs and as he stepped off the last step, his eyes widened. “Bloody hell, what happened to you? You’ve been crying.”
“No,” she whispered.
Rage flashed across his face. He turned to Lord Waldo. “What have you done to her?”
Lord Waldo blinked rapidly as one eye twitched.
“Done, I—I? Nothing!”
“Don’t tell me ‘nothing,’ I can look at her and tell she’s been crying.”
“No, Your Grace,” Henrietta tried to calm him, but he brushed right past her and advanced on Lord Waldo.
“Please, Your Grace, I haven’t touched her.” Lord Waldo backed against the doorframe, hitting his head.
The duke advanced on him. “You expect me to believe that when her eyes are swollen and her nose red?”
Lord Waldo trembled, his eyes twitched in fear as he nervously wet his lips with his tongue.
Henrietta tried again. “Stop this, Your Grace. You are being an ogre; listen to me. Lord Waldo was a perfect gentleman and did nothing to me.”
The frightened man nodded.
“What is happening in here?” Constance said, rushing into the vestibule. “Why are your voices raised? Henrietta, have you been crying?”
“No, of course not. I’ve been ru
bbing my eyes.”
“It must be the shrubs or flowers in bloom, Mrs. Pepperfield, Your Grace. She’s been sneezing almost since we left the house. That’s why we returned so early. We’ve hardly been gone an hour.”
Blakewell backed away from Lord Waldo. He glanced from Henrietta to Constance to Lord Waldo again. In a much calmer voice, he said, “Perhaps it’s time you said your good-byes.”
“Yes, Your Grace; good-bye, Miss Tweed. Thank you for a lovely afternoon. Mrs. Pepperfield, it’s always nice to see you.” He bowed to Blakewell. “Your Grace.”
When the door closed behind Lord Waldo, the duke turned to Constance and asked, “Has she ever shown this reaction when she was out with you in a carriage?”
“No.”
He turned to Henrietta. “Now tell me the truth.”
She sneezed into her handkerchief. “The truth is that I’ve had this kind of reaction to dogs and cats since I was a little girl. Lord Waldo brought his brother’s West Highland terrier with him, and I’m afraid I let the dog get too close to me.”
“I’ve heard of people having similar reactions to dogs and cats, though I’ve never personally known anyone,” Constance said.
“Me either,” Blakewell said.
“It’s my fault. I should have told Lord Waldo I needed to keep my distance, but Tooley was so loving. I thought perhaps because she was small, I would be all right.” Henrietta peeled off her gloves, unbuttoned her pelisse, and shrugged out of it. “I won’t be able to wear these again until they are cleaned.”
“I think the rubbish heap is the best place for those,” Blakewell said, taking them from her. “Constance, I don’t think she should go out tonight.”
“Oh, I agree,” Constance said with a horrified expression on her face. “Looking as she does? Absolutely not. It would be the kiss of death to go out in public.” She turned to Henrietta. “Have your maid bring you cool, wet cloths to cover your eyes, Henrietta. Hopefully the swelling will be gone by tomorrow.”