His gaze measured her. “I should recognize it, Auntie,” he said softly. He looked again to the fire. “I am fully aware that if I am to secure my own interests, I must necessarily look to the interests of others. Every day I receive correspondence relating to some pressing problem or another. Too much has been ignored for too long. Though you think me carelessly oblivious, I must stress that, under the circumstances, troubling to pursue my more personal desires assumes the nature of a challenge. I am working hard at enjoying life, ma’am.”
“My dear,” she began, “I am not recommending that you abandon any thought of eventually building some rapport, some affection, with a wife. After all, your parents were most famously enamored”
“If my parents’ marriage is to be upheld as an example, I am not at all certain I should choose to emulate it. Do you think Father would have repeated it?”
“My brother loved your mother, Lee. He bore with so much because he loved her. He would have wanted to wed if only for a day”
Sidley looked at her skeptically. “Father was never that much of a simpleton.”
“Indeed he was-about Alicia, and at age twenty-five”
“And who is to say I shan’t have Mother’s problems?”
“Alicia showed certain … erratic behaviors even in her teens, though none of us understood them for what they were. Mercifully, neither Simon nor you ever exhibited the same. You cannot on any rational basis believe in the likelihood.”
“Those who might have me must consider it.”
“I have not heard mention of any perceived taint. And I assure you, I keep abreast of the talk”
Sidley smiled at his aunt’s claim. “I would never question that, ma’am.” Again he tapped his cane against his boot and considered the fire. “Speaking of the talk, have you heard anything of Miss Ware, Lady Katherine’s cousin?”
“You expect me to know everyone, do you?” she asked.
“Perhaps because you do seem to know everyone, Auntie. Even cousins.”
“Have you met her, then? Edith has not yet brought Miss Ware ‘round to call. I believe tutorials of some sort pose an impediment, absorbing the girl’s time. Miss Ware is the daughter of Edith’s first cousin, of whom she was particularly fond. The mother tossed away her portion to run off and marry a soldier-an educated man, and respectable, but not up to the Satterthwaite family standards. I do not recall much of the history, but Miss Ware and her brother were left orphans some four or five years ago, when the father passed. The brother is a curate in Northamptonshire, with expectations of a living in the near term. He intends to wed this fall. Edith has much affection for Marian Ware. She claims the girl is a most positive influence on Lady Katherine. I believe Miss Ware’s in town just this June, studying-oh, something.”
“Art,” he supplied. “She is a painter.”
His aunt’s gaze settled disconcertingly on his. “Is she?” she asked.
“So she says. I’ve not seen the evidence. But she has hinted at the knowledge-and the temperament”
“Has she?”
This time Sidley looked to the fire. “She must be some years older than Lady Katherine,” he said. “She has greater composure. But they seem most companionable.”
“So I understood-from Edith.” There was a moment’s pause; then she asked sharply, “What are you about?”
He turned in amusement to his aunt’s stern gaze. “Do not panic, my dear,” he assured her. “Miss Ware is affianced, as you no doubt know, and due to wed this summer. I mention her only because it occurred to me that she would be good company-for Lady Katherine, of course-at your proposed house party. I should advise including her in your invitation.”
“You intend to join me at Aldersham next week, then?”
“I think I must, as you have troubled to invite such scintillating and outstandingly eligible company. Amusements here in town grow tedious. We have had our fill of celebrations and rude foreign princes. Everyone talks only of the country. Vaughn and Benjamin and I had planned a country spree in any event”
“I do not like `sprees,’ Sidley. There will be no all night carousing at Aldersham. This is a most serious business.”
“But we cannot alert our guests to that, surely? All must be joyful entertainment. I must not be perceived as seeking, and the young ladies must not be displayed as the sought. We shall be delightfully obtuse. And rather falsely intime. I take it you have selected some additional candidates for me, should young Lord Formsby find reason to reject my offer, or Lady Katherine decline to wed a corpse?”
“I wish you would not speak so,” his aunt reproved. “And at Aldersham, you must be seen to improve in health-away from town’s dissipations.”
“The country’s dissipations might replace them.”
“I shall not countenance it, Sidley! You forget that Aldersham is my home, for the rest of my days.”
He laughed. “I do not forget it, ma’am. Indeed, how could I forget it? I merely tease you. I shall be on my best behavior and squire whomever you wish about the garden paths. But I cannot promise you an engagement at the end of the week”
“I shall work on that, you young jackanapes!”
“No doubt” Sidley rose to take his leave. “But do not forget Miss Ware” And he noticed his aunt’s frown as he leaned to kiss her good-bye.
Lady Katherine’s ball was a squeeze-so well attended, in fact, that had poor weather trapped all the guests inside, there would scarcely have been room for dancing. Fortunately, the wide French doors to the garden were open, there was a breeze, and enough people shifted about to make such movements possible.
The event was one of the last of the season, and a certain sentiment-or relief-appeared to lend heightened gaiety to the gathering. Like a star at its brightest before its end, society flaunted its excesses. Never had the ladies dressed as beautifully; never had the gentlemen strolled as proudly.
Lord Sidley and his fellows, just announced, stood inside the front hall and eyed the glittering crowd.
“This is hard of you, Sidley,” Lord Benjamin complained, “forcing me to this.”
“‘Twill do you no harm, Benny, to spend one evening in respectable company”
“And how would you know that?” he countered disagreeably.
Sidley surveyed the youngster carefully through a quizzing glass. He thought the cub ill-mannered enough to deserve a set-down. But he reminded himself of his promise to Derwin. And he did not want any upset this evening. As his gaze left Benny to wander over the ballroom, he at last found Lady Formsby-and then Marian Ware. He did not trouble to locate Lady Katherine. As he turned again to Benny, he forced himself to laugh.
“You are right, of course, my wayward friend. Respectable company and I have recently been strangers. So, shall we experiment together, just for this one evening?”
To his relief, Benny grinned. “I ‘spose one evening is little enough”
“We shan’t stay long, Benny,” Vaughn added. “Since Sidley cannot dance, and you will not”
“And you, Vaughn,” Sidley said, nodding his head toward a couple at the far side of the room, “perhaps should not” He had noticed Griffin Knox and his wife standing in a far corner. Knox, florid-faced and heavy-shouldered, looked what he was-a man who had fought his way to riches and success so single-mindedly that some wags dared call him “Gruff’un” Knox behind his back. He had bought himself a place in society. He had also bought himself a young and pretty wife. It was Vaughn’s ill fortune that the spouse Knox had chosen to acquire was Jenny Lanning. When Vaughn had gone to war four years earlier, fair Jenny had been his own intended.
“I am over it, Sidley,” Vaughn said softly.
“Good. Then Knox has no cause to make trouble?”
“None at all”
“You have not seen her?”
“I-” Vaughn stopped and stared hard at Lord Benjamin. “Benny will tell you in any event. We encountered Mrs. Knox in Berkeley Square last week. She was passably civil, as was I.
There is nothing, Sidley.”
“I’ve never seen a woman look so shattered, Sidley,” Benny said. “Shied like a pony. As if she’d seen a ghost”
“A ghost to her, certainly,” Vaughn commented. “May I beg the two of you to abandon this subject?”
“He can’t be the best of husbands,” Benny persisted. “Why, I’ve seen Knox at some of the worst-”
“Few of us make good husbands,” Sidley inserted quickly.
“Perhaps Mrs. Knox does not deserve a good husband,” Vaughn said.
Sidley sighed. “You do not believe that, Vaughn,” he said, forcing a smile. “We shall dodge them both. There are enough here this evening to make avoidance not only desirable but possible. Let us to it, gentlemen.” And he led his companions across the room toward their hostess.
“Lord Sidley has come,” Edith said softly at Marian’s side. “Late enough to make an entrance, but not so late as to be discourteous.”
“I cannot believe he is that calculating, Aunt,” Marian said, though she was beginning to have her doubts.
“Can you not, Marian? He is a frightfully intelligent man, and perhaps,” she mused aloud, “not best suited for Katie.”
“Has he-has he offered, then, Edith?” Marian asked, watching Sidley and his companions begin a slow but impressively received advance around the packed room. Without exception the ladies greeted him rapturously; the men seemed equally divided between delight and awe. Marian’s own interest was infinitely more than polite.
“He has not offered, Marian. I begin to hope that he will not. Katie is so set on it-as though to prove that she can bring him up to scratch. Such thinking is not a sound basis for marriage. And given his reported ill health, I am most uneasy. But she will not listen.”
“I have my doubts as well, Aunt. Perhaps Lord Sidley suspects the same, for I have not observed any particular preference on his part”
“Haven’t you, Marian? There is the matter of the book” When Marian stayed silent, Edith added, “His aunt, Lady Adeline, seems to wish it. I have not had the heart to discourage her. Adeline has had so many disappointments. Oh, look, Marian,” she diverted, “Katie dances well with Mr. Merrick”
For a second Marian was distracted, watching her cousin step about gracefully with an obviously enraptured partner.
“Is … is Lady Adeline resigned to Lord Sidley’s passing then, Aunt?”
“Adeline Pell has never resigned herself to much of anything, Marian. If there is the slightest hope for him, she will admit of no other possibility. But you will see for yourself. I shall take you to meet her on Monday. She sent a note ‘round. I believe she wishes you to accompany us to Aldersham”
“Aldersham! But I could not possibly go! I have my work, and-”
“Good heavens, Marian! How can that possibly compare with a visit to Aldersham?”
“Did I hear Aldersham mentioned?” Sidley asked, coming up to them. He bowed low first to Lady Formsby, then to Marian. “It is a place with which I claim some acquaintance.”
“Less than you should, so I hear,” Lady Formsby said lightly.
“If I were to have your company there, my lady, I should never quit the place”
As her sensible cousin Edith visibly melted, Marian met Sidley’s gaze. She knew the danger of holding his very blue attention, but the opportunity was irresistible.
“‘Twas most kind of you to come this evening, my lord,” she said.
“I should have felt the lack had I not come, Miss Ware” He at last looked away from her to present his companions to her aunt.
“You see my daughter on the floor, Lord Sidley,” Lady Formsby said, “but I believe she has held a dance for you this evening.”
“That was most kind of her. But, alas, I am not yet agile enough to dance. Perhaps one of my friends would be honored?”
Both Lord Benjamin and Lord Vaughn promptly sought the dance, and Lady Formsby left the decision to Katherine. As his fellows excused themselves to acknowledge others of their acquaintance, Lord Sidley again looked to Marian.
“You are not dancing, Miss Ware”
“I have been, my lord. I merely take a rest.”
“Then you must consider showing me some part of the gardens. I would welcome a turn in the air.”
You have just arrived, Marian challenged him silently, and she suspected that he had read her thoughts when he claimed, “Air is good for me”
“Certainly, my lord,” Edith acknowledged quickly. “Marian, do accompany Lord Sidley outside. There’s a good girl.”
Inwardly rebelling that she should be so commanded, Marian led the way through the crowd, heedless of whether Lord Sidley followed her or not. But she knew without question that he did. She had thought she looked well this evening-she had caught some glances earlier in her new, beribboned gown-but the attention had been nothing at all like that drawn in advance of Lord Sidley. As the wake of onlookers parted before them, Marian likened herself to the prow of some magnificent, stately vessel.
When they crossed the threshold to the terrace, Marian whirled about-and collided with his chest. “Oh, I do beg your pardon”
“‘Tis nothing, Miss Ware” His gaze once again laughed at her. “I am not so easily felled.”
No, she thought, glancing at his broad shoulders in his immaculately elegant dark coat, clearly not. But his outward solidity reminded her of the transience she would have preferred to forget. As she walked beside him to the stone baluster at the terrace edge, Marian noticed that the earlier crowd of revelers had thinned, no doubt in eager flight to the supper room.
“How do you … how do you feel, my lord?” she ventured.
“Exhilarated!”
Marian frowned as she turned to him. “You are jesting.”
“Not at all.” He gazed about at the softly moonlit gardens. “It is a beautiful evening, and I am in superior company” His glance settled briefly on her face before he glanced up at the windows and balconies of the Formsby town house. “I believe the former Lord Formsby had a great deal of work done to this house. For some prolonged period the entire street was barred to traffic. But that was many years ago”
“Oh, but I recall it. One could not visit without risking a dusting of plaster powder!”
“Perhaps our paths crossed, then”
“I should have remembered.”
He considered her warmly. “I was a most unpromising youth, Miss Ware, and decidedly inattentive. No matter how observant a youngster you might have been-and I suspect you were very-I cannot vouch for my own recollection. And lately,” he mused, looking once again to the well-lit building, “I have become too selective with my few memories.”
“Naturally, you must reflect-you must reminisce as you-as you confront such a drastic-”
“I wish you would not refer to my state so, Miss Ware,” he interrupted. “‘Tis most unsettling. I should prefer you to act as though you know nothing of it.”
“I … cannot”
A couple passing on the garden path a level below them laughed aloud, in sharp contrast to their own strained mood. Eager for a diversion, Marian reached to touch Sidley’s cane, which he had propped against the stonework between them. The cane’s tooled silver handle was exquisite.
“This is lovely,” she said.
“Yet ‘tis flimsy enough,” he said, smiling once more. “When one lacks use of a leg, one grasps at straws”
“You have not appeared to need-that is, I have seen you walk without its support.”
“I test myself, Miss Ware. But I have yet to brave the absence of its balance. You needn’t believe me overly fond of an accessory”
She glanced down, lest he see that was indeed what she had thought, and asked, “The wood is … ?”
“Malacca. Does it not sound exotic? In this cane’s company I think of Malaya and the distant straits, a place I should dearly love to visit. Imagine it, Miss Ware-lush palms and mangroves by a sea of jade, breezes scented with spices wafting from the
islands of Sumatra and Java-But perhaps you shall journey to see as much. With your naval officer.”
“That is most unlikely, my lord. Will-Lieutenant Reeves-has written that he is eager for home-to settle in Northampton.”
“And that shall satisfy you, then?”
Marian’s chin rose. “I love my home”
“In that you are hardly unique. But surely you have some desire to see something of the world, to explore? You would not be here in town if that were not the case”
“It is quite different. In my work I find exploration enough.”
Sidley smiled slightly. “Let us hope you shall always be lucky enough to think so” Again he turned to examine the Formsby house facade, so contemplatively that Marian was surprised by his next question.
“How does he fare, then, your lieutenant? He returns soon?”
“I cannot say. I have not heard from him since before I left for town. He is in Gibraltar.”
“And mail from Gibraltar often goes astray”
“You would make him inattentive.”
“Yes”
“But he is not! He has been most conscientious.”
“A fine thing in an officer, Miss Ware. But I’ve not seen this in the romantic literature-sonnets to the conscientious.”
“We are not that is, we have known each other many years. William is my brother’s closest friend. In many ways he is like another brother.”
“A husband is not a brother.” At her gasp, he said, “Presumably he bested several others there in Northants for your handsome slack-jawed swains hovering at your doorstep?”
Marian straightened from the balustrade. “Is there a reason,” she asked coldly, “you believe any beaux of mine must be `slack-jawed,’ my lord?”
“Why, naturally they would be in awe of both your beauty and your talent.”
“You know nothing of my talent.”
“I deduce it, Miss Ware. It must rival your beauty, which is considerable.” He bowed.
“You needn’t flatter me, my lord. There is no one to hear.”
“The only one who matters is here”
She thought he leaned closer to her. “It is wrong for you to speak to me so. You must respect my-respect Lieutenant Reeves”
Lord Sidley's Last Season Page 4