But now, incredibly, she was on the brink of achieving her heart’s desire—and yet…well, it was all happening too soon for her to enjoy her triumph. She had yet to come to terms with the prestige and the responsibilities that would fall to her lot as Jake’s countess, and still had grave doubts about the shadow her tarnished reputation would cast over the noble Torbay name. In following her heart she stood the risk of damaging the man who had stolen it. Was she being selfish?
More than one devastated female who had harboured ambitions to be in the position she now found herself in would not waste an opportunity to denigrate Olivia, spreading rumours and turning society against her. She was well acquainted with female spite and knew just how vicious it could be. She was less well acquainted with Jake’s amatory history since he was infuriatingly tight-lipped on the subject, claiming that it would not be gentlemanly to name names or even to discuss his activities in general terms. Which was all very noble of him, Olivia thought mutinously, but he knew everything there was to know about her…not that there was much to know. Her husband was the only man she had ever lain with before Jake and the less she thought about that unfulfilling experience the better she felt.
Jake’s past was far from exemplary and he had never pretended otherwise, but shrugged off any questions she voiced as though she was being unnecessarily intrusive. She was not, and had a particular reason for asking. Olivia knew that his paramours would either be widows or older females who had eschewed marriage. He would never risk being intimate with innocents, since if he despoiled a debutante he would have no choice but to marry her and thus commit himself to a loveless marriage.
Olivia had spent more hours than she would ever admit to trying to think which ladies might have enjoyed Jake’s society before he concentrated his attentions solely upon her. She had her suspicions but no way of confirming them. Parker would know, of course. Parker knew absolutely everything there was to know about Jake but was loyal to a fault and would never reveal the ladies’ identities, especially not to her.
Be that as it may, whenever Olivia thought of her nameless rivals, a modicum of unease accompanied those thoughts. Just as Olivia herself had pretended not to love Jake until he spoke of love first, she was equally sure that her rivals for his affections would have fallen beneath his thrall. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves because…well, because he was enigmatic and so tantalisingly unattainable that every woman he showed an interest in would rise to the challenge of ensnaring him. Women generally always wanted what they could not have and the mystery women who made up Jake’s past would not be best pleased when they saw the announcement of his engagement to Olivia in the morning’s newspapers. Common sense told her there was nothing they could do to upset matters but her unease endured.
The majority of them didn’t frighten her but she was sure that Jake had been violently in love once before, a long time ago when he had still been young. She had overheard snippets of conversations on the rare occasions when she ventured into society where, inevitably, her name was now linked to Jake’s. Women deliberately spoke of his previous paramour in exaggerated whispers when she was close enough to overhear them. She wanted to know the lady’s identity but refused to give them the satisfaction of asking. She found the courage to ask Jake about it once. All he would say in response was that most young men fancied themselves to be in love when they were not mature enough to know better. Very elucidating, she had thought. But still she worried about the mystery woman who had presumably broken the young Jake’s heart.
Olivia’s thoughts returned abruptly to the present when the carriage door was opened by Franklin. Olivia thanked him as she alighted. Green, her elderly and very loyal butler opened the gleaming from door to greet her.
‘Come along then.’ Olivia led the way up the steps. ‘Hello, Green. This is Lady Cantrell and her son. They will be staying for a while. Oh, and Franklin will be with us, too. I hope you can find space for him.’
‘I dare say we can manage, ma’am.’
‘Mama!’
Tom hurtled down the stairs and threw himself at Olivia, almost knocking her from her feet. ‘I have been waiting for ages for you to come home. I want to show you my new soldiers that Lord Torbay sent round for me.’
‘Did he indeed. How very kind of him to think of you.’ All it took was small, thoughtful gestures of that nature for Olivia’s doubts to momentarily fade. ‘And I want to show you your new friend, Sebastian.’
‘Is this him?’ Tom glanced at Sebastian and didn’t look terribly impressed. ‘He’s not old enough to play soldiers,’ he decreed.
‘Then you must teach him. You were as young as he was once.’
‘Was I?’ Tom looked doubtful. ‘Are you sure?’
Olivia shook her head, endlessly amused by the comments her exuberant son made. ‘Make your bow to Lady Cantrell,’ he said.
Tom executed a perfect bow, so reminiscent of Jake that Tom had to be imitating his hero. ‘How do you do, Lady Cantrell,’ Tom said with a confidence far too advanced for his years.
‘How do you do, Master Tom,’ Megan replied gravely. ‘It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.’
‘Does Sebastian know how to play on a hobbyhorse?’
‘I expect he would appreciate it if you taught him,’ Megan assured him.
‘Let’s go up to the nursery floor and get them settled,’ Olivia said. ‘Then we shall find you something suitable to wear this evening.’
‘Bear in mind that I am still in full mourning.’
‘I was still in half-mourning until about a year ago, although I am ashamed to say that I was not terribly good at observing its strictures.’
‘Because you were not genuinely sorry that your husband was dead, I suppose. You don’t strike me as the hypocritical type.’
‘I didn’t love Marcus, it’s true,’ she said, lowering her voice so that Tom, who had run up the stairs ahead of them, wouldn’t overhear her. ‘I married him at my family’s insistence and regretted it almost immediately. Even so, he didn’t deserve to be murdered.’ Olivia shook off a rare moment of melancholy, not for Marcus so much as for all the turmoil that his murder had created for her. ‘I still have my dark gowns somewhere, I expect.’
‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble,’ Megan said. ‘I can easily stay here with the children.’
Olivia smiled. ‘And deny yourself the pleasure of Charles’s attentions?’
‘It isn’t like that,’ Megan replied, blushing. ‘He is just being kind. Besides, I loved Luke and still miss him every second of every day. It would dishonour his memory if I thought of another gentleman in the same way.’
‘Of course it would.’ Olivia squeezed Megan’s hand. ‘Charles will help you to ensure that Luke’s son takes his rightful title. You just see if he does not. And then you will be able to think about yourself for a change.’
Susan, the girl Olivia had engaged to replace the perfidious Molly, appeared. ‘Good afternoon, madam.’
‘Ah, Susan. This is Lady Cantrell. She will be staying with us for an indefinite period. Please ensure the guest chamber is prepared for her whilst we settle the children, then see if you can find any of my old mourning gowns. You are about the same size as me, Megan, perhaps not quite as tall, but I am sure something can be managed.’
‘You are very kind.’
‘There you are, Master Tom.’ Jane, Tom’s nursemaid, came panting down from the nursery floor. ‘I swear if I take my eyes off him for two seconds he disappears,’ she said, shaking a finger at Tom. ‘He is more slippery than an eel.’
Tom giggled and squirmed like the eel Jane had declared him to be, slithering around her skirts and making slippery noises with his tongue. Olivia laughed at his imagination and then introduced Megan and Sebastian.
Jane cooed over the sleeping infant. ‘He will be good company for Master Tom,’ she said.
‘I hope Sebastian agrees with you at the end of his stay,’ Olivia replied, rolling her eyes at h
er son who had grown tired of impersonating an eel and was now attempting to climb onto the bannisters, presumably so that he could slide down them. Jane caught him just before he managed it. ‘It case you had not already realised it, Tom can be rather boisterous. Anyway, Jane, can we make room for Sebastian?’
‘Easily, madam. Just leave it to me.’
‘Search out some of Tom’s old clothing, if you please.’
Jane nodded. If she wondered why Lady Cantrell couldn’t clothe her own child, she was too well trained to ask, and ran ahead to make preparations for her additional charge.
Half an hour later the children were settled and Olivia escorted Megan to the chamber that was to be hers. She seemed a little overwhelmed by it, even though it was nothing out of the ordinary, especially when compared to the guest chamber she had briefly occupied in Grosvenor Square. Olivia knew that she had not had time to grow accustomed to her elevation to the aristocracy before her husband was cruelly snatched from her and vowed to make her feel as comfortable as she could.
‘Ah, Susan, I see you have been successful,’ Olivia said briskly, glancing at the two black evening gowns draped over the bed. ‘I always preferred this one,’ Olivia added to Megan, pointing to the one decorated with jet beads and black swansdown around the low neckline. ‘You are slimmer than me but I expect Susan can put a few tucks in the right places and take up the hem and no one will be any the wiser.’
‘I shall see to it immediately, ma’am,’ Susan said. ‘If you would be so kind, Lady Cantrell, I shall help you out of your existing gown. Then, if you try this one on, I can make the alterations while you are washing.’
‘See to Lady Cantrell’s needs, Susan,’ Olivia said. ‘Jane can help me. She’s done it often enough before.’
‘Very well, ma’am.’
And so, just an hour later, with Megan looking every inch the tragic widow in the hastily adjusted gown, and Olivia resplendent in cerise silk, the ladies made the return journey to Grosvenor Square.
Chapter Six
When Parker readmitted Olivia to his drawing room, Jake did a double take at the changes she had wrought in her appearance in such a relatively short space of time. He permitted his appreciation to show as he appraised her svelte form encased in an exquisite silk creation with a bodice cut outrageously low, the soft skin of her bare shoulders just begging to be caressed.
‘That gown is a sensation,’ he told her in a soft throaty drawl that would not carry to Lady Cantrell who stood a little way behind her. He took her gloved hand in his and kissed the back of it, wishing he could send the others away and spend the rest of the evening kissing every inch of her. Three weeks suddenly seemed like half a century. ‘Have I seen it before?’
‘Be careful, my lord,’ she replied playfully. ‘If I have worn it and you failed to notice then I might take offence.’
‘Perhaps I learned to deliberately not notice you before I allowed myself to notice you.’
She arched a delicate brow, clearly of a mind to tease him. ‘You only permit yourself to admire that which you think you own.’
‘Minx!’
He took a deep breath, unwilling to participate in a game of words with Olivia that he would never win, and turned away to greet Lady Cantrell instead. She wore an elegant black gown that he must have been Olivia’s. She seemed to have gained a little self-confidence along with the borrowed garment. Charles joined them at that point and engaged Lady Cantrell in animated conversation, leaving Jake to return his attention to the only person he wished to focus it upon.
‘Is everything in order at Cheyne Walk?’ he asked Olivia.
‘Franklin won’t let a mouse get past him.’
‘It is not the intentions of the rodent population that concerns me.’
Since Isaac and Eva had just arrived there was no further opportunity for Jake to enjoy a private exchange with his annoyingly elusive intended. But at least he had the satisfaction of seeing her preoccupied with putting Lady Cantrell at her ease, which prevented her from dwelling upon the niggling doubts he sensed she still entertained about their marriage.
Dinner was announced and it seemed natural and right for Olivia to be seated at the foot of Jake’s table, her lovely countenance thrown into tantalising light and shadow by the myriad candles in the chandeliers above her head. The wait to find the right—the only—woman who could make his life complete had been worth it. He had imagined once that…but no, he had mistaken that lady’s character and hadn’t thought about her for some considerable time. He still heard her name mentioned from time to time, that was unavoidable, but since she had been living abroad these past ten years, happily their paths had not crossed.
‘Tell us what you can about your experiences in India, Charles,’ Olivia said. ‘Oh, I know you were not actually there with the East India Company and were on some highly dangerous and secretive government business that you cannot talk about. But obviously that business involved the Company to some degree, which I assume is how you came upon Megan.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you, Olivia, but it was not terribly dangerous,’ Charles replied. ‘You’re right to suppose that I was there at the behest of the Foreign Department, but I was sent to investigate a fairly mundane affair.’
Olivia seemed unsatisfied with such a vague reply, as Jake could have warned him would be the case.
‘I would imagine,’ she replied, ‘that anyone who interested Viscount Palmerston—’
‘Is Lord Palmerston the Foreign Secretary?’ Lady Cantrell asked. ‘I probably should know, but politicians come and go so regularly, and in my own defence I have had other matters to occupy my mind.’
‘He holds that position currently,’ Jake replied. ‘For how much longer is anyone’s guess. This government’s days are numbered, just mark my words.’
‘Well anyway,’ Olivia said, ‘anyone of interest to Palmerston would have had connections to the Company as well, I expect. Everyone seems to.’
‘I was supposedly acting at the behest of an English gentlemen looking to import large quantities of silk. Happily I wasn’t required to show much knowledge on the subject, which is just as well since my education with regard to the humble silkworm is sadly lacking.’
‘Whereas Olivia and I are highly appreciative of its produce,’ Eva said, making them all laugh.
‘Matters in that part of the world have reached a highly sensitive point,’ Charles said. ‘The Indians see the Company as infiltrators, robbing them of their natural resources. The infiltrators argue that without their expertise those resources would remain untouched, denying the locals their share of the rewards. Whether that share should be larger is not a question I am required to address. All I can tell you is that if matters don’t improve, those in the know predict a rebellion. It’s no secret that I was there in part to play a lowly role in calming troubled waters.’
‘I hear rumours that parliament will be forced to act,’ Isaac said. ‘Some say in must pass into law that British India remains under the administration of the Company in trust for the Crown until parliament decrees otherwise.’
‘All because of the greed of the shareholders, I suppose,’ Olivia said, wrinkling her nose, ‘and their unwillingness to recall whose country it actually is.’
‘Quite so,’ Charles replied. ‘General opinion amongst the informed is that the only way to save the Company’s future and deter an uprising would be to introduce a system of open competition policed by civil servants, thus depriving the directors of their monopoly on the trading routes.’
‘Such a thing would not be entered into voluntarily,’ Lady Cantrell surprised Jake by saying. Since she had been unaware of the identity of the Foreign Secretary, he hadn’t supposed that she took any interest in politics. It had been an unworthy assumption to make, he realised. She had lived in India for almost two years and probably knew a great deal more than Jake did about the tensions there. ‘From what I observed of the system, those making vast profits from it will never agree to suc
h a scheme.’
‘They will have no choice if the government votes for the change,’ Jake replied. ‘But I agree with you, Lady Cantrell. Those already making such a good living from their endeavours will not look at the bigger picture.’
‘My father is one such,’ Lady Cantrell said gloomily. ‘He argues that people like him have taken all the risks to establish trade links and fail to see why they should stand aside and allow others to reap the rewards.’
‘I regret that I have no answer to that,’ Charles said with a tender smile for Lady Cantrell. ‘I can quite see his point of view but, when all is said and done, we British are still visitors in India, despite it forming part of the Queen’s Empire.’ He paused. ‘Nor do I have any news yet of a more immediate nature.’
Jake raised a brow and his fork simultaneously, appreciating his chef’s expertise at preparing duck a l’orange, one of his favourite dishes. ‘News?’
‘My father has disappeared, Lord Torbay,’ Lady Cantrell said when Charles left her to answer his question. ‘He did not approve of my marriage to Luke and…’
‘Did not approve?’ Jake’s fork fell to his plate with a clatter. ‘I should have thought he would have been delighted.’
‘As would I,’ Charles agreed. ‘But he told Lady Cantrell in no uncertain terms that if she didn’t abide by his wishes then she would never see him again. I know because I was with Luke when he refused his consent to the union.’
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