"I am?"
For a moment Lady Emily appeared rather confused, then her confusion transformed into a flustered blush that Raff could not help but find endearing.
"I am," Emily continued in a firmer voice, "Excuse me, Your Grace, I was only half listening to you. I was rather distracted by the—the—flowers."
Lady Emily seized triumphantly on an excuse, though not so quickly that Raff didn't realise she was fibbing. He cast his eyes about, trying to see what it was that had distracted Emily so, and his gaze landed on none other than Theodore Bellhurst, the youngest son of Lord Bellhurst, and the ton's latest darling. Bellhurst was dressed to the nines in a dark riding coat, with the collar turned up so that it grazed his chiselled cheek-bones. A carriage full of ladies passed him by, and each and every one of them cast the athletic aristocrat an admiring glance.
He's not so handsome, Raff thought mulishly, as he tried to decide if he it would be possible to steer his carriage into Bellhurst and make it look like an accident. Luckily for the committed dandy, Lady Emily distracted him by giving a gasp of recognition.
"Oh, look, Your Graces," she said, turning so as to include Laura in the conversation, "It's Mr McCasey. I wonder who that is with him?"
Raff allowed his eyes to drift over to where Lady Emily pointed, and he immediately spotted McCasey driving a small gig, a fair distance away. Beside the thespian sat a woman whom Raff did not recognise; she was of a similar age to the actor—perhaps forty or so—and wore a regal expression upon her fine-boned face. Sensing his passenger's interest, he drew the two horses to a halt, a discreet distance away. If anyone were to glance over, it would hopefully appear that they had stopped to admire the lush, green fields of the park.
"I read that he had married an actress from Paris," the dowager duchess chimed in—the first she had spoken during the ride, "That must be her."
All three occupants of the carriage tried to subtly look over at the glamorous pair, but despite their efforts at nonchalance, Raff was certain that should McCasey and his wife look over, they would catch them all agog.
So much for discreet, Raff thought will a roll of his eyes, as Laura leaned over the side of the carriage, squinting at the pair.
"He's rather handsome, for his age," Laura noted, touching a distracted hand to her face, "I think it must be his colouring. It's most striking, the combination of dark hair and green eyes—quite similar to your own, Lady Emily."
"Is it?"
Laura's observation had been rather innocuous, so for Emily to look completely startled by her words, seemed a bit of an overreaction, Raff thought. Why on earth would she look so afraid at being compared to McCasey? It wasn't as though anyone present would assume there was any more connection between the pair than as strangers passing on The Row.
His thoughts were quickly distracted, however, by the arrival of a stately Barouche to the scene before them. The elegant open top carriage bore the coat of arms of Viscount Linford, and within in it sat an elderly woman whom, Raff assumed, must be Lady Darlington, Viscountess Linford.
It had initially looked as though the Barouche and gig would pass each other by, but Lady Darlington must have ordered her driver to halt, for the Barouche came to a juddering stop alongside McCasey's more humble gig.
"Is that Lady Darlington?" Laura queried to Lady Emily in a whisper, leaning forward so that she was closer to Raff and Emily, who sat upon the front seats of the carriage.
"I couldn't say," Emily whispered back.
"Oh, I thought you were neighbours," Laura said with a frown, before she too spotted the coat of arms upon the Barouche; "Oh look, it's the Linford crest—I knew it was her. Perhaps Lady Darlington is an admirer of Mr McCasey? I can't think why else she would stop to talk with him."
If Lady Darlington was an admirer of the actor, she had a strange way of showing it, Raff thought, as the sound of raised voices drifted toward them.
"You're a disgrace; dragging up the past, when it's best left buried."
All three members of Raff's carriage exchanged startled glances at Lady Darlington's shrill words. Thankfully, they also appeared to be her parting words, for the Linford Barouche took off rather suddenly.
Worried that they would be caught eavesdropping on what was clearly a private matter, Raff urged his two bay geldings into a trot, guiding them away from McCasey and his bride.
"How strange," Laura commented lightly, before sitting back into her seat and leaving Raff and Emily to their own devices.
Raff drove the carriage onward in silence, his thoughts preoccupied with what they had just witnessed. What on earth had McCasey ever done to upset Lady Darlington?
"It is rather strange," Raff commented lightly to Emily, as they emerged onto a busier stretch of the Row; "Lady Darlington has been something of a recluse since her daughter disappeared twenty years ago. I wonder how and where McCasey managed to annoy her so."
"I couldn't say," Lady Emily kept her eyes forward, but from the tilt of her head, Raff could tell that she was mulling over his words.
Any further discussion of Lady Darlington was soon ended as, once again, Raff and Emily became the object of much scrutiny. They were just nearing Alexandra Gate which, despite being less busy than where they had entered at Hyde Park Corner, was filled exclusively with those of the ton—and the members of the ton were, of course, always up to date on the latest scandal and gossip.
"Do you think they read that awful article?" Lady Emily asked him nervously, as the passengers of the carriage before them twisted in their seats to get a good glimpse of the pair.
"Probably," Raff shrugged easily; as a duke he was quite used to being an object of interest; "And if they have, so what? They have seen us now, riding happily together; they will soon spread the news that we are not at war."
"Is that why you were so insistent upon The Row for our outing?" Lady Emily asked, "Did you wish us to be seen in public, so as to quash any gossip?"
"I wished to take you here because it allows me more time alone with you, than any other place," Raff replied earnestly. He turned his eyes toward Lady Emily, catching her green eyed gaze and holding it. Deftly, he released the reins from his right hand—whilst holding tight with his left—and reached out to brush Emily's cheek.
"I want nothing more than to be alone with you always," he said in a throaty whisper. It was true; he was completely bewitched by her ethereal beauty, but it was not only that. There was a softness to Lady Emily that he had not seen before; she seemed to look at life with wide eyed wonder—so refreshing when compared to how jaded other ladies of her ilk could be. With his gloved hand, Raff tenderly rubbed his thumb along the softness of her cheek and probably would have leaned in for a kiss, were it not for Laura.
"Ahem," the dowager duchess called from the seat behind, "Would it be too much to ask you to keep both hands on the reins, Raff? Georgiana has already lost her father, let's not make her an orphan."
Raff instantly dropped his hand from Emily's cheek, grateful that Laura had reminded him that, no matter how much he wished it, he was not actually alone with Emily, he was in the middle of ruddy Hyde Park! Imagine the papers if I had kissed her, he thought with a wry grin; though any amount of gossip and scandal would have been worth it for just one kiss, he decided.
Laura, who seemed to feel that Raff could no longer be trusted, rescinded her role of silent chaperone, and chattered loudly to Emily for the remainder of the ride. From Alexandra Gate, all the way down to Piccadilly, and across to Grosvenor Square, Laura chattered inanely, leaving Raff and Emily unable to get a word in themselves.
"Well," Emily said with obvious relief, as they turned the corner onto the square, "Thank you ever so much for your company, Your Graces. It was simply splendid."
"Indeed," Raff replied, and from behind him Laura murmured in agreement.
"You must come to my musicale on Friday," Laura called, as Raff assisted Lady Emily from the carriage, "I won't take no for an answer."
"W
hat musicale is this?" Raff questioned, once he had deposited Emily safely inside and had returned to the carriage.
"The one I just decided to hold," Laura said mischievously, leaning forward in her seat to cast Raff a disparaging look. "Really, Raff. I thought I was going to have to beat you off poor Lady Emily with my parasol. If you're so intent on kissing the girl, don't ruddy well do it in Hyde Park--sneak off into a dark corner like everyone else."
Touché, Raff thought, I've been doing this all wrong; sedate drives in the park would not be enough to woo Lady Emily, but a passionate kiss, in a quiet corner of Kilbride House, might just do the trick.
Chapter Six
The next morning, after a restless night of tossing and turning, Ava decided to add an amendment to Lady Emily's plan. As well as repelling the Duke of Kilbride, Ava was going to find out exactly who her parents had been.
Emily will be grateful, she told herself, as she hurried down the stairs to breakfast. She had risen well before noon, in order not to miss Lord Fairfax, and the marquess looked up from his paper in surprise as she entered the dining room.
"It's not like you, my dear," he said affectionately, "To be up so early."
It was half past ten.
"I did not sleep much, Papa," Ava replied evenly, as she took a seat at the table. She waited impatiently for the footman to bring her customary hot chocolate, and took an appreciative sip, before she launched in to the first step of her plan.
"What happened to Lord and Lady Darlington's daughter, Papa?"
Rather than tip-toe around the subject, or try to discover what had happened through subterfuge, Ava had decided to ask Lord Fairfax straight out about the missing Darlington girl—the girl whom Ava was beginning to suspect was her mother.
It was, she knew, an outlandish assumption, but when she added the fact that Miss Darlington had disappeared twenty years ago—around the time of the twins' birth—to the fact that Lady Darlington quite clearly had ill feelings toward Mr McCasey, it all started to make sense.
McCasey had told her that she reminded him of a girl he had once known—indeed, at the theatre he had looked as though he had seen a ghost when he had first spotted Ava. And Laura had been right; Ava did share the same unusual colouring as the esteemed actor.
Something happened between McCasey and Miss Darlington, Ava thought with conviction, and that something led to the creation of Emily and I.
"Eh?" Lord Fairfax lowered his paper and looked at her quizzically, "Why on earth do you want to know about all that?"
"We spotted Lady Darlington in the park yesterday," Ava said evenly, as she applied a thick layer of jam to her bread, "And Kilbride reminded me that her daughter had vanished twenty years ago. I'm sure that Mama told me the story when I was younger, but I seem to have forgotten the details..."
"Well, if your dear Mama told you," Lord Fairfax said, "Then I don't see the harm in repeating it. Miss Darlington—Anna—up and vanished a few days before you were born. It caused quite the scandal; though of course, your Mama and I were distracted from all the fuss, when you decided to make your appearance into the world."
Lord Fairfax cast Ava an affectionate glance, so filled with love that for a moment, Ava felt a stab of jealousy toward her twin.
It's not fair, she thought as she took a large bite of her bread and jam, Emily spent her whole life being adored, while I...
You had Mr Hobbs, she reminded herself firmly, who loved you as his own and taught you everything you know. This thought cheered her and pulled her from her self-piteous mood, and it was hard to feel self-pity when supping chocolate, she reasoned.
"Does anyone know what happened to her?" Ava continued to probe, ignoring the fact that Lord Fairfax looked rather uncomfortable. The marquess shrugged in response, taking out a handkerchief and mopping his brow, as he considered what to say.
"Nobody knows," Lord Fairfax said with a sad shrug, "Most people think that she eloped, and that Lord and Lady Darlington cut her off as a result. They have not been the same since, I can tell you."
"Indeed," Ava replied thoughtfully.
Was it possible that Miss Darlington had eloped with McCasey, all those years ago? It seemed like a rather plausible explanation, but if McCasey and Miss Darlington had married, what had happened to her in the interim? For, as Laura had said yesterday, the actor was now remarried to his mysterious, Parisian actress. And if the pair had married, who would they have abandoned Ava to the Asylum?
"Now, enough about that," Lord Fairfax said, "Tell me how you got on with Kilbride yesterday? There's a small piece in the gossip column, to say that you were spotted together in the park, looking very much in love."
"Gracious," Ava grumbled, "Don't the papers have anything better to report on?"
"You'll find that even when they do, they will always prefer to gossip," Lord Fairfax replied sagely, "It's all balderdash, of course."
"Of course," Ava agreed, though once her father had left, she reached across to take the newspaper that he had left behind, and flicked straight to the society pages.
There was the usual gossip about engagements and births, and amongst all this, Ava spotted the piece about herself and Kilbride.
"Following the rumours of an altercation, the D of K and Lady E were spotted yesterday on the Row, looking much happier. The sound of wedding bells cannot be far off."
Gracious; Ava closed her eyes in despair. Emily's plan was not going as smoothly as they had anticipated, and she hoped that her twin was not reading the papers in Kent. True, Ava had managed to avoid the duke for two days, but by avoiding him, she seemed to only have encourage him further.
Not that you mind his attentions, a snide voice whispered in her ear. Ava sighed; yesterday, when Kilbride had caressed her cheek, she had felt as though she might explode with wanting. It was so complicated, to feel so attracted to a man and know that she could never have him.
And he would never have you, she reminded herself sternly. The Duke of Kilbride thought that he was dancing attendance on Lady Emily Fairfax—a fact that Ava would have to try harder to remember. Heavens only knew how he would react if he knew that the young woman he was courting was a nobody, just an orphan with no name—though perhaps not for long.
I will find out just who my parents were, Ava thought with determination, as she made her way back up the stairs in search of Mary, and there was one place that she knew she would find the answer. She just had to figure out how to get it.
"You wish to do what?" Mary squawked.
"I wish to visit the Asylum," Ava replied firmly, "I simply have to see if there are any records pertaining to my birth."
"I don't know what Lady Emily would say about that," Mary grumbled in response, her face creased in a frown of worry.
"She would surely encourage me," Ava replied, ignoring Mary's anxiety. "For it pertains to her birth too."
It was early afternoon, and the last of Lady Emily's callers had just left. For nearly three hours Ava had sat through endless inane chatter, much of which had been focused on the bonnet she had worn to the park the day before. Apparently, people had been speaking of little else.
"Mr Bobitol had assured me that daisy wreaths were the thing," Priscilla Huntington had wailed in despair, "I had Ella stitch them onto all of my bonnets, and now I find I was completely misinformed. It will take hours to fix them."
"Won't Ella fix them for you?" Ava had queried, confused by Priscilla's annoyance, for surely the job would be left to her lady's maid.
"Of course she will," Miss Huntington clarified with a frown, "It's most inconvenient for me—what if I need her for something else?"
Ava sighed as she recalled that particular exchange. The only light in an otherwise dull morning had been Lady Eunice. The young woman—the first caller not to mention the dreaded hat—had been on her way to the Foundling Hospital when she had stopped by.
"I am a member of a committee which distributes clothes to the children," Eunice had explained cheerfully, wh
en Ava had asked her about her work.
"And they allow you inside?"
"Why, of course," Eunice had looked startled at the question, "All of the hospitals and orphanages are delighted when we call. True, I think it has more to do with the money we donate, than us ourselves, but they would never turn us away."
Lady Eunice's throw-away comment had lit something of a fire within Ava. She had not been able to think how she might go about discovering more about her birth, for she had assumed that she would be turned away at the door of the asylum, if she even tried to venture through the door. That defeated attitude was, she realised, because she had been thinking of herself as herself, and assumed that the Asylum would still view her as poor, orphaned Ava, and turn her away.
But you are not Ava Smith anymore, she told herself, you are Lady Emily Fairfax.
That she could march through the front door of her old home, under the auspices of charity, and perhaps peruse the records there, was so exciting she could barely wait to get started.
There was only one obstacle in her way—a rather stubborn Irish woman.
"I cannot let you go alone," Mary argued, "It's not right. It's not proper. What if someone was to see you?"
"Then you can come with me," Ava replied evenly, "No one would think twice of a young lady, accompanied by her maid, visiting an orphanage with clothes for the girls."
"That's not what I meant," Mary argued, but Ava could see that her resolve was weakening.
Sensing an opportunity, Ava hastily explained to Mary her theory about the missing Miss Darlington and Mr McCasey. Initially, Mary tried to look disinterested, but as Ava's story unfolded, she visibly became more enthralled.
"Imagine, if it were true," Mary breathed, once Ava had finished speaking, "Oh, how terribly exciting."
"Well, we shall never find out if there is any truth to it, unless we visit the Asylum," Ava replied with a sad shrug.
"Drat you, child," Mary grumbled, "If I lose my position over this, I'm taking you with me."
"You shan't," Ava assured her, desperately trying to hide her excitement, "So you will come?"
The Duke's Bride in Disguise (Fairfax Twins Book 1) Page 7