Nora thought about her cousin Katherine, tall, beautiful, and accomplished, and she felt a stab of jealousy that surprised her. Here she was on the first full day of her courtship with Gerard, and they were walking along the footpath talking about the prettier, more elegant version of Nora. As the thought crossed her mind, she realised in the same moment that Gerard was trying to tell her something; politely, carefully, but clearly at least.
“My mother is very fond of Lady Katherine,” he was saying slowly. “I don’t know her myself, but I am sure I will form an opinion quickly upon meeting her.”
Nora turned suddenly, halting the progress of their walk and forcing James to take a few nonchalant steps backward to avoid interjecting himself into their conversation.
“Lord Colbourne,” she said, fighting the pain of what she had gleaned from the conversation and trying to appear cool and calm. “I know that your friendship with my brother is most sacred, but I would like to remind you that our agreement is one of convenience, not of the heart – if it becomes apparent to you that another alliance would be more convenient, I would of course understand in a moment and release you from everything.”
Gerard’s face showed a bevy of emotions, from a sort of wry embarrassment to a quiet sincerity. When he spoke, he accompanied his words with the slightest of steps forward so that she felt strangely as though they were, for the moment, the only people in all of London.
“Miss Pembroke, I see that you understand what has passed between my mother and me on the subject of this courtship – perhaps more than I would have liked you to understand under the circumstances. But thusly it stands – and your kindness in the face of that does you credit. Still, I believe that our agreement should stand, for the moment at least. I know much of you, and I believe our courtship would be of the most momentary benefit. Lady Katherine has not entered into my personal schemes, though she may be in the schemes of many mothers throughout London.”
He smiled and turned forward to continue on their walk. As Nora hurried to keep up with his long legs, she tried to quiet her mind. Still, it was difficult to fight the doubts that seemed to eject themselves at intervals like great walls that could not be scaled. She feared that the gentleman beside her was too gracious for his own good. That, faced at dinner with the sort of woman that he really could learn to love and care for, he would find himself trapped in an arrangement with Nora Pembroke when he really wanted to hold the hand of Katherine Barrington. But she had offered him a way out, and she knew that if he had to take it, the way would still be there.
She walked on, trying to push thoughts of Katherine from her mind. But it seemed to her now that more than she and James and Gerard were walking down the street. They were also accompanied by Lady Colbourne’s ideals, and the thought of Lady Katherine’s perfection.
Chapter 14
“You seem preoccupied today.”
Katherine held up a spool of ribbon in the milliner’s shop, letting the silky green fabric snake across one of her arms so she could check it against her skin tone.
Nora busied herself with a bunch of freshly trimmed cream ribbons. “I don’t think so. I was just trying to focus on the topic at hand. Are you going to take that green along with you for your new hat?”
“I think not.” Katherine rolled it back up and reached for another spool. She nodded to the dress she was wearing, a deep blue that seemed to turn her limbs into the creamiest of marble and her eyes into the kind of deep blue pools that could enchant kingdoms. “I think it would be more practical to find something to offset the rest of my wardrobe, and I don’t wear very much green.”
“A fine lady like yourself shouldn’t have to worry about the practicality of a thing,” Nora teased, choosing the narrowest of the cream ribbons and looping it around her head to inspect the effect.
“On the contrary,” Katherine retorted with a smile. “Father always told us that it was the people with the most who ought to be the most aware of their responsibility for care and frugality.”
“Your father is rare amongst the nobility,” Nora said with a smile. “But a wonderful man, no doubt. We shall both take his advice today and try to do the frugal thing. I brought my summer bonnet along and am going to have the milliner take it in on the edge and add a wider ribbon so it’s quite ready for spring.”
She paused for a moment, looking out of the window at the street beyond.
“See?” Katherine said, coming to loop an arm around her friend’s waist. “That’s what I’m speaking about. Preoccupied.”
“I’m sorry,” Nora said, blushing. “I thought I saw someone.” In fact, she’d thought for a moment that Lord Colbourne had gone striding past the window. But upon closer inspection she’d seen that it was just a groom after all, moving to care for the horses of fine men.
“Please, tell me what occupies your thoughts.”
Nora bit her lip. “Katherine, did you go to a dinner this last week, at the Colbourne mansion, perhaps?”
Katherine smiled, but there was a look of care in her eyes. “I did, actually. I was surprised to see that no one from your family was there. It is my understanding that your brothers are rather close with Lord Colbourne.”
“William is, at least.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? Some sort of split between your parents and Lady Colbourne, perhaps?”
Nora shook her head. “No, I think they’re quite on the same page. I was only interested in your experience. What did you think of Lord Colbourne? I grew up watching his and my brother’s friendship, but I find him much changed this season, and I was wondering if you saw the same.”
Katherine hid a smile. “Actually, I saw a bit more of Lord Colbourne than I’d intended or was quite comfortable with. I know it is rather vain for me to admit it, but I saw at once that his mother was pushing me rather strongly in his direction. At the dinner, we were seated beside each other, though the pattern around the rest of the table left no need for such a situation. Afterwards, in the parlour, his mother insisted that I perform something alongside Lord Colbourne at the pianoforte – although I cannot complain on that point, the gentleman has a stunning voice for performance – and then she continued to ask me questions in front of him about my prospects.”
“What did you do?”
“I was polite, but I tried not to be too encouraging. It’s not the way I would like it, you know – romance at the end of pike.” Katherine giggled, clearly expecting Nora to join in, but when Nora did smile, she had to force it from herself. In truth, her heart was aching at the thought of the entire evening, at the realisation that Lady Colbourne would go to such lengths to make certain that her son didn’t end up with the likes of Nora Pembroke.
“So, you didn’t like it? You didn’t like him?” Nora wondered if she was being too transparent, if her friend would guess her long-time, unconfessed crush. But Katherine seemed to be completely absorbed with her own story and unsuspecting of anything outside it.
“I certainly didn’t approve of the way his mother handled everything, and it was so dreadfully apparent what was happening that I felt like blushing almost the entire time.” Katherine paused as the milliner came out and slipped her samples over to the man with a few measurements and instructions. Nora did the same, and then Katherine picked her story back up as the two girls wound their way back out into the street, arm-in-arm. “I think it’s an awkward position, to thrust two young people together and make your plans for them so very clear. It makes people that might otherwise find happiness together uncertain of each other.”
Nora felt her heart stiffening at this. Katherine was rambling on about the details of the night, describing each event in the sort of colour and description that tore at Nora’s heart. But the more she said, the less Nora understood. She hadn’t answered the heart of Nora’s question, after all. She wasn’t saying whether or not she cared for Gerard Colbourne. She wasn’t hinting at whether or not Nora’s agreement with Gerard was keeping two people apart who should
very much be together.
She turned and looked at Katherine, and for a moment she could see her dear cousin standing beside Gerard, both stately and beautiful, both elegant and refined, and she could see what Lady Colbourne could also clearly imagine – that this was the sort of marriage that would make history, the sort of couple that only came about once in a lifetime. She wondered what right she, small and disruptive Nora Pembroke, had to stand even for a few moments of playacting, beside such a man and claim such position.
“Do you think you’ll have dinner again?” she asked Katherine.
Katherine shrugged, nonchalant the way beautiful women can afford to be. “I wouldn’t mind it.”
Nora swallowed hard and looked away, her heart aching. It was a silly question to have asked Katherine, after all. Because what sort of woman wouldn’t want to see Lord Colbourne again, when once she had seen his charms?
Chapter 15
Gerard thought Nora seemed surprised when he appeared at her door a few days after his mother’s dinner party. She came to greet him, summoned to the entryway by the maid, already attired in a walking dress and coat with her hair tucked up into a bonnet. She blinked at the sight of him and cleared her throat uncomfortably.
“Pardon me, Lord Colbourne, but I was just going out for a walk.”
“I know,” he said with a slight smile. “We had arranged to walk together today. Do you not remember the letter I sent you a week ago requesting that your midweek afternoons be devoted to my company?”
Again, Nora waited a little longer to respond than Gerard considered absolutely necessary. When she did, she spoke slowly and carefully, like one afraid. “I wasn’t certain, after our last conversation, whether or not you desired to continue our arrangement.”
“I thought I made it very clear that I did.” He remembered distinctly telling her that Lady Katherine did not factor as strongly in his life as his mother wished to believe. “Do you have something against a little walk, Miss Pembroke?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Not at all.”
“Where were you intending to go today, all on your own?” he asked, offering her his arm as they descended together to the street below.
“You would think it improper, I imagine,” she said with a soft smile.
“Tell me.”
“I think it would be better if I showed you,” she answered him, tilting her chin up in his direction. There it was – the mischief that he usually associated with Nora sparkling in her eyes. He had always thought mischief was a mark of immaturity, but here, lingering in her gaze, it seemed to brighten her beauty even more.
He looked away. “I am not one for surprises, I’m afraid.”
“What, the steady and reasonable Lord Colbourne, not one for being out of control?” she asked in a teasing tone. “I’m shocked beyond reason.”
When they had come down to the footpath, she released his arm and strode beside him with a purposed step along the street. He followed a little behind her, his long stride easily keeping pace with her quick little steps. But when they’d turned down two streets he didn’t recognise into a slightly less appealing part of town, he offered his arm again.
She looked at him in surprise. “There’s no uneven ground here, Lord Colbourne.”
“I thought the purpose of this arrangement was to broadcast to London that you were a young lady with respectable prospects,” Gerard answered, keeping his tone light even though he greatly disliked the way some of the youths on the street were looking at Nora’s slight, graceful form.
“But we are not going to be in a part of London with particularly interested parties,” Nora said, tossing her head. “These streets are full of people who have never heard of the Pembrokes’ disgraced daughter. And even if they had heard, they wouldn’t care very much.”
“That is not particularly encouraging,” Gerard said, noting that already the streets seemed to be narrowing, and they’d only been walking for half an hour. The houses were crowding more closely together – hardly slums at this point, but certainly middle-class dwellings clinging to each other as if for warmth. “I offer you my arm then, as protection.”
“I assure you, I am in no need of protection,” Nora tossed back crisply. “Besides, we’re nearly to the thing I desired to show you, right across Westminster Bridge Road.”
“What is it? A visit to London’s picturesque dock workers’ pub?” Gerard asked drily.
“You know, Lord Colbourne,” Nora responded with a teasing smile. “I took you for a good many things over the years, but I confess I did not know until this moment what a remarkable snob you are.”
“I am not a snob. Only careful.” He looked around him. “Are we in Lambeth?”
“Don’t tell me you’re particular about the neighbourhoods of London too,” she said with a smile. “I’m disappointed in you, Lord Colbourne.” She skipped on ahead of him, her green dress standing out starkly amid all the grey and brown. They rounded a corner, and he saw before him the last thing he had expected to see, although with a basic knowledge of London geography he ought to have been more aware. Before them towered the newly-rebuilt Astley’s Amphitheatre, risen yet again from the ashes of a fire, and sporting what was reputed to be one of the largest stages in London, although the Colbourne family would not have been caught dead in such an establishment.
He pulled up short. “Miss Pembroke, what are your intentions in this neighbourhood?”
She turned around, and he saw the beautiful smile slip from her face. “Why, I should think it obvious. I mean to see the circus here today. They’re showing some magnificent riding, and oddities of the Far East as well. I read about it in the paper last week and I’ve been waiting all this time for a chance to slip away.”
“So, you are using my companionship as a way to do something that you know perfectly well Mr and Mrs Pembroke would not approve of?”
The smile, now long gone, was replaced with a hard line of frustration. “Lord Colbourne, I know that my general connectivity with my family may give you reason to believe I am still a child, but I assure you I am not. I know that my parents are too strait-laced for this sort of adventure, but two of my brothers have already gone and assure me that it is quite appropriate and exciting. I came accompanied by a fine gentleman, and I intend to conduct myself in a way society would acknowledge as wholesome and refined. What could be the matter, under such circumstances?”
“I will not speak to what your brothers are willing to endure,” Gerard said stiffly, “but I will not walk into such an establishment.”
“I don’t believe this.” Nora walked back towards him slowly, shaking her head. “I know that you’ve always been very respectable, but I assumed that careful and serious nature concealed a bright and excited mind, not a heart bent on repeating the lifestyle of our parents as though we were automatons incapable of original thought.”
“That’s a bit harsh, and I think you know it.” Gerard shook his head, keeping his voice calm and even. “I am not trying to scold you, Miss Pembroke. I am only stating clearly that I do not consider a day at Astley’s Amphitheatre to be an appropriate leisure activity.”
“And what would you suggest that we do, then?” she asked archly.
“Perhaps the opera? We are not so very late that we would miss a showing if we turn and go back to town now.”
Nora looked at him for a minute and then, throwing up her hands with a bitter little laugh, began marching past him in the direction from which they’d come. Gerard hurried to catch up with her.
“I can’t imagine what you have against the opera,” he said as they walked. “It is every bit as exciting as any circus, and you have refinement and quality to enhance the experience.”
“You cannot say that something is both refined and exciting at the same time,” Nora snapped. “I have been in the opera, and therefore can make an informed judgment – which is more than you can say about the circus.”
A Baron Worth Loving: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 9