Flirting with His Forbidden Lady--A Regency Family is Reunited

by Laura Martin

  Gently pulling on the reins, she turned her horse’s head and tapped lightly with her feet to urge her into a trot. They moved parallel to the cliff edge, climbing the slope until they had a fantastic view of the chalky cliffs and the blue-grey sea beyond. This was where Beth felt at her happiest. She loved the sea, loved watching the crashing waves in winter and the lapping tides in summer. She loved how the clouds above changed the colour of the sea below and the way the weather was more dramatic at the coast.

  ‘Good morning,’ a voice called out from behind her. Beth almost fell from her saddle. She would have sworn she was alone on the clifftop.

  ‘Mr Ashburton.’ Mr Joshua Ashburton, the man she hadn’t been able to banish from her mind no matter how hard she tried.

  ‘I’m sorry to startle you. I was keen to catch a glimpse of these famous cliffs.’

  ‘When did you arrive?’ Beth knew she was being blunt, rude even, but his sudden appearance had unsettled her.

  ‘Half an hour ago.’ He gave a little smile as he saw her peer around him. ‘I’m alone.’

  ‘Your brother...?’

  ‘Is freshening up. Something he tells me every gentleman should do after travelling on horseback for any period of time.’ He shrugged and Beth felt drawn to his carefree attitude. ‘I didn’t think the sea would mind my ruffled appearance.’

  He looked anything but ruffled. Even the wind suited him, tousling his hair and whipping at his clothes.

  ‘My mother is going to be livid,’ Beth murmured as she glanced towards home. She couldn’t see Birling View from here but already she could imagine her mother’s ire at Beth being out when their guest of honour arrived. ‘You weren’t meant to be here until this afternoon.’

  ‘Blame me. Leo calculated the time it would take in a carriage but this morning I persuaded him to complete our journey on horseback.’ He turned his horse so he was alongside her and for a long moment looked out at the sea. ‘I can see why you don’t want to leave.’

  Beth shot him a sharp look. She’d never said in so many words she didn’t want to leave Sussex and she wondered if she were that transparent that he could tell her emotions just from inference and glances.

  ‘Who would?’ His eyes were fixed on the horizon and there was a wistful expression on his face.

  ‘I should return home. My mother...’ Beth shuddered. Her mother would be pacing the halls, waiting to say how disappointed she was in Beth’s behaviour yet again.

  ‘She will be angry if you return half an hour late or forty minutes. An extra few minutes won’t change things.’

  ‘You’re inciting me to defy my mother, Mr Ashburton.’

  ‘We all need a little danger in our lives.’ He turned back to the sea and took a deep breath. ‘Five minutes. Ride with me to the top of the cliffs.’

  She shouldn’t do it. For the past two weeks, ever since they’d left London to prepare for the house party, she had told herself she would spend the week avoiding Joshua Ashburton. He brought something out in her that wasn’t sensible, wasn’t rational. She glanced over at him, catching the way he was looking at her, and felt her skin begin to tingle and her heart start to pound just that little bit faster.

  Willow, her beautiful mare, tossed her head and pulled in the direction of the clifftop.

  ‘Traitor,’ Beth murmured, but allowed the horse to fall into step alongside Mr Ashburton’s. ‘How was your journey?’

  ‘Uneventful. Now tell me, who is your mother hiding in that lovely old house of yours?’

  Beth felt herself stiffen in the saddle and had to force herself to let go of the breath she was holding.

  ‘Hiding? What makes you think she’s hiding someone?’

  ‘When we arrived she was very keen to usher us inside even though it is a glorious day. She kept looking at the garden and I fancied I saw someone in amongst the flower beds. Someone it seemed your mother didn’t want us to see.’

  ‘Nonsense.’ Beth knew her voice gave her away. She wasn’t sure why her mother was quite so keen to hide Annabelle from the world. When they had returned to Sussex from London in preparation for the house party her mother had initially planned to send Annabelle away whilst they had guests but Beth had coaxed and cajoled her mother into letting her sister stay. Annabelle hadn’t been away from Birling View ever, and, even though the proposed destination was only the farm at the edge of the estate, Beth didn’t think it fair her sister be discarded like that.

  ‘I thought it might have been your sister, but then couldn’t work out why your mother would be so keen for her not to meet us.’

  Joshua Ashburton was an astute man. Even though Annabelle meant the world to her, Beth had steered clear of mentioning her too much in his company, but still the man’s interest had been piqued by this younger sister who must seem elusive.

  ‘It may have been Annabelle. She does enjoy the gardens.’

  ‘I suppose we will meet her at dinner tonight.’

  ‘No.’ Beth avoided eye contact and instead spurred Willow on to the very top of the cliff. The hills here undulated up and down with many points on the cliff where it felt as though you were at the highest point, but Beachy Head really was the top.

  ‘Tomorrow, then, perhaps at breakfast?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Ah, I understand. Some people prefer to eat alone. Perhaps she will join us for a walk along the cliffs.’

  ‘Why do you care?’ Beth rounded on him, her voice rising, carried on the wind and echoing off the hills.

  Mr Ashburton regarded her for a long moment, his expression for once serious.

  ‘Something here isn’t right,’ he said eventually. ‘It has been niggling at me for two weeks. Here you are, two and twenty.’ He waited for her to give a short nod of confirmation before continuing. ‘Doing everything in your power to save the family. Yet your sister, who is a mere year younger, is hidden away here in Sussex, not out husband hunting with you.’

  ‘You know nothing about me, about my sister, about my family.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ he said quietly, and Beth was forced to look at him by the intensity in his voice. ‘I may not have known you long, Lady Elizabeth, but do not pretend we do not have a connection. I may not know you by the standards of society, but I understand you.’

  Beth felt the piercing of her heart. It was what she imagined everyone wished for—someone to understand them. Even Annabelle, who she was as close as sisters could be to, didn’t understand her. His eyes were burning into her, hot and intense, and it made her want to squirm in the saddle.

  ‘Something is wrong here.’

  Shaking her head, she felt the tears threatening to spill.

  ‘Isn’t there something wrong in every family?’ she said quietly.

  ‘Of course. Look at me and Leo: he was wanted, I was not.’

  ‘Yet you are peculiarly well adjusted.’

  He shrugged. ‘We’re not talking about me.’

  ‘I need to get back home, Mr Ashburton. May I suggest we don’t arrive together?’

  ‘Josh,’ he said, holding her eye. ‘My name is Josh.’

  ‘I can’t call you Josh.’

  ‘That’s your decision, but you can think of me as Josh even if you can’t use my name.’

  ‘Josh,’ she murmured, knowing she wouldn’t be able to think of him as Mr Ashburton any more. That would be reserved for his brother.

  Reminded once again of her duty, she pulled on Willow’s reins and without another word pushed her into a trot. She got as far as the bottom of the first hill before she lost the battle with herself not to look around and glanced back over her shoulder to see Josh still watching her.

  * * *

  ‘Mother is furious.’ Annabelle’s face peeked out of the darkness as Beth crept along the upper landing towards the bedroom she shared with Annabelle.

 
Quickly she slid into the room and embraced her sister, making sure the door was closed firmly behind her.

  ‘With me?’

  ‘She’s furious with everyone. With the Ashburtons for arriving early, with you not being here to greet them when they arrived, with me for having the audacity to walk in the gardens when we might have guests arriving.’

  Beth paused in her pacing, regarding her sister. It must hurt, this need of their mother’s to keep Annabelle hidden away, but the bitterness that should be there wasn’t always present.

  ‘You could join us, you know, for the party.’

  Annabelle scoffed. ‘And incur Mother’s eternal wrath? No, thank you.’

  ‘She wouldn’t be able to do anything, not if you came down when all the guests were present.’

  Annabelle looked at her with a mixture of sadness and pity and, as often happened, Beth felt like the younger sister. ‘I don’t want to come down, Beth. I don’t need to.’

  Nodding, Beth knew she couldn’t push the matter. It was Annabelle’s choice, although she had been conditioned to feel ashamed of herself, of her appearance. Self-consciously Annabelle touched the deep scar on her face, letting her fingertips linger on the puckered skin.

  ‘The Misters Ashburton are very handsome,’ Annabelle said, moving behind Beth as she sat in front of the mirror to straighten her windswept hair. Expertly Annabelle pulled the pins loose as Beth began to run a brush through the tangled strands. They had never had a lady’s maid of their own, funds being too tight ever since they had reached adulthood, so instead had learned to dress each other’s hair and look after their own clothes.

  ‘They are.’

  ‘Very similar in appearance, but you say they are not twins.’

  ‘No. Two or three years separate them in age, I believe.’

  ‘Of course, they are easy to tell apart by their expressions and the way they carry themselves.’

  ‘You got close enough to see their expressions?’ Beth pulled at a particularly large knot with the brush, wincing as it tugged at her scalp.

  ‘I know every passageway and every nook in this house. I was able to observe them once I had been summoned in from the garden.’ Annabelle had not left the estate, not since the accident that had scarred her face. It meant she knew the house better than the servants, and the gardens were her own personal paradise.

  ‘Which one is the taller of the two, the one with the quick smile and the kind eyes?’

  ‘Josh... Joshua Ashburton, the younger brother.’ Beth didn’t meet her sister’s eye but knew she would have picked up on the high-pitched note in her voice. Normally she told Annabelle everything, confided all her secrets, her hopes and fears. They’d had long discussions about the trip to London and Beth’s impending marriage before she’d left Sussex, but, despite her sister pressing her since her return, she hadn’t told her much about the Ashburtons out of fear of letting something of what had happened with Josh slip.

  Annabelle wouldn’t disapprove. It was more the opposite reaction she was afraid of: that her sister would encourage her to ruin the chance of saving the family for an ill-advised romance. Beth scoffed, the sound out of her mouth before she could stop it. Now she was dreaming. Josh Ashburton hadn’t offered her romance, just one kiss, and the information that he was leaving the country for good in a few short weeks.

  ‘So the one you’re meant to marry is the serious man, the one who carries himself as if he has a broom wedged down the back of his shirt?’

  A smile cracked on Beth’s lips. Annabelle always had been good at getting to the essence of people quickly.

  ‘Yes. Leonard Ashburton. He’s very...sober in his manner.’

  ‘It’s a shame it’s not his brother.’ Annabelle’s words were said lightly, without any hidden meaning behind them, and Beth had to stop herself from reacting. Instead she focussed on jabbing the pins into her hair, handing the spares to Annabelle to secure the back. ‘Mother said to tell you to wear the yellow dress.’ Annabelle screwed up her nose. ‘I did say it was far too itchy to wear all afternoon, but she wasn’t interested in my opinion.’

  They both turned to the wardrobe, Beth grimacing as she caught sight of the yellow dress. It had been a gift, passed down from a friend of her mother’s. It was beautiful, albeit not of the most current fashion. The top was a lovely pale yellow silk, edged with a delicate trim of lace. A gold ribbon pulled in a high waist and from that the heavy silk skirts flowed. It was designed to be worn with at least two petticoats and the material was not the most breathable for the summer months it was meant for. She couldn’t deny it looked spectacular on, but for some unfathomable reason it was almost unbearably itchy and Beth found she couldn’t sit still when she wore it, often fantasising about ripping the material from her body and throwing it from the cliffs.

  ‘She won’t be happy if you don’t wear it.’

  ‘She knows how uncomfortable it is.’ Beth silently wondered if it was her mother’s way of punishing her for not being present when Mr Ashburton arrived.

  ‘You could defy her.’

  Biting her lip, Beth crossed to the wardrobe and ran her hand along the line of dresses hung in the small space. It wasn’t an extensive collection: she had three dresses for day-to-day wear, the yellow dress her mother liked so much, two evening dresses bought specially for her time in London and a thin, floaty white dress she had worn to the local balls as a debutante.

  Deciding today was going to be torture enough, she selected her smartest day dress, made of dark blue cotton with a lighter blue sash around the middle. She had always thought it made her look elegant but understated, and it didn’t make her want to rip her skin off every time she wore it.

  ‘Good choice,’ Annabelle murmured as she helped Beth fasten the dress at the back.

  ‘Are you sure you won’t come with me? We could walk into the drawing room together.’

  Annabelle shook her head and Beth knew she shouldn’t push her sister any further.

  ‘Promise to tell me all about it later.’

  ‘I promise.’

  Chapter Ten

  Josh closed his eyes, let his head rest back on the bench and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his face. Even in what his brother had hailed as the hottest May in memory, it wasn’t anything like the heat of an Indian summer. In that heat sometimes you felt as if you couldn’t breathe, the humidity meant the sweat rolled from your skin and the sun would burn you within minutes. This felt like a pleasant spring day in comparison.

  He was sitting outside the drawing room, on an ornate stone bench that someone had positioned with loving care to look over the gardens and to the cliffs beyond. The gardens were a curious design, now overgrown in many places and left to run wild, the sea air culling many of the plants not designed for a coastal garden. Nevertheless, it was charming in its own unique way with patches of colour in amongst the winding paths.

  ‘Ah, there you are,’ Leo said as he stepped out of the drawing room.

  ‘Have you finished your letters?’

  His brother grimaced and shook his head. ‘Almost. The writing desk is very low in my bedroom so I thought I would take a little break and stretch my legs before the other guests arrive.’

  ‘Not keen on socialising?’

  ‘Remind me again why we agreed to come all the way down here for four days?’

  Josh laughed. Only an Englishman would think eighty miles was a long way to travel.

  ‘For your intended. To woo her, I suppose.’

  ‘That’s not exactly my way.’

  Leo sat down on the bench next to him and turned his own face up to the sun just as Josh had a few minutes earlier.

  ‘It’s good for you to be away from the demands of Lord Abbingdon for a couple of days, at the very least.’

  Just as Leo was about to reply Josh saw a flash of movement behind them and Lady E
lizabeth stepped out of the drawing room.

  ‘Oh.’ She didn’t look particularly pleased to see them, although she covered her initial reaction with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Ashburton and Mr Ashburton.’ She gave a pretty little curtsy and then glanced around the garden as if trying to work out an escape route.

  ‘We were just admiring your garden and enjoying the sunshine,’ Josh said.

  Leo remained silent.

  ‘Would you like to take a stroll around the garden, Mr Ashburton?’ Lady Elizabeth addressed herself squarely to Leo.

  ‘No. I have letters to write.’ Even to Josh’s ears Leo sounded blunt and he saw Lady Elizabeth blink in surprise. ‘Take Josh.’

  Leo stood, bowed and walked quickly back inside the house, leaving Lady Elizabeth standing awkwardly staring after him.

  ‘Was it something I did?’

  ‘He really does have letters to write.’

  ‘How are we meant to determine if we suit if we never spend any time together?’

  Josh didn’t answer; there wasn’t anything he could say. Instead he offered Lady Elizabeth his arm and waited whilst she contemplated whether to take it or not.

  He leaned in. ‘I promise not to kiss you.’

  ‘Stop it.’

  ‘Fine. I promise I will kiss you.’

  ‘I’m not going for a walk with you if you behave like this.’

  ‘Ah, but what if Leo is watching from his window and realises we’re not strolling companionably around the gardens?’

  Letting out a little snort of frustration, Lady Elizabeth took his arm and began a fast march away from the house. Josh had to suppress a smile as he lengthened his stride to keep up.

  ‘Here are the roses,’ she said, pointing to a sad-looking bed of thorny tangles with not a single bud in sight. ‘Here is the fernery. And here is the summer border.’ A few droopy plants with sparse flowers hung limply in the summer border.