Part 22 (1/2)
There was a rustling of leaves and the duke emerged from the floral undergrowth. He looked down at his prostrate daughter. ”Sara, stop that! Get up.”
”My dear!” his wife cried. ”She was overcome with Lord Kesseley's appearance!”
Upon hearing his name, he jolted forward, suddenly remembering his lines. He knelt before Lady Sara. How delicately beautiful she looked unconscious, her claws retracted. He lifted her. Her neck curved over his arm and displayed a succulent jaw line, the kind for nibbling kisses.
She opened her heavy eyes and murmured, ”Lord Kesseley!” then swooned again, burying herself in his chest. He played the proper gothic hero she wanted and gently laid her upon the cus.h.i.+ons, even brushed the curls from her eyes. Her limp hand found his. ”You frightened me, my lord,” she said, a s.h.i.+ver in her whisper.
”A thousand apologies, my lady. I'll leave immediately.”
For a faint thing, she had a strong grip, holding him in place. ”Don't leave me, my lord!”
”Dear G.o.d!” the duke said, taking a seat beside a chrysanthemum. ”Why do I spend hundreds of pounds on boxes at the theatres when we could stay home and have more drama.”
”Your Grace! You have such little regard for a lady's delicate nerves.” The d.u.c.h.ess fanned her daughter with her fingers. ”Oh my lovely, don't listen to your papa. Shall Lord Kesseley read to you?”
”Oh yes, my lord, please read to me. Poetry about death and birth and flux and change, just not love. For you do not believe in love.”
”Now, we talked about this! I told you not to make Lord Kesseley read dribble,” the duke reminded his daughter. ”Kesseley, why don't you read that article of yours about turnips and manuring.” He lifted up a flowerpot and pulled out the Journal of Agriculture. Journal of Agriculture. ”Here it is.” ”Here it is.”
He was given a chair beside Lady Sara and opened the journal right to his article. Little pressed lavender flowers fell out.
It felt awkward reading his own words aloud, especially with Lady Sara staring at him adoringly with those bright eyes of hers, and her sweet voice complimenting his elocution while he read about nitrogen depletion in soil. He skipped entire sections. No one seemed to notice that he never fully explained excretion theory. He had far exceeded the fifteen minutes he had allocated for the visit when he closed the journal.
”It has been a pleasure, my lady, but it would be quite ungentlemanly of me to further press upon your delicate health.”
The duke, who had been sleeping with his head drooped down upon his big chest, suddenly sprung up. ”Let's play a game of billiards.”
Kesseley clenched his jaws to keep an expletive from escaping. He smiled tightly and followed the duke up the expansive staircase winding around the great hall to a room with enormous arched windows that looked on to a narrow terrace. An inlaid oak billiard table stood in the center of the room.
The duke stacked up the b.a.l.l.s, then leaned his large frame over the edge of the table, one eye closed, the other looking down the long pole at the cue ball. ”So what do you think of my daughter?” He broke the b.a.l.l.s in one clean stroke, sending them all over the table. The one ball dropped in the left pocket.
”She's very pretty,” Kesseley said.
The duke lined up his next shot. ”She's a little fanciful, but she'll settle down well enough on a strong man's arm and with a brood of her own.” He sank the three into the hole.
”Excellent shot.”
The duke smiled, walked around the table and pocketed the seven, then the five. ”Now I know you like the ladies as much as myself. And there ain't a reason marriage should change any of life's more pleasurable pursuits. Sara will be like her mama and look the other way to any dabbling in the petticoat line. You keep her in pretty clothes and things, and she won't give you any trouble. She knows her duty.”
He banked the cue ball and sank the four. ”It's no secret her dowry is 20,000. But for the right match, I might be inclined to sweeten the deal.” He merely tapped the cue to roll the two ball in. ”I've got a ball in a week. We could make the announcement then. The wedding could take place in the late summer, before hunting season. You think about it.”
Kesseley felt his mouth go dry. ”I-I will.”
The duke nudged Kesseley's elbow as he pa.s.sed. ”Get your case together and we can talk. I like you. You know what's what.” He knocked the left edge of the six ball. It spun and bounced off the edge of the pocket and fell in the hole. ”Now watch, I'm going to put the eight ball in the back right pocket.” The duke lined up his shot, pulled back his pole, then slid it over his thumb, smooth and quick. The eight ball flew across the table and sank. He smiled at his own prowess.
Kesseley fled the duke's house like wolves were at his heels. He revisited the conversation, looking for any slip, any phrase that could be misunderstood as an intention to marry Lady Sara. His heart was flip-flapping with fear, just imagining a life shackled to her.
He slipped into a gambling h.e.l.l on St. James. Pa.s.sing the money collectors waiting in the front room, he disappeared into the paneled parlors filled with the haze of smoke and the smell of spirits. All the wall sconces and chandeliers were lit, illuminating paintings of pale-skinned G.o.ddess baring their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He found a corner table and downed a brandy, feeling the gaze of a raven-haired lady on him. He raked his eyes over her. She was small, trim, with straight hair falling down in wisps. Her pale skin and dark eyes reminded him of Henrietta and anger swelled inside him.
He shook his head. Sorry, no black-haired beauties for him.
Bucky and some of his friends found Kesseley on the fourth brandy, and they removed to the faro table. Bucky quickly lost fifty pounds and had to leave the game, but Kesseley remained, drinking more, spending the afternoon losing and winning back three hundred pounds. He gambled until he grew bored, finding easy diversion in a vibrant redhead and a green-eyed blonde who sauntered in and sat beside their raven-haired friend. She glowered at Kesseley, still stung by his rejection. What the h.e.l.l? She was a courtesan. It was just business. She was selling herself, and he wasn't interested in the merchandise.
The three ladies exchanged some words. The raven-haired chit shook her head. The redhead shrugged, and she and her blonde friend approached the table, leaving their dark friend behind.
”Pardon, are you Lord Kesseley?” the pretty redhead asked very sweetly.
His gaze flickered back to their friend. She looked away, angry. ”Is that who you want? Lord Kesseley?”
Red looked fl.u.s.tered, as if she had made a mistake. Kesseley took her hand and kissed her smooth, cool skin, but kept his gaze on the black-haired lightskirt. She wasn't going to look at him. ”I am Kesseley. But I do not know who you are.”
Lydia. The blonde was Aimee with the French spelling.
”Our friend, Josephine, is in a play off Drury Lane this evening,” French Aimee said with a heavy Yorks.h.i.+re accent. She nodded her head to the angry, dark friend, who turned her head at the sound of her name.
”We have a box and desire some company,” Aimee continued, her eyes sweeping across the table to include Bucky and his friends. They eagerly accepted.
Kesseley did not. He locked his gaze on Josephine's chocolate eyes. Not as glittery as Henrietta's, but rather skittish.
”Your friends are coming,” Lydia urged him.
”I may have other plans,” he said, then c.o.c.ked his head, speaking loud enough for Josephine to hear. ”Is your friend a good actress? Will I be amused? Or will she waste my time?”
The men at the table blew low whistles over their cards. Josephine pulled her reticule off the table and walked out.
”I think I will go to the play after all,” Kesseley said, watching her retreating back.
In the afternoon, Henrietta exchanged her sacklike morning dress for an equally unappealing evening gown, intending to sit in the darkness of a theatre box and pa.s.s the evening pretending to be invisible. She watched the front door, waiting for Kesseley to come home. Although she didn't know what she would say except I love you I love you and and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The ladies took the carriage to Lady Winslow's for dinner. She lived in a quaint townhome on Cavendish Square, smaller than Lady Kesseley's. The ladies took the carriage to Lady Winslow's for dinner. She lived in a quaint townhome on Cavendish Square, smaller than Lady Kesseley's.
The ground-floor rooms resembled over-stuffed closets of objets d'art. objets d'art. Henrietta could scarce see the parlor walls for all the paintings and ill.u.s.trations. The tables were cluttered with colorful gla.s.s vases and interesting sculptures. She could spend the evening sitting in this room, silently taking in each piece. Henrietta could scarce see the parlor walls for all the paintings and ill.u.s.trations. The tables were cluttered with colorful gla.s.s vases and interesting sculptures. She could spend the evening sitting in this room, silently taking in each piece.
Unfortunately she was quickly ushered into the dining room, where the portrait of a rather small intense man with intellectual eyes presided over the dinner table. Lady Winslow sat beneath him.
When she asked about the striking gentleman, Lady Winslow's face softened and she replied, ”My husband.” Then she flicked her wrist to a portrait hanging over the princess's head. It was a man in hunting clothes beside a horse. ”And that was the other one,” she said flatly.
After dinner, they headed out for an ”intimate” little theatre off Drury Lane.
They had to wait behind the carriages headed for Haymarket before they cut through the small, winding Drury Lane. Soon they came to a stop in front of a shadowy, brown building with cracked painted plaster where people entered a low door lit by a single gas torch.
Inside, the fas.h.i.+onable, intellectual and artistic wearily eyed each other as they squeezed into a dimly lit salon smelling of the tallow and dirty carpet, waiting on the door to the theatre to open.
”Henrietta!” a surprised male voice called. She turned to see Edward edging through the shoulders toward her.
Lady Winslow arched a questioning brow at Henrietta. ”The poet?”