Part 7 (2/2)

And she was unhappy when she deserved nothing but happiness. Perhaps it was his awareness of that fact that had made him worry about her and try to entertain her himself. He felt protective of her, tender almost. He had grown to like her far more than he had intended to or expected to.

But she did not like him. That was perhaps the hardest fact of his marriage to accept. She could not be easy with him or talk easily with him. At first he had thought she was merely showing the natural shyness of a new bride to the husband who performed such unaccustomed intimacies with her. But she had still not changed after three weeks. Unless he could call the evening before and this afternoon a change. She had been making a noticeable effort to talk to him, but her efforts were painful and only accentuated her basic dislike of him.

She had made friends since coming to London, several of them male. He had watched at first with satisfaction, then with amus.e.m.e.nt, and finally with something like annoyance as she chattered long and easily with Farraday and Hubbard, with Perrot and the gangly youth. And Lincoln. Why could she be so easy with them and not with him? Had he been unkind to her? Cruel?

And so he continued to try to ingratiate himself with her. Though whether he had been trying to do that the night before, he was not sure. He had known that light would embarra.s.s her, as would his looking into her face and talking to her while he was being intimate with her. He had felt frustrated, angry, hurta”he was not quite sure how he had felt.

No, it was not a good marriage. It was bringing neither of them joy. Or contentment. Or even indifference. They were aware of each other and uncomfortable with each other. Unhappy with each other.

He would spend the evening with Ginny, he decided. He would tell himself quite firmly that Arabella was enjoying the soiree with one or more of her female friends and male companions, and he would soak up the sensual gratification that Ginny was so skilled at giving him.

Arabella was busily admiring the orange trees and other exotic plants with Frances and Perrot, he realized suddenly. He smiled down at his wife as she turned back to him and took his arm again.

”Shall I bring you back here one day when the weather is kinder, Arabella?” he asked.

”That would be very nice, my lord,” she said politely. ”Though it has been very pleasant even today. It was kind of you to bring us. Thank you.”

10.

Frances prepared for the Pottier soiree with particular care. She wore a deep midnight-blue gown that she had been saving for the next ball. She wished to appear at her best for Sir John Charlton and the group of somewhat lesser admirers who showed interest in her wherever she went. More important, she wished to show Sir Theodore Perrot that she was indeed enjoying her stay in London and felt no homesickness whatsoever.

She was somewhat chagrined to find that Theodore was already there before them and in conversation with the Marquess and Marchioness of Ravenscourt and Lady Harriet Meeker. He looked quite as if he belonged in the drawing room. He did not look at all rustic, as she had rather expected him to look.

Frances smiled at Mr. Browning, who had approached them in order to talk with Arabella. She flirted her fan at him, and the young man looked somewhat taken aback, and blushed.

”Oh, la,” Frances said, ”what a splendid drawing room. What story from mythology is depicted in the painting on the ceiling, do you suppose?” She smiled dazzlingly.

”The b-birth of Venus, I believe, ma'am,” Mr. Browning said.

”Did you succeed in buying the pair of matched grays that you were going to bid on at Tattersall's this morning?” Arabella asked him. ”You must tell me all about the auction, sir. I think it very provoking that ladies may not attend.”

Frances felt Theodore looking their way. She smiled even more brightly at a clearly uncomfortable Mr. Browning, and fanned herself vigorously.

Theodore, viewing her from across the room, smiled and turned his attention back to what the marchioness was saying.

Frances was rescued at that moment by Sir John Charlton, who made his bows to both ladies and began to engage her in conversation.

”It was a great pity you were not able to drive with me in the park this afternoon, Miss Wilson,” he said. ”The company there was quite distinguished. Lady Morton was kind enough to remark that my new high-perch phaeton is quite the most fas.h.i.+onable conveyance in town.”

”I really hated to miss the chance to drive with you, sir,” Frances said. ”I am longing to see your new phaeton.”

”You would grace it with your beauty,” Sir John said, removing a pearl-encrusted snuffbox from his waistcoat pocket and flicking the lid open with one elegant thumb. ”You were at Kew this afternoon?”

”Yes,” she said. ”The gardens are quite splendid. Have you seen the paG.o.da, sir?”

”Once, as a boy,” he said with a sigh. ”A strange affectation of our royal family, is it not? But not in quite such bad taste as those other unspeakable edifices in the gardens. I suppose Sir Theodore Perrot was awed by their splendor? Visitors from the country generally are.”

”Oh,” Frances said. ”Yes, Theodore liked the paG.o.da. Of course, it is somewhat out of place in an English setting. But an amusing curiosity, would you not say?”

He bowed and proceeded to inhale a pinch of snuff from the back of his hand. He withdrew a lace-edged handkerchief from his pocket.

”It is always amusing,” he said, his task completed, ”to pick out those people who are freshly arrived from the country each Season. They do tend to be rather noticeable. Of course, in some cases”a”he bowed in Frances' directiona””one would a.s.sume a person had spent all her life in town under the influence of the most impeccable of fas.h.i.+on makers. You, for example, ma'am, must have a natural sense of style and elegance.”

”I have always hated an unfas.h.i.+onable gown,” Frances said with a blush.

”I am sure you have the very best of modistes,” Sir John said. ”I, of course, will patronize no other tailor than Weston. I would wager I could look around this room and point out to you all the gentlemen who do not.”

”Oh, could you really?” Frances gazed in some admiration at the young man beside her.

A little later in the evening, Arabella was gratified to see that Frances was at the center of a group of young people. Guests at the soiree had tended to divide themselves into young and more mature. The young people were content to converse in the drawing room; the older people drifted toward the music room, where several talented performers were entertaining them. Frances was with some of her lady friends, though her group also included Sir John Charlton and two others of her regular admirers.

Frances had told Arabella when they had returned from Kew that she was not going to have Theodore hanging around her skirts all evening, even though Lady Berry had secured an invitation for him. And she seemed to have succeeded. Theodore was not part of the group. In fact, Arabella noted, looking around the room until she saw him, he was seated in one corner of the drawing room with Lady Harriet Meeker. They were talking to each other and smiling as if there were no one else in the room.

She did not know why she was surprised. Theodore was a good-looking and personable young man, after all. She had somehow expected to see him alone in a corner, brooding and dejected.

Really she had not been paying much attention to what went on around her. Since Mr. Browning had been borne off by a loud aunt, she had been deep in conversation with Mr. Lincoln and a.s.suring him yet again that his limp alone was not likely to make Miss Pope completely scorn his suit. Of course, she had been careful to explain, perhaps Miss Pope would not encourage him either, but that would have nothing to do with his leg. It was foolish to be so conscious of a small handicap that one would not even try to become acquainted with someone one admired.

Arabella found it easy to sympathize with people who had little confidence in themselves. She knew exactly how they felt. Poor Mr. Lincoln had been languis.h.i.+ng after the quite plain and ordinary Miss Pope since the start of the Season, yet could never summon the courage to talk to her or invite her out for a ride as he did with perfect ease with Arabella. And Mr. Browning was quite convinced that no one could take him seriously as a gentleman when he looked for all the world like a schoolboy. She had advised him to take up some manly sport like boxinga”she had even offered to ask his lords.h.i.+p if he would befriend him and be his sparring partner on occasion. Mr. Browning had been horrified.

But she could not be impatient with either one of these two friends. She was like them in many ways. She was only just beginning to realize that her small stature, her plain looks, and her childish features did not therefore make her a person of no account. She had not found that she had made fewer friends than Frances or any of the other ladies around her. Ladies did not scorn her; gentlemen did not shun her. And it was true what his lords.h.i.+p had said on one occasion: there are no perfect people; we all have to make the most of our a.s.sets. Of course, there were some people who were very nearly perfect, like his lords.h.i.+p himself, for example, but really they were not many.

Her attempts to be more confident and more friendly with her husband had not prospered well in the last two days, but they would, she a.s.sured herself. He would see that she was no longer the timid, dull Arabella he had married, and he would like her better. And he would see soon that she looked more grown-up and feminine than she had when he married her. He might not realize that the reason was that she had lost weight, but he would notice the result. She had had her maid take in the seams of several of her favorite garments already.

There was this strange mood of his, of course. She felt a dull ache of something low in her stomach when she thought of it. But she would not think of it for this evening, or brood on the fact that he had not come with her after saying almost certainly two days before that he would. The mood would pa.s.s. After all, she could not even say that it was a bad mood. He had been kind to her that afternoon at Kew. And he had spoken gently to her in her bedchamber the night before and had kissed her for the first timea”oh, splendid moment! She had wondered for weeks what his mouth would feel like against her own. And now she knew that it felt quite as good as she had imagined. But there was something, something disturbing.

Arabella smiled brightly and crossed the room to join Theodore, who was standing and bowing as Lady Harriet moved away.

”h.e.l.lo, puss,” he said with a grin. ”Are you enjoying yourself?”

”Yes, I am,” she said. ”And you really ought not to call me that now, you know, Theo. I am a married lady and quite grown-up. I nearly died when you used that name in his lords.h.i.+p's hearing.”

”Did you?” he said. ”I am sorry to have wounded your dignity. I could never have imagined you with such an air of consequence. So what is it to be? 'Arabella'? 'Bella'? Lady Astor'? 'My lady'? 'Ma'am'?”

She tapped him on the arm with her fan. ” 'Bella' will do nicely,” she said. ”Only his lords.h.i.+p is to call me 'Arabella.' Oh, and Lady Berry does too, of course.” She sat down in the place recently vacated by Lady Harriet, and he joined her.

”I am pleased to see you cutting such a dash, Bella,” he said. ”And your mama will be pleased too. I think she does not quite believe your letters. She is convinced that you are putting the best face on a bad situation.”

”Nonsense,” she said. ”And so I shall tell Mama myself. His lords.h.i.+p is going to take me home for the summer, you know. He has business there.”

He smiled. ”Frances is doing very well too,” he said. ”I knew she would, of course. I am glad that you and Lord Astor have given her the opportunity, puss.”

”Don't you mind?” she asked hesitantly. ”I thought it would make you angry or sad, Theo, to see her so very popular.”

”Well, there you are wrong,” he said. ”I mean to marry Frances, Bella. And I mean it to be a love match and a happy marriage. How could we be happy when she has never tried her wings beyond Parkland? And how could shea”or Ia”be sure she loved me if she had never had the chance to form an attachment to any other man?”

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