Chapter Eight
Alex glanced up from the papers he was reading in the hope that he might catch a glimpse of Lina or his sister, but he knew that was too much to hope for. Despite it seeming like an eternity that he’d been sitting in the dressmaker’s, he knew in reality it had been less than half an hour.
‘I don’t see why my presence is required here,’ Alex called, hearing the chattering voices on the other side of the curtain pause as he spoke. ‘You haven’t asked my opinion once in the hour we’ve been here.’
‘Do remember that I have a vested interest in you losing your wager,’ Georgina said, poking her head through the curtain. ‘I might advise Lina to purchase something absolutely terrible. Hence the need for your supervision.’
‘You wouldn’t be so underhand,’ Alex said, but then held his hand up to correct himself. ‘You would be so underhand, but you wouldn’t allow Lina to embarrass herself in a frock that was anything but fashionable.’
‘Very true, brother dearest. Anyway, it does you good to be out of the house and away from those horses you’re so obsessed with.’
Alex grumbled, but returned to his papers. He knew how important truly magnificent clothes were for a debutante. If Lina attended the ball in five weeks’ time dressed like the daughter of the aristocracy, then people would believe that was what she was. That was why he had insisted they ride into town and start the process of getting Lina fitted for her appearances in society. Despite all this, he hadn’t expected it to take quite so long and, as far as he could tell from his position on the other side of the curtain, they hadn’t even chosen the dress yet.
‘Remember she needs to blend in with the other debutantes,’ Alex called. ‘It needs to be the latest fashion.’
Standing and stretching, Alex walked the length of the shop, allowing his fingers to trail over the selection of materials that were on display.
‘It is a shame we have to buy something ready-made,’ he heard Georgina say from the other side of the curtain. ‘There’s nothing more luxurious than a dress that fits you and only you perfectly.’
Lina gave a light, carefree laugh that made Alex smile. When she wasn’t arguing with him she was good to have around. She tempered Georgina’s bossiness nicely and had a quick wit that kept him on his toes.
‘I think you’d look lovely in the green,’ Georgina murmured. ‘But really we should stick to less vibrant colours. You are supposed to be a debutante after all. Perhaps the pink?’
‘Pink makes me look ghastly.’
‘White, then. Although half the debutantes will be wearing white, it’s so popular these days. When I was a debutante hardly anyone wore plain white.’
‘White is good,’ Alex called to them. It was a safe choice, guaranteed to group Lina with the other young debutantes as soon as she entered a ballroom.
‘You make it sound as if it were two dozen years ago. It can only be five or six at the most.’ Lina laughed.
‘Six,’ Georgina confirmed.
‘How about this one?’
Silence followed and Alex walked to the window, glancing out into the street.
‘That could work,’ he heard Georgina say after a small pause. ‘It’s unusual, but I think it would suit you very well.’
The rest of their conversation faded into the background as Alex felt his throat begin to constrict. He tried to take a step back from the window, but his muscles failed to obey and for an awful few seconds he was in full view of anyone walking down the street.
He’d known it was her the very moment she’d rounded the corner into the high street, he recognised her graceful walk and exquisite posture as if he had last seen her only yesterday. His ex-fiancée didn’t look a day older than she had three years earlier—it was as if that time had been wiped out in an instant.
Alex felt a coldness descend over his body and, willing his muscles to work again, he quickly moved away from the window. The last thing he wanted was to be forced into a polite conversation with Victoria. She’d almost broken him and the worst thing about the whole debacle was that she knew how much she’d hurt him. For Alex, a man who’d been brought up to respect strength and dignity, the humiliation of how she had almost felled him was as bad as the heartbreak itself.
As the door to the shop slowly opened, Alex cursed every deity he had ever heard mention of. Of all the shops in all the world, Victoria had to choose this one to enter today. Squaring his shoulder as if he were about to go into a fight, Alex fixed a nonchalant smile on his face. He wouldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen her or that he was surprised by her presence, he was better than that, even if his sinking heart might disagree.
‘Good afternoon, Lady Winchester,’ he said as Victoria entered the shop, trying not to enjoy the moment of panic in her eyes as she recognised his voice. He stepped forward, still smiling, took her hand and bowed formerly over it. ‘I do hope you are well.’
‘Qu-qu-quite well,’ she managed after a few seconds.
He waited. Etiquette dictated that she should enquire after his health now, but she still hadn’t rallied from the shock of seeing him.
‘What brings you to Pottersdown?’ he asked, his voice light and conversational.
For three years he had wondered how he would react when he saw Victoria again. He knew it would happen. The people they socialised with—the members of the ton—were surprisingly few in number, but he’d worked hard to avoid Victoria these last few years. Declining invitations to events he suspected she would be attending had become almost habit. He’d never left a ball because Victoria was there, but he had sought out the card tables quickly on the few occasions when their paths might have crossed, knowing Victoria’s views on gambling meant he’d be safe.
‘I am visiting my aunt,’ Victoria said. ‘Alex, I’m sorry, I assumed you would be in London, preparing for the Season. I’d never have come if I’d thought...’
Alex gave a dismissive wave of his hand. After his initial feelings of dread at seeing his ex-fiancée for the first time since she’d declared her intention to marry his closest friend instead of him, he actually felt wonderfully unmoved by this encounter. He’d half expected their first meeting to be much more painful, much more strained, but he felt...nothing. Maybe time did heal all wounds.
‘You’re looking well, Alex—’
‘Lady Winchester.’ He heard the curtain behind him being pulled back and Georgina step out. The venom in her voice was unmistakable.
‘It is a pleasure to see you again,’ Victoria said, her expression betraying her true feelings, but she quickly sank into a curtsy before the other woman could see.
Victoria and his sister had never got on, and Georgina had spent many hours detailing the punishments she thought Victoria deserved after she’d left. They’d been particularly gruesome and colourful descriptions that had made Alex wonder what sort of books Pentworthy kept in his library to fuel Georgina’s imagination.
‘I trust your husband is well?’ Alex asked.
Lord Phillip Harrow, Duke of Winchester, had been Alex’s closest friend since they’d met at Eton. Their years of friendship made the betrayal even more painful and Alex had to mourn the loss of a friend as well as the loss of his fiancée.
‘He is.’
All the times he had imagined meeting Victoria again over the last few years, never had he pictured this stilted conversation. Initially when she’d left he’d wanted to rant and rave at her, make her understand just how much she’d hurt him. As time passed and his anger and pain turned to disgust at the underhand way she and Winchester had conducted their affair, Alex had imagined brushing her off with nothing more than a perfunctory greeting, slaying her with cold disdain. In reality, the situation was awkward and uncomfortable for the simple reason he had nothing he wished to say to her.
‘Lord Whitemore?’ Lina’s voice came from behind him and Alex spun quickly. For a moment he forgot the awkwardness between him and Victoria, forgot there was anyone else in the shop except him and Lina.
As she stepped forward into the light, moving with the grace of a dancer, he heard himself take in a sharp breath. Although not unrecognisable, Lina had been transformed. Gone was the colourful gypsy girl, replaced with an elegant woman in a demure but flattering dress.
Alex saw Victoria’s eyes widen in surprise momentarily before she regained control of her facial muscles and fixed her expression into one of polite enquiry.
‘It is my pleasure to introduce Miss Lina Lock,’ Alex said, watching cautiously as Lina stepped forward and dipped into a small curtsy. ‘Miss Lock, this is Lady Winchester, Duchess of Winchester.’
To her credit Lina didn’t even flinch at the title.
‘Lovely to meet you, Lady Winchester.’ Alex had to suppress a smile. He’d known Lina had grasped how to correctly address titled ladies and gentleman, she’d just been toying with him when she declared the system to be impossible for a normal person to remember.
For a few seconds he let the two women eye each other warily. Neither knew who the other was, but Alex could sense the tension in the small shop building as the silence dragged out.
‘Are you local to the area?’ Victoria asked eventually, her curiosity finally winning out. ‘I’m not sure I know of any Locks, but my family are originally from Yorkshire so I don’t know many of the families in this area.’
Alex wondered if Lina would panic, if she would blurt out her true identity when so directly questioned. He feared for a moment they might lose the wager at the first real hurdle and, as his stomach tightened, he realised just how important this bet of theirs had become to him. When Pentworthy had first proposed it Alex had been keen, but now he and Lina had invested so much time and effort in the past week preparing for the ball in just over a month’s time, he realised just how much was at stake. Holding his breath, he waited for Lina to answer.
‘My family are scattered around the country,’ Lina said lightly. ‘Although my closest relatives are residing in Pottersdown currently.’
‘So you and Lord Whitemore are neighbours. How lovely.’ Alex saw the strain on Victoria’s face despite her bright tone of voice. In the years since she’d left he had gone through so many emotional stages, but never had he considered how she felt about him after she’d eloped with Winchester. She didn’t have any right to feel jealous or to wonder who he spent his time with, but the twitch just above her eye hinted that she did all the same.
‘Alex,’ Lina said, dropping her voice so it was low and intimate, ‘what do you think of this dress?’
By the twinkling in her eye he knew she was aware of her totally inappropriate use of his first name. The little minx had picked up on the tension between him and Victoria and was ensuring he wasn’t the one left embarrassed or confused by the encounter.
Lina walked slowly forward, turned in a circle gracefully and then took a step towards him, reducing the distance between them until she was standing just a little too close for comfort.
He took a moment to regard her, sweeping his eyes over the dress, the colour of smooth cream and the unusual embroidered rose pattern that snaked up one side.
‘It suits you,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone wear anything quite like it before.’ There was nothing scandalous about the dress, nothing inappropriate, but all the same Alex felt the heat begin to rise in his body as he looked at her. She looked mysterious and slightly sultry, even though she had shed her flared gypsy skirt, and Alex wondered if this was why he felt that physical pull. She was so different to any woman he had ever known before—so different to Victoria, that was made especially clear as the two of them stood in front of him.
‘I should be going,’ Victoria said quietly. ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lock.’
The two women inclined their heads to each other before Victoria bid Alex and his sister goodbye, then quickly hurried out of the shop.
‘So that was the dastardly ex-fiancée?’ Lina said as she peered out of the window, watching Victoria’s retreating form.
‘Yes,’ Alex said.
‘Pretty.’
‘Yes.’
‘Lots of unresolved emotions there.’
Alex raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t sure he was in the mood for any of Lina’s much too accurate observations.
‘On her part, I mean.’ Lina smiled, though there was a hint of something else behind it, too. ‘You obviously have dealt with her abandonment admirably, no lasting heartbreak for you.’
‘Did you have to tell her every sordid detail?’ Alex asked, turning to Georgina.
‘Don’t look at me. I haven’t uttered more than three words about Victoria.’ Georgina almost spat the name out in disgust.
Lina opened her mouth, but Alex held up a hand. He’d had enough discussion of Victoria for the moment.
‘I think I’m going to go for a walk.’
* * *
Lina quickly changed out of the beautiful cream dress, reluctantly swapping it for her worn multicoloured skirt and blouse.
‘I’ll find Alex and meet you back here in half an hour,’ she said to Georgina, who had decided to take the opportunity to get herself measured for a couple of new dresses whilst she was in Pottersdown.
Exiting the shop, she looked to the left and right, spotting Alex a few hundred yards away, strolling slowly towards her. Quickly she went to meet him, aware that they only had a limited time for her to get him to open up a little about the encounter with his ex-fiancée.
‘Come with me,’ Lina said, grabbing hold of Alex’s hand and pulling him down the high street. Before they had taken two steps Alex had adjusted their position, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm and slowing her pace, so they looked like a respectable couple. As she rolled her eyes, he gave her an admonishing glance. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to rebuke her for not behaving like the debutante she was striving to be in public.
‘We should be getting back soon,’ Alex said.
‘This won’t take long. Anyway, you need cheering up after that little surprise trip down memory lane.’
Lina saw him smile and wondered if he would admit he found her tendency not to skirt around difficult subjects refreshing or if he would reprimand her for not observing the rules of polite conversation.
‘Sit. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.’ Before he could protest she hurried off, glancing back to check he hadn’t moved. Alex had the annoying habit of disobeying. He expected her to comply when he gave her an order, but wasn’t very good at taking them himself. ‘I told you to sit.’ Lina sighed.
Alex shrugged. ‘I wanted to know where you were going.’
‘It was meant to be a surprise,’ Lina grumbled.
‘It still is.’
With a roll of her eyes she watched as he strolled on ahead of her, not even bothering to turn to see if she would catch up.
‘My brother brought me here the very first time we came to Pottersdown,’ Lina said as they stopped in front of a small shopfront. ‘It was just after my father died and Raul was doing his very best to buoy my spirits.’
Lina pushed the door open and entered the shop. A tall man greeted them, smiling under a bushy moustache.
‘Lina! I almost didn’t recognise you. What would you like today?’ the jolly shopkeeper asked.
‘A regular customer, I see,’ Alex murmured.
‘I come here every day when we stay in Pottersdown,’ Lina admitted. ‘Two pieces of pâté de guimauve, please.’ She turned back to Alex. ‘It really is the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.’
‘I concede to your expertise.’
Lina watched as the shopkeeper took two small, fluffy pieces of confectionery and wrapped them in napkins before handing them over. Alex reached for his coin purse, but Lina stepped forward first, paying the man before bidding him goodbye.
‘Do you know, I don’t think a woman has ever bought me anything before,’ Alex mused as they strolled back towards the bench Lina had intended to leave Alex sitting on.
Lina laughed. ‘Now, I don’t want to get started about what is wrong with society,’ she said. ‘But it is rather frustrating that many women are not trusted with money of their own and as such cannot buy gifts for men they hold in high regard.’
‘You hold me in high regard?’
‘I was talking in general terms,’ Lina said, feeling the smile dancing on her lips. ‘It makes one question the whole courtship ritual, doesn’t it? Men choose the women they wish to pursue, and because they choose, they are the ones to buy the gifts to woo their intended. If women had more of a choice in the matter, perhaps men would receive their share of pretty trinkets, too.’
‘And what man doesn’t appreciate a pretty trinket?’
‘You might if you ever received one.’
They reached the bench overlooking the duck pond and sat side by side, both tasting the sweet confection and taking a moment to enjoy the flavour.
‘She broke your heart, didn’t she?’ Lina asked quietly, unsure how Alex would react to the abrupt change of subject.
‘It was a difficult time,’ he replied eventually.
‘Sometimes I don’t think people appreciate how their actions impact on those around them.’
‘Or they just don’t care.’
‘My father broke my mother’s heart,’ Lina said, watching Alex as he stared off into the distance. ‘He loved her, or so he claimed, but he still betrayed her.’
‘Did your mother recover?’
Lina considered the question for a little while. ‘She moved on with her life, she forgave him, but I don’t think she ever recovered.’
The messy subject of her parents’ relationship was not one Lina often talked about. All her gypsy family knew the intimate, sordid details, so there was no need to ever discuss it, and Lina realised she hadn’t really ever had any friends outside her family circle before.
‘What happened?’ Alex asked, turning to her.
‘My father was a strong man—charismatic, I suppose. He caught the eye of a wealthy widow when we stayed in Hampshire for a while. She must have wanted something a little more alluring than her usual string of lovers.’
Lina could still remember her father sneaking off in the middle of the night. She’d been six years old and had woken to see him leaving without a backwards glance at his family.
‘The widow got bored of him after a few months and my father came crawling back to the family, begging for my mother to forgive him.’
‘And she took him back?’ Alex asked, incredulous. Lina could see he would never contemplate letting Victoria back into his life.
‘She loved him. And hated him a little, I think. She took him back, but things weren’t the same. He started drinking heavily, would withdraw into himself for days on end.’
‘Guilty conscience?’
‘Crushed dreams,’ Lina corrected. Her father had thought his life was about to change when the widow had looked his way, and for a few months it had, but he had been a temporary distraction, an oddity, nothing more. Soon the widow had become bored of her coarse new lover and looked elsewhere for her excitement. ‘For a little while he thought he was going to become someone important. All his life he had been a travelling carpenter and he wanted something more, I think. When he was pushed back to reality, the dream of what could have been got to be too much. It was the disappointment that killed him.’
‘It must have been an unhappy time for you.’
Lina smiled softly. ‘My mother was heartbroken, betrayed twice by the man she loved—first when he left her for another woman and then when he gave up on life. But she tried to do her best by me and Raul. And we had the rest of the family to rally round, as well.’
‘I’m sorry this happened to you.’
Shaking her head vehemently, Lina turned to Alex. ‘I didn’t tell you to gain your sympathy. I just wanted you to know that I understand.’ She paused, watching Alex sink back on to the bench and his eyes glaze over slightly. ‘I do not know what happened with you and your ex-fiancée, but I do know she hurt you badly. You find it difficult to trust people. Perhaps that is why you are so resistant to the young ladies your sister keeps trying to push your way?’
‘Perhaps.’ Alex shrugged. Lina could tell he wasn’t ready to open up about the events of his past so she didn’t push any further. Hopefully it was enough to know that she understood a little of his pain.