Twenty

Derek replied to her note the next morning, saying that he would call in the afternoon with pleasure. His response seemed a bit cool to Elisabeth, and she wondered whether she’d been right to ask him to come. The decision that had seemed so logical now appeared foolish.

Resolving to put the matter from her mind for a while, she set out to call on Jane Taunton. She found her in her study, as usual, and settled into the rust-colored armchair with a pleased sigh. “It’s good to be in this room once more,” she told her friend.

“I wonder whether you’d say so if you spent as much time here as I do,” Jane replied, looking around her.

“Do you tire of it?” Elisabeth was a bit surprised. “But then, you can always go out.”

“Of course,” said Jane wryly. “Come, you must tell me how things are with you.”

Elisabeth smiled. “Well, now that Tony is safe, the only terrifying task left me is Belinda’s wedding. Then the season will end, and we can go to the country.”

“Belinda is very lucky,” said Jane.

Elisabeth stared at her.

“Because you have been so kind to her,” added the other girl quickly. “She’s certainly been given all the advantages without much being asked in return.”

Frowning, Elisabeth looked at her friend. She didn’t sound like herself. In fact, she sounded quite petulant and bitter. She needed some rest, Elisabeth thought, and a chance to get away from her two little rooms. Perhaps she could help with that. She started to speak, but Jane, noticing her expression, forestalled her.

“Will the wedding be so terrifying?” she asked with a strained smile.

Elisabeth shrugged. “The ceremony itself will be nothing. It’s the planning, the wedding clothes, the breakfast, and so on and so on—the details, in short—which daunt me. I’m even now preparing to send out cards for an evening party in honor of the engaged couple. And that should have been done weeks ago. I wish it were all over and we were on our way to Willowmere. And talking of Willowmere, I hope to prevail upon you to come with us. The house should be ready for guests, and I should like you to be the first.”

Jane seemed a bit surprised, but she accepted the invitation. “That would be very agreeable. I spent last summer in London, and it was uncomfortable. I had thought of visiting my mother this year, since I haven’t been home in some time, but she says she feels rather too ill for guests right now.” Jane’s expression was bleak.

Elisabeth saw that she wasn’t telling the whole story and pitied her sincerely. “That settles it,” she said. “You must come. There will be no party, you understand, only Tony, Cousin Lavinia, and me.”

“It sounds delightful.”

“Good.” Elisabeth sat back. “Now you must tell me, how does your work go?”

The other girl sighed and looked down. “My work.” She laughed rather harshly. “I wonder that anyone, including myself, can call it that.”

“What’s the matter?”

Jane shook her head. “I spend all my time scribbling these ludicrous articles,” she gestured toward a pile of papers on the desk in front of her, “to earn my bread. It’s a rare moment indeed when I can turn to poetry.” Her mouth twisted, and she turned away. “It’s just not fair.”

“It isn’t indeed,” responded Elisabeth sympathetically. “Could I…perhaps I could be of help?”

Jane glanced at her sharply, hesitated, then shook her head once more. “Thank you for the offer, but I don’t think so. It’s no good my borrowing money or living off my friends. I might just as well, or better, stay with my mother.” She smiled. “And in any case, your generous invitation will give me a free time to work.”

Elisabeth nodded eagerly. “Yes. All you like.” Surely this free time would restore Jane; and perhaps after it, Elisabeth could be of more help.

“One piece of news I’d forgotten,” Jane went on. “I met your Byronic hero while you were out of town.”

“Mr. Jarrett? You mustn’t call him that.”

Jane laughed. “All right. You’re determined not to allow my imagination to run wild, I see.”

Elisabeth smiled back a bit uneasily. “What did you think?”

“He has interesting ideas. He was present at a musical evening given by Lady Brandon, which the duchess dragged me to. It seems that Lady Brandon’s companion, a little mouselike woman, is a friend of Jarrett’s. We talked for quite some time.”

“And what was your opinion of him?”

“I fear he was not up to my expectations,” laughed Jane. “After all the hair-raising stories, I looked for a combination of the corsair and a slave trader, but he seemed quite an ordinary gentleman. A bit abrupt, perhaps.”

Elisabeth laughed. “Poor Jane. Did you really hope to meet an adventurer in a London drawing room?”

“You cannot know how much. And at first, I had great hopes. There is something about Jarrett, I can’t say just what, that brings a word like ‘adventurer’ to mind when one meets him. But as we talked, the impression faded. He seemed annoyingly conventional, pleasant, an interesting talker, with striking eyes, I do admit. However, there was nothing of the murderer about him.”

“Murderer!” exclaimed Elisabeth. “I should hope not indeed. What makes you say that?”

Jane looked surprised. “Didn’t I tell you? I thought I had. One of my friends uncovered some further rumors about Mr. Jarrett. There was talk when his wife died.”

“What sort of talk?”

The other girl shrugged. “The story spread that he’d killed his wife for her money. I suppose it may have been her family who said so, considering what we know about the brother. My friend warned me that it was no more than idle rumor; there was no proof whatsoever. Still, I hoped to see some indication, a fiendish gleam in his eyes, perhaps, and there was nothing.”

Elisabeth’s eyes twinkled. “It wanted only that. Now he is the complete Byronic hero, isn’t he?”

Jane laughed. “I suppose he is, in our imaginations, at least. But he’s hardly so romantic a person.”

“Oh, sometimes he seems rather brooding. He ought to be darker, however.”

Jane laughed again. “I’m sure he would be if he knew you wished it.”

“I? What have I to do with it?”

“Oh, he’s quite taken with you, you know.”

Elisabeth frowned. “Did he tell you so?”

Jane looked down at the book lying on her desk. “No,” she replied slowly, “not precisely. But he talked of you a great deal and asked several questions. I guessed it from his manner.”

“Well, I hope you are mistaken,” said Elisabeth. “I have had enough of that sort of thing lately.”

“What do you mean?”

Elisabeth hesitated. “I shouldn’t have said that. Well, I know you will say nothing about it. Lord Darnell offered for me yesterday. I refused him, of course, but it is so very hard to treat a friend so.”

Jane bowed her head. “I shan’t mention it.”

“I know you won’t. Indeed, I am glad now that I told you. I wished to talk with someone. You can’t think how low I felt at being obliged to refuse him.”

Jane raised her eyebrows and turned away slightly. “No, I suppose I can’t. No one has ever offered for me.”

Elisabeth looked at her a little impatiently. “And Lord Darnell would never have made me an offer had I not been rich.”

Jane shrugged, and after a few moments, she rose. “I am afraid I must excuse myself now,” she said. “I have promised an article for this afternoon, and I haven’t yet begun it.”

Elisabeth rose with some relief. Jane really was becoming hard to talk to lately. She hoped that a rest in the country would help.

Her two cousins had once again been out shopping during the morning, and Elisabeth was treated to an exhaustive account of what they’d bought. She could muster little interest until Lavinia mentioned the duchess.

“Is she all right?” Elisabeth asked her.

Lavinia nodded. “I went to inquire early this morning. Judith seems fully reconstituted. But it is strange…” She trailed off, her tone puzzled.

“What?” asked Elisabeth.

Her cousin looked up, a frown wrinkling her brow. “She refuses to discuss her fainting spell or Mr. Aldgate or anything about them. It isn’t like her; she usually talks to me quite freely.”

“You didn’t know Mr. Aldgate also?”

“Oh, no. When Judith left school, she came directly to London, you know. I went home.” Lavinia paused, still perplexed. “We wrote a great many letters, and she told me of the people she met after she came out. I can’t remember them all after such a time, but Mr. Aldgate’s name doesn’t seem familiar.” She continued to look concerned. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen Judith act so. I cannot completely expurgate it from my mind.”

Belinda rose impatiently. “I don’t see that it is at all important,” she said and left the room.

Elisabeth watched her older cousin for a moment, then reached out to press her hand. “I don’t think you need to be really worried,” she said. “I’m sure it’s something logical and trivial. We’ll laugh when we find out.”

Lavinia smiled weakly up at her. “Yes, of course you’re right. I mustn’t fall into the dismals over such a small thing.”

After luncheon, Elisabeth settled herself in the drawing room to write cards of invitation for her evening party and await Derek Wincannon’s call.

She wrote dutifully at first, working through Belinda’s list and beginning on the one she’d compiled of her own friends, but as the time Derek had set grew closer, Elisabeth began to feel nervous and spent more time looking out the window or staring unseeing at the drawing room wall than writing. After she had caught herself several times, she shook her head angrily. This is ridiculous, she thought. I am acting like a mooncalf again. Resolutely, she turned back to the pile of invitations and finished them.

It was not long afterward that she heard the bell and Ames ushered in Derek. Elisabeth rose and held out her hand. He took it briefly and bowed.

For a moment, Elisabeth feared she couldn’t speak. Once more, her heart was beating rapidly and her mind was in a turmoil. With a strong effort, she controlled herself and gestured toward the sofa.

As she sat down, she said, “I’m glad you were able to come. I’ve been wanting to speak to you about our last meeting.” Her voice sounded remarkably even, she thought.

Derek looked both relieved and a bit uncomfortable. “Indeed,” he replied. “I was pleased to receive your note. I’ve wanted to speak to you as well.”

Having established this, neither appeared to have anything further to say. A silence fell and lengthened.

Finally, Elisabeth took a deep breath. “I wished to explain…” she began.

But at the same instant, Wincannon said, “I must apologize…”

Both broke off, laughing awkwardly. “Pardon me,” he said.

Elisabeth shook her head. “This is foolish. I merely wished to tell you why I went off so precipitously and alone to find Tony. I didn’t mean to make you angry or exclude you.”

He held up a hand. “Whatever your reasons, I had no right to speak to you as I did. I have very much wished to apologize to you since, but I didn’t know whether you would see me.”

Elisabeth looked blank. “But of course I would. You can’t think I would have refused even to talk with you.”

“I’ve never spoken so to any lady,” answered Derek. “I feared I had offended you irretrievably. I’d been so worried, you see, and I allowed my emotions too much license.”

“You were right to rebuke me. It was foolish to ride off alone on such an errand. It turned out well, but not through any efforts of mine. I was lucky.”

“That does not excuse me,” he answered.

Elisabeth smiled slightly at his serious tone. “Well, now that we have rated ourselves soundly, do you think that we might forgive each other and cry friends again?”

He looked at her, surprised, then smiled. “I suppose I have been coming it rather strong.”

Elisabeth nodded, suppressing a laugh.

Derek did laugh. “Very well. Let us forget the whole matter.”

“Good. And the next time I set off on my own to have an adventure…” She broke off, laughing, at Derek’s quick change of expression. “I’m only bamming you. No need to look so thundery.”

“I’m not sure I can promise to ignore your ‘adventures,’ as you call them. I’d worry about you.” This last was said very seriously, and Elisabeth’s pulse quickened once again.

“You needn’t,” she said a bit unevenly. “I’ll leave the adventuring to others from now on.”

There was another short silence. Elisabeth took a breath. “So,” she continued, “that is settled, and we are friends again. You can’t think how relieved I am. And now I can give you this.” She rose and went to the writing desk, returning with an envelope addressed to Derek.

“What is it?” he said as he took it.

“An invitation to my evening party for Belinda and the duke. I sent the others, but I thought I would either give you yours myself or throw it away, depending on how you behaved today.” Her eyes were twinkling once more.

“I’m fortunate to have passed muster, I see.”

“You don’t know how fortunate,” she responded with a laugh. “This is to be the occasion for inviting all my odd friends, you know. Your father was much taken with the idea, by the by, just as you said he would be.”

“You’re asking all these eccentrics to meet your cousin and her fiancé?”

“Oh, no. I’ve invited a great many of their friends as well. And I haven’t met so many eccentrics as that. I’ll keep them apart in a corner and introduce them only to my special friends.”

“I hope you number me among them then. I shan’t be able to resist the spectacle.”

“You shall meet them all, to be sure. But I suppose it will present a strange appearance. Perhaps I’ll have to scatter them about the room.”

“To leaven the group, as it were,” suggested her companion.

“Exactly,” agreed Elisabeth. “How well you understand. Of course, it may be difficult to hide Mr. Aldgate.”

“Aldgate?”

“Yes, you met him. He’s the man who rescued Tony. He’s to escort him home late next week, and I shall beg him to stay with us for a while and attend the party.”

“And what is his particular eccentricity?” asked Derek. “Is he hunting-mad perhaps? Or has he invented some new method of estate management? It’s difficult to see how a country squire could achieve sufficient oddness for this party.”

Elisabeth stared. “But you spoke to him for quite five minutes. You must have noticed.”

Derek shook his head. “I remember talking with someone, that’s all. Does he have a lisp?”

“No, no,” she cried, half amused and half exasperated. “You are singularly unobservant. He dresses in the style of thirty years ago.”

“What, powdered wigs and satin coats? Is that all?”

“Well, the Duchess of Sherbourne falls into a dead faint at the mention of his name,” added Elisabeth.

“I beg your pardon?”

Elisabeth recounted the history of the duchess’s attack to him, after warning him to keep silent about it. “So you see,” she finished, “there is some mystery there.”

“Indeed.” He smiled at her warmly. “And if anyone can discover what it is, you can.”

Elisabeth colored slightly. “Do you think me a tiresome meddler, then?”

“Not at all. Merely a very determined and curious woman. I shouldn’t like to try keeping something from you that you wished to know.”

“Well, I hope I never pry. I certainly don’t mean to plague the duchess if it is clear that she doesn’t wish the matter known.”

At this moment, Lavinia entered the drawing room in search of some wafers, and their private conversation came to an end. Derek politely stayed a little longer, but soon he rose to take his leave. Elisabeth went with him to the hall, holding out her hand as he stood ready to depart. “I am so glad we’ve put things right,” she told him. “It is a great relief to me.”

He bowed his head. “Perhaps you will go driving with me next week to seal the bargain?”

“I should be delighted,” she answered.