by Sheila Walsh
He turned back to find the wrap on the floor and the buttons of her nightgown already undone. ‘Pandora! For heaven’s sake!’ he besought her, and moved forward swiftly to stop her, but not swiftly enough.
She was already shrugging it off her shoulders and a moment later it slithered into a heap at her feet. He gazed helplessly at her, knowing full well that he ought to bundle her up and carry her back to her room, knowing that she was not responsible for her present actions. But there was something touchingly comic and vulnerable and desirable all at the same time in the sight of her standing with her silky hair tumbling round her shoulders, fanned out above modest breasts, her slim waist swelling into the curve of hip and thigh. She was quite blatantly offering herself to him, and he was lost.
He moved closer, very close. ‘My dearest girl, are you sure this is what you want?’
‘Oh, yes!’ she said tremulously.
He swept her off her feet and laid her gently on the bed.
Pandora woke slowly, unwilling to relinquish the cocooning clouds of sleep. She felt vaguely different and wondered why. Then a memory ‒ was it dream or reality? ‒ came into her mind and a hot blush spread from her toes slowly upwards. She opened one eye warily ‒ and then the other, surprised to see her own room as sunlight sliced narrowly through the closed curtains.
As her mind cleared, she knew that it had not been a dream ‒ Robert’s passion, his infinite tenderness were vividly real, as was her own eager response! Her whole body melted now, remembering. Much later and less clear was the memory of being carried back to her own room, demurely night-gowned once more, with Robert whispering in her ear that Glyn would be deeply shocked should he find her in his master’s bed ‒ and she giggling into his chest and telling him that he was being very silly …
She raised her head off the pillow and groaned as her head swam. It must have been the champagne, she decided ‒ glasses and glasses of delicious bubbly champagne … She was sitting hunched up with her head in her hands when the door opened.
‘Please, Betty, be quiet!’ she implored.
‘Oh dear,’ said Heron with a hint of rueful laughter in his voice. ‘I rather thought you might be feeling a trifle out of sorts, so I have brought you a little of Glyn’s unfailing remedy.’
Pandora peered at him through her fingers, reluctant to look him in the eye. He was fully dressed and looked quite unbearably fresh, which had the effect of making her feel worse.
‘I rather think …’ she began miserably. ‘That is, I fear I must have behaved very shockingly last night?’
‘Disgracefully,’ he agreed, sounding severe. ‘Abandoned, would I believe best describe your behaviour.’
‘Oh, no!’ Her head dropped a little lower.
He sat on the bed beside her, removed her hands gently but inexorably from her face and tilted her chin up. She saw that his eyes were alight with laughter.
‘My darling goose, you were entirely delightful! I am only sorry that I didn’t think to ply you with champagne from the first.’
‘It is indelicate of you to say so!’ she protested. ‘And most unfair, besides, for I have been very willing from the first to … to be a p-proper wife to you.’ This last became somewhat incoherent as his tender mirth filled her with confusion. But soon his merriment became infectious and she too succumbed, laughing and holding her head by turns. He pursuaded her to drink the excellent physic prepared by his valet.
‘He doesn’t guess it is for me?’ she inquired anxiously, sniffing before sipping warily. It smelled terrible and tasted worse.
‘My dear sweet child! Glyn is the soul of tact. He might hazard a guess, but the rack wouldn’t drag an admission from him!’ He watched her face wrinkle up in disgust. ‘Yes, I know, but it works. Toss if off. It’s by far the best way.’
She did so and shuddered. But the effect was almost magical, which was just as well, as they were promised somewhere for almost every moment of that week.
She had no need now for champagne; the happiness bubbling constantly inside her was quite as intoxicating without any distressing aftermath. To be sure, Robert had not actually said he loved her, but there could surely be little doubt of it. There was a new intimacy between them, an indulgence in his attitude towards her that was marked by others as well as herself. Sometimes, the way she felt frightened her a little, for surely such unconfined joy could not last!
Lady Margerson was quick to note the change when Pandora visited her to regale her with an account of the fête, which she had felt unable to attend. The child’s grey eyes sparkled and her improved looks were not solely due to her new elegant image. Her ladyship was content.
‘You seem to be mightily in demand for someone who vowed she had no use for society!’ she quizzed her.
Pandora bit her lip ruefully. ‘Oh, well, I daresay I shouldn’t care for it indefinitely, you know. We stay only until William has had his fill of fireworks and balloon ascents and the like ‒ and then we shall all go home.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘But it is surprisingly agreeable to have lots of new clothes and be made much of by important people. I only hope it may not go to my head!’
‘That I would very much doubt,’ said Lady Margerson.
In all her excitement, however, Pandora did not forget those less fortunate. For a wedding gift, Heron had given her, besides her grandmama’s necklet now reset once more with diamonds, the lease of a pair of houses close to Sergeant Blakewell’s. He had suggested the sergeant might oversee them on her behalf for a small remuneration, as a temporary refuge for those men of her old regiment who found themselves destitute. Nothing could have pleased her more.
The sergeant, once he had recovered from the shock, agreed and had set about organizing the running of the houses in a very businesslike way so that they should not become a mere doss-ken for idle scroungers. Those who could, paid, however small a sum. A strict reckoning was kept and regular accounts rendered to Mr Varley of what was spent.
As soon as Pandora found a spare moment she persuaded Heron to let her take William along to see what had been achieved.
‘But quietly, please ‒ just the two of us and not in your grand carriage? The last thing I want any of them to feel is that I have gone up in the world and am there to make a kind of grand tour of inspection!’
‘No. That would never do,’ he agreed gravely. ‘But I really cannot permit my wife to take a hired hack, you know.’ She saw that he was laughing at her. ‘I believe we do have a relatively unremarkable chaise somewhere in the stables. Grimble shall have it cleaned up a little.’ Now there was a definite glint in his eyes. ‘He can drive you there himself!’
It was made very clear from the set of Grimble’s shoulders as he later complied with the Duke’s instructions that he felt the whole equipage not to say the whole expedition to be very much beneath his touch. But Pandora’s understanding and William’s easy chatter went a long way towards mollifying Grimble, and by the time they arrived in Peg Street, he had learned a considerable amount about flying artillery.
It was William too who made the whole visit such a success, seeking out the odd face he knew, asking eager questions, and arguing amiably about shared experiences.
Pandora for her part was happy to see how much good the venture had done Sergeant Blakewell. He was, in a sense, in command once more. And Alice, too, had quickly involved herself, her sharp tongue giving short shift to many a troublemaker.
Pandora left, feeling more than ever grateful to Robert for enabling them to win back their pride and give them a sense of purpose. She hoped that her father would have been pleased.
Chapter Fifteen
Captain Denby Austin was handsome, reckless and bored. His was a nature that craved action, excitement, risk ‒ and the peace had deprived him of these. Small wonder that he turned to the tables, throwing himself into gambling in the same neck or nothing fashion that had characterized his exploits in the Peninsula, but with less success.
Being badly dipped, he had borrowed, a
nd borrowed again until he found himself hopelessly in debt and with nothing before him but the Fleet. So when Lord Shilton had offered to clear his debts and put something in his pocket besides, he listened. It seemed a deuced lot to pay someone for simply flirting with a young lady (a habit that came naturally to him anyway). That the lady in question was a duchess added piquancy, that she was also married, a hint of danger.
It was easy enough to infiltrate society; the braided dolman of an officer of hussars was sufficient passport, for uniforms were everywhere lionized and, worn with an air, could ensure one a welcome almost anywhere.
Pandora met him first at a soirée where he was all politeness and charm, though his eyes betrayed an interest. He was in Hyde Park on the following morning when she rode with Robert. Once again, beyond the usual pleasantries, he conversed mostly with the Duke, though occasionally she caught him looking at her, and much as she rebuked herself for it, found the experience not unpleasing.
She found herself dressing for Lady Chorley’s ball with extra care, attributing her excitement to having received only a little earlier two letters sent round from Brook Street by the faithful Binns. They were written in Bermuda, the usual hurried note from Courtney, but Hugo’s full of anecdotes about their journey designed to make her laugh.
Its contents had just been devoured for the third time when Heron came in as ever to admire and approve. Pandora stood up to shake out the deep cream folds of her mousseline de soie skirts. The colour warmed her skin, and Betty had dusted her cheeks with rouge and applied a very small amount of carmine to her lips. The effect was, in her husband’s teasing words, ‘vastly fetching!’
She turned back impetuously to pick up her reticule and the letter fluttered to the floor. Heron bent to retrieve it and in so doing noticed the opening greeting ‒ Dearest Princess … He handed it back without comment and she did not notice his sudden quietness.
‘It’s from Hugo. He writes most entertainingly about their exploits thus far. I will tell you all later.’ She smiled happily. ‘As well I don’t have to rely on Courtney for news!’
Lady Chorley’s rooms were crowded and, the night being warm, the windows stood open to the balmy air. The Duke of Wellington made a promised appearance and stayed for some time talking amiably to people and watching the swirling couples, before retiring with Lord Chorley to the library.
Pandora found it very hard being at a ball without being able to dance. She could not think that Papa would have minded in the least ‒ he liked nothing better than to see her enjoying herself ‒ but, as Heron’s wife, she would not dream of showing disrespect by flouting the conventions.
She was not short of company meanwhile. According to Fitz, she had definitely ‘taken’, and if she cared to come up to town next season, he had no doubt of her being much in demand. Heron, when appealed to, agreed but she thought he seemed a little preoccupied.
Rather surprisingly Lady Margerson had decided to attend the ball it being, as she told Pandora, one of the few opportunities she might have of seeing the Great Man at close quarters without fear of there being too much of a crush, for many people had by now left town.
But she very soon found the atmosphere too warm for comfort and Pandora took her to a small retiring room some way from the ballroom and stayed there talking to her for a while until her carriage arrived and she was seen safely on her way.
So it was that Pandora found herself retracing her steps down the wide empty corridor just as the opening strains of a waltz drifted out from the ballroom. Without conscious volition her feet moved to the music and with a conspiratorial grin at a wooden-faced footman she began to dip and sway and turn.
‘Bravo!’
She gasped and stood still, and found Captain Austin leaning against the wall silently applauding her, his eyes laughing to behold the guilt writ large on her face.
‘You waltz beautifully, Duchess! Perhaps, if you would do me the honour?’ He held out a hand.
‘Oh no!’ she said quickly. ‘You know I cannot. It wouldn’t be proper!’
‘And do you never do anything improper?’
He was flirting with her quite incorrigibly and she knew that she ought to repulse him. But no one had ever flirted with her before except Hugo, and he only did it in fun which couldn’t be held to count, and she found it a peculiarly exhilarating experience.
‘It does seem a pity to waste the music,’ he continued persuasively. ‘And if we were to dance out here ‒ just for a little while, no one need ever know.’ He watched her bite her lip pensively and pressed his advantage. ‘It could surely do no harm, and you would make a poor soldier very happy, dear ma’am!’ he concluded with a mock humility that didn’t reach his eyes.
She tried to look severe ‒ to think of Robert who would be angry if he knew ‒ but her mouth curved irrepressibly, and perhaps because he reminded her a little of Hugo, she succumbed. Soon she was wishing that she had not for he swirled her round with increasing intimacy and murmured compliments of a decidedly intimate nature in her ear.
‘You are being very silly,’ she said firmly, ‘and I think we should stop now.’
He smiled down at her in a way that would have disturbed any woman who was not a block of wood. ‘How can you ask me to stop when you dance like an angel, sweet divinity?’
‘Do angels waltz? I confess I hadn’t thought about it.’ She was babbling now. ‘I learned in the army as I expect you did.’
He suppressed a vague feeling of exasperation and continued valiantly, ‘Of course, I was forgetting that you were also in the Peninsula. Why did I never meet you there?’
Diverted for a moment, Pandora giggled. ‘I doubt, Captain, that you would have given me a second glance an’ you had!’
His gallant denial came out smoothly, but there was no denying that he found the giggle unsettling. In fact, the young lady herself was unsettling. She was proving rather less easy to seduce than he was used to, and rather to his surprise he found he liked her the better for it. A pity that his debts were so pressing.
He accepted the challenge of her resistance and set himself to pursue his conquest of her once more with a subtle blend of outrageousness and gentle cajolery.
But Pandora, with a growing sense of panic, was oblivious of his charms. At any moment someone might see them and she begged him to let her go.
‘I can’t do that, sweetheart,’ he said, and there was a something in his voice suddenly that frightened her. He began to whirl her ever faster and she saw with horror that they were fast approaching the entrance to the ballroom.
‘Oh please!’ she gasped, feeling sick and dizzy with apprehension. ‘You can’t … you mustn’t! Captain, this is beyond a joke … you must let me go!’
But they were already crossing the threshold, circling the floor until they reached one of the window embrasures. He whisked her through the partly drawn curtains and out on to the shallow balcony.
‘And now, to recompense me a little, just one kiss!’ There was a strange wildness in his laugh as he drew her close, containing her struggles with ease, his mouth finding hers though she sought to prevent it.
She wrenched herself free, distressed beyond measure. ‘How could you?’ she whispered, the back of her hand pressed to her trembling lips. ‘Oh, how could you?’
His smile was bitter. ‘How, indeed?’ He caught her arm as she would have fled, and felt her flinch from him. ‘Easy, my dove,’ he said wearily. ‘I will hurt you no more. But if you don’t want a scandal crashing about your ears, we had best be circumspect.’
He drew her unresisting hand through his arm and they emerged just as the dance ended. He led her to a chair and was heard to be most solicitous about her momentary faintness before leaving her.
Naturally the escapade had not gone unnoticed. Pandora’s flustered appearance was marked by those who thrived on such incidents. She however was aware only of her husband who stood a little way off, his face quite expressionless.
Oh, Robert! So deep
was her need for his understanding that she was sure she must have called his name aloud. But no sound came, and after a moment he turned away.
She was dimly aware that Captain Austin had returned and was presenting her with a glass of cordial. Then he bowed, thanked her with his inevitable charm and departed. She felt that all eyes were on her and unconsciously sat a little straighter, listening to the buzz of conversation coming in waves, the occasional trill of laughter.
Fitz strolled up and, having reassured himself about her health, began talking in his gentle way about generalities. She was deeply grateful to him and tried to tell him so. But he would have none of it.
‘I have made a scandal, haven’t I?’ she said flatly.
‘Nothing of the kind, m’dear. A trifling indiscretion, no more. The gabble-grinders will chew on’t for a day or two, but most of ’em will be off to Brighton or the country or wherever very soon and all will be forgotten. My word on it.’
‘I don’t think Robert will see things quite that way.’
Mr Chessington regarded her wan face with sympathy. ‘No, well ‒ stands to reason he’ll be a bit miffed. Blow to his pride and all that! Deuced fond of you, too,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.
And that about summed up the situation, thought Pandora, stifling a wild urge to laugh as her husband made his way towards her. She had done the unforgivable ‒ and his pride was bruised. No matter that she might have been ill-used!
To all outward appearance his manner was all concern as he bent over her, his fingers lovingly circling her wrist, caressing it, but his meticulous politeness frightened her, and the caressing fingers were like bands of steel.
‘Wasn’t feeling quite the thing,’ said Mr Chessington helpfully.
‘Go away, Fitz, there’s a good fellow.’ Heron’s voice was expressionless. The dandy looked ruefully at them both, and took his leave.
‘So. You felt a trifle faint, I believe?’ he continued in the same manner. ‘I am happy to see you recovered. Clearly the fresh air revived you. How quick-witted of the captain. I must make it my business to thank him.’
