There were other, more emotional implications, too. She’d never give her freedom, her very life, to a man again. But how did one make a woman like Helena, with everything she could wish for, understand that?
‘I do not think dancing with Taunton is a good idea.’ He was exactly the sort of man the matchmaking mamas coveted for their own daughters: handsome, well-mannered, pleasant and titled. They would hate her especially for taking up the attentions of such a specimen. To make her point, Sofia pulled out another pin, feeling the coiffure loosen.
Helena speared her with a stern look that said she was done cajoling. This was serious now. ‘If not Taunton, who? When? It’s been three years, Sofia. Surely, you don’t mean to entomb yourself for the rest of your life?’ Helena’s eyes flashed, reminiscent of the tenacity that had won her a duke’s heir.
‘Surely, I do mean just that and the sooner you accept it, the sooner we can move past this,’ Sofia replied with the determination that had seen her through four years of a finishing school that had thought a country gentleman’s daughter beneath them and ten years of a marriage marked by darkness.
Helena softened. ‘You’re too young for such absolutes, my dear friend. You’re also too young to be alone. You should remarry and start again.’
‘Not with a man like Taunton. He can’t afford me.’ They both knew she didn’t mean the reference monetarily. A titled Englishman with any ambition socially, politically, couldn’t afford the scandals that came with her.
Helena averted her gaze and fussed with her skirts. Even Helena couldn’t deny the truth in that. Perhaps there was a quiet country widower out there who could take her on without damaging the back half of his life overmuch, if she was ever interested in marriage. But a titled man? No. Helena didn’t go down easy, however. ‘Taunton isn’t much for town. He’s only up a few weeks a year to look after paperwork. He much prefers country life at the family seat.’
‘He’s inherited the title now, that’s bound to change whether he wills it or not.’ Sofia turned aside Helena’s subtle riposte.
‘Taunton is a man not easily swayed in his convictions.’
A knock at the door interrupted whatever offensive manoeuvre Helena was mounting. ‘Guests are arriving, my lady,’ a footman informed through the door.
Helena gave her appearance a final look. ‘It’s sure to be a girl this time. I’m carrying high, unlike the boys, and I’m so much bigger than usual for six months.’ She held out a hand to Sofia. ‘It’s the very last of the wedding festivities and my last outing for a while. After tonight, I’ll shall be too large to escape notice. Please come, dear friend.’ She gave a soft, irresistible smile. ‘You and I have nothing to lose, not when we stand together.’
Sofia felt her resolve weaken. She’d never been able to refuse Helena anything. ‘All right, I’ll come for just a bit. Let me fix my hair and put my necklace on.’ She would go and support Helena against the gossips who were bound to say she should have retired from society weeks ago. And why not? If she’d meant to baulk, she should have baulked far sooner than this. She’d let things get out of hand. She should not have accepted Helena’s invitation to play the companion during the weeks leading up to the wedding, to attend the wedding, to stay with the family and now to dance at the honeymoon ball before Ferris and his bride set sail for a few months in the Greek isles.
Helena smiled her victory. ‘Try to have a good time tonight.’ Sofia fastened the necklace, hearing the unspoken message. It was the last thing Helena could do for her for quite some time. She should make the most of it before she returned to the anonymity of her Chelsea row house and its middle-class neighbours. She’d not been home in a while and she missed it. No one in Chelsea really knew who she was and they didn’t care. She’d found a bit of happiness there, rebuilding and reshaping her life. She had her work behind the façade of Barnham and she had the charity work allotted to women as well. She helped at the orphanage and at a small school. It was a start towards her larger dreams.
Ready at last, Sofia looped her arm through Helena’s and leaned close as they headed out on to the landing. ‘You’ve been the very best of fairy godmothers to me, Helena, and I do know it.’
But tonight at midnight, the fairy tale of belonging to Cowden’s exclusive world would end. She’d always known it would. Like so much else, it had been an illusion only and a thin one at that. There’d been no illusion about the reception she’d receive and she’d not been wrong. The only surprise had been her reaction to Taunton. But she had herself well in hand and he would not sneak past her guard again with his looks or with his kindnesses.
Chapter Five
He had to stop being surprised by her beauty. Conall had seen her three times now, twice in a crowd with plenty to distract, yet he’d failed to be distracted. Each time she took his breath away. Even here, amid the sumptuous glitter of the Cowden ballroom, surrounded by London’s most beautiful women and a most elegant setting, she claimed all his attention the moment she entered the ballroom, her arm tucked through Helena’s. ‘Stunning,’ Conall murmured, hardly aware he’d spoken aloud until Frederick chuckled beside him.
‘Yes, indeed. I didn’t think Helena would persuade her.’ Frederick leaned against the satin-swathed pillar and joined him in watching the two women across the room, his gaze riveted on his wife.
Conall cleared his throat to cover his slip. ‘Yes, of course, an absolute coup on Helena’s part,’ he said rather too enthusiastically.
Frederick wasn’t fooled. ‘Oh, you mean her, as in “Sofia is stunning”. Hmm,’ Frederick mused, a studied eye fixed on him before returning to peruse Sofia’s blue ball gown. ‘Yes, I suppose she is if you like the blonde, dazzling sort.’ He laughed good-naturedly. ‘And do you? Do you like the blonde, dazzling sort?’ Frederick relieved a passing footman of two glasses of champagne. He handed Conall one. ‘Cheers, old chap. It was good to have you here this week. We don’t see enough of you.’ He nodded to the two women making their way towards them. ‘Do you think that might change?’
‘I’ll have my father’s seat in the House of Lords to look after,’ Conall replied, obliquely pushing aside Frederick’s none-too-subtle fishing expedition.
‘That’s not what I meant.’ Frederick sipped at his champagne thoughtfully before adding, ‘She doesn’t care for town much either.’ Frederick slanted him a look and it occurred to Conall that Frederick could easily oblige him on the account of solving the mysteries of the Marchesa di Cremona. It was certainly a temptation to take the easy route and one he could justify on the basis of the potential of doing business with her. There would be instant gratification, but such a temptation had the reek of gossip about it. Conall had always believed if one wanted to know another, one should ask that person instead of gathering information from secondary sources, even sources as reliable as Cowden’s heir.
Conall took a swallow of his champagne. ‘It’s purely business.’
‘It’s all business right now.’ Frederick finished the rest of his drink and passed off his glass. ‘You could change that, to the benefit of you both. I think she’s a person very much alone in the world, not unlike yourself,’ Frederick said pointedly. ‘Your father’s death has changed you. You’ve set yourself apart.’
Conall shook his head. ‘I am not alone. Besides, I have my family: Mother, Cecilia and Freddie.’
‘Again, that’s not what I meant.’ Frederick raised an eyebrow. ‘We are not designed to be alone, old friend.’
Conall gave Frederick a hard look. ‘Let me be blunt. I haven’t anything to offer any woman at the moment. You know that better than anyone.’
‘Marriage is not only about money and you have more than money to offer a bride,’ Frederick warned. ‘You didn’t use to be such a cynic. You were going to marry for love like your parents.’
Conall frowned. ‘Not any more. I can’t afford love and, as it turned out, neither coul
d my father.’
‘Your father did the best he could,’ Frederick said in defence of the deceased, his own tone matching Conall’s in sternness, then suddenly his face changed, his gaze going past Conall’s shoulder.
Conall watched his friend’s face light up as his wife approached and gave a friendly laugh. ‘We can’t all be you, Brixton.’ That didn’t mean the hunger wasn’t still there, the hunger to have what Frederick had. He’d always thought he would. The past year had shown him how flimsy that assumption was and how out of reach. He would need more than luck to reclaim the notion of a love match. He would need a miracle.
They bowed to the ladies and Conall watched with the usual sense of envy as Helena slid her arm through Frederick’s with familiar ease. ‘My dance card is empty,’ she flirted with her husband. ‘Perhaps you might oblige me?’
The five-piece orchestra was tuning up, a ballroom’s subtle call to arms. Around them, matchmaking mamas began to marshal their troops as Ferris and his bride swept out on to the floor to open the dancing. A few turns on their own and then the guests would join the dancing. Helena caught his eye and Conall knew Frederick wasn’t the one doing the obliging. It was him. She’d timed this perfectly, knowing very well he was too much the gentleman to leave a lady standing alone while her friend was dancing and he had no other partner.
‘Marchesa, would you do me the honour?’ He bowed to her and offered his arm. If he waited too long, his gesture would look like an offer of charity.
‘I think Helena has manoeuvred you into this.’ Sofia blushed prettily as he led her on to the floor. The first dance, at Ferris’s request, was most untraditionally a waltz, but the whims of besotted bridegrooms were tolerated on such an occasion as a honeymoon ball.
‘Do you mind? I certainly don’t,’ Conall assured her. He fitted his hand to her waist and took her other hand in his as the signal came for guests to join the dancing. He swept her into the pattern with a wide smile. In truth, he enjoyed dancing and to dance with a partner who was his equal was a rare pleasure. Tonight, he had both the opportunity and the partner with which to indulge himself. She was exquisite in his arms. Her movements answered the slightest direction from his hand; her eyes were alight with a joy that matched his own and he realised that it wasn’t simply the cut of her clothes or the attractiveness of her features alone that gave her beauty. Her beauty came from a well somewhere deep within her. It was an intoxicating well to drink from and one he was in no hurry to relinquish when the dance came to an end.
‘Come outside with me,’ he issued his abrupt invitation with a hint of breathless anticipation. Even without the possibility of a business connection between them, she was captivating. He had not been captivated like this for years, not since he had first come to town, fresh home from his Grand Tour of the Americas and his eyes had lit on Lady Francesca Wheless. Of course, he hadn’t known her. Lady Francesca had turned out to be less perfect after he’d spent three months in pursuit and learned the truth of her. It would likely be the same with La Marchesa, given enough time, but for tonight he wanted to enjoy the illusion of perfection wrapped in sky-blue silk and perhaps she wanted to enjoy the illusion of him. Lord knew he wasn’t perfect, not once one got past the handsome exterior.
The Cowden gardens were well-lit against anyone falling prey to the inherent temptations of a honeymoon ball, but due to the earliness yet of the evening, the gardens were relatively empty. Conall had them—and Sofia—nearly to himself. ‘Are you packed for tomorrow?’ he asked as they strolled, making small talk of their impending trip to Somerset in the morning.
‘Yes.’ She gave a light laugh. ‘The Treshams will be robbed of all their company at once, I fear. Ferris and Anne will leave in the morning, too, as will Helena. She can’t stand to be away from her boys for too long, although Frederick plans to stay a while longer.’ They were doing it, the classic trend of small talk between acquaintances who were neither strangers nor friends; talking of mutually held acquaintances so they didn’t have to talk of themselves. They could talk all night in this manner and never once speak of themselves in any meaningful way.
‘And what will you miss? Unlike the rest of us, you are not going home tomorrow. You are being dragged away on business,’ Conall reminded her in an attempt to redirect the trajectory of the conversation. Tonight, under the moonlight and paper lanterns, he was hungry for a connection based on something more than acquaintance. He wanted something more for them than unpacking their friendship with Brixton and Helena.
She paused thoughtfully. ‘I’ll miss my projects. I help at an orphanage and do some teaching for them. Just little things like basic reading and numbers.’ But it wasn’t little to her, Conall thought, noting the soft smile that took her mouth when she spoke of it. She found meaning and purpose in it. It spoke of a kind soul and Conall thought once more of the inner well of her beauty. The Marchesa was becoming quite a paragon.
Conall tried one more time to learn something uniquely personal about her. ‘You must miss Italy, Marchesa.’ The enquiry was a misstep.
She fixed him with a hard, polite smile. ‘No, my lord, I do not miss Italy at all. In fact, I try not to think about it.’ She was daring him to ask the next question. So intuitive was it, that it was already framing itself in his mind: And your husband? Certainly you must miss him? Conall tamped down hard on the temptation. Tonight was for enjoying illusions, not truths. There’d be time enough for truths in Somerset, for both of them. She was not the only one being careful.
Conall retreated, withdrawing his conversation to safer ground. ‘I’ve never been to Italy, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I’ve heard the weather is temperate, much nicer than here, and the food is delicious.’
‘We lived in Piedmont, in the north-west, surrounded by lakes and the Alps. It was hardly anything like Rome or Florence. The climate would surprise you, I think.’ Conall recognised a bone when he was tossed one and that was what this was—a brief look into her life, albeit a very safe, very narrow slice. It was her way of saying thank you for the retreat, for understanding she didn’t want to disclose any more.
‘Shall we go back in?’ Conall offered as they turned at the end of the gardens. If they were gone too long, Helena would think her matchmaking efforts were successful.
‘Yes, I suppose we should.’ But she sounded reluctant. ‘We wouldn’t want to give Helena any encouragement.’ She smiled, luminous and radiant without trying.
Conall laughed. ‘Those were my thoughts exactly.’ The garden was filling with couples now, the first foray of dancing over, and people were heated, except for the frosty glares women shot Sofia’s way. Some of the men nodded to Conall and stopped to exchange a few short words, but he saw the speculation rife in their eyes. That speculation asked the same question: did he mean to try his luck with her now that Wenderly had failed? He knew Sofia saw it, too. She was tense beside him, her laughter gone, her luminescence shuttered.
‘Perhaps a walk on the terrace?’ Conall offered, sensing her reticence to return inside where the gossip was bound to be worse.
‘I shouldn’t keep you.’ He felt her hand start to pull away from his arm and he trapped it with his other hand. He would not let her slip away this time as she had at the wedding.
‘I am in no hurry.’
‘You will be missed,’ she protested, raising an eyebrow to indicate by whom as a pair of young girls passed, their eyes on Conall and then narrowing at the sight of her.
Conall shrugged. ‘Girls such as they hold no charms for me.’ He had no intentions of filling his evening with empty-headed debutantes, not when there was this charming woman who so obviously needed him. For the first time, he saw a glimpse of her fragility. Perhaps Frederick was right and she was quite alone despite her usual vivacious show to the contrary.
He led her to a quiet corner of the veranda where they might have some privacy at least from prying eyes. ‘They
aren’t worth your notice. They’re silly girls with nothing else to do.’
‘I know.’ She managed a smile. ‘I’ve never been good enough for them, not this crop of debutantes or any other. I’ve never paid them any mind. Not even in school.’ It was a brave statement, but Conall heard the courage it took to utter it.
‘In school? Didn’t you and Helena go to school together?’
‘Yes, but I was always beneath the other girls. My father was gentry, hardly the same calibre as earls and dukes.’ She tossed her head in defiance at the memories. The diamonds at her ears sparkled. ‘I never came out, you know. I married the Marchese straight out of finishing school. I went from Finlay’s Academy directly to the chapel and then on to Italy. One day I was a mere schoolgirl and the next morning I was La Marchesa di Cremona. I’d traded my schoolgirl aprons for trunks and trunks of fine clothes.’ There was no gloating in her tone, no sense of victory in triumphing over the girls who’d teased her. There was, however, a wry sense of regret.
‘It must have been a difficult transition,’ Conall probed carefully. He could imagine just how alone she’d been at the time, a young, sheltered girl who’d never been anywhere suddenly off to Europe, to a place that didn’t speak her language, where she had no family, no friends, only a husband to rely on for everything, even basic communication.
Sofia gave an elegant shrug and turned away. ‘I’m home now.’
Conall was about to ask where home was—surely she had parents and perhaps a family somewhere—when the words floated up to them from down below in the garden, two young women gossiping in the dark, away from the watchful eyes of their chaperons. ‘She’s not received in any decent home. Only Lady Brixton takes her up, but Lady Brixton is nearly a duchess so she can do as she pleases.’
‘I think it’s more than that,’ came the spiteful whisper. ‘I think Lady Brixton owes her something fierce and she holds it over the poor lady.’
A Marriage Deal with the Viscount--A Victorian Marriage of Convenience Story Page 5
