The castle most definitely was different than any other home she’d ever visited. Upon arriving on the next floor, Lady Priscilla led them up another spiraling staircase which deposited them into a small foyer. Only after turning down another hallway, and then another smaller one, did Lady Priscilla indicate a heavy arched door that opened into a large chamber for Louella. They turned a few more corners before arriving at a chamber for Olivia to share with Mary.
Olivia simply hoped she would be able to find her way back to the main rooms in the castle.
Overall, she was enchanted.
Gabriel pulled up on his reins in order to allow his brother’s mounts to catch up. Nathanial arrived quickly, having ridden hell-bent for leather, whereas Gilbert, always the more conservative of them, followed at a more sedate pace.
“Looks like Mother’s guests are arriving,” Nathanial announced with one hand shading his eyes. From this vantage point, one could see the valley, the road leading to the manor, and on a clear day, a distant lake that signified the southern edge of his estate.
Gabriel ignored the new arrivals in favor of the natural landscape.
“Do you think she’ll go through with it this time?” Nathanial guffawed, his long blackish hair whipping about in the wind. At six and twenty, Gabriel’s youngest brother hadn’t endured an abundance of responsibility as of yet. Gilbert, on the other hand, shrouded himself in worry and, at times, seemed far older than his present age, which was eight and twenty.
“Don’t you think you should return to the manor to welcome your fiancée?” Gilbert nagged as he came to a halt beside them.
“She’ll prefer to be alone for a while.” When one was engaged to the same woman for most of his life, despite not seeing her much more than once or twice annually, he did, in fact, learn a few of her habits.
“Who are the other chits?” A new level of interest crept into Nathanial’s voice.
“Crawford’s sisters?”
Gilbert’s answer had Gabriel stiffening in his saddle. Sisters. Not sister-in-law.
He’d known his mother would invite the old duke’s widow but hadn’t expected the woman to accept. He’d thought the household would be in full mourning and unable to participate in any social functions.
“Perhaps this house party won’t be such a bore after all.” Nathanial grinned. “Leave it to good old mum…”
Chapter 23
She’s a Lady
“It looks fine,” Gabriel reassured Fritz. His mother had hired the valet the day before Gabriel arrived in London, and although Gabriel would have preferred to make such a decision himself, he could not argue with the man’s qualifications. He knew what Gabriel needed, on most days, before Gabriel himself did. It was as though the man could read his mind.
Who was he to argue with perfection?
“I cannot imagine anyone is going to care one wit if the pleats of my cravat are not perfectly centered.”
“Oh, but My Lord, I will care.” Fritz was a serious-minded gentlemen’s gentleman who cared far more about Gabriel’s appearance than Gabriel, himself, ever would. Gabriel winced inside at the realization that he was settling down.
Wasn’t that what he’d told Olivia? He’d hire a valet when he finally married?
His mother had invited forty-eight people for her house party, she’d informed him this morning, and forty-two of them had accepted. The massive wooden dining table that had stretched empty for a decade would be filled nearly to capacity. From what he remembered; the table normally sat fifty. If he knew his mother at all, the numbers of male and female guests would be exactly the same.
Gabriel had asked his mother to seat Lord Lockley at his side. If he kept the man nearby, where Gabriel could keep an eye on him, the bounder was less likely to take advantage of Priss.
“That should suffice, My Lord.” Fritz stepped back and nodded, leaving Gabriel to examine his appearance in the large looking glass on the wall.
His valet had not only insisted upon dressing him properly but also shaved him for a second time that day, trimmed his hair and even slicked it back with pomade. Same dark eyes. Same black hair. With the labor he’d participated in over the past months, his shoulders seemed larger, his physique harder. Gabriel felt shaken to realize how much he had grown to resemble his father.
The man had been larger than life, it seemed, and had been Gabriel’s hero for as long as he could remember. But that he would be half the man his father had been. He swallowed hard.
Fritz stepped forward and adjusted Gabriel’s jacket, smoothing off some non-existent lint.
“Thank you.” Gabriel figured he’d better make his way to the drawing room where his mother’s guests would be congregating before the meal, lest Fritz decided to make another attempt at his cravat. With a nod, he exited his chamber and although the corridors could be confusing at times, made his way without thought toward the large stairway.
Only… Surely, his imagination was getting the better of him.
“Olivia?” The woman wore an emerald-colored gown that draped elegantly to the floor, revealing just a hint of her familiar curves. Golden blond hair had been curled and pinned into an impeccable coiffure; a few tendrils allowed to caress the back of her neck. So graceful, so refined looking. So very different than he’d ever seen her.
She spun around in surprise, eyes opening wide.
Contrasted with the green of her gown, they appeared even more brilliantly violet then normal. Gabriel could do nothing to tamp down the burst of exhilaration that hit him at that moment. “My God.” He swallowed hard. “You look beautiful.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor and then dipped into a curtsey. “Thank you, My Lord.”
He wanted none of this from her. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been clothed in nothing but a sheet. Her lips had been swollen from his kisses. His eyes settled on her creamy white exposed décolletage.
The last morning they’d been together, the tops of her breasts had been red from the scruff of his beard.
“What are you doing here?” The words left him before taking a moment to think that of course, if Crawford’s wife had been invited, she might bring her beloved sister along.
Delightful pink flushed that décolletage now. He’d not meant to embarrass her. “My sister required my company.” And then she lifted her chin and met his eyes. “I am a guest.”
He’d not meant to slight her. “Of course, you are, Olivia. My apologies.”
“Miss Redfield, My Lord,” she corrected him.
For the moment, all he could do was drink her in. He’d fooled himself that she could be pushed out of his affections so easily. All the emotions he’d known at Misty Brooke assaulted him again with no mercy. How many days had he wished for her smile? Her wit? Her unique perspective on the world around her?
“I’m afraid I’ve gotten turned around.” She bit her lip.
“Turned around?” His mind wasn’t functioning properly. Ah… of course. “It’s not difficult to become lost in these corridors.” But his eyes continued drinking her in.
A short laugh was her response. “I’ve been wandering in circles for the past ten minutes.” Her sheepish smile seemed a little brittle.
“You did not return my letter.” He’d wondered, feared, and hoped on a number of levels. Now, with her standing before him, it was obvious why she had not.
Her gaze dropped to her hands, which clutched one another anxiously. “There was no reason.”
Ah.
Of course. He’d known that.
“So, you are well?” he confirmed.
She nodded. He nearly succumbed to the desire to reach out and touch her as he had so many times before, to lift her chin so that he could read her thoughts.
“Your mother is lovely, as is your sister,” Olivia commented.
Gabriel nodded. “And the weather. So lovely this time of year, would you not agree? Not too hot, nor overly windy?”
The two of them had never had to resort to
the weather in order to find topics to converse upon. Her lips twitched with not quite a smile.
“You look different.” She surprised him, and then, with a wave of her hand, added, “Your hair, and your… face.”
He laughed. “A necessary evil when one’s mother is involved. What do you think?” He rubbed the smooth skin along his jaw and then turned to the side. “Am I fit to meet with our guests?”
She blushed again. “You appear all that is appropriate, My Lord.”
He caught her eye and held it this time. “Ah, Olivia. It is as it should be, is it not?”
And again, she nodded. His fiancée was in residence, along with his mother and his sisters.
He bowed.
“May I escort you to the drawing room?”
As she took his arm, he realized he’d not bowed toward her since first meeting her again in Crawford’s garden. Had he?
He’d teased her, cajoled her, kissed her, and other… things, but at some point, he’d dropped even the pretense of mannerly behavior while in her presence.
He’d done his best to convince her that she deserved to marry higher than Luke Smith, told her she could do far better than to marry a laborer but had been unable to offer himself as proof.
The thought troubled him as he led her through the myriad of corridors to the main part of the house. He’d stressed that she was the daughter of a viscount. Her father had angered him to no end by referring to her as his curse. And what had Gabriel done about it?
He’d taken it upon himself to ‘befriend’ her.
Olivia fought the light-headed sensations sweeping through her as she allowed Gabriel Fellowes—the Earl of Kingsley, her one-time lover—to assist her to more familiar surroundings.
Of course, he was in residence. Why would he absent himself from his own estate when his mother was hosting a house party?
Had she been hoping he would be there all along? She dismissed the thought as nonsense. It had taken her weeks, no, months, to shake her melancholy about him.
She no longer loved him. He was an earl. He was betrothed.
And tonight, this evening, he appeared every inch the aristocrat he’d always been. So much she wanted to tell him, and to ask him but could not. She remembered how she’d felt when he’d looked down on her from the altar at Louella’s wedding. How different he’d seemed.
He’d insisted he’d been her friend, but after… Oh, after being with him in that way, they could never go backward.
They could not go forward, either.
Olivia had not thought it mattered at the time, but she was so very glad she wore one of her new gowns this evening. The confidence that came along with it allowed her the fortitude to face him without feeling apologetic. Being measured, poked, and then pinned had all been worth it to see a glimmer of… something different when his eyes landed upon her.
What had happened to the unrestrained hoyden who’d gone where she pleased, barefoot and dressed in secondhand garments for most of her life? Before the collapse of the mine, Olivia had never thought twice about her behavior. She’d felt quite comfortable, in fact.
But now… Without even realizing it, something inside her had shifted. She doubted she would ever be that same girl.
Had it been the tragedy at the mine that changed her? Had it been Luke Smith’s death?
Or had it mostly had to do with the fact that she’d known a man in the biblical sense? She stopped herself from snorting at the thought. There had been nothing biblical at all in what she and Gabriel Fellowes had done together.
As she’d donned the fine material of her new gown that evening, she’d remembered the feel of a man’s lips trailing along her skin. She imagined how wearing silk or satin might evoke similar sensations. She understood why a woman would put on oils and perfumes before engaging in intimate activities...
The thought had not gone away as she’d wound her way about the castle getting horribly lost.
And then oddly enough, as though she’d summoned him with her thoughts, he’d appeared out of nowhere.
And here she was, walking beside him, for all the world as though they were hardly more than strangers.
But this was Gabriel.
“Is it very different every time?” He was the only person she could ask. He was the only person who knew…
He coughed into his free hand, and then glanced down at her with raised brows. “Excuse me? You mean…?”
Olivia rolled her eyes heavenward. “Of course, that’s what I mean. I can hardly ask my sister or mother.”
“Why, Olivia Redfield,” he responded, pretending to be shocked. “To what purposes would you have me answer such a scandalous inquiry?”
“Well…” She touched her gloved fingertip to her lips. “You’ve obviously engaged in intimate activity numerous times. For a person such as myself, who’s had but one experience, I cannot help but wonder if it grows boring, or routine…”
At this point, Lord Kingsley sounded rather as though he was choking.
“Are you unwell, My Lord?”
“Olivia,” he brought himself under control. “We cannot…”
“I cannot seem to act appropriately, can I?” She dropped her gaze to the floor. “Regardless of how I dress, or walk, or if my sister is a duchess even.” She was beyond embarrassed. Of course, this wasn’t something one brought up for discussion…
“It isn’t that–”
As they neared the drawing room, the low murmurs of the other guests drifted along the length of this last long corridor.
“Please. Accept my apology.” Olivia disengaged her hand from his arm and increased her pace. What on earth had she been thinking? This man was not the one who had been her friend. She needed to learn to think before she spoke.
But she was not to make a complete escape.
“You never cease to delight me,” Gabriel whispered near her ear, at the same time claiming her arm once again as they entered the room where his mother’s guests gathered.
Miss Shipley approached them both with a welcoming smile. “Miss Redfield! That color is positively stunning on you.”
Olivia disengaged herself from Gabriel and allowed Victoria to take hold of her elbow instead.
With a glance in Gabriel’s direction, Miss Shipley added, “And I see you’ve met my fiancé, Lord Kingsley.”
Chapter 24
The Other Woman
Roaring filled Olivia’s ears. She should have known. She should have realized.
Victoria Shipley was Gabriel’s betrothed! And Olivia liked her! In the short time since meeting her, Olivia had found her to be a thoughtful and warm-hearted young woman. She wasn’t overly beautiful but very pretty.
“Miss Redfield got herself turned around in the corridors upstairs. I’m not certain she’d have joined us for dinner if I hadn’t run into her.”
Miss Shipley patted Olivia’s arm. “Call for a maid next time. I got lost once for nearly thirty minutes. Lady Priscilla was the one to save me then.”
Another gentleman entered the room behind Gabriel, and Lady Priscilla joined them.
“You got lost on more than one occasion.” Lady Priscilla winked at Miss Shipley as she joined in. “We shall have to have a game of Sardines while everyone is here!”
“Then we shall all be lost!” Miss Shipley laughed in mock horror.
Still grasping Miss Shipley’s announcement, Olivia forced a smile at the suggestion and then barely managed to acknowledge the introduction to Baron Lockley, a well-dressed somewhat older-looking gentleman. It was then she noticed a stiffening on Gabriel’s part.
His eyes flicked between Lord Lockley and his sister and then back to the baron.
Lady Priscilla seemed smitten with the man, who, despite appearing well into his fourth decade, was handsome indeed. “I vote the younger guests ride up to the ruins tomorrow. If the weather holds, that is. Do you ride, Miss Redfield?”
Olivia forced herself to concentrate on what was being said. Did she ride?
Her first thought was that of riding in front of Gabriel on his mare along an isolated country road. How she’d felt with his arms around her for safety, his breath warming the nape of her neck when he bent his head to speak to her.
“Miss Redfield?” All eyes were upon her.
“Oh, um. Yes. Riding. That sounds lovely.” She couldn’t help stealing a glance at Gabriel. Something in his gaze suggested that he was remembering too. She shivered and just as quickly dropped her lashes.
“So many beautiful ladies, sitting atop the finest of horseflesh. What gentleman could resist such an outing?” Lord Lockley offered.
Lady Priscilla giggled.
“What gentleman indeed?” Gabriel’s words sounded clipped. When Olivia had the courage to look up again, she caught him glowering at his sister. Miss Shipley released Olivia’s elbow and stepped back to allow another gentleman to enter the conversation.
“Mr. Fellowes,” Lord Lockley greeted the new arrival, seemingly oblivious to the tension radiating from his host. “Lady Priscilla has suggested a ride to the ruins tomorrow morning. With this bevy of ladies, can you imagine any place you’d rather be on a fine spring day?”
“Indeed not.” If Olivia hadn’t guessed by his name, she would have known him to be one of Gabriel’s brothers by his looks. Same height and build, same dark eyes and inky black hair. His eyes didn’t dance, however, as she’d seen Gabriel’s do on so many occasions.
Although Gabriel’s eyes weren’t dancing this evening.
“Gilbert Fellowes, May I present Miss Olivia Redfield. Miss Redfield, Mr. Fellowes is Lord Kingsley’s younger brother.” Miss Shipley made the polite introduction. The younger man bowed, and Olivia dipped into a scant curtsey. At that moment, she determined to practice her curtseys. Louella was unwavering in her longing to take Olivia along when she and Crawford left for the Season and Olivia would rather not feel so awkward every time she was introduced to somebody new.
The Perfect Spinster: A Regency Romance (The Not So Saintly Sisters Book 2) Page 18
