“Marriage doesn’t have to be a trap. It could be a meeting of minds. You need someone to take care of you.”
She nodded and looked wistfully toward her mother when Tanner said this but Vance had not left her mother’s side, so any useful conversation would be impossible, especially with the orchestra. Certainly marriage was a trap for her.
“I agree, a well-made marriage can be a wonderful thing. My parents had such a marriage but I’d rather know I can take care of myself first. Perhaps I’ll just disappear one day.”
He caught her hand and raised his fingers over hers in a touch so gentle a bit of wind might have been blowing against her. “Don’t run away.”
“I was only funning. Remember, I’m trapped and as cages go it’s not such an unpleasant one.” She turned her hand to clasp his palm, enjoying the rough reality of his calluses against her skin.
“If a man promised you as much freedom as you wished, could you stomach marriage then?” His gaze seemed so earnest.
What was he asking? What this hypothetical or for real? “Is there such a paragon among men?”
“A paragon? No, but someone who wishes to be with you forever.”
Roxanne realized that however much she enjoyed this jousting, she should not lead Tanner on. “Marriage is not the only problem. It’s my lack of trust. Do you understand me? The problem is with me, not your white knight.”
“I’m speaking of myself, of course.”
“I certainly hope so. Can you deal with a person who has so many insecurities?”
“I think I would enjoy vanquishing them one by one.”
“There is a problem with knights, you know.” Roxanne pulled her hand away.
“What problem?”
“They tilt at everything. I’m not used to having all my foes vanquished for me. My knight would have to leave some of them to my devices.”
His lips twitched into a smile. “Tell me which ones.”
“My mother’s entrapment. I must solve that before I can enjoy any happiness for myself. Do you trust me to do that?” She looked once again in her mother’s direction. She should go and speak to her even if the violins did set her teeth on edge.
“I trust you to tell me if you need my help.”
“Then we understand each other.”
He slowly shook his head in wonder. “For my part, not even remotely, but I will try to have the patience to wait.”
Roxanne smiled at him, though it was a guarded smile, and went to seek her aunt. He kept trying to think why he was so attracted to Rox. Yes, he would let himself think of her by this endearment her brother had introduced.
It could be the girl’s startling confidences or her unique beauty. Finally, he decided it must be their similarities. Instead of asking him for things or services, she told him she would rather do things for herself. He had never met any woman like her before.
Holly came to look for him and he realized that people had been departing for some time. On the way home in the carriage he kept going over his conversation with Roxanne. He had declared himself and she had deferred her decision, yet he did not feel rejected. He had never met a woman so vocal in his life or one who thought so deeply about people or cared so much.
He was glad she had told him the truth of her situation but she had mentioned more than one problem. No, she had called them dangers at one point and he had no idea what they all were. Poverty would be vanquished once Fredrick started working with him, and her feeling of responsibility for her brother would also be satisfied.
Her mother might be constrained by embarrassment rather than by Vance himself. Perhaps if she and Roxanne could only speak to each other in some setting where they did not have to shout, that situation could be resolved.
Vance had to be the biggest danger, since he could refuse any offer she received until she reached her majority. When he asked himself if he was willing to wait two years to marry her, the answer was a resounding yes. In this day and age, Vance could not force her to marry Ian Stone. And Tanner thought he had vanquished that foe anyway.
The carriage had earlier taken his mother home after the light supper, so he had only Holly to see up the stairs.
“You look happy,” he said as he handed her one of the lit candles on the hall table.
“I had a wonderful time because I decided to stop worrying about what people thought of me.”
“Rox—Roxanne’s advice?”
“How did you guess? I wish I were more like her. Good night, Spencer. Aren’t you coming to bed?”
“In a little while. I have some work to do before morning.”
“Spencer, it is morning.”
“I know.” He took his candle into the study and lit a branch of candles but he did not address the pile of letters on his desk.
He handled the firm’s correspondence here, where it was easier to think, rather than at the foundry. And the wool mill was so remote he did not visit it more than once a month.
He sat at the desk but didn’t want to think about work tonight. Tanner thought about his life, what he really wanted. Making money was easy compared to making a life that you enjoyed. He had known Roxanne Whitcomb less than a week and now knew that his life would be incomplete without her. Was this love? He certainly hoped so, even though she seemed less romantic about their relationship than he did.
He wasn’t sure how he had expected to approach a prospective bride. Apply to her father, he supposed, and if his money was good enough then ask the woman without much preamble if she wanted to clap hands and make a bargain of it. He shook his head sadly.
In Roxanne’s case, she operated with an illusion of freedom but she was apparently more constrained than any of them had realized. He hoped Fredrick was her guardian once he came of age, since Tanner really could not see himself treating with Captain Vance for her hand. He’d much rather smash the man’s face in for thrusting Ian Stone on her.
He got up and went to gaze out the window into the quiet square. After all his education, why was violence rather than guile his best first option? He was patient when it came to work, to business. But in real life he demanded action of himself, which was why he was ill-equipped for society gossip and games. So fortunate that Rox had no patience either. They were meant for each other.
He had to wonder if part of her allure was that she had turned him down. She needed him a great deal less than he needed her. He wanted so desperately to do something to make himself worthy of her trust but when what she wanted was the freedom to solve her own problems, playing the knight or any kind of hero was difficult. All he could do was be ready for her to call on him.
Chapter Seven
Kensington Gardens was beautiful and amusing. It should have been peaceful since they had chosen a sunny day for the drive. Surely, her aunt and Holly’s mother seemed to be enjoying the walks, where they left the carriage to get a better look at the flowerbeds. Sir John patiently took each of them on an arm while she and Holly walked beside Captain Harding.
Roxanne had sent a note to her mother about the expedition but received no reply. She began to suspect that her mother did not get any of her notes. By their short exchange last night, Roxanne inferred she may not have gotten her mother’s letters either. What to do about Vance was a problem that could ruin the day if she worried over it. Nothing could be done about him for the moment.
Without Tanner, the expedition lost its spice anyway. She enjoyed jousting with him even more than matching wits with Captain Harding and she really couldn’t argue with Harding in Holly’s presence. Harding always called yield but Tanner never did. She kept telling herself she was the one who had conspired to leave Fredrick and him home yet somehow she wished Tanner could have come as well.
“What say you to that idea, Miss Whitcomb?” Sir John asked.
“What idea? I wasn’t attending.”
Harding laughed. “Sir John has proposed letting us ride his hacks in the park.”
“I should love to ride in London.”
“I don’t know how to ride,” Holly said.
“Sir John can teach you, can’t you, sir?” Roxanne asked, though she knew full well she was competent to teach Holly to ride. It seemed a kindness to defer to him since they were his horses.
The older man smiled benignly on Holly. “I’d be delighted.”
“We had better discuss this with Spencer first,” Holly’s mother replied. “Horses are so dangerous.”
“I would like to ride tomorrow,” Roxanne said. “Who knows how long the sunny weather will last. What about you, Harding?”
“I can ride and I do enjoy it, but tomorrow I must see to the final rigging of my ship.”
“Aunt, may I go at least?” Roxanne begged.
“Now dear, it would be better if you were one of a party.”
“We shall have a groom with us. That will be unexceptionable,” Sir John stated.
“Oh, very well,” Lady Sherbourne agreed.
“I just hope my riding habit still fits.” Roxanne thought about how difficult it was to converse while riding—so this would be the perfect way to spend time with Sir John without having to talk to him.
* * * * *
Tanner hated putting off his meeting with Fredrick but this interview, however unpleasant, could not wait. The son of an earl was coming to ask for Holly’s hand and though Kemerly was only a viscount now, he was his father’s heir. This was exactly the sort of match Tanner’s father had envisioned for Holly. He just wished his mother wasn’t wandering about Kensington Gardens, tiring herself when he so badly needed her advice.
And he sincerely hoped Kemerly was not one of the men in the card room from the night before. Surely none of them would ever approach him for his sister’s hand. He tried to call to mind their faces and failed. Forget any chance of remembering their names. The fact that anyone was applying for Holly’s hand meant that either no gossip derived from his threats to Dalrymple, that Kemerly and his father were immured to such gossip or that Holly’s settlements would cancel out her brother’s rude manners.
He pushed the papers around on his desk but none of them had anything to do with Kemerly or his family. He never went into a business deal blind yet he was planning to do just that, and with his sister’s future as the stakes. A week ago he might not have felt these tremors of doubt but Rox had shaken his views on the ton. They were not all good people. Kemerly might be in debt or might be a gamester like Roxanne’s father. And since Tanner was outside the gossip net of the ton, he had no way of knowing anything.
If his mother were here, she could recite the man’s lineage and tell him the worst about the whole family. Moreover, she could tell him what the man looked like and if he had ever met him before. Damn his faulty memory. The name meant nothing to him.
How would Fredrick handle such an interview? He would know whether the man was an acceptable candidate or not. The ton was a closed circle and Spencer began to question the wisdom of trying to invade it.
* * * * *
When Roxanne got home to luncheon, she was expecting to hear Fredrick babbling about how much Tanner had loved his inventions. She was miffed when she discovered nothing had gone forward about his plans. Tanner had called off the meeting with some excuse about an interview he had to conduct. And Fredrick had not even inquired what it was that took precedence over his engine.
She felt resentful, as though a task she had crossed off her list as completed was still hanging over her head. It completely destroyed her appetite and she scarcely touched the food on her plate.
Fredrick, on the other hand, devoured the soup and salmon with gusto. “Tomorrow will be time enough,” he assured her. “We are to meet tomorrow morning. Tanner does not attend church either. It will keep Aunt Agatha from ringing a peal over my head for not escorting you. Why are you in such fidgets? We don’t even know if Tanner will be interested in my work.”
“Because I want it settled. I want your future secure.”
“Why? What’s the hurry?” Fredrick turned his attention to his cutlets.
“Also, there is no answer from Mother. Vance said I could see her today and she has not replied to my note. Does it strike you that she seems more like his prisoner than his wife?”
Aunt Agatha stared at her as though she had run mad then glanced consciously at the servants. “Whatever gave you that notion, dear? I’m sure it is no such thing.”
“Mother seems so constrained now, as though she is afraid to speak in front of Vance. Fredrick, do you think she is being held against her will?”
“No. The idea never entered my head. Send another note inviting her to ride to church with you. Make sure the footman delivers it into her hand.”
“Yes, if only that would work.” She pushed her plate aside to go to the morning room and pen the letter, trying to make it sound as though she was not worried.
Then she went to her chamber and searched for her riding dress, which must be crushed into a wrinkled mess if it would fit at all… Why was she so upset that Tanner’s meeting with Fredrick had been put off a day?
She stopped as she was sliding her trunk across the floor. Was it because that would mean she didn’t have to marry for money? Moreover, she could show her avid interest in Tanner without seeming like a scheming witch trying to get preferment for her brother.
But could she suddenly embark on a wild flirtation with Tanner when she had been at such pains to treat him in a brotherly way? Would she not still seem scheming even if he and Fredrick made a deal about the inventions?
Tanner had as much as declared himself the night before and that was without even seeing Fredrick’s plans. Was that not enough demonstration of his regard, that he wanted her in spite of her insecurities? What obstacles lay in the path to her happiness?
She realized there were three. She plopped down on the bed to enumerate them as she dug through the clothes she had brought from Exeter. She did not feel that she could abandon her brother until she knew he was on the road to prosperity. She acted as though he could not take care of himself, when actually he was a most able person. She should strike him off the list of obstacles but somehow could not.
The second was her mother, who seemed a virtual prisoner of Lucius Vance. How could she be happy when her mother so clearly was not?
The third was herself, her sense of obligation to others that kept her from considering herself. If she agreed to marry Tanner before her brother was settled and her mother rescued, she would feel like the most selfish person alive. Logic argued against this stand but feelings could not be denied.
She did what she always did when her head felt about to explode—she made a list of her goals. First of all, she had to figure out if her mother was a prisoner and if so contrive a way to free her from a husband she could not want. Secondly, she had to figure out how to get herself out of Vance’s clutches. Fredrick would be free of him within a few days when he turned twenty-one but depending on how her father’s will had been written, she might still be under Vance’s thumb.
It did occur to her that Vance’s death would solve both these difficulties but she didn’t think herself capable of murder even when sorely provoked. And having been a soldier, Vance probably wasn’t going to meet with a convenient accident. She could ask Tanner to kill him but that hardly seemed fair to Tanner. He had no quarrel with Vance.
Her third problem was getting Fredrick set up so she could deal with her feelings for Tanner. If Tanner did not want to support his inventions, would she be willing to try to persuade him to do so after marriage? She thought not.
Sir John was a difficulty as well, since she liked him and did not want to hurt him. Clearly the solution to that was to refuse him immediately. But he would think she had been leading him on. How had this gotten so complicated?
There was her buff summer riding dress and jacket at the very bottom of the trunk. Not the very bottom, for under it was the box with her father’s dueling pistol. She could not explain even to herself why she had brought
that reminder of the tragedy. Perhaps her grief was so much a part of her she would never leave it behind.
If Roxanne married anyone but Tanner, she would miss Holly desperately. She’d never had a sister and did not want to lose that friendship. Of course, Holly would no doubt marry soon and that was an additional worry.
Who would Tanner choose for Holly? She could not trust his judgment where members of the ton were concerned. If he were not blind to his sister’s preferences, Tanner would by now realize Holly and Harding were secretly in love…but very discreet. If Roxanne pointed that out to Tanner, he might forbid Harding the house.
She stood and pulled the skirt on over her muslin dress, then managed to fasten it. One problem solved, a small one. When her maid came in, Roxanne requested she try to press the dress for tomorrow.
She paused and sat on the bed when she realized what would take precedence for Tanner over steam engines and pressure vessels. He was talking to a suitor. So she had to add to her problems that her very best friend might suddenly be married to the worst possible man because Tanner didn’t know what he was about. She had been playing up the best qualities of being a man of business over a gentleman of leisure but Tanner didn’t seem to take that to heart.
Roxanne needed a plan of action. She would make a surprise call on the town house and see if she could get at her mother. She needed to find out the terms of the will. If her mother did not know then Roxanne had to call on her father’s man of business and get him to disclose them. She must keep a low profile with both Tanner and Sir John until Fredrick was of age and she knew where she stood. Why had she jumped at the chance to ride with Sir John tomorrow morning?
She had accepted Sir John’s offer because she did miss her old life, the horses and the carefree rides. But she had responsibilities now and one of those was to talk Tanner out of marrying Holly to someone disgusting. How to interfere in that without appearing to was yet another problem.
Distressing to think that her very own white knight was one of her problems. She had better try to vanquish some of the others before she tackled him.
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