Lady Camden gave a quick smile that didn’t completely reach her eyes and issued a wave before following the butler from the room.
Oxburgh Hall was a sprawling estate with two wings, five floors, and too many guest rooms, salons, and sitting areas to count—or search before the group returned from their excursion. If Chastity didn’t make haste and follow Lady Camden now, she could very well lose sight of her.
Once more, she thought of Bastian and asking him for help in discovering if Lady Camden knew anything of her mother and whom dearest Cam was. But no, this was a private matter. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the earl with her family’s secret. It was more that, if Bastian knew the circumstances surrounding Chastity’s birth—her possible illicit beginnings—he might very well distance himself from her. See her in a different light with an unworthy aura.
It was an absurd reason for keeping things from Bastian, though.
But with time, her mother’s secret might very well be the only thing Chastity had if her suspicions were proven correct.
Though she longed for them to be wrong; for everything to be as Prudence stated, for then Chastity would not need embark on the larger quest to discover who she was and where she belonged. Despite her conviction to continue on her current course, doubts and insecurities had nearly stopped her and had her question her decisions thus far—to the point where she’d wondered for nearly two long months if the words in her mother’s letter meant what they appeared to mean. It was why she hadn’t begun searching until now, or perhaps it was the mention of Lord Camden—Cam—that had her mind spinning once more.
Her mother had been infatuated with another man, but the letter had never been delivered and, therefore, the pair had never met to consummate their affection.
Or that was what the undelivered letter led her to believe.
Before Chastity had met Bastian, she could have believed her mother was drawn to another man but never acted on her desires.
But now…
Chastity’s eyes narrowed as she resisted the temptation to glance in Bastian’s direction. Even the newly sparked connection between them wasn’t easy to resist. How could her mother have fought against her draw to her dearest Cam?
She finally gave in and took in Bastian at her side, both of them still standing, awkwardly silent.
The aristocratic set of his jaw and the natural fall of his dark hair, as well as his gentlemanly manners, had caught Chastity’s notice at once.
It could not be anywhere near the affection her mother had expressed for Cam, though it was definitely more than should have developed over a mere two days.
Could she be falling in love with Bastian?
Heaven’s no. It was impossible.
Had Chastity’s stomach fluttered when Bastian spoke after entering the breakfast room?
Yes.
Did something about his reserved, pensive nature draw her to him and make her want to know more about this unique man?
Without a doubt.
As Lady Camden had been forward enough to say, gentlemen were rarely willing to take care of another before seeing to their own proclivities. Yet, Lord Mansfield hadn’t ridden off with the other men. He hadn’t stayed in the salon with the gathering but had instead departed to see to his mother. He’d even offered Lady Camden his assistance with decorating the manor. He was unlike any other lords Chastity had witnessed during her Season. There was not even a hint of arrogance or self-importance about him. In no way did his presence intimidate her into silence or cause her to seek the shadows and remain unnoticed. If anything, she saw much of her sister, Prudence, in Lord Mansfield. He seemed content to live his life peacefully and without zeal.
She understood that in a woman. Not a man.
Chastity’s father had never put his children before his own needs.
Triston, in his youth, hadn’t either; though he’d changed greatly in the last year.
Bastian had listened without rebuff when the gentlemen by the moat had teased him mercilessly. He hadn’t hurled insults back; he hadn’t shouted or stomped in anger. No, he’d taken the time to speak with her—the taunting jests forgotten.
And, in turn, Chastity had not let on how much of the men’s insults she’d overheard.
None of this altered the fact that her acquaintance with Bastian was utterly separate from the ambiguity surrounding the letter she and Pru had found in her mother’s trunk. To make matters worse, if she continued on her course to discover the truth of her mother’s infidelity it would mean ruining Chastity’s standings as a proper lady and, therefore, Chastity’s chance for anything more than friendship with Bastian. Even a friendship with the earl might well evaporate when he learned, if he learned, that she was not Downshire’s daughter.
Her draw to remain in Bastian’s presence could not prevail over her need to learn more about her mother, especially when there was likely no chance of her attraction going anywhere.
A clock chimed in the foyer, giving Chastity the excuse she needed.
“My lord. Bastian. I forgot I am to meet someone this morning,” Chastity said, straining to watch Lady Camden’s retreating form as she walked down the long corridor and away from the breakfast room. “I will see you at our evening meal.”
His frowned deepened. “I suppose I should return with Mother’s tea. Mayhap entice her to walk about the manor grounds.”
Chastity moved past him, not lingering any longer for fear she’d change her mind. “Stay far from the moat,” she called over her shoulder as she walked briskly from the room, following Luci’s mother’s path.
Bastian would be easily located, while gaining a private audience with Lady Camden might prove difficult or impossible if Chastity let the current opportunity pass her by.
Chapter 6
Chastity stood outside the closed library doors. She’d remained a respectable distance behind Lady Camden when she entered the room. Lingering out of sight, she watched as a maid wheeled a tea cart into the room, closing the door behind her when she left. Since then, no one had come or gone. No sound could be heard from within the library. And it appeared that Luci’s mother was quite alone.
What could the woman be doing?
Lifting her shoulders and fixing a pleasant smile upon her face, Chastity grasped the door latch and pushed it wide to reveal Montrose’s impressive collection of books and antiquities positioned on every available tabletop. What Chastity did not see in the room was Lady Camden.
“Hello?” Chastity’s smile slipped as she surveyed the seemingly empty room. “Lady Camden? It is I, Lady Chastity Neville. I’d hoped to have a word with you.”
She moved farther into the library. The cavernous room was situated in the middle of the main wing of Oxburgh Hall and was certainly over two stories in height. Clusters of lounges and chairs dotted the room, creating a half-dozen private sitting areas.
The tea cart was stationed near one such grouping.
Chastity spotted Lady Camden’s feet on the floor, the lady’s back to the door in a high-backed chair.
“Lady Camden?” Chastity called again, making her way toward the woman. “I am sorry for disturbing you, however—” She slipped past the untouched tea cart and around the chair to find Lady Camden’s eyes shut and her hands folded in her lap. “Lady Camden?”
Holding her breath, Chastity pulled off her glove and held her bare finger under the woman’s nose. A soft brush of air had Chastity easing back. Lady Camden was alive—merely sleeping.
Chastity glanced at the door, which stood ajar.
Once again, she wondered if perhaps it would be best to depart and find another, less awkward time to seek a private audience with Luci’s mother.
Chastity had feared gaining an opportunity to speak with the woman. With guests still arriving, surely the marchioness’s time would be further taken by wedding details and seeing to the household of people.
Before she could change her mind, Chastity reached out and nudged Lady Camden’s shoulder. T
he marchioness’s once raven hair was now shot through with whitish-grey, and her skin no longer held the luxuriously creamy sheen of her youth; however, it was no great task to see the beauty she once was, despite her years as a wedded matron with several children.
Lady Camden didn’t awaken at Chastity’s first prodding.
Leaning in close once more, Chastity poked the woman lightly. “Lady Camden?”
Sufficiently startled, Lady Camden’s eyes sprang open, glazed and confused, and her hands pinwheeled in the air, her palm swatting Chastity soundly in the cheek. Chastity stumbled back as the sting from the blow caused her eyes to water. Her foot caught on a leg of the low table, and with a resounding thump, her bum hit the edge of the hard surface, and Chastity fell to the floor. Blinking several times, she cleared the moisture from her eyes and realized she’d nearly knocked her head on the tea cart.
“Oh, my heavens,” Lady Camden said, her slippered feet coming into Chastity’s line of sight where she remained on the floor. Lady Camden wheeled the cart away and knelt beside Chastity, her hand patting Chastity’s back. “Lady Chastity, need I call for a physician?”
Chastity pressed her hand to her forehead to stop the room from spinning.
When the room stilled once more, she moved to sit and stared up at Luci’s mother.
“I am not injured, my lady.” Chastity’s reassurance did nothing to diminish the concern in Lady Camden’s eyes. “Truly. It was my fault for startling you. I should have allowed you to rest and returned at a later time. My sister, Prudence, is always quick to chastise me for my impertinence.”
Lady Camden stood and held out a hand to help Chastity to her feet.
Eyeing the proffered palm, she wondered if the older woman had the strength to assist her or if it would only cause both of them to find themselves on the library floor.
“Come now, Lady Chastity,” Luci’s mother said. “The least I can do is offer my help in retrieving you from the floor before your gown is ruined.”
Chastity reached up and took Lady Camden’s hand, surprised by her tight, strong grip as she pulled Chastity to her feet.
“Do have a seat.” Lady Camden nodded to the chair she’d been sleeping in a moment before. “I will pour us some tea.”
“I can—” Chastity began, knowing she should allow the woman a moment to compose herself after she had startled her awake.
Lady Camden narrowed her eyes at her, and Chastity fell into the offered chair, slipping her bare hand into her glove at the same time she crossed her legs at the ankle. The woman turned her attention to pouring two identical cups of tea, not bothering to ask Chastity how she took the brew. The cup the marchioness handed to her was not steaming as tea was meant to be; however, Chastity was unconcerned with the temperature of her drink and more interested in Lady Camden and her connection to the Downshire family past.
It was only as Lady Camden took her seat that Chastity recognized the festive decorations strewn about the sitting area: garland, holly, and what appeared to be tiny identical boxes—at least three dozen—waiting to be wrapped and tied with string dyed a brilliant red. In the far corner of the library was a stack of yuletide logs.
“I am having one set in each chamber hearth and all the main rooms to be lit Christmastide morning.” Lady Camden took a sip of her tea. “The entire party would be daunting at any time of the year, but seeing as it is Christmastide, and our guests have chosen to be at Oxburgh Hall instead of at their own family homes, I felt the need—the compulsion, actually—to make the day special for everyone, not just my Lucianna and Montrose.
“I’ve gathered all of Montrose’s family decorations and such, and had my own brought from London to make certain the house is festive and bright,” Lady Camden continued, her exhaustion disappearing, at least for a few brief moments. “Unfortunately, Luci’s father would not allow me to bring my own servants…and Montrose’s staff is busy with guests, so I am depending on a few of the villagers to help with stringing garland, wrapping gifts, and making certain there are enough pies and sweets for Christmastide day.”
“My sister and I would welcome the opportunity to help, my lady,” Chastity offered. “We do not know many here, and Lady Luci has been ever so kind to us since our meeting. It is the least we can do for her.”
Chastity meant every word. Edith, Ophelia, and Luci had been kind and accepting of Chastity, offering her friendship when they hadn’t been required to even so much as speak with her before Triston made his intentions known to Edith. The trio was beautiful, engaging, and intelligent, while Chastity and Prudence were little more than motherless wallflowers.
Lady Camden did as she’d done several times in their short acquaintance, she waved off Chastity’s assistance as if it were unnecessary, though they both knew the sheer amount of work that needed to be completed before the Christmastide morning nuptials. It would require an entire army of servants to accomplish.
“Please, my dear, do not concern yourself with my preparations.” Lady Camden set her teacup on the table and focused on Chastity. “Tell me, there must be a reason you’ve come to speak with me. A young thing like you should have grand things occupying her time, you shouldn’t be wasting it here in the library with an old woman like me.”
There was something about the woman’s words that pulled at Chastity’s heartstrings. Lady Camden, while not a debutante by any means, was not old. In fact, she’d be Chastity and Prudence’s mother’s age.
“I actually wanted to speak with you about my mother.” Chastity made no attempt to hide her hesitancy. Perhaps if Lady Camden knew of her unease with the subject, she would be more forthcoming with information—if she were aware of her husband’s activities at all. “Did you know her, my lady? Clara Neville, the Marchioness of Downshire.”
“Please, call me Eloise, my dear,” Lady Camden said with a light laugh. “And, yes, I knew your mother, though she was only Lady Clara at the time as she hadn’t yet wed your father when we first met.”
Chastity paused, the air sticking in her throat as she let the information settle within her. This woman before her, Luci’s mother, had known Chastity’s mother. Had seen her in the flesh, not only heard of her or attended her parents’ grand wedding at St. James. Eloise actually knew Clara. She’d had conversations in the past with people who knew her mother, but this felt different—in a very meaningful way. This was a connection not tainted by her father or her mother’s quickness to bear children…no, this was about the time before she’d become Lady Downshire. This was a period in her mother’s life that even her father knew naught about.
“Our debutante Season was the same year, despite me being a year older than Clara,” Eloise shared, a faint smile touching her lips. “Those were exciting times, happier ones. While I, with my dark hair and sun-kissed skin from my childhood trips to the sea, was reserved and quiet, your mother was light personified. Her hair was like spun gold, and her smile captured the notice of every man, woman, and child. And her voice…it was heavenly to hear. We were the talk of all of London. I was the night to her day.”
“You were friends?” Chastity could hardly believe her good fortune. She’d hoped to gain some new insight into her mother’s life but a genuine friend, someone who knew her in life as Chastity hoped to know her in death? And friendship with Lady Camden meant her mother could have known Lord Camden before she’d met Chastity’s father. “I have nothing of my mother but a portrait.”
“Every man was smitten with Clara,” Lady Camden continued as if she hadn’t heard Chastity’s question. For a moment, Chastity thought perhaps she hadn’t spoken it aloud, but Eloise’s demeanor shifted, and her shoulders tensed. “Lords, gentlemen, and commoners alike fell at your mother’s feet. She was a classic beauty with a surplus of wealth at her disposal. That she was a bit of a hellion only added to her allure. Men wanted to possess Clara, and women wanted to be her.”
Chastity remained silent. In their brief time together, the marchioness had shared more abou
t her mother than her father had in all her years. Even Triston hadn’t spoken as candidly. Chastity feared if she interrupted, Eloise would stop speaking, and Chastity wanted desperately to hear every detail the woman knew of her mother.
“In the end, Downshire won her hand, much to the chagrin of my husband.” Her words turned from melodic to a sibilant hiss. “Not that it mattered, as Clara was gone two years later—the Lord bless her soul—leaving two babes for Downshire to raise.”
Chastity’s breath stuck in her throat until her lungs burned. Lady Camden spoke so frankly about the loss of her mother. Could she know more about that time than she let on? She obviously knew of Camden’s fondness for Clara. Perhaps Eloise was also aware of more than she was ready to speak about.
Eloise lifted her shoulder in an offhanded shrug, and the faraway look in her eyes faded as she looked around the library, her gaze lingering on a pile of garlands.
“Were you and Lord Camden friends with my mother and father?” Chastity witnessed Lady Camden’s hesitation to say more. “Please, Eloise…”
Lady Camden’s chin lifted, her posture rigid, and Chastity dreaded that she would speak no more. “No. After your father and mother wed, I barely saw Clara. She was soon with child, and your father preferred to keep her…with him. I believed them to be a good match.”
Chastity was well aware of her father’s possessiveness when it came to his wives—Triston’s mother, her mother, and finally, Esmee, his current wife.
However, her father was not who she’d come to Lady Camden to learn about. “And you wed Lord Camden.”
“Yes, though our pairing was not akin to a love match at all.” Lady Camden smiled. It was not an expression borne of happiness or contentment, but rather one of what could have been and what was lost forever. “Camden and I have never had affection between us, though I will admit I longed for it to blossom with time. That is why I am overjoyed that Luci and Roderick found one another, and why I have defied my husband’s desires. Love is a rare thing. I have learned at least that much. When one finds it, they should hold it close and never let it go.” Eloise clasped her hands in her lap, but she was unable to hide the way they trembled. “I often wonder what might have been different if my husband were free to pursue a wife of his choosing.”
The Season of Lady Chastity (The Undaunted Debutantes Book 4) Page 7
