“Aye, milord.” He snickered. “And then the lass’ll rue the day she first saw ye.”
“That she will, for I shall have that man caught.”
Not bothering to finish the ale in the filthy glass, Hamilton rose. He dropped a few coins on the table. As Mallory reached for one that was rolling toward the edge, he walked out of the dank tavern. He paused by his carriage and looked at Bath, which was set farther long the Avon. The white buildings glistened in the first light of dawn.
If he returned to Queen Square, Elinor would be a bother … even at this hour. He turned to look at the far side of the river where Laura Place was situated. He had no reason to call there. Nerissa had made it clear she wished nothing more to do with him.
His frustration wavered as he remembered the anguish on her face as she slowly closed the door to leave him standing alone on the walkway. He had thought Nerissa understood what even Philip could not. To give up this search now would betray the promise he had made to his father on his deathbed. Vengeance was only secondary to keeping his pledge.
Instead Nerissa had wound herself up as completely as Elinor ever had. Although she had not rung him a regular peal as Elinor delighted in doing, her restrained anger had been even more cutting.
To perdition with both women! Calling up to his coachman, he ordered the man to drive him to one of the gaming-hells in the center of the city. He would put his troubles from his mind with gambling and brandy. That was how he had forgotten Elinor before. That was how he would forget her now. And Nerissa.… He flinched again as her face, tears glistening in her sapphire eyes, burst from his memory.
He swore under his breath, then louder, but nothing eased the realization that putting Nerissa out of his life might not be as simple as that. Although it might not be necessary, for clearly she had put him out of hers.
“… and, without question, we must serve the best champagne we can find. I attended the wedding feast that Lady Gillis sponsored for her niece. The champagne was tasteless. Can you believe that? And she’s the wife of an earl!”
Nerissa paid no more attention to Mrs. Ehrlich’s words than she had to anything said during the last hour of this interminable call. She stirred her tea, although it had long ago grown cold, and tried not to think of the harsh words she had shared with Hamilton last night. Even now, she could not keep tears from welling into her eyes as she thought of how the pleasant evening had become a disaster.
She had been right to ask Hamilton to stay out of her life, but that thought offered no solace to her grieving heart. During the night, when trying to sleep had been impossible, she had sat by the window and stared out onto the street where she had lost every chance at happiness. She had still been sitting there when dawn was announced by the maids selling milk and eggs in the center of Laura Place.
“Nerissa!”
At Mrs. Ehrlich’s impatient tone, which warned Nerissa this was not the first time Annis’s mother had tried to get her attention, Nerissa said softly, “Pardon me, Mrs. Ehrlich. I fear my mind is wandering.”
She sniffed derisively. “It is time for you to stop woolgathering, Nerissa. And of what? Lord Windham, no doubt. After all, hasn’t that faithless man proven to you that you were a blind buzzard to heed his court promises when he was welcoming his castoff back into his home?”
“Mama!” Annis choked. “That is not the way it is at all. Philip assured me that—”
“Bah!” her mother interrupted. “Of course, Mr. Windham would defend his brother.” Tapping a long nail against her powdered cheek, she mused, “I shall have to rethink my permission for him to call upon you.”
“Mama!”
“Mrs. Ehrlich,” Nerissa said quietly before their quarrel could add to the pain scoring her skull, “Philip Windham should not be punished for his brother’s deeds. I believe, as Annis does, that his affection for her is honest and untainted.”
Mrs. Ehrlich poured herself another cup of tea and sniffed again. “Do not misunderstand, Nerissa, when I say I have little faith in your judgment in these matters. You have proven you are easily bamboozled.” Raising her cup to her lips, she sighed. “Only my concern about leaving you alone on Laura Place prevents me from insisting that Annis return home posthaste. Have you heard from your brother, Nerissa? When does he plan to return to Bath?”
“I received a short message from him only this morning.” She did not tell the prying Mrs. Ehrlich that the note had been no longer than two lines to inform Nerissa that Cole had arrived safely in London and expected to be returning before month’s end with good news of prospective backers. Whether he had met with them yet he had not bothered to add. “He is doing well. I am sure his project will prove even more successful than any of us imagined.”
“That remains to be seen. He is such an air-dreamer, Nerissa, as you are becoming. I would think that—” At the sound of footfalls, she turned to smile a greeting to Janelle and her fiancé. “Oh, my dears, how kind of you to join us! I trust you had a delightful sojourn to the Pump Room.”
Nerissa exchanged a grimace with Annis. She knew Annis shared her opinion of Randall Oakley. He was disagreeably high in the instep, and Nerissa would have been glad to avoid his company. As the bracket-faced man offered Mrs. Ehrlich a filial buss on the cheek, Janelle twittered an annoying laugh.
“I did not know that you had decided to pay us a call, Annis,” Janelle said, envy in every word. Nerissa recalled that Annis’s sister had sulked for two days after learning that Annis had been given permission to stay on Laura Place. She suspected Janelle had wanted her younger sister to remain home, so she could parade every moment of the triumph of her betrothal in front of Annis.
Annis answered with quiet dignity, “I enjoy giving Mama a look-in.”
“When you are not busy with Windham, I suppose,” Mr. Oakley interjected. “He shows a fidelity to you that I would not have guessed any Windham could feel.” He chuckled as he sat on a chair beside his future mother-in-law. “But I was silly to think that, wasn’t I?” Looking down his long nose at Nerissa, he said, “His brother has shown a great deal of fidelity to a woman who has cuckolded him at every turn.”
Not to be left out, Janelle added, “Nerissa, I am so delighted to see you looking so unscathed by your disturbing evening. What I have heard of it!” She pressed her hand to her chest. “You must have a stronger heart than mine to endure such a public humiliation.”
Annis instantly set herself on her feet. “Do not try to set Nerissa’s back up with your poker-talk, Janelle. Nerissa was not humiliated.”
“I would be,” her sister insisted, “if my escort’s high flyer made such a scene.”
“There was no scene,” Nerissa said quietly. Setting her cup on the tray, she said, “Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Ehrlich. I hope you will allow us to host you soon on Laura Place.”
Janelle refused to be silenced. “Mayhap there was no scene while you were there, Nerissa, but I understand it was quite a piece of work that the guests enjoyed when Lord Windham returned to collect Mrs. Howe.”
“He went back to …?” Nerissa halted herself as she saw the gleam in Janelle’s eyes. Annis’s sister wanted her to react with shock and anger, then she could gloat about having a faithful suitor. Not that she considered Randall Oakley a prize admirer, for he was worth less than a half-farthing.
Mr. Oakley smiled coldly. “It is on dits throughout Bath that Lord Windham is enamored with Elinor Howe again. What a gaby he is! Do you think she will play him for the jack as she did before? No doubt, she thinks she can lighten his pockets of some gilt before she goes on to her next paramour.”
“Don’t say things like that!” cried Annis. “You will hurt Nerissa with your hummers! Hamilton doesn’t care a rush for Mrs. Howe, and he has demonstrated that he cares deeply about Nerissa.”
“Do not let their insults disturb you, Annis,” Nerissa said, rising to her feet. “I thank you for coming to my rescue, but it is not necessary. I judge the source of these statements for
what they are. Mr. Oakley and your sister have come in with five eggs, and four of them are rotten with demure hits.” Picking up her bonnet, she said, “Again thank you, Mrs. Ehrlich.”
With a sob, Annis ran after Nerissa as she went out into the foyer. Nerissa put her arm around her friend and soothed her with trite phrases. Although she longed to be a wet-goose, too, it would gain her nothing but pleasure for those who wished to see her daunted by Elinor Howe’s return to Bath.
“Janelle and Mr. Oakley are despicable,” Annis choked through her tears. “Why do they want to hurt you?”
“Don’t heed them. I shan’t.” She tied her bonnet under her chin, her fingers freezing on the pretty ribbons as she realized it was the hat Hamilton had given her. Why had she chosen to wear this today? It did match the blue sprig linen of her gown and the lace along the ruffles on the sleeve, but she wished to give nobody the idea that she was repining for Hamilton … even if it was true.
“Oh, no!” cried Annis.
“What is it?”
She reached up and touched the right side of Nerissa’s bonnet. “There is a bare spot right here. You must have lost one of the feathers.”
“It doesn’t matter.” The idea that a missing feather was of importance, when her whole life seemed to be aground, was absurd, but then everything was absurd today. She had given Hamilton his congé, while she could think of nothing but seeing him again.
“But it does.” Annis motioned to the short butler, who had come forward with their shawls. “Cunliffe, have my green bonnet brought. Miss Dufresne shall wear it while we go to the milliner’s shop.”
“That is not necessary,” Nerissa said while the butler hurried to obey.
“You cannot be seen on the street with a bonnet that looks like that. What would be thought of you?”
Nerissa knew better than to argue with her bosom bow when Annis took on such repressive accents. Untying her bonnet, she accepted the one that Cunliffe handed to her. She smiled when she saw the amusement in the short man’s eyes. She settled the chip hat on the back of her head and tried to make it comfortable. It was slightly too large, but it would do until she could presuade Annis that having a hat that was minus a single feather was no crime.
Annis refused to be persuaded on the matter. She insisted that the carriage take them to Madame de Ramel’s shop, so that the milliner could repair it posthaste. “After all,” she said as they sat in the carriage that bounced along the rough stones of the street, “she may still have more of those wonderful feathers. A few quick stitches, and no one will ever guess that it was damaged.”
“There is no hurry.”
“But there is. Philip is coming to take me to the theatre tonight.” Happiness brightened her face. “We can get your hat fixed, then return home to decide what we will wear.”
“I had not planned to go to the theatre this evening.”
“Do you and Hamilton have other plans?”
Nerissa could not help but stare at her friend. Her voice had not been quiet when she spoke so sharply to Hamilton last night. With a sigh, she realized that Annis and Philip had been so enraptured with each other that they had noticed nothing else.
“Oh, do come with us,” Annis urged.
“I don’t think that is possible.”
Annis’s smile disappeared. “My eyes, Nerissa! Are you going to give up so quickly?”
“Give up?”
She shook her head in bewilderment. “I had thought you possessed a true tendre for Hamilton. He seemed to be as taken with you. Then this woman …” Her sneer on the word made it sound like an epithet. “… comes back into his life, and you are ready to cede him to her without a single question.”
“Hamilton is a man, Annis, not something that I own and can keep or give away.”
“What of his heart?”
Nerissa looked out the window at the shops they were passing. Dozens of people walked along the street, some arm in arm. Love seemed so simple for other people. Mayhap she had inherited the curse her mother had suffered from … falling in love with the wrong man.
“I am beginning to wonder,” she answered quietly, turning back to her friend, “if Hamilton has a heart.”
“Don’t be a cabbage-head! Of course, he has a heart.”
“But is there room in it for anything but his yearning for vengeance?”
When Annis stuttered on an answer, Nerissa stared out the window once more. Annis had no answer. Neither did she.
The shop was tiny. The front window and the door filled the whole front. A single chair was set in front of the window, nearly lost in the glare of the sunshine that came through the glass between the diamond mullions. A counter cut the small space in half. It was topped by samples and pieces of lace and flowers that were as brightly dyed as the crimson curtain to the right of the counter.
When a bell over the door tinkled as Nerissa and Annis entered, a short woman pushed through the curtain to give them a broad smile. Madame de Ramel was a plump sprite, who chattered nonstop in a delightful, but barely comprehensible, mixture of French and English. Her greying hair rose in a complex style that had been stylish when Nerissa’s mother was young.
When Nerissa explained the problem, the milliner gasped, “A missing feather? Oh, c’est dommage!”
“Can you repair it?”
“Mais, oui.” She laughed brightly. “Of course. I have many feathers of that couleur. Come with me into the back, and you may select the one you like, mademoiselle. The feathers are in a box on my worktable.”
Annis’s eyes shone with excitement as they followed the short woman through the bright splash of curtain. She gasped with delight when they entered a small room that was filled with straw, fabrics, and bright ribbons.
“Look, Nerissa!” she said, picking up a piece of blue silk. “This is the very color of my new gown. What a beautiful turban it would make!”
“And on you, très belle,” gushed the milliner. “You must let me make it into a chapeau for you.”
Nerissa picked up one of the feathers on the table and held it against her bonnet. The tint was a shade too dark. She was reaching for another as the bell over the front door rang again.
“Do stay,” urged Madame de Ramel over her shoulder as she pushed past the curtain, “until you find the perfect feather, mademoiselle. I shall be back as soon as I finish with this customer.”
“What do you think?” Annis propped a fake bird over one ear and grinned.
Nerissa started to reply, but motioned her friend to silence when she heard the milliner say, “Mon seigneur, comment allez-vous?” They must not disrupt Madame’s business.
“I am doing well, Madame,” came the answer in a voice that stiffened Nerissa’s back. She whirled to be certain the drape was in place.
Annis whispered, “Isn’t that Hamilton?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes as she looked for the strength to maintain her composure. Meeting him had been the last thing she had considered when Annis pressured her to come here, for Philip had been fervent that Hamilton despised the idea of entering such a shop.
“What will you do?”
Nerissa ran her fingers along the feather she had selected. “I shall have Madame sew this in place.”
“But … about Hamilton … what …?”
With a taut smile, she said, “I shall bid him a good afternoon.”
Ignoring Annis’s moan of despair, Nerissa opened the curtain. Neither the milliner nor Hamilton took note of her, for they were looking at a sample book on the counter. She could not keep her gaze from admiring the breadth of his shoulders beneath his riding coat or the way his hair glistened in the bright sunshine. No matter how he vexed her, she longed to hear his laugh and to see his eyes blaze with passion in the moment before his lips touched hers. The shop was so small, that, if she reached out her hand, she could have stroked the firm length of his arm.
“The hat must flatter a woman with light coloring,” Hamilton said, without looking away
from the book, “and I would like it done by week’s end.”
Nerissa was sure she had forgotten how to breathe. Elinor Howe was a blonde. If Hamilton was purchasing a hat for her, it must mean that … She was not sure what it meant, and she did not want to think of it. All she wished was to be as far away in a place where she could assuage her heart’s pain.
Madame de Ramel answered hesitantly, “That may not be possible with this hat. It is not as simple as the one you purchased previously.”
“It must be this hat. It will suit her perfectly, and it must be done by week’s end before we leave for London.”
“I shall try, mon seigneur.” She turned to select another book of samples. “If …”
Nerissa met the dismay in the milliner’s gaze. When Hamilton turned to see what had disturbed Madame de Ramel, his eyes were as devoid of emotion as his face. He said nothing as the flustered milliner ran to Nerissa.
“This feather will be the best match,” Nerissa said tonelessly.
“I shall sew it on immédiatement, Madamoiselle Dufresne.” She lowered her eyes and rushed through the curtain to leave Nerissa alone with Hamilton in the small shop.
Hamilton said nothing as she came around the counter. Leaning his elbow on the top, he continued to watch her with his hooded eyes. She heard a rustle behind her, but did not turn. Some sense, she could not name, told her that Annis was watching through the curtain.
“My bonnet needed fixing,” Nerissa said to break the smothering silence.
“So I see.” He flicked the garish bow on the side of her borrowed hat. “This is not as becoming on you as the one I selected.”
His cold tone struck her as viciously as a blow. Her fingers trembled, wanting to reach out to him, but fearing he would brush them away as heartlessly as he had her words. For the past few weeks, he had been there when she needed someone to listen to her concerns and lighten her heart. Now, when her heart was heaviest, she could not open it to him because he was the cause of her misery.
“Philip wishes,” he went on, “to know if you will be joining him and Annis at the theatre this evening.”
The Fortune Hunter Page 18
