“Perhaps you are not the only one who has changed.”
“Perhaps not,” he said as they set off through the immaculate rose gardens once again. “So, tell me, how goes your fundraising? Has the London Season been the success that you hoped it might be?”
“It has been everything I had hoped for and more besides. We have received so many one-off donations that I can hardly believe how much money we have raised. But it is the pledges of ongoing patronage which have surprised me the most. I had not dared to hope that we would even secure one, and when Lord Marchmount became our very first, I could not have been more surprised. And even then, I had assumed that he would be the last.”
“I was not at all surprised that you managed to get through to old Marchmount.”
“How so?” Imogen stopped for a moment and wondered what he meant.
“I am too foolish not to give myself away, and so I shall own up to the fact that I eavesdropped as best I could when you were trying to tempt the dear old Earl out of his money. But I must admit, I was tremendously impressed and knew before you were halfway through that you had triumphed completely. Although I must admit, I harbour a hope now that you shall forgive me for my secret intrusion.”
“I had not a single notion of the thing,” she said and sounded amazed.
“I know,” he said and laughed. “You were entirely absorbed in your work so I was able to listen unnoticed.”
“Well, since your admission comes with great compliments I shall, this time, forgive you.”
Heath paused for a moment and made a great show of bowing comically in the light of her forgiveness.
“Lord Reddington!” Imogen laughed and shook her head.
“Perhaps you could call me Heath?” he said hopefully.
“Oh,” Imogen said and wished she had not; after all, it seemed the most inadequate response to something so personal.
“We are friends now after all, are we not?”
“Yes, we are friends now, Heath. And you must call me Imogen.”
“So, Imogen,” he began as if testing to see how her name felt on his tongue. “What is your next move now you have raised so many funds?”
“Our attorney has the funds banked for us and is in the process of setting up a charitable trust that we might operate from. As soon as that is done, we shall go in search of a suitable property for our very first shelter. I cannot help thinking that Southwark would be a fine place.”
“It is certainly in the very centre of an area of great need. But there is a workhouse there also, is there not? Would you not find yourselves coming up against a certain amount of opposition?”
“Indeed, it cannot be avoided. We are already aware that the Parish Authority knows of our intentions, and we cannot rest easy in the idea that they will not find some way to act against us. It shall not stop us, but we must remain on our guard.”
“I think you must be certain that they shall try to find some way to act against you. After all, by deterring people from the workhouse, you will be denying many local businessmen their supply of cheap labour, will you not?”
“You have it most exactly, Heath,” Imogen said and smiled. In truth, she had not imagined that he would have thought about the thing in such depth. “And that is why we must now act quickly to find a building before the Parish Authority and the local businessmen have decided upon some plot of their own.”
“I have no doubt that you and Lady Redmond shall manage the thing very well indeed.” As he turned to smile at her once more, Imogen found herself just a little lost in his bright blue eyes.
Chapter 27
“Prudence, are you quite well? You look rather pale,” Heath said the following morning as the two of them took breakfast. “And you have eaten nothing; you have pushed that poor little kidney backward and forwards across your plate and allowed it to go cold. Do you lack appetite?”
“I am afraid that I do lack appetite,” Prudence said in a whisper. “And I do not think I shall regain it until I am able to speak to you in private.”
“But we are alone, my dear sister. You may speak to me privately now, surely.”
“No, I cannot trust that we are entirely alone.”
“But why not? Would you like me to check?”
“No, please stay seated. I should not like you to do anything that would draw attention to us.”
“Prudence, you have me quite concerned now. You really must tell me what is troubling you.”
“Heath, please do not speak so loudly.”
“If you cannot speak to me now, then when?”
“This afternoon, Mother has the awful Lady Smedley to tea. She will be much too engrossed in pernicious gossip to come looking for us. Perhaps you would meet me in the library then?”
“Of course I shall, but is there really such a great need for this secrecy? I must admit, you not only have me concerned, but you have piqued my curiosity in a way which will see me suffering the next two hours as I wait.”
“I should not make you suffer in vain, Brother,” Prudence said in a clipped and annoyed way.
“I know you should not.” Heath could not help laughing at her determined face. “And I shall behave myself and say nothing more of it until we are safely behind the closed door of the library.”
“Thank you.”
“In the meantime, we shall both sit here until you eat something. I shall not have you wondering about at risk of fainting because you did not eat your breakfast.”
Prudence said not a word but smiled at him with so much love that his throat felt tight with emotion. He could not help thinking that the changes in him over the course of one simple London Season had not only brought him one step closer to the beautiful and determined redhead, Lady Pennington but had also helped to fill the dreadful chasm that had opened up between him and his beloved sister.
Despite his great curiosity, Heath had managed to fill the next few hours easily. Whilst he had done nothing of note, he had amused himself with thoughts of Imogen. When he closed his eyes, he could almost feel her arm through his and her shoulder pressing against his upper arm. How he had wanted to turn to her and kiss her right there in the deserted little park. There had been nobody about, and he would have got away with it for certain, and yet he had not found the courage.
After all, whilst he had made great progress in building the bridge between them, Heath felt sure that he still had some way to go before he could make such an assumption of her feelings for him.
And yet he could not help imagining it as he wandered about the small grounds of his Belgravia mansion, doing what he could to stay out of his mother’s way. Lady Veronica had been starved of company for the last few days since their dreadful argument, and he felt sure if he happened upon her in the house, he would have struggled to extricate himself from her society.
It was not his mother’s society that he wanted; Heath would much rather employ his time in dreamy imaginings, daring to hope that he and Imogen might well have a life together to look forward to.
If only he had the sort of mother who would have been pleased for her son; pleased that he was able to follow his heart and marry a woman who appealed to him in every sense. But Veronica Montgomery would not be at all pleased to relinquish her title of Countess to a woman like Imogen. Not only was Imogen so very different, even unusual, in terms of the society he and his family had kept before, she was also so strong that she would not be moulded by an interfering Dowager Countess. No indeed, Imogen Pennington would make for a most troublesome daughter-in-law.
Heath passed the drawing room on his way to the library to meet Prudence and slowed for a moment to put his ear to the door. His mother and Lady Smedley were treating themselves to a thoroughly spiteful conversation about dear old Lady Seaton. As distasteful as he found it, Heath was glad that the two women would be occupied thoroughly for at least another hour whilst they tore that good woman to shreds, figuratively speaking.
“Heath, I should have thought you would ha
ve been here a little sooner. Lady Smedley arrived some ten minutes ago,” Prudence chastised him the moment he walked into the library and firmly closed the door behind him.
“I was walking the grounds and found myself a little distracted, Prudence. But I have checked on the two women and found them in deep and ugly conversation about Lady Seaton, so we are assured our privacy for a little while at least.”
“Well, then let us get straight to it.”
“Would you like me to send for some tea?”
“Heath!” Prudence said, entirely exasperated. “There is not time for tea. Just sit down, for goodness sake.” Heath smiled but did exactly as she asked.
“So, what is it that is causing you such great concern?”
“Well, first I must admit to being an eavesdropper,” Prudence said almost as if she needed to get the thing out of the way first and foremost.
“I find no great shame in that, I do it all the time,” Heath said and laughed and shrugged. “In fact, I have just come from the drawing-room door where I have been doing just that for several minutes.”
“Heath, please try to be sensible.”
“My apologies, please continue.”
“When you were out yesterday helping Lady Pennington, I overheard something which has upset me terribly.”
“Presumably it is something to do with our mother.”
“Yes, but she had guests yesterday afternoon; private guests, not announced loudly at the front door, and so I think they were expected.”
“And who were her guests?”
“The Ravenswoods, both father and daughter,” Prudence began, and he thought that he had fully expected her to say that anyway. “And the Duke of Dalton.”
“Nathanial Carswell was here?” he said and suddenly sat up straighter.
He could not help thinking of how the Duke’s handsome face had been turned into an ugly sneer when the two of them had come face-to-face outside the coffee house in Kensington.
Whilst the idea of his mother and the Ravenswoods in conversation did not particularly cause him any great concern, the fact that they had been joined by the Duke did. If ever there was a man in the world he did not trust, Nathanial Carswell was that man. And he could not help thinking of how the Duke had claimed to always get what he wanted, no matter the thoughts and feelings of all around him. Surely this had something to do with Imogen.
“He most certainly was. I would not have known it had I not chanced to look out of this library window and seen him darting across from the stables. He had not even come here in his carriage, but on horseback. I do not know, but something about it seemed most unusual to me, almost furtive, and I knew I had to do something to discover what it all meant.”
“And so, you made your way to the drawing-room to listen?”
“No, not the drawing-room. Mother had taken them all into the dining room. That had me even more suspicious, I must admit, for when do we ever receive guests in there except to take a meal? We do not entertain in the dining room in the mid-morning, do we?”
“Certainly not.” Heath felt as if his dreamy mood of the morning had been ripped out of his chest and stamped on. He did not know what was coming, but he knew that it could not be good. “So, you must get straight to the point, Prudence. What did you hear?”
“There was at first some great discussion about the attention that you have been paying to Lady Pennington. The Duke was most annoyed and added to it all by saying that he saw you at the coffee house in Kensington. I thought he must be mistaken at first because I did not see you there.”
“You did not see me there, my dear Prudence because I hid. Well, I actually leaned in the doorway, but everybody was transfixed by Imogen, and so I was able to hide successfully out in the open. And I did not stay until the end, for I knew then that I would surely be seen.”
“I see, but the Duke saw you?”
“He was also outside, and we had something of a row about Imogen. He is most determined to marry her, and he made it very plain. But Prudence, he wants only to marry her for the sheer delight of crushing her spirit once she is his wife. Really, if you could have heard him speak.”
“I did hear him speak yesterday, and I have no doubt that what you say is true. And yet I think that what I have to say might surprise even you in regard of the Duke.”
“Then continue.”
“Mother seemed absolutely furious by the discovery that you had gone to listen to Lady Pennington speak at Lamont’s. It quite loosened her tongue, and she did not seem to care what she said. Lord Ravenswood was equally voluble, and it is clear that the two of them have been in cahoots all along in their determination that you and Jemima should marry. And they made no secret of it, Brother. Mother is interested in the money, and Lord Ravenswood is interested in a grand title for his daughter. It was appalling, Heath; their very ambitions were laid bare, and it disgusted me.”
“As disgusting as it is, Prudence, it is not something which I had not already guessed some time ago.”
“But I daresay that you were not at all aware that Lord Ravenswood, in collusion with our mother, has had you followed all about the town. From what I could make out, it was in response to the argument that you and mother had the other day. When you made it clear that you were not at all interested in Jemima Ravenswood, I believe that our mother made immediate contact with Lord Ravenswood and told him so. Perhaps they wanted to see if there was any chance that your feelings were reciprocated. I have no doubt that if they could be sure that Lady Pennington had no feelings for you, they could rest a little easier.”
“And they have found out evidence to the contrary?”
“It was clear that you were being followed yesterday, and although they did not have the details of whatever assistance you may or may not have offered to Lady Pennington, I am certain that all will be known now. Tell me, was there anything for them to see?”
“Indeed, there was. I did manage to get to Kennington in time and was able to help them fully. And afterward, Lady Redmond saw to it that Imogen and I were afforded an hour alone together to take a turn about the local park.”
“Then you will have been seen, without a doubt. And that being the case, I have no doubt whatsoever that they will be putting their dreadful plan into action.”
“You must tell me what the plan is, Prudence.”
“It is a most dreadful plan, and it has kept me awake all night. In truth, I had never even thought that our mother would stoop as low as this in a bid to get her will done. I know I did not have great feeling for her before, but I can tell you now, with certainty, that since yesterday I have none.”
“Prudence,” Heath said, desperate to know the worst.
“Between them, they have decided to find some means by which to tempt Lady Redmond away from her Regent’s Park home for an evening. Mother’s idea is to have some fraudulent message sent to Lady Redmond that Lady Rossington is in need of private assistance. The moment that Lady Redmond leaves her home and Lady Pennington is alone, the intention is that the Duke of Dalton will gain admittance and impose himself upon her company for long enough that a dreadful rumour might be spread abroad.”
“You need not go into details of the rumour, Prudence. I understand it perfectly.” He felt anger racing through his veins and did not know where to direct it first. Every instinct in his body was trying to lift him from his seat and propel him towards the drawing room so that he might have the whole thing out with his mother, even in front of her dreadful little guest.
“The idea being that you will be repelled by her from that point onwards and more inclined to turn to Miss Ravenswood for comfort.”
“And the Duke, having ruined her reputation, will be the only man who would have her. Well, he did say that he always gets what he wants regardless. I perhaps ought to have heeded that a little more closely.”
“That is precisely what I heard. You must not let it happen, Heath. The Duke must be a most appalling man, and Lady Pennington is so fin
e a person that she surely deserves better.”
“As do I,” Heath said and winced at the idea of turning towards Jemima Ravenswood for comfort; the woman he had once thought so beautiful had now become repulsive to him. “But you need not fear for another moment, my dear. The moment that Lady Smedley is gone from here, I shall have the whole thing out with our mother, and I will put a stop to it before it begins.”
“No, Heath, you must not,” Prudence said, speaking hurriedly and holding out her hands in front of her as if to quieten him.
“But why?”
“Heath, you must hear me out just a few moments longer. You see, I have been in receipt of this information since yesterday, and I have been awake all night. I have thought about it long and hard, and I have come up with a very fulsome plan. Will you hear it?”
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