Jen Turano - [Ladies of Distinction 02]

by A Most Peculiar Circumstance

  Arabella cleared her throat, gaining only her mother’s attention as Zayne and Theodore continued to catch up. “I do so hate to interrupt this touching yet disturbing scene, but we have been traveling for days, and I, for one, would like to go home.”

  Gloria shook her head. “We have to wait for Hamilton.”

  “Hamilton’s here?” Arabella asked.

  “Of course he’s here, dear. He’s been very anxious to introduce you to his Eliza, and I must say, he’s had to wait entirely too long. Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but in the future, it might be wise if you’d check in with us every once in a while. That would alleviate the need to send a private investigator after you and would ensure you don’t miss any weddings in the future.”

  A stab of remorse ran through her. “I am sorry, Mother, for being so negligent. I’m afraid I sometimes get so consumed with my cause that I occasionally forget to keep you and Father abreast of my whereabouts. I didn’t realize I would be so late in returning to New York, but I kept getting requests to speak at rallies, and I just couldn’t seem to pass up such wonderful opportunities.” She smiled. “As for missing future weddings, I highly doubt anyone else will decide to marry on the spur of the moment.”

  Gloria’s eyes began to twinkle, right before she sent an all-too-telling wink in Theodore’s direction. Arabella decided it would be prudent to change the topic from weddings to something a little safer. “Speaking of waiting around, are we also waiting for Father?”

  Gloria’s eyes went from twinkling to shifty. “He really wanted to come, dear, but since it’s such a lovely day, I wanted to bring the phaeton, and for some odd reason, your father suddenly remembered a bit of pressing business. He told me to extend to you his deepest apologies for not meeting you here, but he said you’d understand.”

  Her mother really was incorrigible, and her father, to give him credit, completely adored his wife and put up with many of her antics. The one thing Douglas Beckett did balk at was willingly riding in a phaeton with Gloria at the reins.

  He’d frequently told Arabella that sitting there, waiting for disaster to happen, played havoc with his nerves.

  It took everything she had not to grin. “I completely understand Father’s reasoning, although I really do have to point out that it is not a lovely day. From my view on the train, the wind looked to be growing fiercer by the second, and you and I will be frozen solid by the time we reach the house.”

  Gloria waved her comments away with an airy flick of her hand. “A brisk wind does wonders for a lady’s complexion, and you are looking a bit peaked.” She stepped closer and tilted her head. “I was going to ask you this over tea, but since Hamilton seems to be dawdling and this particular question has been plaguing me constantly, tell me what possessed you to travel across the country without your paid companion?”

  She should have known that would come up eventually.

  “How do you know I traveled without her?”

  Gloria gestured to the crowd swarming around them. “Miss Hunt is obviously not with you, and Theodore mentioned absolutely nothing about her in his telegram, and your father told me he ran into Miss Hunt back in California, after you’d made your departure.”

  Theodore suddenly stopped talking in mid-conversation with Zayne and turned his head. “You have a paid companion?”

  “I had a paid companion, up until about two months ago, but then she met a gentleman she claimed she couldn’t live without. Since I had no intention of traveling the country with two people who are madly in love, I allowed her to get out of our agreement.”

  “You could have hired a new companion,” Theodore said.

  Arabella shrugged. “I’m perfectly capable of traveling on my own, Mr. Wilder. I’m no girl fresh out of the schoolroom, but a lady who is almost twenty-five. Those years should afford me a certain amount of freedom.”

  “You wouldn’t have ended up in trouble if you’d been accompanied by a companion.”

  “I doubt even having a companion along with me would have stopped me from assisting Miss James.”

  “It might have slowed you down.”

  “Or it might have gotten another lady arrested.”

  “There is that,” Theodore muttered.

  “Time for me to check on the luggage,” Zayne said before he spun on his heel and disappeared into the crowd.

  Gloria shook her head. “He never has been comfortable being in the midst of squabbles.”

  “Who was squabbling?” Arabella and Theodore asked at the same time.

  Gloria’s eyes turned cunning in a split second. Her lips spread into a smile, and she began whistling a jaunty tune under her breath.

  Arabella was surprised it wasn’t the wedding march.

  Theodore cleared his throat. “Ah, perhaps I should go look for Hamilton.”

  Gloria stopped whistling. “He’ll be along shortly, dear. Piper and Ben noticed a vendor selling cakes, and Eliza couldn’t resist indulging them.” She smiled. “I must say, she’s a wonderful mother to the children, very affectionate, and they adore her.”

  “Speaking of affectionate, may I hope that Hamilton and Eliza have ceased with their somewhat disturbing propensity of mooning over each other?” Theodore asked.

  Gloria laughed. “I’m pleased to say their mooning has gotten worse. Zayne claims they’re an embarrassment to the entire family, but I find them delightful.”

  Theodore let out a sigh. “I’m going to have to leave town again soon.”

  Gloria swatted him on the arm. “Now, that’s no way to think, dear. Love is a glorious thing, and I’m hopeful you’ll be in Hamilton’s shoes someday.” She sent him one of her disturbing winks and then nodded toward Arabella.

  Arabella wished a huge hole would suddenly open up right in front of her so that she could leap into it and escape from her mother’s embarrassing maneuvers. To her relief, Theodore ignored her mother’s comment and began to whistle his own tune under his breath, thankfully not one of a romantic nature.

  Needing a distraction, Arabella began to adjust her hat, but her hand stilled when a man off in the distance caught her attention. There was something familiar about him. He lifted his head, and all the breath rushed out of her in a split second as recognition set in.

  He was one of the men from the farmhouse.

  She hitched up her skirt and broke into a run, dodging an elderly gentleman who brandished his cane at her before she increased her pace. “Stop right there,” she yelled as she jumped over a piece of black luggage, tripped on the hem of her gown, lifted her skirts higher, and plowed forward.

  The man she was chasing turned for a brief moment, but then plunged into the crowd in a desperate manner, proving she was after the right man.

  She developed a stitch in her side, but ignored it and the voice yelling behind her.

  She raced down a small flight of stairs, satisfaction flowing through her as she realized she was gaining on the man. She pushed herself harder, leaped up on an empty bench, then launched herself into the air. As she landed on the man with a thud, the impact sent both of them tumbling to the ground, even as the breath left her in one harsh oof.

  “Get off me,” the man snarled as he sucked in a ragged breath right before putting his hands over his head when she smacked him with her reticule.

  A dull thud caused her to remember that her gun was inside her bag. She stilled for just a second, but remembered the horror the man had put her and Miss James through, and hit him again.

  Strong hands suddenly seized her from behind, and she felt herself being lifted into the air. Her teeth clinked together when Theodore dropped her to the ground, and she winced when she saw the barely concealed fury in his eyes.

  “Have you taken leave of your senses?”

  She raised her chin. “I don’t believe so. Why do you ask?”

  “You just attacked that man.”

  “Indeed I did, and for good reason. You were right about those men following me back here.”
She pointed to the man cowering on the ground, his hands still covering his head. “That, Mr. Wilder, is one of the men from the farmhouse. I’m hopeful you have some gadget at your disposal we can use to secure him, because I certainly don’t want the man to slip away, not after the effort it took on my part to capture him.”

  “It wouldn’t have taken any effort on your part if you’d behaved as a lady ought to behave and told me who this was in the first place. I would have then taken measures to apprehend him.”

  “It’s very unattractive when you sulk.”

  Theodore opened his mouth, and his face turned a vivid shade of purple, but before he could get a single, scathing word out, the man on the ground suddenly rolled over and released a groan, even as he peered up at her through a small space between the fingers he had pressed over his eyes. “You’re crazy.”

  She leaned over, peeled his hand away, and was about to give him a piece of her mind, but froze when she got a good look at the man’s face.

  She’d never seen this gentleman before in her life.

  She’d assaulted the wrong man. Not only had she knocked him to the ground, she’d also hit him with her reticle.

  She could have caused the gentleman serious injury.

  Her gaze traveled over him and lingered on a large rip in the man’s trousers.

  She straightened, felt her cheeks heat despite the cold, and cleared her throat. “I must beg your pardon, sir.” A nervous laugh slipped from her lips. “It is somewhat amusing, in a strange sort of way, but I mistook you for someone else, a dastardly criminal if you must know, but . . .”

  “This is not the man from the farmhouse?” Theodore snapped, interrupting her in mid-sentence.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Right before her eyes, Theodore appeared to get larger. “Why, pray tell, did you not make certain he was the right man before you attacked him?”

  “That would have been a little difficult to do since his back was toward me as I chased him.” She nibbled on her lip. “Besides, he was acting in a very suspicious manner. He did run from me, and if that doesn’t suggest guilt, I don’t know what does.”

  The man on the ground suddenly sat up and sent her a glare. “The only thing I’m guilty of is being late for my mother’s dinner. She specifically told me she’s cooking a roast, and she does so hate to serve a dry roast. That’s why I was moving briskly. Well, until I realized I had a crazy lady chasing after me. Then I started to run.”

  “I really am sorry” was all she could think to say.

  “‘Sorry’ isn’t going to stop my mother from ranting at me for being late, nor is it going to take away the pain in my head. I think we should call the authorities and allow them to straighten this matter out to my satisfaction.”

  Being sent back to jail would be no more than she deserved.

  Before she could apologize again, Theodore stepped forward and pulled the man to his feet, dusting off the dirt that stained the man’s jacket.

  “I do understand your desire to see this lady held accountable for her ruthless assault on you, sir,” Theodore said. “However, I must point out the fact that this lady, unfortunately, appears to suffer from a severe mental ailment, which I believe is what provoked her attack in the first place.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out his billfold, and pressed a wad of bills into the man’s hand. “I hope this will alleviate some of your suffering, and I would appreciate it if we could keep this little matter strictly between us.”

  The man looked at the bills, sent her another glare, and then nodded to Theodore before he turned and limped away without speaking another word.

  “I am not unbalanced.”

  “Oh? Do you know of any other proper young lady who would accost an innocent gentleman, especially when said lady had a private investigator at her disposal to deal with such matters?”

  She opened her mouth, but found there was absolutely nothing to say to that somewhat insightful statement, so she pursed her lips and took the arm he shoved at her. She soon found herself being nudged through a crowd of curious onlookers and felt a flicker of indignation steal over her.

  “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t put the thought of those men in my mind.”

  Theodore stopped in his tracks, leaving her no choice but to stop as well. “You cannot truly believe any of this is my fault.”

  She shrugged, the action causing a lock of hair to fall in her eyes. She pushed it out of her face with her free hand, noticing she seemed to have lost her hat. She glanced over her shoulder, saw that people were still regarding her curiously, and decided that hatless was how she was going to have to travel home.

  “. . . and granted, I did bring up the idea that those men might follow you back to New York, but they certainly weren’t on the train with us, and it’s not as if I expected them to be waiting for you at the train station.”

  She drew in a breath, let it out slowly, and prodded him into motion. “If you would have explained that more thoroughly, I wouldn’t have reacted as I did. How was I to know you didn’t believe the men would have time to meet me here, and come to think of it . . . how would they even know where to find me?”

  For some odd reason, Theodore’s hand tightened on her arm, but then he relaxed and continued moving forward without bothering to respond to her question.

  “Is there something you haven’t told me?”

  “What possessed you to hit that poor man over the head with your reticule?”

  Arabella blinked. “I think we’ve already discussed that incident to satisfaction. I thought he was the criminal who’d tried to abduct me, so hitting him about the head with the only object I had on hand seemed the logical thing to do.”

  “It wasn’t logical in the least. Ladies do not beat innocent gentlemen with their dainty reticules, and why in the world was your reticule actually causing the man serious pain?”

  “Don’t you remember? My pistol’s inside.”

  “Well, I suppose we can give thanks to God that you didn’t decide to use that pistol, or we might have had a dead man on our hands instead of a slightly bruised one.”

  “I wouldn’t have killed him,” she muttered before she stumbled when Theodore came to another abrupt stop. She glanced in the direction he was currently staring and resisted the urge to sigh.

  Gloria, Zayne, her brother, Hamilton, and a beautiful lady with red hair and sparkling blue eyes were standing before them, all with different expressions on their faces.

  Gloria looked disheartened. Zayne looked amused. Hamilton, well, he might just be smiling because he was happy to see her, and the beautiful lady she assumed was Eliza was looking exasperated.

  “Honestly, Theodore, you’re probably scaring old ladies and children with that scowl on your face,” the beautiful lady said as she stepped forward. “I told everyone it was not a good idea for you to run off and fetch Arabella, but did anyone listen to me? Of course not,” she finished before anyone had a chance to respond. She grinned, and a delightful dimple popped out on her cheek as she moved to Arabella’s side. She sent Theodore an arch look, which had him dropping his hold on Arabella, and then she pulled her into a hug.

  “I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you, my dear sister. I’m Eliza.”

  Arabella caught a scent of violets mixed with berries before Eliza gave her one last squeeze and stepped back. “I hope we’ll be the best of friends, and I also hope you’re not too put out that your brother and I got married without you in town.” She grinned. “I just couldn’t seem to wait.”

  Eliza was completely delightful, and Arabella couldn’t help but fall immediately in love with her new sister.

  “I’m certainly not put out with you for marrying my brother, Eliza. Hamilton was in desperate need of someone to keep him in line, and from what I’ve heard so far, you’re perfect for that job.”

  Eliza beamed back at her. “Why, thank you, Arabella. I think you and I are destined to get along famously.” She turned and
gestured Hamilton forward.

  Hamilton smiled and obliged his wife, reaching Arabella’s side and lifting her off her feet. He gave her an enthusiastic hug and then set her back down even as his smile widened. “You missed my wedding.”

  “I could respond that you should have waited, but after meeting your lovely wife, I can understand why you didn’t.”

  “We ordered you a dress from B. Altman’s and a special hat, but you never showed up, Aunt Arabella.”

  She looked down and found Piper, her five-year-old niece scowling up at her. She glanced to Piper’s right and saw Ben, Piper’s younger brother, watching her with an almost identical scowl on his face.

  That was rather odd. Normally she got along famously with her niece and nephew. She was about to ask them to explain their less-than-pleasant greeting when Theodore suddenly stepped forward, bent down, and opened up his arms.

  Childish squeals of delight rent the air, and she could only watch in dumbfounded amazement as Piper and Ben threw themselves into Theodore’s arms.

  The infuriating gentleman of only a few minutes before was nowhere to be found as he tickled and laughed with Piper and Ben. He finally released his hold on them and straightened, but still reached out and patted Ben on the head and pulled Piper’s pigtail.

  It was not something she’d ever expected to see him do. Who would have thought he’d have a way with children?

  It was disconcerting, that’s what it was, and it made him seem almost . . . likable.

  “What took you so long to find Aunt Arabella, Mr. Wilder?” Piper asked. “Ben and I thought you’d be back in plenty of time for the wedding.”

  “Your aunt seems to have the unfortunate habit of being hard to find.”

  “I heard Daddy tell Mama that Aunt Arabella got arrested,” Piper said before she turned and sent Arabella another scowl. “Did you murder someone?”

  Arabella released a snort. “What a thing to ask, and no, I didn’t murder anyone, although I have recently been tempted.”