Francesca Shaw - The Unconventional Miss Dane

by The Unconventional Miss Dane (lit)

  As they strolled through the silent night, Jeremy asked sombrely, "This is all very well, but what will you do now? You are sure to encounter his lordship again."

  'l shall pretend none' of this happened. After all, he can say nothing without casting himself in a most un-favourable light. If an engagement between you and me is not announced, he will just see it for what it was, a device to get over the awkwardness of the moment. "

  They had finally arrived at the back door of the Dower House. Antonia retrieved' the big key from under a flower pot and unlocked the door.

  She turned back to Jeremy. "Good night, dear friend. I am sorry I have embroiled you in such a coil."

  Jeremy smiled, then bent to drop a brotherly kiss on her cheek. "Do not give 'it another thought, my dear..."

  "Antonia!" Miss Donaldson's cry of outrage rent the still air. Both Antonia and Jeremy started, presenting a picture of perfect guilt to the quivering figure of the chaperon.

  Miss Donaldson, hair in curl papers, her thin body encased in a flannel wrapper of hideous design, stood brandishing the poker she had snatched from the kitchen range on her way to investigate the stealthy footsteps she had heard approaching the house.

  "Libertine! Blaggard! Rest assured your uncle shall hear of this you, you whitened sepulchre, you!" she quavered.

  "Donna, please put that poker down and stop abusing poor Mr. Blake! He has done nothing to warrant your wrath--he was merely seeing me safely home after my walk."

  "Your walk! At three in the morning! A tryst, more like!

  Mr. Blake passed his hand wearily over his brow. "Miss Donaldson, madam, I can assure you..."

  But Miss Donaldson was well into her stride and was not to be deflected. "And I can assure you, sir, that you will marry this poor child at the earliest moment it may be accomplished without scandal."

  "Jeremy--go!" Antonia pushed her much put-upon friend in the direction of the back gate. "Donna, let us go inside and I will explain all before, the entire household is awakened." She wrested the poker from Donna's grasp and pushed her down on a chair before the flickering light of the kitchen range.

  "That it should come to this! I only thank Heaven your poor mother is not alive to see this day," Miss Donaldson was wailing.

  "Oh, do be quiet, Donna!" Antonia snapped. "Poor Mr. Blake met me quite by chance by the riverbank. I went for a walk because I could not sleep and he was listening to the nightingales. I had a fright because of ... something I thought I saw in the undergrowth and Mr.

  Blake came to my rescue..."

  "That's as maybe!" Miss Donaldson said, pursing her thin lips. "But he took advantage of you--I saw him kiss you!"

  "If I had a brother living, he could not have kissed me more chastely, Donna." Seeing doubt on Miss Donaldson's face, she pressed on, "He is my good friend--and only a friend!"

  To her alarm and utter astonishment, Donna responded to these bracing words by bursting into tears.

  "What is it?" Antonia fell on her knees beside the chair. "Were you very frightened because you thought we were burglars?" She took the thin hands in hers and chafed them gently. "You were very brave."

  But we thought, we hoped, you were going to marry him! " Donna lamented.

  "Who? Who is " we"? You wanted me to marry Mr. Blake? Then why make such a hue and cry? Oh, I am so tired I cannot think!"

  "Dear Lady Finch and I had such hopes of you and

  Mr. Blake, such a suitable match. And then to think that he was just another heartless philanderer and then to discover you do not wish to marry him, after all! "

  "Go to bed, Donna," Antonia said wearily. "We have both had an over-exciting night."

  The next morning, both ladies were distinctly heavy eyed and the atmosphere was awkward with remembered embarrassment. Antonia escaped to the drawing-room to con the post. Her interest in a pamphlet on the manuring of roses sent by Sir Josiah waned, however, in competition with the memory of Marcus's hard body, cold from the river, urgent against hers.

  She shivered despite the heat, recalling the feel of wet hair eftsping under her fingertips as she had entwined her arms around his neck.

  With an effort Antonia pulled herself together and opened the next package, which proved to contain a very sprightly missive from Great-Aunt Honoria.

  "I find this new doctor most invigorating, my dear," the old lady had written. "He advised changing from that lowering diet to one including red meat, game and Bordeaux and I feel not a day over fifty again! Your cousin Hewitt keeps urging me to rest ~ gometimes I think he wishes me to remain an invalid--but t find I am enjoying myself too much. And, I confess my dear, that new wife of your cousin Clarence's is such a little peahen that I find myself quite rejuvenated by dislike for her!

  I know you are much engaged putting the Dower House to rights, but please come and see me soon now that I am returned to my own house.

  Town is short of company now, but you and I were always able to find some diversion to amuse us..."

  Antonia, delighted that her beloved great-aunt was so much better, was indulging in a daydream of escaping from all the heartaches of home to a few weeks in London when the crunch of gravel under carriage wheels penetrated her musings.

  "Lady Meredith, Miss Antonia," Anna announced, making her start in her seat and drop the pamphlet on the Turkey rug at her feet.

  As Miss Dane sprang up to greet her with a welcoming smile, Anne Meredith's shrewd glance too king the dark shadows under the young woman's eyes and decided that the slim figure was, if anything, even more slender than when she had seen her last.

  And as for her brother, stalking around Brightshill like a bear with a sore head with a smile only for the children--why, he was in as bad a case. Oh, she could bang their heads together, really she could!

  None of this showed on her calm features as she sank gracefully into a proffered chair and accepted the suggestion of a glass of lemonade with gratitude.

  Anne Meredith decided not to beat about the bush. "I will come straight to the point, Miss Dane: this is not a social call. I am in sore need of your help."

  "My help?" Antonia looked startled. "Why, of course, any service I can offer I will gladly perform. Is it the children?"

  "You are most kind. I am-happy to say the children are thriving, for they love the freedom of Brightshill after London. No, it is a certain social awkwardness..." She took a strategic sip of her lemonade. 'l felt Lady Reed was not. happy: pining for her husband, Sir George, I thought. After all, he has been down at Brighton--doing whatever one does with troops--for months. " There was a slight pause before she resumed. " Naturally, I assumed that, if I were to invite him to Brightshill to join our houseparty, this would lift Lady Reed's spirits. "

  "A natural, and most thoughtful assumption," Antonia said, straight faced commendably concealing her bitter amusement at the thought of Claudia pining for anyone but Marcus.

  "Well, I thought so! So I wrote to him. But my brother seems most put out..."

  "I wonder why."

  "I cannot conceive." Both ladies sipped their lemonade thoughtfully

  "And as for Claudia, why, she was positively petulant! And the wretched man is arriving tumor row and Lord Meredith is no help whatsoever, just keeps saying that he cannot see what the problem is!"

  "But how can. I help?" Antonia queried. This reported reaction only confirmed her belief that Marcus was still hopelessly entangled in Claudia's lures. The husband would 'be a complication he did not want.

  Poor man, serving his King and country in the army while behind his back his wife. She shut the picture from her mind.

  Lady Meredith smoothed her skirts. "The first dinner will be a very awkward affair, I fear, and I thought to myself, how could I dilute the mood? I felt I could fide in you: you know everyone, and are such delightful company ... I know it is a lot to ask, but if you could just help me smooth the path. Sir John and Mr. Leigh were only saying over breakfast how long it seemed since you were last at Brightshill..." S
he broke off, regarding Antonia with a ruefully apologetic smile.

  If she were correct in her suspicions, Antonia would desire nothing more than to see Claudia Reed safely under her husband's eye, but equally, Miss Dane was no fool ,~he must be very careful not to over egg this pudding.

  Quite unaware that her guest had any ulterior motive, Antonia was prey to conflicting emotions. She wanted to see Marcus, be with him, yet she knew it would be painful and humiliating to see him anywhere near that horrible woman. On the other hand, an ignoble spirit of revenge prompted her to witness the lovers' discomfiture when Sir George arrived. And, setting all other considerations aside, she liked Marcus's sister and wanted to help her.

  "My dear Lady Meredith, of course, I will help in any way I can. When do you expect Sir George to arrive?"

  "Late this at~ernoon," Anne confessed. "That is probably why Marcus is so cross with me--I did rather spring it upon him. Oh, and I do hope Miss Donaldson will be able to join us."

  "I am afraid she will not, for I know she is already engaged this evening at Rye End Hall at a small whist party. Sir Josiah and Lady Finch have an elderly relative staying who is most addicted to the game and Donna is to make up the four."

  "What a pity. Never mind, shall I send the carriage for you at seven o'clock?"

  Antonia dressed for the evening with great care, knowing that in a display of feminine' charms Claudia Reed would win hands down, possessing as she did a wardrobe created expressly to exhibit her lures. Instead, Antonia sought to appear elegant and cool. She chose her newest gown in a shimmering celadon green silk, cut with total simplicity, and ornamented only with a gauze scarf of silver thread that matched her slippers. Donna, fussing that Antonia was attending a party without her, helped secure her profusion of dark curls high on her head with pearl pins so that the tendrils just brushed the tops of her ears.

  "Do not forget your fan." Donna hurried after her down the stairs, for the carriage was waiting at the door. "It is so very close, I fear we will have a storm later tonight." At the front door she admonished, low-voiced, "And do make certain you are never alone with that wicked man!"

  Brightshill shone eerily in the purplish light of the approaching storm, lightning already forking through the sky far off over the Vale~

  The carriage horses shifted uneasily as the coachman reined in at the front steps and steadied them while the footman let down the steps to help Antonia alight.

  Her heart beat nervously as she stepped into the hall to be greeted by Mead the butler, but as he opened the double doors and she walked into the brightly it salon, she felt her apprehension start to dissipate.

  She supposed, greeting her hostess and Lord Meredith, that it was like soldiers going into hattie---once committed to action, it was strangely calming.

  Antonia moved gracefully through the salon, exchanging smiles and greetings with Sir John and Mr. Leigh, stopping to exchange a few words with Miss Fitch, who blushed prettily at the attention.

  At length, her circuit of the room brought her face to face with Marcus, who was standing before the empty grate, one foot on the brass fender rail. He straightened as she approached and bowed over her hand, but not fast enough for Antonia to miss the gleam of appreciation in his dark eyes as he took in the cool elegance of her appearance.

  "You are in great beauty tonight, Miss Dane," he observed dispassionately, but not dispassionately enough for Lady Reed sitting nearby, whose eyes narrowed at the overheard compliment.

  Antonia looked into his eyes and caught her breath with a shock of love and longing. She wanted to reach out and touch his hair, smooth out the tension that only she could discern in the taut skin over his high cheekbones and caress the lips that had kissed her so thrillingly only the night before.

  Instead, she looked at Claudia Reed and hardened her heart. No, she would not let herself be hurt by a man who continued his liaison with such a woman, so blatantly, so cruelly.

  "Is Mr. Blake not with you?" ~ Marcus's voice recalled her attention,

  "Mr. Blake? Why, no, were you expecting him?"

  "I expected you to be accompanied by your fiance."

  "My fiance? Why, my lord, I am not engaged to be married to anyone."

  She widened her eyes innocently. "You must have dreamed it--the moonlight has such a strange effect, do you not find?"

  Marcus's lips narrowed and his eyes blazed with a sudden fire. Antonia found her wrist. gripped none too gently as he pulled her closer to his side. "Do not toy with me, Antonia. Are you telling me Blake lied to me last night?" ~

  "Last night? I cannot imagine to what you refer, my lord. I was in bed last night.. ,"

  She gasped as his fingers tightened and he bent his head so close to hers that she felt his breath on her mouth.

  "Last night, madam, you were in my arms on the riverbank and, if that fool Blake had not blundered in, I would have made you mine." His eyes glittered and Antonia was seized with the wild thought that he would take her in his arms, stride out into the night and complete his seduction there and then.

  "Marcus, do not monopolise Miss Dane, you have all evening to talk to her." Anne Meredith advanced across the Chinese carpet towards them,

  "And here is Sir George just come down. Antonia, allow me to make him known to you."

  Colonel Sir George Reed was asad disappointment to Antonia who had imagined a distinguished military man of impeccable bearing, nobly sacrificing hearth and home for duty. Instead, the man who took her hand in his damp grasp reminded her of no one more than the Duke of York. Portly, the red veins of his cheeks competing with the scarlet of his dress uniform jacket, and with a lecherous eye to match that of the Prince Regent's brother, he bent over her hand.

  For a moment, as he held fast to her fingers, Antonia felt a stab of sympathy for Claudia. Faced with such a husband, who would not turn to another man for consolation--especially if the other man was one such as Marcus. 9

  Sir George's corsets creaked as he straightened up from planting a kiss on Antonia's gloved hand and she had a struggle to repress a giggle. To her alarm, he tucked her hand under his arm and announced, "Now, my dear, you must allow me to take a little promenade up and down the room while I learn all about you."

  Antonia shot a glance of startled entreaty towards Lord Arlington, which he met with a stony gaze. Claudia, on the other hand, smiled vixen-like from her chaise-longue as her elderly husband, perspiring profusely from the combination of tight stays and the intense heat, passed by.

  "Now, do not allow Miss Dane to tire you, Georgie darling," she called sweetly, bringing a flush to Antonia's cheeks.

  But Antonia was far more exercised preventing "Georgie darling's straying fingers from inching any further up her arm towards the swell of her breast. It took all her social grace not to shake him off and slap his face. Instead, she drew herself up stiffly and away from him, enquiring in a voice of frigid formality if the drive from Brighton had been free of incident.

  "Tiresome, tiresome, my dear, but nothing which cannot be forgotten in the face of your beauty!" he wheezed enthusiastically. " Mercifully, Anne Meredith appeared and begged Sir George to permit her to bear Miss Dane off to admire the new hangings in the study.

  The two ladies shut the door of the study behind themselves and gazed at each other. It was difficult to tell which was the more horrified, and almost together they said, "Beastly' man..."

  "My dear Miss Dane, I cannot apologise enough... Had I but known what he was like! No wonder Marcus was so angry with me! And the Reeds obviously loathe one another... My dear, you must not leave my side for an instant; fortunately he has shown not the slightest interest in dear Sophiamfar too young, thank goodness." Lady Meredith subsided into a chair and unfurled her fan to cool her heated, cheeks.

  "What is the seating plan for dinner?" Antonia asked, seized with a sudden alarming thought.

  "Oh, my heavens!" Lady Meredith jumped up. "I must see Mead at once, for I fear I have placed Sir George next to you..." S
he hastened from the room, leaving

  Antonia to divert her thoughts by admiring the handsome cut-velvet draperies at the windows. They changed the aspect of the room somewhat from that cool day in March when she had been dragged unceremoniously. into Marcus's presence, accused of poaching.

  She ran her fingers over the arm of the carved chair in which she had been sitting when he had kissed her for the first time. Her reverie was rudely interrupted by a kiss of a very different kind: the pressure of wet, rubbery lips on her hare shoulder.

  Antonia spun round with a small shriek of outrage to find herself pinned against the desk by the rotund and lascivious figure of Colonel Sir George Reed. "Alone at last!" he announced with undisguised lust.

  "No, leave me be!" Antonia gasped, wriggling away. "No need to pretend now. My wife told me you were a bit of a goer, a game pullet!"

  He opened his arms as if to envelop her. "Good of our hostess to make this room available, what? Thought she was a bit starched up at first, but I was wrong..."