Slightly Scandalous

by Mary Balogh

  Lady Holt-Barron beamed at him and her daughter smiled. Lady Freyja looked wary.

  “I have come to invite Lady Freyja to walk with me,” he said after the first pleasantries had been exchanged.

  She got to her feet after folding a letter she must have been writing at the escritoire.

  “I need some fresh air,” she said.

  “And today, Lady Freyja,” her hostess said with a broad smile, “you do not need any chaperone while walking with your betrothed.”

  A few minutes later they were striding back down Gay Street, not touching—she had refused to take his arm.

  “You were writing to your family?” he asked her. “Breaking the glad tidings?”

  “Doing no such thing,” she said. “I was writing to my sister, as I do most days. I was describing the assembly to her—part of the assembly, at least.”

  “But you were omitting the insignificant detail of your betrothal being announced during it, no doubt,” he said, grinning. She was looking out of sorts this morning.

  “Exactly,” she said. “They need not know. In a day or two's time we will be free to put an end to this foolishness. Your aunt will leave Bath, severely disgruntled, I sincerely hope, and then I can either have an announcement made or else you can leave too and I can go home soon after and no more need ever be said on the matter.”

  “Do you really believe it is going to be as simple as that, sweetheart?” he asked, chuckling.

  They had reached the bottom of the hill and were winding their way toward the Abbey and the river beyond it. The sun was shining, though the breeze was fresh.

  “Of course it will,” she said with brisk confidence.

  “My grandmother is even now planning a grand betrothal party for next week,” he said.

  She grimaced. “Then we must both leave Bath before then,” she said.

  “It would be unsporting,” he told her, touching the brim of his hat in acknowledgment of a couple they were passing. “All the invitations are being sent out today.”

  “Dammit,” she said.

  He laughed out loud. He had never before heard a lady utter such a word. He wondered if she had other such gems in her vocabulary and guessed she probably did.

  “And my aunt has decided to stay for the party,” he told her.

  She stopped walking and looked at him severely as if he were to blame—as to a certain extent, of course, he was.

  “Double dammit,” she said. “You appear to be enjoying yourself enormously.”

  “I cannot help remembering,” he said as they resumed their walk, “that things were looking grim last evening and that my aunt might just as easily have trapped me into announcing my engagement to Constance. I would far prefer to have you.”

  “I am overwhelmed,” she said haughtily.

  “Because you can be shed after a week or so,” he said.

  “Like a worn coat,” she retorted.

  “Unless you choose to hold me to the promise, of course,” he said, “and make me marry you.”

  “Heaven forbid,” she said.

  “Will feigning a betrothal to me and a romantic fondness for me for a whole week be quite anathema to you?” he asked. “Culminating in a grand party and then freedom and sanity again? Last evening you thought it might all be fun.”

  “Last evening I did not think at all,” she said. She looked at him assessingly as they reached the river and turned by unspoken consent in the direction of the Pulteney Bridge. “However, life in Bath is excruciatingly dull under normal circumstances.”

  “It is,” he agreed. “Shall we agree, then, to enjoy the less-than-normal—or more-than-normal—circumstances that the next week promises?”

  She smiled slowly at him, the same slightly reckless light in her eyes that had appeared there last evening when he had asked her as a kind of joke if she would care to enter into a fake betrothal with him.

  “Since it would appear that the week must be endured anyway,” she said, “we might as well enjoy it, I suppose. Where are we going?”

  “Sydney Gardens?” he suggested. “It is rather far away, but not too far a walk for you, I seem to remember. I may even be able to find another serving girl there being accosted by a squirrel and impress my betrothed by rescuing her.”

  “No, not the Gardens,” she said. “Beechen Cliff. I have heard that it is a steep climb but that the view from the top is quite spectacular. I wish to go there.”

  “Good,” he said.

  At least dancing attendance upon Lady Freyja Bedwyn for the next week was not going to be boring. He had intended being on his way from Bath this morning. He was not on the whole sorry for the excuse to spend more time in her company. He found her amusing—and increasingly attractive.

  Freyja did not play fair. She had done the Marquess of Hallmere an enormous favor, and she exacted payment in any way she could devise over the week following their betrothal announcement.

  It was true that the Pump Room still had to be endured most mornings and the occasional concert or play or card party during the evenings. But she really did not mind those activities very much. At least the obligatory stroll in the Pump Room got everyone up and moving at a decent hour of the morning, and she enjoyed good music and lively acting and even the occasional game of cards. It was the rest of each day that had always been unbearably tedious.

  Now the tedium was gone.

  Each day she dragged the marquess off walking or riding. They clamored up Beechen Cliff that first day and up Beacon Hill and across the fields to the village of Charlcombe another day. They walked to the village of Weston one afternoon. They rode up Lansdown Hill and to Claverton Down. Even on the day it rained steadily from morning until evening she insisted upon riding as far as the village of Keynsham halfway to Bristol. Having a betrothed, she quickly discovered, was quite as good as having one of her brothers resident in Bath, since Lady Holt-Barron put up no protest about the propriety of their going off alone together so often.

  But if truth were known, she enjoyed the marquess's company better than that of any of her brothers—and he enjoyed himself as much as she, she was sure. She enjoyed looking at him—he was undeniably one of the most handsome men of her acquaintance. And he was witty company. Verbally she could never get the better of him—or he of her. He never suggested to her that as a lady perhaps this walk or that ride might be too much for her. When she demanded the ride in the rain, he did not even so much as look surprised, though Lady Holt-Barron warned of all the dire consequences to their health of not simply taking tea in the Upper Rooms instead.

  Freyja was not looking forward to the party at Lady Potford's, which was to be a grand squeeze of an affair since almost everyone with any pretension to gentility in Bath had been invited. She liked Lady Potford and did not relish the thought of such deception as the party would involve. But the more she saw of the Marchioness of Hallmere and Lady Constance Moore during the week, the more she realized that it would have been cruel indeed to have abandoned the marquess to what might well have been his fate—marriage with his cousin, who did not want him any more than he wanted her.

  No, for this one week she was betrothed—again!—and she would act her part until the end and then retreat into her normal self and her normal life again when the party was over and the marchioness had left for Cornwall.

  Life next week was going to seem very dull, she thought as she arrived back at Lady Holt-Barron's after the ride to Claverton Down. But she would think of that next week. Perhaps she would simply return home to Lindsey Hall. It should be safe to do so by then.

  The marquess came into the house with her, since Lady Holt-Barron had invited him for tea. They were somewhat windblown and flushed from the outdoors, but Freyja did not go up to her room to change first. She preceded the marquess into the drawing room.

  And stopped so abruptly that he almost collided with her from behind.

  Lady Holt-Barron and Charlotte were both in the room.

  So was Wulfr
ic.

  He was just rising to his feet, looking his usual elegant, immaculate, faintly cold, silver-eyed self. His long fingers were curling about the handle of his quizzing glass and raising it halfway to his eye.

  “Ah, Freyja,” he said, his voice haughty and distant.

  “Wulf!” she exclaimed.

  “And . . . ?” His glass went the rest of the way to his eye, magnifying it horribly.

  “May I present the Marquess of Hallmere?” she said, standing to one side. “My brother Wulfric, my lord. The Duke of Bewcastle.”

  What in heaven's name had brought Wulf to Bath at this of all times? But she knew the answer without having to pummel her brain any further. Of course! Wulf, she sometimes thought, shared the quality of omniscience with God. It was this of all times that had brought him.

  Someone had told him.

  He knew!

  His next words dispelled any shadow of doubt she may have felt.

  “Ah, yes,” he said softly, lowering his glass but still looking at the marquess with cold eyes. “Freyja's betrothed, I believe?”

  CHAPTER IX

  Bewcastle had a distinct advantage over him, Joshua thought an hour later as the two of them walked down Gay Street, Lady Holt-Barron's housekeeper having made arrangements for the horses to be returned to their stables. There was the advantage of rank, of course—Bewcastle was a duke while he was a marquess. But the difference between them was far vaster than that. Bewcastle had been born to his present role. He was an aristocrat to the marrow of his bones, while Joshua, even after being heir to his title for five years and holder of the title for seven months, still felt like a usurper.

  They had conversed on a variety of topics over tea, the five of them, and consequently nothing of any significance had been said. Now Bewcastle spoke of the attractive appearance of Bath and Joshua agreed with his every word, trying not to feel like a whipped boy—or, rather, like one who was about to be whipped. But this really was a devilish coil. It had been too much to hope, he supposed, that word of the betrothal would not somehow come to the ears of Lady Freyja's brother, but who could have predicted that he would come in person like this instead of merely writing to his sister for more information?

  “You will step into the Royal York with me?” Bewcastle asked as they reached level ground. It was phrased as a question, but Joshua recognized a command when he heard one.

  “It would be my pleasure,” he said.

  The duke had a private suite of rooms at the hotel. His valet took their hats and gloves and brought a tray of drinks into the sitting room. Bewcastle indicated one empty chair and took another himself. The valet poured two glasses, handed one to each of them, and then left them alone, closing the door silently behind him.

  Bewcastle regarded his visitor with pale, keen eyes that had Joshua thinking of wolves—the man was named appropriately, it seemed.

  “You will doubtless explain to me,” Bewcastle said in a pleasant enough voice, though his eyes were as cold as ice, “why your betrothal has been publicly announced to Bath society and not announced at all to Lady Freyja Bedwyn's family.”

  Joshua crossed one leg over the other. “It was an impetuous decision,” he said. “I proposed marriage to Lady Freyja during a waltz at the Upper Rooms, she said yes, and we decided to invite our fellow guests to share our joy.” His explanation sounded remarkably silly even to his own ears.

  “Ah, impetuosity,” Bewcastle said. “But you did not wish to invite her family also to share your joy, perhaps the next day or the day after—or the day after that?”

  There was an unfortunate pause while Joshua tossed about in his mind a few possible answers. There was no convincing answer, of course. This was all devilishly embarrassing.

  “Perhaps,” the duke suggested, “you intended to wait upon me at Lindsey Hall after the first euphoria of your engagement had passed?”

  “Lady Freyja is of age,” Joshua said. “Strictly speaking, we do not need your consent. We would have sought your blessing in time, yes. During this past week, as you have suggested, we have been enjoying each other's company rather too much to consider what ought to be done.”

  “You have, then,” the duke said softly, “conceived a passion for each other?”

  Oh, Lord. He was wading in deep waters, Joshua realized.

  “One might say so,” he said.

  “One might,” Bewcastle agreed. “But do you say so, Hallmere?”

  “I rather believe,” Joshua said carefully, “that my feelings for Lady Freyja and hers for me are our private concern.”

  “Quite so.” Bewcastle set down his half-empty glass, leaned back in his chair, set his elbows on the arms, and steepled his fingers. Silences, it seemed, did not embarrass him. It was a while before he continued. “It would seem, Hallmere, that you have always been an ambitious man.”

  Joshua raised his eyebrows.

  “It would be strange if you were not,” Bewcastle said. “All during your growing years you were one life removed from the heirdom to a marquess's title and property and fortune—a frustration, no doubt, to a penniless boy. And then that one life was extinguished under somewhat mysterious circumstances.”

  Good God! Joshua turned cold inside. At least it was now clear who had informed Bewcastle of the betrothal and why he had lost no time in coming to Bath.

  “Under tragic circumstances,” Joshua said. “Are you insinuating that you believe I had a hand in my cousin's death?”

  “I insinuate nothing,” his grace said, raising haughty eyebrows. “Very probably they were merely fortunate circumstances for you. You celebrated your new expectations by traveling extensively and, ah, sowing some wild oats, I believe?”

  “I spent five years in France,” Joshua said somewhat testily, “doing undercover spy work for the British government. I resent this interrogation, Bewcastle.”

  “Do you?” The duke still spoke softly. He was not to be drawn into any angry exchange, it seemed. “But you wish to marry my sister, Hallmere. I will interrogate any man who aspires to her hand, even if he has forced my hand by announcing his betrothal before speaking with me. You refused to marry the lowly gentlewoman you impregnated at Penhallow before you left there?”

  Joshua pursed his lips. It would be interesting to read the letter his aunt had written the Duke of Bewcastle. But he would not allow her malice to put him on the defensive before a stranger.

  “She never even asked me to marry her,” he said, grinning. “But I have supported her and the child for longer than five years.”

  Bewcastle showed no sign of sharing his amusement. He picked up his glass again and sipped from it. “Lady Freyja Bedwyn is the daughter of a duke,” he said. “She is also an extremely wealthy woman, as I daresay you know.”

  “I suppose I would have guessed it,” Joshua said, “if I had given the matter any thought.”

  “She is, in fact,” the duke said, “a quite brilliant match for you.”

  “And since we are speaking of rank and fortune,” Joshua said, grinning again, “I am something of a brilliant match for her too. It is what Bath society has been saying since the announcement was made, anyway.”

  The duke regarded him with cold hauteur. Too late, it struck Joshua that perhaps he should simply have told Bewcastle the truth. This mock betrothal was going to be over within the next week, after all. Why leave it to Lady Freyja to have to explain to her family?

  “You are not at all sure you approve of me,” he said. “I can hardly blame you. I proposed marriage to your sister without first consulting you as head of her family, and then I compounded that error by having the betrothal publicly announced during an assembly and by neglecting either to write to you or to call upon you immediately after. My aunt, I perceive, has performed that task for me. I can only say now that I have the deepest regard for your sister and will accept her decision if she should see fit to break off our engagement after listening to your advice.”

  There—perhaps that would give
them a decent way out of their predicament when the time came. This awkward visit of her brother to Bath might turn out for the best after all.

  The ducal eyebrows had risen.

  “Extraordinary!” Bewcastle said softly. “You would not fight for the woman you love, Hallmere?”

  “I certainly would not force any woman into a marriage against her will,” Joshua said.

  The duke set his empty glass down on the table beside him and Joshua took the gesture as a sign that the interview was at an end. He got to his feet.

  “I will be escorting Lady Freyja to a concert at the Upper Rooms tonight,” he said. “I will see you there?”

  The duke inclined his head.

  “I will bid you a good afternoon, then,” Joshua said, and left the room.

  He blew out air from his puffed cheeks as he stepped out of the Royal York Hotel. The Duke of Bewcastle was not going to grow any fonder of him when he disappeared from Lady Freyja's life in a few days' time. That would not matter one iota to him, of course, but it might matter a great deal to her, whether she then divulged the full truth or not.

  Devil take it! Life was getting just too complicated for comfort.

  But he grinned suddenly. It would be interesting indeed to be an invisible witness to the interview between Bewcastle and Lady Freyja that must be pending.

  It was one thing, Freyja thought, to have become involved in a betrothal in the eyes of Bath society; it was quite another suddenly to have one pair of those eyes belonging to Wulfric. Such inscrutable eyes too. They always had been. They had always been his single greatest asset when dealing with underlings, including his brothers and sisters.

  His other great asset was his patience—if that was the right word. Wulfric was never in a rush. He could bide his time forever while his quarry fidgeted and dithered and waited for him to pounce.

  All through tea at Lady Holt-Barron's he had made no further mention of the betrothal but had conversed politely about his journey and the state of the roads and about Bath and the weather and a dozen other topics. Then he had gone off walking back down into the city with the marquess, elegant and urbane, his eyes like two chips off a glacier.