Turning over another card, Jane found that it was an invitation from Lord Keaton Beaumont to join a small party visiting the theatre. She frowned, and decided on a quick refusal. She'd discouraged him, and couldn't understand the man. Why did he persist?
When she had walked with him in the park, Lord Keaton Beaumont was startled when she informed him that that she couldn't attend Vauxhall in his party. She'd explained that she was helping to bring out Lady Margaret next year, and that she couldn't become a focus of gossip.
"I see." He'd stared at her, his gaze unreadable.
She took a deep breath. "Besides, my lord… With a mind to what my brother said — I'm sorry, but I have no dowery at all."
He'd been startled into a laugh. "I'm Tommy no longer then?"
"You've decided to remarry my lord," she said carefully, "and as has been pointed out to me, you will be looking for an heiress. Whereas I my lord, have decided not to marry." She was embarrassed, but determined to speak. "I'm sorry to speak so plainly, and I imagine that Alex was totally wrong when he suggested that you might court me…"
"I do mean to court you," he said.
She frowned, and stared into his mild blue eyes. "Pardon?"
"I said, my lady, that I do mean to court you."
"I told you — I have no dowery at all. None. We can barely afford to pay the mortgage at Kennystowe."
"Lady Jane, perhaps I shouldn't tell you this — but I am in expectation — in certain expectation, of a great change in my circumstances. I know that the fashionable world expects that I require my future wife to be an heiress, but that's not so. I assure you, that my intentions are to ask you to be my wife one day soon."
She shook her head. She couldn't marry him.
He persisted, in the face of her discouragement. "Lady Jane, I feel that we would suit. You have all the qualities I require in a wife, and you are beautiful besides. I'm sure that my daughters will love you. You will make a wonderful mother for them. I know that I'm selfish, because I love my daughters… You have connections they will need… And for myself, I need you as my wife."
She shook her head again, completely at sea. A word had stuck in her mind. "Expectations?"
He nodded firmly. "Indeed. I can't say more at present… But I assure you that my intentions toward you are all that they should be."
She'd had to be satisfied with that.
She stared down at the invitation. She'd go to the library at once, and send her refusal.
An interesting man
Although Henry was unwilling, Jane tried to cozen her into going shopping with her and Lady Margaret.
"I meant to go down to the stables this afternoon," Henry complained.
They had just finished luncheon. Catherine was reading a newspaper, which she laid aside and stared at her sister. "You spent this morning at the stables, my dear. So, now you'll go shopping, instead. You've managed to avoid accompanying us when we ordered Babette's wedding clothes, but you will accompany Jane."
"I don't like shopping."
Catherine raised her eyebrows at her sister. "Is that so… You do realize that you have five horses in town, my sweet? All five are in full work – which means that they're eating the heads off. Why do you need five horses?"
Henry shook her head. "You can't mean to complain about my horses! I pay for them. I have my allowance."
"Which you spend on buying yet more horses. Your allowance comes nowhere near the money required for your horses. I want you to send three of them to Gostwicke Hall, where they can be put out to grass. Henry, we can't afford five of your horses in town."
Jane bit her lip to prevent herself from smiling. She knew that Catherine would win the argument.
Finally, Henry said, "very well then, I'll go shopping. But my horses stay in town."
To Jane's surprise, Kelly called a few minutes after she'd sent around to the mews for the carriage.
Mr. Morley tapped on Henry's door, and reported that the major was waiting for them in the downstairs drawing room. He had come to escort them when they went shopping with his sister.
Jane was in Henry's room, choosing a bonnet for her to wear. Catherine had insisted on a broad brim, she was sure that Henry spent time too much time outdoors and was in imminent danger of freckles.
Henry brightened immediately at the thought of Kelly accompanying them."How wonderful. I don't mind going now, I didn't realize that Kelly was joining us."
Kelly smiled broadly when they came downstairs. He bowed to them both. "Thank you for helping Meggie," he said to Jane. "And thank you too of course, Henry."
Henry immediately took his arm, and began to chatter about horses. That was the benefit of going somewhere with Henry, Jane reflected, Henry could talk to anyone as long as they were interested in horses, and most men were.
Jane asked Mr. Morley to tell the coachmen that the carriage wasn't needed; they would go with Major Baker-Cornhill.
When they reached Branxton House, Lady Margaret wasn't quite ready, so they waited in the drawing room. Henry had gone around to their mews, to look at a new mount which Kelly had bought for Lady Margaret.
"I saw you in the park with Lord Keaton Beaumont," Kelly said abruptly, staring at her.
He'd seen her in the park?
"You'd stopped walking," he said. "You were deep in conversation with Tommy… A rather intimate conversation, it seemed to me — he stood far too close to you. My companion remarked on it. Has he asked you to marry him yet?"
"He — I… we wouldn't suit."
"I'm relieved that you realize that. Thank you. There's no reason he should be bothering you, and you should see no more of that man."
She stared at him. No reason Tommy would be interested in her? She couldn't believe it. "Why?" Jane fought down her temper.
Kelly rubbed the back of his neck, and wouldn't meet her gaze. "There's a lot you don't know about Tommy Keaton. There are questions."
"Questions?"
He shook his head sharply. "Questions which don't concern you," he said firmly. "He was seen on Elba, just as Philip said — that's been confirmed. We don't know why he was there, but he should not have been. So don't see any more of him."
Jane bit her lip. She narrowed her gaze on him. "I'll do as I like." She knew that she sounded petulant. However, she couldn't avoid feeling angry. "I like Tommy. He is a gentleman."
Kelly snorted. He folded his arms, and leaned back his shoulder against the wall. "A gentleman is it? Well then, you should know that your precious gentlemen has been visiting moneylenders. No one knows why anybody would be fool enough to lend that man money… and no common moneylenders, besides. He's involved with some very dangerous people who never lend money without the sure and certain knowledge that the money will be returned to them. Or they take out the debt in blood."
"You're blackening the man's character!"
"Tommy Keaton has no character. He escaped to the continent because of his debts, not for any sentimental reason… Live retired, indeed. You ask why you should avoid Tommy, and that's why — he's no character at all. More importantly, he's said to a couple of men that he has expectations. He's involved in some dangerous dealings. Just as I'd prevent Margaret from being seen in his company, I'll do my best to prevent you as well."
"I'm not your sister!"
"No you're not," he said briefly. "Margaret wouldn't be such a fool as to involve herself with Tommy Keaton."
So now she was a fool? Jane rarely lost her temper, but she felt close to it.
Luckily, Lady Margaret entered the room. She curtsied to Jane. And glanced at her brother with curiosity in her gaze. "Kelly? I heard you out in the hall — you're arguing again?"
"Certainly not — Lady Jane and I were talking, that's all… you look well in that walking dress, Meggie… are you ready to go shopping so that you can set the town on its heels next year?"
"I've decided that I will have a season," Lady Margaret announced. "As Fee says, I only need to do it once. I will find a kind gentle
man to marry, and then return to Edinburgh."
Kelly stared at her for a moment, then shook his head at her. "You do realize that your husband may not want to live in Edinburgh?"
She sniffed at that. "He'd have to agree, otherwise I wouldn't marry him, would I?"
The carriage was brought around, and they set off for Bond Street. Lady Jane avoided looking at Kelly, and focused her attention on the two young women. Henry and Lady Margaret were soon involved in a conversation about horses, and since neither of them was much interested in what they wore beyond looking well, they were soon in charity with each other.
Jane didn't know how she managed to survive the afternoon. She set herself out to be everything that would be expected in an older lady who was readying two young ladies to make their bow to society. It would be just another year before Henry would be ready for her first season too.
Shopping over, Kelly escorted them into Eardley House, and then left them to rejoin his sister in his carriage. Mr. Morley ordered another footman to help Cormac with their parcels.
When they went upstairs, Henry said to Jane, "I don't know why you're so unkind to Kelly. You wouldn't speak with him at all." She turned at the top of the stairs, put her hand on Jane's arm, and said earnestly: "Tommy is well enough, but he already has two children. Perhaps he is only looking for a mother for them. Whereas Kelly is a very interesting man, do you not agree? I grant you, he's been married before, and shows no signs of marrying again, but you could convince him to change his mind."
Jane wanted to say that she wouldn't have Kelly if he happened to be the last man on earth, but she couldn't say that to Henry. "I –"
Just then Bunny came out of the large drawing room and spotted them. "I thought I heard a carriage. How wonderful – I'm sure you've done a lot of shopping — what did you buy?"
When she reached her own rooms, Jane gave vent to her temper. She picked up a cushion from her bed and slammed it onto the mattress several times. Then she dropped the cushion onto the floor and kicked it as hard as she could. It flew across the room and hit the door.
A moment later, Lizzie opened the door and stared at her. "My lady? Whatever's happened?"
Jane took a deep breath, and smiled tightly. "Nothing, I'm merely a little tired."
"Let me arrange a bath, we've time before dinner — I'll go and organize it at once."
Jane sat on her bed and put her head in her hands. She had just realized something horrible. She was in love with Kelly Baker-Cornhill.
A gambler, a flirt, known far and wide as a rake, and definitely a man who thought her a fool. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes.
She wouldn't allow it. She was a spinster. She would never marry, and moreover, she didn't want to. Kelly was nothing to her. She would see as little of him as possible.
She would forget him.
Although Jane didn't see Kelly for the next three weeks, he was never far from her mind. That should not have surprised her. She realized that she'd thought of Kelly several times a day ever since she'd met him. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't keep him out of her mind.
Catherine had accepted the standing invitation for them to join a shooting party, on Lord Ferrymore's estate in Norfolk. Babette's wedding would take place a week before they left.
Jane knew that Doyle, on Catherine's orders, had compiled a dossier on Mr. Knightsbridge. She was curious about what he'd discovered.
One day, in the library, she and Catherine were alone, so she had the opportunity to ask. Catherine was reckoning up her accounts to prepare the servants' pay, while Jane embroidered pretty sleeves for one of Babette's new gowns.
Catherine unlocked one of the drawers in her desk, then brought a sheaf of papers back to the library table.
She leafed through the papers, and sighed. "Nothing bad, unfortunately… Indeed, there is much that is good. The man is a wealthy merchant, with several estates, no previous marriage, and no children." She paused. "We should be happy that she will have a comfortable home, and that Mr. Knightsbridge will respect her as he should…"
Jane knew that there was more. She waited.
Catherine tapped her fingertips on the table. She sniffed. "Of course, the man means to use Babette's connections so that his son will be a gentleman." She hesitated for a moment. "He's younger than I expected. He is just 30. And Doyle says that he looks well, dresses well, and has good manners and deportment."
Jane wasn't certain how she should respond. "Then — we should be happy for Babette?"
Catherine shrugged. "It galls me to admit it, but yes — Grove has done well by her. Although Mr. Knightsbridge is a merchant, he seems fond of Babette, and I've learned nothing ill of him. He did have a mistress, but that ended a year ago."
Jane bit her lip so that she wouldn't smile. Catherine sounded very disgruntled. No doubt she had hoped that she would hear something truly horrible about Mr. Knightsbridge, so that she could challenge her husband.
"I daresay you imagine me very foolish. Babette is a Grove's natural daughter, and I should be happy that she's making such a good match."
"But you'd hoped for more." Jane knew that it galled Catherine that Grove had managed such a reasonable match for his daughter.
"There's nothing to be done." Catherine set aside the dossier's sheets. "Nevertheless — I am determined that we will help Babette as much as we can. She won't have a season, but she will have friends in the fashionable world. And she will have a wonderful trousseau too."
Since Lady Margaret had finally accustomed herself to having a season, Jane saw her twice a week for lessons in deportment.
One day, with her wedding just a week away, Babette was visiting Eardley House, so Jane decided that she would take the two girls shopping. She had a couple of gowns to pick up for Catherine from Madame Lola, and she wanted the girls to order winter cloaks.
"You might arrange for two new riding habits for Babette as well," Catherine said. "Doyle tells me that Knightsbridge keeps a reasonable stable — and that the man has already been to Tattersall's to buy two hacks for Babette."
Catherine, Henry, and Bunny were out making calls. Jane ordered the town carriage, and she and Babette drove to Branxton House to pick up Lady Margaret.
Bunny had asked Jane to call in at Hatchard's in Piccadilly to pick up a parcel of books. So after their other shopping, they went to the bookshop.
Jane left the girls to choose any books they wanted from amongst the latest novels, while she went to look at books on household management for Babette. She had already chosen several wedding presents for the young lady, and it had occurred to her that household management book would be a most useful and appropriate wedding gift.
Further into the shop, she became engrossed in a table which contained books of a lower price. The shelves surrounding her were tall, and there were few shoppers in this part of the shop. Suddenly, a voice which she recognized made her look up.
Tommy stood in the doorway to the shop's second room. He was speaking to someone. Jane didn't want to speak to him, so she backed further away behind another shelf. Tommy persisted in asking her to go riding or walking with him, but she had refused each invitation.
When he walked further into the main showroom of the shop, she saw that he was with another man. Quite a young man, who was dressed in the first stare of fashion, with an elegance Brummell might have envied. From the gloss on his top hat, to the gleam of his Hoby boots, the man strutted with the nonchalance of a Bond Street lounger.
The two men put their heads together. Tommy was taller, and he leaned over the other man as if… Jane blinked.
That was no young man. It was Ninon Parisi. Madame Parisi, dressed as a young man. She stared. Perhaps Madame had a brother? But no, she recalled Madame's ivory completion, with the slight lines at the corners of her eyes. No man had a smooth complexion like that.
She knew that couldn't be mistaken, because at that moment, the young man laughed — a tinkling laugh which she remembered w
ell from the night of Lady Tinerbrow's ball.
She frowned. Ninon? She was sure that Catherine had mentioned that Madame had taken ship at Portsmouth… By now, she should be well on her way to St. Helena.
Jane backed even further away. She didn't want Tommy or the woman to see her. He laughed, and she glimpsed them through a gap in a shelf of books. He was escorting Madame to the back of the shop. Then she heard a door open and close, and they'd gone.
She stood for a long moment, her hand on a bookshelf, thinking. She was suddenly very glad that she'd refused Lord Keaton Beaumont's invitations.
"What's the matter?" Meggie asked, when Jane rejoined her and Babette. "You're looking a little pale. Do you feel unwell?"
Jane thought for a moment. Kelly should know of this, she realized. “Lady Margaret, is Major Baker-Cornhill in London? Alex sent me a message for him, so I'll write him a note."
"Yes. Kelly called on us yesterday — he's back in town, and has agreed to escort me to Lord Ferrymore's house party."
Jane knew that she had to let Kelly know that she'd seen Ninon. And Tommy. She remembered Major Grove's words. A good friend knows for a fact that he saw Keaton Beaumont in Paris in the weeks after Waterloo. And saw him again, with a member of General Bonaparte's staff at on Elba.
Whatever was Tommy up to? Ninon Parisi should be on her way to St. Helena, and yet here she was — in Hatchard's with Tommy.
Of course, it might mean nothing at all. And Kelly might know of it already, but nevertheless, she would send him a note.
Chapter 9
Lizzie was helping Jane to dress for dinner, when Mr. Morley sent a footman upstairs to tell her that Major Baker-Cornhill begged a minute of her time.
Kelly was waiting for her in the small drawing room on the lower floor of the house near the foyer.
He stood when she entered the room. "Jane? You wished to see me? Meggie said that you had a message from Lord Alex — but your note mentioned Madame Parisi?"
The Lady And The Military Man_Conquer My Heart Page 10
