“Good evening, Miss Edison. I must say, you are looking awfully well.” Hugh smiled at her.
“Good evening, Lord Farrington,” Serena remembered herself at the last minute and decided it would not be quite the thing to call him Hugh in front of his brother, the Duke. “I am very well indeed.”
“Would you permit me to introduce my brother to you, Miss Edison?” Hugh smiled at her brightly, and yet somehow Serena could not get the ideas planted by Eleanor Cunningham out of her mind.
As nice as it had been to meet the Duke and Duchess of Calgarth, Serena had not been able to enjoy it as she should have. Gabriel and Evelyn Farrington had been just about the most agreeable couple she had ever met, but still, Serena could not shake the cloud of dull feeling which seemed to have settled on her. However, Serena felt sure that she had let nothing of her low mood spill out into their brief and friendly conversation.
“I felt sure you would like my brother, Miss Edison. I am so glad you have finally met,” Hugh said the moment his brother and sister-in-law had excused themselves to partake of other company.
“They are a very agreeable and gracious couple, Hugh,” Serena said and smiled.
“Well, I am very glad to hear you say that for it makes it a much more comfortable thing for me to ask you to perhaps come over to Calgarth Hall for afternoon tea next week. Or even dinner, if you have a mind to it.” Hugh was smiling broadly and seemed rather excited by his suggestion.
Serena thought if only she could find herself in the same mood as Hugh then everything would be alright. However, she could not help thinking of Eleanor Cunningham’s words. A not unblemished reputation. What exactly did that mean?
“Oh yes,” Serena said, a little vaguely.
“I say, are you quite well? You have gone awfully quiet all of a sudden, Miss Edison?” Hugh looked at her with concern.
Perhaps Hugh always looked at young ladies with concern. Perhaps that was all part of it. After all, Hugh Farrington was a handsome man and, undoubtedly, he received much female attention. Certainly, at the medieval sugar banquet, there had been many a young lady looking his way. And Serena could hardly forget how it was they had first met in the camellia garden at Rosedown Manor. Hugh had been on the run from two young ladies, had he not? Of course, Serena had assumed the young ladies to be entirely at fault; they were undoubtedly looking for husbands or titles. But had he been entirely blameless? Was this what Eleanor Cunningham had meant by a short attention span?
“Oh, my dear Hugh Farrington. I felt sure it was you I was looking at from across the room. Do forgive me for making my way over here, but I simply had to see you.” Serena and Hugh turned in unison to look at a strikingly beautiful young woman standing before them.
She was rather an exotic sort of woman with very dark wavy hair, pale skin, and chocolate brown eyes. Hurriedly, Serena looked from the young lady to Hugh and back again and was disheartened to note that Hugh looked decidedly uncomfortable.
“Good evening, Miss Asquith. I am very well indeed; I thank you. And you are well?” Hugh said, rather shortly.
“I am exceedingly well now that I have laid eyes upon you, my dear,” the young woman said, and Serena could not help thinking the greeting a little too informal considering the young woman had encroached upon a conversation knowing only one of the party.
“Please allow me to introduce you to Miss Serena Edison.” Hugh sounded distinctly annoyed. “Miss Edison, this is Miss Lucrecia Asquith.”
“Good evening, Miss Asquith. How very nice to make your acquaintance,” Serena said, trying very hard to appear unaffected by the whole thing.
In truth, Hugh’s demeanour had left Serena in little doubt that the young lady who currently stood before her had been rather better acquainted with Hugh Farrington than she herself might have liked to consider. The whole thing felt suddenly terribly humiliating.
“Oh, I am charmed, Miss Edison.” The young woman gave her a perfunctory smile before turning her attention full upon Hugh. “I was rather hoping that you might ask me to dance at some point this evening, Hugh. We always did dance rather well together, did we not?”
“I am afraid I have already asked Miss Edison to dance with me this evening, Miss Asquith.” Hugh was almost scowling at the young woman.
It struck Serena as rather odd that Lucrecia Asquith did not seem at all perturbed by Hugh’s cold manners.
“But you cannot have asked Miss Edison to dance every single dance with you,” Lucrecia Asquith said, clearly wheedling.
“I am rather afraid I have. Now, I do beg that you would excuse us, Miss Asquith,” Hugh said and turned his back upon the young woman in a decidedly rude manner.
With a small laugh, which sounded rather triumphant to Serena, Lucrecia Asquith slowly walked away.
“I do hope you shall not mind dancing every single dance with me, Miss Edison,” Hugh said and seemed to be trying his hardest to brush the whole thing off.
However, Serena could see through the facade and knew that the entire encounter had upended him to a large degree.
“Well, I shall do my very best,” Serena said and knew full well that her voice was giving her away.
In truth, Serena wanted to go home. She most certainly did not want to spend the evening dancing with the man she was beginning to suspect might not be quite the man she had thought him to be.
Still, she knew she would simply have to get through the evening one way or another and was quite determined that she would make it through without running away. What she needed more than anything was time alone to think deeply about everything she had discovered that evening and to come to some conclusions of her own.
Chapter Nine
“So, you are actually going out in the dark of night looking for a hole in the ground, my dear chap?” Charles Lockhart let loose the most booming laughter.
“I suppose I am really. However, you put the thing most simplistically, Charles, and you do so on purpose,” Hugh said, and chuckled.
“You are absolutely right, and I am justly reproved for my mockery,” Charles said although he continued to laugh.
“But yes, I am. And I am afraid that I was given the first turn at it all. In truth, I could hardly see a thing. Gabriel has insisted that we simply search by moonlight in case Cornelius Cunningham has somebody out watching the place.” Hugh gave a great sigh.
“Then I cannot imagine that you covered much ground in that fashion, my friend.” Charles had stopped laughing but very much seemed as if he would likely start up again at any moment.
“No, not a great deal of ground,” Hugh said and shrugged. “I rather doubt we are going to find the thing this way, at any rate.”
“That is if the pit entrance is there at all,” Charles said, shaking his head. “After all, it could be anywhere on the perimeter of the Horndean Duchy lands. That is surely more miles than you and your four brothers can cover in darkness and only on nights of a good moon.”
“If you are about to start laughing again, Charles, I warn you to save it. I am not in the mood.” Hugh said little shortly.
“I know you are not in the mood, my dear friend. I have known it ever since you strode in here this morning. Now, are you going to tell me exactly what it is that is bothering you or are we going to continue talking nonsense about holes in the ground on the Duchy of Horndean lands?”
“You can be quite perceptive at times, Charles,” Hugh said a little surprised. “And please do forgive me for my manner. I really am rather out of sorts if I am completely honest.”
“Then do tell me what it is,” Charles said with a grin. “Although I rather think I can guess.”
“Oh, you can, can you?”
“I have the strongest suspicion that this is about Miss Serena Edison. After all, she is all that you care about enough to allow your spirits to dip so very low, is she not?”
“Yes,” Hugh said without any argument. “Yes, my spirits are so very low, and Miss Serena Edison is the cause of it.”
“Do tell.”
“Actually, she is not the cause of it. I daresay that I am the cause of it.”
“How so?”
“It was at the ball held by Lord and Lady Willingham two weeks ago. I had more or less managed to get Serena to myself for a little while when suddenly Lucrecia Asquith appeared as if from nowhere.”
“Lucrecia Asquith? Good Lord … that is a name from the very distant past.”
“Yes, I was most surprised to see her there. I could hardly imagine that she had been invited specifically. I rather wondered if somebody else had taken her along as a guest.”
“Quite likely, my dear chap. But whatever did she say?”
“It was not exactly what she said that was important, Charles, but rather the way she said things. It struck me that she very much tried to give the impression to Serena that she and I had been a lot closer than ever we truly had been.”
“Well, you were rather close, my dear chap,” Charles said, playing devil’s advocate.
“We were close acquaintances, Charles, but there was never an understanding of any sort between us. In truth, I rather backed away before something of that nature was expected of me.”
“And it was some time ago, was it not?”
“It must be more than seven years ago, Charles. In truth, I cannot think that I have seen much of her in all that time. I had rather thought she had left the County at one point.”
“Well, perhaps seeing you there affected the poor woman more than she might ever have imagined. Perhaps that is why she approached you and Serena Edison in the first place,” Charles said, thoughtfully.
“You might be right, Charles. After all, the whole thing was so very direct. There seemed to be no build-up to the thing. Lucrecia simply strode up to us, made a very hasty greeting, and then embarked upon a rather determined mission of sorts.”
“Oh, now that seems a little unusual,” Charles mused. “I mean, even if she had been surprised to see you there and her feelings had taken her by surprise … still that seems an awfully determined and focused sort of way to go about things.”
“What are you thinking, Charles?” Hugh said, so desperate to make some progress that he even considered taking his old friend’s advice.
In truth, Charles was not particularly well-known for the handing out of sound advice. However, Hugh had found himself becoming rather desperate. It had been more than two weeks since the ball, and he had heard not one word from Serena. He had twice attended Lady Belton’s Wednesday afternoon bridge session and had not found her there on either occasion. Even Lady Belton herself had been a little concerned that one of her most faithful attendees had not arrived.
“It is an odd sort of a thing, Hugh, especially since I was not there and did not see it for myself. However, I have the most distinct impression that the whole thing sounds rather staged. Almost as if somebody had put the young lady up to it.”
“Really?”
“For one thing, nobody has seen Lucrecia Asquith for a good long while. Yet, suddenly, she appears at the same ball that you are attending and one where she has never been a particular friend or acquaintance of the host and hostess.” Charles chewed thoughtfully at his bottom lip. “And then suddenly she makes her way straight over to you and Serena Edison, finding you mercifully alone so that she can deliver her little speech without causing herself any embarrassment in front of others. It all seems a little too convenient.”
“But who would …?” Hugh said as reality began to dawn upon him. “Eleanor and Oscar Cunningham.”
“The Cunninghams were there?” Charles said his eyes wide.
“Only brother and sister, but that is enough.” Hugh slapped himself hard on the forehead. “Oh, why did I not see it before?”
“Am I to presume that Serena took the whole thing rather badly?” Charles went on.
“She was a little quiet at the time, Charles, but dignified as always. The problem is, I have not seen her since. She has not even attended her bridge afternoons on Wednesdays.”
“Oh dear,” Charles said, leaning back in his seat a little and looking concerned. “What on earth do you intend to do?”
“I think I must call upon her,” Hugh said in a most determined fashion.
“Oh no, I do not think that a good idea, my friend,” Charles said shaking his head.
“Why ever not?”
“Because you do not yet know if she has mentioned the thing to her family at all. If she has, then it is unlikely that you shall be a welcome visitor. The whole thing will be most embarrassing, and you will not get your moment in which to explain your suspicions to her.”
“But I must see her.”
“Then you shall have to bump into her, my dear man,” Charles said and shrugged. “You have managed the thing quite well before.”
“But she seems to have stopped going about much in public at the moment. How on earth am I to find her?”
“That, my dear friend, is something you shall have to be creative with.”
Chapter Ten
It was a pleasant sort of an afternoon, and so Serena decided she would take a good turn about the grounds. Rosedown Manor had the most beautiful grounds imaginable, and they really were rather extensive given the size of their modest country mansion. However, on that day, Serena was really rather glad of the immense grounds for it meant that she could be out of the house for a good length of time and remain entirely alone on the furthest reaches of their estate.
Serena’s mother had become a little tiresome, albeit that the poor woman was simply worried about her daughter. Serena knew that she had become a little withdrawn but could hardly tell Lady Edison exactly what the problem was. Her refusal to speak about things had simply fuelled Lady Edison’s concern and had found the dear woman following her daughter from room to room in a bid to discover the source of her unease.
In truth, Serena had hardly spoken to her mother about Hugh Farrington at all and, as such, she doubted her mother would understand quite why it was she was so upset by the idea that he might not be quite the man she had thought him to be.
In the end, Serena had only been able to confide in Jemima Westley who had called upon her when she had missed her second afternoon of bridge in a row. Jemima really was such a kind and caring person, and Serena liked her very much indeed. In the end, as they had sipped tea in the peace and quiet of the drawing-room, Serena had found herself telling her young friend everything.
“Yes, Eleanor did ask me if Hugh Farrington had attended Lady Belton’s bridge afternoon. I must admit, I had been a little upended by her question, but I answered it anyway. She did seem awfully keen to find out if you and he had spent any time in each other’s company. Again, I must admit I was a little disquieted by it. I was rather left with the impression that she or somebody that she knows had seen you with Lord Farrington at some point, and she was keen for further details. She seemed extremely keen to find out how well the two of you got along together.”
“That seems rather curious,” Serena said, wondering quite why Lady Eleanor Cunningham would be at all interested in her romantic inclinations. “Why on earth would she be interested in me?”
“I daresay it was Hugh Farrington she was interested in,” Jemima said with a shrug.
“Oh, I see.” Serena looked down at her lap, fearing the worst.
“Oh no, Serena, they have no connection,” Jemima said and gave a light laugh. “Unless you count the feud that has stood between the two families for years and years.”
“Feud?” Serena said, shaking her head a little in confusion.
“Have you never heard of the animosity between the two Duchies?”
“I daresay I have heard a little of it over the years, but I cannot draw any of it to mind. I think I have only ever been aware of it in a historical sense.”
“No, it is not historical, my dear. Rather it is very current indeed. Were you not aware that the new Duchess of Calgarth was previously engaged to Lord Richard Cu
nningham?”
“No, I was not.”
“And so, you are not aware that Gabriel Farrington rather stole her away from Richard Cunningham! That was the reason their engagement was broken,” Jemima said, her eyes wide with excitement.
“No, I knew nothing about it.”
“I have to wonder if Eleanor Cunningham’s words to you were not designed to rather affect Hugh Farrington and not yourself.”
“But Hugh does have a certain characteristic that would make him very attractive to many young ladies,” Serena said, thinking out loud.
“Indeed, he does,” Jemima said forthrightly. “Hugh Farrington is a very handsome and rather funny sort of a man. He has a very open nature, although he is perhaps a little too open on occasion. All in all, Hugh Farrington rather strikes me as a very nice man indeed.”
“So, you would not say that he has something of a tarnished reputation when it comes to young ladies?”
“No, I would not,” Jemima said positively. “He receives a lot of attention; that is true. Indeed, he smiles and laughs and accepts a lot of the attention. But that does not make him a bad man, Serena. I think it simply makes him a very handsome and very popular man who has yet to find the young woman he is truly looking for.” Jemima shrugged. “Until now, that is.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Oh, I am certain of it.” Jemima smiled. “When I was talking to you in Lady Belton’s drawing-room, Hugh Farrington could not take his eyes from you. The very moment he entered the room, he searched for you and, as soon as he saw you with me, he sidled his way over. He was hovering, and there was no mistaking it. And the very moment I moved away I noticed that he almost tripped over himself to get to you. I have never seen Hugh Farrington behave like that in all the years I have known him.”
“So, you think I ought to give him the benefit of the doubt?”
“I certainly think you ought to think about it, my dear.”
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