The Society Catch (Harlequin Historical)

by Allen, Louise

  ‘John will go down at ten, miss. There’ll be just time after your bath.’

  Clad in one of three charming new muslin gowns with a pair of wafer-thin kid sandals on her feet, Joanna sat down to pen the second note to her mother since she ran away. This one had just as many tear-stains as the first, but they were happy tears. Having seen the wardrobe her mama had sent, Joanna could not be in any doubt she was forgiven, even if she had not read the short affectionate note Hebe had given her.

  And please give my most dutiful love to Papa and assure him that I am all too aware of the distress and anxiety I must have caused you. I will do my best to make myself useful here at Tasborough and look forward to seeing you all again very soon. With all my love, your affectionate daughter, Joanna.

  She conned the two pages of closely written words and hoped that they conveyed her regrets. And yet… She folded the pages and wrote the address of the Bath hotel on the front before handing it to Polly to seal. And yet…she would do it again if she had to. She would most certainly not allow herself to be coerced into a loveless marriage, that was for certain, whatever the next Season held for her.

  Hebe looked up from the fashion magazine she was scanning as Joanna walked into the room and said immediately, ‘My dear! You look so fierce, whatever is the matter?’

  ‘Good morning, Hebe.’ Joanna bent to kiss her cousin’s cheek and joined her at the little table set in the wide bay window of Hebe’s bedchamber. ‘I am sorry if I was scowling: it was simply that I am resolved not to allow myself to be pushed into marriage, however grateful I am that I appear to be forgiven.’

  ‘The clothes?’ Hebe rang the silver bell beside her plate. ‘Yes, I wondered about those. They are a notable peace offering indeed. You may serve breakfast now, Starling, thank you. Has John taken the post? Miss Joanna will have a letter.’

  ‘I have already given it to Polly, thank you, Starling.’ Joanna took ham from the proffered plate and allowed Hebe to pour her a cup of coffee.

  When Starling had left the room her cousin asked bluntly, ‘Why did you not come to me in the first place, Joanna? You know I will do everything I can to help.’

  ‘I thought…Mama said your confinement was very near, and from something she said it sounded as though you were very tired and perhaps Alex was a little worried about you—’ She broke off and eyed Hebe anxiously. ‘You are all right, are you not?’

  ‘Absolutely fine,’ Hebe assured her, buttering a roll. ‘It is just that this seems to be the biggest baby in the world and the weather is so hot. And Alex will fuss so. If only Giles had not put the idea of twins into his head! I am delighted to see you and I want to do everything I can to help.’

  ‘I am not sure anyone else can,’ Joanna said ruefully. ‘I ran away to think, but all I succeeded in doing was putting Giles to a great deal of trouble, inconveniencing some complete strangers—the Geddings, who are delightful people, by the way—almost ending up in a London brothel and distressing my family.’

  ‘A brothel?’ Hebe dropped her bread roll and stared aghast at Joanna. ‘I wondered what she was so very tactfully avoiding in the letters I had from your mama.’

  ‘I had better explain.’ Joanna recounted the tale of her adventures from the moment she crept away from Charles Street in the dawn light to her rescue by Giles and arrival at the Geddings. ‘And, Hebe, we must do something about those poor girls who have been already forced into prostitution in those places. I cannot, as an unmarried girl, but you could…’

  ‘Yes, of course, we must discuss it soon, after the baby,’ Hebe said distractedly. ‘Joanna, I had no idea you had been in so much danger, it must have been terrifying. But why did you run away in the first place? And why did you not come to me from the Geddings? Your mama had agreed to that, after all.’

  ‘I did not come because…because Mrs Gedding had found a horrible chaperon who guessed I was in disgrace and who was going to read me religious tracts all the way here. And I knew Alex would be furious with me for worrying you and I could not bear…’ Her voice trailed away as she bit back a sob.

  Hebe leaned over and took her hand. ‘Could not bear what, darling? Surely you did not think I would lecture you?’

  ‘You and Alex are so…so happy. And there’s little Hugh and the baby coming and now I am never…’

  Hebe reached for her reticule and passed over a square of fine linen. ‘So it is a man? The reason behind all this?’

  Joanna nodded, not meeting Hebe’s eyes.

  ‘What has he done to you? You can tell me, dearest. I will not be shocked, whatever it is. When you imply that now you cannot have a family of your own…’

  ‘Oh, nothing like that! He has done nothing at all, except be in love with someone else.’

  ‘But he made you promises, led you to believe…’

  ‘No. He is quite blameless and he has not the slightest idea I love him. But I do love him, and for ever. And when I found out that it was hopeless, that he loved someone else and wanted to marry her, I just could not think what to do with the rest of my life, and Mama insisted that I marry Rufus Carstairs, whom I hate. So I ran away to think.’

  Hebe put down her knife and stared at her cousin. ‘But when did you meet this man, Joanna? You have always been so…I mean, we used to joke that you were the perfect débutante.’

  ‘I cannot tell you where I met him. The only reason I wanted to be “perfect” was for him,’ Joanna said bleakly. ‘Everything was for him. And, yes, it was a very foolish thing to do, for I never thought about the real man at all, only about my thoughts and my plans and my feelings. He was a dream, an ideal. Nothing you can say will reproach me any more than I reproach myself.’

  ‘Then if you recognise that,’ Hebe said, eagerly seizing on Joanna’s realism, ‘then you know it is not real and you can hope for another person to enter your heart and your life.’

  ‘No.’ Joanna shook her head sadly. ‘I may have fallen for an ideal, and I know the real man is not a pattern book of virtues. But I still love him. I love him even more for being flesh and blood. And there will never be anyone else. Not while he lives.’

  ‘Who is it, Joanna?’

  ‘I will not tell you.’

  ‘Do I know him?’

  ‘I will not tell you.’

  Hebe sat back, one hand on the swell of her stomach and winced. ‘Stop kicking, Frederick!’

  ‘Frederick?’

  ‘It is what I call the baby—just in jest, you understand. I am sure he has eight feet, and all of them booted. Joanna, how can I help you if you will not confide in me?’

  ‘You cannot help me, no one can. I must simply find my own way through this. If only I were an heiress, at least I could become an eccentric spinster and do something about those unfortunate women. As it is, I suppose I must become the typical unmarried daughter. I am sorry, Hebe, I cannot expect you to understand.’

  ‘But I do. For several long, horrible weeks I thought that Alex was going to marry someone else. If that had happened, I do not know what I would have done or whether I could ever have contemplated marrying another man. It came right for me, Joanna; we must make it come right, somehow, for you.’

  ‘I wish I had your confidence.’ Joanna took a long sip of her coffee. ‘But I am not going to repine, for that will not help me. Nor will running away, I know that now. I am here, I have your support, my parents appear to have forgiven me and I hope I can be of some use to you for a while.’

  Hebe looked doubtful. ‘Promise you will tell me if there is anything, anything at all…’

  ‘I promise. Where is Alex?’

  ‘He rode over to Giles’s family home with him first thing. Giles is very worried about his father, as I am sure you know. Alex has promised to support the fiction that Giles is spending a summer of wild indulgence—you know about that as well, I expect?’

  ‘I do. His mother sounds a most unusual lady, does she not?’

  ‘She is charming, but very unconventional. When you get t
o know Giles really well you can see her in him. But I expect all you saw was the perfect cavalry officer!’

  ‘Er…yes. He is certainly used to his orders being carried out, is he not?’

  ‘Alex says he is the best officer of his acquaintance. It is so sad he is selling out, he would have had a glittering career.’

  ‘He said something about not wishing to be a peacetime officer,’ Joanna said indifferently. The pleasure of speaking about Giles was insidious. She was terrified of saying too much, yet to avoid the subject of her rescuer would seem suspicious. Or so she told herself. ‘He is going to stay there—his home, I mean?’

  ‘Oh, no. Would you pass the conserve. Thank you.’

  ‘Of course, I was forgetting, he was planning on going to Brighton.’

  ‘No. He is going to stay here—unless he finds things much worse at home with the General. I think he realised I would appreciate him distracting Alex and he said something about buying horses as well. Anyway, he seemed quite content to stay for a few weeks. And it will be company for you.’

  ‘Oh, possibly,’ Joanna said forcing an air of vagueness into her voice. ‘Although I am sure the poor man has had quite enough of my society to last him a lifetime!’

  Inside her heart was beating like a drum. Giles at Tasborough for weeks, Giles at meals, Giles every evening in the relaxed atmosphere of a family home. It had been difficult enough hiding how she felt from him, but now she would not be able to relax for a moment. How was she going to hide her feelings in front of Hebe’s anxious, intelligent eyes?

  To her relief, Hebe did not appear to want to know the details of their journey. Even the most tolerant cousin was going to baulk at the news of an unchaperoned night in an inn and long rides across country with no escort whatsoever. Joanna caught Hebe easing her position in her chair to give her back more support and guessed that, having got her safe and sound, she was just too preoccupied to think of delving deeper.

  Giles and Alex did not arrive back until late afternoon, finding both ladies sitting under the shade of a spreading cedar of Lebanon on the back lawn. To Joanna’s loving eye, Giles looked serious but as though a weight had been lifted from him. When Starling brought a tray of lemonade and cakes out, she changed position under the pretext of passing glasses and sat beside him.

  ‘How did you find the General? Is his health still causing Lady Gregory concern?’

  ‘I found him much better. Mama is very pleased with him and I could see the difference immediately. The stiffness has gone from the side of his face and, although he still has a hesitation in his step, it is much improved.’

  ‘I am so glad,’ Joanna said warmly, putting out a hand and squeezing Giles’s without thinking. ‘To be so worried about him at a time when there was an estrangement between you must have been difficult to bear.’ She would have been pleased to hear that any person who had been unwell was recovering, but the relief on Giles’s face made her feel as though she had received good news of one of her own family.

  Giles placed his other hand over hers and smiled at her. ‘You are a darling, Joanna.’

  Her heart fluttered as though it were a bird he had captured with that strong gentle hand, which held hers within it. He was so large, so masculine close to and yet his voice was tender as he spoke the endearment. Joanna knew she was staring transfixed into his eyes, knew that Hebe and Alex were within feet of them, yet she could not move, could hardly breathe.

  Then Giles’s gaze shifted and his hand moved and the spell was broken. Joanna tried not to glance round guiltily to see if anyone had observed them. ‘And is your father reconciled on the subject of your marriage and you selling out?’

  ‘To the latter, a little perhaps. Not that he will admit it. He lectured me on wasting my substance around town. When I said mildly that on the contrary I had been out of town on an errand for a friend he snorted and said, “Chasing some petticoat, more like!”, which was rather too close for comfort and I suspect I may have looked a little conscious of it.’

  ‘And your marriage?’

  ‘Now there, at least, we are now thinking as one. Lord and Lady Olney visited last week, which settled matters and put all misunderstandings to rights. They gave out that they had heard he was unwell, but I suspect Mama had said something to Lady Olney. If he is feeling strong enough, they have invited my parents to visit in August.’

  ‘How wonderful. What good news for you,’ Joanna said hollowly. Now every barrier in the way of Giles marrying Lady Suzanne appeared to have been swept away. ‘Lord Olney’s seat is near Bath, is it not? Will you accompany your parents?’ Giles nodded, his expression suddenly unreadable, and Joanna guessed he was thinking about idyllic summer days spent courting the girl he loved.

  ‘Joanna?’ It was Hebe calling to her across the grass. ‘Should you not move more into the shade? It is very hot and you look quite pale.’

  ‘Thank you, but I am quite comfortable,’ she called back, inwardly cursing her own lack of self-control. If she were to change colour every time Giles said something to her, she might as well make a public announcement of her feelings for him here and now.

  Beside her Giles was also brooding inwardly although, with more practice than Joanna at concealing his feelings, very little showed on his face. He should never have held her hand like that just now. Certainly he should not have allowed that warmth to creep into his voice when she reacted with such sympathy and understanding to the news of his father. She was sweet and open and had come to be used to him, trust him. And then he did something to remind her of the intimacy she yearned for with that confounded man and she froze and turned from him.

  If I knew who he was I would drag him here on his knees and make him beg for her, he thought fiercely. Did Hebe know his identity? How much had Joanna confided in her cousin? Not that he could ask. He watched from under heavy lidded eyes as Joanna got up and ran to met the nursemaid who was bringing young Master Hugh out to his parents. The child saw Joanna and ran to her chuckling with delight, his podgy arms held up for her hug.

  Joanna caught him and swung him up into her embrace, teasingly chiding him for being such a big boy. And something inside Giles caught with a sudden stab of pain. It was gone almost as soon as it hit him. With a soft exclamation under his breath he got to his feet and strode over to Joanna, lifting the child from her arms, but holding him close so she could continue the nursery rhyme she was chanting with the child.

  ‘He is too heavy for you,’ Giles said.

  Hebe, who had turned to watch her son, broke off what she was saying to Alex, an arrested expression on her face as she looked at the little tableau. Then she turned back to her husband and asked urgently in a low voice, ‘Is Giles engaged to be married? Or has he his eye on any young lady to ask?’

  Alex, inured to his wife’s rapid changes of topic, merely raised a dark brow and murmured, ‘Doubt it. Hasn’t said anything to me, and I think he would. He hasn’t been home long enough surely—and most of that time he’s been chasing round the countryside after Joanna.’

  ‘That is what I thought,’ Hebe replied, a frown marring her forehead. Under her breath she added, ‘In which case either I am wrong or what Joanna said makes no sense at all.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  For the next three days Joanna kept as far out of Giles’s way as she could contrive without appearing to avoid him. It proved unexpectedly easy and she found she hardly had to make excuses, for Giles was absent from breakfast to dinner, reappearing only to report visits to local horse breeders and farmers and successful purchases of breeding stock for his new project.

  ‘Have we said anything to upset Giles?’ Hebe asked Alex bluntly on the evening of the third day as he stood behind her at the dressing table, fastening a double string of pearls around her neck.

  ‘No. What makes you think that?’

  ‘He is out every day. Are you sure he is buying horses?’

  ‘Well, if the animals occupying the south paddock are anything to go by, h
e is. Nice bay hunter he found over Tring way. I’m thinking of making him an offer for it.’

  ‘He isn’t courting someone, is he?’

  ‘He’s working exceptionally hard if he is managing to do that and visit as many farms as he appears to be doing.’ Alex laid his hands lightly on his wife’s white shoulders and met her eyes in the mirror. ‘What are you thinking?’

  Hebe would only shake her head. She wished she knew.

  But the next morning it was Alex who left home early to settle some boundary problems on his most distant farm and Giles who was alone at the breakfast table when Starling came in.

  ‘I am sorry to disturb you, Colonel, but Hickling, his lordship’s head groom, is outside and wishful to speak to you. I told him to wait until you had finished your meal, sir, but he says it is urgent.’

  The problem was apparently his lordship’s best mare, who was due to foal any day and who appeared to be in sudden difficulties. ‘I daren’t leave her until his lordship gets back, but I think the foal’s the wrong way round and ought to be turned. None of the lads have any experience of that sort of thing and to tell you the truth, Colonel, sir, I don’t like to attempt it on my own. Seeing what an eye you have for horses, sir, and knowing you are a cavalry officer, I thought mayhap…’

  ‘Of course, I’ll come and have a look at her, Hickling. Starling, if anyone wants me I will be in the stables. Oh, and, Starling, if her ladyship asks, there is no need to tell her why. Not a subject to worry her with at the moment, I think.’

  Half an hour later the two men finished examining the sweating, distressed mare and exchanged grim looks across the loose box where she was circling restlessly. ‘You are right, Hickling. The foal’s all round the wrong way: I can see we’ve a long morning ahead of us.’ Giles shrugged off his coat and waistcoat and threw them carelessly over the stable door before unbuttoning his shirt. ‘No point in ruining good linen either. Now, what do we need? Hot water…’