Lord Carnall and Miss Innocent (The Friendhip Series Book 7)

by Julia Donner

  He stayed for the party, what Goring had described as an informal affair with family and close friends. Goring made sure that Carnall had acquaintances in the room before excusing himself, saying that he would have his secretary send around what was known of his grandmother’s favorite horse.

  Carnall stopped him from leaving by asking, “If I might ask another bit of advice?”

  “Certainly, sir.”

  “Would you introduce me to a lady who could refer me to a suitable boarding school for girls?”

  Goring smirked and tapped the side of his nose. “Looking for a bride before she makes it to town, are you?”

  “Not at all. I have two sisters.”

  Goring held up a hand, gloved palm out. “Say no more. I think I understand. A bit of gloss before puffing them off next Season, is it?”

  “I don’t know if I would word it that way, but essentially, yes, and do reputable men actually loiter around schools seeking a bride?”

  “Most certainly. Nothing wrong with getting a jump ahead of the competition. I have a sister at seminary. She’s forever writing to Mother about meeting this fellow or that at local assemblies. Nothing smoky about it. I’ve done it myself. Gives the young ones a chance to practice how to go on when they break the traces and come to town.”

  Carnall felt somewhat assuaged by his explanation. “I’ve been given a recommendation from a friend, but had hoped to hear more from a parent with a girl at a particular boarding school.”

  “My sister’s of marriageable age and doesn’t quibble about her accommodations. I have no objections, if you’d like to meet her through the auspices of its headmistress, Tatiana Worth.”

  “Worth Academy? That is the school recommended to me. Is that the headmistress or its name?”

  “Name of the school and the lady who runs things. She’s here this evening, a relation, of sorts. Grandmother sent for her to bring my sister up from Kent. A proper escort, you know. Grandmother wouldn’t approve of Caroline prancing around the country with only a maid for company. My sister had the bad manners to fall ill this evening, or I would have introduced you.”

  Carnall tipped his head in a slight bow of acknowledgement. It was becoming tedious the way gentlemen tossed unmarried female relatives at his feet. Five years ago, they wouldn’t have noticed him and certainly wouldn’t have introduced a sister. Amazing what a title, eighty thousand acres, and a burgeoning bank account can do for one getting noticed.

  “Would it be too much to ask for an introduction to the headmistress, or is she attending your sister?”

  Goring glanced around the receiving room. “She isn’t here at the moment. I say, but I really must beg your leave. Grandmother is giving me the gimlet eye. Should go to her without delay. Oh, there’s your lady, just coming through the door. Shan’t be long, I hope, then I shall be happy to make the introduction.”

  Carnall didn’t notice when Goring hurried off. He was incapable of looking away from the woman standing under the entry arch. Thinking herself unobserved, the shadow of strong emotion briefly altered her expression. Something turned over inside his chest, becoming a strange urgency to be near her, to alleviate whatever disturbance had caused discomfort to a woman who looked so strong of character.

  He had seen Mrs. Worth only once since the party, where and when this helpless obsession had begun. Frustrated and drained of patience, he’d driven down this way three times since that night, hoping for a glimpse of her. Today, seated only a few feet away, he learned the color of her eyes, smoky like a storm-clouded sky, big, direct and fearless.

  Whenever he visited the Bainbridges, Letty talked at length about a dear school friend Ana, dubbed the warrior queen. How apt. Tall enough to look almost directly into his eyes, Tatiana Worth had the upright posture of a soldier and bearing of an empress. That regal bearing held—a wall not to be breached—when he’d tried to gain an introduction at the Goring party. She avoided every attempt, moving beyond his reach, slipping behind guests, and disappearing into rooms whenever he approached. She’d looked as unassailable today, whereas he’d been as erudite and suave as the village twit. He, whose friends taunted him for his unbendable sangfroid, had disintegrated to tongue-tied idiot in her presence and utterly spellbound by her smile. And what a smile it had been, a smile that lit up the room and washed away the sadness in her eyes.

  A farmer and slow moving cart partially blocked the road, bringing him back to the present. Carnall gently reined in the team, a fine pair of goers he’d purchased from Lady Ravenswold. He’d bought a pair of stunning bays from the countess sight-unseen. Many would consider the purchase rash, but he trusted the reputation of the Ravenswold stud.

  A smile twitched his lips. Most people viewed him as a practical, quiet sort but he was actually spontaneous more often than not. Perhaps because it was some inner wish to belay the impression he gave as disinterested, but he saw nothing wrong with being aloof. There were many hazards in this world. He preferred to be cautious, except when he wasn’t. He was cautious in the extreme when it came to his sisters. Before coming to title, he’d not been able to care for them as he would have liked. A select seminary headed by a stickler would give his sisters the polish needed to make a splash. If not that, then their dowries would.

  Mrs. Worth’s smile blazed across his memory. Letty hadn’t warned him about that, nor had she mentioned a husband. She had assured him that her friend’s school would be the best thing for his sisters, to prepare them for the trial of a London Season, presentation at court, and to create a favorable impression with the social arbiters.

  The instant he sat down across from her, he intuited that Tatiana Worth was not the sort to be easily impressed by anything or anyone. He didn’t think she remembered him from the party at Lady Goring’s, even though he’d made a cake of himself staring. Then, throughout the interview, he’d sat like a lumpish schoolboy with barely two words to scrape together. In all of his life, he couldn’t recall a total lack of the ability to talk coherently. It was one thing for Mrs. Worth to see him as others did, taciturn and standoffish, but not graceless and stupid.

  A curious mystery attached itself to Mrs. Worth. Letty had never mentioned, nor had anyone ever seen Mr. Worth. At the party, he’d been intrigued as men of his acquaintance demurred when asked for an introduction. Marriage hadn’t stopped men from hoping to unbend the lady enough to recognize their attempts to engage her interest. Mrs. Worth would have none of it. He watched as she employed her basilisk glare whenever an upstart male approached her to make the mistake of asking her to stand up for a dance.

  What had turned her against men? She’d been married and perhaps still was. Was Mr. Worth the reason for her aversion? Next Wednesday, when he drove the girls down to the school, he’d try to unravel the enigma who was the captivating Tatiana.

  A piece of his universe had shifted the night of the Goring party. A vacant area in his soul, just under his heart, felt full. He’d hadn’t known that it had been empty or even there. She had slipped into that lonely place and filled it. He didn’t understand how it happened and perhaps didn’t want to think it through. It was enough to know that her presence ignited a yearning he’d never felt before, a passion that edged out the hardness of heart he’d been nourishing as of late. Fascination for a woman must be a better pastime than the pursuit of revenge.

  Chapter 3

  Ana tallied the numbers again and came to the same conclusion she’d come to five times before. No matter how she compromised and economized, there was not enough, even with the addition of Lord Carnall’s sisters.

  She set down the quill and rubbed her brow, fighting the crushing anxiety and burn of tears readying to fall. They slipped free, trickling down her cheeks. Crying would achieve nothing but reddened eyes and a fiercer headache.

  The threat of weeping at any moment stayed close to the surface the last months. The stressors that inhabited her days had revealed the wear on her resilience when she had wept from the relief of hearin
g some good news. She’d made a spectacle of herself in front of Lord Carnall. Her excessive reaction induced a cringe, and she shied away from the memory. She inhaled a shaky breath and wiped away the wet with the back of her wrist.

  Torquil sensed her mood and propped his chin on her knee. He gazed up, liquid brown eyes adoring. His tail swished back and forth. He added a soft, high whine, as if to tell her to keep her chin and spirits up. She couldn’t resist his worried sympathy and smoothed her palm over his silky head. She felt her lips curve into a smile that stilled with an idea.

  Another glance over the kitchen accounts confirmed that she might be able to pare down some of those costs with the addition of game for the table. Torquil could not be outdone when it came to herding, but he was also fond of the chase. Her uncle’s gun cabinet still held his weapons. She’d sold her own gun, one given to her by her uncle, but his were still in the cabinet. The only difficulty would be taking up Squire Hensley’s repulsive offer to thin his coveys, when what the squire meant was to join her during the shoot for a frolic in the ground cover. She’d have to devise a method for fending him off.

  Menus of free food whirled. When they were in season, potted hare. She doubted she could shoot down a deer, but would have to steel her heart to the task. She didn’t want to think of what the squire would expect in exchange for a hart culled from his parkland.

  Aunt Honoria loved to fish. There were so many ways to prepare salmon, a welcomed change from the endless mutton. Trout or salmon, grilled or poached twice a week, would cut food expenditures considerably. She could teach her aunt’s classes, while sending her off to the stream with tackle and lures.

  A tap on the door broke off more solutions beginning to sprout and form. Elsie came through and said, “Sir Jasper and Lady Lucinda are here, ma’am.”

  Ana stood and closed the account book, wishing that her brother would have the courtesy to come at the proper time of day for a visit or at least send a note. Her time was not her own, but neither did it belong to him, as he seemed to think it did.

  “Have you put them in the drawing room, Elsie?”

  “Yes. Her ladyship is asking for tea.”

  “Very good, Elsie. Use the good sort. You know where the tin is.”

  Elsie nodded and hurried away to set up a tray, leaving the door ajar. Ana skimmed her fingertips over her brow and down around her nape, finding no straying hairs. She checked her face for signs of the recent, brief bout of weakness. Her eyes looked a bit too bright, but she didn’t think that her brother or sister-in-law would notice. She removed the apron she used when working with the ledgers or more often dusting and polishing the silver behind closed doors.

  Her brother stood when she entered. Lady Lucinda ignored her, as usual. The poor thing had never recovered from the shock and humiliation from hearing that her husband’s sister had taken up employment as headmistress, an activity as repellent as becoming a part of trade. As respectable as teaching was, Lady Lucinda, daughter of an earl, deemed associations with professions of any sort unacceptable.

  Jasper bowed, displaying how well his head of brown waves fit the Windswept style. He wore a dashing coat, one she’d never seen before, of navy superfine, superbly fitted to his trim form. Even though they shared the same mother, they had different fathers. She and her brother looked nothing alike, other than they both had slender, athletic figures.

  Ana gestured for him to retake his place on the couch beside his arrogant wife. “How good of you to come for a visit, Jasper. Good afternoon , Lady Lucinda.”

  Her sister-in-law ignored the greeting and maintained a dignified study of the wall. Long ago, Ana had given up wondering why Lady Lucinda attended Jasper when he made one of his impromptu visits. She rarely spoke and for the most part, pretended Ana didn’t exist. Perhaps she thought Jasper would somehow become contaminated by the proximity.

  Today, her sister-in-law wore a charming bonnet, bedecked with delicate silk flowers and lavender ribbons. Ana doubted it had been refurbished from last year’s wearing, as Ana and her aunts did with every hat they owned. Lady Lucinda had been pampered before marrying Jasper and would sooner muck out a stall than wear a refurbished hat from last season.

  Before the tray arrived, Jasper leaped headlong into the reason for the visit. “I must say that I am most appreciative of your recent gift, Ana. You’ve always been a perfect trump about helping out with the occasional embarrassment or near misses.”

  “Losing eight hundred at the races does not qualify as a near miss nor could such extravagances be described as occasional.” A sudden notion bloomed to horrible life. “Jasper, you did use the funds I gave you for repayment of debt, didn’t you?”

  Lady Lucinda stirred to life, enough to speak but not to look directly at her sister by marriage. “Really, Ana, must you be so plebian about such things? It’s Jasper’s money. He will do with it as he sees fit. What has it to do with you?”

  The remark stole Ana’s breath for a moment. The personal items she’d had to sell flashed through her memory, the most precious being her grandmother’s brooch. This was followed by the humiliation of begging Great Aunt Goring for a loan. The plea for financial help had ruined any enjoyment she might have had at her aunt’s birthday celebration party. Fortunately, her aunt didn’t know that the monies were meant for Jasper.

  Intent on his own agenda, Jasper remained oblivious to his wife’s insulting remarks. “Ana, do you think Aunt Goring could spare us a few more guineas?”

  Cold outrage made its way through the hurt of her brother’s callousness. Nothing would coerce her to repeat the humiliation of impinging on a relative for money. Through a constricted throat, Ana replied, “Jasper, you haven’t said if you paid off the debts with the money I gave you.”

  Jasper’s mouth pressed into a taut line. He looked away as he smoothed the creases from his pantaloons and glanced over the gleam on his boots. “Well, that’s essentially the reason we’ve come to visit. It wasn’t enough, you know. What you’d given me. Not nearly enough. I wondered if you could see your way clear to lend a few hundred more, a pony actually, would be splendid.”

  He wanted five hundred more? The request sent another spear of cold terror throughout her body. Any mention of debt or money made her heart race. She could no longer face one more monetary obstacle.

  “More? I don’t have more, Jasper! What was done with what I gave you?”

  While Lady Lucinda managed to look even more bored than she had previously, Jasper answered with scorn and petulance. “The usual, of course. One has to eat. Lucinda was down to threads, I tell you. One’s reputation and place in society must be maintained.”

  Lips still parted in shock, Ana scanned the walking dress her sister-in-law wore. Her experienced eye deduced that the dress, hat, half-boots, gloves and reticule cost more than the quarterly budget for the school. She doubted that Lucinda had used any of her personal funds for the ensemble. She expected Jasper, via Ana, to provide.

  Outrage escalated to anger, not at her selfish brother, but at herself. For the last three years, since Jasper had fallen in love with the spoiled and rude creature taking up space in her drawing room, she had given way to Jasper’s pleas. She’d gone against her better judgment to assist her brother financially. He wouldn’t come into his inheritance for another year, and during that time, she expected he would repeatedly beg her to see him through until then. She had turned over her meager savings, sold everything she had of worth, and even mortgaged the manor that housed the school.

  In this defining moment, while taking in Jasper’s impatient scowl, she realized that she would never recover anything from her brother. She’d helped him out of a sense of family obligation until there was nothing left.

  Numb from the disastrous proportions of her mistakes, she watched as Elsie placed the tea tray near at hand. The fragrance of the brew spiraling from the teapot’s spout testified that the maid had found the hidden tin. The silly regret that she’d wasted the precious leaves o
n her loutish brother and impossible wife almost made her laugh. She squelched the urge and looked up when Elsie gently cleared her throat.

  “Thank you, Elsie. Is there something else?”

  “Ma’am, the horses have arrived.”

  Ana blinked. “Horses?”

  “The riding mounts for the new enrollees. There isn’t enough room in the stable. Jack is asking if he should turn out the carriage horses to pasture until something can be arranged.”

  Lady Lucinda stood. “You are otherwise occupied. We shall take our leave of you.”

  While Elsie escorted the guests out, Ana stared at the cooling tea and yesterday’s cake. Horses? She already had more mouths in the stable than she could afford, all of them eating their heads off, overweight mounts belonging to girls who would not be parted from their horses but rarely bothered to ride them. In better days, the expense had been absorbed by the school, a benefit she had plans to alter with the next admission. But for now, where was she going to find feed for two more horses? The pastures were chewed down to the ground and the haylofts near empty.

  Determined to not waste the tea, she reached for the pot and poured. She needed both hands to do it and to hold the teacup and saucer that rattled from her trembling. She must hide her worries and problems from her aunts, especially Aunt Thisbe. So many relied on her and somehow, she must persevere.

  Chapter 4

  Wednesday arrived too soon. Ana was beginning to suspect that Carnall, although he didn’t appear the sort to do so, tended to spoil his sisters. She’d moved her personal belongings from her bedroom and rearranged the chamber to accommodate Carnall’s sisters. She hoped the connecting dressing room was large enough for both of their clothes. A large storage area at the end of the hallway had been emptied and shelves removed. Furniture and a bed for their maids to share was squeezed into the space.

  After all was arranged, Ana worried that there might not be enough room to store an extensive wardrobe for one girl, and certainly not two, in her former dressing room. She would deal with that problem when it arrived.