Maura’s Special Spinster’s Society (The Spinster’s Society) (A Regency Romance Book)

by Charlotte Stone

  Julius was all but glaring at her from his place in the chair by the empty hearth. As though he had a right. She was just as upset about her future. She had to live it. Shuffling paper gained her attention.

  Frank stared at her through his spectacles and sighed before dropping the folded letter on the table at his side. “Maura, this is not good.”

  Julius grunted his agreement but remained silent as he’d been told to do.

  Maura said nothing, for she already agreed that it was terrible. She didn’t want to leave. She enjoyed her freedom. She’d never envisioned having so much of it. Had her life been normal, she’d have likely married a local young man from where her family had lived in the Southern Country. She’d have been close to Lorena, of course, but not the way she was now. She’d have never been a Spinster. Her mother had pulled her out of Bedlam the moment her father had set sail for the Americas, knowing it would be a long journey and he would likely be gone for a year at least. That had been three years ago.

  “Maura.” Frank took his spectacles off and narrowed his brows. His hazel eyes were engulfed green by his temper. “Would your father truly put you back in Bedlam?”

  Maura pressed her lips together and nodded. It surprised her that Frank seemed so moved at the thought of her leaving. Julius had said Emmett had been upset as well. She hadn’t known so many people cared for her.

  He sat back and tapped his fingers on the armchair. “This can’t just be because of the ghost, Maura. There has to be more. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  She shook her head and didn’t bother to glance at Julius. “There’s nothing else.”

  “Then your father’s a fool.”

  “I agree,” Julius chimed in.

  Frank gave him a censoring look before returning his gaze to Maura.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “He does it all for my safety.”

  “Is the ghost dangerous?” Frank asked.

  There was shifting in the corner where Julius sat, but he said nothing.

  Frank went on. “We’ve… not spoken of what he’s capable of doing.” That was because Frank still believed Albion to be in her head.

  Maura didn’t blame him really. For years, she’d thought him in her head as well, but she knew him to be real now.

  * * *

  chapter 11

  * * *

  “I don’t think him capable of much,” she said. “He just comes, speaks, and leaves.”

  Frank grabbed his book and put his spectacles back on. He opened a page and said, “Albion asks you questions about some item he’d been looking for when he’d died. Is that correct?”

  She nodded. “It’s the item our fathers and many other historians would love to find. El Hombre Dorado. He thinks I know where it is.”

  “What’s that?” Julius asked, no longer able to hold his piece. “Surely, your father isn’t fool enough to believe that a city of gold actually exists. He hunts after myths, and you get sent to Bedlam? Doesn’t sound fair at all.”

  The skin on Maura’s hands tightened as she gripped the chair. “Why can’t a city such as that exist? Besides, it’s not the city they search for, just a man made of gold.”

  His violet eyes were just as dismissive as his grunt. “A man made of gold?”

  “People have often questioned the truth of Romulus. My father has just proved it to be more than legend.”

  Julius shrugged.

  One of the greatest discoveries since the Rosetta Stone had gained her father nothing more than a shrug?

  Maura pressed her toes hard against the soles of her boots, ready to launch herself at him.

  Frank cut in, forcing Maura’s attention away from Julius. “Tell me about Albion. I know we’ve spoken of it before but once more.” He cut Julius yet another look and then returned his gaze to Maura.

  She pulled in a breath and allowed herself to recall her life thirteen years ago. “I was eleven and Albion was sixteen at the time. Me, Albion, and his brother Mordecai had gone into the woods—”

  “Shouldn’t little girls play with other little girls?” Julius cut in, leaning forward. “What father allows his daughter to run off with a bunch of boys?”

  She bit her nails into her hands. “Albion and Mordecai were my closest friends. Our families are friends.”

  “Enough,” Frank said. “Julius, one more outburst from you and I’ll put you out. Finish the story, Maura.”

  Maura sighed. “We went to the woods to get away from the fighting.”

  “Who was fighting?” Frank asked, even though he knew the story.

  “My father and his best friend, Mr. Bullard. They traveled together when they went hunting, but at their last find, which had been nothing more than a few ancient coins, only my father had been acknowledged in the paper.” Bullard and Shaw had been known as historians but the public, but Maura knew what they truly craved was treasure, finding that which had been lost. “I remember the argument growing so heated that by week’s end, my father decided they would no longer work as a team. He was letting Bullard go.”

  “How would that have affected Mr. Bullard?” Frank asked. It was a question he’d not asked before.

  She crossed her ankles and placed her hands on her lap. “Well, my father came from a wealthy family. His mother had been a Spanish lady of means, but he also married well when he’d fallen for my mother. The Bullards came from a line of tenant farmers, but Bullard had invested his money well and had risen to gentry by his second expedition with my father. Still, he would need my father’s coin if he planned to get far.” Even at eleven, Maura had understood all of this. Her father and Mr. Ora Bullard had been close as young men. Best friends. And now they were parting ways.

  “What happened in the woods?” Frank asked.

  “Albion had run ahead. I can’t remember why, but when Mordecai and I found him, he was drowning in the lake not far from our house.” Maura had been traumatized by water for years after and the ice-cold baths they’d given her at Bedlam hadn’t helped. “He tried to fight but then simply went under. Mordecai and I had both frozen. We were children. We didn’t know what was happening. Albion could swim, but for some reason, he couldn’t that day. Perhaps he’d hurt his leg. I don’t know. It seemed like an eternity had passed before Mordecai moved toward his brother and shouted for me to return to the house. I told my father and Mr. Bullard. Immediately, the fighting ceased, and they ran to the lake, but it was too late. Mordecai had dragged his brother out and… He wouldn’t wake up, no matter how much his father rocked him or wept.”

  The family had buried their eldest boy privately, and Maura’s father had been so saddened for his friend that he’d forgiven Mr. Bullard’s earlier anger and the two had set off once more as a team.

  Bullard and Shaw forever.

  “Tell me about the first time Albion came to see you,” Frank said.

  Maura turned her eyes toward the window. “It was evening. My mother was asleep. Our fathers had set off for Spain. Albion came to me.” Movement caught her eyes. Julius was shifting in his chair, staring at her with an expression she couldn’t read. “He asked about the golden statue and if I knew where it was. He wanted to find it for his father, lead his father to it. Only then could he move on to the next realm.”

  She was surprised when she didn’t hear Julius chuckle. That was usually the part when people began to laugh.

  “What did you tell him?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Nothing that day. I was still in too much shock at seeing him. I cried at his presence. I’d missed him terribly. He left and came back a few nights later.”

  “What did your mother say when you told her?” Julius asked.

  Frank looked mildly irritated but allowed the question.

  “She told the local vicar. The vicar said I had a demon in me and tried to… remove it.” It had taken a long time before her back had healed from the lashing he’d given her. She looked down at her hands.

  Julius straightened. �
��What did the vicar do?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll not tell you.” Her heart raced.

  “You damn well will!”

  “Out,” Frank told him. “I warned you.”

  Julius shot to his feet, and Maura cringed in her chair, but all he did was run his hands through his hair. This subject always made her anxious. Already, her skin began to tingle with awareness. It was the same way she felt when she knew Albion to be in the room with her.

  He wasn’t there now. She’d have been able to see him if he were.

  * * *

  chapter 12

  * * *

  Julius had always known Maura’s past hadn’t been an easy one. In fact, most of his friends had suffered in one way or another, but never had he thought any of them to have experienced anything worse than he had. He still didn’t know what the vicar had done to Maura, but by the way she’d paled, he knew it to be terrible.

  He paced outside the library and studied his pocket watch. The session should have ended a half hour ago, yet Maura and Frank were still inside.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so angry. He didn’t believe in ghosts or anything beyond what he could see. Not since he was a child. He put faith in what was evident and though he knew Maura to be mad, he knew in his heart she didn’t deserve the fate that was coming for her.

  He’d heard of what took place in Bedlam, had asked a few doctors he’d known in London simply so he could understand Maura more.

  If Maura had suffered through half of what he’d heard went on in that place…

  She couldn’t return. Going back was not an option. Not when his chest ached at the very thought.

  The door opened, and he turned. Maura emerged, glanced over her shoulder in his direction, and then started down the hall.

  He followed her. “What happened after I left?”

  Her steps weren’t rushed. Her voice was calm and soft as silk. “If you were meant to know, Frank would have allowed you to stay.”

  They made it to the foyer where windows brightened their surroundings, making her enchanting hair and skin glow.

  He walked with her through the front door and off toward the east. Beyond the ridge of a hill stood the peaks of white pavilions that had been set up with breakfast. From the distance, Julius could hear the noise of the crowd there. The party would dine and then this morning’s challenge would begin. Shuttlecock. The men would win.

  “When do you next speak to Frank?” Julius asked.

  “This afternoon, and no, you’ll not be allowed to join.”

  He stopped her by taking her hand before they became visible to the party.

  She turned to him and he noticed how delicate her expression was, her eyes were so gentle as she spoke. “I’m… so very grateful that I’ve friends who care for me, but I don’t want to be a bother to anyone.” She touched his cheek and gave him a small smile. “I don’t want anyone mourning over me.”

  His heart raced. She made it sound as though she would die, and she very well could. Bedlam was not a safe place.

  Damn. He thought of his discussion with Emmett the other day. The thought had never truly left his mind actually.

  What sort of man—what sort of friend—would he be if he allowed her to come to any more danger?

  He squeezed her other hand. “Maura, you’re going to force my hand on this, aren’t you?”

  She frowned slightly, and her fingers trailed down his jaw before she let him go. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He thought there a better way to say the words he wished to, but in the end, decided on the direct approach. “We’ll marry. Then your father will have no say over you.”

  * * *

  Maura swayed, and her breath left her lungs as she stared up into Julius’s eyes. He rarely looked so hard, so furious. He was known for his jovial ways and light-hearted banter, but her situation was changing him. She could clearly see the worry on his face and wondered if he’d slept at all last evening. His fatigued look didn’t detract from his overall beauty in the least. He was still the most handsome man she’d ever known, far too beautiful to be real. There were times when she was surprised he spoke to her at all. She was the mad one. She knew he thought so and she was the very last woman she thought he’d attach himself to. A man like him, a man who’d suffered as much as he, would find himself in love with a woman who was… normal, who was different than her and even the other Spinsters.

  She often pictured him with someone who enjoyed needlework, though Maura secretly did, but the woman who’d become Marchioness of Darvess would be lovely and sedate in every way. Maura saw ghosts, thus, they would never be more than friends.

  She knew this. She’d set aside any hopes for more. Laughed them away so that the pain of longing wouldn’t follow. She’d learned to be grateful for his friendship, for any smile he sent her way, even his teasing. She often remembered the unchaste remarks he would whisper in her ear and recall them as she lay in her bed, growing hot, and thinking of what would happen if she met his challenge with acceptance. Would he actually take her?

  She could never be sure, especially after yesterday. They’d been alone in his room. A great many ill-mannered thoughts had emerged in her head, of the many ways he could ruin her in one act, both body and soul.

  But he’d not acted. In fact, he’d sent her away.

  Yet now he proposed marriage?

  Well, it hadn’t actually been a proposal, had it? It had sounded more like an agreed-upon action, though Maura hadn’t agreed at all. Didn’t agree.

  “Marriage?” she whispered.

  “In name only, of course,” he went on, still squeezing her hand. “We’d even live separately. That would be for the best. I’ll rent you a home in London and you can have a house in the country as well. In fact, you can stay at my family’s seat. Lord knows when I’ll ever return to it.”

  She pulled her hand from his as her heart began to ache. What else had she expected? He was only trying to be a good friend. She smiled. “Thank you, Julius.”

  He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. “There’s no need to thank me, Maura. I’d do anything to see to your proper care—”

  “But, I can’t—”

  “We should hurry.” He lifted his eyes. “We can have the ceremony here. I’m sure there’s a vicar who can see to it before your father’s arrival.”

  Maura shook her head. “Julius…”

  “Come.” He took her hand once more and started for the pavilions again, climbing the rise. “We’ll tell our friends the news.”

  She pulled her hand away. “Julius, we’re not getting married.”

  He turned around and stared down at her. He was even more imposing from his position farther up the hill and more breathtaking. The sun had risen, but it was still early. The paleness of the skies could not be compared to the heavenliness of Julius’s eyes.

  And for a moment, she had a silly thought… a thought she’d not allowed herself to think in a long time. What color would his son’s eyes be? Would his children inherit those stunning irises? The hard masculinity of his face? The power of his smile?

  As his marchioness, she’d have to give birth to his heir. Had he even thought of that?

  “What do you mean, we’re not getting married?” he asked.

  She blinked. “You don’t love me.”

  He lifted a brow and then retracted his steps and came down until they were eye to eye. “Maura, were you not paying attention to the conversation we just had?”

  “I believe you were having a conversation with yourself, because I’ve agreed to nothing.”

  He lifted a hand to silence her and she knew then that she was mad, because a senseless part of her almost reached out and bit him.

  “I’ll hear no more of this,” he said with all the authority of the lord he was. “We’ll marry and hopefully, we can have this done by tomorrow. Now come. You should tell Lorena what your horrible sire has planned for you and then we
will tell them our solution.”

  “I won’t marry you.” And in truth, she knew her refusal had little to do with his lack of deep feeling for her. That, she could have put aside, but no, it was more than that. So much more. She couldn’t marry Julius and he’d be thankful that she’d told him no in the end, that she’d allowed him to have a normal life with normal children.

  She turned to the pavilion.

  Moments later, he was at her side once more and it irritated her that for every two steps she took, he only needed one. His long limbs moved unrushed while she tried very hard to get away from him.

  “We’ll just see what Lorena has to say once I tell her the truth.”

  She froze and glared at him. She could see the pavilion now. They were being waved at. “You mustn't tell her, Julius. Please.”

  He expression was cool. “I’ll give you the day to think it over, but we’re running out of time, and you are being terribly unreasonable. You know I’m right.”

  No. He wasn’t. Not in the least. Their fates would be better if she went to Bedlam than remained with Julius.

  * * *

  chapter 13

  * * *

  Julius ground his teeth together as he watched Maura laugh at something her cousin said and wondered how she could find anything funny when at any minute her father could arrive, and their entire world would be changed forever. Her world, he meant. It was her life, yet it seemed only Julius’s heart raced with the anxiety of every moment. He’d hardly slept last night and when he’d woken before daybreak, he decided his time would be best used in making a list of ways to keep Maura from confinement.