Jackal (Regency Refuge Book 2)

by Heather Gray

  Life had to have more to it, though, than mystery and intrigue. Rupert had begun to wonder how it might feel to live in a world where he didn't have to suspect the motives of everyone who arrived on his front step. Would there be a day that he'd trust people to be what they said they were? He had begun to hope so.

  Then in had walked Juliana Clairmont and her sisters with a chaperone so old she reminded him of the timeless shifting sands of the Sahara. Saying it out loud would sound ridiculous, but he still thought it: When Juliana was near, even the sun shone brighter.

  He'd spent plenty of time in his life anticipating other people's actions and delving into their minds to understand the choices and ideals behind those actions. Juliana's actions didn't always make sense, but Rupert had gazed deeply enough into the heart she tried to shield to know something with certainty. She loved her family and would take whatever measures were necessary to protect them. He envied them her fierce devotion.

  A noise to his left drew his attention. Barrows stood in the doorway. "Would you like me to bank the fire, m'lord?"

  Rupert gave him a nod and rose. "I shall retire. See to it and make sure everything is locked up for the night."

  Barrows nodded and moved toward the fireplace. Rupert paused on his way out of the room. "So tell me, Barrows, who was your last employer before her grace brought you on staff here?"

  His lips pulled down in the smallest frown. "I'm sure I wouldn't know, m'lord."

  Chuckling to himself, Rupert started the trek up the stairs.

  Only one person available for each position for which Grace had advertised, indeed. Tobias was more responsible than the duchess was for the current staff. Of that, Rupert had no doubt.

  His foot on the bottom step, Rupert glanced around the downstairs one last time, the weight of responsibility pulling at him.

  Let it be nothing more than two perverse men who took advantage of Uncle Fitz in his illness, Lord. Please let what's going on here be nothing more.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Despite his misgivings, Rupert agreed to take Juliana and her sisters to a ball. It was one of the lesser events of the early season. He hadn't told Juliana that bit. She insisted the girls begin meeting eligible men so the groundwork will have already been laid in the event that the betrothal contracts held by the brothers Stanwich proved legal and binding.

  Rupert didn't have the heart to tell her, if those betrothals were legal, no man of any standing would consider marriage to either of the girls. No good was to be had in arguing the point with her and stripping away what she saw as her defense and hope at the moment. There was no way under heaven he'd allow Eleanor and Eudora to be forced into marriages that would make them miserable. Until Juliana and the girls came to the realization they could trust him to protect them, it was admittedly easier to let them believe they had some control over their fates. Juliana, in particular, needed to feel she was doing something productive to help the situation.

  So it was that Rupert found himself escorting his charges to the Wentworth Ball. Wentworth was a baron. While he had a lesser title, he had more land and wealth than most dukes. The reason the Wentworth Ball was not a grander affair, of course, was the missus. The baron had gone and made a love match. He'd fallen in love with and married a country miss. The ton did not forgive such an affront easily. Most of London's influential voices would be avoiding this particular ball, which made it perfect in Rupert's opinion. The fewer people he saw, the better.

  The butler intoned in a nasal voice, "Introducing The Twelfth Earl of Mendax and the Misses Clairmont."

  Heads turned, and men and women stared with feigned indifference. As Rupert gauged the reactions, he noticed an expected amount of interested curiosity, even in those people doing their best to appear above such idle wonderings. The men in attendance were far more intrigued than the ladies, as well they should be. After all, he escorted three lovely women. Correction. One woman and two girls.

  Rupert accepted his fate with a sigh. While he'd chosen this particular ball because he could remain relatively unnoticed a bit longer, he'd had to balance that against one distasteful and obvious fact. The men attending these festivities would be the desperate sort – too repugnant, old, or stout to catch themselves a bride of desirable lineage. To say nothing of the ones with sordid proclivities.

  He was confident he could keep the men at bay with two simple words. 'No dowry.' As he weighed the benefits of whispering the phrase to each scoundrel who asked for a dance with one of the girls, he considered the repercussions of such an act. Their chances of finding suitable matches this season would most assuredly be ruined. The stigma might even be powerful enough to carry over into the next season as well. Then again, it could fade away in the mist of someone else's scandal between now and then.

  With a brisk nod Rupert decided the chance was worth taking. Any gent who chose to speak to him about one of the girls would hear his apologetic entreaty of, "No dowry." If it kept most of the men away, he'd gladly let them think he sought wealthy men for Eudora and Eleanor.

  Rupert wondered how his fiery Juliana would react and knew a moment's gladness that she had no idea what he was up to. He might have grinned if it weren't for the problem presently making itself known. Three men had approached, but none of them asked Eleanor or Eudora to dance. They each implored Juliana to join them on the dance floor.

  Blast it all! Nobody was supposed to realize how beautiful she is.

  He should have argued when she'd first come down the stairs. He should have told her the dress was hideous and her hair was overdone so she'd run back up and change into something else. Sackcloth would have worked well. As it was, he'd been too speechless by the sight of her, and now here he was. Protecting the girls wasn't enough responsibility for one cane-wielding man. Of course not. To make the night complete, he was also going to have to fend off every man who dared glance at Juliana.

  "Pardon me, gentlemen, but I believe this dance is mine."

  ****

  Juliana stared open-mouthed at Rupert as he pulled her onto the dance floor.

  She wanted to ask if he thought it wise to leave the girls alone, but the stony look on his face silenced her.

  The touch of his hand at the small of her back warmed her through the dress of sapphire silk.

  Daring to peek at him again, she found Rupert's inscrutable eyes on her.

  "Dragging you onto the floor was not the most gentlemanly thing I could have done. I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable."

  Juliana pursed her lips as she watched him. The words weren't that unusual, but Rupert's voice was different than she'd ever heard before. "Why is your speech so formal? You've never done that with me before."

  He bit his lip and glanced away before bringing his eyes back to her. "I'm not usually a rash person. I don't know what came over me."

  Juliana tried to listen to what he left unsaid in his half-answer. Perhaps stepping in and claiming the dance had been impulsive. It was true. She'd never seen Rupert act with spontaneity before. Apparently that made him uncomfortable.

  Wishing to change the subject, she asked, "Do you know this is my first official dance?"

  His eyes widened, and she enjoyed a moment of triumph as she realized she'd surprised him.

  "I'd forgotten. You never had your season, and here I've ruined your first dance by acting an ogre."

  A soft chuckle slipped out before she could think better of it. "I'd hardly say ogre. Brute, maybe."

  Rupert's mouth stretched into a smile, and her heart picked up speed. "I understand why Grace likes to see you smile."

  It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and Juliana wished she'd not uttered the words.

  "There's nothing wrong with smiling, you know. Your face…"

  An eyebrow lifted as he asked, "What about my face?"

  She brushed some imaginary lint from his shoulder. "Has anybody ever told you that you can be intimidating?"

  A slight nod was her answer.
<
br />   "You should smile more often. It makes you less so, almost like someone I wouldn't mind taking an afternoon stroll with."

  Shutters might as well have come down over his eyes. The light was gone, and he gave her the same blank stare she'd already seen more times than she cared to. "Almost. I see. We must remain thankful you are able to resist my charms."

  His sarcasm cut.

  The music ended, and Rupert led her back to where Eleanor and Eudora stood, clapping politely.

  Rupert turned to the girls and asked if they would care for any refreshment, and Juliana found herself again surrounded by men who wished to dance. Rather than being elated as she'd have been had her first ball come a decade before, she instead felt guilt. No one would ever know by looking at him, but Rupert was hurt. She'd spent enough time with him by now to have caught an occasional glimpse beneath the surface. Before the shutters had come down on his eyes, she'd seen the flash of pain, and she was certain it had nothing to do with his leg.

  Juliana was torn between running after him to apologize and dancing with every man who asked so she could make him angry. Maybe if Rupert got angry, maybe then that mask he wore would slip away long enough for her to get to know who he was beneath it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Rupert led Eleanor and Eudora to the refreshment table and got them each a cup of lemonade. "Is the ball what you expected?"

  Eudora shrugged and pushed her spectacles further up on her nose, but Eleanor offered him a broad smile. "The gowns are all so lovely. I can't imagine how Juliana gave this up to stay with us."

  "Your sister is exceptional in that way."

  Eudora squinted at him before turning away. He had the distinct impression she'd seen more than he'd intended. A man used to secluding himself from others due to the nature of his work, he was unaccustomed to the jealousy snaking through his veins. It ate at him to watch Juliana dancing with other men. At least it was the quadrille and not another waltz. He might have been tempted to take a page from Mrs. Burnham's book and cane the poor gent if it had been a waltz.

  Stupendous. Now I'm modeling my behavior after Mrs. Burnham. Insanity can't be far behind.

  "I simply adore balls," declared Eleanor.

  Despite his best attempts to remain unattached, Rupert had come to enjoy the girls' presence in his life and home. "You've been to so many balls you can declare this with certainty, I see."

  Eleanor's giggle danced around them. The youngest sister tapped him on the arm with her fan and said, "Of course not, but who wouldn't love it here? Charming men vying for the attention of an eligible woman, throwing themselves at her feet and being utterly, well… charming."

  Rupert fought the urge to roll his eyes in Eudora-esque fashion. "What about the scoundrels? Not all men seeking your hand will be proper gentlemen."

  Eleanor batted her eyelashes at him and waved her fan in a willy-nilly fashion in the space between them. "Why, I'm certain I could never know such a thing. Thank goodness I have you, Cousin Rupert, to keep away the scoundrels and make sure I don't fall under the spell of a handsome rake." As soon as the words were out, she broke into a fit of laughter, which she promptly tried to hide behind her now-open fan.

  "Tell me, Eleanor, are you intent on finding yourself a husband this season?" Was it a family decision, or Juliana's plan?

  Her eyes grew serious. "I'll do whatever my sister thinks is best."

  He nodded. "I admire that, but tell me, what is it you want?"

  A shudder shook her youthful shoulders. "As long as I'm not forced to marry one of those horrible Stanwich brothers, I'll be happy. To wed or not – I don't suppose I have a lot of say, but I'll shrivel up and die of misery if I'm made to marry a Stanwich."

  Rupert, who stood toward the back of the crowd with one sister on either side of him, watched as Juliana was pulled out onto the floor for yet another dance. This had to be her third or fourth. Movement on the opposite side of the ballroom, over Juliana's left shoulder, caught his attention and tugged his reluctant eyes away from the sparkling jewel he'd been watching.

  The new arrival moved covertly through the throng. He never looked toward where they stood, but Rupert recognized the man. To the ton at large, he was the landless younger son of a baron and supported himself in a modest lifestyle by engaging in covert affairs with married women. His little-known secret, of course, was that he was the personal attaché to one of the crown's Ministers without Portfolio, entrusted with an entirely different sort of covert affairs.

  Though his official capacity had nothing at all to do with foreign concerns, the minister had taken an interest in keeping a careful watch on government officials from other lands whenever they were on British soil. As a result, the minister had developed a close but secretive, relationship with the War Department. He funded, from his own personal accounts no less, the department of which Tobias was in charge.

  The minister was the one responsible for the Austrian mission that had gone horribly wrong. He should have been willing to wait until Rupert got eyes on The Hunter so he would be able to give a positive visual identification to the Austrians. Instead, he'd insisted Rupert push ahead when all Rupert could provide were The Hunter's known aliases. It was one of the worst debacles in the War Department's history.

  Having finally made his way around the ballroom, the newcomer stood near Eudora and eyed Rupert expectantly.

  Rupert scowled before saying, "Eudora, Eleanor, may I introduce Lucien Fletcher."

  Lucien politely took Eleanor's hand. Then he took Eudora's hand and bowed low. "Would you do me the honor of joining me for a dance?"

  Eudora, her color high, nodded and followed Lucien onto the floor. Beside Rupert, Eleanor sighed and put her fan into motion. "Wouldn't it be divine if Eudora fell in love and got married?"

  Hiding his concern, Rupert replied, "I think Eudora is strong-minded enough not to fall for a pretty face."

  "Oh, but if you're going to have to look at the same face every day for the rest of your life, wouldn't you want to pick a pretty one?"

  Indeed he would. His eyes wandered from Lucien and Eudora to where Juliana danced with yet another gentleman. She was supposed to be too old, on the shelf even, for men to seek out her companionship at a ball. The others must see her as he did, a priceless jewel.

  Upon Lucien's return of Eudora to his side, the younger man offered a hand, and Rupert took it.

  "Cousin Rupert, have you met Lucien before?"

  "I'm afraid not. We don't travel in quite the same circles."

  "He told me about some of his voyages. He's been to the continent. Have you ever been abroad, Cousin?"

  Rupert gave a slight nod. "I served in the king's army and got to see quite a bit of Europe before injury landed me back in London and seeking employment."

  "That's how you came to know the Duke of Sheffield, isn't it? He hired you after you'd been injured." Eleanor asked the question, and he acknowledged her words with a tight smile.

  Lucien took over the conversation then. "While there's much in the world worth seeing, I find nothing quite compares to the English countryside, wouldn't you agree?" He directed the question to Eudora, who offered her whole-hearted agreement.

  Rupert gave his reply after Eudora's. "It can be easy to get lost in the countryside if one is not familiar with the terrain."

  Lucien concurred with a nod. "Ah, but if one wished to get lost, the English countryside is the place to do it, don't you think?"

  "Why would anyone choose to be lost?" Eudora's question was entirely logical, but her narrowed eyes and crossed arms spoke of her suspicion.

  "What say you, Lucien? Which is easier? For one person to become lost by himself or for two people to become lost together?"

  Lucien's keen eyes acknowledged Rupert's question. "I think if I wished to vanish from all responsibility, I'd take a dear friend with me, perhaps even a brother. Wouldn't it be so much more fun to be lost with someone than alone?"

  Rupert would read the note L
ucien had slipped him during their handshake later, but he had the answers he needed for now. The Stanwich brothers had vanished. They had either fled, or were planning to come after the girls themselves. Regardless, they were likely desperate, and that in and of itself was the harbinger of doom.

  The question on the forefront of Rupert's mind at the moment was simple: Why was the minister becoming involved in the search for the Stanwich brothers?

  Eudora and Lucien chatted a bit more before the younger man excused himself. "I have an appointment I must keep. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He bowed low as he clasped Eudora's hand and then gave Eleanor the same elegant behavior. After his display of gallantry, he nodded to Rupert and took his leave.

  Juliana, who continued to be twirled about the dance floor, glowed. Rupert wanted to believe it was with exhaustion, but he knew better. She shone with exuberance.

  "I think our time here this evening is complete. Did you both enjoy your first ball?"

  Eudora nodded, a dreamy look in her eyes. She'd only danced with one person, but Lucien appeared to have made a lasting impression on the girl. Eleanor clapped her hands in excitement, the sound muffled by her gloves. "It was brilliant!"

  Escorting the girls around the border of the ballroom floor, Rupert was able to catch Juliana's eye and nod toward the exit. She shot him a look of unfettered joy before she nodded to indicate she would follow.

  The music came to a close, and Juliana joined them near the entrance, where they awaited a maid with his coat and the sisters' cloaks. Juliana's cheeks were rosy, and despite the fact she stood still, her toes continued to tap. "That was so much fun!"

  "It's a good thing we didn't come here to find a husband for either Eudora or Eleanor." Rupert tried to convince himself he spoke in jest and not jealousy.

  Her eyes widened as she peered from him to her sisters. He expected her to berate him for saying it. Instead she laughed. "It appears I completely bungled that one. It's not like me to forget myself so."