Flirting with His Forbidden Lady--A Regency Family is Reunited

by Laura Martin

  ‘What happened?’ Beth covered the rest of the distance to her sister quickly, almost running to be by her side. She wrapped an arm around Annabelle’s shoulder and then looked accusingly at Josh.

  ‘She’s shaking.’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Annabelle said, finally finding her voice. ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You’re not, you’re trembling. What happened?’

  ‘We were in the library and I heard a noise at the door. I thought it was an intruder,’ Josh explained.

  ‘I didn’t realise there was anyone still up. I was just taking a stroll around the gardens and I thought I would go back in through the library door. I’d already started to turn the handle when I saw a flicker of the candle and realised the room was occupied.’

  Josh frowned, wondering why she’d run rather than coming in through the library.

  ‘It was nothing, Beth, a silly mistake.’

  Beth nodded, giving her sister a squeeze. ‘I was so worried when I heard you scream.’

  ‘It is nice to meet you, Lady Annabelle,’ Josh said.

  Beth hesitated for a second and then must have realised she couldn’t just hurry her sister away in that protective way of hers. ‘Annabelle, this is Mr Joshua Ashburton and Mr Leonard Ashburton, gentlemen, this is my dear sister, Lady Annabelle.’

  Annabelle dipped into a formal little curtsy, her hand dancing from her waist to her collarbone and back again. Josh could see all she wanted to do was hide her scars behind her fingers but was conscious of drawing even more attention to them if she did so.

  ‘Lady Annabelle.’ Leonard Ashburton inclined his head, and then gestured for the ladies to step inside ahead of him.

  In the library Josh could see Beth and her sister were torn between being polite and rushing off upstairs to their private sanctuary.

  ‘Brandy?’ he offered, crossing to the decanter and reaching for two more glasses from the tray.

  ‘We shouldn’t...’ Beth began, but Annabelle nodded, holding her hand out for a glass.

  Beth shrugged and took a glass of her own, sinking down into the armchair Josh had been sitting in moments before.

  ‘Do you often take a walk so late at night, Lady Annabelle?’ Leonard Ashburton was regarding her seriously. Josh saw his brother’s eyes were not focussed on the scars, but Lady Annabelle looked self-conscious all the same.

  ‘No. Yes. I enjoy the garden by moonlight—it is peaceful.’ She was softly spoken, her words directed more at her shoes than the rest of the room.

  ‘We didn’t see you today on the lawn.’

  Josh glanced sharply at his brother. He could see Beth looking uncomfortable and wanted to tell Leo not to push the fragile young woman, but it would seem he needn’t have worried.

  ‘I don’t socialise much,’ she said, lifting her head and looking Leo in the eye.

  ‘Ah.’

  There was a silence as everyone took a mouthful of brandy, and then at exactly the same time Leo and Lady Annabelle both spoke.

  ‘I think it is time for me to retire,’ Leo said.

  ‘Please excuse me, it is late and I find myself suddenly weary,’ Lady Annabelle murmured.

  They both looked at one another for a few seconds and then Lady Annabelle inclined her head and glided from the room. Leo waited for a few seconds and then placed his glass on the tray before bidding Josh and Beth goodnight.

  ‘I should go too,’ Beth said as Leo disappeared through the door.

  ‘Sit with me for a moment.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Of course you can. Just a minute. If you sit there and I sit over here by the fireplace we have a good eight feet of space between us, even your mother couldn’t object to that.’

  ‘You don’t know my mother,’ Beth murmured, but she sat all the same.

  ‘You appeared very quickly on the veranda.’

  Beth sighed. ‘I woke and found Annabelle gone. I was worried where she might be so thought I would have a look around for her.’

  ‘Is she allowed...?’ Josh began, but found he couldn’t find the right words to complete the question. He didn’t want to sound as if he was questioning Beth’s love for her sister—that was apparent by the way they interacted—but he did wonder if the younger woman’s exclusion from society was her own choice or her mother’s.

  ‘I’m not her keeper,’ Beth said sharply. ‘I would love nothing more than for Annabelle to attend the balls and dinner parties with me.’ She laughed but it was mirthless and bitter. ‘You don’t know how many times I’ve begged her to.’

  ‘It’s her choice to keep hidden away.’

  ‘Hers and Mother’s.’

  Josh fell silent, waiting for Beth to elaborate, but instead she stared morosely into the glass in her hand. With a sigh she placed it on the little table beside her and stood.

  ‘I’m restless. Would you join me for a stroll in the gardens? I promise we’ll keep well away from the cliff edge.’

  ‘Is that wise?’ It felt as though their roles had been reversed. Until this point it had been him pushing Beth to be reckless on occasion and her cautious but willing to be persuaded.

  ‘If we go out of the side door from the dining room, none of the bedrooms look out that way. I doubt anyone will be awake still anyway.’

  ‘Very well.’

  They moved silently through the house, Beth taking a key from inside a cabinet in the dining room to unlock the door before stepping out into the darkness beyond.

  For the first few minutes they walked without talking, both conscious they were still close to the house even if none of the bedroom windows faced in this direction. Only once they were a good distance from the house did Beth speak.

  ‘It’s my fault, you know.’

  ‘What is?’

  ‘Annabelle, her scars. They’re my fault.’

  Josh opened his mouth to protest, to tell her she must be mistaken, but quickly clamped it shut again. What did he know? They might very well be her fault, not that he could see the gentle woman beside him doing anything with malice.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked instead.

  ‘It was when we were children. When I was five and Annabelle was four. Our nursemaid was sick and Mother was looking after us for the morning.’

  Josh couldn’t imagine Lady Hummingford as the most maternal towards two little girls, but he listened on intently.

  ‘She needed to speak to Cook about the dinners for the week and Annabelle and I were being loud and playful. So she sent us to play in the drawing room whilst she finished with Cook. She told me to keep an eye on Annabelle, to look after her.’ Beth paused, a smile on her face for a moment. ‘Annabelle used to be so mischievous and loved to climb. We bickered all the way to the drawing room, I can’t remember what about, and when we got there I was in a huff.’

  Josh felt the tension in Beth’s body as she told the story, heard the building stress in her voice. He wondered if she had ever told it before and instinctively knew she hadn’t. This was something very personal, very painful she was sharing with him.

  ‘I don’t even know what happened next. I had my doll with me and refused to let Annabelle share, instead turning my back to her. The next thing I knew she was halfway up the bookshelf, climbing like a monkey.’ Beth shuddered and he laid a hand over hers as they walked, squeezing it gently.

  ‘I shouted and Annabelle lost her grip, she came tumbling down but pulled half the contents of the bookshelf with her. Including a vase.’ She swallowed, her voice strained as she continued. ‘The vase smashed on her face and somehow she then managed to fall on top of it, pushing the shards even deeper in.’

  Josh pictured Annabelle’s scars. The way the skin puckered around them showed the wounds must have been deep and he felt for the scared little girl who must have been in such pain all those years ago.

&nbs
p; ‘It took the doctor two hours to remove all the shards of ceramic. Annabelle had to be heavily medicated, of course, and wore bandages on her face for weeks. When the bandages came off Mother couldn’t look at her and Annabelle wasn’t the same afterwards. She lost some of her vitality, her spirit.’

  Beth fell silent and Josh could see the tears glistening in her eyes. They’d walked a fair distance from the house now and were in a part of the garden that had been allowed to grow wild. The trees were taller here and the grass high on either side of the path. In the moonlight it looked as though they were in an enchanted forest with the pale beams of light streaming through the gaps between the leaves and illuminating sections of the ground below.

  ‘It’s tragic,’ Josh said slowly. ‘Absolutely awful. I feel for your sister, I can’t imagine having the course of your life changed by one small accident.’ He paused, stopping and waiting until Beth had turned to look at him. ‘But you do realise that none of it was your fault.’

  ‘Of course it was. I was meant to be looking after Annabelle and instead I was too busy playing with my doll.’

  ‘You were five years old. If anyone is to blame it is your mother, she left two very young children to their own devices, but actually I’m not sure it is even fair to blame her. It was an accident, a horrible accident with awful consequences, but an accident all the same.’

  Beth shook her head stubbornly.

  ‘Do you blame your sister? Do you blame her for being so careless?’

  ‘Of course not.’ There was an edge of anger to Beth’s voice.

  ‘Then you can’t blame yourself. You were five years old.’

  For a moment he thought he was getting through to her, but then she shook her head.

  ‘It is my fault,’ she said stubbornly.

  With those words everything about Beth fell into place. The insistence that she had to be the one to save her family from destitution, the over-the-top protectiveness of her sister, the internal struggle between doing what she wanted and what she thought was expected of her.

  ‘You feel like you owe your sister a life,’ he murmured quietly.

  Beth looked as though she might protest, but then nodded. The tears that had been brimming in her eyes fell onto her cheeks and Josh felt a surge of affection for her. He wanted to show her none of it was her fault, that she could love her sister, care for her sister, but she didn’t have to give up her whole life to make amends for something that was an accident and nothing more. Gently he reached out and wiped away the tears from her cheeks with the pad of his thumb, unapologetically letting his hand linger.

  ‘I do owe her a life. If I’d looked after her better...if I’d stopped her from climbing the bookcase, she wouldn’t have been injured, she wouldn’t have the scars. She would be out there finding a husband of her own, having a family of her own, having a life of her own. Instead she is shut up here with no prospects and no future.’

  ‘She could have all those things. Not every man is so shallow a few scars would prevent him from seeing the person underneath.’

  Beth looked at him long and hard and then sighed. ‘I do try to persuade her to leave the house. I begged her to join us for this house party, but people are cruel, Josh. As a child the few times she did come into contact with someone outside the immediate family they would at best stare and at worst make hurtful comments. Not always to her face, she is still the daughter of an earl after all, but she heard them all the same.’

  ‘It can’t be much of a life for her, cooped up here.’

  ‘It’s not. Some people would say she’s lucky, that she has a comfortable house and plenty of space outdoors, but it is a prison of sorts, even if it is partially of her own making.’

  ‘And your mother?’ Josh had never warmed to Lady Hummingford but that mild dislike was turning into outright disgust at how she was treating her daughters.

  Beth grimaced, looking off into the distance as if trying to find the words to explain the situation diplomatically.

  ‘She prefers Annabelle to stay here, to stay hidden.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I suppose she doesn’t want her to get hurt.’

  Josh thought that was a charitable view on Lady Hummingford’s motivations but didn’t challenge Beth. Instead he took her hand, feeling the warmth of her skin on his. Her fingers were long and delicate, the skin wonderfully soft. She seemed to still as he took her hand in his, the restless energy departing and being replaced with a deep calm.

  ‘I know I haven’t seen the years of interactions between you and your mother and your sister, and your father when he was still alive, so perhaps I am not in a position to comment on how Annabelle’s life could have been different, but I do know you. You’re punishing yourself, martyring yourself, to try to make up for the consequences of an accident when you were a small child.’

  ‘I owe it to Annabelle to ensure the life she is comfortable with can continue.’

  ‘No,’ Josh said firmly. ‘There is nothing wrong with wanting to protect your sister, to do something like marry a wealthy man for the stability of your family, but this, this is self-sacrifice for a debt that shouldn’t be there.’

  Beth looked into his eyes and for a moment he thought he had got through to her. He wanted her to see that she shouldn’t feel she had to marry Leo for the sake of her sister. If she chose to, if she decided she wanted to put her family’s happiness before her own, that was a different matter entirely, but he wanted her to see it was a conscious choice she had to make, not a foregone conclusion.

  She pulled her hand from his and took a few steps away.

  He watched her for a moment, not approaching straight away, giving her a minute to go over everything they had discussed. She looked beautiful, ethereal, in the moonlight. Her hair was loose down her back, reaching almost to her buttocks, straight and thick and golden. He had the urge to tangle his hands in it, to inhale the scent of roses he knew she used.

  She could be a fairy or elf from the legends the way she looked in amongst the trees. Her light skin contrasted wonderfully with her dark dress and her pale blue eyes sparkled out of the darkness.

  ‘I have to protect her,’ Beth said quietly.

  Josh nodded, knowing it wouldn’t help to argue any more. Perhaps his words would work their way into her mind and, given time, she might see there was some truth there.

  ‘Come.’ He walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms, enveloping her entirely. At first she was tense and stiff against him but slowly she relaxed, her own arms looping around his back and her head turning so her cheek was rested against his chest.

  Without thinking he dropped a kiss on the top of her hair, closing his eyes and allowing himself to enjoy being so close to her.

  They stayed wrapped in one another’s arms for a long time, Josh able to feel Beth’s heartbeat through the layers that separated them.

  ‘We should go back,’ Josh said eventually. He had felt Beth start to shiver and knew they shouldn’t stay out any longer despite his inclination to remain all night under the canopy of trees.

  Beth nodded and silently they made their way back to the house. He kissed her hand lightly once they were back inside, seeing her hesitate and linger a second, before gaining control of herself and hurrying up the stairs to bed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘What did they say about me?’ Annabelle tried to sound nonchalant as Beth changed into her riding habit. Her sister had been hovering, as if eager to ask something but not quite sure how to say it.

  Beth didn’t look up, knowing her sister’s world revolved around moments like these, moments where she wondered what other people thought of her, where she hoped not to be noticed but also craved the normality of someone looking at her and seeing just a normal young woman.

  ‘Not much. Leonard Ashburton went to bed at the same time as you. And Josh...’ she looked u
p quickly to see if Annabelle had spotted the familiar use of his name ‘...Joshua Ashburton was more puzzled as to why you weren’t joining us for the festivities than your appearance.’

  ‘He only has eyes for you.’

  ‘You’ve got the wrong brother. Not that Leonard Ashburton has eyes for me. Much to Mother’s disgust.’

  ‘But Joshua Ashburton does.’

  Beth looked up from fastening the front of her riding habit and caught Annabelle’s knowing look in the mirror.

  ‘I’m not blind, Beth. I might have been preoccupied with my own appearance but even I could see Joshua Ashburton is smitten with you.’

  ‘He is not smitten.’

  ‘Fine. He desires you.’

  ‘He’s the wrong brother.’

  ‘Is he?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Annabelle shrugged. ‘I saw the looks between you, the way your bodies were angled towards one another. There was a synergy there.’ She paused, softening her voice. ‘I doubt Leonard Ashburton has missed it, unless he is particularly unobservant.’

  Beth felt the blood drain from her head and had to sit down abruptly on the edge of the bed.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Is there something between you and Joshua Ashburton?’

  ‘No. Yes. No.’ Beth sighed. ‘I like him,’ she said eventually. ‘As a friend.’

  ‘A friend?’

  ‘Exactly. A friend.’ She could feel her cheeks colouring under Annabelle’s steady gaze.

  ‘A friend you’ve kissed?’

  ‘How did you know?’

  ‘I know you, Beth. You’ve been different ever since coming back from London and I only had to spend ten seconds in that room with you and the Ashburton brothers to see why.’

  ‘It should be Leonard.’

  ‘You can’t force an attraction where there isn’t one.’

  ‘Leonard’s not interested in me. He’ll probably marry me, I get the impression he is a man of his word, but I don’t think he wants to know anything about me.’

  Annabelle pulled a face. ‘Hardly the recipe for a happy marriage. Can’t you marry Joshua Ashburton instead?’