One Snowy Night (4 page)

Fortunately,
at that moment the unctuous clerk returned.

‘I have
secured you a hansom,’ he said ingratiatingly, bowing to Charles and Joshua in
turn before smirking at the ladies.

‘Thank you,’
said Charles briefly.

To Rebecca’s
relief, Charles gave her his arm and the two of them went out to the hansom,
leaving Hetty and Joshua to follow on behind.

‘What a surprise, Jebadiah
leaving you half the mill,’ said Charles to Rebecca. Once back in
Sloane Street
, the four of them enjoyed
a refreshing cup of tea.

‘Actually, no.’
Rebecca set her cup down in its porcelain saucer. ‘I knew he intended to leave
it to me.’

She saw Joshua’s
eyebrows raise at this, and was now certain that he had been unaware of
Jebadiah’s plans. Still, he had taken the news very well, she thought.

‘I will, of
course, buy you out,’ he remarked, joining in the conversation for the first
time.

Ah! So that
was why he had taken it so well! He thought it was no more than a minor
disturbance of his plans. Well, he was about to find out his mistake.

‘Thank you,
but I have no intention of selling.’

‘You won’t get
a better price from anyone else. I would expect you to take advice on what your
half is worth, and I would give it to you without haggling. You have only to —’

At that moment
the door opened and Canning, the butler, entered the room. ‘Mr Munce is here,’
he told Charles. ‘You asked to be informed the moment he arrived.’

‘Yes, thank
you, Canning,’ said Charles. ‘Will you excuse me?’ he asked. ‘I have some
urgent business to take care of. I won’t be long.’

He left the
room.

‘I hope he
remembers to
—’
began Hetty. She put down her cup with a clatter. ‘I had
better remind him. Will you excuse me?’

She stood up.

‘Charles?’ she
called, following him out of the room. ‘Remember to tell Mr Munce that —’

What Charles
was to tell Mr Munce was lost as Hetty’s voice faded away down the corridor.

Joshua, who
had risen on Hetty’s departure, sat down again. Returning to his conversation
with Rebecca he said, ‘You have only to name your price, and I will buy you out
at once.’

‘That is very
generous of you,’ remarked Rebecca, feeling strangely unsettled now that she
was alone with Joshua. Although his large body was relaxed, there was
definitely something uncivilized about him, but she must not let him know that
she was uneasy, for he would be sure to exploit any signs of weakness. So
steeling her nerve she said firmly, ‘It is not for sale.’

‘You can’t
have a half share in a mill,’ he said with a look of tolerant amusement. ‘You’re
a woman —’

‘I believe
Grandfather was aware of the fact,’ she remarked.

‘I’m not
unaware of it myself.’ His eyes became sharply focused and trailed over her
body, making her feel restless and hot. She unfolded her fan and wafted it in
front of her in an effort to cool herself down.

As if the
action had reminded him that he was in Hetty and Charles’s drawing-room, and
with Jebadiah’s granddaughter, Joshua’s eyes returned to her face. ‘A half
share in a mill is worthless to you,’ he said reasonably. ‘I’ll pay you a
handsome price, and you can put the money to better use.’

‘No.’ She
shook her head. ‘If Grandfather had wanted me to have money he would have left
me money, but he didn’t. He wanted me to have half of the mill and I intend to
keep it.’ She looked at him defiantly.

He returned
her look levelly. ‘Are you always so stubborn?’ he asked. He crossed one booted
foot negligently over the other and settled more comfortably in his Hepplewhite
chair, resting his arm along its back.

‘Stubborn?’
Her eyes opened wide. ‘I am not stubborn.’

‘Oh, but you
are. You refused to give up your room at the inn without a struggle, and now
that I am offering to buy your share in the mill you have dug in your heels and
refuse to sell. Tell me, Rebecca, do you ever agree to anything?’

‘Of course,’
she returned.

‘Name it,’ he
said with a sardonic smile.

‘Really, this
is ridiculous,’ she said, opening her fan again. ‘I fought for my room for very
good reasons, and I am refusing to sell you my share for reasons which are
equally sound.’ Her words were common sense personified, but she was growing
more and more unsettled under his gaze.

‘I cannot
force you to sell —’ he remarked with a lift of his eyebrows.

‘Then at least
we are agreed on something,’ she interjected.

He gave a wry
smile, but then his mouth became ruthless again. ‘But if you change your mind,
just let me know.’ His voice took on a new, more practical, quality. ‘In the
meantime, I will of course keep you updated on everything of importance that
happens with regard to the mill
—’

‘That won’t be
necessary,’ Rebecca interrupted him. She was annoyed at his assumption that she
did not mean to involve herself in her inheritance. ‘I mean to take an interest
in the mill myself.’

‘Of course you
do,’ he acknowledged. ‘Which is why I’ll send you regular reports.’

‘No.’ She
looked him in the eye. ‘I mean that I intend to visit the mill and learn how it
operates personally.’

Joshua shook
his head. ‘That will not be suitable.’

‘Not suitable?’
she enquired, trying to tear her eyes from his mane of hair, which was rippling
in the most distracting way. ‘I beg to differ.’

He regarded
her sardonically. ‘Do you, indeed?’

Rebecca felt
her heart skip a beat. There was a challenging look in his eyes which made her
intensely aware of the fact that they were alone.

As if
realizing that the atmosphere was becoming dangerous he said, ‘Young ladies are
not meant to take an interest in trade.’

Rebecca had
the distinct impression that he had deliberately kept his voice light in an
effort to restore their conversation to more normal levels, and in an effort to
break the tension that had suddenly entered the atmosphere. She was grateful
for it. Her conversations with Joshua seemed to be charged with a powerful
force that lay just beneath the surface. It made her skin tingle in the most
alarming, and yet enlivening, way.

‘Besides,’ he
remarked reasonably, ‘mills are not very pleasant places.’

The door
opened and Charles entered the room.

‘Tell her,
Charles,’ he said, appealing to Rebecca’s uncle. ‘Mills are no places for
women. They are always noisy and frequently very hot.’

‘That’s true,’
said Charles judiciously. ‘They are not very nice places to be, Rebecca.’

‘That is not
what Grandfather thought.’ Her face broke into a sudden smile as she remembered
his exact words. They had been sitting in his study when he had told her about
the mill. She had been kneeling beside him, and he had been stroking her hair.
She went on, ‘"You’re a clever, puss, Rebecca," - that’s what he used
to say to me. "You’ll never be content with knitting by the fire, so I’m
going to leave you something to get your teeth into."‘

Joshua
laughed. ‘Jebadiah was a rogue.’ Then he frowned. ‘Even so, I’m surprised he
left you part of the mill. He knew the dangers that were involved.’

‘I am not
afraid of risking an accident,’ she said. ‘Accidents can happen anywhere.’

‘Those aren’t
the dangers I’m talking about.’

Rebecca was
about to enquire further, but at that moment the door opened again and Hetty
entered the room.

‘Well, that is
all sorted out.’

Joshua was
about to speak, and then seemed to change his mind as to what he was going to
say.

‘Good.’ He stood
up. ‘Thank you for the tea, it was delicious, Hetty, as always! But now I must
be going.’

‘Oh! And you
only just seem to have arrived,’ said Hetty. ‘But never mind,’ she said,
brightening. ‘We will see you at Lady Cranston’s ball?’

‘Only if
Rebecca will promise me the first dance.’ He turned to Rebecca with a provoking
gleam in his eye.

Rebecca was
torn between a desire to give him a set down and a desire to be in his arms.

‘You are too
courteous,’ she said.

‘Am I?’ he
asked. Adding enigmatically, ‘We shall see.’

He kissed her
hand and then took his leave.

His kiss had
left a burning imprint, and involuntarily Rebecca looked down, half expecting
to see that her glove had been scorched. But seeing that it was undamaged she
shook such foolish fancies away. Joshua Kelling was the godson of her
grandfather, but nothing more. It was true that she found him interesting, she
told herself. But that was all.

Even so, as
she joined Hetty and Charles in talking over their good fortune, she found she
could not drive Joshua’s image from her mind. It was there when she looked
around the elegant drawing-room, hovering before her mind’s eye: his mane of
hair, his broad shoulders, and his copper-coloured eyes.

It was there
when she looked into the fire, dancing in the burning flames.

And it was
there when she laid her head on her pillow and settled down to sleep.

Rebecca lifted the ruby
necklace out of its box, remembering how much her mother had loved it. It was
from her mother that Rebecca had inherited her distinctive colouring, and the
rubies, which she had inherited on her mother’s death, set it off to
perfection. The warm red glow of the jewels brought out the red of her lips and
added a warm glow to her porcelain-white skin.

Susan fastened
it round her neck, then helped her to put on the matching ruby ear-rings.

‘Oh, they’re
beautiful, Rebecca!’ exclaimed Hetty as she bustled in. ‘And how well they go
with your gown. I have always liked you in red, and that gown, with its ruby
bodice and white satin skirt, is so becoming! The gentlemen will think so, too,
I am sure.’

Rebecca’s
mouth quirked. Her aunt was the best of women, but she had a habit of trying to
find Rebecca a husband whenever she visited the capital. It was useless for
Rebecca to protest that she did not want to marry; that she had never met a man
who had made her long to join her life to his; and that until she did she was
content to remain on the shelf. Her aunt could only see that she was
three-and-twenty, and unwed.

Rebecca picked
up her fan and gave her aunt an affectionate kiss on the cheek. She could not
prevent Hetty’s innocent scheming, and she knew she must accept it as an
inalienable part of her aunt. Besides, thought Rebecca, perhaps it was a good
thing. Ever since meeting Joshua she had felt unsettled, and she wondered
whether it was Nature’s way of telling her that she had, after all, been too
long on the shelf.

A small voice
inside her told her it had more to do with Joshua’s challenging character and mane
of hair - hair which inexplicably tempted her to run her fingers through it -
but she refused to listen to that voice and wisely ignored it. Joshua may be
unsettling and strangely attractive, but he was also entirely impossible and
not at all the sort of man she would want to marry.

She recalled
her wandering thoughts and followed her aunt downstairs.

‘You remember
Lady Cranston?’ asked Hetty as, half an hour later, they arrived at that lady’s
splendid
London
home.

‘Yes. I often
met her at Grandfather’s,’ said Rebecca. She, Hetty and Charles made their way
inside and slowly mounted the magnificent staircase as they waited to be
received.

Lady Cranston
had been a friend of Rebecca’s grandfather. In her youth Lady Cranston had been
plain Mary Smithers, and had lived next door to Jebadiah, which was how they
had come to know each other. And how Hetty and Charles now found themselves
invited to her balls.

‘She knows you
are staying with us at the moment, Rebecca, and has invited several gentlemen
she would like you to meet.’

Rebecca caught
Charles’s eye and they both smiled.

‘Your aunt won’t
be happy until I’ve walked you down the aisle,’ said Charles with a laugh.

They reached
the top of the staircase where they were greeted by Lord and Lady Cranston,
sparing Rebecca from the need to reply. For whilst she could not object to the
good-natured efforts of her friends on her behalf, she found the gentlemen she
met in Society’s ballrooms to be insipid. Their lives were so ordered and
well-established that there was no room in them for the challenge and
stimulation Rebecca needed. Though gently bred she had inherited much of
Jebadiah’s drive and she knew she could never be content with leading a life
that offered her nothing but endless frivolity.

Having been
received, they went through into the ballroom.

‘What a
wonderful room,’ sighed Hetty as she looked around the impressive apartment.