Rules of Passion (14 page)

Perhaps nothing bad would, but in Marietta’s opinion such a life must be very rigid and tedious. Surely part of the excitement and pleasure in this world came from taking the occasional risks, even small ones. Lil probably saw this visit to Vauxhall Gardens as overstepping her personal mark.

Marietta saw it as an adventure.

Something large and globular was now visible through the trees in front of them—Marietta recognized Mr. Keith’s gas balloon. She laughed as Lil’s eyes grew big at the sight of it. “Gawd!” the maid gasped. “Would you look at that, miss! It’s one of them balloons.”

“Haven’t you ever seen a gas balloon before, Lil?”

Lil shook her head, her eyes still firmly fixed on the balloon as it swayed on its moorings. “It don’t seem possible,” she said, her hands strangling her drawstring bag. “Won’t it fall down?”

“Not at all. In fact when the ballast is thrown out it will go much higher.”

“How high?”

“Until London seems tiny beneath you.”

Lil gave her a suddenly suspicious glance, and Marietta remembered Lil didn’t know she had been up in the balloon herself. To distract her, Marietta said, “Why don’t you come and meet the aeronaught, Lil? He’s a very nice man.”

Lil’s eyes narrowed even more. “Aeronaught?” she declared with a sniff. “I don’t hold with bohemians
or eccentrics, miss. And what do
you
know about this aero-person? How do you know his name, Miss Marietta, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Marietta gave her a vague smile and hurried ahead. Despite her uncomfortable footwear, Lil caught up with her but by then she was too busy gazing at the rotunda, where a band was currently playing, to ask anymore questions.

Very soon they were entering the area where the balloon was tethered. Lil’s steps dragged as they drew closer, and Marietta caught her hand and tugged it impatiently. “Do come on, Lil. I promise it won’t bite!”

Reluctantly Lil let herself be pulled forward. “Don’t you leave me alone near that thing,” she said. “You hear me, miss?”

Marietta laughed. “What a scared little rabbit you are, Lil!” Looking up, she realized that Mr. Keith had seen their approach. He had been busy in the basket, making some adjustments, but now he lifted one long leg over the rim and, with the help of his assistant, jumped down to the ground.

“Miss Greentree!” He greeted her with a smile, before his eyes slid to Lil’s prim and upright person. “And a friend, I see.”

“This is my…this is Lil,” Marietta said, surprised and pleased to note the spark of interest in the aeronaught’s eyes.

“Are you planning another ascent today? If the wind holds I am hoping to fly right over the top of Buckingham Palace.”

“Buckingham Palace?” Lil gasped. “Her Majesty would have you arrested!”

Mr. Keith laughed. “She’d have to catch me first, Miss Lil. Is that short for Lillian, by the way?”

Lil blushed. “That’s none of your business,” she said grandly, but chose that moment to trip over one of the tethering ropes. Mr. Keith leaped forward to save her, catching her arm and holding her steady. Lil’s face turned even redder than before.

“Careful, Lil,” Mr. Keith said gently. “I have many silly traps laid here for unwary maidens.” His eyes twinkled at her, and Lil could not help but respond with a little smile.

“I’ve never seen a balloon before,” Lil admitted, thawing somewhat.

“Lil was saying on the way here that she could think of nothing more exciting than flying high in the sky,” Marietta said innocently.

Lil’s mouth opened and shut, but before she could give Marietta the set down she deserved, Mr. Keith interrupted.

“Then please, be my guest. I can take you up on Saturday. Weather permitting, of course. I would like to show you London from the air, Miss Lil.”

Lil wriggled, clearly uncomfortable at the thought.

Mr. Keith finally seemed to remember Marietta was there. “Did you say you wished to make another ascent, Miss Marietta? It promises to be a perfect day for ballooning.”

“Another?”
squeaked Lil, with an accusing stare.

Marietta ignored her. “Thank you, no, Mr. Keith. I came because I wanted to speak to you about Lord Roseby.”

“Max?”

“I have had the opportunity to speak with him, at length.” Well, Marietta spoke and Max listened, but Mr. Keith did not need to know that.

“Dare I hope you’ve taken a shine to my tragic friend? And on such short acquaintance, Miss Greentree—that does bode well for him. I admit, I hoped at the time the two of you might hit it off.”

A matchmaking aeronaught? Marietta wondered if she was as red as Lil, and hoped not. A brief flash of memory filled her head—Max’s mouth on hers. Aphrodite had made a kiss from Max her first task—or rather asking Max to show her how. That meant the spontaneous kiss they had exchanged did not fulfill her mother’s requirements. She would have to do it properly next time…

Marietta smiled.
Next time.

“Actually, Max and I met again after the ascent,” she said. “He was hurt…struck down in a lane outside Aphrodite’s Club. He is recovering, so please don’t grow alarmed, sir.”

“Good heavens,” Ian Keith muttered under his breath. “I don’t like the sound of this. Struck down, you say? Did he tell you that this is but one of many times he has been hurt, or almost hurt, in an accident? When he was a boy he nearly drowned, twice, and there were other things…near misses and close calls. Two just last year, before he was disinherited. And now this. It is very strange,
more
than strange. Miss Marietta, I have to say that I find it downright suspicious!”

So many accidents! It could be coincidence, of course, and yet it
did
seem odd. Was Mr. Keith right, was it suspicious? Marietta felt a little tingle inside her, and it was a warning that she knew she should heed. After all, the last time she had felt that tingle was just as she and Gerard Jones were cantering away from Greentree Manor, on their way to the Scottish border.

“Do you really think someone is deliberately trying to hurt him, Mr. Keith?” she asked.

Mr. Keith seemed to realize that in his shock he had spoken hastily, and now—perhaps in deference to Max—he tried to play down his concerns. “I am Max’s friend but I know little of the rest of his family. We met years ago, you know, at Valland House, when my balloon came down in the grounds. He was fascinated by the workings of it, and I took him up several times—to his parents’ dismay, I might add. The duke was worried his only son might be hurt.”

“And now he has hurt him in the worst way possible, by denying Max his heritage.”

Mr. Keith looked doubtful. “Struck down, you say? It does sound odd, doesn’t it?”

“Suspicious.”

Mr. Keith smiled, and glanced sideways at Lil. “Miss Marietta is very determined, isn’t she? Do you think Max knows she’s taken him up as her cause? I don’t know if he’d be happy if he did. Max is a very private person.”

“Then you’d best not tell him,” Marietta suggested.

“Miss Marietta is headstrong,” Lil said, with a sniff. “She an’ her sisters all are, the three of them, like bolting horses. I don’t try an’ rein them in anymore, sir. I just let them run until they’re done, and then I give them a piece of my mind.”

He laughed, his gray eyes sparkling. “What part of London are you from, Miss Lil? I am a London boy myself.”

She looked startled, then wary. “I don’ know what you’re talking about, Mr. Keith.”

“You’re a Londoner, I can hear it in your voice.”

“I’m from Yorkshire, same as Miss Marietta.”

It was ridiculous, thought Marietta. Her accent was indisputable, but clearly Lil was having none of it. She didn’t want to discuss her past with Mr. Keith and she wasn’t going to—if she said she wasn’t from London then nothing he could do or say would make her admit that she was. Marietta caught the aeronaught’s eye and gave a slight shrug.

“How did you come to be flying balloons?” she asked instead.

“Sheer luck. I was hired by an aeronaught to help with the maintenance of his balloon, and I showed I’d some skill. He began to teach me, and when he decided to give it away I was in a position to buy the balloon off him. They were using hydrogen gas then, not the coal gas we have today, far more dangerous.”

At that moment his balloon jumped on its tether, caught in a swirling breeze. Lil gave a little shriek. “Miss Lil, there is nothing to be afraid of! Here, let me show you,” he coaxed her towards the basket, although Marietta could see Lil dragging each step, her already ramrod-straight back like a soldier’s rifle at attention.

“No, sir, I don’t think I—,” Lil was protesting, but Mr. Keith was impervious.

“How will you ever know whether or not you enjoy something if you don’t try it?” he told her gently. “Now, come and look at this, Miss Lil. This is a wicker basket and you couldn’t wish for anything stronger and more flexible…”

On the way home Lil was subdued, a stunned look in her brown eyes. “Do you know, Miss Marietta,” she said at last, “I didn’t realize such things was possible. That Mr. Keith, he’s very clever.”

“He is, yes. Despite being a bohemian and an eccentric.”

Lil cast her a speaking glance. “And I’ve not forgotten about you going up in the balloon without telling anyone, miss. Don’t you think I have.”

“Sometimes I find it kinder not to tell people my plans, Lil—they only worry.”

T
he following morning, Marietta was busy writing a letter to Lady Greentree, telling her all that had happened—within reason, of course. Just as she was sealing the bulky folded pages she became aware of voices downstairs, and rose to gaze from her window, which overlooked the green plane trees of Berkley Square. There was a carriage in the street outside the Montegomery townhouse, and she recognized it at once as belonging to Aunt Helen and Toby Russell.

Marietta smoothed her skirts with a grimace. She loved Aunt Helen dearly—Helen was Amy Greentree’s sister—but Toby was an appalling character and he was only tolerated by the family for Helen’s sake. He had run off with her when Helen was too young and silly to see him for the fortune hunter he really was, and William, as the head of the Tremaine family, had given in to Toby’s demands rather than allow a full-blown scandal. Toby had soon gone
through Helen’s money and now they lived in a state of perpetual penury.

Parallels had been drawn between Aunt Helen and Marietta, and she supposed they were justified. They had both been foolish enough to give their hearts to men who were completely unsuitable, and then proceed to run off and ruin themselves. But whereas Helen had ended up being married to her bounder, Marietta had not—and when she looked at Toby, she couldn’t help but think she had the better bargain.

By the time Marietta entered the drawing room, Aunt Helen was wiping away her tears as she viewed Vivianna’s son in the arms of his nursemaid.

“Now, now, old girl, pull yourself together.” Toby shuffled and looked embarrassed. “I thought you were over all that silly nonsense.”

Toby had been a handsome man in his youth, but in the last ten years or so his indulgent lifestyle had seen him change. Surreptitiously Marietta eyed his rigid waistline, and decided he must be wearing a corset.

“Such a shame that Amy cannot travel yet,” Helen was saying. “She will be longing to see this dear little man. Just think, she is a grandmamma!”

“And she’s not the only one,” Toby said, with a knowing smirk.

Vivianna shot him a look full of dislike, and there was a little silence. Then Helen straightened and spoke with uncharacteristic boldness.

“Well, as to that, I told William I do not care.” Her voice trembled a little, for she was very fond of her brother William and very much influenced by him.

“I told him that I could never look upon Amy’s girls as anything other than family, and that I loved them all dearly, and if that made me a fool or…or a dupe, then it was just too bad!”

“Oh, Aunt Helen!” Marietta came and gave her aunt a warm hug. “We love you too.”

“Good Gad,” Toby shuddered at so much open emotion, and went to peer out the window.

“It’s just that I rely upon him so,” Helen spoke in a little voice. “I do not know what I would do without him. William is so strong, and I have never been very strong.”

Marietta exchanged a glance with Vivianna. They both knew that Toby was useless and that Helen did rely on William. In his way, he had watched over Helen. He had even paid some of his sister’s outstanding debts when Helen could not do so, and Toby
would
not do so.

“We don’t expect you to do anything that will make Uncle William angry with you,” Vivianna assured her. “Truly, Aunt Helen, you must not do that. But do you know, it might be a good thing for you, and good for Uncle William, too, if you stand up for yourself occasionally. If you were to say what you really think and feel, rather than saying what you believe will please him most.”

“Well, as for that…You can ask William yourself, Helen,” Toby called out, as he turned from his position by the window with an insufferably smug smile. “He’s just arrived.”

Helen took a deep shuddering breath. Vivianna and Marietta exchanged looks, before Vivianna went out into the hall to welcome her Uncle William, and
Marietta clasped her aunt’s hand and squeezed it, at the same time shooting Toby a speaking glance. He responded with a mocking grin.

William’s voice boomed in the hall, and then he was following Vivianna into the room. He took Helen’s outstretched hand with a brusque, “Sister,” and greeted Marietta as if he would rather she wasn’t there. Dutifully the nurse presented Vivianna’s son to be admired—William peered at him suspiciously and grunted—and then he sat down in the most comfortable chair in the room.

“I’ll have a little milk in my tea, Marietta. And two of those tea cakes,” he said, watching critically as Marietta fetched them for him. “It really is too bad,” he grumbled. “Despite the fact that Her Majesty the Queen graciously acknowledged Amy’s girls three years ago, I still cannot go anywhere without mention being made of the scandal of their birth. I wish it had never come to light. I don’t know what any of you were thinking to allow the truth to leak out.”

“No one mentions it to me,” Vivianna said with only a slight edge to her voice. “And Her Majesty is perfectly comfortable in the company of Oliver and myself. I think you should tell these gossips, whoever they are, to mind their own business, Uncle.”

Helen drew in a little gasp of air, clearly far more upset by the exchange than any of the participants. William glared at his eldest niece and informed her in his most pompous voice, “Until you came along there was nothing remotely scandalous about the Tremaine family.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Toby spoke up.

“Apart from my poor sister’s union to yourself, of course,” William cut him down.

“More tea cakes, Uncle?” Marietta asked a little desperately, holding out the plate.

He gave her a look, as if he was about to start a category of her own misdeeds, but then his eyes swept greedily over the tea cakes and he changed his mind. “Thank you, Marietta, I will take another one. How is Amy’s ankle, by the way? Healing?”

“She hopes to be able to travel south very soon,” Marietta replied sweetly. “She asked after you, too, Uncle, in her last letter.”

“Did she?” He appeared somewhat mollified. “Well, I am remarkably hale, even though family business runs me ragged.”

Marietta, who could just picture her uncle running from townhouse to townhouse, putting out the fires of scandal, tried not to laugh. A glance at Vivianna showed that she too was having difficulty. They were still smiling when a servant opened the door and announced, “Madame Aphrodite, my lady!”

And Aphrodite, as usual dressed all in black apart from her glittering jewelry, entered the drawing room.

The teacup and saucer rattled in William’s hand; tea cake crumbs cascaded over his waistcoat. Toby grinned in sheer perverse delight, while Helen moaned in horror. Marietta moved towards the door, determined to protect her mother at all costs, while Vivianna positioned herself before Uncle William.

As for Aphrodite herself, she had stopped dead in the doorway, and her face turned as white as chalk. “
Mon dieu,
” she breathed, and it was a prayer.

William finally set his shaking cup down with a clatter, and stood up. “I’m afraid I cannot possibly
stay here with this woman,” he said, in a voice vibrating with fury and disapproval. “I will call again another time, Vivianna. When you are
alone
.”

“Uncle, please, there is no need—” Marietta dove in on her sister’s behalf, but no one was listening.

“As for
you
,” he said, and suddenly he was looming over Aphrodite, his face mere inches from her own. To her credit Aphrodite did not cringe but stood rigidly still, looking up into his eyes, but Marietta thought she had never seen the courtesan so afraid. William lifted his voice, “I don’t want to see you or hear that you’ve been spreading any more stories about my nieces. I will not have any more scandal.
Do
you understand me?”

Aphrodite said nothing, her eyes fixed on his.

“I am perfectly aware of all your actions,” and his tone was softer still. “I have friends who keep me informed.”

Still Aphrodite said nothing.

After a moment William made an explosive sound and marched past her, and out of the room. Soon afterwards they heard the outer door close and his vehicle moving away.

Aphrodite took a shaken breath. Vivianna had hurried to her side to hold her hand, and Marietta took the other one. “Come and sit down,” she said gently, easing her mother towards the sofa where Helen still sat, apparently frozen.

Vivianna, easily moved to tears since the birth of her son, drew out a lacey handkerchief and mopped at her eyes. “I’m so s-s-sorry, Mama! He was appalling! I have never seen him so horrid.”

“I had forgotten…but yes, my brother can be
very formidable.” Aunt Helen had pressed a hand to her breast, presumably to ease her heart palpitations.

Only Toby appeared to be unmoved by the scene. “Your brother certainly has a temper,” he said levelly. “I thought I was the only one who had felt the lash of it, but I see now that I have a rival for the title of Most Likely to Tarnish the Tremaine Family Name.”

Aphrodite managed to dredge up a breathless laugh. She lifted her chin and her emerald and diamond earrings glittered. “I do not regard him,” she said haughtily. “He does not frighten
me
.”

But he did, thought Marietta. Aphrodite was playing at being Joan of Arc, but Uncle William in his part as one of the English lords did frighten her very much indeed. How could he be such a bully!

Aphrodite remained to drink tea and hold her grandchild. Her beautiful, haggard face softened with love when she looked down at him, and Marietta felt a new admiration grow within her for this woman who had lost her own three children and yet somehow survived. By the time Aphrodite left, she seemed more herself again; she gave an impatient shrug when William’s behavior was brought up. “
Psht!
Some men are all noise and bluster,” she waved a dismissive hand. “It is the only way they can get what they want. I do not regard him.”

“I know Mama Greentree has always told us that Uncle William has a temper, but until now I truly did not believe it,” Vivianna said, when she and Marietta were alone.

“He was so angry.”

“I suppose it was the slur on the family name, or
what he perceives as a slur. And what did he mean about ‘friends’ who keep him informed?”

Marietta shook her head. “Almost…I don’t know. I was going to say that it was almost as if he had met Aphrodite before. His hatred was personal, didn’t you feel it? When he shouted at her, he leaned right over her, into her face, as if he knew her.”

“As far as I know they have never met before, and I cannot see Uncle William visiting her club, can you? He is such a prig, such a stickler for all things proper.”

“Perhaps that’s it, though. Perhaps he has a secret penchant for Aphrodite’s and thinks she will tell us all about it, so in his own way he’s warning her off.”

“You have a vivid imagination, Marietta.” Vivianna laughed, and then gave a huge yawn.

Marietta was immediately contrite. “You are tired! Go upstairs and rest. And leave the worrying about Uncle William to me. That is why I am here, isn’t it, to take all such trivial domestic concerns off your hands so that you can enjoy your son?”

Vivianna smiled wanly, and her face softened as she looked at her younger sister. “I wish you would look upon your stay here as a holiday, Marietta. You are in need of one, I think. I have always regretted that I was not there when you ran off with that creature Gerard. I could have stopped you.”

“I don’t think so. I was determined to ruin myself, and I did. And do you know, Vivianna, after he abandoned me I realized I did not love him at all. It was the idea of love that attracted me.”

Vivianna sighed. “But you’ve changed, sister. Before Gerard you were a carefree, generous and fearless girl, and now I see a shadow in your eyes. You
are far more cautious, far less likely to open your heart to others. You guard your feelings.”

“I was hurt,” Marietta said a little stiffly. “I do not want to be hurt again. What is so strange in that?”

“Nothing strange. You are being sensible, of course you are. But I wish…I grieve for all you have lost. I think you are not happy, are you, Marietta?”

Marietta smiled, but it was not the spontaneous grin she once had. “I am very happy. Or I will be if you stop talking nonsense and go and rest, Vivianna.”

Obediently Vivianna wandered upstairs to Lil, leaving Marietta to deal with Cook and the menus, and anything else that needed attention.

One of those things concerned Max, Lord Roseby. Marietta planned to call on him again this afternoon. A sense of urgency had gripped her since Max had told her he wouldn’t be in London for much longer. If Max was leaving for Cornwall then they did not have a great deal of time to conduct their temporary affair, and she still had to complete the first task Aphrodite had set for her.

She must make the most of the moments she and Max had left, to learn all she could from him about desire. Not love, she reminded herself sternly. This was purely about passion and…and lust.

Marietta gave a little shiver at the image this conjured up, and the memory of his firm lips on hers, and his warm skin under her fingers. Who would have thought that such a brief liaison could have this effect on her? If she was truthful, then she would admit that ever since she had been compelled to rest her lips on his, she had been thinking about the taste of him, the feel of him, the strength of his arms about her.

If she was honest, then Marietta would have to admit that she was very much looking forward to repeating the experience.

As often as possible.

As Marietta arrived at Bedford Square, a harassed-looking gentleman was leaving. “That was Master Max’s man of business,” Pomeroy informed her importantly, when she asked. “He sent for him first thing.”

Marietta wondered what business Max had that was so urgent it couldn’t wait until he was well again. Then the sweet, heavy scent of flowers distracted her, and she realized that once more Mrs. Pomeroy had outdone herself. There was an enormous china bowl of roses on a table in the entrance hall, and Marietta sniffed appreciatively.

“Gorgeous,” she gasped, bending over the bouquet to sniff again. “Where did these come from, Pomeroy?”