Seeking Philbert Woodbead ( A Madcap Regency Romance ) (The Fairweather Sisters) (21 page)

Finally
Celine said, “Thank you for all your help. I appreciate it.”

He didn’t
say anything, so she continued, “I suppose this is goodbye. You are coming to
dinner tomorrow … Not really goodbye yet, except …”

“It won’t
be the same,” he finished for her.

She glanced
up to find him staring at her. She shifted nervously on the chair.

“Goodnight,
Celine,” he said quietly.

She stood
up and smoothed her skirts. She made her way towards the door. Halfway through
she stopped and turned.

He was
still watching her.

She smiled hesitatingly,
“You can call me Amy.”

He nodded,
his expression unreadable. “I will.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

She made
her way to her room, her steps slow. She was waiting for something but what
exactly she wasn’t sure.

She stopped
twice and turned to look behind her. Both times, she found the corridor empty.

Later that
night when she had laid her head on the pillow she was surprised to find her
cheeks were wet with tears. She would miss her new friend was her last thought
before she drifted off to sleep.

Perkins,
Hopkins, Gwerful and Mary confirmed that George had indeed left the mansion.
The news made Celine feel as if one of Blackthorne’s beloved limbs had been
hacked away and transported to an unreachable location. Her only consolation
was the fact that she would see him at dinner that evening.

She moped
around all day willing the clock to move quicker, but time was being contrary
as usual, for it crawled when she wanted it to race.

Even
Penelope seemed out of sorts after George’s departure, for all she ate that
morning for breakfast was three eggs, buttered bread, a few spice biscuits,
some slices of cold meat and a pear. As for Dorothy, the poor girl howled and
cried and kicked up her feet until even Lady Bathsheba was moved to tears. The duke
spent the day whistling a merry tune.

“Are you
going to a ball, Miss?” Gwerful asked as she pinned a sparkling brooch to
Celine’s Egyptian robe of blue satin shot through with fine silver threads and
silver acorn trimming.

“No,”
Celine said attaching blue sapphires to her earlobe.

“Then are
you going somewhere else special?” Gwerful persisted.

“No, why?”
Celine placed the white cashmere shawl on one shoulder and the soft grey lace
wrap over the other.

Gwerful
pointed to the lace wrap in approval. “Because you are taking an awful lot of
interest in your dress today.”

“I am
simply dressing for the dinner party, Gwerful. Surely, I am allowed to take
pains with my toilette on such an occasion.”

“Yes, but
dinner is at six in the evening, Miss, and right now it is only two in the
afternoon.”

Celine
opened her mouth to scold her and then closed it again. Her maid was right.
What the devil was wrong with her? She never spent so long preening in front of
the mirror like an imbecile. She pulled off the dress, placed the wrap back in
the cupboard and replaced the earrings in the jewellery box.

“Pull the
taupe silk out,” she said quietly.

“I am
sorry, Miss. I thought you looked lovely in the blue … Surely the taupe is too
dull?”

“The taupe
will do.”

Gwerful
nodded and did as she was told.

Celine
entered the Blue Room at six sharp. She wore the taupe silk, her hair was
scraped back into a low bun, and a thin gold necklace was her only ornament.
She looked sensible and she felt miserable.

Miss Sophia
Leech followed close behind her.

“Sophia,”
Penelope held out her fingers, “you are as pale as a corpse. It is positively
enchanting. How did you manage it?”

“It is a
new tonic from France. I will send you a bottle,” Sophia replied kissing the
air in front of Penelope’s fingers.

“Miss
Leech,” George exclaimed the moment he entered the room.

“Geo—I
mean, Lord Elmer,” squealed Sophia.

Celine
watched the enthusiastic greeting with a jaundiced eye. Sophia looked ecstatic and
George pleased, while she felt like a colour changing lizard that had blended
into the room’s furnishings. No one had greeted her yet.

“I gather
you know each other?” Penelope asked.

“Yes, Lord
Elmer and I knew each other a long time ago. In fact, I knew him when he was
still at Oxford. He often came to meet my elder sister Jane. They were
extremely close,” Sophia grinned. “And I am sure if my sister had not already
been married to the old toad Major Wright at the time, she would have married
Lord Elmer. Major Wright is now dead, Lord Elmer. A bird dropped a turtle on
his head and cracked it wide open. I mean both the turtle shell and the Major’s
head cracked open. Neither Major Wright nor the poor turtle survived. Jane is
still celebrating her husband’s funeral.”

George
cleared his throat, and his eyes finally fell on Celine. “Miss Fairweather,” he
said warmly.

Celine’s
mouth dropped open. He had called her Miss Fairweather. Since when did he
adhere to propriety? She nodded back coldly.

“Tell me,
Lord Elmer, how long are you in London for?” Sophia said snapping open her fan
and fluttering with all her might.

“Would you
like some tea?” Penelope interrupted.

“No, thank
you,” Sophia said and then turned back to George. The tip of her fan rested on
his sleeve, “You should have called over to our house, Lord Elmer,” she pouted.
“Mamma would have been thrilled to see you.”

“Not your
Father,” George replied smiling. “He chased me with a very large hunting rifle
the last time I dared to set foot in your house.”

“You
shouldn’t have climbed into mamma’s room then … or at least you shouldn’t have
allowed yourself to be caught climbing in,” Sophia scolded.

“Would you
like some coffee?” Penelope interrupted again.

“No, and,
Lord Elmer—”

“Some wine
then?” Penelope insisted.

“Truly, no
need—”

“You must
try some lemonade.”

“Honestly—”

“Sophia,”
Penelope came to the point, “did you know Celine and Lord Elmer are engaged?
Why don’t you congratulate them?”

Three jaws
dropped open in shock.

Sophia
changed colours like a peach speedily ripening. She first turned green, then
pink, and finally a mixture of red and yellow. “I did not know … I wish you …
When is the wedding?”

Celine
sprang up, “Penny, I mean, the duchess needs to retire to her room for a
moment. She needs to take a tonic. A very bitter tonic.”

Penelope
meekly followed.

Celine
planted her hands on her hips. “What were you thinking? How could you tell her
that I was engaged to Lord Elmer?”

“I was
simply trying to hurry things along,” Penelope replied sheepishly. “Besides
Sophia was flirting with him and I didn’t like seeing you suffer.”

“I was not
suffering.”

“You looked
like you were suffering.”

“Penny,
this is a pickle. How could you do this? And what about Lord Elmer. What will
he do?”

Penelope
clutched her stomach with one hand and touched her forehead with the other, “I
am going to have a baby. Women in my condition should be cossetted and never
scolded … In fact, I think I am having a headache … and oh, I felt a decided
twinge in my belly. I think I am going to have the baby now ….”

Celine
shook her head in disgust and walked back into the Blue Room. She believed not
a word of Penelope’s mythical pains.

Back in the
Blue Room Sophia had gone back to flirting with George. It seemed Sophia was one
of those women who believed that if a man was not married, he was fair game for
all. And clearly Sophia liked to play. A lot.

Thereafter,
Celine spent the entire dinner silently stabbing her meal while listening to
George and Sophia flirt and reminiscence about the good old days. She learned
about the party in Lord Clifton’s country house where George and Sophia had
spent a week. George had spent four days chasing everything in skirts. The
skirts in turn had chased him back until finally Lady Clifton had declared her
love for him in public. Lord Clifton lost his patience, and he too began
chasing George but with a rifle and off the premises.

The duke
loudly crunched a chicken bone while Penelope slurped the wine. Sophia, being
as sensitive as a block of wood, failed to take the hint and continued to
babble.

And George
… George encouraged Sophia.

Celine felt
as if she no longer knew him. The duke had warned them that he was an
incorrigible flirt, but somehow she had forgotten. She thought she could trust
him, and yet after listening to all the scandalous stories, she felt muddled.
He had lied to her and told her outlandish stories. Pirates were chasing him,
and he had been a pirate, a spy and a thief … a rogue.

She watched
him wink at Sophia and her heart constricted. He did flirt with anything in
skirts.

After
dinner was over, they moved to the family room. Sophia stroked the piano and
hinted slyly, “Lord Elmer, I know you dance exceedingly well.”

Celine
played a tune to which Lord Elmer and Sophia danced. She banged away at the
keys irked by the fact that Sophia knew Lord Elmer could dance, while she
hadn’t. What else did she not know about him?

Celine
finished mauling the piano and retired to a corner with a cup of tea.

Meanwhile,
Sophia had progressed from touching Lord Elmer’s sleeve with the tip of her fan
to touching his sleeve without the fan. She now sat coaxing him to give her a
sip of brandy.

Penelope
stood up and walked over to Sophia. She pretended to bump into her, thereby
spilling a glass of sickly smelling tonic on her lap.

“I am so
sorry,” Penelope said, looking not the least bit sorry. “I will call the
carriage. We cannot have you sitting here wet and dripping. You may catch a
deathly cold.”

And with
that Sophia departed.

As soon as
she left, Penelope and Celine turned to George.

He smiled,
“Bang up evening, eh? Pity Miss Leech had to leave so early.”

“The
evening was frightful and Miss Leech ghastly,” Penelope growled.

“Penny,”
Celine scolded half-heartedly, “you shouldn’t speak so about a guest.”

“It’s the
truth, Celine, and as for your behaviour, Lord Elmer, I am disappointed,”
Penelope shook her head sadly.

“Oh, don’t
say that,” George begged. “Be anything but disappointed.”

“I am
nothing but disappointed,” Penelope stressed again.

“But why the
devil?” George exploded.

“You are
engaged to Celine,” Penelope informed him, “and you were flirting with that
creature instead.”

“We are
engaged,” Celine said shortly, “in your head, Penny.”

“Miss Leech
is quite pleasant,” George added. “You simply have to dig deeper.”

Penelope
and Celine glared at George.

George
blinked in confusion.

“I spent
all evening excavating with the best spade in the country, and even after hours
and hours of digging into Miss Leech’s head and heart, I found nothing.
Nothing, Lord Elmer. The woman is made up of empty paper bags and cotton
balls,” Penelope seethed.

George
turned to Celine.

“Good
evening, Lord Elmer. If you will excuse me, I have a headache,” Celine
responded to his silent query.

“Eh?” George
said beseechingly eyeing the duke who had intelligently spent the later part of
the evening lurking in silent corners.

The duke
shrugged. “I hope to see you at Boodles sometime.”

With that
the dinner party was over.

***

Celine did
not go to bed immediately. She first spent a lonely hour in the library staring
at London maps. The task of finding her Philbert was suddenly no longer fun.
Her mind kept flitting back to George’s beautiful dimple appearing and
disappearing for Sophia’s amusement. A soft voice at the back of her head asked
her if she was jealous.

“No,”
Celine informed the bookshelves, “I am not jealous.”

The
bookshelves in turn looked sceptical.

It was, she
decided, time for bed.

Celine
climbed into bed and blew out the candle. She closed her eyes and started to go
over the evening’s happenings. She had just finished picking out faults in Miss
Sophia Leech’s dress when a hand closed over her mouth.

“Don’t
scream,” George warned.

Celine
nodded and bit his finger.

George
screeched, “Why did you do that?”