The Pretenders (9 page)

“Do you mind?” I said.

“No, but sunburn can hurt, and your skin is very fair. The sun is hot today. Be careful.”

“It’s too hot for that wretched jacket. Why don’t you take off yours?”

He slid his arms out of his jacket and took off his neckcloth as well. Then he lay back on the rock, his hands clasped behind his head, his eyes closed against the sun. In his shirtsleeves, with his open collar, he looked very strong. All that boxing with Gentleman Jackson, I presumed.

He said, “I told you this visit was going to be a horror.”

“Your cousin Harry is nice,” I said. ”The Nortons seem pleasant. It’s Lady Sophia who is the ogre.”

“She’s not so bad, really. You just have to know how to handle her.”

I looked down into his face. His lashes were absurdly long for a man.
Good thing Amanda and her friends can’t see him now
, I thought.

“Well she certainly hasn’t been pleasant to me or to Mama. I don’t care about me; I can take care of myself. But I don’t want her upsetting Mama.”

I told him about the conversation in the drawing room.

When I had finished, he sat up, frowning. “I’m sorry, Deb. She has always been like that, you know. She says what she thinks.” His frown deepened and his voice became gruff. “She has always been pretty decent to me. After the accident where my mother died, she took after my father pretty fiercely for the way he treated me.” He stared bleakly out to sea. “I have to confess, I’ve always had a bit of a weakness for the old girl.”

I felt a constriction in my chest. Reeve almost never talked about his mother. I, too, looked out at the shimmering water and conceded, “Well, perhaps she is not as bad as she seems. But you will have to explain to her about Mama and me, because I am not going to say a word.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

A comfortable silence descended between us. I -propped my chin on my updrawn knees and gazed at the sea. From where we sat, there was no land in sight anywhere.

Reeve picked up a pebble that lay on the rock’s surface, and threw it into the water. Circles rippled around it as it sank.

“Deb?”

I turned my face to look at him.

He said, “We have to come up with a plan to force Bernard to turn over my money.”

I sighed. “I know.”

“Thanks to you, he has paid my Derby debts. But I want more than that. I’m sick to death of being Bernard’s pensioner. I want to be my own master!”

“I know you do, Reeve.” The hot sun had brought beads of perspiration to my upper lip and I licked them away. My lip tasted like salt. ”I have come up with an 1 idea,” I confessed, ”but it will depend upon how much j Lord Bradford wants you to marry me. If he would prefer that you find another girl, then my idea isn’t going to work.”

His eyes were fixed on the lip that I had just licked. “What’s your idea?” he asked.

“I thought I might tell Lord Bradford that I want to live at Ambersley after we get married. You will say that you refuse to live there unless you are its real master. Then I will say that I have decided not to agree to the marriage unless he turns over your money to you,” I lifted my braid off my hot neck. ”But this isn’t going to work, Reeve, unless he really wants to see us married.”

“Hmm.” He picked up another stone and threw it casually into the water. It amazed me how far out it went. After a minute, he said thoughtfully, “I can tell you this, Deb, the last thing Bernard will want is a broken engagement. It is such bad form. Scandalous, really. All the things that horrify his conventional little Lambeth heart.” He narrowed his eyes against the sun. ”Under the ultimatum you have just outlined, I think Bernard will agree to turn over my inheritance to me.” He threw another stone, this one with force. It must have gone halfway to America, I thought.

He turned to look at me again and smiled approvingly. A few damp patches had come out on the back of his shirt from the heat. “It’s a grand idea, Deb.”

I thought about what he had just said. “Is it really so scandalous?” I asked nervously. “What is going to happen when we
do
break our engagement?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “It is only scandalous if one or the other party cries off. Since you and I will make a mutual decision, there can be no scandal attached to the severing of our relationship.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Bernard will have a fit, of course,” Reeve said. He did not look as if this prospect bothered him in the least.

“Well,” I said heroically, “the important thing is for you to get your money.”

“You’re a great girl, Deb,” Reeve said. ”I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“I agree. In fact, I’m beginning to think you might owe me something—like a horse of my very own,” I said, shooting him a sideways look to gauge his reaction to this piece of blackmail.

“If we pull this off, I will buy you one of Lady Weston’s hunters,” Reeve said.

My heart stopped. “Oh Reeve,” I said. “Do you mean it?”

“I do. You will deserve it.”

I would, of course.

“Come along now,” he said. ”We had better be heading back before Bernard sends a rescue party after us.”

I laughed and followed him to reclaim our horses.

TWO DAYS WENT BY UNEVENTFULLY.  ON THE FIRST
day I rode with Reeve in the morning, then walked sedately in the gardens with Mama and Mrs. Norton in the afternoon. The following morning it rained, but by afternoon the clouds had blown away, and we paid a visit to the small village of Wakefield, which lay to the west of the manor, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Thornton, the local rector and his wife.

Lord Bradford and Lady Sophia had arranged a garden party for the afternoon of the third day of our visit.

“We’ve invited a few friends from the immediate neighborhood to meet you and your mother, Miss Woodly,” Lord Bradford told me as we rode back from our visit to the rector. ”Now that the London Season is over, most of the local people are in residence once again.”

I was not overly pleased to hear this. Considering the fact that our engagement was a sham, I thought that the fewer people Reeve and I met together, the better. However, I could hardly say this to Lord Bradford.

I turned my head to look at him. We were riding side by side along the narrow country road and as his steady gray eyes met mine, he smiled. “Allow me to take this opportunity to tell you how pleased I am with Reeve’s engagement,” he said.

I could not keep my surprise from showing on my face.

Lord Bradford interpreted my expression. “Reeve does not need to marry a young lady with money, Miss Woodly,” he said. “He has a great deal of money himself.”

You have Reeve’s money, not Reeve
, I thought But I held my tongue.

Lord Bradford was going on, “Nor does he need to marry a young lady who thinks he is a hero out of a poem.”

I stared at him in astonishment. “Don’t tell me you have heard of
The Corsair
!”

“I have a seventeen-year-old daughter, Miss Woodly,” Lord Bradford replied in a dry voice. ”Of course I have heard of Lord Byron. It was not until I got to London, however, that I realized that Reeve was I actually being compared to that idiotic corsair fellow.” f.

“It
was
a little revolting,” I admitted. !

Lord Bradford’s mouth set in a straight line that made him appear very stern. “Reeve has many faults, but I will say this for him. He is not vain.”

“I think Reeve has fewer faults than you credit him with, Lord Bradford,” I said evenly.

Once more that shrewd gray gaze swung my way. “Perhaps he is finally growing up. He is certainly less restless than I have ever seen him, but then he has only been here for four days.”

I gave him the faintest suggestion of a smile. “Might I suggest, Lord Bradford, that if you wish to keep Reeve in good temper you find more for him to do than to attend garden parties—delightful as I’m sure tomorrow’s entertainment will be.”

Suddenly Lord Bradford grinned. The smile transformed his blunt-featured face, making him look almost handsome. He said, “I told you I liked this engagement of Reeve’s, Miss Woodly. I mink he’s got himself a girl who understands him.” The smile died away. “As much as anyone can understand Reeve.”

The lane widened, and at his suggestion we moved our horses forward to join Reeve and Sally, who were just ahead of us.

“Papa,” Sally said. ”What do you think about an expedition to Minchester Abbey?”

As Lord Bradford talked to his daughter, Reeve and I rode in silence, and I thought about my conversation with his trustee.

Lord Bradford’s approval of me as a wife for Reeve was both good and bad, I decided. The good part was that Lord Bradford sounded as if he would want to do whatever he could to promote our marriage. This would make it easier for Reeve to extract his inheritance before our vows were actually said.

The bad part, of course, was that Lord Bradford would be livid when he learned that he had been duped.

Oh well, I thought for perhaps the hundredth time since I had agreed to this imposture, it was his own fault for being so rotten to poor Reeve for all these years.

It would make me feel better, though, if he would not be so nice to me.

The following morning was sunny and clear, but as the day progressed toward noon the clouds began to sweep in from the Channel. Lady Sophia was furious. She would not have her garden party ruined.

“It is not as if we’ve invited hundreds of people, Cousin Sophia,” Lord Bradford said reasonably. ”There is plenty of room in the house if we have to move inside.”

“I won’t have it,” Lady Sophia said. She thumped her cane. ”Do you hear me, Bernard? I planned a garden party, and a garden party I will have.”

“I hear you, Cousin,” Lord Bradford said resignedly.

We all heard her. She had not raised her voice, but it could have cut through crystal it was so sharp.

“I am sure the rain will hold off,” Mrs. Norton said cheerfully.

Lady Sophia glared at her. “How can you be surer” j-

“I just have a feeling,” Mrs. Norton replied in that j same cheerful voice.

Lady Sophia gave her a scathing look.

We were all gathered in the garden, which did look exceptionally lovely. Food was being laid out on a long, linen-covered table, and two liveried footmen presided over a punch bowl and several icy tubs of champagne.

I said mildly, “It will not be as nice indoors as out, but Mama and I will still have a chance to meet your neighbors and isn’t that the whole point of the party, Lady Sophia?”

I seemed to have said the right thing, for her face cleared as if by magic. “That’s right, Missy,” she cackled.

I saw Reeve shoot her a suspicious look. “Who exactly is coining, Aunt Sophia?” he asked.

“I imagine you will know all of them, Reeve,” she replied innocently. ”You used to visit at Wakefield quite frequently when you were young. Do you remember Geoffrey Henley?”

Reeve’s face brightened. “Of course I remember Geoff. Is he coming? I thought he was in the army.”

“He was wounded in the Peninsula and invalided home,” Lord Bradford said. ”He will be here. And his sister as well, with her new fiancée.”

“Gad, Charlotte can’t be much older than Sally,” Reeve said. ”Is she really getting married?”

“I will be making my own come out next Season, Reeve,” Sally said in an injured voice. ”At this time next year I may very well be engaged myself.”

Reeve looked at his cousin and realized that he had hurt her feelings. He shook his head mournfully. “You make me feel like an old man, Sal.”

Her face cleared, and she giggled.

The sky was even darker now than it had been fifteen minutes before.

“Oh dear,” Mama said, looking up at the rolling clouds. ”I hope everyone arrives before the rain comes.”

Lady Sophia glared at poor Mama. “It will
not
rain.”

Half an hour later, just before the guests were due to arrive, the sky began to brighten. Reeve and I had been walking through the garden together, talking idly of this and that, when the first ray of sunshine peeped through.

The garden at Wakefield Manor covered almost five acres. Its centerpiece was an ornamental fountain surrounded by clipped yew and round beds planted for summer color. Clumps of sweet peas, clematis, phlox, roses, hydrangeas and other soft-colored plants flowered in purple, white, blue, and pink. To the south, beyond the fountain, was a yew arch which led one into a small wood, which was crisscrossed with shady walks. An old walled orchard lay at the edge of the woods.

It was a pretty, comfortable sort of garden that in no way resembled the miles and miles of stretching parkland and formal flower beds at Ambersley.

We were walking back from the fountain toward the house when Reeve looked up at the sun breaking through the clouds, and laughed. “By God, I believe Aunt Sophia must be a witch. She commands the elements.”

“The wind changed,” I said practically. ”There j was no witchcraft about it.”

At that moment, the French doors leading from the morning room into the garden opened and a group of people came out onto the stone terrace.

“Who are these people?” I asked Reeve. ”Can you see?”

“It looks like the Martins. They own Coverdale, which is about four miles to the east of here. Sir Timothy has been a friend of Bernard’s forever.”

“This is going to be awful,” I said gloomily.

“You can’t say I didn’t warn you, Deb.”

I thought about trying to explain to him that it wasn’t meeting these people that was bothering me, it was meeting them under false pretenses. But I said nothing. The last thing I wanted to do was to try to make Reeve feel guilty.

A few minutes later we arrived on the terrace, which was lined with stone pots filled with the same flowers that grew around the fountain. Lady Sophia introduced Mother and me to the Martins.

Sir Timothy, who had the high-colored face of someone who spends a great deal of time outdoors, gave me a look of approval. I was wearing a white-muslin dress with a scooped neck and short sleeves trimmed with fine white embroidery. My hair was braided with a blue ribbon and woven into some kind of fancy knot at the back of my head.

Sir Timothy took my hand and bowed over it with surprising grace. “Glad to see you’ve got a girl who looks as if she can stand up to you, boy,” he said to Reeve. “Not an itty-bitty thing who’s afraid of her own shadow.”

Lady Martin said, “How do you do, Miss Woodly. Please excuse my husband’s bluntness. I’ve been trying to civilize him for years, but to no avail.”

Lady Martin had humorous hazel eyes and hair that was going gray, and I liked her immediately. “How do you do, Lady Martin,” I said. “I am so pleased to meet you.”

The Martins were introduced to Mama, and we all stood talking for perhaps five minutes until the next guests, the Reverend and Mrs. Thornton, arrived. Then the doctor from Fair Haven and his wife and daughters came out to the terrace.

“I wonder where Geoff is,” Reeve was saying to me, when the French doors once more opened and another group of people came out to the garden.

This was the largest party of guests so far, consisting of a man in his late forties, a woman who was obviously his wife, a young man Reeve’s age who walked with a slight limp, another young man of about Reeve’s age, and a girl who looked to be about eighteen.

The Henleys
, I thought.
The young man with the limp must be Geoffrey, the girl must be his sister Charlotte, and the tall, elegant-looking young man with her must be her fiancée
.

“There’s Geoff now,” Reeve said eagerly, and he began to walk in the direction of the door.

I stayed behind a moment to finish what I was saying to Mrs. Calder, the doctor’s wife, and then I followed him.

Lady Sophia was waiting for me at the top of the terrace stairs. “I have a surprise for you, Miss Woodly,” she said. “There is someone here I particularly want you to meet.”

I shot her a suspicious glance. She was looking far too pleased with herself, I thought.

Reeve was talking to the young man with the limp.

Slowly, escorted by Lady Sophia, I approached the group.

“Swale,” Lady Sophia said, ”Allow me to present my nephew’s fiancée, Miss Deborah Woodly.”

Behind me I could hear someone’s breath catch audibly.

Lady Sophia continued, “Miss Woodly, this is Viscount Swale.”

I allowed Lord Swale to bend over my hand. Next I smiled and greeted Lady Swale, who introduced me to Geoffrey and Charlotte.

Charlotte said with an impish smile, “Reeve, you must allow me to introduce you and your fiancée to
my
fiancée, Lord Lynly.”

Lord Lynly!

It took a moment for those two words to register. Then I felt all the blood drain away from my face.

Oh my God
, I thought,
that horrible, horrible woman. She did this. She did it on purpose
. My stomach churned and I could feel myself beginning to shake.

I lifted my eyes and looked into the face of my brother.

He was as pale as I was.