The Rake's Ruined Lady (21 page)

‘Indeed you do not!’ Elise again attempted to buck up her morose sister. ‘You don’t deserve the bad luck you get, Bea...’

‘Sir Colin would like to speak privately to Beatrice.’ Alex had re-entered the morning room and closed the door before making his announcement.

‘Would he, now?’ Walter used his stick to assist him to his feet. ‘Well, you can tell the turncoat that
I
am the one he ought to visit, and you can also tell him that my daughter sees no gentleman privately without my permission.’

‘Papa!’ Beatrice sounded mildly irritated. ‘I am twenty-five years old and have been alone with Colin many times before.’

‘That was when you were his future wife,’ Walter retorted. He turned to his son-in-law. ‘What reason did he give for asking to see Beatrice?’

‘He said there had been developments, but wouldn’t disclose more to me. He seemed prepared to leave if his request was denied. I’ve had him shown to the small salon to await his answer.’

Her father’s high-handedness had made Bea feel contrary; she was also becoming increasingly curious to know what Colin wanted to talk about. She remembered Colin’s bemused expression as she quit the Whitleys’ house in disgrace. If he’d brought news concerning that calamity it would be best to have the gossip sooner rather than later, and she told her father so.

‘Very well, you may have a few minutes with him.’ Walter backed down because he was also keen to find out why Colin had called; they had all parted company under a very black cloud. Therefore he reasoned it had to be a matter of some magnitude that would bring the doctor, cap in hand, to see the woman he had jilted while she was in the bosom of her family.

Chapter Seventeen

‘W
ould you like some refreshment, sir? I can ask for some tea to be brought to us.’ Beatrice made her polite offer on entering the small salon and closing the door behind her. Her arrival had interrupted Colin pacing and, remembering him as a staid character, she found it remarkable that he appeared so restless.

‘No...nothing...thank you...’ Colin immediately approached, grasping her hands and then raising them as though he might kiss her fingertips.

Flustered by such an eager and inappropriate greeting, Beatrice speedily freed herself from his clasp. She didn’t want him to believe they were now friends just because they had exchanged a few courtesies at the Whitleys’.

‘I have made a dreadful error, Beatrice, and would beg you to hear me out,’ Colin erupted. ‘I know you have every right to hate me but I’m optimistic you do not. You were kind enough to come and talk to me the other evening, and you have agreed to see me today.’

He raked back from his forehead an untidy fringe of auburn hair.

‘I am hoping that your natural grace and goodness will allow you to forgive me. Indeed, I pray you will, and that you’ll take pity on me when you hear of the injury I have suffered.’

‘The injury
you
have suffered?’ Beatrice echoed, rather tartly. If her memory served her correctly she had been the wounded party.

‘I have been duped, Beatrice!’ Colin exclaimed, a whirling hand and furrowed brow emphasising the gravity of his situation. ‘My uncle’s will did not after all contain a stipulation that I must marry Stella Rawlings.’

Beatrice blinked, momentarily rendered speechless. ‘You have only just thought to check on it?’ Despite her astonishment Bea realised there was no immediate relief at having Colin’s news. In fact, as an inkling of his reason for visiting her pricked her mind, she inwardly mustered a rebuff.

‘Oh, I ordered it all to be checked thoroughly.’ He tutted. ‘There is no point in picking over upsetting details now, because what is done is done. I shall sue my solicitor, of course, and am confident of eventual success...but enough of that.’ He gazed pleadingly at Bea. ‘One vital aspect must be remedied straight away. There was never any need for our engagement to be broken, my dear.’

Once more, Colin captured her small hands in his sturdy digits.

‘I cannot reveal all to you at this stage, but suffice to say that a crime has been committed and Miss Rawlings and I are no longer engaged. I am free to marry you, and would do so this very moment if I could.’ Her crushed fingers were taken to his heart and held there, miming his devotion. ‘We must set a date before the end of the month...next week if you like. Your father will not need to spend a farthing more than he already has, I swear.’

Delving into his pocket, Colin drew out the garnet ring he had just hours ago demanded Stella return to him. In finger and thumb he held it out to Beatrice, anticipating her joy at the sight of it.

‘It gives me immense satisfaction to return this to its rightful owner. I have never stopped loving you, Bea...’

‘But I have stopped loving you.’ Beatrice jerked her hand back to her side as Colin would have forced the ring on her finger. ‘I’m very sorry to be blunt, and to hear that you and Miss Rawlings are not to be married, but I refuse to be drawn into your problems or substitute myself for her.’

Colin smiled softly. ‘You must not be indignant that I have come back to you; I wanted you as my wife all along, Beatrice. You are not second fiddle, and I have not rushed here on the rebound from her.’

Bea coughed a startled laugh. ‘I do not think of myself as second fiddle, and I am not indulging in a fit of the sulks because of wounded pride.’

She stepped to a sofa, using its back as support as the magnitude of what she’d heard sank in. She knew her family—waiting patiently in another room to hear the outcome of this meeting—would be shocked to learn that there had been no reason after all for Colin to jilt her. And yet, in a way, it had been right that the wedding had been cancelled, Bea realised. She’d since come to accept that her feelings for Hugh Kendrick had never completely died, and now had rekindled to a passion that threatened to overwhelm her. Every waking moment and every restless night were disturbed by thoughts of him. When she tried to force her mind to other, pressing matters she could not concentrate on them for longer than a minute before his dark sardonic features were before her eyes.

‘I’m not sure you understand all the advantages to be had from marrying me, Beatrice.’

Colin’s stern words startled Bea into focussing on him. He looked taken aback at her rejection.

‘I’m sure you will again admit to loving me in time.’ In renewed agitation he strode to and fro before the chimneypiece. ‘I’m prepared to make you my wife as soon as possible and would naturally accept the responsibility of your debts.’ He grimaced. ‘I know that Sir Toby Kendrick took advantage of your trust and innocence during that card game. It is being bandied about that he did so more to spite his brother than to spite you, but your reputation will be salvaged when you take my name—’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Beatrice interrupted. It had never occurred to her that she might be a pawn in a battle of egos between the two Kendrick brothers.

‘Hugh Kendrick’s interest in you had been noted even before his inappropriate intervention during that card game. The two brothers are at loggerheads, and what better way for the elder to get at the younger than through a matter of the heart?’ Colin’s eyes narrowed on her. ‘Is it a matter of the heart for you, also, Beatrice?’

‘I...I think it is none of your business, sir, and impertinent of you to ask.’

Tilting his head, Colin assessed Beatrice’s flushed countenance and blazing blue eyes. ‘When I say Sir Toby might attack his brother through
a matter of the heart
of course I am assuming that Hugh Kendrick is capable of finer feelings where the fairer sex is concerned. I have no liking for the arrogance of the fellow, and I’ve heard rumours he is a callous suitor.’

‘And I have heard similar things said about you,’ Beatrice spontaneously retorted.

‘You champion him...’ Colin swung away angrily from Beatrice. ‘Kendrick might flirt with you but he will not protect you in the way your father would want. I’m optimistic his calculated flattery has not turned your head...am I to be disappointed in that, Beatrice?’

Blood prickled beneath Beatrice’s cheeks. She should have guarded her tongue when Hugh’s name cropped up rather than readily betray herself.

‘Has he proposed? I mean marriage rather than an informal arrangement.’ Colin smiled sourly at the telling reaction he got. ‘I vow to be a steadfast husband to you. If you choose him you must be prepared to face disgrace and share him with his other women.’ Colin barked a laugh. ‘It is common knowledge that Kendrick has a mistress set up either end of town; where he might position another paramour is anybody’s guess.’

‘I think you should go now, sir,’ Bea said icily, though burning with ire. ‘There is nothing more to discuss. I’m sorry for your problems and wish them quickly resolved.’ She moved towards the door and held it open in a significant way.

‘I shall speak to your father before leaving and have his opinion on the matter.’ Colin jerked a bow, then strode past into the hallway.

‘He will be pleased to grant you an audience, sir,’ Bea returned with admirable aplomb to his retreating back. ‘Some time has elapsed since our aborted wedding. There will be no marriage between us, therefore it is high time my father received all the repayment he was promised.’

Colin spun about, his ruddy complexion white about the mouth. ‘I imagine your father might sooner I took you off his hands than reimbursed him.’ His expression was as severe as his voice as he continued. ‘I came to know Mr Dewey as his physician and his future son-in-law during my time in Hertfordshire. I am certain he regrets that a child of his has acted in the manner you have. A gentleman’s daughter of your age should know better, and act with some decency and decorum.’

Before Bea could conquer her indignation and summon up an appropriate response Colin had turned on his heel.

* * *

Stella had been surprised and delighted by her mother’s attitude to securing her future since Colin Burnett had abandoned her. Shrewd by nature, Stella understood that she must capitalise on her youth and virginity before both were gone. She had no more liking for the idea of being tied to a middling gentleman than she had for being a farmer’s wife. Socialising with the cream of society was vital to Stella, and for that she needed to inflame a rich man’s desire. So, with the hurdle of her mother’s objection cleared, Stella had allowed her excited thoughts free rein on the subject of being a kept woman.

Snaring Lord Whitley was no trouble. But he was old enough to be her grandfather and, though nice enough, he might pop off at any minute and leave her in the lurch. Stella also knew she did not fancy him in the way a woman should if she were to lie with a man. Again and again her mind returned to the person she’d wanted from the first moment she’d spotted him in London.

Hugh Kendrick was everything a girl might dream about: a wonderfully handsome bachelor in the prime of life who had fabulous wealth. If rumours were to be believed he was also, and most importantly, ridiculously generous to the women with whom he consorted. Stella believed that to be no exaggeration. She’d seen him with his mistress when out shopping and had immediately coveted the role of the pretty brunette decked in expensive finery and sparkling gems. The woman’s air of smugness had simply heightened Stella’s longing to take her place.

Maggie had told her that the woman was Gwen Sharpe, currently Hugh Kendrick’s preferred paramour. Stella guessed Gwen to be a few years her senior, and was hoping that a man as jaded as Hugh Kendrick was sure to be lured away with the promise of her maidenhead. Stella knew if she kept him interested for a year it would be enough, so long as she did not fall in love with him. But the rumour that he always discarded a mistress giving her a plump pension pot was sure to mend her broken heart...

‘You’ve got a look of mischief about you.’ Maggie caught Stella’s crafty eyes in the dressing mirror while hanging up the clothes her daughter had discarded on the bed. Picking up a hairbrush, Maggie began drawing it through her daughter’s Titian hair. ‘Come, tell Mama what you are thinking,’ she teased fondly. ‘Are you hoping to flatter old Lord Whitley into buying you a pretty trinket next time you meet? If he does, you’ll have hooked him.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of him at all,’ Stella answered airily. She twisted about on the stool, raising an animated face to her mother. ‘I’m after more than pretty trinkets and old codgers. I want diamonds and...and a handsome man—’ She broke off, giggling, without naming her quarry.

‘So you’re after Mr Kendrick, are you?’ Maggie guessed, bringing a sulky thrust to her daughter’s mouth. ‘Well, that one won’t be as easy to twist about your finger.’ Maggie dropped the hairbrush on the bed. ‘If your heart’s set on him you’ll need your wits about you.’ Maggie’s smile turned calculating. ‘One thing I have learned along the way is that a gentleman loves to have what another fellow covets—especially when the two of them are at loggerheads.’

Stella perked up; she believed that Colin desired her, even if he didn’t want her as his wife. She also knew he and Hugh Kendrick intensely disliked one another. ‘You think that if Sir Colin shows an interest in me as his mistress Mr Kendrick might then want me too?’

‘Pah!’ Maggie swept away the notion with a flick of her hand. ‘Hugh Kendrick would waste no energy on
him
! The one beneath his skin is that brother of his. Mark my words: he would do much to ease that particular itch...’

* * *

‘Are you certain you’ve not too quickly turned Colin down?’

‘I no longer want to marry him...I’m surprised I ever did.’

Bea had not long ago broken the news to her family that Sir Colin had reissued his proposal. Oddly, none of them had seemed as astonished as she’d imagined they would be. Her father had gone off, muttering, to speak to Colin before he left the house. Alex had tactfully withdrawn to allow his wife to speak privately to her sister, as Bea now seemed under siege on all sides.

Beatrice turned from the window, where she had been gazing over the rose gardens, and gave Elise a wry smile. ‘When I was first introduced to Dr Burnett I recall you warned me that I might fall for him on the rebound. Had we gone ahead and married all those weeks ago I would have done my best to be a good wife to him, although I have discovered I still have feelings for...’