A Summer Shame (9 page)

"Who are the Buchanans?" she whispered, as they neared the main house.

"The housekeeper at Starvet House." Robert muttered, under his breath.

Relieved, Jane abandoned Robert at the back door and clutching her letters began to walk towards the back stairs. In the hall stood Viscount Torrington, leaning against the bannister.

"Miss Bennet, you are a busy woman. Don't you know that house parties are meant for relaxations and . . . new connections?" He offered a foxish smile and Jane backed away.

"My lord, I apologize for abandoning our game of bowls, but as you could see, you were well ahead in our score. I happily concede the win." Jane furtively searched for a servant, and seeing none, attempted to ignore the pit in her stomach.

"I believe to the victor should go a prize." He advanced on her position, walking with a swaggered gait, seeming to enjoy the threat dripping from his every word.

Jane held her hand up and narrowed her eyes. "Your manners are appalling, sir, and I will ask you to please leave my presence only once."

This made the Viscount laugh. "My, you are a surly one, but I had heard you Bennet girls were a handful. You won't be sending me away after I've had my way with you." Closer he edged and Jane began to feel a panic coursing through her veins. She blinked a few times and suddenly lunged at the Viscount, dropping her letters to the floor.

"HAVE ME, will you? TAKE ME, will you?" She screamed, pummeling her fists into him, surprising him with her ferocity until he regained his wits. He grabbed one of her wrists and laughed as he began to pull her into his chest, his other hand grabbing at her person. He leaned down to kiss her roughly on the mouth. With her free hand, Jane reached up and grabbed his ear as she had seen Lady Matlock do to Mr. Bingley and pulled as hard as she could.

This time, the Viscount yelled out. But Jane wasn't done. Her anger and frustration reached the surface and as the Viscount retreated a few steps to rub his ear, Jane began picking up knick-knacks off the table and hurling them at him. "All the same! You evil, conniving, monster!" After her third throw allowed a heavy gilded frame to swipe the corner of his forehead, strong arms grabbed her from behind. "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Jane! Jane!" The Colonel's voice calmed Jane Bennet's temper and she relaxed her struggle against him, finding comfort in his embrace as she began to cry. Viscount Torrington lay bleeding on the floor, suddenly attended to by the Viscount Ashbourne and a few maids.

"I killed him! I killed him!" Jane cried, "I'm so terribly sorry." The Colonel spun her around and shook his head. He noticed her gown's sleeve was torn.

"He's not dead. He's barely injured. In fact, he's feigning injury." The Viscount Ashbourne stood up and kicked Torrington in the leg, making the man howl and lurch up to protect his softer middle section.

"Don't let her near me. That woman is crazy!" Viscount Torrington stood and held his hand to his forehead before bringing it down to see the blood. "I want satisfaction for this. She, she attacked me! A peer."

"He would not leave and threatened to . . . he threatened to harm me!" Jane sobbed, frustrated that for protecting herself so well, she might now be in grave danger. Looking at her feet in shame, she saw her letters spread upon the floor and stooped hastily to collect them.

"Robert, help Miss Bennet see to her trunks, you said she was soon to leave?" Robert nodded and walked over to take Jane from his brother. The Colonel snapped his fingers and in moments, his man Pratt and a footman each grabbed Viscount Torrington by an arm.

"What? What is this? Unhand me!" he yelled as the two began to drag him down a hall Jane had never ventured.

"Richard . . ." Robert Fitzwilliam said his brother's name in a warning tone as he paused with Miss Bennet before leaving the room. "What are you doing?"

The Colonel helped himself to a drink that he downed in one gulp then shrugged. Maids scurried around him, righting the room from the attack. "He said he wanted satisfaction for the transgression, I am merely providing for his request." Nearly bouncing in each step, the Colonel followed the fainter sounds of Torrington's yells leaving his brother and Jane alone.

"Let's see you packed and away from here within the hour, agreed?"

Jane nodded and began to sprint up the stairs to her room where she hoped her maid Edith had already started. In her mind, she couldn't leave soon enough.

Edward Gardiner rearranged the items on his desk for the third time that afternoon. Birds chirping in the small tree outside his office window soured his mood and he perused the calculations in front of him for the sixth time. With Gardiner Imports Exports running like a top, he thought his first full day of working from home would present him with more to attend, but no. Instead, the household finances and bills lay in a neat stack for his attention and his business, the man's purpose for waking each morn, had been reduced to a mere summary of numbers for his approval.

Sighing, he picked up the first account for the butcher and gave it a cursory inspection. Now that Mrs. Gardiner was full with child, he asked the cook to give him the burden of the household accounts. Alarmed at the sheer number of legs of lamb and cuts of beef tallied before him, he felt pained by every good meal he had enjoyed. Why, their appetites for meat ran a monthly bill of over a guinea! Most reluctant, he signed the bill for payment, and moved along, comforted by the fact that had the worst happened, at least there was plenty room for his family to economize.

"Tis not normal for her to be so sullen. I cannot abide it any longer and my heart breaks for her!" Mrs. Gardiner announced her vexations with their niece Mary straight upon opening the study door.

"Yes, dear." Mr. Gardiner had enough experience with his pregnant wife to stick with safe responses at this stage.

"She sits in her room all day, I've tried countless times to speak with her. All to no avail."

"Mmmhmm," Mr. Gardiner returned to reading over the sundry bill, wondering why the family used such an inordinate quantity of soap?

"Please, go talk to her." Mrs. Gardiner ceased her pacing, panting. Nearly all activity made her face red these days.

"Me? She couldn't possibly wish to speak with me," he said, turning around in his chair.

"Edward, she is your niece. Sometimes a girl needs a father."

Edward Gardiner's face paled. Of all of his nieces, Mary was the hardest one with which to converse casually. Although, talking with Mary would certainly be more pleasant than her younger sisters. He racked his brain and worked for a subject to ease their discourse. As he mulled his options, his wife's impatience grew.

"Please! This moping and isolation must stop. We cannot, in good conscience, allow her to feel pained as she does."

"Of course, of course, I shall see to her now." Edward managed a weak smile for his wife who looked at him with insistence. He shrugged on his morning coat he had removed earlier. His walking cane with the ornate head of a lion in his grasp, slowly and deliberately Mr. Gardiner took the stairs to the second floor. Mary's room was the smallest on the right side of the home as it was the room she preferred. A gentle knock elicited a barely audible response from within and he creaked open the door.

"Mary?" The room was dark as she had not bothered to light a candle, the curtains were closed on the tiny window. Heavily relying on his cane to carry his weight, he hobbled to the far side of the room and pulled back the curtain, allowing natural light to spill in, illuminating a flurry of dust fairies flittering between him and his niece. Mary wore black from head to foot and sat prim and proper on the edge of her bed. "I believe it is time we had a talk."

"Uncle, I appreciate you and Aunt, truly, but I fear my burden is mine to carry."

Dragging the lone chair from the small vanity, Mr. Gardiner settled himself as comfortably as he could manage. "Nonsense, there is no burden not lightened by sharing it with another." He tapped his nose at his bit of wisdom, hoping to find a smile, but instead Mary viewed him with her flat expression.

"My actions killed a woman. I am a murderess."

Edward Gardiner sucked in his breath, not prepared for such a bold statement. "Surely not my niece! There must be a misunderstanding." Frantic with worry, Gardiner's mind raced as he tried to think how on earth Mary could be speaking the truth? All he knew was she did not wish to go to the house party at Matlock for the upcoming hunting season and for that, he could not blame her.

"It's true. My selfish desires directly led to a woman being shot in cold blood. And . . ." Mary's face crumpled as the emotion of finally admitting her guilt overwhelmed her. Gently, her uncle patted her shoulder.

"Why don't you begin at the start of the troubles and I will judge if you are to blame for what sounds like a most unfortunate accident."

"But it was no accident! She was shot!"

Frustrated, Edward Gardiner gripped his walking stick more firmly. This was not what he agreed to when he offered to speak with Mary to appease his wife, and he wondered if she knew the fantastical story Mary was holding to her chest. "Well, why don't you tell me how you came to be in the midst of such an incident. Let's begin there."

Mary sniffed and searched for sincerity in her Uncle's face. Feeling safe, she divulged the entire story of how she convinced the Colonel to take her with to apprehend Wickham and the awful outcome. She left out the actions in the carriage afterward. Her uncle listened intently and at the end, felt ready to commit murder himself.

"Mary Eloise Bennet, you will dress for dinner and come down stairs. You need to live, and no doubt, the story you have related to me is not your fault in the slightest! And you should never have been present for such a scheme! When I get my hands on that puffed up robin—"

"No, Uncle, please, I love him."

Mary pulled her hands back, amazed she had stilled her uncle's clenched fist, embarrassed she had acted out. She sighed, startled she had finally spoken the words which had tormented her for so long. "I love him."

Her Uncle's face softened and he saw Mary with new eyes. "Oh my dear, he is a very worthy man, I will give you that, even if his judgment is one I might wish to alter . . ." his voice became angry again, but he regulated quickly to his normal tenor, "however, your sulking is alarming your aunt, which in turn, is a challenge for me. The unfortunate death of Mrs. Younge was not your doing, but hers alone. She had no right to attack you and I must say, I am happy it is she in a pine box and not you."

Those last words made Mary pause. She had dwelled on that day for the last three weeks, reflecting purely that her interest in Richard had led to the woman's death. She had prayed and prayed and thought surely the Lord must not approve of her wanton ways because a woman died as a result. She never thought perhaps the Lord protected her that day when Richard saved her, he could just as easily have shot her in the confusion. Realizing this made Mary's breath catch in her throat, the weight of her uncle's offhand remark crushing her chest.

"Mary? Mary!" Edward Gardiner watched his niece struggle for air and cursed himself for upsetting her so grievously. None of this would have happened if her family had been informed she had witnessed a grisly death! "Slow down, slow down. You are safe now. Nothing bad will happen to you."

"But—but—,” she continued to find breathing difficult, "I was so wrong! I was so wrong! And I left him, and now he must think horrid things."

"I'm sure the Colonel understands why you did not attend the house party. I highly doubt he thinks worse of you for it."

"But he kissed me and I ran away the next day, ignoring him the entire time between!" The words tumbled out of Mary's mouth before she could stop them.

"He did WHAT? Madeline! Madeline!" Edward Gardiner shot up and began pacing in the tiny room, moved from annoyed to livid. Mary began to wail.

Madeline Gardiner needed quite some time to move up the stairs, but when she did, she rubbed her wet hands on her apron to stall. Who was she to comfort, the one crying or the one pacing in anger?

"Did she tell you? I don't understand?"

"Oh she told me alright. If you need me, I'll be in my study. And you young lady, well, you . . ." Edward Gardiner's words failed him as he realized he couldn't send her to Hertfordshire, she would be back in a few weeks with her mother and the younger girls. Mary didn't like to walk out of doors and he couldn't take away her Bible. Blustering and gazed at expectantly by both women, he finally took a breath and muttered, "You may not play the piano forte for a week's time." Then he quit the room.

Astonished, Madeline Gardiner soon received the whole story, including her husband's tirade, between sobs. After numerous rounds of cajoling, though she did agree with her husband that it was best for Mary to put on a brave face and join the family proper, finally progress was made. She steadied Mary by telling her she would talk to Edward.

"Don't worry, many a couple have a rocky start. I can think of one famous pair on their honeymoon as we speak," she said, with a wink.

Leaving Mary's bedroom, Mrs. Gardiner retired to her own. She needed a few moments to work through all that Mary had told her. A murder? Wickham was found and hung? Kissing in the carriage! After she moved past the initial surprise of such a dramatic sequence, a ripple of laughter shook her belly. She laughed and laughed until tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Couldn't any of her nieces conduct a proper courtship?