Lois Menzel (20 page)

In Charles Street he learned from Cassie that Anne had indeed gone to a masquerade. Though the maid could not confirm the names of the people who accompanied Anne, she did offer the valuable information that her mistress was wearing a pale blue dress covered by a dark blue domino.

After stopping briefly at his own home to collect a black domino and mask, Tenbury climbed back into his coach and soon arrived at Vauxhall Gardens. There he addressed his sturdy young footman. “I may encounter some problems here this evening. Stay alert. If I need you, I will whistle—so.” He then gave a quiet example of the tones he would use, should he require assistance. The footman nodded as Tenbury moved away and disappeared into the crowd.

The earl soon realized his task would be harder than he at first suspected. Many of the ladies’ dominoes covered them so completely that it was difficult to distinguish the color of the gowns beneath. Crilley, however, was tall and fair; therefore, Tenbury was able to eliminate all those couples in which the man was either dark-haired or short. For a time he watched one likely couple dancing, then knew he was wrong when the lady’s domino swung open to reveal a gown of light pink. Another couple he dismissed when he realized the lady did not share Anne’s mannerisms. The tilt of her head, the movements of her hands were not Anne’s.

Finally, when he was nearly ready to admit that his quest was hopeless, he heard a lady laugh, and his pulse quickened. He turned in the direction of the sound and discovered two couples sharing supper in a box nearby. As he watched the lady, he became convinced she was Anne. Though her eyes and the top half of her face were hidden behind a mask, he could not mistake the well-defined chin, the straight line of teeth when she smiled, the delicate lips. Retreating to a place from where he could watch without being observed, he determined to chaperone Miss Waverly until her escort returned her safely home.

Nearly twenty minutes later, the foursome vacated their box and strolled off into the dimly lit gardens. Tenbury followed a safe distance behind. At the first division of the path, the second couple turned aside, allowing Anne and her companion to proceed alone. Tenbury closed the distance between them. When Lord Crilley helped Anne to a seat in a secluded arbor, Tenbury quietly made his way behind it, creeping close enough in the darkness to both see them and hear their conversation. He had never intentionally eavesdropped in his life, yet he felt no compunction now.

“Are you feeling better?” Crilley asked.

“Yes. Thank you. I cannot imagine why I should feel faint. If I could but sit a moment, I am sure I will be better directly.”

“Perhaps we danced too much. You are fatigued. Shall I take you home?”

“Maybe that would be best.” Looking up, Anne seemed to realize for the first time that they were alone. “Where are Lord and Lady Sumner?”

“I suppose they walked on,” he answered. “Come. I will take you to my coach and have you home in no time.”

As he began to draw her to her feet, Anne resisted. “I cannot go alone with you, my lord. We must wait for your friends.” She put her hands up, holding her head between them. “I feel so odd; could it have been something I ate? ... Or the wine?”

She had commented on the bitterness of the wine at supper. The other three had laughed, saying that Vauxhall masquerades were infamous for their mediocre wine.

“You are astute, Miss Waverly. Perhaps your wine did have an ingredient that ours lacked. You are looking not at all well. Perhaps you would allow me to support you? Try to relax.”

When Tenbury heard no response from Anne, his role as passive chaperone ended. As he moved quickly to the path, his shadow fell across the soft beam of light penetrating the arbor from a lantern hung along the tree-lined pathway.

Crilley looked up to see a black-clad figure confronting him. He came to his feet instinctively, trying to hide Anne’s drooping figure behind him.

“So sorry to disappoint you Crilley, but I fear you will detain Miss Waverly no longer tonight. She is not, as you assumed, without a protector.”

Then from the darkness of the shadow, a powerful fist emerged to meet Lord Crilley’s jaw. He staggered for a moment under its impact and then his knees buckled. Tenbury quickly caught him under the arms to keep him from falling backward over Anne, then deposited him on the ground beside the bench. Tenbury stripped the mask from his face and seated himself beside Anne, taking her hands in his and waiting until she looked at him. “It was perhaps unwise to come here with him,” he said. “If you will come with me now, I will take you home.”

Even though Anne’s thoughts were muddled, Tenbury’s offer to escort her home seemed more acceptable than Lord Crilley’s similar suggestion a few moments ago. Despite her last meeting with Tenbury, and the bitterness of her words then, she never doubted she would be safe with him. As she rose shakily to her feet, he took her arm. She walked unsteadily for a few steps, leaning heavily on him for support. Clearly losing patience with their slow progress, Tenbury bent to lift her in his arms. Her instinctive objection died on her lips, for she had no will to utter it. To be spared the effort of walking was a sublime relief, for her feet seemed leaden and her limbs numb. She gratefully relaxed against him. Reaching her arms about his neck and nestling her head into his shoulder, she closed her eyes.

Tenbury deserted the lighted pathways, making his way carefully through the darkest portions of the gardens to the edge of the carriage drive. There, in the relative quiet along the road, he whistled three times, then waited. Within a few moments his coach approached slowly down the drive. When it was close, he stepped from the shadow of the trees into the moonlight. As the coachman pulled to a stop beside him, the footman hurried to help his master put the lady safely inside. “To Miss Waverly’s house in Charles Street,” Tenbury said briefly, pulling the door shut from the inside as the coach moved off into the streets of Lambeth.

One small lantern burned within the coach, casting a flickering sallow light over its interior. Anne was leaning back in the corner while Tenbury sat beside her, her limp wrist in his hand. Her pulse was slow and steady. He suspected she had been drugged but had no way of knowing what Crilley had given her or how long its effects would last.

“You foolish girl,” he said aloud. “Don’t you know you are no match for them?”

His words penetrated the haze, and Anne’s eyelids fluttered open. “I did not know you were in London,” she said.

“I arrived earlier today.”

She nodded but was unequal to conversation. “I am so tired,” she said.

“Rest then. You will be home soon.”

She closed her eyes and did not speak again. Tenbury continued to hold her hand in his, even though he had determined that her heartbeat was regular, for he was discovering that each time he held her, he was less willing to let her go.

By the time the coach arrived in Charles Street, Anne had fallen asleep. Tenbury went to the front door and knocked, asking once again for Miss Waverly’s maid. When Cassie appeared, he explained as briefly as possible. “I cannot carry her in the front door and risk being seen. Go through the house and unbolt the rear entrance. I will bring her up from the mews.”

When he was gone, Cassie hurried to do his bidding, while the coach made its way round to the stables.

Tenbury carried Anne unseen through the walled garden behind the house and up the servants’ stairs to her bedchamber. “I believe she has been drugged, and she may sleep for some time,” he told the maid. “I don’t know what she will remember when she wakes. Tell her what she needs to know, to set her mind at ease. Keep this to yourself; the fewer people who know about it, the better.”

* * * *

Sometime during the night, Anne passed from the artificial sleep caused by the drug she had been given into a natural slumber. She awoke just after nine o’clock with a slight headache.

She turned her head to see Cassie busy laying out her morning gown. She had a vague memory of a nightmare—had she just wakened from one? Then she remembered the masquerade. She could recall being afraid ... She could not remember coming home.

“Cassie?”

“Good morning, miss. You had planned to call upon Lady Tenbury this morning. Should you like the primrose or the coral?”

“Cassie. What happened last night? I do not remember coming home.”

“It was late, miss, and you were weary.”

“No. It was more than that. I was walking in the garden with Lord Crilley, and I felt faint. I actually thought I had been ... I cannot remember what happened. How did I get home?
When
did I get home?”

“Please don’t distress yourself, miss. You were home just after one o’clock. A friend saw you with Lord Crilley and stepped in to help when he realized the danger you were in. He brought you home safely.”

“It was Lord Tenbury,” Anne replied, vague memory returning.

“Does it matter, miss? You are safe; that is all that should concern us.”

“I did not know he was in town.”

“His lordship came to the house not long after you had gone,” Cassie supplied. “He asked if it were true that you had attended a masquerade. When I said you had, he asked what color you were wearing. Then he left. He brought you home asleep, carried you in from the stables through the back door so no one would see. That is all I know.”

Anne shuddered to think of herself in the power of Lord Crilley, or indeed any man. She realized she had been a fool to go alone with a party of people she barely knew. Tenbury obviously realized it, too. Otherwise he would not have followed her there. Why, of all men, must she find herself indebted to him?

Anne felt she could not trust Tenbury’s motives. She had learned that lesson well and would not forget it. But she also knew that regardless of what his motives had been on the previous evening, he had rendered her an invaluable service.

She dressed carefully in the primrose morning dress and called upon Lady Tenbury as planned. The earl was not present when she arrived, and Lady Tenbury did not mention him. As Anne rose to leave, however, she found the courage to ask if he was home.

“I believe he is,” Lady Tenbury replied. “Shall I have Kimble send for him?” She rang the bell before Anne had time to object to this summons.

“I had hoped to speak with his lordship privately, my lady,” Anne offered.

“And so you shall, my dear. I have an engagement and must hurry to be ready in time. I hope to see you again soon.”

When Lady Tenbury was gone, Anne had only a few moments to wait before the earl appeared. He hesitated a moment in the doorway when he saw her, then came into the room and securely closed the door.

“Miss Waverly. I am surprised to see you here.”

“Did you think I would not appreciate your assistance last evening?”

“To be honest, I was not certain how you would feel. I thought you might have the headache today and prefer to keep to your bed.”

“I have come to thank you, my lord, though words alone seem inadequate. Why did you come after me?”

“Arelia heard at the Margate’s ball that you had gone with Crilley, and she shared the information with me. All of London knows Crilley hasn’t a feather to fly with, and the anonymity offered by masquerades provides an atmosphere for treachery.”

She dropped her eyes to the reticule she clutched in her lap. “I did not realize.”

“Of course not. How could you?”

“I could have asked.”

“True. And in future perhaps you will.”

“Cassie said you followed us to the gardens. How did you find me?”

“I recognized you in the booth at dinner and followed when you walked with Crilley. When he took you off alone, I became uneasy and listened to your conversation. Had he behaved as a gentleman, I would not have interfered. But when you complained of feeling ill, and he as much as admitted drugging you, I knew I must confront him. I wanted him to realize he had made a mistake in thinking you unprotected. Since I was masked, I doubt he knew who I was. I don’t believe he will approach you again.”

“Why did he do it?”

“I cannot say, precisely.”

“As nearly as you can say, then.”

“He may have felt the drug would render you more compliant to his lovemaking. If Lord and Lady Sumner were to return and find you locked in a compromising embrace, it would then behoove Crilley to make you an offer, which you, to protect your reputation, would accept. In the event you refused the offer, I suspect the Sumners would have seen to it that the story was quickly spread. If there was a flaw in Crilley’s plan, it was that he over-drugged you and very nearly rendered you unconscious.”

Her eyes, which had been fixed painfully on his throughout this conversation, widened with horror at this plainspeaking, then suddenly filled with tears.

He stepped close, taking her shoulders in his hands. “I am not speaking so to frighten you, but it would serve no purpose to protect you from the truth. You were in grave danger last night. You must guard continuously against similar situations. You must be very, very careful. London can be an exhilarating place, but for a single, wealthy woman, a woman with no family to protect her, it can be fraught with peril. I am not suggesting you retreat to the country, but I do urge you to carefully consider your actions. It is possible that there are ulterior motives behind the things people say and do.”

His hands dropped as she turned away and sat on a nearby chair, staring at nothing in particular. “As there were ulterior motives behind all you said and did last summer,” she said. Since she was not looking at him, she did not see the flicker of pain and regret that passed over his face. “How horrible it is to be unable to take people at their word,” she continued, “to be unable to trust anyone.”

“I know, but I am afraid it is necessary.”

“This is what the duke meant when he said great wealth can be a curse.”

“I am sure that is what he meant, and I am even more certain that he was correct.”

Chapter 16

Anne’s near disaster with Lord Crilley had one good consequence. She believed now that besides those merely curious about her wealth, there could be others who meant to do her harm.