Susan Johnson (8 page)

A
BRIEF TIME LATER, LADY CARBERRY WAS ANNOUNCED
at Kilmarnock House. As soon as she entered the parlor where Roxane was working with her steward on business accounts, the man was dismissed and Roxane suggested they take a stroll in the garden. She spoke of ordinary things while they traveled through the hallways to the outside door. But once they were clear of the house, understanding something was amiss, Amelia quietly said, “We’re not going out to admire the flowers, are we?”

“I don’t know which of my servants can be trusted.” Roxane glanced around to see they were alone. “Robbie’s back.” At her sister-in-law’s shocked expression, she added, “And Queensberry knows, which aggravates the risks.”

“I
thought
Robbie Carre might be behind my early-morning visitor.” Amelia was careful to keep her voice low.

“Did the messenger
say
Robbie sent him?” Roxane was eager for news of Robbie’s condition.

“No, and when I asked, he was evasive. He said he was only asked to relay the message that I was to take your children to the country if you approved, and that you’d know the rest. So I came right over. Now tell me everything.”

Roxane could feel the tension drain from her body, her fears for Robbie dissipating. Only he knew of their conversation about Amelia taking her children away, so he must be safe—at least for now. Quickly surveying the windows facing on the garden and seeing no observers, she rapidly related the events of the previous evening.

“Robbie was actually in your bedroom?” her sister-in-law
exclaimed, wide-eyed. “Dressed or undressed?” Her green eyes shone bright with curiosity.

Roxane blushed.

“Lord, he’s reckless.” Amelia cast a sidelong glance at her friend. “Are you happy he’s back? Silly question,” she added, taking in Roxane’s reddening cheeks. “You haven’t looked at another man since he left.”

“And you don’t know how foolish I feel.” Roxane grimaced. “He’s so young, Melie—not ingenuous or, God knows, innocent, but still embarrassingly
eighteen,”
she said, her unease evident. “It’s a totally irrational, as though I were insensible to reason instead of eminently practical since Jamie died. But I literally tremble when I see him,” she murmured, disbelief and wonder in her tone. “I don’t know what to do.”

Amelia smiled at her as they walked down a garden path bordered with colorful tulips. “He’s a bonny young man, there’s no doubt of that. Why not enjoy him?”

“With Queensberry’s troops chopping down my door? And the noose already around his neck?”

“Enjoy him later, then, when political events have calmed.” The women had been friends from childhood, their exchange of confidences a long-standing pattern.

“Unfortunately, he’s not interested in waiting.”

“The impulsive Carres.” Amelia’s dark brows arched in acknowledgement. “They’re not exactly models of decorum, are they?”

“I can’t say I acted much better last night,” Roxane confessed. “I wasn’t able to control my feelings when I should have, when the risks were outrageous. But
when I’m with him, Melie, I feel the way I did with Jamie, if you don’t think me too awful to compare him to your brother. Robbie’s reckless and wild, too. Remember how Jamie was—laughing and teasing, capable of taking on the world, never afraid of anything. It seems a lifetime ago, doesn’t it,” she whispered, her eyes glistening with tears.

“Don’t cry, darling.” Amelia moved closer to put an arm around Roxane’s shoulder. “You deserve happiness, you do,” she softly said, hugging her, “Don’t cry because you love him. Jamie would want you to be happy.”

“If only everything wasn’t so entangled in Queensberry’s vicious web,” Roxane breathed, brushing her tears away.

Taking her friend’s hand, Amelia led her to a garden bench out of sight of the house. “At least let me help with the children. David never likes to come into town anyway, and I came only because Mother wanted help with her entertainments. But she detests Queensberry as much as anyone. She’ll understand if I return to Longmuir with your children.”

“I’d be so relieved to have them away,” Roxane affirmed with a grateful smile. “Agnes is awful, ready to betray anyone for Erskine advancement.”

“Will she allow the children to leave?”

“She’s so set on accommodating Argyll’s lust,” Roxane said with disgust, “she’d do anything to give me more time with him. When I tell her I’m going with him to Catherine’s, she’ll hardly notice you’re taking the children. She’s willing to dine with the devil for an English earldom for Angus.”
4

“Or have
you
dine with the devil.”

Roxane curled her nose in distaste. “Tonight, as a matter of fact.”

“What
are
you going to do with Argyll?” Amelia gently asked. “He won’t be led by the nose for long.”

“I already told him I had no intention of sleeping with him.”

“And?”

“He was extremely polite.”

“And lying.”

“Yes. But I won’t sleep with him.”

“Not even for an English earldom?” Amelia drolly remarked.

“Particularly for such a venal reason. I like my freedom. It grows on one.”

“Thanks to Johnnie Carre,” Amelia murmured.

“Yes,” Roxane replied with a small smile. “He protected me from all the others after Kilmarnock’s death. And I did the same for him, with all the marriageable females pursuing him.”

“A convenient friendship.”

“A pleasant one. And if my press of suitors became uncomfortable, Johnnie would speak to them.”

“A diplomatic warning from the Laird of Ravensby is always effective,” her friend sardonically observed. “Will Robbie take over that role?”

“Nothing so benign for him, I suspect.” Roxane sighed. “He’s interested in being more than a lover. Which presents a host of problems for me that he’s not inclined to understand. I’m not entirely sure I
want
to marry again,” she said with quiet emphasis. “Widowhood is decidedly more liberating. And what does he know of being a father to five children?”

“You mean it won’t be possible to simply run away and live on moonbeams and rapture?”

Roxane cast a rueful look at her friend. “Not with schoolmasters, nannies, riding and dancing lessons, and children who want me to spend every minute of the day with them. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure the whirlwind force and energy of Robbie Carre won’t wreak havoc with my comfortable life.”

“Can you be that practical, though, against his irresistible charms? The ladies have been standing in line for him since he was sixteen. I hear he’s very, very good,” she finished in a playful purr.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Roxane flushed rosy pink. “And, yes, he’s very good, if you must know. But I’m hoping all the serious liabilities might temper my reckless passion, Melie. Or at least make me consider the great, vast differences in our lives. Which is why I’d be so grateful, if you took the children for a short time. Robbie isn’t sensible. He doesn’t know what the word means. And it’s too dangerous for my children, with Queensberry’s spies everywhere.”

“I can’t see Robbie Carre quietly walking away or listening to reason.”

“That’s even more reason for my having to be rational about this relationship. I’m terrified he’s going to be
killed
because of me. Do you know he was going to take on all of Queensberry’s troopers last night and save me like some chivalrous knight? The only thing that changed his mind was my reminder of the danger to my children.”

“I don’t suppose a man who returns to Scotland so soon after he’s outlawed is by definition cautious.”

“Which puts me uncomfortably in the middle of the fight between Queensberry and the Carres,” Roxane uneasily noted. “I’d much prefer waiting until the Carre lawsuit is settled, until they’re no longer outlawed and under penalty of death. Robbie claims they’ll have their estates back by fall. Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait?”

“Sense and the Carres?”

“You see,” Roxane said on a quiet exhalation. “What am I going to do?”

“Keep Argyll at bay, discourage Robbie from his tempestuous path to destruction, block Agnes’s determined efforts to put you in Argyll’s bed. And try to keep your sanity,” Amelia finished with whimsical sarcasm. “Forgive me, darling, but it’s outrageously true.”

“And any well-bred lady of quality should be able to carry all that off with scarcely a ripple in her social calendar,” Roxane playfully replied, grinning at the monstrous folly of Amelia’s proposals. “Which brings to mind Catherine’s dinner party tonight. A daunting prospect under the best of circumstances. I don’t suppose she’s given up her pursuit of Argyll.”

“She’s as determined as ever to bed him, my dear.”

Roxane groaned. “At least my life isn’t boring.”

“With the exception of Catherine’s dinner party tonight,” Amelia drolly corrected her.

Roxane chuckled. “I suppose it’s better to laugh than cry over this evening’s absurdities. Is Haddock out of the way, as usual?” she asked, referring to Catherine’s husband.

“In Aberdeen, I hear,” Amelia sweetly replied.

“Some things don’t change, do they?” Roxane jibed. “Who was she after last time? I forget.”

“Dundonald. Don’t you remember? She talked of Highland cattle all night, like a drover.”

“Oh, God, yes.” Roxane laughed. “I still remember her reciting the prices of cattle at Crieff. Thanks, Melie, for reminding me of the humor in all this.” She leaned over to kiss her sister-in-law’s cheek. “And for listening to my problems.”

“Again,” her bosom friend sportively replied.

“I believe I’ve listened to you whine about David’s hunting a thousand times or more.” Roxane’s gaze was cheerful.

“While I’ve had constantly to untangle your troubles with suitors,” Amelia returned in friendly banter.

“Unwanted suitors,” Roxane amended.

“Very true … but this time it’s different, isn’t it?” Amelia said, a sudden gravity in her voice.

Roxane nodded, all the myriad complications and dangers abruptly recalled. “I’m afraid it’s not a matter of graciously declining a suitor’s advances this time. It’s horrendously more complex … and confusing, to be in love again after all these years.” She tried to smile, but her lips quivered and she exhaled in frustration instead. “I shouldn’t be so emotional about this. A woman who’s buried two husbands should have learned something about self-denial and restraint. I thought I had. I thought I was immune to feelings like this.”

“You’re still young, Roxie. Why shouldn’t you have feelings about someone?”

Her mouth quirked ruefully. “Why couldn’t I have picked someone safe and dependable?”

“It sounds as though he picked you, and you’ve been resisting for a very long time. I’m not sure you can
always control the events of your life. Do stay safe from the Queensberrys of the world, but don’t give up on love,” she gently offered.

“I can’t have everything, you’re saying,” Roxane declared with a faint smile.

“It’s a shameless fact of adulthood. Although there are advantages as well … like the Robbie Carres of the world loving you,” she added with a sparkle in her eyes.

“How you always temper my volatile moods, darling Melie,” Roxane gratefully declared, needing her sympathy and kindness. “Thank you … and thank you, too, for taking the children away from all the turmoil.”

“You’ve done as much or more for me,” her sister-in-law replied, remembering how Roxane had helped her through the tragedy of her child Charlotte’s death from smallpox. She’d not been able to get out of bed or stop crying, and Roxane had come to Longmuir for an entire month, taken charge of the household and all the children, and still found time to sit with her and comfort her for hours each day and most of the nights. “Now take care of yourself,” she kindly urged, patting Roxane’s hand. “And if David and I can be of any more help, just let us know.”

Roxane sighed. “I hope I can convince Robbie to go back to Holland.” Straightening her shoulders, she gave her sister-in-law a determined look. “As for Argyll, I’ve handled men like him before.”

“I’ll offer up a prayer,” Amelia lightly said.

Roxane’s eyes flashed with amusement. “I might need two prayers, considering the incompetence of Catherine’s cook.”

T
HE DINNER PARTY LIVED UP TO ROXANE’S DOUR
expectations, Catherine Haddock predictably vicious from the first moment she realized Argyll and Roxane had arrived together. “How wonderful to see you, John,” she purred, coming to greet them in a rustle of pink silk, her pale blue eyes snidely appraising Roxane in ivory mousseline and black lace. “You look tired, darling,” she nastily murmured. “But then you didn’t get much sleep last night, I hear.”

“For which Queensberry was justly castigated,” Argyll interposed. “Did he mention that?” His gaze traveled across the room to where Queensberry held court in the midst of a throng.

“Of course not, John. It would have ruined his story. Although young Robbie Carre’s escape was ruin enough.” She turned her taunting glance on Roxane. “Are the Carre brothers the same?” she maliciously inquired.