The Gathering Storm (The Jacobite Chronicles Book 3) (53 page)

It was refreshing to see Sir Anthony given a run for his money in the fashion stakes, thought Beth as the party removed to the card room. Percy and David, resplendent in crimson and gold respectively, had applauded the baronet’s unique patches, which would shortly result in more profit for Sarah.

Beth, who did not want to play cards, went instead to sit in a corner, where a small group of non-players had gathered to chat. After a few minutes Sir Anthony joined her.

“Not playing, Anthony?” said Philippa. “Not like you.”

“I am not in the mood, my dear,” he said, flopping down limply next to his wife. “And they are playing loo. I really have no desire to lose my entire estate in one evening.”

“Papa is playing,” said Philippa. Sir Anthony smiled.

“Your papa is as rich as Croesus, he can afford to lose a fortune without blinking,” he said. He stretched his purple legs out in front of him and admired the sparkling diamante buckles on his shoes. “Besides, I really feel quite fatigued.”

“Shouldn’t have played so well this afternoon then, should you,” grumbled Philippa. “Would have won but for you.”

“There’s a spare seat here for you, Anthony,” called Percy. Sir Anthony glanced round. David, Percy and Lord Daniel were seated at a nearby table. Percy beckoned to the remaining empty chair.

“No, no, but thank you,” he said. “I will decline tonight. Loo is not my game.”

“Oh, come on, Anthony, surely you are not afraid to play?” said Daniel mockingly.

“Indeed I am,” said the baronet. “The stakes are too high. Why, in mere minutes I could lose the cost of the new coat I have ordered from my tailor! It is exquisite, scarlet figured silk,” he said, turning back to his conversational companions. “Every button has a diamond in the centre! And to match it I am having the most delightful…”

“Will you play whist instead, then?” called Daniel.

“No, do not change your game on my account, dear boy. I am quite decided not to play this evening.”

“And I am quite decided you will, sir,” said Daniel firmly. “Choose your game. I can’t say fairer than that.”

Sir Anthony straightened in his seat and turned round to face the young man.

“You are most persistent,” he said amiably. “But I will not play cards with you, my lord, not tonight or any other night. I wish you luck with your game.”

“Why are you refusing to play with me specifically?” persisted Daniel. “Is my money not good enough for you?”

The baronet’s expression remained good-humoured, his eyes friendly. Only Beth, who knew him so well, felt the slight tension quivering through his body, matching her own.

“Indeed, if you were in possession of any money of your own, it would certainly be good enough for me, my lord,” he replied. “But your father is my friend and I will not render him any more impecunious than you have already done, by playing cards with you tonight.”

Daniel leapt to his feet at once, his face flushed, a curiously triumphant look in his eye.

“By God, sir, how dare you insult me so!” he cried. “I demand satisfaction!”

“Anthony’s only spoken the truth, you fool,” said Philippa bluntly. “Common knowledge. No money of your own, have you? Normal for heirs. Hardly an insult.”

“Nevertheless,” said the lord. “I repeat, Sir Anthony, I demand satisfaction!”

“Really, this is most tiresome,” said the baronet wearily. “I have already told you I do not wish to play. I am sure Lady Philippa will play. She should satisfy you; she is an excellent player, and quite ruthless.”

“It is not cards of which I speak, sir, as you well know!”

“No? Ah. I see. You seek satisfaction of a more…ah…carnal nature. Well, I can recommend an excellent establishment not far from here. My footman spent an exhausting night there quite recently. He could not recommend the ladies highly enough and he is a most virile young man.” The baronet winked knowingly and grotesquely at the company, eliciting a chorus of laughter.

“If I wished to seek the services of a whore, Sir Anthony, I need look no further than the woman by your side,” Lord Daniel said coldly as soon as the laughter had diminished. “I see I must put it plainly. I challenge you, sir. Name your weapon.”

Beth had stiffened and made to rise, but her husband’s hand closed firmly around her arm, pulling her back down into her seat.

“I see I must also put it plainly, Daniel,” Sir Anthony said into the sudden silence that had fallen over the corner of the room, and which was slowly spreading as others realised something was amiss. “I will not gamble with you, as I hold your father in too much esteem to bankrupt him, even if you do not. On the same basis I will not duel with you, as I will not leave your father without an heir, worthless as that heir may be.”

“My God!” cried Daniel. “When you said you possessed no balls earlier, I thought you were joking! Now I see it is true. You are a coward!”

Everyone looked at Sir Anthony. He could not refuse now. No gentleman could allow himself to be publicly called a coward without retaliating.

“Why are you so determined to fight a duel with me?” asked the baronet. “You have deliberately tried to provoke me, when I wished only to relax in the corner and enjoy some light conversation. I will not play your game. Seek your death elsewhere, if you must. I will not oblige you.”

“Anthony,” whispered James urgently. “You cannot let this go. He has called you a coward! You must answer!”

“I have answered,” he replied. Beth was trembling, but displayed no signs of imminent retaliation. Her husband let go of her arm. “I will say no more on the matter.”

“You may not, but I will!” persisted Daniel hotly. “I say you are a coward, and a fool too. You have been emasculated by your peasant of a wife.”

David was laughing, but Percy had paled.

“For God’s sake, Daniel, you have gone too far. Leave it!” he urged.

“I will not,” said the lord. “The rest of you may find it acceptable that the daughter of a disgraced lord’s son and a common Scotch prostitute could so bewitch a baronet with her sexual ploys as to persuade him to marry her, but I find it appalling that we should have to endure the company of a gutter whore as though she were our equal.”

“You will apologise to the lady, immediately,” said a commanding voice. Daniel turned to see the diminutive but irate form of the Prince of Wales standing directly behind him.

“With all due respect, Your Highness, I will not,” said Daniel recklessly. “I speak only the truth. It’s common knowledge that she’s the daughter of a whore. Even her husband agrees! He must, else why would he refuse to defend her?”

Beth had turned round in her seat to face Daniel’s mocking face, her mouth twisted with rage. Sir Anthony smiled resignedly.

“Oh my dear boy, I see you are determined to…”

There was a flash of movement by the baronet’s side, and Daniel cried out suddenly, taking a step backwards and clutching at his shoulder.

“I don’t need my husband to defend me, my lord,” Beth said, standing now, her fists clenched by her sides, her eyes sparking blue fire in the pallor of her face. “I am quite capable of defending myself. You say it is common knowledge that my mother was a whore. I say it is common knowledge that you are a wastrel and a fool, who demeans yourself by slandering me because you have never forgiven me for rejecting you when you begged me on your knees to marry you. And you have never forgiven my husband, who is worth a hundred of you, for rescuing me when you abducted me and tried to marry me against my will.”

She glanced around at the sea of shocked faces, and then back at her enemy. The silence in the room was profound. Daniel still clutched at his shoulder. His face was as white as Beth’s, his brown eyes wide with shock and pain.

“You dare to call my husband coward, sir,” she said, her voice thick with contempt. “You, who showed what a true and brave gentleman you are by threatening to sever my fingers one by one until I agreed to marry you. You disgrace the name of Highbury, and the aristocracy you belong to.”

She turned to the prince, and curtsied briefly.

“You will excuse me if I take my leave, Your Highness. I will wait for you in the coach, Anthony.”

She bent down, picked up her reticule from the chair and then walked out of the room, head high, looking neither to right nor left, the soft rustling of her gown clearly audible in the silence. The door closed quietly behind her.

“Bloody hell!” breathed Philippa in awe. “That was magnificent!”

Daniel sat down suddenly. David moved round to his side.

“I would not remove the knife from his shoulder until you have something with which to staunch the blood,” suggested the baronet calmly. “It will probably be terribly messy otherwise. I don’t think His Highness will appreciate it if you bleed all over his aubusson carpet.”

“Indeed I will not,” said the prince coldly. “In fact the only thing I will appreciate, once your wound is tended, Lord Daniel, is that you leave my house immediately and do not return.”

A servant appeared, carrying a bowl of water and a cloth. Carefully he cut away the sleeve of Daniel’s coat and shirt, which were already soaked with blood.

“Such a pity my wife chose that moment to interrupt, when I was about to tell you that you had convinced me of the need to accept your challenge after all. If, once your wound has healed of course, you are still determined to duel with me, I shall oblige you, providing it is only to first blood and not to the death.”

“I will gladly act as your second, Sir Anthony,” offered Prince Frederick.

Sir Anthony had not thought it possible for Daniel to blanch any more, but he did at this news, and so did David. Interesting.

“Unless, of course, you wish to concede first blood to my wife and end the matter there,” continued the baronet. “I will leave it up to you. Now, with your permission, Your Highness, I will also take my leave.”

At the door he stopped, and turned round.

“Ah, may I request the return of the knife, my lord, if you have finished with it? I believe it holds some sentimental value for my wife.”

“I’m not going to apologise,” Beth said, the moment he climbed into the carriage.

“No more do I expect you to,” said her husband, handing her the knife. “It will need cleaning. You behaved admirably, my dear. I’m proud of you. Now, I need to think. Please, let us take the time to calm ourselves a little and wait until we get home before we discuss this any further.”

At home, they went straight upstairs to change.

“Aren’t you angry with me at all?” Beth asked, eyeing him warily as he took off his wig and coat and sat down at the dressing table to remove his paint.

“No,” said Alex. “He goaded us beyond endurance. I couldna expect you to put up wi’ it, although I’d hoped ye would. Ye were lucky, though. If ye’d missed ye’d hae killed him, or worse, hit the prince. Did ye no’ realise he was standing right next to Daniel when you threw the knife?”

“Of course I did,” she said. “Luck had nothing to do with it. I wanted to hurt him, and I knew you didn’t want to fight him, for some reason. I realised that if I hit him in the right shoulder I’d have my revenge for his insults and also stop him duelling for a few weeks until it heals.”

Alex stopped wiping his makeup off and looked at her.

“Are ye telling me you aimed exactly for that spot on his shoulder?” he asked.

“Yes. I’d rather have gone for the heart, mind you, but I wouldn’t want the earl to be childless either. I really like him. Why are you surprised? You know I can use a knife.” She paused in her undressing to look at him. His eyes were sparkling.

“Well, aye, I kent ye wouldna hesitate to stab a man if there was need. Ye proved that wi’ Duncan. But I didna ken ye could throw them as well.”

“I told you I threw a knife at Richard once, remember.”

“Aye. But ye missed.”

“I intended to miss. I wanted to get his attention.”

“Truly?” said Alex, completely forgetting about the situation with Daniel in his excitement at discovering this new skill of his wife’s. “Could ye put your knife straight through that picture there?” He pointed to an indifferently executed painting of two small children which hung above the fire, and which they both disliked.

“Yes, if you want,” said Beth. “Which bit of the picture do you want me to hit?”

“How about the boy’s shoulder?” suggested Alex with a grin.

She stood, dressed only in her stays and shift, and took aim. Then her hand came back over her shoulder and forward with lightning speed, and the knife was quivering in the picture.

Alex went over to examine it.

“
Bas mallaichte!
” he breathed. “Ye did it! Could you teach me, and the others?”

“Yes of course, if you want,” she said. “But you’re so skilled with weapons I assumed you’d be able to do it already.”

“No. That is, I can throw knives and make them stick in things. But I couldna aim wi’ that accuracy. That’s amazing! Your mother taught ye that?”

“Yes.”

“What an awfu’ fine woman,” he said admiringly.

“I’m glad you think so, after all the insults she received this evening. Why did you let him do that, Alex, call me a whore and you a coward too? Why didn’t you accept his challenge? You didn’t have to kill him.”

Alex pulled the knife out of the picture and handed it back to Beth, then ran his hands through his hair.

“He was up to something, Beth. He wanted me to accept the challenge. He was desperate for me to. If I’d agreed to play cards he’d hae accused me of cheating or some such thing. He was determined to get me to duel wi’ him. Did ye no’ see that? He’d never have refused a direct order from Prince Frederick to apologise otherwise. I wasna sure at first, but after ye’d left the room I accepted the challenge, when his arm’s healed, and Fred volunteered to be my second. Daniel went white as snow, and so did David. I’ll bet he’d already agreed to second Daniel.”

“What do you think he was going to do?” said Beth.

It’s my guess that they intended to get me to a private spot for the duel, and kill both myself and my second. They could always say there’d been some sort of accident wi’ the pistols, or that my second tried to kill Daniel after he’d shot me, and had to be killed in self-defence. Of course, they assumed my second would be one of my servants. They could hardly kill the heir to the throne. That’s why they blanched when Fred offered.”