The Uncatchable Miss Faversham (25 page)

    ‘Where will you live? Has it been decided?’

    ‘Not yet. Indeed I have barely had a chance to speak with Nathaniel since we made the announcement.’

    Eleanor stood obediently still while the dressmaker tugged at her skirts. She felt a blush creep slowly up her cheeks and hoped her friend would not notice.

    The past week had found her largely at home alone, with Charlotte in bed with some mysterious ailment. Nathaniel had called only on the occasional evening, and then had remained cool and distant towards her over supper, his mind clearly on other things.

    It was almost as though he was forcing himself to endure her company, perhaps regretting his proposal now that the initial furore had died down.

    ‘He has had business in London,’ she added, ‘and I have been so much engaged with organising the wedding itself.’

    ‘What sort of business?’

    ‘I don’t know. Nathaniel has not been very forthcoming about it. Indeed, he has been most annoyingly …’

    ‘Secretive?’

    Eleanor frowned. ‘I was going to say “close-mouthed”. Do you think him a secretive man, Louisa?’

    ‘I don’t know him well enough, Eleanor,’ her friend stated frankly. Her lips pursed together primly. ‘That is a question you had much better ask your intended. Though my dear mamma has always said it’s best not to know too much about one’s husband before marriage, otherwise one would never get married at all.’

    ‘Oh, you!’

    Louisa ducked the silk flower thrown at her head and smiled, clasping her gloved hands together, her expression complacent. ‘I shall never marry, of course, so such things will not concern me. We had agreed to become old maids together, you and I. But now I shall have to grow old alone and wander about the assemblies in some hideous old gown, clucking my tongue at the debutantes and their outrageous necklines. No doubt one of them will be your own daughter, and when she asks, “Mama, who is that dreadful old soul in sackcloth and sandals?” you will be able to reply, “Why, that is Miss Louisa, who was once my dearest friend in all the world,” and she will be amazed and not believe a word of it.’

    ‘How silly you are,’ Eleanor said, but her conscience troubled her, and later, walking arm in arm down the busy street with Louisa, she brought the subject up again. ‘Where will you live, once Nathaniel and I are married? You are welcome to remain in my house, of course, for I believe we are to spend some months at least in Warwickshire after the wedding. Nathaniel does not enjoy town life, it seems, and the house will only become damp and uninhabitable if you are not there to see it is properly cared for.’

    ‘You are too generous,’ Louisa smiled, squeezing her arm. ‘I had thought to return to my parents for a spell, but if I could ask my younger sister and her old governess to live with me in town – ’

    ‘But of course you must! And your parents will be welcome too, once the season begins next year. The house is certainly large enough to accommodate such a party. Your sister is seventeen now, is she not? What better time to make her come-out than next year? And the governess will make a perfect chaperone for you both until your parents are in town.’

    ‘But will you not need the house yourself?’

    Eleanor bit her lip, unsure how to answer that. Their living arrangements had not been discussed, but it seemed unlikely that her husband-to-be would wish to spend much time in the capital, given his aversion for town life.

    ‘Nathaniel has a town house, though it is currently under lease. But I am sure he’ll arrange for it to be vacated next year, should we decide to come to London for the season.’

    ‘Eleanor Faversham, a country maid. Well, I never thought I’d live to see the day!’

    ‘Hardly a maid,’ Eleanor countered, then blushed and giggled at her friend’s mock gasp of horror. ‘Hush, not in the street!’

    A gentleman, passing and recognising Louisa from some dance she had attended during Eleanor’s absence, stopped and tipped his hat in a gallant fashion, clearly much taken by Louisa’s vibrant looks.

    During the ensuing conversation between the two, Eleanor happened to glance down the street, and was shocked to see a familiar figure crossing the road towards a closed carriage.

    It was Rose Underwood!

    Mrs Underwood was dressed rather more smartly than before, and was wearing a bonnet which obscured her face somewhat. But she walked with the same confident sway of her hips and the swathes of unruly red hair that Eleanor remembered from their encounter in Warwickshire.

    Eleanor stared in earnest, not caring how rude it might seem. She felt an icy hand grip her heart as a man she knew only too well descended from the carriage.

   
Nathaniel?

   
She watched in disbelief as her unfaithful husband-to-be bowed over Mrs Underwood’s hand, for all the world as though she were a debutante at a ball, then helped the woman up into the carriage.

    There could be no mistake. As the man turned to follow her into the carriage, she caught a glimpse of that hard face, the livid scar on his cheek, and found she could not breathe. Nathaniel. The carriage door was pulled shut behind him, closeting the two together in that intimate space.

    Seconds later, the driver flicked his whip and the horses moved on, trotting smartly round the corner and out of sight.

    Eleanor’s face burnt with humiliation. What was his mistress doing in London? And how dared Nathaniel meet another woman openly in the street when they were due to be married in only a few days?

    The gentleman who had stopped to talk to her friend tipped his hat again, bowing to both her and Louisa. She heard herself bidding him a polite farewell through numb lips, not even aware what she was saying.

    Once he had gone, Louisa gripped her arm and pulled her to one side, shaking her gently. ‘Eleanor, what is it? Your face is so white. Do you need to sit down? There is a coffee shop on the corner there.’

    ‘No, no,’ she insisted, coming back to the noise and bustle of the street with a start. She did not wish to cause any gossip by stopping at a London coffee shop without a gentleman or an older chaperone in attendance. ‘Let us walk on, it’s not far.’

    ‘Are you sure?’

    ‘Perfectly. Besides, I have not yet found a present for Suzanne, and I may not have an opportunity to see her again for many months after we are both married.’

    ‘Of course!’ Louisa bit her lip with contrition. ‘In all the excitement of your own betrothal, I had quite forgot that Suzanne is also to be married soon. Is it next month?’

    ‘Less than three weeks. Though I shall be in Warwickshire by that date, so I have agreed that she can leave the household after my own marriage to Nathaniel. But I must buy her a suitable present.’

    They were passing a popular milliner’s shop, its blue door propped open for business.

    Louisa paused, gazing enraptured at the bonnets on display in the lace-hung front window. ‘Well, how about a new bonnet for her wedding day? That pretty white one with the green calico ribbons would suit her complexion very well, don’t you agree?’

    ‘I thought something of more worth than a bonnet would suit my purpose better. I have known Suzanne since I was a small child. She has been like a sister to me, and I must choose her present appropriately.’

    Eleanor moved on past the charming window display, her body cold despite the bright sunshine, everything inside her turned to ice.

   
How could he? How could he?

   
But she kept her face and voice emotionless, fearing the terrible outburst that must follow if she were to let slip even one word of pain and disillusion to her friend.

    ‘I do not mind if she chooses to sell it later. I simply want her to be happy.’

    ‘You don’t mind if she sells your present?’

    Eleanor looked at her friend. ‘You sound shocked. But indeed, once Suzanne is married, she will own nothing. Her husband will be her new master, and everything she has will belong to him. So whatever I give her must be small enough to hide, and valuable enough to be worth pawning later, in case she ever feels the need to escape.’

    ‘But it is a love match. Why should she wish to escape?’

    Eleanor shrugged and glanced down another high-storeyed side street, its cobbles filthy and foul-smelling. A jeweller’s shop sign swung gently some three hundred yards from the corner.

    ‘Love is not inexhaustible, Louisa, and people can fall out of it as easily as in. Come, this will not take long.’

His fiancée’s note clenched in his gloved hand, Nathaniel limped furiously up the steps and hammered at Eleanor’s front door.

    Her butler, Shearsman, opened the door with a look reproval on his high-browed face. ‘My lord?’ When Nathaniel pushed past, hat already in his hand, entering the house without ceremony, Shearsman closed the door and hurried after him. ‘My lord, if you would allow me, I shall announce you.’

    ‘No need,’ Nathaniel said harshly, glancing about the entrance hall to her smart town house, frustrated to see all the doors discreetly shut, giving no clues as to the whereabouts of his bride-to-be.

    He caught a glimpse of himself in the hall mirror; his eyes very dark and angry, his coat unbuttoned at the throat, his hair slightly unruly from the haste with which he had left his club on receiving her imperious summons.

   
Come at once. EF.

   
Fearing lest some accident had befallen his sister or nephew, he had left his club immediately, raising some eyebrows in that hushed, august institution at the precipitousness of his departure. On the short walk over here, however, he had rethought the terse wording of her message and gradually, disbelievingly, come to the realisation that she would have mentioned such a calamity in her note, and that the summons had been just that: designed to bring him scurrying to her side like an obedient puppy.

    Well, damn it, Nell might be used to such slavish behaviour from her London suitors. But she would not snap her fingers and watch
him
jump once they were married.

    ‘Where is she?’

    ‘Miss Faversham,’ the butler corrected him, accepting his proffered hat with a slight bow, ‘is in her front parlour upstairs, my lord. But if you care to wait a moment – ’

    ‘I do not care to wait.’

    Nathaniel took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the throbbing pain such vigorous activity provoked in his thigh, and threw open the door to the front parlour.

    Eleanor was standing at the window, her back to the room, elegant in a pale green morning gown. She turned as he entered, and he saw a flush in her cheeks, recognising the dangerous look about her eyes and mouth.

    Oho, so the note had something more behind it than the arrogance of a beautiful woman.

    She was angry. Even angrier than he was, he thought, closing the door behind him and looking at her assessingly.

    ‘So, madam, you summoned me?’

    ‘Sit,’ she managed, as though he were indeed a dog, gesturing him to a silk-covered armchair, the word apparently choked in her throat.

    Nathaniel shook his head, stripping off his gloves. ‘Whatever it is that made you send that outrageous note round to my club, Eleanor, say it straight out. I shall not sit down. I am unused to your polite town ways, so pray don’t bother with such niceties on my account.’

    ‘Very well, my lord,’ Eleanor flashed back at him, drawing herself up.

    She came away from the window, the folds of her green gown swaying with a seductive rustle. Her face was pale, her blue eyes damp, long-lashed, showing a faint sheen suggestive of tears. Yet she seemed composed enough, facing him without any of the hysterics he had grown accustomed to encountering in his sister when angry.

    ‘I saw you today.’

    He frowned. ‘What on earth do you mean by that?’

    ‘I was out shopping with my friend Louisa this morning, and I saw you in the street with Rose Underwood. You helped her into your carriage and drove away together.’

    Shock stopped his breath for a moment, left him speechless. So Eleanor had seen him with Jack’s wife this morning, had she? And no doubt thought the worst.

    He felt heat enter his cheeks at the implied accusation, then slowly ebb away. Well, perhaps it was time to bring this difficult matter into the open, even though it meant breaking trust with Rose Underwood. Eleanor was to be his wife soon.

    Surely some things could be shared between man and wife that it would be indiscreet to share with a mere acquaintance?

    She had seen his expression and was very still, watching him. Her own face was paler than ever. ‘You do not deny it, then?’

    ‘How can I deny it?’

    ‘You are in a relationship with
that woman
?’

    He threw his tan gloves onto a table, then paced to the window and back. His indecision was only momentary, however. Nothing would serve but the truth.

    Hands clasped behind his back, his back very straight, he stopped in front of her motionless figure, meeting those angry blue eyes without flinching.

    ‘Let me explain,’ he said shortly. ‘Her husband, Jack Underwood, was a common soldier under my command in the Peninsular. Though he demonstrated himself to be anything but a common soldier, in my opinion. Many a commissioned officer showed less bravery and resource during that disgraceful campaign than Jack. On the day that I received this,’ and he touched the sabre-cuts on his cheek, cold at the memory of how it was earned, ‘Jack saved my life. The man who dealt me these cuts and trampled me with his horse came back to deliver the final
coup de grace
. But Jack Underwood stood over my fallen body and parried the blow that would have severed my head, knocking the enemy from his horse.’

    He paused, finding the account hard to recite, though it had replayed in his mind often enough over the past six years. ‘Unfortunately, this cavalryman carried a pistol as well as a sabre. Jack was shot and lost his sight. Luckily, another of our side cut the man down before he could shoot me too. But the damage was done, and it was largely my fault. If I had not been fool enough to dismount that day, he could not have taken me off guard, and Jack would still have his sight.’