Regency 09 - Redemption (13 page)

And now, predictably while
riding in such a public venue, it slammed into her full force,
making her gasp for breath.

Lord Compton, her sometimes
companion in the park, halted his dun mare, alarmed at the sudden
pallor of his fair partner. Jenny also stopped, trying desperately
to catch a breath but failing.

Lord Connor, alerted by
Compton’s shout, raced forward, pulling to a stop beside his
sister. She was gasping as if she were suffocating slowly. He threw
himself from the saddle, grabbed her around the waist and hauled
her down to sit on a nearby park bench. Pushing her head down
ruthlessly between her knees, he ordered her tersely to calm down
and breath, dammit!

Jenny tried. But the
thoughts streaking through her brain quite simply would not allow
her a single healing breath.

When she’d gone a full
sixty seconds without a decent breath and her vision was turning
black around the edges, her brother thumped her, none too gently,
on the back.

Suddenly, her lungs began
working properly again. She drew in one deep breath, then two, then
three. Finally, Connor’s anchoring hand was removed and she could
sit up.

Staring in dismay, she
realized she’d created quite a scene. Members of Society gathered
all around trying none-too-subtly to determine what ailed her.
Heads craned over and around other heads, mouths bent to whisper
into neighbor’s ears, and everyone formed some sort of conclusion.
Mostly erroneous, but she just knew some of them were forming the
right one.

And it almost terrified her
into another fit.

“No, you don’t, Jenny,”
snapped her brother. “Do not panic again.” His voice rose a bit, in
order to reach the front members of their unwelcome audience.
“Bluebell merely stumbled. You were not about to be
thrown.”

Jenny thanked her brother
for this unlikely excuse even as she cursed him for putting her
equestrian skills in such a poor light. She’d always been a rather
good rider but considering what the real problem was, she’d allow
everyone to believe she had no business being on a
horse.

Besides,
wasn’t it dangerous to ride in her condition? What if she
had
been
thrown?

Jenny just barely refrained
from clutching protectively at her stomach. Pasting a rather sickly
smile on her pale features, she assured her brother in an undertone
that all was well and she’d merely been overcome with faintness.
His look was dubious but he accepted her excuse with good grace and
helped her to stand.

They returned sedately to
Denbigh House, Lord Compton bidding them adieu at the door. Lord
Connor ushered his sisters into the house and into an empty
receiving room with a terse order to sit.

Rounding on them, Jenny in
particular, he asked, “What is going on?” He waved a hand in the
air, his expression warning them to be honest. “And none of this
feeling faint nonsense. You’ve never felt faint a day in your
life.”

Jenny looked indignant. “I
have too. Remember Cousin Louisa’s wedding?”

Connor grunted. “That
hardly counts. I felt faint. Lord, who would have thought she’d
have the nerve to wear a black dress to her own
wedding.”

Jenny and Gwen giggled
helplessly. “Perhaps if she’d been marrying against her will but
she honestly believed black was a becoming and appropriate color
for a wedding,” gasped Gwen.

“Do you know she said she
didn’t know what all the fuss was about,” added Jenny. “She had no
idea her bosom was about to fall out of her bodice.”

The girls erupted into
laughter and even Connor couldn’t keep back a smile or
two.

After a moment, his
lordship finally inserted dimly, “That is not to the point and you
know it. Then, holding back your laughter brought on your
faintness. Today was utter panic.” He paused, his gaze probing.
With a sigh, he sat down on the settee between his sisters, making
them edge closer to the arms. “Jenny, I have seen that look before
and prayed to God then to never see it again. Please tell me what
caused it.”

Part of Jenny wanted
desperately to do just that. Another part, the saner, more sensible
part, knew that to tell her brother at this moment would be to sign
Dare’s death warrant.

“It was a momentary qualm,
nothing more, dear brother,” she said, kissing his
cheek.

It was obvious from his
expression that he would not be swayed, so she added, a little
maliciously, “If you must know, it’s my time and I felt a stomach
cramp.”

A snort came from Gwen, who
knew that wasn’t the case. Connor flushed a little, smiling
self-deprecatingly. “I’m sorry I asked,” he muttered.

He left a few moments
later. Gwen turned to her sister. “He did not believe you, you
know.”

“I know,” the elder of the
twins sighed. “It was all I could think of that might make him stop
questioning me.”

Gwen stared at her mirror
image for a long moment. “Will you tell me?”

Jenny stood and moved the
to the long window overlooking the back gardens. She didn’t really
see anything beyond her own reflection in the leaded panes of
glass.

Dropping her gaze to her
clenched fingers, she whispered, “I’m pregnant.”

When the silence lengthened
to near-breaking point, Jenny turned. She regarded her sister in
abject misery. She sniffed against incipient tears, determined to
prevent their falling.

“Are you sure?” Gwen asked
tonelessly. “Absolutely sure?”

Jenny nodded, a tear
escaping to slide down her pale cheek. “I have missed my monthly
twice. You know I’ve never missed one before.”

“And you only just now
realized?”

Jenny nodded.

“Dear God, what will we do?
You can’t have a…bastard. Father will kill us both.”

“I don’t know what to
do.”

Gwen threw her hands up in
dismay. “I don’t know what to tell you either! You will have to
confess to Father.” She bit her lip, distressed. “I just hope Con
doesn’t find out.” Once again meeting her sister’s eye, she asked,
“Who is the father? No, wait, I know. It’s Dare. How could
he?”

Jenny’s expression turned
wry. “Can you blame him when I offered myself so freely? He is not
to blame.”

“Of course he is, you
ninny! He is the gentleman; he should have shown some
restraint.”

Favoring her twin with a
pitying look, Jenny retorted, “It is the lady’s obligation to
always maintain distance and modesty with an unmarried gentleman.
Who do you believe Society will blame, Gwen? Father and Con may
place the responsibility squarely on Dare’s shoulders, but they
still treat us as though we have just emerged from the
schoolroom.”

“And you have just proven
they have reason to do so,” Gwen snapped. Turning on her heel, she
left the room, closing the chamber door with an angry
click.

Jenny sank down on settee,
her eyes again filling with miserable tears. She wanted Dare to
magically appear and make everything all right.

But that wasn’t going to
happen. He was gone only God knew where doing only God knew
what.

And Jenny was left here,
carrying a precious burden inside her that she wanted more than
she’d ever wanted anything in her life. Except…

Except, she wanted Dare
there to share it with her.

It was with something of a
passive sensation that Jenny realized the Empire waist style so
popular was to her benefit. Although her stomach was still the same
as ever, she knew it would not be long before her pregnancy would
begin to show.

If only she could keep her
secret until the last possible moment.

Alas for ‘if onlys’. It was
two days after she confessed to her sister that her mother
approached her, a militant gleam in her blue eyes.

Jenny halted on her way to
the library, her stance nearly as defiant as her
expression.

“Mother?” she inquired in
as polite a tone as she could muster.

“Genevieve, may I have a
word with you?”

Jenny dutifully followed
her mother to the latter’s sitting room. Lady Denbigh’s choice of
setting merely concreted Jenny’s supposition that her mother
knew.

Her surety was further
supplemented when her mother sat but offered no chair to her
daughter.

“Is there something you’d
care to tell me, Genevieve?”

“What could I tell you that
you don’t already know?” the girl asked flippantly.

“I will thank you to watch
your tone with me, young lady,” her mother snapped back. “I heard
an ugly rumor but, knowing you as I do, I discounted it as mere
maliciousness. Your attitude leads me to believe
otherwise.”

Jenny sighed. “Pray accept
my sincere apologies, Mama. What have you heard?”

The duchess’s face
softened. “Sit down, dear.” She waited a moment until her daughter
complied. “It has come to my attention that you have
behaved…improperly…with a certain gentleman of our
acquaintance.”

Jenny’s lips twisted in
something akin to actual humor. It was almost amusing to hear her
mother describe her fall from grace in such a roundabout
way.

“Mother, if you are asking
whether I tossed my virtue away on a man hardly worth my time, let
alone my affections, it is, unfortunately, true.”

It almost pained her to see
the misery attach itself to her mother’s lovely countenance. But
she was too far steeped in her own despair and fears to pay much
heed to what she caused others.

The duchess sighed hugely.
“It is true?” Her voice was so faint, Jenny had to strain to hear.
“Is that the end of it? Is there more?”

A bit of Jenny’s flippant
attitude returned. “What more could there possibly be, Mother? I
gave him my virginity and he left the next day. Well, that very
day, if you’d care to be precise about it. So he cannot be forced
to marry me since no one knows where he is.”

“Not even his
brother?”

Jenny studied her mother’s
fine-boned features. “No, Miles does not know where he is. Gwen
would have told me else.”