A Lady's Guide to Rakes (24 page)

“Sit down again, and I shall tell you the whole revolting truth of the matter… or you may read it yourself, if you still doubt me.”

Alexander gaped at his father, unable to gain purchase on a single word.

The earl bent and staggered a bit as he retrieved the notebook. Then he thumped his thick index finger on the leather cover and looked Alexander dead in the eye. “It’s all here, the whole damning plan to make a fool of you… written by her own hand.”

———

Almost half an hour had passed since she’d come down from the ladies’ withdrawing room, and Meredith still had not had even a glimpse of Alexander.

“I am going back above stairs. I’ll find Annie and will sit with her until Alexander arrives.” She sounded very calm, even to her own ears—though, in truth, she felt so unsteady that she wasn’t confident of her ability to climb the staircase. “Will you send someone for me… when he comes?”

The two Featherton sisters exchanged worried glances. Then, suddenly, a huge smile burst upon Aunt Letitia’s lips.

“Look there, ‘tis the earl!” Her aunt gestured to the far end of the ballroom.

By golly, she was right. Meredith took a deep sniff of air and exhaled with relief.
Thank God.

In that instant, the earl spotted her and her aunts as well, giving a nod of recognition. He began edging his way through the bustling crush of the ballroom, seeming perturbed by the delay this created in reaching them. But at last he did just that.

“My lord, very good to see you this eve.” Meredith bowed her head and dropped him as elegant a curtsy as she could muster on her still-wobbly legs. Straightening, she smiled, thankful that now at least she would know what had delayed Alexander.

The earl did not return her greeting, or her smile. In fact, he did not even bother to acknowledge her aunts, who stood on either side of her. Instead, he shoved something at her.

Meredith grappled for whatever it was, not realizing, until she turned it over in her gloved hands, that it was—
no, it couldn’t be
—her book of notes!

There was a collective gasp from her a\mts as they saw what the earl had thrust at her.

Meredith turned her gaze up to the earl. She was totally mute. Finally a sound crawled up from inside her throat. “I… I… I can explain.”

The earl raised his pudgy hand, squeezed his eyes tight for a moment and turned his head away. “Explanations are not necessary. I think your plot to mock my son speaks for itself. I am just thankful someone thought enough of Alexander to send the notebook to me before it became too late.”

Aunt Letitia pounded her cane to the floor angrily, but, to Meredith, the sound could not drown out the beating of her own heart. With each throb, Meredith’s head grew lighter, her breathing shallower.

Taking charge, her aunt stepped forward until her round body was not more than the book’s width from his. “What do you mean… too
late
? Just where is Lord Lansing?”

The earl tried to edge back and away from her aunt’s formidable figure, but already a small, curious gathering of guests was beginning to cinch around them all.

“I have spoken to my son and made my views clear. I told him he will be disowned if he continues with this imprudent notion of marrying Miss Merriweather.” The earl paused then and looked straight into Meredith’s eyes, as if to make sure she understood the stakes completely. “And despite what you may believe, Miss Merriweather, my son is no fool.”

Meredith was stunned from her silence. “You must believe me. I do not think your son a fool. I greatly esteem him. I… I love him.”

“So Lord Lansing…” Aunt Viola’s voice was trembling too severely to finish the sentence.

“Need I be any clearer—there will be
no
wedding. Ever!”

A muffled gasp rose from the crowded ballroom. Meredith looked past the earl at the mass of shocked faces, and indeed some knowing grins.

Tears began to push at the back of her eyes and a tremor shook her limbs unbearably. How could she endure this… yet again?

The fan she’d earlier twisted to breaking fell from her fingers to the floor. There was nothing more to do. So, bending slightly, Meredith snatched up her skirt, whirled around and ran for the doors.

Behind her, she heard the hurried clicks of her aunts’ canes.

———

In less than a quarter of an hour, the Featherton carriage had been brought up, Annie and the dressing case brought down, and the Featherton sisters and Meredith had burst out through the front door.

Within moments, the driver had snapped a whip above the lead horses’ ears and the beleaguered group was on their way back to London.

No one had tried to stop them.

The earl was a powerful man. No one would have dared.

———

Alexander sat in the saloon for nearly an hour, with no other company than a decanter of the Eustons’ marginally good brandy. At this point, the quality meant nothing to him. It was the numbing effect of the liquor he sought.

Still, no matter how he tried, he could not wrap his mind around what his father had told him. He simply could not believe that Meredith sought to humiliate him, not when she knew the feeling so well herself.

This, however, did not diminish the pain.

In the back of his mind, it occurred to Alexander that nearly an hour had passed since he first entered the room to hear his father out.

Meredith would be wondering where he was, why he had not come to find her among the Eustons’ many guests. But he had needed time to steady himself. He did not want to confront her in the heat of emotion.

He brought the glass to his lips one last time and came to his feet.

Alexander shoved a shaky hand through his hair.

Time to do what he must. Lord, help him.

There is a good and responsible gentleman waiting to make you his wife. Look past the handsome, untrustworthy rakes, and there you will find him.

After a grueling four-hour flight through the darkness from Euston Hall, and the short remainder of the night spent tossing and twisting within her bedcovers, Meredith was completely drained.

Still, being unable to capture even a wink of sleep, she made her way to the dining room at first light. Neither of her aunts had roused, nor did she expect them to for several hours, for indeed they were surely as weary as she, if not more so due to their advanced years.

As she descended the stairs, her nose caught the soothing aroma of fresh baked bread and steaming chocolate. Her stomach growled with hunger as she approached the hunt table, laid for any early riser to break her fast. Meredith gathered a cup, a silver pot of chocolate and a slice of toasted bread with strawberry jam—favorites that in her childhood never failed to bring a smile to her face.

She was aware, however, that no smile was to be had today, or for many days to come. Meredith knew this from experience.

Settling her morning meal onto the linen-draped table, she slumped into a chair and released a forlorn sigh.

To her, it felt as though she had somehow been whisked backward through the months, only to land on the morning after she’d been abandoned at the altar. Except this time, she felt far worse.

The pain was unbearable this time, as though a dark raven had swooped down and clawed her heart from her breast with its sharp talons.

When Pomeroy had left her, she suffered the effects of humiliation far more than loss. True, she had thought she was in love with him, but in all honesty, Meredith knew now that what she had felt was nothing more than girlhood infatuation.

Now she understood that until she met Alexander, she had no comprehension of what true love was.

“Good morn, dove,” chirped Mrs. Penny, the Feathertons’ longtime housekeeper. “Shall I pour for you?”

Meredith raised her eyes to the housekeeper’s kind face and simply nodded, afraid that if she spoke, she’d break down and lose herself in grief.

“Don’t you worry none, child. Annie told us what happened. We’ll take care of our gel, don’t you worry.” The housekeeper reached into her wide pocket and withdrew a missive. “In fact… I’ve got something that might cheer you up a crumb. Came for you just after you and the ladies left for Euston Hall. It’s from Miss Chillton.”

Meredith took the paper from Mrs. Penny and released it from its folds. She rubbed the dampness from her eyes with her napkin, then read the hastily scrawled words.

“Oh no.” Meredith leaped from her chair, startling the housekeeper so that she slammed back into the hunt table, sending the serving platters rattling.

“Please send Annie to me at once, Mrs. Penny, and then ask Mr. Edgar to send for the carriage. I mustn’t tarry.”

“I’ll fetch Annie for you right away.” Mrs. Penny dashed for the door, but then turned her head. Her eyes..were wide. “Miss Meredith, what shall I tell your aunts when they ask where you’ve gone?”

Meredith dropped the note onto the table. “Tell them that my… Mr. Chillton has been injured and Hannah fears for his very life! I shall send the carriage back to fetch them. But I must go
now
. I cannot wait for them.”

Heavens, she only hoped she wouldn’t arrive too late.

———

“Oh, you’ve come at last!” Hannah took Meredith’s hand and led her into an austere sitting room, deplete of furnishing except for two wooden slat-back chairs and a settee, upon which Mr. Chillton lay.

“Of course I have come. I daresay, I am sorry for arriving so late, but my family was not in Town when your message was delivered.” She didn’t dare tell them why her family was not at home, or what happened.

As horrible as she felt, responding to Hannah’s plea offered some measure of distraction from the weight of what lay upon her heart and her mind. Here she did not have to feign bravery. For if she did appear distraught, well, it would appear completely natural, wouldn’t it? Chillton had been injured, after all.

Meredith looked at Mr. Chillton, who gazed brightly upon her from the settee. She rushed to his side and knelt beside him. “I heard that you were hurt.”

“Indeed. Trod upon by a horse… or
two
. Maybe more. I never saw them coming.” He glanced at the window, through which a light breeze fluttered, then back at Meredith, with a peculiar expression on his face. “I did not see your aunts. Are they still in the passage?”

Meredith slowly came to her feet. “No, sir, I came alone. I did not wish to delay another moment.”

“You came alone… to a bachelor’s home?” His voice was harsh. “Tongues will wag if you were observed; you know this, do you not?”

“Arthur!” Hannah snapped. “I asked her to come. I own, I was quite beside myself when I penned the card, what with mother too…
ill
to leave Brookside. I had no notion what to do. None at all.”

“Well, you didn’t waste a moment sending for a physician, did you?” Mr. Chillton complained. “I could have told you my ribs were broken. Didn’t need to spend five guineas to have someone else tell me that.”

“I was worried, Arthur.” Hannah set her hand on her hip.

“Well, I was damned lucky you came along when you did.”

Meredith felt a bit confused. She looked across at Hannah. “
You
brought him home? Do you mean someone ran him down and then… just left him in the road?”

“I was out shopping. I had taken the phaeton, thankfully.”

Meredith squinted at Hannah. “And you just happened along?”

“N-no, of course not.” Hannah turned away as she spoke and dragged the two wooden chairs before the settee. “I knew Arthur was after a pound of coffee beans, so when I finished my shopping, I took the horse round to Piccadilly to see if he would like to ride home with me.”

“How very fortunate for Mr. Chillton that you came along when you did!” Meredith graciously took the chair she was offered. “Did you see the accident? Who hit him and left him… possibly to die?”

“I wasn’t about to die,” Mr. Chillton protested. “Have a stronger constitution than that. I was knocked out, ‘tis all.”

Hannah took her seat, then leaped up again. “Shall I fetch some tea?”

Meredith studied Chillton’s sister for a long moment. Something wasn’t being said. “Hannah, did you see who did this to your brother?”

“I was too upset to see anything other than Arthur lying in the road.” Two dots of pink appeared on Hannah’s cheeks. “Well, now that I have mentioned it, I cannot make do without a cup of tea. I shall return in a moment.”

Meredith rose as well. “Allow me to assist you, dear. You must be ever so worn from looking after your brother, all on your own.”

Hannah flushed an even deeper hue of crimson. “No need.”

Meredith laid a hand on the girl’s upper arm. “I insist.”

“Oh, Hannah, let her help you,” Mr. Chillton hissed. “I won’t wither away and expire if I am left to myself for more than two uninterrupted moments.”

“Very well.” Hannah looked sheepishly at Meredith as they walked together into the kitchen.

———

“Hannah, what happened?” Meredith asked as she settled the kettle onto the pothook and pushed the crane over the cooking embers. “It is quite evident to me that you did not just happen along”

All of a sudden, tears welled in Hannah’s eyes and she collapsed upon the bench by the worktable.

“Oh, Meredith,” Hannah sobbed, “it was all a horrid accident… and I’ve had to hold it inside, for you were gone and I knew no one else would understand.”

Meredith hurried around the table and sat down beside the girl, cradling her in her arms and offering what comfort she could. “I say, dear! What is this all about? Whatever happened cannot be so bad as to warrant all of these tears.”

“Oh, it is bad. Very, very bad.” Hannah pressed Meredith back a few inches and looked up, her vibrant eyes already streaked with red from her salty tears. “It was me. I did it.”

Meredith searched her friend’s gaze for an answer. “What? What did you do?”

“I ran Arthur down!” she wailed, then clapped a hand. over her mouth until she was able to soften her tone between gasping sobs. “He doesn’t know. He can never know.”

“It was an accident. Surely he will understand.”