An Affair of Honor (17 page)

Huntley honestly seemed to believe that with his guidance Rory would simply mend her ways to suit his, but Nell, having seen for herself the results of a no-doubt severe tongue-lashing the previous evening, did not for a moment believe her niece would prove to be so malleable as his lordship expected. Rory only resented such interference in her pleasure. At this rate, and with nothing to prevent it, their marriage would surely prove to be a continual battleground. Nell decided she would consider the matter more deeply. Surely there must be a way to steer his lordship toward a more acceptable, less frustrating, method of dealing with Rory’s volatile character.

Since they made no effort to hurry, the afternoon was waning, and the breeze blowing in across the cliffs was growing crisper by the time they reached the esplanade. There were still a good many persons strolling about on the lawn, but it was clear that the race was done, for several people were standing on the sea wall, a thing that certainly would not have been tolerated by the spectators lined up behind them while the race was in progress. Suddenly Nell gave a little cry of dismay and clutched at Huntley’s arm.

“I see her,” he replied grimly. “Come along.” His pace increased to a speed that made it difficult for Nell to keep up with him, but she skipped and nearly ran at his side rather than begging him to slow down. The sight that had stiffened his pace was that of the Lady Aurora Crossways standing up with several others on the sea wall. Rory saw them approaching just then and waved, calling out their names.

“Merciful heavens, she will fall!” Nell exclaimed.

“Nonsense,” he replied. “She will not be that lucky.”

She could tell from the set of his jaw that he was angry, but she dared not warn him now to control his temper for fear of inciting it further. Besides, she would rather like to tear a strip from her niece, herself. As they drew nearer, she realized that things were worse than she had feared, for she had seen her brother and his friends. They were arm in arm below Rory on the flagway and appeared to be singing. Rory was waving her arms as if she were a conductor leading an orchestra.

“They must be tipsy,” Nell said, annoyed. “Otherwise, surely they would make her get down from there. They must realize how dangerous it is.”

“They are all castaway,” Huntley growled.

“All? Surely, you don’t mean Rory as well!” she protested, peering ahead to get a better look at her niece. Rory seemed only very gay. Her eyes sparkled and there was a great deal of color in her cheeks. Several hairpins seemed to have escaped her coif, and there were strands of golden hair blowing about her face, but she seemed energetic rather than tipsy. Nevertheless, when Nell looked up at Huntley, he nodded, not seeming to doubt for a moment that Rory had been imbibing something other than lemonade or orgeat.

They had reached the group by now, and Kit was the first of the gentlemen to see them. He grinned at his sister.

“Step right up, m’dear,” he said cheerfully. “Dashed if you shan’t join us in a rousing chorus. All right now, boys, with a fal lal lal—all together now!”

“Kit! Whatever are you about?”

“Now, don’t be a dashed spoilsport, Nell. Sing!”

“Lindale!” Huntley’s voice ripped across the intervening space.

Kit’s eyes focused with difficulty on his lordship. “Sir?”

“I shall not attempt to discuss your perfidy with you here, young man, but I shall most certainly want a word in private with you later.”

“I, too,” Nell said, her own temper flaring as she watched her niece swaying atop the sea wall. It was clear enough now that Rory was not simply indulging high spirits. “Rory, come down from there at once!”

“Aunt Nell, you cannot imagine how high above the sea one is when one stands up here. Come up and see for yourself. ’Tis prodigious exciting!”

“Come down, Rory,” Nell said, gritting her teeth.

“Well, I won’t. ’Tis far too intoxicating to be so high up in the world. The air is wonderfully rarefied. You must try it … Oh, how dare you!” she demanded in sudden fury as Huntley reached up and lifted her unceremoniously to the pavement. Despite her struggles, he retained a firm hold on her and commanded Nell in grim tones to look about her for a team of dappled grays drawing a dark green landaulet with its wheels picked out in yellow.

“In front of the Bedford at the end nearest the Mansion,” she said a moment later. “Oh, Philip, couldn’t you release her? People are beginning to stare.”

“Let them,” he retorted harshly. A moment later, he bent his head to whisper something in Rory’s ear, and though she glared at him and seemed perilously near to tears, she ceased her violent struggles and allowed him to guide her past the others. Nell hurried along in their wake, ignoring the surprised inquiries from Kit’s friends as to why they were taking themselves off in such a rush.

“Won’t you join us for supper?” Harry Seton called after them. “M’ sister’s ordered a bang-up spread, and there’s still the odd bottle of champagne left, y’know. You’re welcome. Lady Agnes and Sir Henry, too, if they’ve a mind.”

Nell couldn’t bring herself to reply at all, but she thought from the look of him that he was enjoying a state of inebriety far more advanced than Rory’s, which made it fairly certain that he wouldn’t remember her lack of manners any time beyond the next few moments, anyway.

Ahead of her, Huntley had managed to catch his driver’s eye, and the dark green landaulet was moving slowly through the crowded street toward them. A few moments later, Rory was seated on the forward seat wrapped up in a warm blanket and glowering at her future husband while he addressed a few shattering home truths to her in tones that made Nell, an uncomfortable third party, fervently wish herself elsewhere. Once he had had his say, a tense silence enfolded them all, but since Nell, at least, kept expecting another explosion from one or the other of her two companions, the journey back to Upper Rock Gardens was scarcely a comfortable one.

Once they reached the, house, Huntley stepped down from the carriage and stretched out a hand first to Nell and then to Rory. The younger girl seemed unnaturally subdued, which was not to be wondered at, Nell thought sympathetically, following her into the house. Huntley asked Jeremy, who opened the door to them, to send for her ladyship’s maid.

“I’ll go up with her,” Nell said.

“No, I want to speak with you,” he said quietly. “She will prefer to have her maid just now, I assure you.”

“But I could take her up and then come back, my lord.”

“No, Nell.”

Rory’s gaze drifted vaguely from one to the other. The high color was gone now, and her cheeks seemed pale, although her eyes had an odd sparkle and her pupils seemed overlarge. She still did not speak.

Sadie came hurrying to greet them, clucking her tongue at her mistress’s indisposition and saying Miss Lindale could just leave her to see she was all right. Rory no longer swayed when she walked. In fact, Nell thought she moved rather stiffly. She mentioned this observation to Huntley when they had adjourned to the small green saloon.

He chuckled. “She’s simply determined to look as though she’s perfectly all right, that’s all. You should have seen what I used to look like when I’d come home and meet my father in the hall after a night out on the tiles. I walked like an animated poker. Must have given the old man more than the odd chuckle, I must say.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s funny, sir. I don’t for a moment believe she knew what she was about, and I think you were very harsh with her. Though, to be sure, she might have been seriously injured had she fallen from the wall, and I think it’s a disgrace that those young men encouraged her to behave in such a fashion. But I hope you don’t mean to scold me as well, for I warned you how it would be. Oh, I should have trusted my instincts and refused to allow her to go off with them! Only think of that Mary Seton, or whatever her name is now, letting her have champagne!”

“Lord, you don’t think it was a mere glass or two of champagne, do you? If that young lady hasn’t been trying her taste for gin, you may call me a Dutchman.”

“Well, I shouldn’t do anything so uncivil. But what makes you certain it was gin? I know Mr. Seton said they had champagne.”

“I could smell the gin on her breath,” he replied. “And if they had champagne before, I can tell you she didn’t drink much of either one or she’d be very sick by now. I daresay she merely had a glass of the one and a few swallows, if that much, of the other. Foolish beyond permission, of course, and she deserved everything I said to her, but I’m sorry you had to witness such a scene, Nell.” He paused, smiling down at her in a way that made her pulse beat a good deal faster. “The real culprit is that brother of yours, you know. He should have known better than to allow her to drink more than a very small glass of the wine.”

“Indeed, and I shall have his head for this dreadful business,” Nell agreed, but the words, uttered as they were while she was staring into his eyes, lacked force.

“Perhaps you had better wait until I have spoken with him,” his lordship said gently. “I shall endeavor to leave you a nibble or two.” The sally made her chuckle, and he winked at her. “As for that baggage upstairs, give her some moments to recover her dignity before you go up, and if she is sleeping, so much the better. It has been a long day already, and there is still the ball at the Pavilion to be got through. And Nell?” He waited until she looked up at him again. “Don’t think too badly of me for losing my temper. I daresay you are right, and she had no notion what would happen, but she will know better next time. The scold will not have harmed her in the slightest, and no doubt she will be feeling heartily ashamed of herself before long.”

Nell did not expect any such proper feeling to manifest itself, but she had better sense than to say so at this juncture. Therefore, she merely agreed with him, adding that she had a thing or two she meant to say to Rory before the matter was laid to rest.

“Well, don’t scold her too sternly,” he said, grinning when she made a face at him, then turning serious again. “It is a pity she made a display of herself in public, but I daresay few if any of the onlookers know her by sight. It is not as if she disgraced herself at Almack’s Assembly Rooms in London, after all. That would have ruined her.” He stood up. “I shall leave you now and return at nine o’clock. She should be perfectly well recovered by that time.”

Nell went with him into the hall and then went upstairs to discover that, as he had predicted, Rory was tucked up in bed and already asleep. “She’s dreadfully tired, Miss Lindale,” Sadie said in hushed tones. “I shouldn’t be at all surprised if she was to sleep clear through to morning, poor lamb.”

“Well, she is not to sleep so long, Sadie, and I depend upon you to see she is awake soon enough to have some tea and something to eat before she dresses for the ball.”

“Oh, ma’am, I doubt my lady should go out tonight at all.”

“The decision is not yours to make, however,” Nell said firmly. “The responsibility for seeing that she awakens at a reasonable hour I do leave to you, however. And I shall expect you to obey me, Sadie. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Flushing, young Sadie dropped a hasty curtsy, and Nell departed, satisfied that her charge would be up and dressed in time to leave for the ball when Huntley arrived. For a short time she had feared that Rory’s foolhardiness would keep them from attending the ball altogether. And Nell had never seen the inside of the prince’s Pavilion.

Mrs. Fitzherbert and the prince had been separated the year of Nell’s come-out and were not reunited until some three years later. It was then that his highness had plunged into his startling new adventures in architecture. The chief of these, of course, was the magnificent royal stables, which had been finished only some weeks before. While the building of the stables was still in progress, however, it had occurred to the prince that with all the old and new friends who would be flocking around him and Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Pavilion itself would have to be enlarged. In consequence, he had asked Henry Holland to prepare some designs, and it had been feared by many of Brighton’s worthy citizens that his highness would indulge his well-known penchant for oriental fantasy. Instead, he had finally decided to project two new wings in a classical style from the eastern facade, the northern one to form a dining room and the southern one a conservatory or drawing room.

The prince had not denied himself his fantasies, however, for the whole of the interior had been transformed and completely decorated in the Chinese style. Nell had heard a great deal about it from persons whose opinions as to its elegance and beauty differed widely, and she was most anxious to see the results for herself.

When the news reached her that evening that Huntley had arrived, she took a final hasty look at herself in the walnut-framed cheval glass, gave a twitch to her pale blue silk skirts to smooth the line at the curve of her hips, straightened the narrow, sapphire-colored bow just beneath her firm breasts, snatched up her velvet cloak, and hurried to her niece’s room.

“Rory, are you ready to depart?” she asked as she pushed open the door. Then she stopped and stared at the radiant vision before her. The Lady Aurora was not wearing the sort of plain white muslin gown that was the garb ordained for the debutante. Instead, she had chosen a pale-yellow, low-cut silk that shimmered in the candlelight of her bedchamber and that clung seductively to every generous curve. It was a gown destined to set men’s eyes popping, Nell thought, although since Rory was already betrothed, there was nothing really improper about it. If it was not quite what people might expect, it was still extraordinarily becoming to its wearer, and she could not help a small gasp of admiration. Rory turned to face her.

“Do you like it?” She smoothed the emerald sash and twisted her head to see if it fell properly in the back. Then, drawing on emerald elbow-length gloves, she waited confidently for her aunt’s response.

“Oh, Rory, you look truly like a golden girl tonight!” Nell exclaimed. “It is an exquisite gown, and oh, my dear, if I had had your figure eight years ago, I might have named my destiny.”