Angel's Touch (6 page)

‘
I
regret that I have had no opportunity to find out,’ Verity answered
candidly. ‘I have never been farther afield than Winchester before,
you see.’

‘
Do
you mean to say that you have never witnessed a theatrical
production?’ asked the gentleman, shocked.

‘
I
believe I did so once as a child,’ Verity said, feeling as if she
ought to be apologising for this lack in her education.

But
Mr Cumberland beamed. ‘Then it will be our privilege to introduce
you to the greatest pleasure a man may enjoy.’

‘
The
greatest? What of reading?’

‘
Pshaw! Mere books, Miss Lambourn, are nothing compared to the
live rendition of words. It shall be my happiness, ma’am, to prove
this to you. Yes, yes, I shall read you one of my own
plays.’

‘
God
help you!’ murmured a voice close to Verity’s ear.

She
turned her head to find standing rather too close to her an old
gentleman who was another of the local residents. For all his age,
Sir John Frinton was something of an exquisite. Although he
refrained from adopting the extravagant costume of a dandy, he was
always elegant, as today, in suits all of a piece with the
exception of his waistcoats, which were flowered or striped. But he
adhered both to his wig and his powder, and was always rouged with
a provocative patch, in spite of fashion’s decree against such an
outdated adornment.

‘
Really, Cumberland,’ he went on, addressing the playwright,
but with a wink at Verity, ‘enough to put the poor girl off for
life.’

‘
Sir!’ uttered the playwright, outraged, his cheeks reddening.
‘You are offensive!’

‘
I
am sure Sir John is funning,’ Verity put in quickly. She found Sir
John’s nearness cloying and edged away a fraction. ‘For my part, I
should be happy to hear one of your plays, Mr Cumberland, though I
would be loath to trespass upon your time.’

‘
I
should not grudge a moment of it,’ responded the other,
gratified.

Verity bestowed her friendly smile on him. ‘You are very
kind, sir.’

‘
There now, Cumberland, you are amply rewarded,’ said Sir
John, thrusting his tall person rudely between them. ‘You may take
yourself off now and leave Miss Lambourn’s entertainment to
me.’

Mr
Cumberland, his features darkening, compressed his lips, bowed to
the lady and moved away, leaving Verity wondering whether this
acceptance of defeat sprang from a dislike of quarrelling before a
lady or the fact that Sir John was his social superior, not to
mention the undeniable advantage of his slim, tall figure as
against the playwright’s portly frame. Sir John, meanwhile, smiling
at her in triumph, was calmly possessing himself of her
hand.

‘
His
plays are tedious in the extreme, Miss Lambourn, and so I warn you.
You will find my company far more amusing.’

‘
Will I indeed?’ said Verity politely, removing her fingers
from his clutch. ‘How is that?’

A
pair of thin lips curved in a smile that must once have been
ravishing, and which still had some power to attract. ‘Long
practice, my dear.’

Verity had to laugh. But she said severely, ‘And do you
always practise on ladies who might well be your
grandchildren?’

‘
Naturally,’ said Sir John suavely, not in the least abashed.
‘Or at least, whenever possible.’

‘
I
take it that is not very often in Tunbridge Wells.’

‘
Alas, no. And there is always a duenna to spoil
sport.’

He sighed as he spoke,
looking over to where Lady Crossens sat, glaring across at him. He
turned back to Verity, ruefully grinning.

‘
She
knows I am not a marrying man, you see. Otherwise, I dare say I
should receive all kinds of encouragement.’

‘
My
dear sir, I assure you I am not on the catch for a husband,’ Verity
said indignantly. ‘And if I were—’

‘
Emilia would scarce consider me an eligible parti for you,’
he finished, laughing. ‘But she would, you know. There are so few
of us bachelors at the Wells.’

‘
Well, even if
she
did, I would not,’ declared
Verity frankly.

‘
Ah, so you
are
on the catch for a husband,’
teased the old man.

‘
I
am nothing of the sort,’ Verity said, rather flustered, as she
tried to banish from her mind the picture of a pale-featured face
that had unaccountably jumped into it. ‘I have quite other plans,
as it happens.’

He looked intrigued
and would have enquired further into the matter, but that Lady
Crossens was making unmistakable signs for Miss Lambourn to go over
and join her.

‘
Your guardian is growing anxious,’ he said with a twinkle,
‘so I must let you go. I shall look forward to another such
exchange.’

Verity only smiled and left him, but her eyes followed the
old man as he wandered about the room in search of other prey. Her
imagination was afire: the attractive smile on his thin lips
spreading rapidly into a wolfish grin as he towered over the
shrinking form of the young and lovely heroine, manoeuvring her
into a corner while the flickering candlelight played tantalisingly
over the white swell of her bosom where his lascivious eyes
rested.

Her
thoughts were interrupted by her patroness’s voice. She turned to
find that Lady Crossens was on the fidgets.

‘
Bless me, if I had not forgot to warn you about John,’ she
was saying in an urgent undervoice. ‘It was most remiss of me. Now
you must be on your guard, Verity.’

‘
Against what, ma’am? Surely you cannot think me so foolish as
to fall in love with a man who must be old enough to have sired my
own father?’

‘
There is no saying what young girls will do,’ said her
ladyship acidly. ‘Do not be taken in by his amusing ways, child. He
is a confirmed rake and has been so from a boy.’

‘
Have no fear, ma’am. If I was to be taken in, it would be
by—by someone far other than Sir John Frinton.’

Lady
Crossens’ attention was claimed then by one of her friends, so that
she did not notice the telltale colour that had crept into her
protegée’s cheeks.

Murmuring an excuse of
having forgotten something at their lodging, Miss Lambourn sneaked
quietly out of the Assembly Rooms and wandered under the shade of
the trees beside the Pantiles where the market women sold fruit and
vegetables. Her thoughts were very far from the vendors crying out
their wares as she passed.

That
man! How dared he force his way into her mind, cutting up her
peace? Just because a gentleman had a pair of black eyes that
seemed to pierce a path into a person’s very soul, was that any
reason for him to come barging in where he was least wanted? As if
there was any danger of her being ‘taken in’ by such a man. How
idiotic it was of her even to think of him in such a
connection.

Her aimless feet had
taken her to the end of the tiled walkway, and as she turned to
retrace her steps, a familiar sound broke her absorption. Just as
she identified the dot and carry tapping of a cane on the pavings,
she saw the limping leg from the corner of her eye.

Turning, she looked up
just as the young man stepped forward to intercept her.

‘
Oh,
no,’ she uttered faintly.

‘
I
do beg your pardon,’ he said a little diffidently, ‘but I must beg
the favour of a word.’

Confronted so suddenly with the subject of her thoughts,
confusion engulfed Verity, and she responded so curtly as to be
almost rude. ‘Well, what is it?’

A
frown came into his eyes. ‘I will not keep you long, ma’am. Though
I came here today expressly to find you.’

‘
To
find me? Gracious heaven, but why?’

‘
For
a sufficient purpose, which you will learn if you will give me a
moment of your time.’

Nettled by his manner, Verity snapped, ‘Well,
sir?’

His
tone became much less cordial. ‘It is nothing very much. Merely
that I thought you might care to take possession of these.’ He held
out a package towards her.

Verity’s eyes widened, for the size and shape was all too
familiar. ‘Is that—? I hope that is not—’ She broke off, staring at
him in rising indignation. ‘Are you offering me that nest of boxes
I dropped yesterday?’

‘
Well, yes, ma’am. I really have no use for them
and—’

‘
Upon my word!’ Verity burst out. ‘After all you said about
wood and—and inlay lasting so well, you have actually gone and
purchased the wretched things?’

‘
It
is usual in such circumstances,’ he said coldly. ‘But I could see
very well that—’

‘
That I was reluctant to purchase them myself,’ Verity
finished furiously. ‘And so you have shown me up to be either mean
or poor in the eyes of that man, and I shall never be able to enter
his shop again.’

The
gentleman’s face fell ludicrously. ‘Good God, ma’am, I never
intended anything of the kind.’

‘
No,
just as you never intended to make a mistake in the matter of poor
Braxted. Never have I come upon a more high-handed, arrogant manner
of conduct.’

The
black eyes sparked sudden fire, but the calm voice was like ice.
‘Indeed, ma’am? Then it ill becomes me to force it upon you
further. I will wish you a very good day.’

Turning on his heel,
the gentleman limped off across the Pantiles, the cane echoing his
uneven step as it sounded an overloud tattoo on the pavings. Verity
stood watching him go, fighting an irrational urge to chase after
him with a mouthful of apologies.

Chapter Three

Pulling herself together, Verity straightened her shoulders
and walked quickly back to the Assembly Rooms, her mind in
disorder.

Why
should she apologise? Was it not he who was guilty of an
unpardonable liberty? Without so much as a by your leave, he had
taken it upon himself to compensate the proprietor of the toy
shop—and now she thought of it, remembering the look he had
bestowed upon the man, he had planned it at the outset—for a piece
of negligence that had nothing whatever to do with him. It
was
her
responsibility, and, if she saw no need to buy the boxes,
what right had he to interfere? And then to offer them to her,
positively rubbing her nose in her own blunder!

Here, however, Miss Lambourn’s innate honesty intervened. No
such malice had been intended, she knew. It might have been more
tactful to have kept his charitable act to himself, but at least
the man had meant nothing but kindness. He had evidently
perceived—how she could not begin to guess—that she was unable to
recompense the owner of the shop herself, and had stepped in to
relieve her of the necessity. For if he had thought her merely
tight-fisted he would not have tried to bestow the boxes upon her.
And now, she reflected, a trifle conscience-stricken, the poor man
was stuck with a set of perfectly useless items.

As
she decided, rather reprehensibly, that it served him right, a
giggle escaped her.

‘
What an age you have been, child,’ came the voice of Lady
Crossens, startling her back into awareness.

As
Verity’s gaze focused on the old lady’s face, she saw that she was
being sharply scrutinised.

‘
You
look positively impish, girl. What mischief are you
brewing?’

‘
None, upon my honour, ma’am,’ Verity said earnestly, but she
could feel the telltale warmth in her cheeks.

‘
Don’t tell me.
Something
has occurred to bring that
look to your face. And you were chortling as you came in. I heard
you.’

To
her confusion, Verity found herself the cynosure of several pairs
of eyes, Lady Crossens’ remarks having been clearly audible to the
friends she had about her. She noted with dismay that not only was
Mrs Polegate looking at her with avid interest, but the teasing
eyes of Sir John Frinton were also fixed upon her. Miss Lambourn,
unused to society, and brought up imbued with her reverend father’s
conviction of the efficacy of the virtues of truth and honesty, was
quite unable to prevaricate.

‘
If
you must have it, ma’am,’ she said as if the words were forced from
her, ‘I have had another encounter with that man we met on the
road.’

For
a moment Lady Crossens looked blank. ‘What man?’

‘
With the children, ma’am. On our way here,
remember?’

‘
Oh,
him. Bless me, you have not quarrelled with the wretched fellow
again, I hope?’

‘
Well, yes, ma’am, I am afraid I have,’ Verity confessed. ‘It
was all rather unfortunate. But quite an accident and very much my
own fault.’

‘
But
what in the world—?’

‘
Dear ma’am, do not ask me,’ Verity begged in a low tone, with
a significant glance cast at the people about them. ‘I will tell
you the whole presently.’

‘
Heavens, yes,’ uttered her ladyship, recollecting herself.
‘What am I about? Here, John, don’t you go asking any awkward
questions. Nor you, Maria.’