Fortune's fools (16 page)

"That is so sad, Max," said Kate, reaching out and touching his arm. He covered her hand, causing her to shiver, shocked by the warmth his touch had set off inside her.

"Mary Katherine O'Connor!"

They leaped apart guiltily. Max rose and went to stand by the fireplace. Kate smoothed her habit and tried to fight down the overwhelming sense of panic that had taken hold of her.

"In here, Papa," she called before saying to Max, "I guess he spotted Early Girl."

Kieran O'Connor threw open the drawing room door and demanded, "Mary Katherine O'Connor! What is the meaning of that mare of yours being back in my stable?"

Max stepped forward, and Mr. O'Connor glared at him. Kate waved him away. With a grimace, Max retreated to the fireplace.

"Papa, why do you not sit down while I explain?"

"I will sit down after the explanation, young lady. And what is he doing here?"

"I have had a part in this, sir, and I did not wish to leave your daughter to face you alone," said Max.

"Leave my daughter to face me alone? Why, you young whelp, I'll teach you to ..."

Kate jumped between them, her hands on her father's heaving chest. "Papa, stop it this instant! You will not fight Mr. Darby, not when he has been such a good friend to me, to all of us."

Her father transferred his furious glare to her, and she shrank away from him. This action seemed to have an effect on him, and he stepped back, too.

With a final grunt of anger, he sat down on the sofa, crossed him arms, and said, "Out with it, my girl!"

Kate then related how Max had come to her rescue when she was so upset that her father was selling Early Girl.

Beyond another grunt, her father's only response was, "I told you, Mary Kate. It was business."

"Yes, Papa, but it was making me miserable, and Max wanted to help."

"Max?" said her father, eyeing the young man suspiciously.

"Mr. Max Darby. There are two of them next door, Papa. It gets very confusing to always be calling them Mr. Darby and having them wonder which one you are talking to."

"Very well. Get along with your story."

"Anyway, Max thought it might be profitable to ... urn, well, that is ..."

Max stepped forward, touching Kate's shoulder until her father's glare made him drop his hand. Still, he said, "I convinced Kate that she should let me arrange another match race for Thunderlight."

Mr. O'Connor leaped to his feet and shouted, "You raced my horse without my permission, young lady?"

"She didn't ride him, sir. I did," said Max.

Kate's father was stunned, and he sat down again. "When? Where? And more importantly, against whom?"

"Early this morning, in the park, against Palmer's gelding, Pinnacle."

Forgetting his anger, Mr. O'Connor, the horseman, said, "By Jove! And you took him by how many lengths?"

Max pulled up the chair next to Mr. O'Connor and said, "It was a beautiful race, sir. I could have taken him sooner, but I let him have the lead. His groom was playing jockey, and he is a fairly good rider, but I knew we could overtake him."

"Tell him about the start, Max," urged Kate.

"Oh, yes, the start. Well, this is for your ears only, but Palmer started the race himself, dropping his handkerchief without so much as a 'ready, steady.'"

"Really? And you didn't call him on it?"

"I told him I would remember," said Max, and Kate's father nodded approvingly. "But back to the race. The gelding leaped ahead. It was quite obvious that they had arranged the start beforehand. I urged Thunderlight on,

but I didn't try to overtake him until the last leg, when we were returning to the starting point. Then he gave me his all. It was beautiful," said Max.

"Absolutely beautiful," echoed Kate, causing her father to remember her presence and her part in the deception, for he gave her a fierce frown.

Turning back to Max, O'Connor smiled and said, "But you won."

"That we did, sir."

"And then you brought the gelding to the sale ring at Tattersall's and with the proceeds, you bid on my daughter's mare, buying her back for Kate."

"Something like that, sir," said Max, sharing a smile with Kate. No need for them to tell her father that Kate had gone to Tattersall's, too.

"I see. So the money in my pocket is really the winnings from the match race with Palmer's gelding, which you won on the back of my horse, Thunder-light."

"Yes, sir, except for the other one hundred guineas which Kate has in her reticule there."

"Oh, yes, Papa. I almost forgot." She handed him the remainder of the winnings with a smile.

He stared at the coins in his hand for a moment. Finally, he looked up with a smile and said, "You, my daughter, are a minx, a cunning one, to be sure, but a minx."

"Yes, Papa," she replied with an impish grin.

"Very well, the two of you seem to have gotten away with this shocking scheme this time, but no more such shenanigans, do you hear, Mary Kate?"

They agreed and breathed a sigh of relief, but it was premature.

"Now, Kate, why don't you go and see if you can talk

Cook out of some refreshments for all of us. I want to speak to Mr. Darby alone for a few minutes."

Kate rose and frowned down at her father. "You will not fight him, will you, Papa? Nor will you lecture him."

"Run along with you, girl."

When Kate was gone, the two men stared at each other for a moment before the older man spoke.

"Mr. Darby, you are a man of the world, are you not?"

"I suppose so," said Max.

"My daughter, for all her straightforward manners, is not very worldly. She is an innocent. What's more, she is mine, and I do not wish to see her hurt—by anyone."

"I would not dream of hurting Kate."

"And yet you sat here earlier this week and said you plan to wed another girl, did you not?"

Max shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Yes, sir, I did. I still do. I really have little choice in the matter."

"Well, I appreciate your candor, and I understand a man wanting and needing to better himself."

"I really believe, sir, that Kate understands all this. I do not think she is in danger of forming a tendre for me. I have made no secret about my plans to wed Miss Beauchamp."

"That's good to know, but a father worries about his only child, his only daughter."

"You need not worry on my account, Mr. O'Connor."

"Good. So have you come up with a plausible explanation why you bought a mare at Tattersall's and it has ended up in my daughter's possession again? What is Society going to think? You can hardly tell them the truth."

"I... I had not considered that," said Max. In truth, he had not thought beyond making Kate smile again.

That had been his goal, and when he had achieved it, he, too, had been happy.

"You should have, my boy, but do not worry too much. I have a solution."

"To what, Papa?" asked Kate, returning to the drawing room.

"How we can explain your having Early Girl again."

"Explain to whom?" asked Kate.

Her father once again voiced his concern. Then he said, "I propose that you, Mr. Darby, will begin to ride Thunderlight. We will tell everyone that we have worked out a trade, that my daughter's unhappiness over losing her pet mare made me reconsider. No one will question your wanting to swap the mare for the stallion."

"And when you return to Ireland and take the stallion with you?" asked Max.

"By then the possibility of scandal attaching itself to my girl's good name will have passed. She, hopefully, will be settled with a husband, and you will be wed, too," said Mr. O'Connor.

Watching Kate, Max nodded. She made a little face, but she did not disagree with her father's plan. On his part, it was an excellent solution, and the idea of riding Thunderlight any time he wished was superb.

Just then, Mrs. O'Connor returned, sweeping into the room and kissing her husband's cheek. She smiled at Max and urged Kate to follow her upstairs to see all the ribbons and trims she had purchased.

"But we were waiting for the tea tray, Mama," said Kate.

"I really should be going, Kate. Good day, Mrs. O'Connor, Mr. O'Connor."

"Must you go so soon, Mr. Darby?" said Kate's mother.

"Yes, I have an engagement this evening. Good day."

Forgetting about their guest and turning to Kate, her mother said, "Goodness, yes, Kate. You should be resting before the Laceys' ball tonight." She smiled at Max and said, "Good day, Mr. Darby. Do call again."

Kate walked with him to the door where he bowed over her hand. "Are you going to the Laceys' ball tonight?"

"I would not miss it," he replied.

Kate answered this comment with a smile and a wink.

He nodded and was gone.

"Master Max, there is a note arrived from the marquess," said Barton, when Max returned from the O'Connor house.

"What now?" grumbled Max, tearing open the envelope. "Wonderful. We are to pick up both the marquess and my father on our way to the Laceys' ball tonight. Tristram will be ecstatic," he added dryly.

"Ecstatic about what?" asked his brother, who had just arrived home. Max related the contents of the note, and Tristram gave an unaccustomed laugh.

"What is so funny? I thought you would be, at the very least, annoyed."

"What is the point? Besides, we are all going to the same place. We might as well go together." The clock over the fireplace began to chime, and he added sunnily, "Time to get dressed."

When he was gone, Max and the servant shared a puzzled frown. Shaking his head, Max headed for his own room.

"Would you bring me something to eat, Barton? I

will starve if I have to wait until the midnight supper they usually have at these things."

"Certainly, sir," said the servant, hurrying away.

An hour later, the four men were seated in the marquess's spacious carriage, heading to Richmond, where the Laceys had a palatial mansion along the river, in the Italian style.

"Why don't you and Lady Anne build something like this for your honeymoon home?" said the marquess.

"Shaddup," grumbled the viscount, glaring at each of the others in turn.

"What is this, Papa? Have you been holding out on us?" teased Tristram.

"No, I ain't holding out on you. I'm holding out on Lady Anne, and a very tricky affair it is."

The marquess gave a cackle and informed the brothers, "Lady Anne has told him in no uncertain terms that she means to have him. He, however, is being stubborn. Why, I don't know. She's as rich as Croesus and almost as powerful, in her way."

"Why?" asked the viscount. "Have you looked at her lately? I mean, really looked at her? She looks like a bulldog with those great jowls of hers. And that figure—if one can call it that!"

His sons laughed at this, earning themselves another glare.

"Why has she settled on you, Papa?" asked Max.

"Oh, she has had a tendre for me since her come-out some forty years ago. I had enough trouble shaking loose from her then, but she finally had to accept it when I married your mother," he said. "But this time ..."

"This time, you should simply close your eyes and leap at the old witch's offer," said the marquess with a

gleeful cackle. "She would have no trouble settling all your debts."

"Yes, but she doesn't like gambling or drinking or smoking, and I like all of those things. She would try to reform me," he added in horrified tones.

"Perhaps you could bring her around, Papa," said Tristram, hardly containing his laughter.

"And perhaps pigs can fly," snapped his father. "I don't want to talk about it. We are here, and she will probably be here waiting. I have to keep my wits about me," he said, throwing open the door and climbing down the steps before the carriage rolled to a stop.

By the time the other three occupants of the carriage had descended, the viscount had already disappeared.

"She'll catch him," said the marquess with another wheezing cackle. Looking at them each in turn, he added with a sneer, "You two boys see that you catch your own mates." With this advice, the bony marquess left them.

"What do you make of all that?" said Max.

"I would like to think that it means Papa is going to have the opportunity to repair the family fortunes on his own. However, given his history of irresponsibility, I take leave to doubt it will ever happen," said Tristram.

"I don't know. Lady Anne seems quite determined."

The two brothers strolled into the house, which boasted black and white marble tiles throughout the ground floor. Green palms waved at them from behind pillars and groupings of delicate French chairs dotted the large, open foyer. They followed other guests up the stairs to the first floor and greeted their host and hostess.

Mr. James Lacey had earned his money through savvy business dealings, but being the younger son of an earl,

he was still accepted by a society that looked down on earned money. His wife, a flighty woman whose father was a country squire, was known for her lavish entertaining. In warmer Seasons, they gave sumptuous alfresco breakfasts. This evening, the ball would be indoors—a sad crush, despite the fact that several drawing rooms and a ballroom opened onto each other.

The first people to spy the Darby brothers were the O'Connors. Dragging her mother after her, Kate smiled and curtsied to them.

Turning back to her mother, she said, "Mama, may I present Mr. Tristram Darby. I don't believe you two have met."

The introductions quickly dispensed with, Kate's mother said, "Is this not a lovely home?"

"Yes, the Laceys are known for their entertainments," replied Tristram. "And listen to that music. The very best musicians, to be sure. A waltz, I think. Would you care to dance, Mrs. O'Connor?"

"Oh, I am not very good at the waltz, young man," said the matron with a blush.

"Nonsense, Mama. You and papa have often waltzed. Go on. You will enjoy yourself."

"But you, my dear..."

Max took his cue and said, "If she will have me, I would be honored to dance with your daughter."

"Thank you, Max," said Kate, smiling up at him and taking his hand.