Gayle Buck (16 page)

In the entryway they were met by the footman, and Lord Trilby surrendered his crop and riding gloves and hat. While she waited, Lady Caroline looked about her. She had always felt completely at home at Walmesley, but on this particular occasion her pleasure in her surroundings was marred by the purpose of her visit.

Lord Trilby inquired quietly as to the grandduchess’s whereabouts. He turned to Lady Caroline. “Her grace awaits my return in the drawing room. Shall we join her, my lady?”

“Of course. I have a lively wish to meet her grace,’’ Lady Caroline said, dreading the interview but also anxious simply to have it done with. She signaled to her maid, and that dame understood that she was dismissed until further notice.

“I am happy to hear you say so, my lady.” Lord Trilby could plainly discern the shadow of anxiety that darkened Lady Caroline’s eyes and he appreciated anew the generosity and determination that were an essential part of her character. He had felt from the first that he could rely upon her in his extremity, and she had proved him correct.

Lady Caroline lifted her head proudly and entered the drawing room on Lord Trilby’s arm.

An elderly woman looked up at their entrance. Mingled astonishment and outrage crossed her face before her countenance hardened into autocratic hauteur.

The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits, for it could have been no other, thought Lady Caroline, watched with stony eyes as she and Lord Trilby approached. Lady Caroline realized in that frozen moment that this autocrat would not and could not be wheedled and charmed by deferring and conciliatory words. The grandduchess would dismiss such attempts as beneath contempt. That would be the end of the little masquerade, and she would have failed Lord Trilby in the shambles of it.

Feeling that she had very little to lose. Lady Caroline decided upon a most reckless and daring approach.

“Madam, I have brought you a surprise,” Lord Trilby said. He smiled down at Lady Caroline in reassurance. “Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande, allow me to present to you Lady Caroline Eddington, my intended. Lady Caroline, my great-aunt, the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits.”

The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits registered a deliberate flicker of surprise in her expression. Then she slowly inclined her head. “Lady Caroline.”

Lady Caroline curtsied, advanced to extend her hand. Her heart was hammering in her breast, yet there was nothing of her inner agitation in her friendly gaze or pleasant smile. “I am happy to meet you, madam. Lord Trilby has often mentioned you, and with the greatest fondness, I might add.”

The grandduchess accepted the familiarity of the handshake even as she threw a sharp glance in the Earl of Walmesley’s direction. “Indeed? I find this most difficult to believe, my lady. My grandnephew does not easily accept suggestion or advice from those who might be expected to hold his best interests close at heart.’’ Her tone was forbidding, even cold.

Lord Trilby felt himself tensing. He feared the worst for Lady Caroline, and for himself. Yet there was nothing that he could do to circumvent the disaster.

Lady Caroline gave an easy laugh. She cast a glance at the earl’s inscrutable countenance. “I have often observed that to be true of his lordship, madam. But I believe it is often so with most gentlemen, and most particularly with those whom one has known for the greatest length of time.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande regarded Lady Caroline with an unreadable expression. She indicated that her visitor should be seated on the settee beside her. “So. I assume from what you say that your acquaintance with Lord Trilby is of lengthy duration.”

Lady Caroline sat down and began to remove her gloves, signifying that she intended a lengthy stay. She pretended not to notice the grandduchess’s jaundiced observation of this signal.

Observing his great-aunt’s increasingly frosty stare, Lord Trilby stood in admiration of Lady Caroline’s cool audacity. “Lady Caroline and I are old friends,” he said.

The grandduchess spared the earl a contemptuous glance before her gaze refastened on Lady Caroline’s face.

“Oh, yes, indeed. Lord Trilby and I have known one another for years. In point of fact, our families visited often when we were both young children,” Lady Caroline said, smoothing her gloves on her silken velvet skirt.

“It is astonishing to me then that we have not previously met, my lady, for I came to England many times when his lordship was but a boy,” said the Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande. She showed her teeth in a predatory smile. “Nor do I recall that Lord Trilby has ever mentioned your existence in more recent times in his letters to me.”

Lord Trilby had an almost overwhelming urge to loosen his neckcloth, which suddenly felt tighter than it should. The feeling startled him, for it recalled quite vividly his salad days when he had made his first bows to society.

“It is not surprising at all, actually,” Lady Caroline said coolly. “My family divided their time between London and the country, whereas it is my understanding that you never cared overmuch for London and so rarely visited anywhere else but here at Walmesley even during the height of the Season.”

Lady Caroline smiled slightly. “As for Lord Trilby’s omitting my name in his correspondence, I am not at all surprised. After all, it could quite conceivably have been because he feared that your grace might leap to the conclusion that I was of romantic interest to him.”

Lord Trilby, who had been leaning with one shoulder against the mantel in a counterfeit attitude of relaxed interest, abruptly straightened. “Caro!”

The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits shot a fleeting and very keen glance at the earl. “Indeed, my lady. I am most profoundly intrigued why that should be,” she murmured.

Chapter Seventeen

Lord Trilby reschooled his features. Pretending a nonchalance that he was far from feeling, he said in a voice of teasing reproof, which nevertheless managed to convey his feelings to the lady he addressed, “I do not tittle-tattle about
any
of my friends, Lady Caroline, as you should have guessed, knowing my negligent character so well as you do.”

“True, my lord.” Lady Caroline bestowed a warm smile upon the earl. “You do cultivate a reputation for indifference, and certainly to discuss your friends to any extent would betray an intensity of feeling which must be avoided at all costs by one so set upon giving an impression of carelessness.”

The earl was left speechless by Lady Caroline’s thorough and uncomplimentary reading of his character.

Lady Caroline turned back to the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits, who had listened with every evidence of growing interest. Lady Caroline shook her head in a tolerant fashion, smiling as she did so. “My lord is not nearly as cold-blooded as he wishes all of us to believe, as I am certain you are already well aware, madam. But of course, you must already have suspected why it is that he has never mentioned me! While it is true that I am a great friend, I am also a female, which is undoubtedly a shocking combination for one with my lord’s studied attitude of carelessness.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande shot another glance at her grandnephew, catching an impression of outrage, swiftly hooded. “Indeed, so I find it in truth, and in particular when I recall that his lordship claimed ignorance of the existence of any lady worthy of pursuit. I believe that you indicated the scarcity of such in the breadth and width of all of England, did you not, my lord? I am disappointed in you, sir, for I had believed our relationship to be such that you would have felt able to confide even your most negligible thoughts to me.”

There was a short silence while the earl weighed his options. He could express his outrage over Lady Caroline’s slanderous maligning of his character by delivering a stiff set-down, or he could swallow his indignation and play the role that she had outlined for him. He decided to take the jump. With a sigh he said, “I am beginning to wonder just what I have done to myself in bringing you here today, Lady Caroline. In the space of fifteen minutes you have managed to shred my reputation, wound my sensibilities, and set me up for a raking-down by my illustrious and high-minded great-aunt, who, as I recall, is particularly fond of ringing a peal over the head of anyone who is so misguided as to think himself qualified to govern his own life.”

The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits unbent enough to give a cackling laugh. She did not comment upon the earl’s accurate observation and instead confined herself to a pronouncement of judgment. “I find Lady Caroline to be charming.” She turned to the younger woman with a thin smile on her face. “You will stay to luncheon if you please, my lady. I would very much enjoy talking more with you.” It was not a civil request, but rather a dictum couched in polite language.

Lady Caroline let out a careful breath. She met Lord Trilby’s eyes, the quizzical expression of which was tempered by a reflection of her own sense of relief. The first hurdle had been successfully met. “Thank you, your grace. I would be delighted,” she said quietly.

As Lord Trilby seated himself in a wing chair, he remarked, “I suspect that between the pair of you, I am to be further pilloried. I shall resign myself to the inevitable, therefore, and put my energies into proving my reputation for indifference.”

It had not taken him above a heartbeat to realize the object behind Lady Caroline’s surprisingly aggressive style in this first meeting with the grandduchess. Once more he was impressed with her quick understanding of a difficult situation.

When he had presented her to his great-aunt, he had seen instantly that the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits fully intended to reject all civil overtures. Lady Caroline had dispensed with the merely polite, and boldly carried the field to the grandduchess. The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits respected strength more than anything else, and she had therefore chosen to allow Lady Caroline the benefit of the doubt.

Assessing the result, Lord Trilby could only admire Lady Caroline’s strategy. She had at one stroke acknowledged a long acquaintance between them and established herself as one too secure in her own position to fear anything that the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits might muster forth.

It had but remained for him to adjust his own manner to reflect Lady Caroline’s, and the thing had been done. Before many more hours the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits would be entirely convinced of the authenticity of the supposed match between Lady Caroline and himself.

The Earl of Walmesley anticipated the remainder of Lady Caroline’s visit with equanimity. He was already considering whether future performances would be necessary. But then his peace of mine was once more cut up.

The grandduchess said softly, “Lady Caroline, I observe that you do not wear an engagement ring upon your finger.’’

Lady Caroline’s eyes flew to the earl’s face. His lordship appeared as startled and consternated as she felt. She had not a single thought to offer. Lord Trilby stared down at her, appearing equally at a standstill. She felt herself ready to sink. In the next few moments would come unendurable humiliation, for what could she possibly say that would sound halfway reasonable for such an obvious oversight.

Damn Miles and his easy assurances,
she thought, more distressed by her own culpability than by the lack of foresight shown by the earl.

“Well, my lady?”

The grandduchess’s voice was inexorable.

Lady Caroline turned her head slowly until she met the elderly woman’s cold stare. It would be far better to own up to the deception at once, she thought, than to squirm and writhe in the tightening net of yet more lies while the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits probed mercilessly for the truth.

Lady Caroline opened her reluctant lips. Already she imagined she could feel the scorching heat of the grand-duchess’s scorn. “I am sorry, madam. I wish with all my heart that—”

Lord Trilby’s hard voice cut across hers. “You do not have to say a word, Caroline. I am perfectly capable of speaking in my own defense.”

While Lady Caroline practically gaped at him, he got up from the wing chair and sauntered over to the mantel. With his studied movement, the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits transferred her sharp attention from Lady Caroline to the earl. Suddenly Lady Caroline realized that that had been his lordship’s intent, and she was grateful to him for it.

“I am waiting, my lord.” There was no compromise in the grim voice or in the arctic hauteur of the grandduchess’s eyes.

Lord Trilby smiled slightly. The expression in his eyes was guarded. “I have no doubt at all of that, madam. It is a feeble excuse at best, as you will naturally point out to me. I originally thought it best not to reveal my engagement to Lady Caroline to you, for reasons well known to us both and which are best left unsaid if we are to maintain civility.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande gestured her acknowledgment. However, her smile remained cold. “Yes, it is true that we have not yet come to agreement upon the oft-discussed subject of your impending marriage.”

Lord Trilby made a mocking bow. “When you announced plans for your visit, and the object of it, I had no alternative but to inform you that I had formed an understanding with a young lady. But still I concealed Lady Caroline’s identity from you, for I suspected that given the opportunity, you would make your presence felt in her ladyship’s life.”

 The grandduchess covered with a cough the home force of the earl’s observation.

Lord Trilby smiled briefly. “You did not accept the news as I had anticipated, madam. I thought that you would be overjoyed that I had at last begun to fulfill your long-held ambition for me. However, from your letter it was quite painfully obvious that you did not believe that such an understanding existed.”

“No, nor do I believe in it now,” the grandduchess said forcibly. “Lady Caroline is a charming lady and has put herself forth in a very creditable fashion. One who was less observant, perhaps, might have succumbed to the pretty tale. However, I am not yet in my dotage, Miles. I have the wit to understand the meaning of a finger naked of the requisite proof.”