Gayle Buck (17 page)

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande held up a weary hand. “And pray do not insult my intelligence further by insisting that the pretty bauble is at the jeweler’s to be cleaned or to have its loosened stones reset. I should not believe it, you see.”

The Earl of Walmesley allowed the faintest of smiles to touch his lips. “Indeed, I had no such intention. I meant to tell you quite truthfully that I have not given a ring to Lady Caroline at all.”

Surprise flashed across the grandduchess’s face. She glanced curiously at Lady Caroline, who had averted her face. What could be seen of her cheek had flushed rose. It would have been apparent even to the least discerning eye that Lady Caroline was suffering acute embarrassment.

“I do not understand this in the least,” the Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande said disapprovingly. She did not like obscurities. She was invariably made cross by the few things that escaped her swift comprehension, and this instance was proving no exception. “You tell me that you have an understanding with Lady Caroline. Her ladyship confirms this, yet she has no ring. Why is this, Miles? You have not told me why, sirrah. I shall know the reason upon the instant, my lord!”

“I have not your approval, your grace,” Lord Trilby said simply.

There was a short silence while the grandduchess digested this most astonishing of statements.

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande contemplated the pleasurable feeling that the earl’s declaration had given rise to in her heart, but reluctantly she set it aside as being false. In sudden fury she stared at her grandnephew for his temerity in playing to her vulnerabilities. “Pah! I do not believe it for a moment, my lord, do you hear? I have observed you for all of your life. Your stubborn nature is well known to me. You have rarely sought my opinions.
Never
have you sought my approval! No, I do not believe it!’’

“But I value your approval, madam.”

Lady Caroline’s voice was soft, and yet immediately riveted the grandduchess’s attention. “I know how very fond his lordship is of you, and I suspect that you hold him in high esteem, as well. It would not rest well with my conscience if my understanding with his lordship were to drive a harmful wedge between you.”

That much at least was true. Lady Caroline thought, attempting to assuage her conscience.

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande stared coldly at Lady Caroline. Her ladyship had dared to interrupt the scolding that she had intended to unleash on the earl. The impertinence was utterly remarkable. But it seemed that Lady Caroline felt no shame, for she met the grandduchess’s fierce eyes with a calm expression. The grandduchess snapped, “You have refused to accept a ring from my grandnephew?”

Lady Caroline glanced apologetically at the earl, who was regarding her with a rising brow. “Not in so many words, madam. But our understanding is at the moment a relatively private matter, and as you have yourself observed, an engagement ring would most definitely call attention to it.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande appeared to stiffen even further. “A private matter, my lady? Am I to understand, then, that you deem my grandnephew not worthy of you?”

“Not at all!” Lady Caroline exclaimed, truly disconcerted. “It is just that Lord Trilby has never . . . that is, he does not pretend to . . .” She saw with each disjointed utterance, the Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits was growing steadily grimmer and colder of expression.

With a wild look she appealed to her companion in deceit.

The Earl of Walmesley felt it incumbent upon him to step into the breach. “I am such a never-may-care, you see, madam,” Lord Trilby said apologetically.

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande shot a sulfurous glance at him. “As I am all too aware,” she agreed cuttingly. “Many times have I observed that selfsame thing about you, Miles, which has in turn led me to lament the lack of vigor and fortitude it bespeaks. Any relationship, whether personal or political, requires those singular traits of strength if one is to weld the connection successfully.”

“I am all too aware that I am something of a disappointment to you, madam,” Lord Trilby said stiffly.

“Pah! You know nothing about it, my lord! Nothing at all! Would I demand to see your progeny about you if I held you in contempt?”

The grandduchess appeared to be genuinely distressed. His affront forgotten, Lord Trilby stepped forward hastily to catch up her withered hand. “Your grace, it was not my intent to overset you.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande gave a wavering cackle of laughter. She snapped her fan against his sleeve, indicating that she wished to be freed, and his lordship obliged with a rueful look. “You never intend to do so, Miles, but you have still managed it on several occasions. Now, you must tell me this. Is anyone outside this room aware of the understanding between Lady Caroline and yourself?”

Lord Trilby glanced at Lady Caroline. A faint smile suddenly tugged at his lips at her look of guilty consternation. “Lady Caroline has dutifully informed her aunt, Mrs. Burlington.”

Lady Caroline bent her head, biting her lip in order to keep from smiling. It was infamous of the earl to refer to her lamentable indiscretion so blandly, as though it had not been the beginning of this outrageous situation that she found herself caught up in.

The grandduchess flashed a sharp look between the pair. The earl’s reply had astonished her and given rise to a germ of belief in their story. “Indeed! I am very much surprised to hear this, my lady.”

“It was an unfortunate indiscretion on my part, your grace,” Lady Caroline said. She threw a reproving glance at the Earl of Walmesley when he laughed. “My aunt very much wishes to see me wedded and in my own establishment, and I fear that I have raised hopes that may yet prove unfounded.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande regarded Lady Caroline for a long moment. Finally she asked, “Then I am to assume that this understanding between you and my nephew depends entirely upon my approval of the match?”

“Yes,” Lady Caroline agreed. Almost instantly she realized her error, but it was too late.

Chapter Eighteen

Lord Trilby closed his eyes for a pained second.

The grandduchess’s expression became all amiability and her previous harshness was gone as though it had never been. “My dear Lady Caroline, this has been a most enlightening conversation. I am so very glad that we three have had this amazing little talk. You are staying to luncheon, of course.”

“I had already asked Lady Caroline to join us,” Lord Trilby said.

“I shall naturally be happy to do so,” Lady Caroline said, inclining her head.

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande bestowed a smile of immense affability upon Lady Caroline. “I will introduce you to my protégée, my lady. Fräulein Gutenberg is most fascinated by England and all things English. I know that she will be delighted to make your acquaintance, especially in light of your long friendship with Lord Trilby, with whom she is also quite fascinated. She has many questions about English gentlemen, you see, and I feel certain you are in a position to educate her.”

Lady Caroline allowed her brows to lift in politest disbelief. “I am honored by your confidence in me, madam.”

The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande showed her teeth in her original predatory smile. Her eyes were bright as she glanced at her companions’ faces. “Pray do not fear that I shall give the game away, my dears. It would be in thoroughly bad taste for me to be so insensitive as to disregard your wishes and publicize your private understanding, so naturally I shall not say a word about it to Fräulein Gutenberg. We shall simply allow her to remain in the dark for a time.”

Lord Trilby looked startled and he would have said something if the grandduchess had not ruthlessly pressed on. “Yes, I think that would be the wisest course, for if I should not give my approval to the match that you have made for yourself, Miles, you will still require a suitable bride. And it would be cruel indeed to make it so obvious to Fräulein Gutenberg that she was second choice. I am certain that you must agree, my lord.”

“I doubt whether my opinion makes much difference in the matter,’’ Lord Trilby said, rather grimly. He was neatly trapped by his own and by Lady Caroline’s half-truths. Though he had succeeded in establishing Lady Caroline as his intended, as he had hoped, it still would not free him of Fräulein Gutenberg’s speculative scrutiny. The irony did not escape him.

“None whatsoever, my lord.” The grandduchess’s smile widened while she watched the inscrutable mask drop into place over the Earl of Walmesley’s countenance.

She transferred her attention to Lady Caroline. “I am actually rather glad that you have so precipitately told your aunt about the tentative engagement, my lady.”

Lady Caroline warily regarded the grandduchess. “Indeed, madam?”

“Oh, indeed. I look forward with great eagerness to meeting a member of your family. We shall have Mrs. Burlington over for a small intimate dinner party. Miles, you shall arrange it, of course.’’

Lord Trilby’s mouth twisted in a faint smile. “Of course,” he agreed.

The door opened and there was the swish of skirts.

“Ah, here is Marie! My dear Fräulein, come meet Lady Caroline Eddington.”

Lady Caroline looked around, curious to have her first glimpse of the lady that had been chosen for Lord Trilby. She felt her smile freeze. She did not know what she had expected, but certainly nothing Lord Trilby had said had prepared her for the young lady who crossed the room with such ineffable grace.

Fräulein Gutenberg was easily one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. Lady Caroline could not take her eyes off the young woman, while confusion and outrage vied inside her.

Lord Trilby had scarcely referred to Fräulein Gutenberg except in a dismissive fashion, and his reticence had given her the vague impression of a rather dowdily turned-out and plain young lady. Lady Caroline had been prepared to greet the Fräulein with a friendly manner best calculated to put at ease a timid girl who was perhaps feeling overpowered by the grandduchess’s stronger personality. She was totally unprepared for the self-possessed creature who claimed her place beside the grandduchess and who offered Lord Trilby a smile of possessive recognition.

“Marie, Lady Caroline is a neighbor to Walmesley and an old friend of my nephew’s. She will be staying for luncheon. Lady Caroline, my young protégée, Fräulein Marie Gutenberg.” The Grandduchess Wilhelmina Hildebrande had not missed the complete shock that had appeared on Lady Caroline’s face upon Fräulein Gutenberg’s entrance. It was quite obvious that the earl had not thought to apprise her ladyship of certain qualities possessed by the Fräulein. It would be most interesting to observe how Lady Caroline handled herself in the face of a stunning beauty.

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Fräulein Gutenberg,” Lady Caroline said.

The young woman’s eyes briefly met Lady Caroline’s gaze. Her expression registered acceptance and a disconcerting instant of assessment. Then with scarcely concealed indifference she said, “As I am to meet you, Lady Caroline.” She turned her shoulder and smiled at the Earl of Walmesley. “Tell me, my lord, do you spend much of your time in London? I should like to hear of the amusements one might be expected to find there.”

Lady Caroline swallowed wordless indignation. She had not been so lightly dismissed since her salad days, when she had crossed paths with a couple of society dames who had made a regular habit of snubbing self-conscious misses just out of the schoolroom for the sole object of puffing out their own consequence. Fortunately, she had already been secure in her own esteem after years of acting as mistress of her father’s household and so she had been nearly impervious to such pointless cruelties. She had looked upon such instances as pan of one’s rite of passage into society, to be endured but never to be taken to heart.

However, this had been very personal indeed. Fräulein Gutenberg’s deliberate snub had made it abundantly clear that Lady Caroline was to be dismissed as being of negligible importance.

Lady Caroline’s fine eyes flew storm signals. Her feathery brows lifted in perfect emphasis of the delivery of an affable set-down. “The Season can be quite exciting to one unused to such an abundance of amusements. I am certain if Lord Trilby and I put our heads together we shall come up with the names of a few young gentlemen who can be depended upon to entertain a newly liberated schoolroom miss.”

Fräulein Gutenberg’s eyes narrowed, but she said civilly, “You are too kind, my lady. However, it would not be necessary, for I have been out in society for several Seasons.”

“Have you, indeed,” Lady Caroline murmured with the faintest touch of amused disbelief. She had the satisfaction of seeing annoyance flit over the Fräulein’s lovely face.
That should teach you to mind your manners, my girl.

Lord Trilby hid a smile. His choice of ally was proving herself more than adequate to the task. He had not witnessed any emotion of strength on the Fräulein’s face before, even when he had been at pains to present himself at his coolest, and it was pleasant indeed to discover that the Fräulein was not quite the unshakable ice maiden he had begun to think her. “I do not believe that my great-aunt has formed any plans to attend a Season in London.”

“What a pity, for we do have a great many genial acquaintances who would undoubtedly make the Season a memorable one for her grace and for Fräulein Gutenberg,” Lady Caroline said regretfully.

The Grandduchess of Schaffenzeits decided it had come time to put an end to these pleasantries. Her protégée was beginning to appear quite unhappy by the turn of the conversation, which reaction but served to point up even more sharply that Lady Caroline was taking the honors in the genteel confrontation. “Miles, I discover that I grow irritated with this eternal waiting. Why have we not been notified to come to table? Pray relay my request that luncheon is to be served at once.”

The earl got up to pull the bell rope hanging to one side of the fireplace, glancing at the ormolu clock on the mantel as he did so. “It but lacks a few minutes to the hour in any event, madam. I am certain that we will be notified at any moment.”