His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) (8 page)

“
Amelia,” Regina, Elijah's mother, called. She got off her
blue settee and walked over to wrap Amelia in a tight hug. “I am so
glad to see you. I didn't think my son would be kind enough to
share you so soon.”

Amelia almost snorted. Elijah seemed
more than happy to “share” her with his family as soon as they
approached Watson Estate. And the fact that the host and hostess
had already gone off to entertain their guests didn't deter him one
bit. Instead, he ushered her down the hall and to the drawing room
so quickly it was simply miraculous she hadn't fallen on her face.
Then without preamble, he slung open the door and declared that
Lady Amelia Banks had arrived—as if the entire room of ladies had
been waiting for that very moment. Before she could say anything—or
cast him the icy stare he deserved—he was gone. Off to be away from
her and with his brothers, if she had to guess. “Surely he just
wanted me to meet his family while you were all so
close.”

“
Yes, I'm sure that's it,” Regina said quietly; then she
cleared her throat. “Well, since my son seems to lack any sort of
manners, please allow me to introduce you to the room.”

Amelia scanned all the faces and
swallowed hard. She'd had no sisters or female friends growing up.
How was she supposed to survive being in a room with seven other
ladies?

“
Wait, Aunt Regina,” a dark-eyed woman with long, curly brown
hair called. She stood up and picked something up from the top of
the secretary in the corner, then came over to Amelia and handed
her a sheet of paper and a short pencil. “To take
notes.”

Grinning, Regina shook her head. “It's
true, we have a large family, but once you meet everyone, you'll
find it's easy to identify who is who. For instance, the forward
young lady who so helpfully handed you this paper is my niece
Brooke, Lady Townson. Next to her with the light blonde hair and
blue eyes is her sister Madison. She's married to a duke who has
similar features.” She turned to face another settee full of
ladies. “Over there is my final niece, Liberty Grimes and next to
her is the brave woman who raised all of these girls, Carolina.”
She brushed out her skirt. “And of course you already know Alex's
wife Caroline and Edwina.”

Amelia nodded quietly. She'd heard
Alex had married a lady as scientific as he a few years ago, but
had only seen her in passing at Edwina's wedding. And of course,
she'd played with Edwina when she was younger. Being exactly three
years younger than Elijah and Henry and three years older than
Edwina, had put her in the position of being all of their playmates
at different times. Once Elijah and Henry were old enough to go off
to Eton, Amelia and Edwina had become friends until it was decided
Edwina was to attend a girls' school.

Regina affectionately squeezed her
arm. “It'll be all right,” she whispered. “Just stay close to me
and together we can fade into the wallpaper.”

Amelia offered her a slim smile. “If
only such a thing were truly possible.”

Regina's eyes crinkled around the
corners. “Nonsense. My son would be quite disappointed to come back
and find his new bride had made such a tragic
transformation.”

“
Tragic?” Amelia echoed, knitting her brows.

Regina nodded once and dropped her
voice. “My husband may have passed a few years ago, but I recall
well enough that no gentleman wants only a lady whom he can look
upon and occasionally touch in passing.”

Amelia was even more
confused. Regina was talking cryptically, she realized. Something
that Amelia had never known her to do before. Not that she knew
Elijah's mother
that
well. Sure, they'd had numerous amounts of afternoon teas
together after Regina had caught Elijah being beastly to her. But
they'd always spoken about Amelia's clothes, flowers, or other
pleasantries—they'd even discussed Amelia's feelings for Elijah, or
rather Amelia had confided in Regina her feelings for Elijah a time
or two; but never had Regina spoken in any sort of code like she
seemed to be doing now. Unfortunately, for as intelligent as Regina
must think Amelia to be to understand her hidden message, Amelia
was undeniably befuddled. But instead of asking for clarification
and risking embarrassing herself right along with everyone else in
the room, she just nodded and said, “Yes, he'd find
that
to be a great
travesty, indeed.”

Regina's eyes flared wide but for a
moment and a hint of color rose in her cheeks. She coughed to clear
her throat. “Shall we sit?”

Numbly, Amelia nodded and took her
seat. What had she just said that would cause Regina to act
so...so...oddly?

“
What exactly do you have planned for this party, Caroline?”
Madison, the duchess, asked.

“
Nothing too extravagant—”

A wave of relief washed over Amelia at
her sister-in-law's words, causing her not to hear anything else
she said until the words, “And then of course on the final night
we'll invite a few neighbors and invite others from London for the
annual costume ball.”

“
A costume ball?” Amelia choked before she could stop
herself.

“
Not to worry,” Caroline said, smiling warmly at Amelia. “I
have a few spare dominos. You're welcome to borrow anything you
might like.”

“
Thank you, that's most gracious,” Amelia murmured, inwardly
cringing. The last thing she wanted to do was attend a ball with
members of the
ton.
At the house party they were only in the company of Elijah's
closest family and friends—nobody here was likely to mock her or be
so cruel as to ask questions about her disastrous wedding, if
they'd even heard of it yet. The same couldn't be said for the
throngs of people who might come from London. She sighed. At least
she'd be in disguise.

“
Of course if you don't wish to come, being newly married and
all, we'll all understand,” Regina said softly.

Amelia shot her a grateful look, but
knew it'd be considered rude to accept her mother-in-law's
invitation to escape. “It's more than a week away, surely by then
we'll be settled enough to attend.”

Elijah's Aunt Carolina gave her a
doubtful look, then said the last thing Amelia ever expected a
woman of her years to say, “Regina's right, dear. With the way you
two stole away to Gretna Green to marry, we're all rather surprised
you're even here.”

Amelia flushed. “Gretna Green,” she
choked.

“
Gretna Green,” Edwina confirmed before anyone else could say
anything. “I do wish Elijah had thought enough of his family to
have held just a small ceremony, but alas he didn't.”

“
That's because when a Banks man takes it in his mind it's
time to marry, then it's time to marry,” Carolina said, her voice
full of conviction, a wistful smile on her face. “And if that means
a girl must sneak out of her window under the cloak of darkness and
travel to a seedy part of town to do it—then she must
go.”

The room grew quiet as everyone
exchanged looks—most notably expressions with raised eyebrows, but
nobody said anything directly to Carolina's strange
pronouncement.

“
Just so,” Regina agreed at last. “It's just unfortunate that
we all missed out on the wedding.”

No, they were quite
fortunate they
had
missed the wedding, but Amelia wasn't about to say that. “May
I ask how you knew of Gretna Green?” She hoped that sounded better
to their ears than it had to her own. But the truth was, she'd
never been to Gretna Green, and if there was a rumor going around
that she'd been there to marry Elijah, she would do well to know
what was being said about her before attempting to set things
straight.

“
It was in Elijah's note,” Edwina said easily.

“
His note?” Amelia repeated, her words more a statement than a
question.

Edwina opened her reticule and pulled
out a note and handed it to Amelia.

I have just learned of
Amelia's engagement to Lord Friar. A more mismatched pair, I
couldn't imagine. I'm off to Brighton to steal the bride and take
her to Gretna Green before the wedding. Wish me luck. I shall see
you soon.

EJB

Amelia stared at the note in
disbelief. It had to have been written by Henry. Did he write that
to spare her reputation or his family's honor? Or did it matter now
that they were one and the same? Either way, she certainly owed him
a debt of gratitude. And possibly a thump on the head for taking
such a risk. Had Elijah's aunt not said anything about Gretna Green
she could have very easily ruined the illusion he'd tried to
make.

Regina exhaled. “Such a
pity Henry didn't see fit to show, the two-week old note, to any of
us until this morning. I knew they were staying in London and I
just saw your wedding announcement last week, but I had no idea
he'd hauled you off to elope!” She shook her head. “I have no idea
what I'm going to do with those two. Actually—” a hint of a smile
took her face— “Elijah is now
yours,
Amelia. As I once told
Caroline after she married Alex, I did the best I could and now
it's your turn to make something respectable of him. But I'm sure
that'll be an act of love, for you,” she added,
grinning.

Was it so obvious she held the same
torch for Elijah as she had when she was a young girl or was this
inferred due to the Gretna Green story? She contemplated asking,
but dismissed the notion instantly.

“
It seems like a difficult task, but I'll do my
best.”

Carolina grinned. “And where the Banks
gentlemen—and young ladies,” she added casting her daughters a
sharp look, “are concerned, that's all you can do.”

Chapter Eight

“
Alex, have you ever lied to Caroline?”

Alex, his oldest brother, blinked his
brown eyes at him from behind his wire-rimmed spectacles. “No.
Why?”

Elijah leaned back against the
cushions on the settee, refusing to meet either of his brothers'
curious gazes. “I just wondered.”

“
A man doesn't just wonder that,” Alex commented.

“
At least not if he knows what's best for him,” Henry
finished, an unspoken message meant for only Elijah in those
words.

Elijah ran his hand through his thick
hair. “Forget I said anything.”

“
We can't. You've already done said it,” John Banks, Elijah's
uncle, said plainly as he led a small group of gentlemen who
included Elijah's cousins' husbands and his brother-in-law, Sir
Wallace Benedict into the room. “Now we're all curious.”

“
Just so,” Andrew Black, Earl of Townson, one of Alex's
closest friends and the husband of Elijah's outspoken cousin
Brooke, agreed as he found a seat on a nearby settee.

Alex didn't seem to mind the intrusion
and Elijah didn't even want to venture a look at Henry. He already
knew Henry's reaction to being joined.

“
Don't be shy to talk about your marital problems, now,” Paul,
another cousin's husband, intoned, his lips twitching. “Besides
having two vicars present, we're all family. And if that doesn't
convince you, you can take comfort knowing a similar conversation
has happened with all of us.”

Elijah doubted that.

“
You look like you don't believe me,” Paul continued. “Say,
Alex, do you recall—”

“
Yes,” Alex bit off. “I was trying to explain a very
fascinating discovery I'd made about hedgehogs and you three—” he
nodded toward Andrew, Paul and Uncle John— “kept asking questions
about how Paul and Liberty were rubbing along.”

“
If I recall correctly, I gave you leave to continue
discussing your findings on hedgehog mating,” Paul
grumbled.

Benjamin Collins, Duke of Gateway, the
husband to his other cousin, Madison, snapped his head around to
face Alex. “You wouldn't still happen to have those notes you took,
would you?” he asked hopefully.

Uncle John groaned and turned toward
Alex. “If you do, please keep them to yourself. Nobody here,
especially him—” he pointed an accusing finger over to the duke—
“wants to hear about hedgehog procreation or any other scientific
discovery you might have made, of that, I'm quite
certain.”

Alex sighed. “Why is it every time
we've crossed paths these last five years you ask a battery of
questions about my science experiments?”

“
No reason,” Benjamin said with a shrug, his blue eyes holding
not a clue to what he was thinking.

“
Enough of that,” Andrew said, twisting his lips.

“
No, I'm truly interested,” Alex argued. “If he wants any more
of my science bits, he'd better—”

“
Alex, setting aside the fact that other than Caroline,
Benjamin is the only person of your acquaintance who seems to find
any interest in your 'science bits', I wouldn't complain. At least
it gives you someone to discuss your experiments with without risk
of sending them into a state of unconsciousness,” Andrew said.
“Besides, we're not here to discuss either of you two or any of
your science discoveries, but to prod Elijah until he reveals the
lie he's keeping from Lady Amelia.”