Lady In Waiting (35 page)

In that instant, with one strong arm, Callum hoisted Jenny against his chest so their eyes were level and her feet, thankfully shod in new, gleaming white sa
t
in slippers, dangled.

270

Faster and faster he turned, never missing a four-count step. The rotation sent Jenny's legs flying backward behind her.

Starting to feel a little dizzy, Jenny trained her gaze on the crowd surrounding the ballroom floor to steady herself.

Bath society was indeed staring. But not with looks of shock in their eyes, as she might have expected, but with amusement. To them, they were but a young couple foolishly in love.

Lady Letitia and Lady Viola, clapping with delight, had turned to watch Callu
m
and Jenny as Meredith excitedly recorded her observations in her notebook.

"Lord Argyll, they will think you mad!" Jenny quipped, giggling between her words.

H
e only laughed. "Madly in love with you, Jenny, and I dinna care who knows it."

An uneasy jolt shot through Jenny, and she knew Callum must return her to the floor. He mightn't care now who knew of his love for her, but come morning, his feelings would be different.

"Please, Callum, I cannot breathe. Do set me down."

"Verra wee
l
, my lady. Yer wish is my command."

His eyes twinkled with happiness as he loosened his grip on her waist and allowed her to slide down his chest to the wooden floor. Even this was far too intimate an act, but the Highlander seemed oblivious to the fact. And this sort of scandal, while guaranteed to generate comment, was of little concern to Jenny. Oh, how she wished that displaying affection in public was her only shame.

When the music ended, Callum, his eyes still alive with the excitement of the dance, offered Jenny his arm

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and together they left the floor to return to the Feather-ton ladies and Miss Meredith.

Jenny smiled pleasantly at all those she passed, until from the corner of her eye, she caught notice of a man bowing to he
r
—
a
very small man.

She jerked her head around to be sure. How had
he
managed an entr
ι
e to this esteemed event? But then Jenny remembered the Fea
f
herton ladies' public invitation.

Oh, my word.
Hercule Lestrange was here . .. and no doubt already hard at work.

Ch
a
pter Seventeen

S
queezing Callum's gloved hand gently, Jenny bade him to rejoin the Featherton ladies, and with a few mumbled excuses for leaving his side, promised to join him again a few minutes later.

At once, she picked her way back through the churning crowd until she came upon the guest she sought. "Ah, we meet again, Mr. Lestrange." She hung a bright smile on her lips for him. "I had not truly expected to see you at the Upper Assembly Rooms this eve."

He seemed surprised. "Where else would I be? Gatherings such as these are how I make my living. But then, you know this."

"Quite right." Jenny covertly stole a glance at Hercule's deep coat pockets, searching for any signs that he had already been slipping baubles and rings from unsuspecting guests.

"Since our last discussion,
my lady,
"
he said, intoning the last two words a bit louder, "I wondered how you came to discover my true identity. Over the years, many have tried, but none successfully. That is, until you."

Jenny was a little stunned by the question. "I don't

273

know really. Maybe it was the way you always seemed to haunt the locales where society gathered. And you were always watching, your eye tuned to detail."

Hercule Lestrange nodded thoughtfully, then lowered his voice to a private level. "You have a very keen eye yourself, as well as a clever mind, to have inferred from so little that I am Bath's mysterious
on-dit
columnist."

What?
A rolling shudder seemed to throttle Jenny from within. Hercule Lestrange wrote
The Bath Herald
'
s on-dit
column?
Lord above!
But suddenly it all made sense. He wasn't the leader of the swell gang at all. He was a bleedin' gossip columnist!

Schooling her features, Jenny tried very hard not to let on that she had had it all wrong.

"I have a bone to pick with you, Mr. Lestrange."

"You do?"

"Yes, for we had an agreement."

A look of bewilderment came into his eyes. "Of course we do. And have you kept your half of the bargain by keeping my identity a secret?"

"/ have." She pulled her shoulders backward. This just
had
to work.

"And I have kept my half." He beckoned for her to lean down. "I have not reported your identity,
any of them,
though I could have."

"But I have heard that tomorrow's
Herald
will reveal Lady Eros."

"Ah, I see." Hercule smiled with new understanding. "You've had a chat with Er
m
a Soot."

Jenny rose up to her full height and set her hands on her slim hips. "As a matter of fact, I have. And here I took you for a man of honor," she added, hoping her

274

teeth wouldn't fall out of her head for her lies, as her mother had warned her when she was a child.

Hercule Lestrange was clearly taken aback. "I have honored my vow to you." He crooked his finger and urged her to his level again. 'Tomorrow, the usurper of Lady Eros's throne, the scullery maid, Er
m
a, will be revealed and your business will be returned to you."

Jenny stared into the little man's wide eyes, and saw truth in them.

She was not going to lose Callu
m
by morn after all. This little man, this beautiful little man, had saved her!

"I could kiss you, Hercule," she exclaimed. "In fact, I shall." And then, taking his oddly shaped head into her hands, she kissed both his cheeks.

Hercule Lestrange blushed fiercely. "My lady, people watch."

"I don't care. I really don't care. You are
wonderful."
She quieted suddenly as a very large question posed itself in her mind. "Why would you do this for me?"

The little man extended his hand to her and she took it, allowing him to lead her to a row of empty chairs at the floor's perimeter.

Hercule laid his chest upon the seat and swung his foot upward to pull himself upright in the chair. He patted the chair next to him, urging Jenny to join him. She did.

"Because, though I was dirty and my clothes were tattere
d
—
a
look I often don to remain unnoticed by the
to
n
—
y
ou treated me with great kindnes
s
—
l
ike a
man.
Not a small man, but a real man. You talked with me, allowed me to escort you home, then you invited me inside for something to eat. I don't know why you did that, and I don't care. For the first time in many years,

275

someone saw the man inside this small, mangled body. And for that
,
" he lowered his voice to a whisper, "I am grateful,
Mi
ss Penny."

Jenny's eyes were filling with tears again and she hugged Hercule to her breast.

"Here now, careful there, miss. Or you'll learn just how much of a real man I can be."

When she pulled abruptly back, he gave her a wicked smile, and she laughed. There was a nudge at her back, knocking Jenny forward in her chair. She turned and looked up to see Meredith rising from a chair behind her. Until that moment, Jenny hadn't noticed that the girl was near.

Certainly, Meredith had heard every word, for as she walked across the dance floor, Jenny saw her busily scrawling down the little man's roguish words in her book of observations.

When Jenny returned her attention to Hercule, she saw him gazing at the opal brooch she wore. In fact, he was studying the sparking bauble most intently.

His ruddy brows shirred for a moment. "Where did you get this?" he asked, looking up at her face.

" 'Twas a gift from my father when I was a child."

"A gift, you say? Might I ask your father's name?"

"You might ask, but I cannot answer." Jenny shrugged her shoulders. "My mother will not say."

His eyes shifted to the brooch, and narrowed slightly. "May I?" he asked, reaching for the opal pin.

"How queerly you look at my brooch. Is it familiar to you? Perhaps you've seen one like it before."

Releasing the brooch from his thick fingers, Hercule looked up at her with a distracted smile. "Perhaps." He

276

exhaled a long breath. "It is quite lovely. Guard it well this eve."

"Guard it?"

H
ercule glanced about the room until he found what he was searching for. "Look there. The woman and the two men."

Jenny followed his gaze. To her surprise, she found herself looking directly at the woman in re
d
—
w
hom she'd seen in the Pump Room and then at Bartleby'
s
— along with her two dandy escorts.

"Yes, I've seen those three before. Something is not right about them. They ... they don't
belong."

"Very astute, Miss Penny. I've been watching them too. I believe they are the swell gang responsible for the thefts in Bath these past weeks. Still, I've not been able to prove it."

"I'll be wary of them. You can be certain of that."

Hercule patted her hand. "Forget
th
em for now. Go back to your man. I see he is waiting for you."

Jenny looked up and briefly met Callum's warm gaze. She smiled back and acknowledged him with a slight wave of her hand.

Though it would be difficult to simply forget about the swell gang prowling the ball, she had far more important things to worry about.

She came to her feet. "Thank you, Mr. Lestrange, for everything."

"And thank you, my shiny penny. Until we meet again." Hercule Lestrange tipped his head to her.

Jenny smiled once more at the strange but wonderful little man, then walked a few feet before turning again to wave good-bye. But when she did, he was gone. Per-

277

plexed, she glanced around the ballroom. Lud, he had absolutely disappeared.

With a con
f
used shrug, Jenny had just started through the milling throng when someone slammed into her, knocking her breath from her lungs in a great whoosh.

She clutched her ribs, gasping for air. When the dark specks dancing in her eyes finally cleared from her vision, she noticed with horror that her father's opal brooch was missing!

The swell gang.
Sporting the woman in red hurrying away ahead of her, Jenny raced through the crowd. Catching the woman up, she grabbed her wrist and spun her around.

"Give it back," she hissed, before dropping her voice to a low, menacing tone. "I know what you are and shan't hesitate to expose you."

The woman smirked at this and pulled her own wrist close so quickly that Jenny was hauled against her.

"I see you and the dwarf have become quite close. But just as the two of you can see we do not belong here—
w
e have been watching you as well. You, Miss Penny ... or shall I say
Lady Eros,
have not the standing to be in this assembly room either. And I shall not hesitate an instant to expose
you
... if I must."

Jenny shook so violently that she feared the ties of her corset would unthread. "You wouldn't dare it," she managed, surreptitiously glancing at her opal brooch clutched in the woman's hand.

"Darling, I would. So be an obedient maid and leave us b
e
—
w
e have work to do." Seeing the path of Jenny's gaze, the woman tightened her grip around the brooch.

"Return the brooch to me." Jenny glared at the

278

woman with a level of loathing she'd never felt in her life.

Her intensity seemed to unnerve the thief, and the woman's gaze darted about the room until she found her cohorts. Then a cold smile iced her lips.

Jenny couldn't help but turn to see what the woman had seen. There, walking between the two dandies toward the open doors, dripping with every jewel she owned, was the frail, tiny Lady Viola.

Heavens,
why was she leaving the ballroom with them? Jenny's eyes scoured the ballroom for Callu
m
, but when she finally glimpsed him, he was standing just below the blaring orchestra preparing to join in an English country dance with Meredith.