Lady In Waiting (36 page)

Even if she shouted for his assistance, he'd likely never hear her.

Jenny became light-headed. She was frantic. "Please. Take the brooch. It's yours. But leave Lady Viola alone," she begged.
"Please."

The woman laughed. "Oh, I'll keep the brooch. And whatever we get from the old hag." She hoisted Jenny's chin up with her middle finger. "And you won't say a bleedin' word. Or I'll tell the entire assembly who you
really
are. What will your viscount think then? Or does he already know?"

Heat suffused Jenny's cheeks at the comment, but she said nothing.

"Hah, I thought not."

Swallowing very hard, Jenny glanced at Lady Viola who had paused to chat with a friend before crossing the threshold with the dandies. She had only seconds to do something.

"Call off your snakes
now."
There was a strange de-

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termination in Jenny's voice; a cool calmness. A new strength,

"I don't care what you say about me, but I will not allow those men to leave this ballroom with my lady."

The woman sneered back at her. "I don't believe you."

Jenny held the woman's wrist tight in her right hand as she shot an accusatory finger to the dandies, who even now were trying to urge Lady Viola through the door.

"Thieves!" Jenny shouted until the last breath in her lungs was expelled. "Stop those thieves!"

The orchestra ceased playing and the entire assembly seemed to turn to stare.

"Stop them!" Jenny screamed again. "The dandies by the doo
r
—
a
nd this woman
here!”

A distinguished, gray-haired gentleman snapped his fingers and two burly footmen rushed forward to seize the two dandies.

The collective audience gasped as the gray-haired man closed on them and withdrew ring, after pendant, after watch from the dandies' deep pockets.

Shocked cries of ownership bubbled up and burst through the crowd, as ladies and gentlemen pushed forward to retrieve their stolen belongings.

Two men stepped forward and took hold of the woman in red. Jenny pried the brooch from her fingers, and didn't care a whit that the pin poked the thief's hand as she retrieved it.

"You've made a grave mistake, gel." The woman glowered at Jenny. "And now you will repent."

Callu
m
rushed forward and took Jenny into his arms.

280

She clung to him, knowing in all certainty that this was the last time he would hold her ever again.

"Hear me, good people of Bath! I wish to confess," the woman shouted and at once a hush washed over the assembly.

Even Callum released Jenny from his embrace to listen to what the thief would say.

"Callum." Jenny tugged pitifully at his sleeve, and he turned to look down into her eyes. Jenny worked the muscles of her throat to swallow her dread and eased Callum's betrothal ring from her finger. "Know that I love you. No matter what happens, my love is true."

The skin around Callum's eyes crinkled. "I do know, Jenny. But why are ye tellin' me this now?"

Taking his hand in hers, she pressed the ring into his palm. "I'm sorry, Callum. I love you . . . bu
t
... I'm so sorry."

Callum's dark brows cinched. "Jenny, what's wrong? Why are ye givin' back me ring?"

A dark, seething grin spread across the thief's pointed face. "Because of what I am about to say."

At her words, Callum turned his gaze to the thief once more.

The crowd continued to gather ever closer, heating the still air. Jenny gasped for breath.

"A thief I may be, but I do not lie," the woman stated with a strength and clarity of voice that allowed her words to touch every corner of the expansive assembly room.

This is it.

The thief arched a sardonic brow at Jenny. "I have stumbled upon a truth that might interest you all. This woman before you is not the lady she pretends to be."

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A rumble of voices rose up like dust around Jenny. Her head began to spin and she began to swoon.

The
w
oman leveled a sneer her way. "No, this woman is Miss Jenny Penny, a lady's maid within the Featherton household."

Jenny could not make herself look up at Callu
m
, even as she felt his gaze burning down upon her.

A dull roar of conversation welled up from the two hundred people swarming around her, all jockeying for a glimpse of the imposter.

Then the thief's voice grew louder still. "But she is no ordinary lady's maid. She is famous. Yes, yes, you all have heard of her." She paused then, until the room fell into utter silence.

Jenny squeezed her eyes shut.
Air.
She needed air, needed to breathe, but her corset was too tight, the room too warm, the crowd was too close.

"For you see, good citizens of Bath .. . she is none other than
Lady Eros!”

The mob roared, forcing Jenny's lashes to fly open. To her horror, she found herself staring straight upward into Callum's face.

His eyes were blank, the muscles in his cheeks had fallen lax leaving his mouth half open with shock.

Reaching out to her, he desperately grasped her shoulders.

"Tell me 'tisna true." Callum's voice. "Tell me, Jenny, and I will believe ye.
Please."

Jenny looked up at him and channeled every bit of strength she had into uttering three simple, yet damning words. " ''Tis true, Callum." A tear ran down her cheek. "I wanted to tell you. I truly did."

Suddenly she could not breathe at all. Perspiration

282

speckled her skin, darkness crowded her vision, and all at once, she felt herself falling.

******************

She was swaying to and fro, almost like a babe rocked in a cradle.

"Jenny," sang a voice just beyond the reaches of her conscious grasp. "Wake, dear. You're almost there. Just open your eyes."

The voice was so very peaceful and comforting that she did as asked and lifted her heavy lids.

Three huge faces hovered just inches from her own: the ladies Letitia and Viola, and Meredith.

"W-where am I?" Jenny asked as her mind cut its way through a thick fog.

It was Meredith who answered. "We're in the carriage, headed for home. Are you well? For you don't look it. You're as white as the ice on the canal."

"
That's quite enough, Meredith," scolded Lady Viola. "Give Jenny some fresh air. That's right." It was then that Jenny realized that her head was resting on her ladyship's lap.

She bolted upright. "I beg your pardon, my lady."

Lady Letitia laughed. "Whatever for? You were lying precisely as Sister bade the footmen to place you."

"I am deeply indebted to you, child. Had you not cried out when you did, I would have been lured from the ballroom and likely bludgeoned and robbed."

Horrible pale memories began to float to the surface like dead fish on a pond as Jenny slowly became able to focus. Then one thought enveloped her mind, blocking out all other
s
—
"
Callu
m."

                                                
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The two old ladies exchanged disappointed glances.

Lady Letitia patted Jenny's hand to calm her. "Well, as you might recall, he was properly gobsmacked by the news of your identity. For a moment or two, I thought he was going to lose his hold on consciousness too."

Jenny was alarmed at this bit of information.

"Don't worry, dear. He is well enough," Lady Viola told her soothingly. "Though once we had you inside the carriage, he charged off from the assembly rooms without so much as a word, headed, I believe, for Laura Place."

Jenny glanced over at Meredith, who was sitting quietly with her shoulder bumping against the wall as the carriage drove slowly down the road toward Royal Crescent. "Oh, Meredith," Jenny began. "I am so sorry for ruining your ball with scandal. Will you ever forgive me?"

"Ruined?" Meredith looked confused. "What are you going on about? My ball was bloody wonderful!"

Lady Letitia scowled. "Your language, Meredith!"

"I am sorry, Auntie, but
l
ud, I have never had such an exciting evening in my entire life." Meredith grinned impishly. "Why, if society balls are anything like mine was tonight, I shan't allow myself to miss a one."

"The question is, ladies, what do we do now to bridge this schism between our two lovers?" Lady Letitia asked.

Jenny waited, hoping someone might have an answer, but instead the carriage filled with a stifling silence. Her spirits fell into despair.

What had she been thinking? There was nothing the Featherton ladies could possibly do.

Nothing anyone could do.

She had lost Callu
m
... forever.

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******************

"You cunning cow!"

The sun had just begun to rise, judging from thin light breaking into the bedchamber, as Jenny opened her eyes to find the scullery maid standing over her.

"Get out of here, Er
m
a," Jenny snapped. "I've had a dreadful enough night and don't need to start my morn by dealing with yet another thief!"

Erma shoved something forward, and Jenny saw that it was the morning paper. "Cook read it all to me, and by the time she had finished, Mr. Ba
rt
leby had called to tell me he would be doing business only with yo
u
—
a
nd no other."

Jenny took the paper from Erma and quickly scanned Hercule's
on-dit
column. Why he'd even mentioned her ordering system. She looked up at Erma. "Everything in this column is true. Why are you here trying to quarrel with me? I am the wronged party, after all."

Erma glowered at her. "I want to know how you did i
t
—
h
ow you turned the bloody story around to swing the hatchet at me!"

Jenny pushed the newspaper back at the scullery maid. "Shall we just say that I have friends who look out for me, and leave it at that?"

Erma let out a sound remarkably similar to a cat's hiss. "When the ladies read this, and Cook told me they always read
The Bath Herald
at Saturday breakfast, I'll be sacked, and it will all be your fault."

Jenny scoffed at that. "You listen to me,
Erma.
If you are sacked, it will have nothing to do with me, but rather with your disloyalty to the family. By trying to ruin me, you very nearly hurt the Featherton ladies." She folded

285

her arms and narrowed her eyes at the maid. "So if I were you,I'd keep my head down and mouth close
d
— and hope, just hope, that the ladies, in their great generosity of spirit, will overlook your shortcomings and keep you on at the house."

Er
m
a just stared at her.

"Now please, leave my chamber. Haven't you got some pots to scour or something?"

"You haven't heard the last of this, Jenny."

"Oh, I think I have."

Erma threw the newspaper back at Jenny, then stomped from the room.

Picking it up, Jenny's eyes skimmed the column again. Lud, after the way she was exposed last eve, she began to think it would have been far more preferable to have been revealed in
The Bath Herald.

At least she wouldn't have had to look into Callum's eyes when he learned the whole awful truth of her lie
s
—
from another.

Folding the paper in half, she crawled from her tiny bed, washed, and dressed herself in preparation for another day. Jenny sighed. For though her world collapsed under the weight of her lies last eve, today was a new day and life would go on.

Jenny rested her hand atop her belly.

Yes, life would go on.

******************

Later that afternoon, Jenny descended the stairs to retrieve her hat and cloak, intending to walk to Trim Street for some ribbon to update Meredith's flower-festooned straw bonnet.

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It was something to do to occupy her mind, since the ladies had given strict orders that Jenny was not to see to her daily duties. Under normal circumstances, Jenny would be dancing with glee that she was excused from her work, but not today. She needed to remain busy if only to dimmish the pain of last eve.

As she passed through the kitchen door, out of habit, she walked forward to peer over the edge of the harvest basket by the door.