Newport Summer (19 page)

Through the lenses of the binoculars, Audrey searched
for Gannon on board the ship. She found him at the
wheel and bit her lip. He was devastatingly handsome.
His white shirt billowed against the wind, sleeves rolled
up, collar open at the throat. Already the sun had given a golden cast to his face. His hair blew back from his
face, and Audrey could see every aristocratic line of his
features. He was laughing at something her father said,
and then he began turning the wheel hard.

The Astor carriage came up beside them, Caroline
proclaiming an early victory for the Astor boat. “Audrey,
I didn’t know you were such an avid yachting fan,” Caroline noted, exchanging a knowing smile with Violet.
Audrey blushed, prepared to take the teasing.

“I think many women would enjoy racing more if
Camberly crewed their ship.” Violet laughed. “Audrey
has a handsome fiance”

“She got the last good one… ” Caroline’s voice
drifted off into gossip about someone’s husband, who’d
turned out to be more trouble than he was worth.

Audrey turned back to the binoculars and looked for
Gannon again. He was handsome. More than that, he was
kind and caring. Single-handedly, Gannon had been setting her stereotype of the titled nobleman on its ear since
she met him. What if Caroline was right, and Gannon was
the last good one? What was she throwing away by declining his offer?

Audrey chewed her lip, putting down the binoculars
as the carriage moved to a new vantage point. Gannon
was unlike anyone she’d ever met. She’d never encountered a person of privilege or rank who cared so deeply
for his people. He took his noble responsibilities seriously. She remembered the night at the Casino ball
when he’d taken her outside to recover. He’d told her how reluctant he was to marry for money but how necessary it had become. She remembered the self-loathing
in his voice and his commitment to doing his part
nonetheless. And then there were his kisses, sharp reminders that he was not all nobility and stuffiness but a
hot-blooded man with passions that went beyond the
fields and crops and bank accounts.

Oh, yes, Audrey doubted she’d ever find another person like Gannon Maddox again. Was she making the
right choice? Was Vienna worth giving up Gannon?
The question had plagued her in the weeks since their
decision.

There was so much evidence to the contrary. The
girls she knew who had married abroad had not married happily. The excitement of the engagement and the
wedding had paled quickly against the realities of English living. The new brides had been wooed solely for the
money they brought to empty coffers. Then they were
tucked away in the country, forced to kowtow to resident
family members who looked down their noses because
they weren’t English while their husbands went off to
London to spend the fortune. That life was not for her.
Even though Gannon had promised something different,
she could not risk it.

Audrey picked up the binoculars again and followed
the boat’s progress. “We’re gaining, Mother!” she cried
excitedly. The finish line was in view, and her father’s
yacht had nearly caught the lead boat.

The carriages started pulling over atop the bluffs, disgorging their passengers. People made their way
down the long wooden staircase leading to the docks
where the ships would make berth. Audrey joined them,
barely able to contain her excitement.

At the docks, the judges were already set up high in a
raised viewing dais. Audrey pushed forward through
the crowd of onlookers. Did she imagine it, or was her
father’s boat ahead by the length of a prow?

Her father’s boat crossed the finish a half length ahead
of Astor’s. Audrey ran to the edge of the dock where
Gannon and her father had come ashore, flushed and excited with their victory. Gannon saw her and swept her
up into his arms, kissing her soundly to the delight of the
crowd.

“You did it!” Audrey cried. “I saw it all through the
binoculars. You were splendid!”

“Camberly is a born sailor. Too bad he loves the land
so much” Her father clapped Gannon on the back.

Audrey hugged her father too. Then she was back in Gannon’s arms, looking up into his tanned face, and
wishing this moment could be forever, the two of them
laughing under the summer sun. A thought nagged at
her. It could be forever; all she had to do was say yes.

But she didn’t say it, and the last week of summer
slipped away, until it was time to drive the carriage down
Ocean Drive to the Southern-styled mansion of the
Stuyvesant Fishes for the annual Harvest Ball.

Audrey was nervous. She fiddled with her fan, sitting opposite her parents. She and Gannon had gone over
the jilt one last time this afternoon. She had offered to
shoulder the blame for the failed engagement, but Gannon had insisted the scandal fall on his shoulders as
much as possible. After all, he said with a characteristically charming smile, he would sail for England and
never look back.

They would give out that he’d been obliged to honor
a pre-existing marriage contract involving a family
friend, something arranged years ago by their fathers
and only just now unearthed when Gannon’s solicitors
were preparing the marriage paperwork. Being a man
of honor, Gannon felt he must uphold the previous contract signed by his father.

It was a good story. With luck, even Gannon would
come out of it with minimal scandal. How could such
honor be faulted?

The white facade of Crossways loomed, and their carriage let them out. Everyone was in high spirits, caught
up in the excitement and bustle of Season’s close. Tonight, Newport’s high society would dance until sunrise.
Tomorrow, they’d sleep late while their maids and footmen began the task of shutting down the great houses
that lined the cliffs.

Tomorrow would be a difficult day. Her mother would
be inconsolable, and she would have to contend with it.
Gannon would be gone by late afternoon on the night
ferry to New York. It was a day earlier than he’d originally planned, but she understood his need to distance himself from Newport, from her, once he’d played his
part. She would face Violet’s wrath alone. It was the
least she could do after all Gannon had done.

Gannon was waiting for the St. Clairs under the porte
cochere, offering his arm to Audrey and looking stiffly
formal as they had planned. His usual charm was restrained tonight. They’d decided he had to give off the
impression that something was not quite right from the
start. Otherwise, his sudden need to break with her would
not be believable.

He led her out for the opening Grand March and the
subsequent first waltz. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,
Audrey,” he whispered through the first turn.

“Doing what? Waltzing?” she tried to tease.

The effort failed. “Calling off the engagement”

“It was never real, Gannon,” Audrey reminded him,
trying not to concentrate on the feel of his hand at her
back, trying not to think of this as possibly the last time
they’d dance together.

Gannon quirked an elegant dark eyebrow. “Never? It
seemed real to me, for a few days at least.”

“Yes, of course it was. I didn’t mean that part, of
course” Audrey covered her blunder.

“It was nice to dream for a while that you loved me,
Audrey.” He gave her a sad smile and quickly whipped
her around the turn at the top of the ballroom.

“I do love you, Gannon” The words were out in a rush
before she could hesitate and lose them.

“You do?” He looked doubtful.

“I meant to tell you the other day in the conservatory before my father came in,” Audrey explained, but Gannon still looked doubtful.

“Well, maybe you do love me, just not enough” The
waltz ended, and Gannon straightened his shoulders.
“Shall we do it now?”

Audrey swallowed and gathered her courage. They’d
plotted to do it early after the first waltz. It didn’t make
sense that Gannon would drag out the announcement
until the middle of the evening. “Let me look at you one
last time.” She reached up and placed her hands on his
broad shoulders, making a smoothing motion over the
fabric of his coat, her heart breaking. It was for the best;
Vienna called. “I wanted to remember you the way you
are right now, tall and handsome,” Audrey said softly
right before she pulled back her hand and slapped the
Earl of Camberly across the face in the middle of the
ballroom.

Audrey buckled the last of the straps on her steamer
trunk. The rest of the luggage was already in the main
hall, waiting for the porter. Excitement, mixed with a
sense of bittersweetness, fluttered in her stomach. She
was leaving for Amsterdam at four o’clock out of New
York Harbor. The intervening weeks between leaving
Newport and preparing for this moment had been arduous. She’d more than earned this moment.

Her room was bare; her personal items had either
been boxed up for safekeeping or packed in her luggage.
Part of her couldn’t believe this was happening at last.
Her dream was about to start! Part of her was still trying
to reconcile the happiness she felt over the impending
journey with the unhappiness that had swamped her
since Gannon had left. Had it been only two weeks?

It seemed an eternity since their fateful display at Crossways. Her slap had ensured that her parents came
running and ushered them into a quiet salon to discuss the
matter that had upset their daughter on the dance floor.

Gannon had masterfully played his part, stoically
bearing the brunt of her father’s initial anger over the
broken engagement. She had not realized at the time
that when he strode out of the salon and into the night,
she’d not have a chance to see him again. He had given
her a courteous, stiff good-bye befitting the occasion
and simply left.

Their ruse had gone well. After a few days, her father
seemed to put Gannon’s choice into perspective. He even
went so far as to say that Gannon was a man of honor; it
was just too bad that his honor precluded the engagement. But Audrey’s mother had been predictably upset.
She’d wanted to call out the lawyers and force Gannon to
uphold the contract he’d negotiated with Wilson. It had
taken all of Wilson’s patience and skill to remind her on
numerous occasions that the contract clearly stated the
negotiations were only legitimate if they were precluded
by no other existing contracts. In this most unfortunate
case, there were indeed contracts that predated this one.

Audrey had tearfully nodded her understanding and
sad acceptance of the situation. The tears hadn’t been
feigned. She had no difficulty conjuring the demeanor
suitable for a lost engagement.

She missed Gannon immensely. She’d always appreciated his wit and easy conversation. She’d come to rely on his strength and insights, his values and ethics, far
more than she realized. His absence left a regrettable
void that Audrey doubted could be filled by anyone or
anything. Not even her music. It was the first time her
music had failed to sustain her completely.

There was a knock on her door. “Miss, your parents are downstairs, and the carriages are here,” a maid
called.

“I’ll be down in a moment,” Audrey replied. She cast
a last look around her room. There remained only one
thing to do. She went to her writing table and opened a
small drawer used for pens and ink. She pulled out a
slim folder, the kind used for traveling, and opened the
cover. Inside was her ticket.

The sight of the ticket made her smile. A large envelope had been waiting for her when the family returned
to New York. Inside had been a short letter, nothing more
than a couple of lines, from Gannon. It read simply, Audrey, get on the ship. I bought this ticket for you in case
your parents prove reluctant. I thought you’d prefer the
earlier sailing date. Underneath the sheet of paper had
been a ticket that stole her breath. Even now, her breath
caught at the sight of it: one first-class accommodation,
White Star Line, leaving September 1, four o’clock.

Her father had purchased her a ticket, swayed by her
lack of appetite and sorrowful face, but Gannon’s ticket
meant so much more for what it represented: his belief
in her and the overwhelming reality that he’d loved her
enough to give her up for her dreams.

Audrey caught sight of herself in the long pier glass. She straightened her shoulders and smoothed her cream
and blue traveling suit. She looked good. She looked
strong. Gannon would appreciate that. With her chin
up, she stepped out of her bedroom and took the first
step into her new life. She shut the door behind her and
whispered to the hallway, “Thank you, Gannon”

Gannon pushed a hand through his hair, his roan
hunter, Brutus, shifting beneath him as he looked out over
Camberly land from a rise. Below him the wheat fields
swayed in the fall wind. There was a nip in the air that reminded him summer was definitely gone. Pride swelled
in his chest. This was his domain, and it was safe. He gave
a critical glance to the sky. A little rain would be good.
Too much rain would destroy the harvest, keeping the
wheat too damp for reaping.