The Belligerent Miss Boynton AND The Lurid Lady Lockport (Two Companion Full-Length Regency Novels) (20 page)

"I watched as the stones were put up, Jared, and when I went back to the house I could have sworn Lavinia's picture was smiling at me, almost as if she knew, and approved. Your mother loved him very much, dear, and it's fitting they should finally rest in peace. Please, Jared, darling, don't be angry."

Jared was quiet for a long time, thinking about what his wife had done. Even though Carlton had threatened her happiness from beyond the grave, she had been forgiving enough to give his burial place a marker. Didn't it matter to her how he, her husband, had suffered? He sighed, knowing that was a stupid, selfish question. Of course it mattered. It just wasn't in Amanda to hate—and who should know that better than he? What an innocent she was. She needed a keeper.

Slowly Jared realized that he really wasn't angry. In fact, he felt curiously relieved that the damning stone was finally gone. So what if his father's grave was finally noted after lying unmarked for ten years? His mother had loved the man, and he had made her very happy. For that alone Jared could forgive him. He felt a sudden lightening of his shoulders, as if a weight he had carried for a lifetime had unexpectedly been lifted from him.

He reached over to his aunt and pressed a kiss against her cheek. "It's all right, dear. Amanda used good judgment. I remember her saying something about laying old ghosts to rest, and I imagine that was her intention. Surprisingly, I think she accomplished what she set out to do."

His expression grew serious again as he said, "You've been busy telling me about my wife's exploits in my absence, but you've neglected to tell me how she is going on. She hasn't worn herself to a shadow with all her good works, has she? She's such a little thing, I wouldn't want her fading away entirely."

"Actually, Jared, Amanda's health is the main reason I've journeyed to London. I wanted to discuss her condition with you, tell you that—"

"Her what? Her
condition
?" Jared paled and gripped his aunt firmly on her upper arms, shaking her as he yelled, "Well, you took a dashed long way around getting to the main subject, didn't you. What do you mean, her
condition
? What's wrong with her? Is she sick? Did she fall off that damned horse? Speak to me, Aunt!"

Lady Chezwick shook off his hands and tried to secure her hair with the few pins that Jared's rough handling had left in her head. "I can scarcely talk to you while you rattle the very teeth in my head, Nephew, now can I? Calm down and I'll tell you. And sit down, I'm getting a crick in my neck looking up at you."

Jared obediently sat on the edge of a chair. "I'm waiting, Aunt."

Aunt Agatha shivered. "You like a vulture about to pounce. It's very disquieting, Nephew, I tell you. But I suppose I should go on with this."

"Yes, Aunt, you should. Before I choke the words out of you, much as I love you."

"Oh, all right, there's no need for threats — or melodrama. Let's see. How do I begin? Oh, yes. Amanda hasn't said anything to me, you see, Jared, so it's possible I'm wrong. I only know she hasn't been riding Tempest lately, and she's been slightly off her food. Although, lately, not so much. She's become rather inordinately fond of lemon cake…"

He jumped up in a fury tinged with panic. "You make no sense, Aunt. Either she's ill or she's not. I should go to her at once."

"You promised you'd sit, Nephew," his aunt reminded him, waving him back into his chair. "That's better. Now, let me finish. First of all, I doubt if your presence will alleviate the problem, although it will go a long way in settling the poor child's nerves. Many a night I've heard her sobs through the walls. Speaking plainly, your concern would touch me more, Nephew, if you had shown it sooner. How can I be sure you'll act in Amanda's best interests if I tell you her condition?"

Jared dropped to his knees in front of his aunt. "I love Amanda, Aggie, I swear I do. Only since I'm in London have I realized how very much that vexing creature means to me. She haunts my every moment, and has from the minute I first saw her that night at Almacks. I've never been in love before and, frankly, the experience has shaken me badly. Please, Aunt, I beg you to tell me what's wrong with my wife. I promise to be gentle with her."

"Well, that was very pretty, Nephew, and quite humble. As I've said, marriage will be the making of you." She took a deep breath, then said, "Very well, Nephew, I'll tell you. I am all but positive that Amanda is going to offer you a token of her affection."

He sat back on his heels. "A token of her—
what
? Aunt, if you love me, speak plainly. What has a gift to do with Amanda's condition? What can she give me? I don't—" Slowly the truth dawned on him and his blood ran cold. Strange, he had thought blood didn't really run cold, that it was just a silly, dramatic saying. Well, no longer. "She—she's pregnant? Is Amanda pregnant? Tell me, Aunt. Is my wife pregnant?"

Lady Chezwick violently nodded her head, scattering her remaining pins all over the carpet.

Jared's brain was spinning. "But, you said she didn't tell you anything. How can you be sure?"

"I, er... well, you see, um, she told Lavinia."

Jared slapped his palm against his forehead in exasperation. "Aunt, how could Amanda tell my mother she's pregnant?"

"Really, Jared, there's no need to become so incensed. It's quite simple to explain, actually. I walked into the blue room one day last week just as Amanda was standing under my sister's portrait and overheard her telling Lavinia about the child." The old lady's face grew pink as she added, "I also heard her tell your mother that she loved you very much—not that you deserve her. I mean, Amanda didn't say that last part, about you not deserving her. I said that. But I don't really mean it. Truly."

Jared wearily pushed himself to his feet. "For once, Aggie, I agree with you. I don't deserve her at all. Now, you go off upstairs and rest until dinner. It's all arranged. Tomorrow morning we all leave for Storm Haven. Bo and Kevin will be meeting us here directly after breakfast."

Lady Chezwick was dumbfounded. "Bo and Kevin? Those scamps? Just a moment! Do you mean to stand there and tell me that you've already made up your mind to come back? How
dare
you let me run off all this time when you had already decided! Jared, I don't recall ever being more put out with you. To think I traveled all this way, in the heat, and in my advanced years, just to have you tell me you would have come home tomorrow anyway. That is the outside of enough!"

She stood up, repeatedly poking a fingertip into Jared's chest. "I had to tell Amanda I was coming to town to have some fittings and would be gone at least a week. It was the only thing I could think of to get away without too many questions. Now I can't go home with you or Amanda will know I put my nose in where it wasn't wanted—or needed, come to think of it. Just for that, you young scamp, the bills for my new wardrobe—and they will be considerable—will come directly to you." She swept from the room as haughtily as her small frame would allow.

Jared stood looking out over the street for several minutes, and when he finally quit the room there was a bounce to his step that his butler hadn't seen in months. The news of their master's change of mood spread quickly belowstairs, and Lady Chezwick was treated to a new respect by Lord Storm's suitably impressed staff. "Bless the old dear," one footman was heard to say. "I never knowed 'er 'ad it in 'er!"

#

A mere hour past dawn a loud yell rang through the townhouse in Half Moon Street, rising up from the entrance hall. "Ho, ho! Time to be up and off, friend Jared. What's keeping you, sleepyhead? We have a tale for you."

"Quiet, you idiots! You'll wake my aunt!" Jared returned loudly as he leaned over the stair rail.

Lady Chezwick appeared in her doorway, her lace–trimmed nightcap drooping down low over one eye. "Not really, Nephew," she said, yawning. "You, however, have succeeded most admirably where they failed. What's going on?"

Jared grinned at the old woman. "My apologizes, Aggie. Go back to your bed. It's only Bo and Kevin, ready to leave for the country. They must have stayed up all night and come here with the dawn, drat them. I'll see you in a week, Aunt—and again, thank you for coming to me, for your intentions were of the best." He dropped her a quick kiss that landed somewhere in the vicinity of her left ear, and loped off down the stairs.

"Give Amanda a kiss for me, Jared," she called down to him, and returned to the comfort of her bed, intending not to leave it again until at least noon.

Jared entered the study and called out, "Let's be off, gentlemen—" then stopped in his tracks to exclaim, "Good Lord, what have you two been up to? Fighting again, Bo? Aren't you getting a little long in the tooth for that sort of thing?" He turned to face the lanky figure Kevin Rawlings had draped negligently over a chair, one booted foot swinging in mid-air. "And you, you reprobate, you'll have a bruise on that cheek for certain. What happened?"

"I refuse to answer any questions until I have a glass in my hand."

Jared hastened to comply with Kevin's request, pouring a goodly amount of wine into two glasses. Then, deciding he might need it, he poured a third for himself.

"Ah! Now, dear friend, that's more the thing," Kevin drawled after disposing of half of the liquid in a single swallow. "Bo, my boon companion, my chin aches abominably. You tell our dear Jared how we championed his lady."

"True, true. Knights of old, Galahad. Smashing go! No swordplay though. Planted a facer. Kevin, too. Worst to them. Cheers!" Bo lifted his glass and drank deeply, then held the cool tumbler to his rapidly coloring eye.

Bo's conversation was difficult to follow at the best of times, but Jared, in his agitation, couldn't make heads or tails of a single word. "Bo, you addlepated buffoon, speak plainly. What are you talking about?'

"Take offense, Jared. Quite clear I thought. Freddie and Denton at White House. Talked about your lady. Couldn't have that, could we? Waited outside, Kevin and I. Smashing go. Bad one, Freddie. Told you so. No left hand, either."

"Kevin?" Jared pleaded, turning to appeal to his friend.

"Very well, I see I have to explain, since you care little for my aching jaw." He crossed the room to refill his glass. "Bo told you we were at the White House," he said, then turned a searching eye toward Bo. "At least I think he did. We were discussing our trip to Storm Haven when your dear cousin, the toad, croaked out some rather unkind things about your bride. Denton said little but he smiled a lot, the sponge."

"Quite right. Toad. Toad and sponge," Bo put in.

"Quiet!" Jared warned him.

Kevin chuckled, then winced as he lifted a hand to his jaw. "As I said, Denton was with him, and the two went on at some length about the, uh, rather
bizarre
circumstances surrounding your marriage, not to mention something about not seeing a groat in a marriage settlement from you. that isn't sitting well with the man, I think. Freddie was pretty well in his cups and croaked out a few things about you personally, about your behavior since the marriage, that I am not going to bother to repeat."

"Cad. Boor. Never liked him above half," Bo said from his chair in the corner of the room.

"Shut up, Bo," Jared warned again, but without heat. "Finish it, Kevin."

"Well, now, Jared, you can't call out a man who's not quite sober, much as I wanted to. Not good
ton
, you know. So Bo and I waited outside until Denton and your cousin came out. Waited a dashed long time, too. It seems it was Denton's birthday, and Freddie was treating him to a little fun. I hope it wasn't Nellie. She's too good for him. Anyway, we waited a dashed long time, waited in the shadows, and then followed them until they turned the corner. Then Bo here tapped Denton on the shoulder."

"Right. Explained his error. Jared our friend, wife our friend, though we don't really know her, do we? Told him to button his yapper."

"That's when Denton hit him," Kevin broke in. "Freddie then made a move—I disremember whether it was toward me or toward flight—but he did move, so I felt honor-bound to mill him down. I don't remember many more of the details, Jared, because Freddie's coachman appeared from nowhere—he's a big fellow you understand—and my mind becomes hazy once I am on my back in a gutter."

Jared's face was white with rage. "I'll kill them. I'll kill the pair of them," he squeezed out between clenched teeth, and made for the door.

But Kevin moved more quickly than would seem possible for a man so sorely abused, placing himself between Jared and the door. "No need, friend. The place was nearly deserted when they made their remarks. No one heard but us, and I'm sure that's the only reason Freddie spoke. Besides, what reason can Denton have to hurt you? One's just plain mean, and the other's a fool. Can't call a man out for either of those reasons."

"I won't call them out for no reason. Denton doesn't bother me; I can shut his mouth with a few shillings, the pompous ass. It's Freddie I want."

"Be reasonable, Jared. If you call Freddie out you'll bring your wife's name into it. You don't want that."

"I won't call Freddie out because of Amanda, Kevin, how much of a loose-screw do you think I am? I'll insult his coat. God knows that's easy enough. Anything will do for an excuse. But I am going to kill him."

"And then what? Flee to the continent with your wife? Or would you leave her behind? Use your head, man. Cut off his allowance if you want to punish him. Yes, do that. Freddie won't open his mouth again."

"Quite. Can't, you know. Broke. I heard it."

Two heads turned toward the portly Bo. "What broke, Bo?" Jared asked quietly, as if he were addressing a backward child.

"Cousin's jaw. Clear shot, heard it go. Worth my eye, it was." He raised his glass. "More wine?"

Jared and Kevin stared at each other in disbelief. Then Kevin said, "That settles it, Jared. You can't call out a disabled man. You have to wait until he heals, and that could be months. Freddie won't be talking in the meantime, either." He turned to Bo. "You never cease to amaze me, friend. I didn't know you were so handy with your fives."