The Courtesan's Daughter (23 page)

Nineteen

“SOPHIA, I must protest,” Henry Blakesley said from the small confines of the closet. “I gave Caroline pearls as well as Ashdon. I don’t see why he should be entitled to marry your pretty daughter just because he locked her in a dressing room. Give me five minutes locked with her in this closet and then let Caroline choose between us.”

They had, by force of nature, the nature in this case being the absolute crush of humanity and the flash fire of gossip, been practically pushed from the dressing room through the gold bedroom, a highlight of these assemblies as the bedposts
were
covered in gold, and into a room which was not officially on the circuit. The closet had nothing to recommend it. It was even painted a completely lackluster white. Still, it did afford what little privacy they were going to find tonight and Sophia was adamant that Caro not leave Hyde House with matters unresolved.

Which meant, of course, that Caro must be married forthwith, the matter decided immediately.

That Ashdon had competition for the delectably tousled Caro seemed to annoy him unreasonably.

Blakesley couldn’t remember ever having been so entertained at one of these affairs.

“I don’t think the pearls are the deciding factor here, Blakesley. You do remember the pearls I gave her just moments after your grand gesture,” Dutton said. “I’m still being considered, isn’t that so, Caroline?”

When Dutton had forced his way into the closet, Blakesley had thought Ashdon just might hit him again. It was only for lack of space that he didn’t. Give Ashdon room to swing and he’d wager on a different outcome.

“Don’t pretend you give a damn about her,” Ashdon snarled at Dutton. “Six hours ago you were hot for Anne Warren.”

“Lord Ashdon! Such language!” Sophia said, one corner of her mouth tipped up in a wry smile. “Please remember that my daughter is a lady and an innocent.” And when the pause lengthened to the breaking point, Sophia added, “Isn’t she?”

“Of course!” Ashdon said.

“Of course,” Sophia said, nodding sweetly.

No one asked Caroline, as it would have been awkward and no one wanted to make her feel any more awkward than she already must feel. It was perfectly obvious to anyone with a working knowledge of a ladies’ bodice, and all here must admit to at least that, that Caro’s bodice had been trifled with. And if the bodice, then Caro. Marriage was the order of the day in times such as these.

Blakesley thanked God that he had never personally experienced times such as th ese,no ma tterwh athe sa idto annoy Ashdon. Though, in all truth, it was more that Sophia had implied that his involvement would help her daughter that he tarried, baiting Ashdon. That, and Lousia Kirkland knew exactly what was going on in this closet, as did the whole house, and he found a peculiar joy in baiting her as well.

Blakesley was equally aware that Sophia had implied that as well. A clever woman, was Sophia Dalby. He must take care never to fall into the center of any web she spun.

“I don’t suppose
my
opinion matters,” Caroline said calmly, or at least calmly considering that she was destined to be the scandalous example mothers frightened their marriageable daughters with for the next ten years, conservatively.

“Of course it does, darling,” Sophia trilled as she took Caroline’s gloves from Ashdon’s clenched fist and handed them casually to her daughter. Blakesley swallowed a laugh and ended up with an explosive cough.

“Pardon me,” he said to the room at large. Ashdon frowned at him. It wasn’t a punch in the gut, but it was something.

“Now, which of these fine gentlemen would you like for a husband, Caro?” Sophia said. “You may choose freely as they have each freely compromised you, a lovely girl of good home without a blemish to your reputation, until, that is, they gave you, in the full view of all Society, a rather inappropriate, too personal, and far too expensive gift of pearls. Isn’t that right, Lord Henry? Lord Dutton? And, of course, not to be forgotten, Lord Ashdon.”

Blakesley reconsidered the whole thing. He
had
been punched in the gut, but not by Ashdon. Damn Sophia for her cleverness. He had been
pushed
into this by the promise of a small revenge against Louisa Kirkland. It was a fine revenge if he ended up married to Caroline Trevelyan!

“I beg your pardon, Lady Dalby,” Dutton said stiffly, “but it was not I who had your beautiful daughter trapped in that dressing room.”

“And wasn’t it kind of Lord Ashdon,” Sophia countered politely, “to remove Caroline from such a squalid scene? I cannot thank you enough for that, Lord Ashdon. My poor girl, abused in front of absolutely everyone in such fashion … if I’d only been in the room, I might have been able to prevent it. But,” she sighed, “as I was not, I am so fortunate that Lord Ashdon took, dare I say it, a father’s role in attempting to protect my innocent daughter. She
is
innocent, isn’t she, Ashdon? ” Sophia prompted.

“Of course!” Ashdon bit out. “But I am hardly a father to her.” He sounded rather insulted. Sophia looked entirely too pleased. Blakesley decided, for the moment, to hold his tongue and see exactly how Sophia led this merry chase to the altar.

“Naturally not,” Sophia said. “Merely a turn of phrase and entirely complimentary to you, Lord Ashdon. You did, in fact, present my daughter with a rather spectacular, by all accounts, strand of excessively long pearls, quite in the company of these two gentlemen. Are those your pearls which she is now wearing?”

“They most certainly are,” Ashdon said.

He said it with some, oh, what to call it? Pride of possession? Ownership? Blakesley crossed his arms and leaned against the door to the antechamber. Caroline was almost certainly blushing. How very interesting. What
had
happened in that little room?

“And the other pearls? Don’t tell me you’ve lost them, Caro.”

“I certainly did not,” Caroline said, fussing with her bodice tie. How
very
interesting.

“Then where are they?” Sophia pressed.

At this question, Caroline most definitely did blush, and now it was Ashdon’s turn to cough. Sophia merely raised her ebony eyebrows and waited.

“Lord Ashdon has them,” Caroline finally said, mumbled actually.

“Really?” Sophia said, looking with keen interest at Lord Ashdon. “Did you give them to him or did he take them off you?”

“Mother!”
Caro hissed, pulling on her long evening gloves furiously. “Really!”

“It is a good question, Caro, kindly answer it,” Sophia said.

“I will answer it, Lady Dalby,” Ashdon said. “Lady Caroline gave me the pearls because I demanded that she do so.”

“I see,” Sophia said softly. “And did you also demand that she keep the pearls you gave her?”

“In a manner of speaking, I did,” Ashdon replied.

Any fool could see where this was going and not a one of them was a fool.

“And she still wears them, I see,” Sophia said with a soft gleam in her eyes. “Caro, since you refused the pearls of Lord Dutton and Lord Henry, in a manner of speaking,” she added with a wry smile for Ashdon, “it seems you have made your choice. It is my pleasure, Lord Ashdon, to welcome you into the family. You will, of course, return the pearls in your … pocket?” At Ashdon’s nod, she continued, “To these gentlemen. Their offers were rejected. It is only proper that their goods are returned to them, perhaps to be put to more fruitful use later in the Season.”

What? Not bloody likely. Blakesley took his pearls and shoved them deeply into his pocket. Dutton, he was astonished to note, did not. Dutton, who might have been a fool after all, smiled at his pearls, at Sophia, and at Ashdon of all people, before slowly pressing his pearls into his pocket. He was still smiling when he bowed his departure, but not before kissing Caroline’s hand and murmuring something against her glove.

Ashdon looked ready to sock him again. Damned nuisance that there wasn’t enough room in the closet for that sort of thing. He was going to speak to his father about that, perhaps get some carpenters in to smash out a wall or some such. There was entirely too much fun being missed merely for lack of space.

And with that thought, Blakesley made his departure. He did not kiss Lady Caroline’s hand. He did, however, kiss Lady Dalby’s.

 
“WHAT a lovely young man. I do wonder whom he shall find now that Caroline is removed from consideration,” Sophia said as Blakesley left the closet on the heels of Lord Dutton. They had both exited through the antechamber, which led to the music room, the last room on the assemblie circuit. It was the route they would all follow at their own exit out of Hyde House. Ashdon was hardly looking forward to it.

His father was going to kill him.

Ashdon found, after a rather cursory consideration, that he didn’t much care. His thoughts were all of Caro, her flushed skin, the pearls tangled around her nipples …

Calbourne’s pearls. He was going to have to repay that debt immediately, if not sooner, because he knew without doubt that he’d never return the pearls to Cal. They were Caro’s pearls now.

“Just where did you get those pearls, Lord Ashdon?” Sophia said, as if she could read his mind. According to his father, she almost could.

“Does it matter now?” Caro said before he could answer.

“It’s rather impolite to question the source of gifts, isn’t it, Lady Dalby?” he said.

Sophia smiled at his rebuke and said, “Already working as a pair, are you? I would so love to know what happened in that dressing room. Something scandalous, obviously, but perhaps something also quite … delicious.”

Caro turned her back on her mother at that and began fussing again with her bodice tie. She couldn’t seem to get it exactly as she wanted it. On that, he quite agreed with her; he wanted that damnable tie destroyed so that he could have his hands on her bosoms again, and this time without a riot taking place on the other side of the door.

This did no good. Thinking of Caro, of
that
, only distracted him.

“How charming,” Sophia said lightly, letting her gaze run over him; Ash resisted the urge to fold his hands over his groin. “I see you are all eagerness for the wedding. How fortunate that all the legal business is behind us, all that nasty wrangling, now we can devote ourselves to the joys of ceremony.”

“What do you mean by
nasty wrangling
? ” Caro said, turning back around to face them. Her bodice appeared completely intact and unfussed with, the pearls dipping down into her cleavage where they were lost to shadow. This time he gave into the urge and let one of his hands hover casually over his groin.

Sophia laughed lightly behind her hands, giggled really. When he turned to scowl at Sophia, she
winked
at him. No wonder his father hated her so; she was quite willing to drive a man to murder.

“Only the most normal of meanings, darling,” Sophia said to Caro, completely ignoring Ashdon as suddenly as she had made him the center of her jest. Impossible woman. “I’ve arranged a very nice settlement upon you, one which will insure that you will never want for anything. No matter what your husband gets into.”

“Gets into?”
Caro said.

“Now, darling, it is simply the most disagreeable habit to repeat what everyone says. You mustn’t fall into bad habits just because you’ve chosen to marry a man with … oh, well, I suppose that was impolite as well, but now that we’re family, I suppose we may speak freely.”

It was hardly as if she was asking his permission now, was it?

“You and I both know,” Sophia continued before anyone could interrupt her, “that Lord Ashdon has a history of intemperate gambling, surely not uncommon, but usually not so … oh, what is the word I’m searching for … not so reliably dismal. I merely want to protect you and your future children against his—”

“Dismal record?” Ashdon supplied bitingly.

“How nicely put, Lord Ashdon,” Sophia said. “So helpful of you, really, and so refreshingly honest.”

“Thank you,” Ash said, bowing curtly and extremely sarcastically.

“If you didn’t like his dismal record, why did you put him forth as a husband for me?” Caro said. She was as direct and almost as rude as her mother. Ash could see that it was a perfectly acceptable defense against Sophia’s normal discourse. One could not fight fire with a feather, after all.

“Why did I buy him for you, do you mean?” Sophia said gaily.

“All right, Mother,” Caro said crisply, “that is exactly what I mean.”

“Well, obviously, and I mean no disregard for
you,
Lord Ashdon, simply because I
could
. There is a certain joy to be had in doing whatever one wants, particularly at my age.” At Caro’s furious look, Sophia said, “But more to the point, because I thought you two would get on very well together, which of course you do, and, with the matter of your security settled beforehand, I thought you’d make a good match between you. Was I wrong?”

“You were not wrong,” Ashdon said before Caro could get a word out. He didn’t quite trust Caro not to throw the whole marriage idea away just to spite her mother, and, though he knew without a shadow of doubt that his father might well cut him off without a shilling, he wasn’t entirely confident that his father had much more than a shilling to punish him with anyway. “Aside from being consistently referred to much in the manner as a cut of beef one is purchasing, I have always been agreeable to the match made between Caroline and myself. I trust you will support me in that statement, Lady Dalby?”

“Certainly,” Sophia said serenely.

“And now that I have become acquainted with Caroline—”

“Such understatement,” Sophia cut in. “It is perfectly within the truth to say you two are
well
acquainted now.”

“Which is surely to our mutual gain,” Ashdon said, taking Caro’s hand in his and pulling her gently to his side. “I have formed an attachment to your daughter, quite a firm one, and I
will
marry her.”