Timeless Passion: 10 Historical Romances To Savor (60 page)

She sat amazed.

“You will be glad to know, Brighton,” continued Lord Kingsley, with a change of topic, “that my steed found its way home last night. Desmond discovered him near the stables before I returned.”

“Did he, indeed? This is good news,” he affirmed. “Was there nothing indicating the cause of his fit?”

“Nothing, whatsoever. I honestly cannot imagine what caused him to go into such a frenzy.”

The door opened and a servant entered with tea. Rhianna, growing anxious to be home, looked forward to their finishing it so that she might take leave of Ravensleigh. If she could not be alone with Lady Brighton, she preferred not to be there at all.

“I have an idea,” cried Lady Brighton suddenly. “It has been too long since we have had a ball at the manor, Guilford, and I say that we have some things that call for a celebration! What with Miss Braden’s recovery …”

“Yes, and your good health, Lord Kingsley,” added Lord Brighton. “It has been far too long.”

“It is a splendid idea!” Guilford agreed, the pitch of his voice lifting enthusiastically. “Lydia cannot object. The festivities shall be the greatest that Thornton has seen in some time. I shall plan for six weeks from today.”

Lady Brighton clasped her hands together. “How wonderful it will be to again have a party at the manor!”

Rhianna, for her part, nearly fainted with the concept. To view a ball at Kingsley Manor would have caused her former nine-year-old heart to swell to twice its size, but now to be a part of it, as well!
Surely
, she thought,
I have not heard correctly. He could not mean for me to attend.

Lord Kingsley planned onward. “Everyone shall be invited. I will call friends as far as London. Miss Braden, you have not said a word. Your opinion, please?”

The sudden attention directed toward her gave Rhianna a shock, and she could not form a word in response.

Seeming to sense her distress, Lady Brighton spoke for her, saying, “Oh, you must not put her on the spot, Lord Kingsley. Such a scheme is so remarkable you must allow that we are all lost in thought with the design of it. As I am contemplating,” she turned to address Rhianna, “and if you would like, Miss Braden, we can perhaps get together to discuss costumes.”

“Thank you, but I do not think Lord Kingsley means for me to participate,” Rhianna whispered to her.

“Oh, but of course he does!” she confirmed. “My dear Miss Braden, if I understand correctly, he means very much for you to go.”

“Without question,” Guilford affirmed, overhearing this last, “your presence is essential.”

An overwhelmed Rhianna could hardly hold herself up. She placed her hand on Lady Brighton’s, unmasking her feeble condition.

“Oh, my dear, Miss Braden! You look so pale,” the lady immediately perceived. “Guilford, that is enough planning for now. You must take her home this instant. I am sure the comfort of her own home is what she most needs.”

“It must be all the excitement of these last days still lingering with me,” Rhianna told her.

Lords Kingsley and Brighton were already at her service and the carriage was ordered at once.

• • •

My Dear Soleil, You cannot imagine what events I have to relay to you. I hardly know where to begin …

Thus Rhianna set out at writing her letter. Two days since her stay at Ravensleigh had passed, she sat at the window seat of her rose room. Folds of mauve curtain framed her as she held quill and paper in hand. Through the clear windowpane she could view the rotunda, the whitewashed frame bright as it reflected the sun’s unclouded rays. It was here she rested her eyes while she dwelt on her next lines.

The day passed quickly as she wrote, and when Rhianna reached the end of her letter the morning was well along. Placing her papers aside, she rose to leave her room. She was in no hurry to go anywhere, as Lord Kingsley had suspended Audra’s lessons for the week at least. She walked along the front balcony, whose tall windows shared the same view of the front approach — as did the lavender room where she had spent her first nights at the manor house.

A visitor caught her attention, a man on horseback who made his way through the gate. The Kingsleys often had visitors, and over the past several months she had begun to recognize many of them from a distance. But this visitor was new — or at least he had not been to Kingsley Manor since she arrived.

Suddenly, she guessed she knew
who
.

It was not long after she heard him enter downstairs that her suspicions were confirmed. As Alfred led him into the drawing room, she caught herself pacing. Wondering at her excitability, Rhianna forced herself back to the window to enjoy the scene she originally sought, only to find she could not remove her eyes from his horse, a muscular, brown-and-white stallion with a long, flowing mane.

A servant approached her from behind, breaking her spell. “You have a visitor, Miss Braden.”

She turned to him with a start. “
I
have a visitor?”

“Yes. Lord Brighton of Ravensleigh is requesting you.”

“Requesting
me
?”

“Yes, miss.”

Thayne Brighton was requesting
her
? Rhianna struggled ineffectually to collect herself as the servant led her downstairs. When at last they reached the drawing room, Rhianna had resigned herself that there could be no preparation for this unexpected meeting.

Guilford and Thayne seemed delighted as she entered. Desmond was not in company, but then, Desmond was rarely home. It was a discomfort lifted from her not to have him there. Lydia Kingsley, looking characteristically irritable, summoned Rhianna to take a seat next to her, which Rhianna accepted.

Once the initial greetings had taken place, Lord Brighton wasted no time in inquiring after Rhianna. “How are you feeling today, Miss Braden? All of Ravensleigh has been wondering about you. I was instructed to speak with you directly, and told, additionally, not to return to the house until I had an answer, and a positive one, at that.”

This notion could not but force a smile from her, awkward though she felt, being so addressed. “You may tell them to let you pass the gates, for I am well.”

He appeared very sincere when he smiled, revealing a perfect line of white, straight teeth. She caught herself looking at them longer than she ought to have.

“Thank you. My mother will be especially glad of it. Where you are concerned, her worry has not rested,” he expressed to her. “It is our joint wish to see you again at Ravensleigh when you are up to it.”

Could she be dreaming? An invitation back to Ravensleigh?

“I would be glad to again visit Ravensleigh,” she declared, astonished.

All of a sudden, Lord Kingsley rose from his seat.

“My dear Lady Kingsley, would you be so good as to join me in the study? There is something I must communicate to you and it cannot wait.”

With what appeared to Rhianna shock and annoyance in Lydia’s manner, the lady rose and followed him out of the room so suddenly that Rhianna found herself quite alone with Thayne Brighton.

What could Lord Kingsley mean by this?
Rhianna thought in the moments of silence immediately following his exit from the room.

Thayne soon started conversation again, however, saying, “I imagine you must have many frightening recollections of the accident, Miss Braden. How are you coping with them?”

With her thoughts scattered, Rhianna had no choice but to allow herself a moment to consider the question at hand.

Finally, she said, “I have not been able to recall the accident, so, thankfully, I have been spared any such disturbing thoughts.”

“You may, indeed, be grateful for that,” he replied. “In this instance, you are doing better than I.”

Rhianna looked at him in wonder, but overwhelmed by the return of his gaze, quickly lowered her eyes to the floor.

“I’m … sorry.”

“No, no,” he hurried. “You must understand it was just very … it was a fearsome moment. I did not foresee, from the appearance of it, that only days later we would be sitting here. You cannot imagine, after beholding you lifeless in the field, how seeing you here, alert, well, it is … it is greatly consoling.”

This brief recount of what was undoubtedly only a glimpse into his side of the experience brought a flush to Rhianna’s cheeks. The thought of her unconscious person in his care was one she had not dwelt upon; though suddenly she wished desperately that she could remember.

“I will never forget what you have done for me,” she expressed, expecting him to cut off her thanks at any moment, “and I am well aware that the only reason I am sitting here speaking to you is because you were there to help me. I know not how to thank you.”

He shook his head. “Seeing you here in good health is enough.”

Silence followed until, at last, Thayne ventured to address her again. “Miss Braden,” he began, with some eagerness, “this talk has turned far too serious. Besides, I have a confession to make. While your condition was, certainly, of utmost importance to my visit, it was not my only purpose in coming. I have come to request, that is, I am hoping at the upcoming ball I might trouble you for two dances.”

Thayne Brighton dance with a governess?
Rhianna imagined he must still be delirious with fear for her life.

“I would have applied at the ball,” he concluded, “but I imagine your dance card has already long since been reserved?”

There is no figuring him out!
thought Rhianna.
Is he sincere or in jest?
She did not know whether she ought to be flattered or insulted.

“Actually, they have not
all
been spoken for, Lord Brighton.”

“Indeed!” he cried, with a very proper amount of surprise. “Then the other gentlemen have shown you far more courtesy than have I by troubling you so promptly after your accident. You must forgive me. Still, I will, however rude, demand those two dances, if you will allow me.”

Rhianna consented, as Guilford and Lydia reentered the drawing room. The very idea of what had just passed was ridiculous to her on every level. Her only certainty in the matter was that he would certainly spill something on her dress.

Thayne shortly took leave of Lady Kingsley and Rhianna. He remained only to discuss some business with Lord Kingsley in his study before returning to Ravensleigh. The impression his visit left, however, was a powerful one.

“Well, that was a very odd sort of call,” said Lady Kingsley. “Lord Brighton rather gives one the impression he did not come at all for his usual sort of visit. In fact, the gentleman seems quite to dote on you.”

Rhianna had come to expect snide comments from Lydia in her year at Kingsley Manor, but this was more direct than anything she had previously experienced from the lady.

“Lady Kingsley, forgive me, but I am sure you are utterly mistaken. Lord Brighton may be the gentleman enough, indeed, to offer the most basic of kind expressions, but I am quite certain his main purpose in visiting Kingsley Manor is the same as ever — his business with Lord Kingsley.”

“Your argument is not nearly convincing enough to sway my opinion, Miss Braden. I have never seen him behave thus. It seems to me you have become quite a favorite of his.”

“Not at all, my lady! Had I not fallen from my horse, Lord Brighton would never have entertained an audience with me.”

Lydia gave an indifferent shrug. “Well, I suppose there is no way to test that theory, is there?”

“I see no need if there were,” Rhianna told her. “I am happy to accept kindness from wherever it comes.”

“Yes, a good rule of thumb,” she agreed. “My husband, Guilford, is very kind, would you not agree?”

Rhianna wished not to speculate on her possible meaning. Her next words intended to not only end this peculiar conversation, but end it on a lighter note.

“I have found everyone here at the manor to be very kind. Now, if you will excuse me, Lady Kingsley, I have much to prepare for Audra’s next lessons.”

Lydia inclined her head, and Rhianna quickly escaped her company for the quiet of the schoolroom.

• • •

Soleil wasted no time in responding to Rhianna’s letter. Great relief was expressed in response to the horse accident, though they were sure it would produce nothing but nightmares for them all for weeks to come. With regard to the ball, knowing it to be another childhood wish come true for Rhianna, Soleil was delighted for her; Philippe, on the other hand, was not quite as thrilled. She had no doubt that his eyes would behold her note, which is why Rhianna had chosen her words carefully. Even still, what she did say of the upcoming ball was enough to put him in doleful spirits.

“Poor Philippe is rather heartbroken that you should be at a ball without him. He begs you to think of him once before the night is through.”

Soleil also intimated that they would be soon traveling to see her. Precisely when she could not yet say, but they were looking to visit her in England within the next couple months.

On the morning that Soleil’s letter arrived, it had been arranged for Rhianna to go with Lady Brighton to her dressmaker and cobbler. Guilford, unreservedly forgoing all convention, continued to insist Rhianna attend the ball. He also expressed his wish that Lydia see to Rhianna’s costume, but Lady Brighton was quite determined to take over, and Lydia was quite willing to allow it. Rhianna, beside herself that she should be doing any such thing, would have been happy to go with either lady, but was
very
happy to go with Lady Brighton.

Never
, thought Rhianna,
was a girl to be more elegantly attired for a dance in all of England.
A white-on-white pattern in French silk had been chosen, with Lady Brighton’s guidance, designed with a fashionably wide neckline, small waist, bell-shaped skirt, and beret sleeves. The corsage was to be trimmed in horizontal folds, while knots of ribbon ornamented the shoulders and back of the gown. With Lord Kingsley’s insistence that price be no object, Lady Brighton overlooked no detail in all complimentary accessories.