Chapter Nine
“Do you have any idea why I was included in this little scheme?” Terrance didn’t seem truly upset, but there was no denying the nervous tension in his posture.
“Mrs. Northrop didn’t offer an explanation, but she was very specific and firm.” Indeed, he’d rather felt like a schoolboy again, called to an accounting by the headmaster. “As she is Odette’s and my only hope for happiness, I am choosing to do whatever she asks of me.”
“And whatever she asks of me,” Terrance added with a quick laugh.
“Perhaps she will find a match for you as well.”
If anything, Terrance grew more uncomfortable. “Lud,” he muttered.
They’d reached the Barringtons’ box. The show had not yet begun, but they had been instructed to present themselves before the opening curtain.
The expected bows and curtsies were exchanged. Both he and Terrance were warmly welcomed. Miss Summerfield stood beside Odette; Jack hadn’t been expecting to see her. He looked to Mrs. Northrop, unsure what the matchmaker intended with this arrangement.
She simply motioned them to be seated.
Terrance moved a bit faster than Jack. He requested of Miss Summerfield the seat beside hers and was granted it. Terrance’s sacrifice meant Jack would be granted the open seat beside Odette. He took it quickly, before anyone could move positions.
“Good evening, Miss Armistead,” he said. “A delight to see you.”
She looked up at him, affection clear in her expression. For more than a year, ever since they’d realized their sentiments went beyond mere friendship, they had both been very careful to hide their tender feelings. To see her love on display in public caught him utterly unaware.
“Has something happened?” he asked quietly, careful not to lift his voice above a whisper.
“I’m simply happy to see you.”
He quickly eyed her parents before returning his gaze to her once more. “And you aren’t worried your parents will realize . . . will be upset that . . .”
“Mrs. Northrop is on our side.”
“I know.”
She took a breath, one clearly underwritten by relief. “She told me not to be afraid to be my actual self and to allow my affections to show, within reason.”
“Did she?” He very much liked that idea. “Am I permitted to do the same, do you suppose?”
She nodded. “Though Mrs. Northrop was careful to emphasize that subtlety is important.”
“I cannot simply pull you into my arms right here and kiss you thoroughly?”
He had never before seen Odette blush, yet she did in that moment. She also smiled broadly. “If all goes to plan, there will be time and plenty for that.”
“I am looking forward to it.”
She bit her lips closed and turned her gaze to the stage, though the opera had not yet begun. Jack didn’t bother hiding his grin. He had never before been permitted to flirt with Odette. He was rather enjoying it.
Miss Summerfield’s light laugh floated over from Odette’s other side. “That is not what I said, Mr. Lexington.”
“Truly?” Terrance was clearly teasing. “I am almost certain I heard you say you intend to race at Ascot this year.”
“I did not.” Miss Summerfield laughed through her response.
Jack leaned a little closer to Odette, though not so much as to draw undue attention. “Are you intending to race at Ascot as well?”
She sighed dramatically. “I thought I would give someone else a chance this year.”
It was his turn to laugh. Their ride in Hyde Park had been this way. Terrance had managed to pull Miss Summerfield from her usual bashfulness. Jack had been granted the rare opportunity to talk with Odette free of the subterfuge they’d been forced into.
Behind them, Mrs. Northrop spoke to Odette’s parents. “These four make a lovely group of friends, do they not?”
“Indeed,” Lady Barrington said. “We are very close acquaintances of the Hewitts. Neighbors, you realize.”
“Young Mr. Hewitt is an exemplary gentleman,” Mrs. Northrop said. “You must be pleased he is so fond of your daughter.”
Calling upon every ounce of willpower he possessed, Jack managed not to turn around and insist Mrs. Northrop stop. She was taking an enormous risk.
“They are old friends,” Lady Barrington said. “Well, young friends, but friends of long standing.”
“How wonderful for both of them.”
“I suppose it is.” Lady Barrington made the observation as if it was the first time she’d ever given any thought to the benefits of his and Odette’s association.
“What if this doesn’t work?” Real worry had entered Odette’s whisper.
“We will go to Scotland if need be.”
She turned worried eyes on him once more. “Even if we were willing to destroy our own lives, sacrificing our standing, our reputations, our futures, we cannot do that to our children, or theirs. The scandal of an elopement would haunt us for generations.”
He knew it well enough. He’d meant his suggestion of Scotland as an attempt to lighten her heart. She was too worried to be teased into any degree of relief.
“We will find a way,” he vowed. “And we have Mrs. Northrop on our side.”
He heard her next breath shake from her. “Do you think anyone would notice if you held my hand?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
On the stage below, the opera began. Their conversation ended. He remained at her side the rest of the evening, but they spoke very little. He did not know how much longer he could bear this.
If Mrs. Northrop couldn’t manage the seemingly impossible, they might grow desperate indeed.
***
A quick conversation with Mrs. Summerfield, one involving the casual mention of many of the very fine families with whom Adelaide associated, had secured her an afternoon spent with Tabitha. The Summerfields didn’t lack standing, but Mrs. Summerfield was certainly impressed by social cachet.
“Thank you for this outing,” Tabitha said in her usual soft and sincere way. “I’ve not yet been to Somerset House.”
“I suspected you might enjoy an afternoon surrounded by works of art.”
Amazement filled Tabitha’s expression as she looked out over the Great Room, its walls covered nearly to the ceiling with paintings. “A person could spend all day in here and not see everything, not if one wished to truly savor each painting.”
“We can spend hours here if you’d like,” Adelaide said. “We can even return another day if you’d like.”
“Perhaps Odette would join us?” Tabitha asked, a little shyly, a little uncertain.
“I think she would like that.”
Tabitha took a short few steps forward, placing herself in front of a particularly detailed landscape. Hers was such a sincere and heartfelt enjoyment. She simply lost herself in her quiet study of the painting.
Adelaide had found that making a study of people while they were making a study of something else was particularly enlightening. Pretense was difficult to keep up when a person was distracted.
In the midst of Tabitha’s distraction, the second half of Adelaide’s plan for the day arrived with his usual joviality.
“Mr. Lexington,” she greeted with a quickly dipped curtsy.
He responded with a friendly bow. “Mrs. Northrop. You will likely not be surprised when I tell you that I am fair dying of curiosity at your invitation to pass the afternoon taking in the Royal Academy Exhibition.”
“How astute of you to realize the wisdom of accepting that invitation.”
His delighted grin took on a hint of laughter. “What I am is wise enough to know that any attempt to thwart you in whatever plan you have concocted would be utterly futile.” He turned his curious gaze on the room. “Any particular painting I ought to make a study of?”
“Any you would like,” she said.
That might have surprised him or confused him or met with utter indifference, but in that precise moment he spotted Tabitha standing a bit further in the room, serenely examining a portrait of two children.
Adelaide was not merely content to be forgotten; she felt a surge of pride at having predicted precisely that.
“Miss Summerfield.” Young Mr. Lexington’s greeting and accompanying bow was everything proper and respectful. It was his eyes that Adelaide studied. And what she saw there confirmed what she had come to suspect.
She needed only the briefest of glances at Tabitha to reconfirm what she already knew on that score.
They were both a bit besotted with each other.
Adelaide watched them as the afternoon wore on. Tabitha was at ease with the good-hearted gentleman in a way she wasn’t with anyone else. And he showed himself delighted by her company, whether they were passing a quiet moment or he was teasing a smile from her.
It was precisely what she’d hoped to see, and proved one more piece in the complicated dance she was attempting to execute.