Chapter 4
As Jeremy walked Juliet home, she said, “What were you saying to Amelia?”
“Nothing very particular.”
“You need to stop treating her so rudely. She is not Miss Scofield.”
Jeremy shouldn’t have accused Miss Moore with Juliet standing so near, as she might have heard what he said. He had seen the way her aunt, Mrs. Kendall, smirked at him when he arrived, and again when he and Miss Moore were speaking to each other, and his mood had instantly soured.
But he didn’t want to ruin his relationship with his sister because of Miss Moore.
Certainly, Miss Moore was not as obvious and did not shamelessly flirt the way Miss Scofield had.
And he’d felt some grudging respect for the way she handled the goose biting her.
Most young ladies would have been hysterical, but she’d hardly said a word and hadn’t swooned or taken advantage of the situation.
But no doubt she’d had cuts and scrapes enough, having grown up in the country with so many brothers. A little blood wouldn’t frighten her.
“You are very quiet,” Juliet said.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
She frowned at him. “You are an intelligent man, Jeremy, but you are a very poor judge of character. How can you not see that Amelia is nothing like Miss Scofield? Amelia is the most kind and compassionate person. You think you must take care of me as if I were a child, and it’s clouding your judgment. ”
“First of all, I am not a poor judge of character. And secondly, you should be grateful that you have me to watch over you.”
Juliet snorted. “Grateful?” She snorted again, the sound that used to get her quite a scolding from Mother.
They walked in silence, and finally, as they reached the front steps to their townhouse, Juliet climbed to the top step and turned to face him.
“I’d be more grateful if you were chivalrous and less accusing.
Amelia Moore is a good friend to me, and I will not have you chase her away.
And if women had as much freedom as men, she and I could travel to France and Greece and Constantinople, and anywhere else I’ve always wanted to travel to, and you could not stop me. ”
She whirled around, went inside, and shut the door in his face.
He took a few moments to close his eyes and draw in a deep breath before going in.
The night of the Kendalls’ ball came. Juliet had spent the day with me, and we were nearly ready—our hair dressed, our dresses donned—when my aunt came to remind us who would be attending.
“You must dance at least once with Lord Drummond, for he is a cousin of the king,” Mrs. Kendall told both of us.
But she pulled me aside when Juliet was out of the room to say, “How do you think things are progressing with Mr. Beaumont? Does he show any preference for you?”
“No, none at all,” I said. Nor did I expect he ever would. Nor would I ever want him to.
“Do you flirt with him?”
“Well, no. I do not think that would be well received.” To put it mildly.
“Wouldn’t be well received? Of course it would be well received. Every man likes to have his ego stroked. Just be friendly and agreeable and charming, my dear.”
Juliet came back into the room, and I leapt at the chance to ask her which necklace she was planning to wear, just to break away from Mrs. Kendall and stop her from speaking about Mr. Beaumont.
Juliet gave me a curious look. “You know I was planning to wear my pearls.”
“Oh yes. You told me that.”
Mrs. Kendall went downstairs to greet the guests. We waited until we heard carriages arriving.
As we went down the stairs arm in arm, we whispered about who we wished would ask us to dance.
I sighed. What could be better than a ball given by my own aunt? She’d told me half a dozen times, “It is being given in your honor, my dear.”
This made me a bit nervous, but it also meant that no one would dare snub me or laugh at my country manners.
The first face I saw as we descended the staircase was Jeremy Beaumont’s.
He stared up at us with what may not have been a scowl but was at least an unfriendly, serious expression.
What was wrong with him? Why was he so determined to be unpleasant? He may have been my dear friend’s brother, but he was a most disagreeable man.
Most sought-after bachelor, indeed.
I realized too late that I’d made a sound of disgust deep in my throat. Juliet turned to me with wide eyes.
“What is the matter, Amelia?”
“Nothing at all.” I smiled to show that I was quite happy and well.
“Doesn’t my brother look just ghastly with that sour expression on his face?” Juliet tsked her tongue against her teeth. “He will never get a wife. Or he’ll have to settle for a widow ten years his senior.” She let out a little laugh at that.
As we reached him, Mr. Beaumont was well and truly scowling. He probably heard every word his sister was saying, as he was one of the first guests to arrive and the noise was minimal.
Mrs. Kendall’s friend, Mrs. Selkirk, was just arriving, and they both greeted each other with high-pitched voices, like schoolgirls seeing each other for the first time in months. Indeed, it had been months, as Mrs. Selkirk had been in the country and was just arriving for the London Season.
“It is so lovely to see you,” they both said. Then I heard, in Mrs. Kendall’s much lowered voice, “I have so much to tell you. Amelia has managed to—”
Anne Granger, a good friend of Juliet’s she had introduced me to at another ball, came rushing toward us, hands outstretched, saying, “Juliet and Amelia! How good to see you! You are both looking so lovely.”
I smiled and let Anne and Juliet talk quietly with each other while I strained to hear what my aunt was saying.
Mrs. Kendall and Mrs. Selkirk had put their heads together, oblivious to anyone else.
Mr. Beaumont stood between me and my aunt. He could obviously hear every word, and his face was thunderous.
Mrs. Selkirk said, “She has become Juliet Beaumont’s particular friend so quickly? What a clever girl. You taught her well.”
My face began to burn.
Mr. Beaumont’s eyes met mine. He immediately turned and walked toward the refreshments.
My cheeks were on fire and my stomach churning. If he hated me before, what must he think of me now? But the worst thought was, what if he convinced Juliet that I was only befriending her to get to him?
The amount of artifice it would take to befriend Juliet just to get close to her brother was beyond me.
All of this “marriage market” folderol was outside of anything I’d experienced before.
I obviously didn’t belong in London, and my aunt’s scheming was making me look like the worst kind of grasping, marriage-hungry country girl with eleven siblings.
That must be what Jeremy Beaumont had thought of me all along, only to have it confirmed just now by my aunt and Mrs. Selkirk.
“Dear Amelia!” Juliet cried, grasping my arm. “Whatever is the matter? You look as if you’ve heard your own death knell.”
“She does look awfully pale,” Miss Granger said. “Are you well, Miss Moore? Shall I loan you my smelling salts?”
“I am quite well, I assure you.” I forced myself to smile even as I pushed down all thoughts of Juliet’s brother. I vowed not to think of him and to ignore him the rest of the night.
Juliet and I danced so much all evening with so many gentlemen that we often went three or four dances before talking to each other again. Several gentlemen asked if they might call on me, and I said yes to all of them, as Mrs. Kendall had instructed me.
The next dance was to be the last of the evening, and Juliet was motioning me to her. I began walking in her direction when the man beside her—her brother—suddenly turned around. His eye caught mine.
My heart sank. I knew what Juliet was about to say.
“Amelia, Jeremy wants to dance the last dance with you.”
I did my best to smile at him and pretend I believed her.
He held out his hand without even speaking.
I placed my hand on his arm and allowed him to lead me to the dance floor.
I would have to speak with Juliet about not pushing her brother to dance with me. He didn’t like me, and that was that. Besides, I didn’t need him to like me. I had conquests enough, gentlemen who didn’t frown at me and act as if they despised me.
As we stood waiting for the other couples to line up with us, I blurted out, “You don’t have to dance with me just because Juliet wants you to.”
He looked surprised for a moment, then his expression turned stoic. “You are her friend, so I am glad to dance with you.”
I felt insulted but didn’t pause to think why.
“I know that you dislike me.”
He said nothing.
“Why do you despise me so much?” I immediately regretted saying that. Especially as I remembered that he overheard what Mrs. Kendall had said.
He lowered his voice to a gruff whisper. “Your aunt confirmed earlier this evening what I already knew, that you only befriended my sister in order to use her.”
I wanted to prove him wrong with everything inside me. He was no gentleman. If he were, he never would have mentioned what he’d overheard my aunt and her friend saying. He would have realized that I was not to blame for what someone else said or thought.
At that moment the musicians began to play, and I was forced to try to remember the steps to the dance.
I did my best to concentrate, but my mind kept racing with thoughts of “How dare he say such things to my face?” to “Mrs. Kendall has made me look like the worst person in his eyes.”
But it wasn’t true! I did not befriend Juliet for that reason. I didn’t even know she was his sister. In fact, she befriended me more than the other way around.
I turned the wrong way, nearly bumping into the person beside me, a young lady who looked as frightened as if I’d been a runaway carriage about to collide with her.
I quickly corrected myself as Jeremy Beaumont took my hand and led me down the aisle formed by the other dancers and their outstretched arms.
How embarrassing.
I held his hand and my head high.