Chapter 11 #2
Colonel Harper patted her hand. “Forgive me, my dear. I am an old man, and I want everyone to find the happiness I have had. Stone is an honorable fellow, in spite of what some believe. If you rebuff him, at least be gentle when you do. He’s too much alone, the poor lad.”
The poor lad was now gallantly presenting Mrs. Harper with a cup of punch and sharing a lively chat with her.
“I will remember your advice,” Caro managed to say.
They’d reached a line of gilded, ivory damask chairs. “If you will sit, Your Grace, I will rush away and bring you refreshment.” Colonel Harper indicated the chairs with a sweep of his glove.
“Thank you, but I will return to my friends.” Caro nodded to where Jo and Louise waited. “You have been kind, Colonel Harper.”
Colonel Harper squeezed Caro’s hand. “If you ever need someone to talk to, my dear, please remember that my wife and I are at your service.” He released her and bowed before Caro could express her gratitude for this offer. “Good evening, Your Grace.”
“Good evening, Colonel.” She gave him his title still, and his eyes twinkled.
Colonel Harper politely waited for her to reach her friends before he returned to Mrs. Harper, who was still speaking with Eamon. He entered their conversation, which became animated, as though Eamon had wanted nothing more tonight than to converse with his former commander and his wife.
Jo’s smile to Caro when Caro gained her side was too broad. “You are quite flushed, dearest. Dancing agrees with you.”
Caro resumed her agitated fanning. “I have not scampered about so in quite a while. I must be out of form.”
“You seemed to enjoy it,” Louise observed, her dark eyes knowing.
“She did indeed,” Jo said. “Such a lively set. The orchestra is fine tonight.”
Lord Dominic, who had remained at their side, cleared his throat. “Perhaps you would care to join the next, Your Highness? I dance stiffly, but I can still manage it.” He held out a broad hand.
Jo’s smile wavered, and her tone turned almost pitying. “Oh, that is kind, your lordship, but I am afraid I must decline.”
Caro understood why, and it had nothing to do with Jo’s opinion of Lord Dominic. Jo’s mother and father, though warmhearted people, strictly regulated who could and could not make overtures to their daughter. Their decision came not from snobbery but from the fact that they were royalty in exile.
Jo’s father had to take care that the gentleman who showed his daughter attention had neither ambition to put Prince Rupert illegally on the Osagard throne nor to assassinate him, as sometimes happened to princes of Osagard.
Every gentleman had to be vetted by Prince Rupert, Princess Maude, and their trusted advisors before said gentleman could even dance with Jo in their own ballroom.
Lord Dominic nodded, as though unoffended, but Caro saw his annoyance. He turned to Louise.
“My lady?” Lord Dominic extended the offered hand to her.
While Jo had showed embarrassment at having to refuse, Louise met Lord Dominic’s gaze coolly. “No, thank you, sir.”
Lord Dominic’s gray eyes flared with even more irritation. This could be a dangerous man, Caro sensed, in a different way than Eamon was.
“I see,” he said stiffly. “Is there a reason why not?”
“Steady, Wolfe,” Mr. McCormick said at his side. “A lady doesn’t have to give you an excuse. Maybe she’s afraid you’ll tread on her slippers. You do have a large foot.”
While Jo relaxed into a chuckle, Louise continued to fix Lord Dominic with her steady stare. Lord Dominic met it with grim determination.
“I am still in mourning for my husband,” Louise informed him.
Lord Dominic looked her up and down, taking in her finery in its subdued hue. For a moment, Caro thought he would argue with her, but he must have realized how gauche this would be, because he gave her a tense bow.
“I understand.”
He continued to stand before Louise, however, their gazes locked in some sort of battle. Jo leaned closer to Caro, her fan waving slowly as they observed the drama.
Mr. McCormick clapped Lord Dominic on his cashmere-clad shoulder. “Come along, Wolfe. We’ve been rebuffed. We must take it on the chin and leave these ladies in peace.”
Lord Dominic started, ending his rude stare. Caro thought he’d let out a growl, like the wolf of his namesake, but he swallowed it and also managed not to punch his friend.
“As you say.” Lord Dominic made another bow, this one a bit churlish. “Good evening, ladies. Your Grace.”
Mr. McCormick also bowed, but much more good-naturedly. He put both hands on Lord Dominic’s back, guiding him into the crowd. Lord Dominic shrugged him off with a scowl after a few paces, and Mr. McCormick turned to flash a grin at the three ladies.
Jo began waving her fan hard enough to stir her hair. “Well,” she said, a bit breathlessly. “Your Mr. Stone has very interesting friends.”
“Arrogant,” Louise stated. “At least his lordship is. Mr. McCormick seems much more friendly.”
“Well, the Scots are, aren’t they?” Jo asked.
Louise dragged her gaze from Lord Dominic’s tall form and rested it on Jo in surprise. “I don’t think it has anything to do with his being Scots.”
“He is from the Shetland Isles,” Caro corrected them. “Perhaps they are a friendly people there.”
“The Shetland Isles, yes.” Jo’s fan moved still faster. “How very interesting. I must obtain a book about these islands, and discover whether the inhabitants are, in fact, more friendly than Englishmen.”
Jo had spent her entire life in Britain, but she could play the curious foreigner when it suited her. This time, though, her curiosity was tinged with agitation.
“Read away,” Caro said. “It will give you something to do when I have shunned you for inviting Mr. Stone tonight. I know you caused it to happen, Jo, so do not pretend innocence with me.”
Jo’s nervousness evaporated. “Of course I did, my friend. When our previous conversation was so full of Mr. Stone, Louise and I agreed we had to know more about him. To meet this person and decide what to make of him ourselves.”
“You made the mistake of speaking of his army friends,” Louise put in. She’d regained her usual composure, but Caro noted her stealing a glance across the ballroom to Lord Dominic. “Jo discovered their names from Colonel Harper and decided the two gentlemen needed to attend as well.”
“I told Mama everything,” Jo admitted. “I didn’t need to coax her much at all to have Papa send them invitations. Papa and Mama were most curious as well.”
“Does all of London know I’ve hired a picture man?” Caro asked in consternation. “Is it being whispered throughout society that a gentleman waltzes though my house each day, going over every book and painting with a fine-toothed comb?”
“Not all of London,” Jo assured her quickly. “Only my family. And Louise and her family. That is all.”
“So, about twenty people then,” Caro stated. Louise had two sons, parents, and brothers who had wives and children of their own. “Jo, how could you?”
Jo shrugged. “Do not make your information so interesting and at the same time so cryptic that we must know. Is Mr. Stone truly waltzing through your house each day? He is a fine dancer, I could not help noticing. The pair of you were quite graceful together.”
Caro’s face went hot. “This is absolute nonsense. Jo, you must apologize to those gentlemen for dragging them here.”
“Pish tosh.” Jo brushed away Caro’s objections. “They could have turned down the summons. They were obviously as curious about us as we were about them. Very polite and handsome gentlemen they are too.”
Jo, while not overtly flirtatious, had no hesitance about looking over a gentleman with enjoyment. She knew none would come near her without passing the rigorous tests of her parents and their adjutants, so she indulged herself in admiring them from afar.
“Somewhat forward gentlemen,” Louise observed coldly.
Jo softened. “They could not have known, darling.”
Louise had not been simply inventing an excuse to avoid dancing with Lord Dominic when she’d claimed she was mourning her husband.
Louise had grieved deeply when the Earl of Heyford—Geoffrey—had passed away of a sudden illness four years ago.
Louise had nursed him to his last hour and had been inconsolable for a very long time.
Louise was still devoted to him. Caro had been very sad at Leopold’s death, and missed him, but she always felt a twinge of guilt that she didn’t mourn as intensely as did Louise.
“Mr. McCormick, we agreed, is sunny natured,” Caro said into the awkwardness. “Not forward at all.”
“That is true.” Louise adjusted her gloves as she admitted this. “I suppose his lordship vexed me, is all. He is conceited, like so many of his kind.”
Caro and Jo exchanged a glance, Jo raising her brows.
“Of his kind?” Jo asked Louise. “What kind is that, my dear friend?”
Louise’s cheeks grew pink. “Second sons who have no idea what to do with themselves. From what I hear, his brother, the Marquis of Cheltenham, has no use for him.”
“Perhaps that should engender our pity,” Jo said. “More than our condemnation.”
Louise stopped short of rolling her eyes.
“I’ve met such gentlemen before, my sweet Jo.
They know I am a widow of some fortune, and therefore, I must be in want of a husband.
Or a lover, on whom I will lavish fine gifts that they will then turn and hand to their much younger mistresses. They flock like vultures.”
“So cynical.” Jo shook her head. “My poor darling, to have men falling over themselves to be next to you must be a terrible fate. Yes, some will be after your fortune, but a few likely want to gaze upon your beauty, listen to your dusky speech …”
“She is romantic,” Louise said disparagingly to Caro. “One day, unhappily, she will be disabused of these notions.”
Jo laughed, in no way worried. “Speaking of romantic …” Jo pointed with her closed fan at Eamon, who had departed from the Harpers and was slowly making his way back toward Caro. “I imagine he wishes another dance. How splendid.”
Caro’s heart beat rapidly. In panic? Embarrassment? Joy?
“Well, I do not wish another dance,” she said hastily. “One was enough to keep everyone from believing me haughty. Two would be quite improper. Excuse me, please.”
As Eamon neared the group, Caro spun and walked rapidly away, as though she urgently needed to seek a withdrawing room. She used her knowledge of Jo’s home to open the nearest door to a private passageway and vanish into it.