Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
“Well, that can’t have been pleasant.” Oliver breezed into the study and threw himself into a chair in front of Will’s desk.
“One hopes it wasn’t as awful as it sounded.
” Christopher stood in the open doorway, wincing as he watched Lady Lavinia storm down the hallway.
Once her angry footsteps had receded, he closed the door and dropped into the chair beside Oliver’s.
“Good Lord, Will. I would have thought you were beheading chickens in here, with all that shrieking.”
Will’s ears were still ringing from Lady Lavinia’s tirade. He’d have preferred a chicken sacrifice to the screaming tantrum he’d just sat through. “What are you two doing in here? I sent Mrs. Sedgewick to fetch Penelope Hervey, not either of you.”
Oliver crossed one long leg over the other knee. “Mrs. Sedgewick—being the good soul she is— did exactly as you bid her.”
“And we—being the wicked souls we are—sent Miss Hervey to wait in the garden after promising Mrs. Sedgewick we’d take her straight to you.” Christopher’s mouth curved in an infuriating grin. “Miss Hervey’s fond of the garden, you know.”
“Why the devil would you do that?” Will’s voice was harsher than he intended, but after the scuffle with Lady Lavinia, he didn’t have any patience for his brothers’ antics.
“We don’t want you to send Miss Hervey away,” Oliver said. “We can’t finish the play without her. Aren’t you at all curious to find out what happens to poor Lord Rakehell?”
Christopher bobbed his head in agreement. “Miss Hervey’s good fun, Will. We want to keep her.”
Will rolled his eyes. “She isn’t a puppy, Christopher. She’s an adult female, and a troublesome one at that.”
I want to keep her, too…
“I like a troublesome female every now and again. They’re much more diverting than the other kind.” Oliver had been studying the tip of his boot, but now he raised his gaze to meet Will’s. “Besides, it wasn’t all her fault, you know. The business with the pink cloak and ostrich feather, I mean.”
“We all agreed to it,” Christopher said. “Even Maddy. The cloak was hers, and it was her idea to attach the furry white bits to it.”
“Then the three of you are as foolish as Miss Hervey is,” Will snapped.
Christopher snorted. “I don’t know about that. I’d say any man who’d choose Lady Lavinia over Miss Hervey is the one who’s the fool.”
“Miss Hervey is an actress, Christopher. Lady Lavinia is daughter to a viscount, and a titled, proper lady.” In truth, Will’s mind was so muddled he hardly knew which of them was the lady anymore.
Christopher leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “A lady, is she? She didn’t sound much like a lady when she was shrieking at you like a possessed demon.
We could hear her all the way in the bloody drawing room.
Miss Hervey was horrified. I thought she was going to cast up her accounts. ”
Will fixed his brother with a cool stare. “We need Lady Lavinia. Miss Hervey may be good fun, but she can’t smooth your sister’s way with the ton. She can’t sponsor Maddy’s season or help her find a respectable husband.”
“Have you even bothered to ask Maddy if she wants a season?’ Christopher asked. “I’d wager she doesn’t give a bloody damn about a debut, and certainly not if it means you have to marry Lady Lavinia. She loathes the woman.”
“We all do.” Oliver’s quiet voice cut through the room. He rose to his feet and fixed Will with a hard, blue stare. “Are you sending Miss Hervey away, or not?”
Will wearily shook his head. “No. Not until the play is over.”
After a good deal of effort, he’d managed to persuade Lady Lavinia to overlook tonight’s performance by reminding her Miss Hervey was well beneath her notice.
He’d hinted the most ladylike reaction would be to ignore the entire incident.
By some miracle, this appeal to Lady Lavinia’s vanity had worked.
Wasted effort, really. Penelope would be gone soon enough, either way. What possible difference could another day make?
Christopher nodded and got to his feet. “Well, all right, then. Should we send Miss Hervey in?”
“No. I’ll go to the garden.” Will pushed his chair back from his desk. He couldn’t bear the stifling air in his study, and in any case, some conversations were better had in the dark.
It didn’t take him long to find her. She was sitting on the same bench they’d shared two days earlier, her shoulders hunched against the cold.
Will was furious with her for tonight’s trick, yet when he saw her huddled there, the ruffle from her costume peeking out from under the hem of her thin cloak, his anger faded.
She looked so defenseless, with her feet tucked under the bench and the moonlight turning her creamy skin a pale, ghostly white.
His chest tightened, but he knew better than to believe she’d want his sympathy.
Underneath that sweet, guileless smile and delicate figure was a spine of steel.
He hadn’t the faintest idea why Penelope would risk insulting Lady Lavinia tonight.
Whatever her reasons, it had been a rash, reckless thing to do.
It had also taken a great deal of courage.
She was brave—the bravest lady he’d ever known. Had he always sensed this about her? Was her spirit the reason he’d been drawn to her from the start? Despite the mess she’d made tonight, Will couldn’t help the small smile that quirked his lips as he gazed at her.
That red hair gave her away. No lady with such fiery hair could ever be a coward.
He joined her on the bench. “It would have been wiser, Miss Hervey, to wait to insult my guests until after you’d earned your twenty pounds.”
She let out a long sigh. “Yes, I suppose it would have been.”
It was too dark for him to see her face, but he could sense her unease, her held breath as she waited to find out if he’d come out here to send her away. “I shudder to think what will happen in Act Three. Somehow I doubt the play will end with Lord Rakehell marrying Lady Pristine Proper.”
She went still. “There will be an Act Three, then?”
Will blew out a long breath. “Yes, but you haven’t made it easy. You do understand I’m courting Lady Lavinia?”
“I, ah…I did hear something about that, yes.”
Will stared down at his hands, loosely clasped between his knees.
“I don’t understand, Miss Hervey. You must have known Lady Lavinia would be furious over tonight’s performance, and since you know I’m courting her, you must have known it would be unwise to offend her.
Why would you risk the twenty pounds I promised you? ”
“Because I’m remarkably foolish?”
There was a trace of humor in her voice, but Will didn’t laugh. “That’s just it. You’re not remarkably foolish. You didn’t attack Lady Lavinia on a whim.”
She sighed, and a stream of frosty air drifted from her lips. “No. I don’t suppose I did.”
“Why did you do it, then? Did Lady Lavinia offend you in some way? Did she say something to you?” So far Lady Lavinia had treated Penelope with haughty disdain, but it wasn’t difficult to imagine her taking it further.
Penelope was quiet for a moment, then she murmured, “You know, Lord Archer, I never used to think much about what it means to be a lady.”
Will’s brows drew together. “I didn’t realize it required much thought.”
“One sees ladies all the time in London,” she went on, as if he hadn’t spoken.
“Proper ladies, I mean. Fine, fashionable ladies, just like Lady Lavinia, who treat those around them with scorn and contempt. Cruelty, even, in the worst cases. Some of those ladies, Lord Archer, are the ugliest people I’ve ever seen. ”
And Lady Lavinia’s the ugliest of them all.
She didn’t say it, but Will’s brain provided the words readily enough. He knew who Lady Lavinia was—what she was. What he didn’t know was how it changed anything. He still needed her.
Maddy needed her.
“Lady Lavinia comes from one of the oldest families in England. She wields considerable influence over the ton and can bring Maddy into society. She has a spotless reputation, a title—”
“There’s a great deal more to being a lady than having a title, Lord Archer, just as there’s more to being a gentleman than having a titled lady for a wife.”
Her words stung Will to the quick. “Not as far as the ton’s concerned, there isn’t. Now then, Miss Hervey. I don’t wish to disappoint my sister by sending you away before the play’s done, but unless you promise to avoid insulting Lady Lavinia again, there will be no Act Three tomorrow night.”
His voice echoed in the cold, dark garden. Miss Hervey didn’t answer him, and his chest grew tighter and tighter as the silence stretched between them.
Damn it, he hadn’t meant to shout at her.
He stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, an apology ready on his lips, but she wasn’t looking at him.
Instead she was gazing up at the sky with a small, dreamy smile on her lips.
“Such beautiful stars,” she murmured. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many at once.
It’s lovely to have the chance to see them like this, especially at Christmas.
I’ll miss them when I return to London.”
Will stared at her soft smile, and a strange sadness washed over him at the thought of her in London, looking hopefully into the sky and finding nothing but thick layers of gray. It was a pity a lady with such appreciation for the stars had so few chances to admire them.
He didn’t say so, however. There wasn’t any point.
So, instead they remained on their bench long after the cold should have driven them inside, both of them gazing silently at the stars.
Will thought he could have stayed there with her all night, but after a while she let out a sigh and rose to her feet.
“It’s late, my lord. Dinah will be wondering where I am. ”