Chapter Nineteen
THE NEXT MORNING, when Irene went downstairs to breakfast, she wondered a little nervously how she would act when she saw Gideon.
The night before, after their lovemaking, he had walked with her back to the house, his arm around her.
They had said little, peaceful and content in the moment, stopping now and then to kiss or just to stand with their arms around each other.
They had waited until after everyone else had gone to bed to return, and she had slipped in the back door and crept up to her room, while he had waited for several minutes before he came in more boldly.
Tired and happy, she had gone immediately to bed and, hugging her happy knowledge to herself, had drifted off to sleep.
This morning, however, she could see all the problems that might present themselves.
For one thing, it seemed likely that someone—or more than a few someones—would have noticed that both she and Gideon had been absent for the last part of the evening.
What if someone mentioned it? What would she say?
She could not allow herself to blush and stammer, for then it would be immediately apparent that she was guilty of some indiscretion.
But more than that, she feared that when she first looked at him, it would be clear to everyone what she felt for him…
what they had done. And deep down somewhere there lay a little niggling fear that when he saw her, he would regret everything, that in the time since she had last seen him, he would have come to wonder why he had ever thought he wanted to marry her.
But when she walked into the dining room and saw him sitting at the table, all her doubts and worries disappeared instantly. He glanced up from his plate, and though he did not smile, there was a swift, intense look in his eyes that welcomed her more than any words could have.
“Lady Irene,” he said, rising and stepping over to pull out her chair. “I trust you slept well last night, after all the exertion…of the dance.”
He looked down into her eyes, his own vivid green eyes brimming with intimate laughter.
“Thank you, Lord Radbourne. I spent a very pleasant night,” she replied, casting back her own flirtatious glance as she took her seat. “It must be the air here.”
“I always find country air most salubrious,” Lady Salisbridge offered. “Though my two girls,” she added with an indulgent smile, “are rather slugabeds this morning, I am afraid. But then, they do so love to dance.”
“It was a wonderful ball,” Mrs. Surton said. “Such talented musicians, such lovely flowers. I must applaud your talents, Lady Radbourne, to offer so excellent an entertainment in the country.”
Everyone else joined in to compliment both the countesses, who received the praise with gracious smiles. Irene cast an amused glance up the table at Francesca, who gave her a slow wink in return.
Irene’s gaze went next to Lady Odelia, who gave her such a regal nod and smile that Irene suspected Gideon had already told his great-aunt about their plans to marry.
The thought of their marriage made Irene feel giddy all over again, and she turned her gaze back down to her plate to hide her smile.
When all the praise and rehashing of the dance the evening before died down, Francesca said lightly, “Now all that is left is to decide what we shall do today.”
“Oh, yes,” Miss Surton agreed with a giggle. “What shall we do? Lawn tennis was terribly amusing, was it not?”
“Particularly your serve, Ro,” her brother Percy replied.
“Oh, you!” She made a pouting face at him. “You, I am sure, will want to go riding again.”
“That sounds splendid,” Miss Hurley was quick to agree.
“Where would we go?” asked Callie. “We have been all around the estate, have we not?”
Both the Hurleys and Mr. Surton looked rather bemused by the suggestion that any enticement other than being on a horse was needed.
“There are caves not far from here, near the river,” Gideon offered. “I have not seen them, but I have been told they are quite interesting.”
“The caves!” Lady Teresa gasped. “Oh, no, we cannot go there. They are too dangerous.”
“What nonsense.” Lady Odelia snorted. “I have been there several times. When we were younger, of course, eh, Pansy? There is nothing dangerous about them, providing one doesn’t go wandering off and get lost, that is.”
“Lord Cecil never allowed anyone to go there,” Lady Teresa responded primly.
“No doubt he didn’t want everyone poking about in them,” Lady Odelia remarked. “One wouldn’t. But I never heard of there being anything wrong with them, have you, Pansy?”
“No, dear,” her sister responded, adding kindly to Teresa, “I imagine dear Cecil was just being very careful of you and Timmy. And he did want to protect them from strangers, you know. Said people were apt to damage the formations. But the caves are quite worth seeing. Unusual.”
“That sounds like just the thing,” Piers said, and all the younger members of the party were quick to agree.
“I am sure that Cook will be able to fill up some picnic baskets for us,” Francesca added, with a significant glance at Irene.
Irene knew that look meant that she should arrange for the food baskets with the housekeeper and cook, as she had been the one in charge of dealing with the kitchen and household matters for the week of the party.
So as soon as breakfast was over, she made her way to the kitchen to broach the matter.
The housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, seemed to have taken a strong liking to Irene, who was not sure about the reason for the woman’s attitude, though she suspected it lay in the inadequacies of Lady Teresa and Lady Pansy as mistresses of the house.
The housekeeper had turned to Irene with increasing frequency in recent days, and even the formidable Horroughs had consulted with her on the rare occasions when he had been uncertain about an issue concerning the guests.
However, it appeared to Irene that today the smile with which Mrs. Jeffries greeted her was especially bright, and that there was an extra touch of deference in the housekeeper’s assurances that she would have the baskets made up and brought down to the caves for the group’s luncheon by one o’clock.
Irene also noticed several surreptitious glances in her direction from the servants, as well as a good bit of whispering and smiling.
Could it be that the servants already knew about her engagement to Gideon?
It seemed impossible, as it had happened only the night before.
Of course, the servants always knew everything first. No doubt if Gideon had told his grandmother or great-aunt about it, there had been a maid nearby who had overheard the news.
Irene pretended not to notice their behavior, and as soon as her business with the housekeeper was done, she left the kitchen and returned to her room to change.
Glancing at herself in the mirror as she pulled off her morning dress, it occurred to her that perhaps the servants—and even Lady Odelia—had guessed that something was up simply by looking at her.
She had not realized it when she went down to breakfast that morning, but there was a glow of happiness on her features that nothing could conceal.
Her cheeks were warm with color, her eyes shone, and her mouth was turned up as if she was just about to break out in a smile.
She studied herself, turning her head this way and that, trying to pull her expression into something more dignified—or at least less transparent.
But it took only a minute for her give up, laughing.
What did it matter, she thought, if everyone could guess that she was head over heels in love?
All she cared about right now was the future that awaited her with Gideon.
She could scarcely wait, in fact, to get started on the rest of her life.
But there was the rest of the party to get through—and she rather looked forward to exploring the caves with Gideon—so she quickly changed into her riding habit and pinned the insouciant little cap to her head, angling it just right, so that the glossy black feather curled down to caress the side of her face.
High black leather boots and black leather gloves completed her ensemble, and she took a last turn in front of the mirror, pleased with the image she presented.
Unlike the high-waisted fashion that was currently the mode in frocks, the fitted jacket of the riding habit showed off her figure quite nicely, and the warm brown color went well with her coloring.
Of course, she thought as she left the room with a light step, today she would have felt beautiful in rags.
* * *
IRENE RODE BETWEEN Francesca and Calandra on the way down to the caves, leaving Gideon and the other men to entertain the rest of the girls. It would not, after all, be well-mannered to be too obvious about Gideon’s preference for her company.
They rode through the meadow and came around to the river, which they followed, led by the Park’s head groom.
They rode in the general direction of the distant hills, away from both the village and the road back to London.
Almost imperceptibly, the lane beside the river began to narrow and the land beyond it to rise, until before long they were riding through a small gorge with limestone bluffs rising up beside them on either side.
Finally the head groom stopped and spoke to Gideon, pointing ahead toward a line of bushes at the base of the bluff.
Irene shaded her eyes with her hand and saw a shadow behind the shrubs, darker and more substantial than the lacework of the leaves and branches. She dismounted, as did the others, and they made their way up the slight incline to the entrance of the cave.
The entrance was an ink-black gap in the white rock, and though it was somewhat sheltered by a large boulder on one side, there was ample room for two people to pass through the gap side by side.