Chapter Twelve
Reuben’s progress from the village was hampered by the throng of people clogging the street on a busy market day.
Ordinarily he would have loitered gladly, passing the time of day and making himself accessible.
On this occasion, though, his mind was too full of what he had just witnessed to trust himself to speak with anyone, and he made do with acknowledging greetings with a brief wave or a tilt of his head.
Filled with a combination of anger and disappointment, Reuben knew he would find it impossible to put Farrah’s irrational behaviour from his mind.
How did he know she was behaving irrationally, though?
he asked himself. He was barely acquainted with the lady.
Her family was in dire financial straits and perhaps she had decided to grasp an opportunity to ease the pressure.
Desperate times and all that. He had observed Templeton speaking with her in a subdued whisper the evening before.
What the devil had she agreed to, and why had she given in so easily?
Why did it matter so much to him?
Finally clear of the clogged streets, Reuben pushed Brandon into a trot, still mulling the situation over, wondering why he couldn’t put it from his mind.
It was really none of his business how the lady chose to deploy her favours.
He had enjoyed a lively exchange with her the previous day, and she hadn’t made any attempt to flirt with him.
She had given the impression of being wise beyond her years, yet she also possessed a touching vulnerability of which she was probably unaware.
He would have wagered his fortune that she knew absolutely nothing about bedroom sport, which implied that Templeton was manipulating her for his own purposes.
Reuben’s mother, who kept herself up to date with society gossip, swearing that it was seldom far from the mark, insisted that Farrah had rejected several eligible offers during her season, much to Lady Dalton’s chagrin.
She had also intimated to Reuben that Farrah was determined not to enter into matrimony simply to comply with society’s expectations.
He had believed what he’d been told and admired Farrah for finding the courage to buck the trend.
It was not easy for ladies to eschew the married state without being labelled as ape leaders or worse.
Besides, how did she intend to finance her independent lifestyle, given her family’s impecunious state?
Reuben snorted disdainfully, aware that he had just discovered the answer to that question for himself.
‘How could she?’ he cried aloud, letting Brandon meander along at a gentle walk. ‘And with Templeton of all people. Has she no shame?’
Heavy rain suddenly began to fall, taking Reuben by surprise and matching his dark mood perfectly.
‘Wonderful,’ he muttered, steering Brandon under a stand of trees in order to avoid a drenching.
Percival, who hated getting wet, led the way.
Thunder cracked overhead and despite his disapproval of Farrah’s behaviour Reuben became concerned about her homeward journey.
Presumably she had gone to the tavern to come to an arrangement with Templeton.
She would not indulge in lewd behaviour in such a public place.
Would she?
Reuben was no longer sure, and was even less able to understand why it should matter to him quite so much.
She would not remain in the tavern for long and couldn’t possibly be seen in Templeton’s carriage unchaperoned, so she too risked a soaking.
The fact that she had travelled alone with Reuben the previous day was not the same thing at all, he told himself.
His intentions at least were entirely honourable.
Besides, he’d had a valid reason for escorting her.
Reuben remained beneath the partial shelter of the leafy canopy, enduring the dripping of water onto his head as he waited out the storm.
He glanced up at the dark clouds being borne away on a chilly east wind and saw clear blue sky visible behind them.
The storm would soon pass and so perhaps Farrah would wait it out in the tavern after all, secure in the arms of her new lover, not giving a fig about the possibility of being seen.
He wondered how many men had preceded Templeton, offering her scathing credit for concealing her true colours from him.
She had told Reuben that she had paid her servants out of her own funds.
He hadn’t stopped to consider where they had come from … until now.
Reuben ground his jaw, feeling disgruntled and contemptuous in equal parts.
How could he have been even mildly attracted to a female with such low standards? he repeatedly asked himself.
The rain continued to pound down as his mind dwelt upon the conduct of his neighbour. The blue sky was taking its time in arriving. Preoccupied, it took him a moment to realise that Percival had sprung from his position beneath Brandon’s belly, where he had sought shelter.
‘What on earth …’
Percival ordinarily avoided rain like the plague and yet …
‘Good God!’
Reuben’s dog had noticed a bedraggled figure in a blue cloak traipsing through the storm, muttering to herself and looking neither left nor right as her half-boots sank into the mud.
Her hood had been blown from her head by the strong wind and her hair hung over her shoulders in rats’ tails.
She shivered violently and looked like something even the cat would hesitate to drag in.
In short, she looked adorable.
Why hadn’t she waited the storm out at the tavern? he wondered, watching her as she belatedly realised that it was Percival who was jumping all over her. No lady of quality ventured out alone in the middle of a storm. But then he now knew that she was not what she appeared to be.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ she asked Percival, stroking the dog’s soggy head. ‘You are almost as wet as me.’ She glanced up in Reuben’s direction, her attention undoubtedly drawn to him by the sound of Brandon snorting and pawing the ground. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘it’s you.’
‘Get beneath the trees,’ he said, dismounting because gentlemanly behaviour triumphed in spite of everything.
‘It is a little late for that,’ she replied, shaking her head, sending raindrops flying in all directions.
‘Besides, you haven’t fared much better than me.
But still, I am glad to have encountered you.
I have the estate’s books and from what little I have so far seen of them, Freeman has made little effort to conceal the anomalies.
But there again, perhaps he was acting on my father’s orders, just as he said.
’ She spread her hands as she trembled with cold. ‘It is impossible for me to know.’
‘You ought perhaps to ask your lover,’ he replied in a voice that was even chillier than the weather.
She blinked up at him. ‘I beg your pardon,’ she said.
‘I believe you heard me,’ he said, resisting the urge to comfort her when a crack of thunder directly overhead startled both her and Brandon. Why did he feel that way, he wondered, settling for soothing Brandon, when he knew her now to be nothing better than a harlot?
‘I most certainly did, but I do not have the pleasure of understanding you.’
Reuben narrowed his eyes and fixed her with a condemning look. ‘I saw you in the Black Sheep.’ He paused. ‘With Templeton.’
She glared back at him, her jaw dropping open in apparent shock, presumably because she had been caught out.
Did she seriously expect not to have been seen and recognised by someone who knew her family.
If anyone other than Reuben had seen her, then her reputation, such as it was, would never recover.
‘And you assumed that … that I had entered into a liaison with him?’ She had the audacity to place her fisted hands on her hips and glower up at him. ‘In that case we have nothing more to say to one another, and I will wish you good day.’
The rain was still pelting down, but she strode out into it undeterred.
‘Wait!’
Without pausing to consider his actions, Reuben led Brandon after her.
‘For what?’ She dealt him a look of unbridled reproach. ‘You have made it very clear what you think of me.’
‘I know what I saw.’
Reuben’s words sounded hollow to his own ears, and he began to wonder if he had somehow got it wrong. But what other interpretation could there possibly be? What madness would have persuaded any lady of quality to meet a married man alone in a public place? Or indeed any man at all.
‘You know what you think you saw,’ she said, striding through the rain.
‘Stop!’ Reuben grasped her upper arm and compelled her to halt her rapid pace. ‘I apologise. That is, I should have asked you before drawing conclusions.’
‘At least that is one point upon which we are in agreement.’ She spoke scathingly, her gaze filled with condemnation, but allowed herself to be led back beneath the relative cover of the trees.
‘I am not any man’s plaything, your grace, and am disappointed to learn that you reached such a conclusion so readily. ’
‘Then tell me why you took such an almighty risk.’ Reuben felt the air leave his lungs in an extravagant whoosh. She had to be speaking the truth since no one could lie that convincingly and the relief he felt was palpable. ‘Not that I have any right to ask,’ he added.
‘I took Templeton in immediate dislike last night.’ She shuddered but not, Reuben suspected, because she was cold. ‘Don’t ask me why, there’s just something about the man that repels me.’
‘And yet …’
‘And yet I met with him alone in a tavern.’ She glowered at the duke. ‘And I did so because I am desperate for answers.’
Shocked to have come across the duke so unexpectedly and more than a little taken aback by his assumptions, Farrah paused to gather her thoughts and rein in her oscillating temper. How dare he presume to judge her without being in possession of the facts!