Chapter Ten #2
She stared at him in horror. ‘Get him back. Return him here, immediately, or I shall…’ What should she do? She had no idea. A thought occurred to her. ‘I shall talk to someone in the navy and tell them they have press-ganged an innocent citizen.’
He laughed long and hard, reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his streaming eyes.
‘You think I have waylaid him? Sent him to the Americas, perhaps? Oh, my dear, you have a lurid imagination. Mr Blake is in the finest cabin available and on his way to the Holy Lands on a pilgrimage of faith.’
‘He is what?’
‘He expressed a desire to see Jerusalem before he died. I told him that life was short and there was no time like the present. Then I supplied him with the necessary funds and put him on a boat and with a promise of a living on my lands upon his return.’
‘On your lands?’
‘The church in the village has been unoccupied for some time.’ He blinked innocently. ‘I admit that I have been somewhat remiss in seeing to that.’
‘Because you are a blackguard and a villain,’ she said, glaring at him.
‘What have I done to you that would give you such an opinion of me?’ he said, smiling expectantly.
He’d plied her with pornography, then pulled her into his bed and kissed her. Not that she wanted to admit the fact with Bessie standing right there. Or at all. Owning their shared past was one step closer to admitting that she could not forget how pleasant it had been to be held in his arms.
And since meeting him again?
He had rescued her from Rutland, proposed marriage, given her flowers and a pin… And tricked her into waltzing. His recent behaviour was hardly the work of a scoundrel.
But he was still staring at her, waiting for an answer.
‘Everyone knows you for what you are,’ she sputtered. ‘And Julian says you are not to be trusted.’
‘His assessment of my character is accurate,’ he said, after a moment’s reflection.
‘I have much to repent for. But not this.’ He reached into his pocket and withdrew a letter.
‘I told Blake I would deliver his apologies. Time was short. And since I meant to see you anyway I had him write you a note.’
She snatched the paper from his hand, tore the seal and read.
It was just as he said, a brief note to tell her he was sorry that he could not meet with her because of a marvellous and unexpected opportunity.
It went on for several lines, extolling the generosity and kindness of the Duke, before closing with a wish for her continued good health and good fortune in her search for a husband.
She stared at the paper, pretending to read it again while she searched for a response more appropriate than her true feelings. Tobias Blake was a good man. A decent man. If he had not been waylaid by Westbridge, he might have offered for her this very afternoon and ended her husband hunting.
But, when presented by what should have been a crushing disappointment, all she could think was, Thank God, he is gone.
Was there something wrong with her, that she did not want to marry? Or was there something wrong with the men who were interested in her?
Andrew would not have suited. She did not want to wed a gambler. But she had been preparing to reject him well before that scandal had broken.
And there was nothing wrong with Tobias. He was stable, trustworthy and hardworking. Her whole family would have been overjoyed if she’d have accepted his offer. As a husband, he would have been perfectly…
Adequate.
Boring.
I am a horrible person.
‘You are a horrible person,’ she blurted, staring at the Duke as she folded up the paper and stuffed it in her reticule. If it were not for Westgate and his waltzing and flirting and bogus offers of marriage, she would not be having these terrible thoughts.
‘Horrible,’ he said, considering. ‘I fail to see why you would think so in this case. I gave the man the thing he wanted most in the world. Do you not find that generous of me?’
‘Why did you do it?’ she demanded.
‘Altruism?’ He continued to smile, offering an open-handed gesture to show he had nothing to hide.
‘You did him a favour. But it was not out of the goodness of your heart,’ she said. ‘You are the first to admit that you have no goodness there. Do not spoil what must be a rare, charitable act by lying about it.’ She folded her arms and waited.
He dropped his hands, then folded them behind his back. ‘A tour such as he wishes will take three weeks at least, with additional time for travel, prayer and the purchase of souvenirs. It will be more than a month before we see him again.’
‘We?’ she said.
‘You,’ he admitted.
She fought back the feelings of relief, and waited for him to continue.
‘He is interested in you,’ he said. ‘Or, rather, he is interested in a position with your brother’s school, or a living on his property.’
‘There is nothing wrong with that,’ she said, trying not to be hurt by the blunt assessment. ‘He is to be admired for his ambition, and his beneficent nature.’
‘But it is not very flattering, is it? Wouldn’t you prefer to marry a man who was interested in you?’
‘We were not discussing marriage.’ They hadn’t needed to. It was assumed. Inevitable. Inescapable. ‘I have only known him for a week,’ she said, frightened by how quickly things were moving.
‘And now, you will know him for over a month before a decision is made in his favour,’ he said with a superior nod. ‘Perhaps he will write to you while he is gone to tell you of his travels. Or perhaps not.’
‘And what am I to do in the meantime?’ she said, wondering if he was going to propose again. Right now, she did not want to marry anyone.
‘Anything you like,’ he said. ‘You could visit the menagerie with me, if you wanted to. If your interest in nature extends to the larger animals, you must be looking forward to it. We are here already, and it is a shame to waste the opportunity.’
‘Even though you put a stranger on a boat to Jerusalem so that you could stalk me without interference?’
‘Jaffa,’ he corrected her. ‘Jerusalem has no port.’
She doubted he’d learned that fact while studying the Bible. It was just one small detail in some greater plan that seemed to involve her. ‘I am not going to swoon into your arms just because there is no other man present,’ she said, trying to read his response.
‘Neither will you rush to a decision in Blake’s favour, simply because he showed the minimum attention to you,’ he responded.
‘Your father would likely approve of such a match, as would your brother. Mr Blake is utterly toothless and no threat to you in any way.’ He looked at her again as if considering.
‘Because he is a good man.’
‘I never said he wasn’t. I’d rather thought that, when tempted he would choose something a little less pious. Filthy lucre perhaps. But he proved virtuous, right to the bone.’
‘And you mock him because of it,’ she said, annoyed.
‘Not at all. He wants to serve the Lord and help his people. I have no problem with that. It should be encouraged in others, so the rest of us don’t have to be bothered with it.’
‘You have no interest in performing good works?’
‘That is not precisely true either,’ he said, considering for a minute.
‘I contribute to the care of widows and orphans and have my favourite charities, as every man of means should. But I see no need to make a show of it. The Lord knows my character even better than the ton does. If I have not done enough with my life, He will tell me when I pass.’ Then, he smiled, supremely confident in his answer, as he seemed to be in all things.
This was a surprise. She had thought him selfish and superficial. But there seemed to be depths to him that he refused to show to others. But that did not justify his being here. He wanted something from her. He simply hadn’t asked for it, yet.
‘I suppose now you will tell me that you are just as good a man as Mr Blake.’
‘Not a better man,’ he said. ‘Merely a different one.’
‘And with a sudden desire to see the animals in the menagerie?’ she said.
‘Not particularly. I have seen them before,’ he said.
‘Then, this will be quite dull for you.’
‘I have never seen you, seeing them,’ he said. ‘That will make the experience a novelty for me.’
She had no idea how to respond to this. With all the women he had known, she suspected she was the least novel of the bunch.
But he took her silence as acceptance and paid the shillings necessary for admittance. Then, the keeper led the three of them past the many cages, telling them of the origins of the animals and their feeding and care.
At first, it was a relief to think of something other than her own future.
There were a great many lions, chewing on bones and staring listlessly back at her from behind the bars.
The leopard was pacing nervously from one side of her cage to the other and seemed bothered by the screams of the eagle, that flapped its wings frantically but did not have the space to fly.
The keeper was particularly proud of a black leopardess named Miss Nancy, pointing out the spots still visible in her black-on-black velvety fur. As they stood watching her, she came to the bars and stared back at Cassie, slowly blinking her golden eyes which were filled with a deep sadness.
Probably because Miss Nancy did not want to end her life in a cage.
At some point in the past, she’d been roaming free in the jungle where the air and the food were fresh, and every day was new and different.
Her keeper might dote on her and extoll her virtues to each person that passed the cage which held her.
But he was a jailer, nothing more than that.
Cassie felt a sudden rush of melancholy and a tightness in her chest, as if her ribs were the bars of a cage and her heart was pounding to get out. The tears blurred her vision until all she could see was the glow of those sad, gold eyes staring into hers as if begging for rescue.
Finally, she could stand no more and turned away.