Chapter 7
Seven
She forced herself to breathe in time with the horse’s hooves, to relax the muscles in her face, to smile as if she didn’t care that she’d been cut.
Not once, not twice, but four times in the last half hour.
Elizabeth had been trained to sit straight in the saddle, but this afternoon, it was not the old lessons of her riding master, but the new ones from the ladies of the ton, that kept her spine rigid.
Despite the nearly overwhelming desire to whip her horse into a gallop and ride, hell for leather, for home, she kept her mare at a steady walk.
Four times she’d smiled and lifted her hand to wave at someone, only to have the other woman look through her as if she weren’t there.
She resolved not to wave again, unless she was certain her greeting would be returned.
Finally, an old schoolmate, Sarah Harrington, had ridden toward her, hand raised.
Elizabeth raised hers in return, then caught the expression on Sarah’s face.
She was staring past Elizabeth. She was waving at someone else.
Elizabeth’s arm hung in midair; any movement she made would only make things worse.
Even so, she pretended to wave at someone just beyond Sarah.
“Lady Elizabeth thinks I was waving at her.” Sarah turned to her companion, a woman who yesterday would have been thrilled to exchange greetings with an earl’s daughter.
She raised her voice as she passed, to ensure her words would carry.
“As if I would greet a woman of such slight character in public.”
“Ignore her,” Alix said firmly. “Her sort are always waiting for an opportunity to act superior to their betters. You are Lady Elizabeth Harcrest, sister and daughter of the Earl of Moreham. So, chin up, smile—the face you show makes it clear you know this—see if you can’t manage a laugh.”
Manage a laugh? She fixed her eyes straight ahead.
She smiled. Several young bucks dressed in the latest fashions lifted their tall hats and smiled in response.
Not the polite smiles they offered to Alix, but insinuating smiles.
One of them made a quick motion with his tongue.
Elizabeth blushed. She dropped her eyes and caught sight of one of the men brushing the tight fabric of his crotch.
The men passed, suggestive laughter trailing behind them like smoke. “Home.” Elizabeth exhaled sharply. “I want to go home.”
“Another half mile to go,” Alix responded, her voice as falsely pleasant as the expression frozen on her face.
“Can’t we simply cut across the park?”
“And have these creatures believing they forced us to retreat? I think not.”
An open carriage carrying three young ladies, two young men, and an elderly chaperone rolled toward them.
One of the young ladies appeared to be relating a story with great animation; the ribbons on her hat fluttered with the intensity of her tale.
As the carriage passed, the young people erupted in laughter and the chaperone swiveled her head and glared at Elizabeth.
“I’m ready to admit defeat, only let us go now.”
“This ride was your choice,” Alix said. “You must see it through.”
Elizabeth had the distinct feeling her sister-in-law was referring to more than their turn through the park.
“Merde,” Alix swore sharply. Her gray eyes cut to a figure in navy and red trotting toward them.
“Are you sure it’s not too late to cut through the park?”
“Far too late,” Alix hissed through a stiff smile, then returned Anne Dinsmore’s merry wave.
“Alix, Elizabeth, delightful to see you,” Anne greeted them. “Allow me to introduce my riding companion, Sir Edmund Bogglesworth.”
Sir Edmund, a plump bespectacled man who resembled Humpty Dumpty, bowed his head and intoned, “Ladies, an honor.”
Alix and Elizabeth returned the greetings and introductions.
“A lovely day for a ride, isn’t it?” Anne continued cheerfully. “Have you ever seen such a blue, blue sky? It’s almost as if the clouds have been forbidden to appear.”
“Indeed,” Alix said.
Elizabeth found herself suddenly wishing for clouds, great, heavy, gray storm clouds that would mass over Anne Dinsmore’s head and douse her. She imagined the plume on Anne’s hat drenched and dripping down her face and smiled—her first real smile since she’d entered the park.
Annoyance skittered across Anne’s face. “You’re looking well, Elizabeth,” she said sharply.
“I’m feeling quite well,” she replied, keeping the smile in her voice. “And you?”
Anne feigned a yawn, smothering it with a red-gloved hand. “Last night’s party…so many details that required my personal attention.”
“I can only imagine,” Alix replied so pleasantly, it was almost impossible to detect the river of sarcasm flowing beneath her words.
“But I wanted everything to have that perfect Dinsmore touch.” She smiled at Elizabeth.
“And it did, Anne, truly it did,” Alix said dryly. “You have a gift for making an impression; it seems your hand is in everything.” She smiled at Sir Edmund.
“As I was just saying to Lady Anne,” Sir Edmund said earnestly, “Lady Anne, you outdid yourself last night. Everywhere at once, seeing to everyone’s needs.
I told her, ‘Lady Anne, you mustn’t overdo it, a delicate thing like yourself.
Mustn’t tire yourself out.’ Why, I knew a woman once who died of exhaustion. ”
All three women turned to stare at him.
He blinked and cleared his throat.
“Sir Edmund is a wise man,” Alix said, breaking the silence. “It can be dangerous to overdo things.” She leaned forward in her saddle. “And you do look a trifle drawn, Anne. I hear that tea-soaked cloths will do wonders for puffiness around the eyes.”
Sir Edmund’s round head bobbed above his lace stock. “Excellent properties tea has, most excellent. Made my fortune importing the stuff, don’t you know? Family used to be sheepherders, can you imagine?”
For a moment, Lady Anne looked as if she could imagine Sir Edmund dried, chopped, and boiled. “Sir Edmund has considerable properties in London and in the country.”
“For your flocks?” Elizabeth couldn’t resist inquiring.
Sir Edmund chuckled. “No indeed; my family moved out of that business. Decades ago, of course, Tudor times. You see first we—”
“Such a shame,” Anne said swiftly to sever a discussion of her companion’s involvement in trade, however many centuries removed, “that James couldn’t join us this morning.”
Elizabeth stiffened.
“But he had so many things to do. An appointment with his tailor, shopping for handkerchiefs.” She waved a gloved hand. “Such a busy, busy man, my brother.” Her pale-blue eyes rested on Elizabeth and she smiled. “If I see him this evening, before he goes out, shall I give him your regards?”
“That woman,” Elizabeth exclaimed, striding into the sitting room where they had been sewing earlier, “is impossible! I’d like to…to…” Her eyes caught a glint of silver at the corner of Alix’s embroidery hoop. “I’d like to stitch her thin lips shut.”
“Is that all?” asked Alix, eyeing a pair of silver scissors. “Wouldn’t you prefer to cut her tongue out first?”
Elizabeth started to laugh, a laugh she couldn’t control, a laugh that rolled, and twisted and turned into a cry. Her back lost its starch, her shoulders slumped, she dropped into a chair and let tears flood her palms.
“I instructed you not to let Elizabeth stray from the house today.” Rafe’s voice was calm, but sparks flared in his eyes. “I told you no good could come of it.”
“I know you did and I had every intention of obeying…but Elizabeth…” Alix stopped pacing.
“Convinced you otherwise,” he said, frustration threading his voice.
She nodded. “She was so restless, and she kept glancing out the window, checking the front drive.”
“For Dinsmore, no doubt.”
“I thought perhaps a quick turn in the park might help her see things more clearly.”
“I gather it did,” he said grimly.
“It was awful, Rafe, you cannot imagine. She was cut directly five times—the last time by some snippy miss from the country.”
The muscles around his jaw tensed.
“And the men, if you could have seen how they leered at her. One of them, one had the nerve to gesture…with his tongue.” Alix’s voice quavered.
Rafe drew back his chair and patted his knee. “Come, sweetheart.” His arm curved around her as she settled in his lap. He wrapped one of her long mahogany curls around his fingers. “And Elizabeth, how did she bear up?”
“With tremendous dignity. You would have been proud.”
“If only she’d exercised such dignity earlier,” he said bitterly. I’d like to beat those upstart young bucks to a bloody pulp…
“What’s done is done, Rafe, you and I know better than most that the past cannot be mended. The question before us now is, how shall we make the best of this disaster?”
“What do you propose?”
“I think Louisa was right. Elizabeth should return to the countryside until this scandal has run its course.”
“Scandals in the ton never run their course. If Elizabeth leaves town, speculation might take another, more malicious turn.” His hand strayed to his wife’s belly. “I will not have the family name damaged any further; I will see an end to it.”
Alix covered his hand with hers and looked up at him. “Will you demand that James Dinsmore offer for her, then?”
“James Dinsmore.” He spat the name as if something foul had crossed his tongue.
“Have that foul libertine profit from disgracing my sister? He’d squander her dowry on waistcoats, gloves, and baubles for other women.
I swear to you, Alix, I will do everything in my power to make certain James Dinsmore never lays a hand on my sister again. ”