Chapter Six
He was smiling, and it was a heartaching flash of boyishness she’d never seen before.
Now he was grasping his friend’s hand, and she had the feeling that he’d like to embrace him. They weren’t estranged, and whatever magic had brought the major here, it was good magic.
Everyone was watching them, doubtless sensing an important moment, then Vandeimen turned to her. “Maria, I’ve spoken of Major Hawkinville, an old friend and neighbor. Hawk, my lovely bride to be, Mrs. Celestin.”
She held out her hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Major.”
He was hawkish, though a second later she wasn’t sure why. No hooked nose, no yellow eyes. His face was lean, his hair a soft brown, and worn a little long with a wave in it. He was, above all, elegant, making even Van look a little rough around the edges.
He took her hand and actually raised it to his lips. She felt their pressure through her glove. “How unfair of Van to steal you before I had a chance, Mrs. Celestin.”
She started to smile, amused by his flirtation, but then she caught a hard glint in his deeply blue eyes. Hawkish indeed. But why was he turning a predatory eye on her?
“You are still in the army, Major?” she asked, to fill the silence, though it was inane, given his scarlet and braid.
“Easing my way out, Mrs. Celestin.”
“They’ll be reluctant to let him go.” Vandeimen’s smile said that if there’d been any ambivalence, it had gone.
“We chargers and marchers are two-a-penny, but organizers like Hawk are treasured more than gold. Quartermaster Division,” he added in explanation to everyone.
“Got the armies to the field, with weapons and supplies intact. To the right field at the right time, even, if they were really good.”
The teasing look between the two men suggested it was an old joke.
“And tidied up afterward,” said the major, “which is why I get home a year late and find all the loveliest ladies taken.”
He flashed Maria another look, but then turned to Natalie and to Cissy’s blushing, seventeen-year-old daughter to express relief that some lovely ladies were still available.
Maria picked up conversation, but she was puzzling over the man’s animosity. Was it Maurice? He’d made a great deal of money supplying the army with clothes and equipment. Perhaps he’d clashed with Major Hawkinville at some point.
Was it the age difference? She wouldn’t have expected another young man to be outraged.
Or perhaps she was misreading a dark mood that had nothing to do with her.
The bell rang to warn of the end of the intermission, so Maria invited the major to stay. He accepted, and she settled to the next act plotting how to keep him by Vandeimen’s side as long as possible. She could bear his antagonism if she must.
At the next intermission, they all strolled in the corridor. Maria wasn’t sure how, but she ended up partnered with the major, while Vandeimen escorted Louisa Embleborough, a young miss suitable for either of these handsome heroes.
“Jealousy? Already?”
She looked up into those very blue, very chilly eyes.
There was no doubt. He was antagonistic toward her.
She’d like to confront him directly about it, but that might drive him away.
She made herself answer lightly. “Not at all, Major. I know how devoted Lord Vandeimen is to me, and I trust his sense of honor.”
His eyes narrowed, but then changed, so that she couldn’t be sure what she’d seen. “Perhaps it is I who am jealous, Mrs. Celestin. You are exceptionally beautiful.”
Ah. Blatant fortune hunters she could deal with. Smiling, she said, “No, I’m not.”
“You must allow me to know my own mind, ma’am. Beauty is not the same in every eye.”
“Strange, then, that some people become acknowledged beauties.”
He looked around and discreetly indicated a young brunette surrounded by men. “I don’t know who she is, but I assume she is a toast.”
“Miss Regis? Yes, she is much admired.”
“I’m sure she is perfect to many, but I cannot admire a turned-up nose, and her smile is far too wide.” He looked back at her. “Your mouth, however, is perfect.”
Her not-too-wide smile was making her cheeks ache. Did he know she didn’t want to send him off with a flea in his ear?
“Perfect,” she echoed. “How lovely. What else about me is perfect, Major? I’m thirty-three years old and must hoard any compliments that still come my way.”
“You’re barren,” he said. “And that is not a compliment.”
Her breath caught. “And you are an uncouth swine, but you probably can’t help that, either.”
They were both smiling, hiding their battle from those around.
“Van’s marrying you for your money. If he needs money, I’ll find a way to get it for him.”
“Are you Midas, then? He lost ten thousand in one night.” She watched in satisfaction as his smile disappeared. “Now, escort me back to my box.”
At the door he halted, smile absent, hostility unmasked. “He deserves better than to marry for money, Mrs. Celestin. And he needs a family.”
She agreed with him, but she couldn’t let that show. “I want his happiness, Major Hawkinville. For that reason, you are welcome to call at my house. You will understand, I’m sure, if I try to avoid you.”
She went into the box alone.
Van was finding shy Miss Embleborough hard work, but he kept an eye on Maria and Hawk at the same time. He might not have seen a great deal of his friend over the past ten years, but he could still read him. He was in a hawkish mood.
Doubtless he thought Maria a heartless harpy and was riding to the rescue. As the bell sounded and people flowed back into their boxes, he managed to pass Miss Embleborough on to her brother, and paused with Hawk outside the box.
He closed the door, leaving them alone in the corridor. “You can’t fight with Mrs. Celestin without picking a fight with me, you know. And I always win.”
He said it lightly, but Hawk would understand that he was serious.
“Only because you’ve always been a madman.” The tense look eased, however. “I probably did go a bit beyond the line.”
“Why?”
“She said you lost ten thousand in one night. What the devil have you been up to?”
Van hadn’t wanted any of his friends burdened with his problems. “My father left debts.”
“And you decided to add to them?”
“I was trying to recoup them. You know I’ve always been lucky. Hawk, why were you picking a fight with Maria?”
After a moment, Hawk said, “I suppose it’s mostly because of her husband.”
“Celestin? You knew him?”
“Only as a name. He was one of the worst suppliers of shoddy goods and short measure, but we could never pin anything on him. Very clever use of middlemen. It galls me to think of all that money on a woman’s back.”
“Will it help to think of me benefiting from his ill-gotten gains?”
Hawk laughed. “Zeus, yes! Can’t think of a better use at this point.” After a moment, he added, “Look, don’t throw a punch, but is it worth the money to marry a woman so much older?”
Van thought of explaining. He didn’t mind revealing his follies to Hawk, but he didn’t want to put Maria in a worse light. Then he recalled an amber light, and a ravishing kiss that hadn’t been repeated. . . .
“So,” Hawk said, smoothing over the silence, “at least you’ll be able to restore Steynings to all its former glory.”
If Hawk thought this was a love affair, all the better. “That’s the idea. Look, I’d better go back in. Come round tomorrow and we’ll have more time to catch up. Have you seen Con yet?”
“I’m fresh off the boat. Heard about your engagement and set off—”
“—to save me, like George and the dragon? I don’t think poor Maria should be seen as a dragon.”
Hawk grinned. “And you’re no trembling maiden. As for tomorrow, perhaps you’d better come to me. I’m staying at Beadle’s Hotel in Prince’s Street.”
Clearly the disagreement between Hawk and Maria had been unpleasantly sharp. “Very well. Have you heard from Con at all?”
“No. Haven’t you?”
“No.”
“Have you tried?”
Van shrugged. “I didn’t want to clutter his life with my problems. Since Waterloo, since Lord Darius died, he has enough.”
“Perhaps your clutter would have been a distraction.”
It was a reproof, and perhaps warranted, but Van said, “He’d have felt obliged to lend me money, and his family’s never been wealthy.”
“What about the earldom?”
“I still wouldn’t want to dun off him. Forget it. Perhaps you should have come home sooner instead of playing around Europe.”
“Playing around—?” Hawk sucked in a breath.
Van knew he should apologize. Hawk had been cleaning up the bloody mess left by the battle, by mounds of corpses, by destroyed property, by allies turned to arguing among themselves over responsibility and reparation and even what to call the battle.
The apology stuck, though, and after a moment Hawk said, “Come over and we’ll talk tomorrow.” He strode off, never looking back.
Van leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, the sweet image of a pistol floating in front of him. He’d trained himself into a demon of destruction. Perhaps there came a point of no return.
He’d thought some things endured, particularly his lifelong friendships with Hawk and Con. But if Con needed his friends, he’d not found one in him, and now he’d lashed out at Hawk.
Perhaps there was no going back. He could reroof Steynings and bring the land into good heart again, but he doubted he could re-create past happiness in a house empty except for ghosts.
He might be able to do it with Maria’s help.
He couldn’t tell if this feeling was love, frustrated lust, or an insane kind of dependency, but he realized that his bleak mood, his bitterness, his attack on Hawk all grew out of the rapidly approaching end of his service to Maria.
And she insisted that he not touch her in any intimate way.
He knew what he ought to do. He ought to prepare to bid her a courteous farewell, leave to restore his home, then pick a young lady like Miss Embleborough to marry and have children with.
He’d rather shoot himself.