Lady Jane's Ribbons Read online

  Just before supper was to be served in the adjoining room, Charles at last managed to claim Jane again, leading her onto the floor for the lancers, the new dance which had reached London from Wales only the previous summer, and which had already become all the rage. It was fashionable to try and outshine everyone else in the five separate figures, so the floor was more crowded than ever, the crush being so great that Jane wondered if the master-of-ceremonies would have to send some people off, but the dance began, and practically everyone was soon moving to the music.

  As she danced, Jane noticed that for once Alicia was not dancing with Lewis but with Lord Sefton, the fifty-year-old leading light of the Four-in-Hand Club, and the gentleman who had agreed to supervise the forthcoming Midsummer Day race to Brighton. Bluff and jovial, he wasn’t the most elegant of dancers. Glancing around, Jane wondered who Lewis was with, and then she saw that he’d managed to winkle Blanche away from the duke. The two seemed to be engaged in deep conversation, and soon left the floor, sitting on a sofa to continue their talk. Lewis seemed concerned, Jane thought, and even as she thought it he rose to his feet, looking around the crowded floor as if searching for someone in particular. That someone was evidently Jane herself, for his gaze became steady the moment he saw her. He seemed far from pleased about something.

  The dance ended and supper was announced, but as Jane and Charles began to make their way with everyone else toward the adjoining room, Lewis paused for the briefest of moments to whisper something to Alicia before making his way through the crowd toward them.

  ‘Jane, I must speak with you. In private.’

  She halted in surprise, and Charles looked less than pleased. ‘I say, Ardenley …’ he began coolly, but Lewis interrupted him.

  ‘You’ve every right to feel affronted, Charles; but this is very important. Jane?’

  Jane nodded then, smiling apologetically at Charles. ‘Forgive me, Charles, I shall not be long. If there’s any of that caviar, please save some for me.’

  He inclined his head a little stiffly and relinquished her hand to Lewis. ‘I don’t take kindly to this, Ardenley, not in view of all that’s happened.’

  Lewis’s clear, gray eyes rested on him for a moment, but he said nothing more, drawing Jane’s hand through his arm and leading her away. ‘Shall we adjourn to the garden?’ he suggested quietly.

  She halted close to the nearest French window, where the cool air breathed in from the terrace, and where there were very few people because nearly everyone had gone to sample the supper. ‘Can’t it be said here?’ she asked, remembering his public snub of earlier and not having any intention of allowing him further opportunity to hurt her.

  ‘No, Jane, it can’t, since I’ve no desire at all to be overheard. And before you gain the wrong impression, let me assure you that what I have to say concerns Blanche and not our own differences.’ His hand was firm on her elbow as he virtually steered her out into the darkness, where the light from countless colored lanterns cast soft pastel shades over the terrace and the gardens beyond.

  He led her across the cool grass to a little gazebo by a lily pond, and there he turned her to face him. ‘What do you know about Henry’s whereabouts tonight?’

  The garden lights reflected in her eyes as she looked at him in surprise. ‘I – I think he’s in Brighton,’ she said after a moment’s hesitation.

  He gave a slightly disbelieving laugh. ‘So, you do know!’

  ‘Why do you say it like that?’

  ‘Because I didn’t think you’d be so cruel as to leave Blanche in the dark about it, that’s why!’ he snapped. ‘I thought better of you, Jane. Isn’t Blanche supposed to be your dear friend? How could you leave her expecting to see him at any moment? I haven’t told her anything, it isn’t my place to do so, but you should tell her immediately!’

  She drew back a little, at once angry and hurt at his harsh tone. ‘Condemn me if you wish, sir, but don’t presume to know my every thought. It so happens that I’ve made a number of attempts to speak to her alone, to explain, but all of them failed, and anyway, Henry could indeed walk in at any moment!’

  He stared at her. ‘How can you possibly say that?’

  ‘Because it’s true… isn’t it?’ She searched his face then, realizing that he knew something she didn’t. ‘What is it, Lewis? Why are you so sure he won’t be here tonight?’

  ‘Because he told me he was staying overnight in Brighton when I spoke to him earlier today.’

  Now it was her turn to stare, and to accuse. ‘You saw him? Lewis, why on earth didn’t you remind him about the ball?’

  ‘Because he gave me no opportunity. He was waiting at my house when I returned after leaving you. He brushed aside my reminder that he’d deserted you – he was interested only in a new development concerning the race. It seems that when Chapman accosted him this morning, he wagered a great deal of money that the Nonpareil would outrun the Iron Duke. It’s not merely a race now, Jane, it has a fortune resting upon it. Because of this, Henry wants the best bloodstock available to pull his coach, and so he approached me about it, because my estate at Maywood lies, as you well know, directly on the Brighton road, and because there aren’t any finer horses in the realm than those in my stables. I refused to help him, since I think stagecoach racing the end in foolhardy practices, and since I happen to agree with you that he’s already devoting far too much time and attention to his ribbons when it’s Blanche he should be thinking about. He left in rather high dudgeon, and it was as he was driving off that he said he’d be in Brighton overnight if I happened to change my mind. I called him back, but you know how he springs that damned highflyer of his; he was gone in a trice and I doubt if he heard.’

  Jane turned away. ‘My every instinct told me he wouldn’t be here tonight, but I still kept hoping against hope that he’d prove me wrong.’

  ‘Forgive me for speaking so harshly to you, Jane, but when I was with Blanche and it seemed so obvious that she still thought he was coming, I thought … well, it doesn’t really matter what I thought; I was evidently quite wrong and spoke very much out of turn.’

  She was silent for a moment, the gentler note in his voice unnoticed as she wondered anew how to tell Blanche. ‘What am I going to say to her, Lewis? She’s going to be horridly upset and it will ruin her evening! Oh, I shall never forgive Henry for this, never!’

  ‘Perhaps you would find it easier if I accompany you? After all, I’m the one who can say beyond a doubt that he’s staying in Brighton and that you didn’t know.’

  She gave him a suspicious look. ‘Why are you being so helpful and agreeable? It’s totally out of character.’

  ‘It isn’t totally out of character, you just choose to think that it is. I’m offering because it seems the right thing to do, especially after I spoke so rudely to you earlier.’

  ‘Ah, so it’s your conscience. Tell me, sir, is that the only thing your conscience weighs so heavily about?’ She couldn’t help the taunt. Would he protest his innocence again as he had before?

  He met her gaze. ‘Yes, Jane, it is, since I have nothing else about which to feel even remotely guilty. You’ve been in the wrong all along. Now then, shall I come with you?’

  She wanted to take him up on it so much, but for the moment Blanche was more important. ‘To be perfectly honest, I don’t know if I can bring myself to tell her anything, not now that I know Henry’s gone so far as to actually stay in Brighton.’

  ‘Something has to be said to her.’

  She nodded unhappily. ‘I know. But what?’

  ‘A white lie of some sort?’

  ‘I suppose so. Can you think of anything?’

  ‘You said that with the firm conviction of one who believes beyond a doubt that untruths are second nature to me.’

  ‘Aren’t they?’

  ‘To go into that would be to digress quite considerably from the matter in hand.’

  ‘And would focus a most unwelcome spotlight upon the deviousness of your
character,’ she added.

  ‘A spotlight upon you, madam, would reveal a preponderance of rather ridiculous and misplaced pride, but I don’t think we’ll go into that either. Now then, since the object of all this is to spare Blanche’s feelings, and since we can hardly disguise the fact that dear Henry has removed himself to Brighton for the night, the only thing I can suggest is that we tell Blanche that he had had every intention of being here by, er, midnight,’ he glanced at his fob watch, ‘but that since that hour has now passed and there’s still no sign of him, we can only deduce that he has been unavoidably detained on some pressing matter. It’s the truth, and yet not the truth, the perfect white lie.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought you said untruths didn’t spring easily to your lips, sir. This one certainly has.’

  ‘I have the odd lapse or two.’

  ‘So it seems.’

  ‘Will it do, that’s the point.’

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I think so. She’ll still be upset, but if she thinks he did really intend to come, it won’t hurt quite as much.’

  ‘There, you see, I can be quite agreeable and lovable after all,’ he murmured, reaching out to rather mockingly flick the long curl falling from the knot on her head.

  ‘When you cut me earlier you showed precious little of either quality,’ she retorted, moving away a little, too conscious of the effect even that small touch had upon her.

  ‘When I declined to greet you as effusively as you no doubt think you deserve, I did so because I recalled how very irritating you were this morning,’ he countered.

  ‘I was confronted by your flighty belle de nuit a little earlier tonight,’ she went on as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘and she showed precious little real quality either.’

  Smiling a little, he folded his arms and surveyed her. ‘Ah, yes, the encounter on the stairs – I have been told.’

  ‘I’ll warrant you have,’ she replied, looking toward the terrace where almost as if on cue, a tall, elegant figure in lime green silk had appeared. Alicia stood watching them for a moment and then went back into the ballroom, the plumes in her hair streaming angrily behind her. Jane couldn’t help a secret smile; Alicia evidently felt that they’d been alone in the darkness for a little too long.

  Lewis hadn’t noticed his mistress, he was too intent upon ruffling Jane’s feathers a little. ‘There’s something I’m most intrigued about….’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Your apparently overwhelming curiosity about my recent sojourn in Paris.’

  She felt her cheeks become hot. ‘I’m not in the least bit curious,’ she replied.

  ‘No? Then why bring up the subject again with Alicia?’

  ‘Did I?’ she answered airily. ‘I really don’t remember.’

  ‘No?’ His tone was sardonic.

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’m far from convinced, especially as I’ve now formed a very definite opinion on the matter.’

  ‘Indeed?’

  ‘Yes, your insatiable interest about what happened in Paris is born of one thing and one thing only – jealousy.’

  She was glad of the darkness because she knew her cheeks were now aflame. ‘You flatter yourself, sir. Go wherever you please, with whomever you please, it’s of no consequence to me since you only strike a damp in my estimation these days.’

  ‘Is that so? I must be losing my touch.’

  ‘Well, to be sure, you didn’t have a great deal to lose.’

  ‘Now that, my dearest Jane, smacks of out-and-out provocation,’ he said softly. Before she knew what was happening, his lips were over hers and he was holding her so close that she couldn’t draw away. His kiss was relentless, teasing, arousing and enticing her reluctant and unwilling senses into a response which was so urgent and demanding that she needed every last ounce of willpower to deny it.

  With a laugh, he abruptly released her, and she dealt him a furious blow, her fingers leaving angry marks on his cheeks. ‘How dare you!’ she breathed.

  But he merely grinned, rubbing his cheek. ‘Well, one thing’s for sure, I certainly haven’t lost my touch! I can raise rather more than a damp with you!’

  At that moment a woman ran out of the ballroom and across the terrace, her gown glittering and her feather boa flapping wildly behind her. It was Blanche. She hurried across the grass toward them, and as she came closer they could see the tears shining wet on her cheeks.

  Jane was alarmed. ‘Blanche? Whatever is it?’

  Blanche flung herself into her arms. ‘Tell me it isn’t true!’ she begged, her voice choking on sobs. ‘Tell me Henry’s going to be here tonight after all! He is, Jane, isn’t he?’

  Jane held her close, looking in dismay at Lewis.

  Blanche seemed suddenly to become aware that Lewis was there too, for she drew back in embarrassment, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief and trying to stifle her sobs. In spite of her distress, it was plain that she was a little startled to find Jane out alone in the garden with the man who had betrayed her. ‘I – I’m sorry to make such a fuss,’ she said, struggling to fight back the tears, ‘it’s just that when Alicia told me—’

  ‘Alicia?’ Jane tossed Lewis a furious glance. So this was Alicia’s work, was it?

  ‘She – she said Henry was in Brighton and couldn’t possibly come to the ball. It isn’t true, is it, Jane?’

  ‘Well, he is in Brighton,’ confessed Jane, feeling quite dreadful, and furious with Alicia for having so callously broken such news to poor Blanche.

  Blanche was searching her face. ‘But he’s coming back tonight, isn’t he?’

  Lewis stepped in then. ‘He had every intention of being here, Blanche, he told me so, but now it’s as late as this, I can only think that something urgent has detained him.’

  Alarm leapt into her eyes. ‘You don’t think he’s had an accident, do you?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ he said quickly. ‘It’s most probably something to do with his coaching affairs. After all, he is a coachmaster now.’

  ‘Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.’

  ‘He’s a man of business, Blanche, and you know how seriously he takes it all.’

  ‘Yes.’ She sighed resignedly. ‘You’re right, of course, and it would have to be something very important to prevent him from being here. Oh dear, I feel a little foolish now, but when Alicia told me I was quite devastated. I think she thought I didn’t believe her, so she said I’d find you out here.’ Again, Blanche looked a little embarrassed, as if she’d interrupted an assignation.

  Jane tossed a dark look at the terrace where last she’d seen Alicia. That’s what all this was really about; Alicia was getting her own back for having been defeated on the stairs, and she was making sure that the tête-à-tête in the garden did not continue for a moment longer. How callous and spiteful to use poor Blanche.

  Blanche dabbed her eyes for a last time and then put the handkerchief away in her little reticule. ‘What a silly fuss I’ve made. What must you be thinking of me?’

  ‘I think you were quite justified,’ said Jane, ‘especially when Alicia told you such a story.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure she didn’t mean to upset me.’

  Jane had to bite back the reply that blistered to her lips at this, for there was no doubt in her mind that Alicia had meant everything.

  Blanche rearranged her boa. ‘I suppose I’d better go back. It won’t be the same now I know that Henry won’t be coming, but at least I know that he meant to.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘I kept hoping that he’d come and rescue me from the Duke of Dursley, who’s been a positive limpet all evening. Oh, before I forget, Jane, you are still coming to the exhibition with me tomorrow, aren’t you?’

  ‘Exhibition?’

  Blanche pretended to be a little cross. ‘There, I knew you’d manage to forget, because you loathe Dutch landscapes and I adore them.’

  ‘Oh, the paintings at the Hanover Square Rooms!’

  ‘Yes.’

  Jane smiled. ‘Of course
I’m still coming.’

  ‘Good. Now I really must return to the fray, before Papa wonders where I am. He’s being very difficult, Jane; he simply will not stop trying to persuade me that the Duke of Dursley would be a much finer catch than Henry. It’s Henry I love, though, so that’s that.’ With a last smile, she gathered her shimmering skirts and hurried away again.

  The incident had momentarily put Lewis’s previous ungentlemanly treatment out of Jane’s mind. She watched Blanche hurrying away. ‘Henry doesn’t deserve her; she’s far too good for him.’

  ‘I won’t argue with that.’

  ‘I didn’t enjoy fibbing to her.’

  ‘It was kinder than the truth.’

  ‘Yes, which is something dear Alicia might have considered.’

  ‘I intend speaking to her about it.’

  ‘Good, because if you don’t, I most certainly will!’

  ‘I can imagine. Still, it isn’t Alicia I’m concerned with at the moment, it’s more important to make certain that Henry doesn’t put his insensitive foot in it when he returns. We must see he’s armed with a story that tallies with what we’ve said, so working on the principle that what drives out of the Fleece in Thames Street must sooner or later drive back there again, I shall send a man there with a note informing Henry what’s been done on his undeserving behalf and warning him that unless he invents some suitably convincing excuse, he’ll have me to answer to.’ He looked at her then, as if waiting for something. ‘Well? Aren’t you going to thank me for my efforts?’

  She remembered his considerable transgression then. ‘To which effort do you refer, sir?’ she asked a little coldly.

  He smiled. ‘Ah, I see that you are recalling the incredibly ineffective damp I raised in you a little earlier.’