A Fine Caprice - A Regency Romance (10 page)

‘What would you want me to do?’ she asked slowly, wondering what on earth he could possibly want with the likes of Jem Morris?
And how she was going to gracefully say no. He had already intimated that there were no live in servants so he might be after some willing staff.
If the state of the place were anything to go by, that seemed entirely likely.
But surely he wouldn’t want her to scrub and clean? He could hire any number of women for that
for there was probably a village nearby
.

‘That requires some explanation, one that can probably wait until morning. Why don’t you -’

‘Merridew? Is that you?’

The high, rather querulous voice came from the hallway, startling them both.
Caprice
heard a quick, soft curse but a sharp glance at his lordship’s face found it impassive
. ‘In here, Hadley,’ he drawled.
‘Dear me, did we wake you?’

‘I heard the sound of a commotion,
’
and then,
‘w
e
?’ A figure, a very startling, rather ridiculous
figure, appeared in the doorway and
Caprice
blinked as she took in the new arrival
. The gentleman was wearing a padded silk dressing gown of a particularly
virulent shade
of puce, gold braiding secured by jewelled toggles
fasten
ing
it. This dressing gown, coupled
with a pair of matching slippers that curled upwards at the toes
a la Arabian Nights,
made
the outfit
the most peculiar that
Caprice
had ever seen and she gawped at the
tall, slender creature in the doorway
incredulously. He
looked around,
exp
ression
one
of supercilious enquiry and this was immediately
reinforced
when he raised the
quizzing glass he was holding
to stare at her
for a long moment
, before directing his gaze to the broken pieces of plate on the floor
. He dropped it lan
guidly. ‘Has there been an accident
?’ he mused, tone reflective.

‘A plate fell off the sideboard. Nothing of any consequence.’

The gentleman’s eyes wandered around the room with distaste.
‘
Hardly
unexpected
, all things considered
.
What a jay our dearest uncle was.’ His eyes returned to
Caprice
.
‘And j
ust
who do we have here?’

Like
his outfit
, the
new arrivals voice was
affected, each vowel painfully compressed in
to a kind of lisping drawl
.
Surely
,
Caprice
thought with considerable
amazement
,
the man standing before her must be
the heigh
t of fashion in London
for there was no other explanation for him dressing in such a way. Certainly
the fellow could not
possibly
hale from the country but
must have come
from
somewhere far more cosmopolitan.
Europe, at the very least, if not from even more foreign climes.
His thin
, bon
y
face did not
possess
the good looks of Lord Merridew but instead seemed to wear an expression of deep-seated hauteur, as if he knew his own worth far better than the world around him ever could
and
would be happy to share this opinion if asked. T
he lines around his mouth seemed to
suggest that he
sneer
ed frequently
.

Caprice
took an immediate dislike to him.

‘My ser
vant, newly arrived from London
,
Ravener,
’ his lordship said easily. ‘He got lost and made rather a late entrance.’

‘Your servant?
I did not know you were expecting anybody.
’

‘Ah, but I do not tell you everything.’

‘And why should you?’
Pale blue eyes ran over
Caprice
again, narrowing a little
as he walked forward slowly
.
‘Surely not
a substitute for your missing valet
.
This creature is s
o young, Merridew.
I refuse to believe that he has the talent to do the job
adequately
,’ he shook his head
in consternation.
‘
How foolish of you to entrust yourself to unskilled hands. Especially when I have already
assure
d
you
that I am prepared to
make the sacrifice and
share Bessant. I take
up
a lot of his time
, it is true,
but
I am prepared to do what I must for the sake of family. And it should not be
too arduous
,’ his eyes
flickered towards his lordship,
‘for a
man with such a robust constitution
as yours
requires very little
to prepare him for the world
where as I require a great deal. Perfection is something we all chase, wouldn’t you say?’

Before Lord Merridew could say anything
at all
, there came a high-pitched yapping
on the stairs
and a voic
e that was unmistakably female,
velvety low
and heavily accented. ‘
Oh now, Minouche, do not be so silly. Ya, ya, ya… such a fuss you make!’

A small French bulldog
bounded into the room, still yap
ping, dark eyes bulging
as it
span around in a
circle
, b
arking at the little gathering with single-minded
– and utterly misguided – enthusiasm
. A female, also clad in a dressing gown although this one dripped lace and satin and was exquisitely
a la mode
, appeared in the doorway. She was
a
glorious
vision,
chestnut hair artfully arranged,
enormous, cornflower blue eyes fringed with ridiculously long lashes above a perfect little nose and a pink flower bud of a mouth. Once again,
Caprice
found herself gaping. This, she decided dazedly, was quite the
most extraordinary
house party
she had ever attended
.

‘Honestly beloved,’ the man his lordship had addressed as Ravener half turned to the woman, ‘can’t you silence that dreadful animal? He quite makes my head ache.’

‘Oh
p
ff
s
t,’ she
said, pursing her perfect lips. ‘Minouche
is merely sensitive. Aren’t you,
moi petit fleur
?
He is a good guard dog.
’

‘That would be true if there were something to guard,’ Ravener returned dryly.
‘The beast merely likes the sound of his own voice.’

Caprice
was puzzled by the woman’s accent.
She speaks French
, she
thought
, trying to catch up with what was becoming
a
n
increasingly peculiar
group,
and
while she speaks it very well,
she isn’t French. The accent is wrong, somehow.

‘You just do not like my little one but he would most assuredly protect me with his very life, he is so noble. I think you are merely jealous, my dear one.’

‘
On the contrary, I am delighted that the little rat gives you a sense of security. So hard to come by in these difficult times
,’ Ravener sniffed, hunching a petulant shoulder. ‘Why are you up, my dear? You know you need your beauty sleep.’

‘More than you?’ the woman purred, ‘I think not. I
am up for the v
ery same reason you are
. I
heard
a crash and
voices and wondered what was to do.
I was naturally concerned about you.
’ While she spoke her eyes rested on
Caprice
, inquisitive and sharply curious.

‘Naturally,’ Ravener agreed wearily.

‘Who do we have here?’
the woman inquired.

Caprice
heard Lord Merridew’s sigh at her shoulder.
‘A servant of mine.
H
e became lost and arrived here rather
late. My apologies if we disturbed you.
I was just sending him off to his bed.’

‘Oh, well then,’ the woman smiled, giving
Caprice
an enchanting smile.
‘To bed then,
mes enfant
.
You are clearly weary.’

Caprice
glanced at Lord Merridew, who nodded. ‘Of you go. We shall speak in the morning.’

Relieved, for really, she was drooping with exhaustion, she slipped out of the room and headed towards the stairs. There was a small silence from behind her and then the woman spoke. ‘We all seem to be
very
light sleepers.’

‘It is one of my many curses,’ Ravener mourned. ‘But how fortunate that my dear cousin is also such a light sleeper. La, if I had awoken to find some strange youth wandering about the
place I would have been in
a
dreadful
state
for my nerves are
exceedingly delicate
.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you underestimate yourself,’ his lordship said dryly. ‘You are made of much sterner stuff than that, surely.’

Despite her desire for bed,
Caprice
mounted the stairs slowly, listening to the exchange, bewildered by the curious undercurrents that seemed to lie beneath every word. Who
were
these people?

‘On the contrary,’ Ravener insisted sweetly, ‘
it has always been my affliction. My disposition is
very fragile
, you know
.
Although I daresay you don’t. You don’t appear to possess any nerves.
’

‘Not noticeably. Now that we all know what the
fuss was about, I suggest we
return to
our
own
bed
s
,’ Lord Merridew suggested coolly. ‘I would be loathed to fray your
poor
nerves any further. Your highness
,’ he added, ‘I bid you goodnight once more.’

‘Goodnig
ht,’ the lady in question murmured
. ‘Sleep well, dear Lord Merridew.’

Highness
? What on earth?
Caprice
shook
her head and scurried
up
the last few steps, unwilling to look as if she had been eavesdropping
. Certainly it was all very odd but she was sure to learn more on the morrow
when his lordship expanded on the reasons he wished to employ her
.
And if he didn’t elaborate enough, well, she would just have to ask.

O
n the third floor
,
she
spent a few minutes explor
ing her surroundings
. Surprisingly, the clutter that littered the two floors down below had no
t migrated upwards and the
floor was refreshingly sparse in its furnishings. She
s
elected the most comfortable bed
she could find i
n the largest room she
could find
,
possibly
once
the bedchamber of the
housekeeper
although
clearly long gone if the state of the house was any indication
.

‘She was probably murde
red and buried in the garden,
’
Caprice
muttered, pulling off her boots and shrugging
wearily
out of her jacket. She
thought wistfully of that
warm bath
she had been anticipating at her friend’s house
,
which would have been
followed by a clean nightgown
(
neither of which were
likely
to be hers in the near future
, it seemed) and crawled gratefully beneath the blankets
. They
smelled musty
and were just a little damp
but she didn’t care. They were a great deal
more agreeable than a bale of hay
, which she had discovered could prickle the skin, making a good night
’
s sleep a challenge
.
Besides, after four days in the saddle she
was hardly smelling
of roses herself so musty sheets were of no consequence.
She sighed, twisting this way and that, looking for the most comfortable place on the mattress.