Fortunate Wager (16 page)

Calm, Solange, calm,
she willed urgently. What sort of stupid idea had this been? Whose complacent idiocy had suggested it? With the throng on the heath this afternoon there would be fatalities for sure if Solange bolted. Balked, the mare gave a last long quiver, then snorted and relaxed. Caroline had never been so thankful in her life. She lay for a moment more against the long, warm neck, feeling the sweat drip from her brow onto Solange’s mane, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.

‘We’ll do this again tomorrow,’ she murmured to Harry as they walked on. ‘I’ll take her home now.’

Harry and Flood exchanged glances. ‘Another quarter hour would be better if you can hold her,’ rumbled Flood. ‘We’ll not go anywhere near milord.’

Caroline bit her lip; she knew she was being a coward. More work now meant less on Thursday. Solange came first. She had to. ‘Very well,’ she agreed. And after all, what with the very real fear of physical danger both to herself and the crowd around them just then, her worries about being unmasked as a female seemed cobweb-puny by comparison.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw the lad Brown control Solange’s sideways skitter. He found he was holding his breath at the way both Harry and the groom radiated sudden tension. Not Brown, though. Even as Alex watched, he became one with the animal, soothing and calming her. Odd how the boy was ungainly when walking her, but a thing of beauty at any speed. It must be as Fortune had said, he was awkward out of his own milieu. Alex knew an absurd impulse to go after them and call the bet off, but here was Giles, pushing his horse through the crowd.

‘Ho, Alex, didn’t you hear me?’

Alex turned. ‘Giles. You are quite a stranger. I thought to have seen you these last two days at Cheveley.’ Although he was just as happy that he hadn’t.

Giles looked pleased with himself. ‘I have been frying other fish. Yesterday, for example, I was taking tea after church with a certain goldsmith’s daughter and her aunt. The trade connection is a trifle lowering, to be sure, but one has to make sacrifices.’

A shiver of distaste passed through Alex at Giles’s
cold-bloodedness
. ‘You are aware Miss Taylor considers herself engaged to young Fortune?’

His friend laughed. ‘There’s nothing in that. It is fathers who make matches, not pretty widgeons. One can always win
them
over in the bedchamber once the deed is done. And with this particular widgeon, it will not even be a hardship.’

‘You are not serious?’ said Alex, the appalling sentiment sticking in his craw.

‘Of course I am. She’s a gift. How often does one run across an heiress whose papa is in love with the aristocracy? A baronet’s son may not be as good as a lord, but he was mightily impressed by my castle.’

‘He wouldn’t be if he saw it.’

The satisfied expression slipped. ‘Dammit, Alex, it’s all very well for you with a thriving estate to draw on for funds, I’m damn near rolled up.’

‘My
funds
as you call them, require work and good husbandry to replenish. If you would only take time to add to the farms your godfather left you, you too would reap the benefit.’

‘What? Go up to Yorkshire to dicker with a pack of thieves? You must be mad.’ Giles rose in his saddle, craning to see over the crowd. ‘Looks as if they’ll be off soon. Osman’s a cert for this one, don’t you think? By the by, Alex, if today goes badly, I’ll need to borrow a thousand until the quarter.’

Only wager what you can afford to lose.

‘No,’ said Alex slowly. ‘No, I really think it is time you stood on your own feet. I am not going to be your emergency purse any more.’

Giles shrugged. ‘As you like. But I don’t know what else you are going to do with your money.’

Caroline’s face appeared in Alex’s mind. ‘I may have some thoughts of marriage,’ he said off-handedly.
Marriage
. The word tasted strange on his tongue. But the images it brought with it were catch-breath seductive.

Giles’s laughter could be heard well above the crowd. ‘No really, that’s coming it too strong! What, you? Leg-shackled to one of those chattering, fawning, society ladies you despise? You’d be divorced within a day. Far better to lend me a couple of thousand than to tamely hand your bank-book into their pretty little claws.’

Alex’s thoughts snapped back. ‘A couple of thousand is it now? If you are that far in tick, you shouldn’t bet.’

Already setting off for the start, Giles glanced at him in amazement. ‘Stap me, that villain must have hit you harder than we knew. Come to Newmarket and not bet? Now I know you are mad.’

Giles’s favoured horse didn’t win, but there was no sign of annoyance on his face as they moved back up the flat to the Rowley Mile marker for the next race. ‘The meeting’s young yet,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I fancy Domine Sampson next.’

Alex frowned, his attention caught. Wasn’t Domine Sampson the horse Caroline and Harry had mentioned as having
performed more poorly than expected at the previous meeting? He was about to drop a warning, but was distracted by catching sight of an unexpected face. ‘Why is Jessop here?’ he exclaimed. ‘I left him no such orders. He should be at the White Hart still.’

‘He brought my spare mount,’ said Giles.

‘What is wrong with your own man?’

‘I let him go. Too unreliable. I knew you wouldn’t mind me using Jessop while you were laid up.’

Alex felt another spurt of annoyance. First Giles was annexing his money, now his grooms. And he was unworried about losing his previous stake and proposed to throw good money after bad now. Yes, he had been the same ever since they were boys, but … ‘You may keep Jessop,’ he said abruptly. ‘I will make you over the papers tonight.’

‘Eh?’ Paying for the man himself evidently hadn’t been in Giles’s plan. ‘But then you’ll be a groom short.’

‘Not so. I am leaving Solange at Penfold Lodge.’

Giles roared with laughter a second time. ‘Alex, your wits are turning! You are never imagining that greenhorn puppy really can turn your widowmaker into a race winner?’

It was fortunate that Chieftain was such a composed horse. A more highly-strung animal might have started trampling around, the way his rider was mangling the reins. ‘It matters not,’ said Alex curtly. ‘Miss Caroline Fortune has expressed a wish to purchase her.’

‘Ha! The chit’s as soft in the head as her brother. I’d get the money off her before the race if I were you, Alex. You won’t get it after.’ He plunged into the ring of gentlemen around the betting post.

Alex nudged Chieftain away and over towards where the Duke of Rutland was holding court. To be sure, two days was not that long a test period to give oneself, but he thought he might usefully call on Caroline tomorrow. To thank her, of course. And to mention Giles visiting Miss Taylor. A friendly act, that was all. Nothing else.

Yet.

‘My lord, this is an unexpected surprise.’ Caroline could not mask the thrill of pleasure Alexander’s entry into the morning room gave her.

‘I hope I am not disturbing you?’

He did not look overly concerned that she might have better things to do. ‘Not at all,’ she said politely. ‘Mrs Penfold is mastering a singularly complicated new stitch and I am wondering how best to account to my cousin for all the hay we have fed to the horses this month. What do you think? Should I hide it amongst the corn and the oats and lay the whole tally boldly before him, though he might suffer a seizure on his eyes leaping immediately to the total? Or should I lead up to it gradually with the final sum tucked over the page?’

‘As I have never met your cousin, I cannot say. For myself I prefer to know straight away what I must deal with.’

‘I should have guessed you would not hold with flummery.’ It was absurd that she couldn’t seem to think straight. There were so many things she wanted to talk to him of, but she had lost the knack of launching into them. ‘My brother tells me he saw you yesterday. I hope you had better luck than he did.’

He hailed the subject with alacrity. Was it possible that he was also finding conversation difficult? Caroline could not help but be gratified. ‘No, I did not,’ he said now, ‘and I must take you both to task for sending me wrong. I am quite sure I remember you mentioned Grafton’s Minuet as a sound horse and yet Lake’s Domine Sampson trounced her yesterday and lost me my stake.’

Caroline chuckled. ‘That will teach you not to be guided by anything other than your own good sense. We lost too.’

‘As did several others. I tell you, Giles had to be very circumspect indeed last night since Grafton was dining at Cheveley with us.’

‘Ah.’ Caroline took a deep breath. She did not want to do this, to break the pleasure of seeing him again properly for the first
time in three days, but she had her duty as a friend to think of. ‘That leads me to something I would as lief not mention. It is fortunate you are here, my lord. I had a letter from Louisa this morning.’

But Alexander spoke at the same time. ‘In actual fact I came to warn you—’

He broke off and she met his eyes, astonished. ‘About Mr d’Arblay?’

‘I … yes.’

Caroline’s heart leapt as she hastily rearranged what she had been going to say. She had really not expected him to feel guilty on Mr d’Arblay’s account. Oh, she was so glad she had misjudged him. She wasted a full minute praising him to herself. ‘I beg your pardon. I know he is your friend, but I find I cannot repose any trust in him.’

He leant forward and removed from her hands the pen she had been fiddling with. ‘Be easy, you will break it. I was going to tell you Giles has been laying siege to the alderman. He
has
been my friend for many years, and frequently a good companion. He may even be genuinely attached to Miss Taylor. But I fear he has a want of steadiness that would make him an unsuitable husband.’

It was an enormous admission from a man who was so much in the habit of being right. Caroline could not compound his sense of his own failings further. She was proud of him for admitting as much and indeed, for her purposes, it would suffice. She had been dreading pointing out to him, for example, that had Lady Jersey not arrived at that inn in Stamford, Giles would have been perfectly placed to dismiss Alexander’s sister’s suitor with a grand flourish himself and offer comfort. Almost certainly a lot more comfort than the spoilt young heiress bargained for. Giles going straight to the George while Alexander chased one false trail after another indeed! It smacked of so much contrivance, Caroline was astonished Alexander hadn’t seen it for himself. ‘Will you talk to Louisa’s father?’ she asked.

He looked startled. ‘I? Betray Giles to a man I hardly know? Such an undertaking would be unthinkable.’

Caroline’s spirits fell. Of course it would be impossible. She kept forgetting that he had only recently come amongst them. Even so, she made one last attempt. ‘It is well known in the town that you pay his bills. Just mentioning that fact to Alderman Taylor might be sufficient.’

His face twisted as if she had given him a draught of some particularly noxious medicine. ‘Well known?’

‘Yes. At least, it is to me because I talk to our grooms. In Newmarket we are sadly used to impecunious young men spending freely what they do not have, and have learnt to identify them and whether payment is likely to be forthcoming from
whatever
source. It will not be such common report in Bury St Edmunds though, so the alderman is unlikely to be aware of the situation.’

Profound distaste crossed Alexander’s face. ‘Caroline, I cannot.’ He jumped up and took a hasty turn about the room.

Feeling wretched, Caroline glanced over at Mrs Penfold, absorbed in her knitting, then straightened her back and followed Alexander to where he was staring rigidly out of the far window. He didn’t turn around.

‘Have I done this?’ he asked in a low, strained voice. ‘Have I caused Giles to be this way because I do always settle his accounts?’

Caroline thought it very likely, but only said, ‘It is understandable. You are his friend. You do not want to see Mr d’Arblay in a debtors’ prison any more than I want to see Louisa trapped in an unhappy marriage. I am sorry. I did not mean to put you in an untenable position. Please consider the request unmade.’

He sighed. ‘I suppose it would not be thought so very out of the ordinary for me to ride over and purchase a gold chain or some such for my mother?’

Caroline glowed with pride in him. ‘Not out of the ordinary at all,’ she said.

‘Or …’ He hesitated. ‘Or if you wished to visit your friend, I could offer you my escort?’

Caroline moistened her lips, her heart thudding. In truth, she would like that very much, but she remembered only too well what had happened the last time they were in a closed carriage together. Prospective Members of Parliament could have nothing to do with the daughters of gentleman trainers. She had already accepted that, hard though it was. Lord Rothwell would not be compromised simply because Miss Fortune was weak. ‘That is kind of you indeed, but Louisa is to come to me in any event on Thursday. She is as anxious as we are about the race. Perhaps you should take your mama? I daresay she would enjoy the fine architecture of the town.’

Alexander looked at her with stark incredulity. ‘Good God, Caroline, you have the most appalling suggestions of anyone I have ever met. If I take Mama, you must go too, or I shall run mad. Will ten o’clock tomorrow suit you?’

It was Caroline’s turn to be startled. ‘Why yes, but I … That is, we may not be back in time for you to get to the racing.’

‘Giles would no doubt think it heresy, but it will not hurt me to miss one day.’ He took polite leave of an abstracted Mrs Penfold. Caroline followed him into the hall. As the footman handed him his hat, he turned back. ‘Do
you
think it heresy?’ he asked.

Now where was his mind skipping to? Caroline blinked, bewildered. There was a confused hurry of feelings in her breast. Aside from the agitation that she would once more be in company with him the whole morning, there was also the knowledge that he had come to Newmarket for the racing, he had already missed a week of it, and he would miss more whilst performing a distasteful errand purely on her friend’s account. A friend that he himself had no particular feelings for. He was a long way from the man he had seemed a month ago.