Jack of Hearts (5 page)

“She’s a fine lady, Miss Heriot.”

“She’s no lady, Sergeant, but a Cit’s daughter come to London to buy herself a title,” the footman replied disdainfully.

“So ye mean that her father actually worked for his fortune, unlike some of those lazy gobshites that call themselves gentlemen?” Gillen said in a deceptively friendly tone.

“It is my ambition to work in one of the great houses in London, sir. This is only my second position, and I see it as a stepping-stone,” the footman replied stiffly.

“Well, I recommend ye find yer next stone, for I’ll have none waitin’ on Miss Heriot that insults her.”

“What gives you the right?”

“No one gives me any rights, boyo. I take what is my right. Now I suggest ye pack yer things and be off before I throw ye off,” he added threateningly.

The footman, who was one of the servants Anne had recently hired, evidently decided that the job wasn’t worth the risk to his person and his dignity, and he was gone before supper.

* * * *

“I thought Thomas was to help you serve, Peters,” said Anne, as her butler served them their soup.

“Thomas has taken himself off, Miss Heriot.”

“Taken himself off? He seemed to be very pleased with the position when I hired him.”

“The word is, miss, that your new groom made a strong, ah, suggestion to Thomas.” Peter’s face showed nothing, but there was a hint of humor in his voice as he announced the facts. He had considered Thomas a young snob who didn’t know how lucky he was to be working for a fair and generous employer.

Anne raised her eyebrows. “Sergeant Gillen ran my footman off? Please send for him and have him wait in the library.”

“Yes, Miss Heriot.”

* * * *

“She wants me in the library, does she?”

“I am afraid so, Sergeant Gillen. Although I was quite happy to see the back of young Thomas, I am not sure Miss Heriot is.”

Shite, thought Patrick as he brushed off his trousers and smoothed his hair. He should have controlled his temper. But that young fool had irritated him, acting as though he was too good to work for a woman who was braver than any thirty omadhauns like him.

He presented himself immediately and had to stand and wait in the hallway until Anne was finished her coffee.

“Go ahead on to the drawing room, Sarah, and I will be with you directly,” Anne told her companion. “Good afternoon, Sergeant. I hear that I am minus a footman thanks to you.”

“Em, yes, miss.”

“You are here less than an hour, and you scare off one of my servants! Did I make a mistake in hiring you?”

“No, Miss Heriot. Beggin’ yer pardon, miss. I do have a bit of a temper, though, I’ll give ye that.”

“But what could he possibly have said to make you so angry?”

“He wasn’t respectful, miss.”

“What do you mean? He didn’t salute you? You are not in the army anymore, you know.”

“It was not about me, Miss Heriot. He said something about you…”

“About me?” Anne was astonished. “Why, Thomas hardly knew me. I am sure he was treated well…”

“It had nothing to do with you, miss. I called you a ‘fine lady’ and he took the trouble to tell me ye weren’t one.”

“So tha was defending a cloth maker’s daughter, then, Sergeant?” said Anne, her voice softening and falling into Yorkshire, as she occasionally did.

“As I told the young shite…” Gillen’s face grew red. “I beg your pardon, miss, for my language.”

Anne knew she should be shocked, but she was only amused. “I have heard the word before, Sergeant,” she told him with dry humor.

“Anyway, I told him he should be proud to work for someone whose money came from honest work, and then I threw him out.” Gillen hesitated. “Em, thinking about it now that I am calmer, I could have handled it better. Now I’ve left you shorthanded.”

“I suppose I should dismiss you, Sergeant Gillen, but I must confess that I am grateful to you,” Anne told him with a smile. “I don’t want anyone working for me who is ashamed or unhappy to be in my service. I value loyalty as much as hard work.”

“I promise I won’t scare anyone else off,” Gillen assured her with a grin. “And ye’ll get both loyalty and hard work from me.”

“I am sure of it. Are you comfortable in the mews?”

“ ‘Tis luxurious compared to where I’ve been, Miss Heriot.”

“I will have Peters survey it, and if you need any bedding or furnishings, he will take care of it.”

* * * *

“Did you get to the bottom of things, Anne?” Sarah asked when her friend sat down opposite her. “Do you need to hire a new groom now as well as hire another footman?”

“Sergeant Gillen will do very well. Evidently Thomas was unhappy working in a household whose mistress was not a real lady.” Anne said it ironically, but Sarah could hear the hurt beneath the irony. “The sergeant ‘suggested’ that he find a place more to his liking.”

“So you have a loyal supporter.”

“It seems I do. And I’ll need all the support I can get when even the servants here are snobs. I am beginning to get a little nervous about the ball tomorrow night. I will feel like Daniel walking into the lion’s den!’

“I will be right behind you, Anne, and the Astons beside you.”

“I appreciate your presence more than you will ever know, Sarah.”

And truly, without Sarah at her side, Anne doubted she would have made it up the steps of the Hairston town house. Even though she had met the duke and duchess and knew that the Astons would be there, the sight of all the fine ladies and gentlemen going up the steps made her want to turn and run.

“Maybe leaving all this in Mr. Blaine’s hands would have been the better way,” she said in a low voice.

“Nonsense,” Sarah replied briskly, although she herself was inwardly trembling at the thought of the daunting evening ahead of them. “I may not agree with your method of finding a husband, but if it is to be done, ‘twere better it were done…”

“Quickly,” quipped Anne, with a little of her usual humor.

Sarah smiled. “I was actually going to say ‘in person.’ ”

The duke and duchess were very kind to them on the receiving line, giving Anne a minute or two longer than most of their guests, and thereby signaling that she was someone of importance to them. Even so, when Anne heard “Miss Heriot and Miss Wheeler” announced, she froze at the top of the ballroom steps, feeling that all eyes were upon her, most of them disapproving. But she saw Elspeth moving toward her with an encouraging smile, and that broke her paralysis. She descended the stairs with her head held high.

“You look beautiful, Anne,” Elspeth told her as she took her friend’s arm. “You are so lucky to be petite,” she added. “I always feel like a great gawk!”

“But you have such a slender figure,” Anne replied. “And I have always wished for more height. Sarah is just perfect, of course.”

“I am a bit too old for perfection,” Sarah protested.

“Now don’t be nervous, either of you,” Elspeth said reassuringly as they approached a small group that included her husband and father-in-law. “Val has made sure that his army friends will keep you busy. But not so busy that you don’t have room on your cards for anyone else,” she added.

Anne was chagrined to see that Lord Aldborough was a part of the group, but she supposed it was inevitable that she would encounter him first, given his friendship with the Astons. She acknowledged his greeting with a cool nod and then turned to the others as she was introduced around. Within a few minutes, her first few dances were spoken for, between Lord Faringdon, Val, and two officers. By the time Jack Belden requested a place on her card, the only free dance she had was a waltz.

“I am delighted to take your first waltz, Miss Heriot.”

“Thank you, my lord,” she replied politely, thinking that her strategy of ignoring him had only backfired. She would have been more comfortable with him in a less intimate dance.

“Come, Anne, I see Lord Windham over there. Let me introduce you,” said Elspeth.

* * * *

So Windham was another one on her “list,” thought Jack as he watched Anne walk away. He wondered whether the younger man would be a serious competitor. He was classically handsome, in a very English way, with curly blond hair and blue eyes. From everything Jack knew of him, he was a responsible man of honor who had the sympathy of everyone in Society. His father’s suicide had been a topic of gossip for weeks. Then Lady Julia Lovett had broken her engagement to the new earl. Everyone knew, of course, that he had gone to her father first and offered to release her from her commitment. Since theirs had had the appearance of a love match, Society was even more sympathetic to Windham’s plight.

Now Lady Julia was often seen in the company of the Viscount Barrett and was rumored to be considering him as a possible husband, And her ex-fiancé was likely going to try to rescue his estate by courting Anne Heriot.

Well, Jack had sympathy for the earl too and hated for him to suffer yet another disappointment. But there were other Cit’s daughters waiting in the wings. Anne Heriot was going to be Lady Aldborough, or what was the use of his being the Jack of Hearts!

* * * *

Lord Windham impressed Anne with his quiet friendliness and, she had to admit, his open-faced good looks, and she was glad that she had been introduced just in time for him to put himself down as her supper companion.

When the music began, Anne was claimed by one partner after another. She was very grateful that the first two were Val and his father, for by the time Lord Faringdon turned her over to Captain Scott, she was relaxed and feeling able to hold her own.

When she heard the orchestra strike up the first, waltz, however, she felt her initial nervousness return as Lord Aldborough approached her and led her out onto the dance floor.

“You look lovely tonight, Miss Heriot,” he said smoothly as he put his hand around her waist.

“Thank you, my lord.”

Lord Aldborough was the tallest of her partners, and Anne had to lift her chin in order to meet his eyes. They were so dark and his face so brown from his years in Spain and his Spanish heritage, that she felt almost blond in comparison, she realized with an involuntary smile.

“Does something amuse you, Miss Heriot?”

Anne could have given him some polite nonsense like “I am enjoying the music, my lord,” but for some reason she didn’t quite understand, she was her more natural, blunt self.

“I am so used to being considered brown that I am quite enjoying the fact that you make me appear almost fashionably fair!”

“I can sympathize, Miss Heriot, having been considered a singular specimen for years.” Lord Aldborough gave a sigh, and Anne was sure it was intended to elicit her sympathy and interest.

“But then tha art a man, Lord Aldborough,” she told him in her broadest Yorkshire, “and most likely t’young ladies only find you fascinatingly different! In fact, I’ve heard tha’rt popular with many of them,” she added, with a challenging glint in her eyes. Anne felt as though she’d thrown down a metaphorical glove.

Lord Aldborough sighed again, this time with patent theatricality. “I fear my reputation has reached you already. I assure you, it is quite undeserved,” he added as he put a little pressure on her waist to guide her away from an approaching couple.

Anne was very aware of the length and slenderness of his hand through the thin silk of her gown, and she stumbled a little in a sudden return of nerves. Lord Aldborough gently shifted his hand, almost lifting her out of her misstep, and then they were gliding easily around the room again.

She had not anticipated being quite so
aware
of Lord Aldborough, and she was grateful when their dance was over and he returned her to Elspeth and Sarah. Of course, someone so practiced with women would be expert at making them aware of him, she told herself as she watched him approach Lady Mary, the younger daughter of Lord Pringle. As he bent over the young lady’s hand, Anne saw her face light up. “No, tha reputation is not undeserved, my lord,” she whispered with a sense of relief at the return of her objectivity. “But tha practiced moves will do nowt with me!”

* * * *

When Lord Windham came to claim his quadrille, Anne gave him her warmest smile. As they were brought together by the patterns of the dance, he complimented her on her gracefulness. Although it was what any partner might have said, Lord Windham spoke with such sincerity that Anne felt disarmed. As they went in for supper, Anne noticed a number of ladies looking at her enviously, and she was secretly amused. Under any other circumstances, it was unlikely that Windham would have asked her to dance, much less chosen her as his supper partner.

But as the two of them chatted over their lobster patties, Anne decided that whatever the circumstances, she liked Lord Windham very much. He was open and natural and sounded genuinely interested in Yorkshire.

“I have heard spectacular things about the dales, Miss Heriot,” he told her. “One of my old school friends spent a month walking the Pennines. He found the moors quite romantic!”

Anne smiled. “I love my home, my lord. But I have never thought of the hills and moors as romantic. They are cold, windy, and lonely places, hard on sheep and shepherd alike.”

“But isn’t that loneliness itself romantic?”

“I am as fond as anyone of long tramps, but I am always glad to return home to a warm fire and a hot cup of tea. If you get to know me, you will find I am a very practical woman. Not a bit of romance in me, according to my companion, Miss Wheeler,” she added with a smile.

“I hope I may get to know you better, Miss Heriot,” Windham responded, flushing slightly.

“I would like that, my lord.”

He gave her a teasing smile. “I am sure, Miss Heriot, that I will discover at least a little romance in you.”

* * * *

“Did you have a good time tonight, Sarah?” asked Anne, as they rode home in the early-morning hours. “I noticed that you had your share of dance partners.”

“I should have been sitting with all the other companions. It would have been far more fitting. But Mr. Aston and Lord Faringdon insisted on partnering me, and then their friends followed their example. I enjoyed myself very much,” she added, with a half-apologetic, half-defiant laugh.