Lilly (4 page)

“Aunt!  And you didn’t think that important?”
Lilly shouted, disappointment hitting her like a blow to the stomach.

“All men do
it dear, it’s the town way.  He is unmarried and can be given leeway.”

“Sister, you are
ridiculous to think so, that beautiful kind Lilly should live with a man of such behaviors, it’s unforgivable,” Aunt Mary growled.

As the two sisters bickered,
Lilly wondered what else was true about the handsome Lord Randall.

“He called me nam
es to my face.  I was thinking, did he do that in town?  Talk about me I mean, ridicule me?” Lilly asked, realizing how far his behavior might have stretched.

“A little,” Aunt Ellen admitted.  “I
had a letter from a London acquaintance and the earl’s mistresses have told everyone about Lilly Brown Mouse they call you.”

Lilly
looked up in dismay and her eyes flooded with tears, never had she been a target of such vile spite.  Lilly was used to being loved and liked by her neighbors and friends.  This news of her name being ridiculed in London, for hundreds to hear, made her blush red.

“You heard that and said nothing?” Aunt Mary cried.

“Yes, alright I confess I did and worse.  It is also said he intends to leave you in the country Lilly, after the wedding, and return to his other women in town,” Aunt Ellen confessed, tears in her own eyes now.

“Great devil’s teeth aunt.  What you would have put me into.  Why?”
Lilly cried.

“Because he’s very wealthy dear and your father
Franklin is ill and you must be settled.”

“What do you mean ill?”

“His heart, for years he’s had pains and they grow worse every year.  He’s almost seventy Lilly and you must not be left alone.”

Both of her aunts started to cry and between
their shouting and shrieking, Lilly stood and left the table.

All at once no one seemed trustworthy or sound. 
Lilly felt like she’d been thrown off a fast moving ship of the line and left to fight off sharks in cold water.  A part of her wanted to just stop swimming and sink slowly and painlessly to the bottom.  Go deeper, darker, and colder until she could not see the light, or dream, or desire love again.

Lilly
went outside and walked to the stables.  All the laborers were at their supper and she mounted Midnight astride, without a saddle just adding a bridle and rode down the lane inside their small private park.

……….

Reece Randall was on his way over to the Castleford manor when he noticed a lady mounted on a familiar black horse, sitting astride, her yellow gown visible in the evening’s light.  He would know her anywhere.  Lady Lilly Castleford, his intended.

“Hold up,” he called.

Lilly turned and tried not to scream, what a ridiculous day.  She closed her eyes and imagined herself wearing a suit of ancient armor, protected, distant; oblivious to hurt and sharpened her voice.

“Oh you, are you looking for the Bainbridge’s estate, they have three daughters, are you meeting all three?  They’re ove
r that last hill and then North.”

He sighed
.

“No, I was coming to see you.”

She noticed he was looking at her long bare legs, now showing from sitting astride in a day gown, the fabric bunched above her knees.  She let him, who cared.  She wasn’t going to be a sixteen year old virgin and pull on her skirts.  She sat on her own property.  He was the intruder.  Let him see what he lost, the cad.

“Want
to toss out more insults about my mousy appearance?  I heard from my aunt tonight that you’ve made me the talk of London.  I hear I’m a pitiful creature, ugly and dull, who agreed to marry you and stay hidden from mankind, to make your mistresses happy.  How noble you made me sound.”

He had t
he grace to blush and she let her frustration fly.

“Go into the village and you’ll hear another view of me.  It might surprise you, but I am well liked here.  Not at all stupid and some half blind persons
dare to call me pretty.  Whatever are you back here for?”

“I still want to marry you,
” Reece confessed, knowing how ridiculous it sounded.

Lilly
burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.  She wiped tears from her eyes and realized it felt good to laugh again.

“You do think me
dimwitted.  Listen, go home, take both of your mistresses to bed and fornicate your rotten life away.  I wouldn’t let you touch me,” Lilly growled with strong feeling. 

She lived in th
e country, heard the men in the fields talk, her father and his military friends; Lilly wasn’t above listening at the doorway, she had some spice to her vocabulary.  It was enjoyable to finally use it on such a deserving target.

Lilly
turned her horse and started riding home, he followed her.  She stopped and turned around.

“What?”
She asked, with a huff.

“No one has ever talked to me that way, well p
erhaps my brother, but no lady.  I’m not sure I like it, but I admire your courage,” Reece said, riding closer to her.

“It’s about time
someone did.  Tell me, the charity boards in London, are you really on any of them?”

“What? No.”

“Your trips abroad with your brother, your adventures in Italy, was that your history, or the clerks?”

“His.”

“Have you ever done a kind act in your life?”

“I’m generous, my mistres
ses have more jewelry than the Crown.”

“I mean without getting something back,
pleasure in return?”

“I suppose so.”

Lilly laughed again.  He was easy to talk to, she would like him if she didn’t hate him.

“You have not.  You live life as if it’s designed just to please you.  You don’t care w
ho you hurt, or what the after effects are, you just go on to new adventures, turn more despotic and cold.  You lead a worthless life.  Your heart is as empty as my purse.”

“I could fix that.  I can
take care of you, your father, and your aunt,” he offered, trying to find something redeeming about himself.

Lilly
looked at him and stared, waiting for him to flinch, but he looked right back into her eyes in earnest regard.

“Buy me you mean?  Why
bother?  There must be hundreds of poor victims out there waiting for your handsome face to hurt them.”

“I want you,
” Lord Randall said, looking at her leg again.

He couldn’t be serious.

“I suspect you are baiting me.  Are you trying to get me to react so you can take this new tale home?  A story about how the brown mouse would accept you, even knowing what you did?  I don’t understand a man like you.”

“For the first time in my life, I think I’m beginning to understand myself.”

“A revelation?  Halleluiah!  ‘Go away and sin no more,’” she paraphrased. 

“You could inspire
me to be a better man,” he said, sounding very serious.

“I could, if I wanted to, but I don’t.  Marry
one of your mistresses, spend your fortune, and wallow in your shallowness.  You enjoy it,” Lilly said, a sting in her tone.

“If you were a man I’d drag
you off that horse,” Reece said in anger.

“Yes, the truth must hurt in your case.  Goodbye again Lord Randall.”

Suddenly he rode right next to her and grabbed her bridle, Midnight fighting the hold.

“You wrote me letters, they contained promises.  I will sue you for breach
of contract!”

“
What a temper.  Don’t be silly, you never read my letters.  I promised nothing.  Unlike you I don’t plan a marriage that coldly, without meeting the other person first.  You think you can sue me?  Are you so used to getting your own way?  What has made you so angry?” Lilly fired questions at him, genuinely puzzled.

“I talked to your father
after seeing you in the entry today.  He’s agreed to the match,” Reece said, watching her reaction.  He tried to calm down realizing he was acting like a jackass again.  Something about Lilly made him crazy.

He looked at her glorious figure, he
r face and hair, gads, those long bare legs and he considered.  There was more than just her wonderful appearance.  Lilly had spirit, personality, and cleverness.   She was different from any lady he’d even known.  He wanted her desperately.

“Is that true?  Father agreed that I should marry you?  He doesn’t know everything that I do, the mistresses, the letters, the rumors you started about me, your plans, I will tell him,” Lilly threatened.

“Give me another chance.  Get to know me and let me know you.  I’m not above changing,” Reece offered, sincerity in his voice.

Lilly
studied his expression.  She thought of her rotting manor house and her father being sick, her disappointed heart and sighed.  Lilly wondered at the major’s hints, and tried to decide how to drive Lord Randall away.

“I might have a
nother offer of marriage tomorrow.”

“Decline it,
” the earl ordered.

“He’s a better man than you.”

“He doesn’t need you, I do,” Reece confessed, realizing he’d never worked so hard in his life to talk a woman around to liking him.

“If I
think about giving you one week, see where that leads us, would you let go of my horse?” Lilly asked, anything to see him gone. 

The longer she was around him, the more appealing he became, at least his outward appearance.  His strong jaw covered in black beard growing in, his dark eyes and rich voice.  He could make a lad
y’s heart pound, until the person inside was revealed, Lilly thought sadly.

Reece didn’t remember he was
even holding her horse, he just knew with a madness inside him that he had to have Lady Lilly Castleford.

“You promise, a week, see me every day?
  I want you to promise.”

“Yes.  Why not,” Lilly weakened.
“I’m sure you can teach me many things about recognizing a cad.  Lessons I might need later in life.  Come tomorrow morning before the major, before someone else talks to me, or sleep in and forget the whole idea.  Whatever you want.”

“I’ll be her
e,” he promised.

S
trangely Lilly believed him, but she would give nothing away.

“Forgive me if I doubt it.  Now let go.”

Reece released her mare, who tossed its head and whinnied.

“I’ll be here,” he said again and she nodded.

……….

CHAPTER THREE

The Mistress

Lord Castleford
Manor

Residence of Viscount Castleford

Suffolk, England

Lilly woke up to the rooster’s crow.  She had not slept well.  What was she doing agreeing to meet with that blackguard Lord Randall for a week?  What if the major was serious and asked her to marry him, did she want that?  Lilly felt unpleasant thoughts in marrying Major Sheridan.  It was selfish and she tried to resist it, but she knew the major had deeply loved his wife, loved her still.  If she married him she would be second in his heart forever.  Lilly did not want to live her life competing with a dead woman.

Of course, if she married this rogue
of an earl, he would have hundreds before and after her.  He’d probably call them all ‘dear’ because he couldn’t keep their names straight. 

She’d never
be truly loved or cherished by either of them.  If it wasn’t for father and aunt, she would run away.  The responsibility of the last five years since her mother died, weighed heavily on her.  Too much trouble, too little joy.

I will have fun, just this one week,
Lilly thought.  It had been a long time since she’d felt like a young lady and she did have all those new clothes to wear.

Lilly
dressed carefully and left half her hair down.  If vanity had any touch on Lilly, it was her hair.  It was very thick and curled in lovely big waves down her back. She dressed in her favorite new morning gown, tight at the waist, her corset pushing her bosom higher and firmer against the fabric.  It had tight sleeves, with a beautiful fabric of pattern over dark peach muslin.  She looked into her eyes and smiled.

“Just enjoy life
.  Mend your heart.  Don’t expect anything good from either of the gentlemen, just allow yourself a few days of courtship.  Something you will never have again,” Lilly said to her mirror’s reflection.

Lilly
had an early country breakfast and sat in the morning room.  She waited and watched out the window.  She took up some sewing and carefully stitched French knots around a flower.  No one came.  Lilly went to the small music room and practiced her pianoforte softly, as not to wake her late sleeping aunts.  No callers arrived.  She danced around the music room, humming to herself and thinking how nice it was not to work on account books, but she soon grew bored and checked the windows one more time.  The drive was empty and her aunts were arguing upstairs.  The morning had passed, without any lingering belief either man was capable of telling the truth or keeping a promise.  Lilly didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry.

She ordered the small
open gig to be brought around and decided to go to the village.  She went about daily in her little carriage, handling the horse with skill.  Being caught waiting for gentlemen callers who never arrived was embarrassing.

“I’m off to the village
,” Lilly called up to her aunts. 

“Have a good time Lilly.”

They both replied, before commencing their argument.  Lilly
laughed, feeling mischievous.

“
I’m taking the snow sled, I’m going bear hunting,” she laughed as Aunt Mary called down.

“Good Dear.”

“Fine sweetheart, have fun.  Do take a maid with you,” Aunt Ellen suggested.

Lilly rolled her eyes, but motioned for Kitty, the kitchen girl to grab the cook’s shopping list and accompany her to the village.

The short trip was amusing with Kitty telling stories of her brothers, her fellow workers, her crush on the footman Bob, and the new blister on her foot.  Lilly nodded and laughed, but felt at odds and sixes about her own life and where she would end up. 

Kitty went to the vegetable stalls and Lilly admired
the new fabrics the milliners had to offer, they both ate pies at a stand, then sat by two little girls on a bench and played guessing games with them while their mother shopped.  Lilly thought of looking inside the pub, to see if the major was there, but decided that would appear desperate. 

Lilly
glanced up at the sound of hooves and saw Lord Randall together with another person, a lady arriving near the pub.  This woman was dressed in red, with blonde hair, older, perhaps thirties but voluptuous.

That must be one of his mistress
es.  Did the earl have her brought down for the wedding?  How outrageous.  It really made no difference now.  This woman was here and that was proof enough of what he was and what his word was worth.  He wanted a week with Lilly, and brought his mistress with him?  Lilly wondered if the earl was mad.

Lilly
sat lower on the bench, trying to hide.  She gathered the young girls around her, but Lord Randall noticed her and rode in her direction.

“Come, let’s find your mother, I have to go,”
Lilly said, taking a small hand in each of her own.

The little blonde girls giggled and obeyed
.   The foursome walked away and into a store before Lord Randall could dismount.

“Janet I have to go, but I did enjoy spendi
ng time with your daughters,” Lilly said.

“Thank you for watching them
Lilly.  You are always so nice to my girls, they love you,” Janet said with a grin.

“I love them too,”
Lilly replied rubbing their shiny heads.

She thought of sneaking out the back door, but
motioned for Kitty to go out front, to the gig.  Lilly gathered her courage and walked out behind her and right into the path of Reece and his woman. 

Lilly
smiled and curtsied, “Greetings.”

The older woman wore too much rouge and her li
ps were thin and dry.  Up close, her eyes were lined with black and wrinkles pulled at the corners.  She looked ill-tempered and proud.  She was short, curvy slipping to plump with light blonde hair.  She wore an overdesigned red riding habit, trimmed with black satin, braid, buttons, and lace.

“Your aunts said you would be in the village Lilly,” Reece said, taking her arm before she could dodge him.

“Introduce us,” Marlena ordered.

Ree
ce would rather jump off a stable, but he made the introductions.

“Lady Castleford, this is Marlena Sims
, an old friend of mine.”

Reece
was used to women fighting over him and prepared himself for the spectacular battle about to begin.  Only nothing happened.

“A
delight to meet you.  Excuse me, but I’m off to join father and my fiancé at the pub.  Have a pleasurable stay,” Lilly said, her voice totally void of emotion.  She twisted loose of his hand and shook out her skirts.

Lilly
winked and walked around them, as if they were paint chipped pillars holding up an old porch.

“Was that her?  I t
hought you said she was a brown country mouse!”

Marlena’s temper was heating up and for once Reece was not affected by it.  He was wondering if he’d heard
Lilly correctly, what fiancé?

“Don’t start one of your fits.  N
o one invited you down here,” Reece replied, showing temper of his own.

“She seems not the least interested in you Reece, are you sure that’s the right one?”
Marlena purred, noticing his eyes following the young lady walking away and not liking it.

Reece had
a chance to view the two women side by side and Marlena gained nothing in the comparison.  She had never looked so old and haggard, her degenerate lifestyle and French cigarettes had caught up with her.  Lilly looked like a statuesque goddess with her fresh skin and when she turned and walked down the street, her waist long, dark hair curling around her back and hips, made his pulse race hot and fast.

“Marlena, y
ou’re going back to London,” he ordered.  “I mean it, right now and not to my house but your own.”

Real fear came into Marlena’s eyes and she blinked to force
tears.

“You think to dismiss me on a
dirty village street!”

“Good a
place as any.  Go back to the Park and get your things, take my coach back to town.”

“You do not mean it?”
she cried in earnest now.

“I do.  We’re over Marlena, I’m an
earl and you’re a mistress.  You don’t follow me, give me orders, arrive uninvited to my home, and question me.  Do you understand?”   He shouted.

They
both noticed several heads turned in their direction and Kitty’s eyes were as big as plates.   The earl walked Marlena back to her horse and helped her mount.

“I’ll go back
, but I know you don’t mean it,” Marlena tried again.

“
Hell’s bells Madame, I do mean it.  I’ll send word to have you barred from my townhouse.  Goodbye Marlena, you pushed me too far one too many times.”

Marlena knew Reece spoke with
certainty now.  He was serious.  She thought to beg, but he slapped the back of her horse and she trotted back down the street.

Reece sighed and rolled his shoulders
, he felt lighter already.  He looked over at Lilly’s maid and grinned.

Lilly
was coming out of the pub, alone thank the gods, and he walked up to her.

“What do you mean, your fiancé?  I thought we’d agreed you’d give me a week.”

“You broke your word first.  You never came to call this morning.  Have a late night?” Lilly asked, winking at him again.

The jade,
she wasn’t the least bit possessive.  A new experience for him.  Irrationally, he wanted Lilly to be jealous.

“No,
detained by the arrival of unwanted company, which I’ve now dismissed.”

“Hope not on my account, though she looked incredibly old.  What was she forty
five?”

“Thirty five.”

“Ah, old like you.  Well, got to run.”

“Wait, stay here with me.”

“I’ve been in the village for hours, I’m hungry.  You stay.  Look over there by the bakery, the Bainbridge girls.  Go have a look, perhaps you’ll find your bride.”

He studied her face, trying to see if this was some
devious woman’s plot of forced indifference.  It wasn’t.  Lilly looked at him as if he were an old swaybacked horse she pitied. 

“I’ll go back with you.”

“Suit yourself, I’m sure you always do.”

……….

Reece rode his horse beside Lilly’s open gig.  He’d never had this much time to stare at Lilly before, he could feel himself falling under her spell with each of the horse’s strides.  He watched her for any reaction.  Finally, Lilly looked over at him and smiled.

“You could be such a better person if you tried.  What made you into the man you are?”
Lilly asked.

That wasn’t the reaction he was looking for. 

“I don’t normally answer personal questions,” he huffed.

“Not even from me,
your future bride?” She joked.

“I fell into it I guess.  It started at Oxford.  All rich and titled, we got used to living high.
  No one ever demanded more of me.”

“
I can tell.  Now I’ll tell you something about me.  I haven’t had a free day like this since I was fifteen.”

He turned to glance into her marvelous brown eyes and asked, “Why not?”

“My mother died and then someone had to balance the expenses, order the food, and run the manor.  Father is an inventor.  He thinks big thoughts, not little ones, like noticing we are out of butter.  Now my turn.”

“What do you do beside chase women,
have affairs, play cards, and watch horse races?” Lilly asked, watching his expression.

Reece went to answer, but had to think first.  He hadn’t realized he’d drifted into such a rut.

“I ride, go to Tattersall’s and trade horses, spend some time with my brother.”

“Tell me about him.”

“His name is Robert, thirty, practical, careful, thoughtful, different than me.”

“Does he look like you?”
Lilly asked, thinking it impossible for two men to be this handsome.

“Why?”

“I might like him better, is he married?”  Lilly asked.

“No,” Reece answered, feeling put out.

“He sounds more my age and personality. Would you invite him down?” Lilly asked, adding extra sweetness to her voice.

“Whatever for?” Reece asked, growing huffy.

“For an introduction to me, I still need to marry.  You know you and I won’t suit.”

“Why not?”

“Lord Randall, you are only capable of hurting a lady.  You have enough charm to make me like you, handsome, impressive, of course you know that.  Only after I like you, you’d bring your mistresses down for a visit, or stay away for years, and you would break my heart.”