Miss Ryder's Memoirs (2 page)

My gaze went again, rather wistfully, to my clothes. “How long do you intend to stay there?”

“Oh, I should think for some time yet. Though it’s not the most comfortable seat I’ve ever had, it is certainly the most entertaining.”

“Have you no respect for my maidenly modesty?”

This time he did laugh, a deep and rather infectious sound that engulfed me and made me shiver with its vibrations. Dutch barked in sympathy with him, plodding about in a frenzy of excitement. So much for my throat-ripping dog.

It’s very difficult to look haughty when your hair is hanging in wet curls around your face and your nude body is helplessly in view of some villain, but I did my best. I lifted my eyebrows and my nose went up with them, and I said, “My family will be concerned if I don’t arrive back at the house shortly.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. The snug fit of his jacket was remarkable by our country standards. “I have no intention of hindering your departure. In fact, I think it would be perfectly splendid if you would join me here on the rock. Please don’t think I have any intention of harming you. You are perfectly safe with me.”

“Safe!” I exclaimed. “Only a rake and a libertine would behave so odiously. I fear for my very life.”

“Come, come,” he said soothingly. “I have the greatest admiration for you. You aren’t the first woman I’ve seen naked. I shall be perfectly capable of resisting any wayward impulse to ravish you. There’s something positively captivating about outraged innocence in a perfectly proportioned frame.” He looked up at the sky, a small frown drawing his brows together. “I think it must be the artist in me.’’

“You must think me the greatest fool on earth to believe you are an artist. You’re nothing more than a Peeping Tom.”

He sighed and thrust out his hands, palms up. “You have misunderstood me again. I simply meant that your beauty touches my soul.”

“Humph,” I snorted. “More like it touches your. . ."

His grin tempted me to finish my sentence, but I had no intention of walking farther down
that
path. Robert had already told me my tongue was a little free in these matters. Though why I should feign a maidenly lack of knowledge is beyond my understanding. After all, men already know about these things, a great deal more than I do. Would my total ignorance enhance their knowledge somehow?

Well, that’s neither here nor there. This fellow continued to observe me, a wicked gleam in his eyes. I wasn’t able to cover myself, because I needed my hands to keep afloat. With sudden inspiration, I remembered a day when Robert and I were children and had a splashing match. There was a certain way you could hold your hand that would send the water a great distance. We’d even gotten our clothes, lying on the rocks, soaking wet. Which would happen again, no doubt, if I tried to spray him. Still, it was worth that difficulty. I paddled a little closer to where he sat, which made him eye me quizzingly.

With a whoop I began to spray him, large arcs of water curving out of the lagoon and neatly landing right on his chest. Much to my surprise, he began to laugh, rather than showing any annoyance or trying to get out of range of my spray. Really, it was too exasperating of him.

Suddenly he held up his hand, fiercely whispering, “Stop!”

I paid no attention to him. It satisfied my sense of fair play to at least inconvenience the fellow. So he leapt down to the edge of the water and glared at me. He was intimidating in that pose, much as my father had been when he was alive and intended that I should obey him. This man was perhaps more threatening because he was a stranger and I had no way of knowing what kind of a temper he had. I instantly fell still, and then I could hear it, too.

There was the distant sound of voices, coming from somewhere outside the enclosed space. One of the men sounded very much like our estate manager, Roderick Hughes. The last thing on earth I wanted was for him to find me there! The poor old fellow would stick his spoon in the wall for sure. And if it was Cousin Bret with him, that would be too mortifying. That conceited numskull would never let me forget it if he caught me swimming naked.

My countenance must have given me away. The tall man frowned and whispered, “No doubt they’ve found my horse. I’ll distract them. You get out of here as soon as you can, for God’s sake. But not before that gown dries, mind you. I know what a damped petticoat does to the female figure, and you don’t want to be passing by all your neighbors in that condition.”

He turned away without a further glance at me. I was grateful to him, for this small service. Not that I was going to thank him, mind you.

He didn’t even bother to remove his boots to wade through the narrow passage. But it was several minutes before I heard his voice on the other side. Perhaps he’d managed to elude them until he was some distance from the entrance, because his voice sounded quite distant when he spoke.

“Now, now, there’s no need to lay a hand on me, my dear fellow,” he protested, in a mild drawl that almost made me laugh.

Cousin Bret’s voice was much more penetrating. "What do you mean by this intrusion? Our lands are clearly marked. I’ve a mind to send for a constable.”

“Have you? Well, I’m sure you must do precisely as you wish. For my part, I’ll be heading on up to the manor house, if you’ll be so kind as to return my horse to me.”

“And how do I know this is your horse?” Cousin Bret asked, an obvious insult intended by his tone. “I’ve never laid eyes on you before in my life, so don’t pretend that you are known at the manor."

“No, Robert’s not there to vouch for me,” the stranger admitted, “but I daresay that won’t matter. I have his commission in my pocket. No, no, I have no intention of showing it to you. It’s addressed quite clearly to Mrs. Ryder and I have every confidence that you are not she."

He knew Robert! Oh, God. I would never hear the end of this. First he would tell my mother—for my own good, of course; they always say that—and then he would tell Robert. I climbed out of the pond and hopped up to the ledge where my gown lay, wet and bedraggled. Not that it made any difference. Dutch blinked sleepily up at me from his spot on the rock.

From the distance I heard Mr. Hughes speak for the first time. “It’s a fine horse you have here, sir. If I can be helping you with directions to the manor, you’ve only to ask. Was it a shortcut you was intending?”

Good old Hughes. No one could be better at ferreting out information in the politest possible way. He sounded so respectful, compared with my cousin. But then, most everyone did. Cousin Bret had managed to offend just about everyone since he arrived for his annual summer visit. He was far too old at twenty-one to keep coming around here each summer as though he were still a child. I don’t know why Robert hadn’t warned him off this year. Papa would have been disgusted by the way Cousin Bret had turned out, all bossy and proud. There was very little to interest him at Hastings, except perhaps my sister. And even Amanda wasn’t odd enough to be taken in by Cousin Bret.

The stranger was explaining to Hughes that the glimmer of water on such an oppressive day had indeed tempted him to cut across country. “Apollo was in need of a drink, to say nothing of myself. I must have fallen asleep in the shade.”

“That sun’s a killer today,” Hughes agreed. “Good thing your horse didn’t wander off.”

“Oh, Apollo’s not in the habit of doing that,” the man assured him. I could hear the creak of the saddle as he swung himself up. “If you’ll just point me in the direction of the manor . . ."

As the hoofbeats receded, I listened for Cousin Bret’s comment, but he was strangely silent. Mr. Hughes said only, “Fine-looking fellow. Must have met Mr. Robert in London. Perhaps we can look forward to Mr. Robert paying us a visit soon."

“Not likely,” Cousin Bret sneered.

And I feared he was right, much as I hated to admit it. Robert seemed to have lost all taste for the country life. I tugged on my damp shift, which felt clammy against my skin. The hot sun would dry everything out in no time, but the thought brought little solace when I thought of what lay in store for me at home. I tied my rumpled bonnet securely under my chin and carried my shoes and stockings to the narrow entrance. The basset waddled down off the rocks and splashed into the water behind me. We made quite a procession heading back to Hastings.

Chapter 2

I managed to get all the way to the house without seeing anyone. There’s a kitchen garden just off the pantry that I was in the habit of frequenting when I was a child. Mrs. Cooper is still very pleased whenever I show up in her domain. Though I must admit that she looked rather taken aback by my rumpled appearance.

“Your sister will have a good laugh if she sees you, Miss Catherine,” she said as she wiped her big red hands on the sacking apron she wore. “No more’s the wonder. Your bonnet might have been run over by a carriage, by the looks of it.”

“Very nearly,” I quipped. Mrs. Cooper does not allow any of the dogs in her kitchen, not even Dutch, so he whimpered outside as I shut the door behind me. “I’ll have one of those plums if you’d be so good as to allow me.’’

“Just one, then up to your room to change. There’s company.” She said this with a meaningful toss of her head. “A very presentable young man, Milly says.”

Milly thinks just about every young man is very presentable, but in this instance I happened to agree, so far as his looks were concerned.

“Who is he?” I asked in a very casual way.

Mrs. Cooper frowned slightly, trying to remember. “Let me see. It sounded like a field, I think. Meddows. That was it. Sir John Meddows. Acquainted with Mr. Robert, he is. Had a letter for the missus from your brother. She was that glad to get it, what with him being so absent-minded about his family.”

A distinct disapproval colored her speech, though I can assure you that Robert is her favorite. Everyone is so disappointed that Robert has taken the country in dislike and developed a positive affection for the city. I remember the first time he visited London. He was disgusted then with the noise and the cost of everything. But that was when he was seven, and he has changed a great deal since then.

“Well, I believe I feel the headache coming on.” No reason to run straight into the lion’s den, so far as I could see. “Perhaps I’ll just lie down a bit. If I miss Robert’s friend it will be a great shame, of course, but this heat is awful and I shouldn’t like to become sick from it.”

“You don’t
look
sick.” Her dark eyes ranged from my rosy face to my dusty feet. “I’m sure your mama would want you to join them, if you feel at all up to it.’’

“Perhaps in a while,” I said in a failing voice. I shouldn’t have done that. Mrs. Cooper is no one’s fool. Her eyes sharpened and I could see she was about to question me, so I skipped past her and palmed one of the purple plums. “Just quizzing you.” I laughed as I bounded for the back stairs. “But the sun does beat straight through a thin cotton bonnet . . ."

By the time I’d reached my room, I was very curious about this friend of Robert’s. It seemed suspicious to me that he had arrived when Robert was away. And it was certainly not at all likely that a legitimate fellow would have sat and stared at a naked woman swimming on Hastings land. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that he would not dare tell on me. After all, I would come right back with his own improper behavior, and my family was obliged to believe me. They would have no trouble believing that I had found a private bathing pond and would do something so unconventional as to swim naked there. Not that I’d done anything of the sort before, but they’d seen me through plenty of scrapes.

I took off the yellow gown and dropped it on the floor, noticing as I did so that the sun had turned my skin pink all over. Mercy! But no one was going to know that if I wore a gown that covered most of me, as the lot of them did, since Amanda was forever involving herself in my wardrobe. Mama was convinced that Amanda had impeccable taste, as well as a sense of decorum that was entirely denied me. It was but one of many trials Amanda created in my life.

When I had dipped a cloth in the ewer and rinsed off my face, I felt a great deal better. I was even convinced that I looked rather attractive in this flushed state, and the idea began to grow in me that I would join Mama and this stranger after all. Let him try to stare me down! It was he who should be put out of countenance by my arrival, though somehow I doubted he would be.

Choosing a gown was easy. In the wardrobe there were only pale pastels and whites, dresses that I had acquired for my one Season in London and that I’d been wearing for the two years since. None of them seemed particularly interesting to me by now—few of them ever had—but at least the soft green with the draped bodice would still be considered a bit out of the ordinary. (Amanda hadn’t been there when we chose it.) Green has a way of bringing out the color of my eyes and is a superior shade to wear against my auburn hair.

Without my maid’s help I couldn’t have gotten downstairs in under an hour because the water had tangled my hair so desperately. Milly is a good girl, though prone to ask awkward questions, such as  “However did you get your hair in such a rat’s nest, Miss Catherine?” I palmed her off with some absent-minded excuse, because I was eager to hear her impression of our visitor.

“He’s ever so handsome, miss,” she told me with a little sway of her shoulders. “And very well spoken. A friend of Mr. Robert’s, I believe. Sir John Meddows, his card said. A baronet. Do you think Miss Amanda would like to marry a baronet?”

Her question caught me completely off guard. “Amanda? What has she to do with anything?”

“Why, miss, didn’t I say? The gentleman caught a glimpse of her in the garden as he rode in, and he was so struck by her beauty that he sat astride his horse for a full five minutes staring at her. I know, because I saw it all from the drawing-room window. Proper stunned, he was.” Milly sighed at this example of the most romantic of experiences. She’s a great believer in love at first sight, our Milly. There isn’t a footman who’s been added to our staff who wasn’t declared struck dumb by his instant passion for one of the parlor maids.