Newport Summer (16 page)

Violet waved her fan negligently. “Of course not, darling. Trap is too strong a word for a man like Camberly.
He’s not a man to be trapped. No one coerces him into a
corner without his willingness to be put there”

“It’s not like that, not with him,” Audrey said
staunchly. But her mind roiled with a thousand thoughts
at once. Did Gannon think she’d set out to compromise
him? She’d certainly behaved boldly and obviously
enough to create that impression.

When she looked back over the evening, her actions
seemed so obvious; asking him to take her outside, to
dance with her alone, and then she’d practically begged
to be kissed. Seeing that kiss in her mind’s eye now was
mortifying; the way she’d put her hands in his hair,
pressed herself up against him in what could only be considered a most unladylike manner. Only, it hadn’t seemed
unladylike at the time. It had seemed natural, and it had
seemed mutual.

Mutual. That was even worse when she thought about
their actions in the context of the conversation they’d had
at the picnic. They had not talked about it since, but Gannon had not made any secret of his desire to officially
change the nature of their association, to make the courting ruse real. Would Gannon look upon her actions tonight as a signal that she’d changed her mind? That she
wanted to make the courtship real?

“Audrey, are you off daydreaming about your wedding already? I don’t think you’ve heard a thing I’ve
said.” Violet’s voice broke into her thoughts. “I am thinking of a November wedding. We’ll still be able to get
good flowers. If we press Worth for the dress before we
leave for New York, it will be finished in time. If not,
we’ll have no choice but to put the wedding off until
spring. Spring is so tricky, trying to schedule around
Easter and Lent…

“He’ll want to be home for the harvest. The earl can’t
stay until November,” Audrey interrupted.

That seemed to stymy Violet for a moment. “We could try to pull something together sooner. Oh, dear,
it’s already August” Violet shook her head.

Audrey didn’t hear the rest of the one-sided conversation. She sank back into the seat and closed her eyes. An
hour ago, life had been much simpler. It was entirely unreasonable that the price of one kiss should be so high.
Well, to be honest, it wasn’t just one kiss. There had been
others with Gannon before tonight. And tonight hadn’t
been the exchange of a chaste peck on the cheek either.

For all her best intentions to avoid falling in love,
she’d landed herself in the middle of her very own summer romance. It was little consolation that she’d been
right-that falling in love now would be ill timed. She’d
told herself that from the start. But it hadn’t seemed to
help. She took a modicum of comfort in her mother’s
words that Gannon wasn’t a man to be forced into anything. But Gannon was also a man of honor and responsibility, two characteristics nobly demonstrated in his
concern for his family. She could easily imagine Gannon telling her father they would not marry just as easily
as she could imagine him asking permission to marry. In
truth, while she knew Gannon would do what he thought
was best, she didn’t have a clue what that would be.

The only certainty was that tonight she’d been caught
kissing the Earl of Camberly in a very intimate manner,
and now she was going to pay.

Audrey was going to pay-that was the only thing that
was clear to Gannon as he settled into a chair across from Wilson St. Clair in Lionel Carrington’s study. Lionel offered them both snifters of brandy and folded his
long form into the remaining chair.

Lionel made banal small talk with St. Clair, giving the
meeting the veneer of friendliness. Gannon sipped from
his glass and used the interlude to rapidly gather his
thoughts. He needed a strategy, quickly. Several strategies had suggested themselves on the drive over from the
Elms. All of them were viable, depending on what Audrey wanted. That was his biggest concern tonight. The
sight of his confident, self-assured Audrey paling in the
moonlight at the words of her mother’s declaration had
unnerved him.

While he would have preferred that his proposal be
received under different circumstances, it was a proposal he had intended to make, with Audrey’s permission. He was not disappointed at having to offer for
Audrey. He had discussed his desire for them to marry
with her before. But Audrey had been ambiguous in her
response to that idea. In spite of that, she had kissed
him intensely tonight, an equal partner in the passion
that had sprung between them in the Elms’ garden. Did
that mean she’d changed her mind? He would not be
coerced into marriage unless Audrey wanted to wed.

“Gentlemen, let’s get down to business,” Wilson St.
Clair said during a lull in Lionel’s conversation. “Camberly, you have something you want to discuss? Something that couldn’t wait until morning?” Wilson cut
straight to the point.

“Yes. I want to offer for Audrey” This seemed the best way to buy them some time, time to get things straightened out between them and figure out what they wanted.

Wilson St. Clair steepled his hands and studied Gannon. “Is that so? Is there a reason you need to offer for her tonight as opposed to ten o’clock tomorrow
morning?”

Gannon decided Audrey got her penchant for straight
talk from her father. He didn’t bother to skirt the issue
or to dress it up. Wilson St. Clair could ferret out a half
truth with the best of them. “Your wife, sir, caught us in
an embrace in the garden. For the sake of Audrey’s reputation, I wanted to speak with you right away”

Gannon hoped his response sounded like that of a
grown man. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d
somehow been called on the carpet. No wonder a large
number of his friends waited until their mid-thirties to
marry. They wanted to put off the meeting with the
prospective father-in-law as long as they could. He was
glad Lionel was there, quiet support in the background
of this conversation.

“Compromising my daughter, eh?” Wilson St. Clair
eyed him with disdain. “I thought you’d be above such
antics, Camberly.”

There was no good answer to that. Gannon couldn’t
say it wasn’t his idea, couldn’t say that he’d warned Audrey. Such an argument would make her out to be the
trollop in all this, which she wasn’t. Such a statement
surely wouldn’t be tolerated by Wilson St. Clair. Neither could Gannon say that the fault was all his, making
himself out to be a libertine, preying on the romantic
sensibilities of an untried girl. That last made him want
to laugh. Audrey was hardly naive. No one took advantage of Audrey without her permission.

Gannon made the only response he could. “I am not
above doing my duty, sir.” There. St. Clair could read as
much or as little as he wanted to into that answer.

St. Clair said nothing for a long while. Then he nodded. “Very nice, Camberly. Well said.” He fell silent
again, occasionally studying Gannon’s face. He twirled
the stem of his snifter. “Did my wife put you up to this?
It can be no secret to you that she’s hanging out for a
title for Audrey” Wilson St. Clair sighed. “It’s the one
thing I can’t give her.”

“No, sir.” Gannon’s eyes blazed angrily at the thought.
“I cannot be bought or bribed into such a conspiracy. I
am happy to offer for Audrey, and I would have done so
in the near future if not for tonight.”

That raised Wilson’s eyebrows, caught his attention.
“Does Audrey know this?”

More awkward honesty. “No, sir. She does not. The
one time I broached the subject-most subtly, I assure
you-she felt this was not the right time in her life for
such a commitment.”

Wilson’s face clouded over. “But apparently she felt
it was the right time to sneak off and kiss a gentleman.
Now she must pay for that misjudgment”

Gannon’s eyes narrowed. It was time to assert himself, to remind Wilson St. Clair that he was not the only man
in the room with leverage. “I will not have our engagement based on the idea that Audrey must be punished for
such indiscretion. Nothing need come of tonight. Only
your wife saw us. If Audrey does not wish to marry me,
there is no need to create a scandal.”

“I can’t decide, Camberly, if you say this to shirk
your own responsibilities by laying the decision at Audrey’s doorstep, or if you speak out of genuine concern for my daughter. Audrey’s always been a little bit
unconventional.”

“I love her for it, sir,” Gannon said sternly, with all
the sincerity he could summon. “I would not willingly
see her caged by a moment’s indiscretion that amounts
to nothing.”

Wilson St. Clair spread his hands on his thighs and
drew a deep breath. “Violet will have to be pacified.
There’s no telling what kind of difficulty she’ll create”

This was an interesting turn of events. Gannon suddenly had Wilson St. Clair on the ropes, caught between
his desire to appease his socially voracious wife and his
desire to protect Audrey from an unwanted marriage.

Gannon knew his moment had come. He could dictate the terms. He stood up and started pacing, thinking
out loud.

“Tomorrow, I will come to the house in the morning.
We’ll put the question to Audrey so you can hear what
she has to say on the matter. In the meanwhile, you can
put this proposal to Violet and to Audrey: I am happy to marry Audrey and make her the Countess of Camberly.
I will marry her after her preference of an engagement,
which shall be no longer than one year. We will live in
England, of course, but she is free to visit New York at
her leisure.” Gannon paced thoughtfully for a few steps
and then added, “And I will insist that she keep up her
piano playing. I will support her in that pursuit with the
finest instructors London can provide.”

“You’re very generous, Camberly,” Wilson St. Clair
said. “You must know Audrey quite well to know what
her music is to her.” Wilson gave him an appraising stare.
“One wonders how one learns such things in the public
nature of our social gatherings.”

Gannon fixed Audrey’s father with hard look. “Do
not dare to impugn your daughter’s virtue or my honor.
I will not take kindly to further assumptions along those
lines. I care deeply for Audrey, and because of that affection, I have endeavored to learn all I can about her.”
Behind him, Gannon heard Lionel cough a warning.

“I care for her as well. Certainly you’ve divined that
she is my only child and the only heir to my fortune.
I’ve heard what you can offer her. Now, I am sure you’re
interested to hear what kind of settlement I’ll make on
her once she’s wed to her mother’s and society’s satisfaction.” He said this in a pompous tone that had Gannon’s hackles raised.

“I’ll confer a sum of one million dollars on the two
of you the day you wed. Additionally, I’ll endow Au drey with her own accounts that she alone has access to
in the sum of $200,000 a year. Any children you have
together will be recipients of trust funds upon their
coming of age. I trust you’ll find this is quite the acceptable going rate on titles these days”

Gannon felt rage growing in him. Good God, the man
was conferring a fortune on him. Camberly would be
safe for well-managed generations. He should be leaping around the room in ecstasy. But he felt only distaste
for the offer and for himself. Originally, this was the
moment he’d come to Newport to achieve. He was doubly grateful to Audrey for saving him from this moment.
The money they’d made on the railroad deal made it
possible for him to look beyond a marriage settlement.

Gannon shook his head. “I am not offering for her
because she’s the richest girl in the room. I won’t take
a cent. I am offering for her because I have genuine
affection for her.”

Lionel clapped. “Well done, Gannon”

Wilson sneered at them both. “Don’t be a fool, Camberly. The railroad money won’t last forever, and your
rotting estate will eventually have needs that extend beyond what your meager pocketbook can afford. If you
won’t take the money on behalf of your overinflated
sense of honor, then take it for Audrey. I won’t have my
daughter whisked across the Atlantic to live in penury
out in the countryside.”

“Let Audrey decide,” Gannon said sternly. “I don’t want her to think you have motivated or forced my proposal in any way. I want her to know I have offered because I wanted to offer, nothing more.”

Wilson St. Clair weighed Gannon’s statement. “All
right. Until tomorrow. We’ll expect you at ten o’clock.”

The tension in the St. Clair library was so thick, Audrey
doubted it could even be cut with a butcher’s cleaver. She
had spent a restless night wondering what Gannon and
her father had talked about well into the early hours. Her
father hadn’t come home until two o’clock in the morning, and she’d heard strident voices down the hall until
four. Whatever had happened, it had caused her mother
and father to argue.

Over breakfast, she discovered why. Gannon had offered for her under the condition that she be willing to
wed. He would not have her forced over the minor indiscretion. Her heart had thrilled to the news. Gannon
had found the middle ground, a way through the tangle
they found themselves in. But his proposal had put the
real choice into her hands.