The Nobody: Signet Regency Romance (InterMix) (5 page)

Chapter VI

Lady Elizabeth’s attempt to curtail Serena’s association with Caitlin only resulted in strengthening the bond between the two girls. Serena even coaxed her mama into securing an invitation for Lady Lynwood and her nieces to a select reception being held by Lady Dassinghurst in honor of a visiting Bohemian princess. When this harbinger of delight arrived in the morning post, Lady Lynwood clasped it rapturously to her plump bosom.

“Only fancy, my loves! Elvira Dassinghurst! What a stroke of good fortune! Not that I have ever cared for her, of course—in fact, I think her a pompous old crow—but nothing could be more flattering than to receive an invitation from her! She doted on my poor Charles, as I am sure everyone did, but she has never accorded me more than the barest civility. I don’t believe I have exchanged three words with her since Charles passed away. We must owe this invitation entirely to Lady Selcroft’s good graces. How glad I am that you can call Lady Serena your friend, Caitlin dear!”

Caitlin was a little embarrassed by her aunt’s tangled speech and even more tangled motives, but at least she could wholeheartedly agree that she was glad to call Serena her friend.

On the night of Lady Dassinghurst’s reception, Lady Lynwood insisted that the girls dress with extra care. She reserved for herself the right to inspect their appearance before allowing them out the door. They waited rather nervously in the drawing room until Aunt Harriet bustled in to scrutinize her nieces.

Emily was in high bloom, as always, and presented a lovely picture in pink and white with her soft gold curls dressed fashionably high. Caitlin had donned an elegantly simple silk of pale yellow trimmed with buttercup satin. Matching yellow primroses adorned her fan and crowned her hair, which was piled softly on her head; a few coppery tendrils had been pulled free and curled with hot irons.

The baroness ran a practiced eye over her protégées, and reached out to flick a curl into place here, a ribbon into place there. “Now let me see you, Emily love! Yes, yes, it is just how I knew it would be. You will break hearts, I vow! And, Caitlin, that silk becomes you to admiration. I hope you are not fretting, my dears. Everything will go very well, I promise you.”

She cocked her head, birdlike, and her eyes twinkled as she beheld her nieces’ stunned expressions; they were taking in the glory of their aunt’s appearance. Her dress, as always, was extremely expensive, became her well, and suited a widow’s dignity. But tonight Lady Lynwood’s plump bodice was engulfed in a sea of flashing jewels.

“Good heavens, Aunt!” said Caitlin faintly. “We are blinded.”

Lady Lynwood chuckled, and tapped the enormous necklace with a gloved forefinger. “Isn’t it dreadful? Elizabethan, of course, so I am sure all this hideous chase-work is the purest gold. I am simply
staggering
under the weight. So tiresome! But that is the way of these heirlooms; one daren’t have the stones reset.”

Caitlin’s eyes widened. “Do you mean—Aunt, are those the
Lynwood Diamonds
?”

“Yes, love. I believe they are quite famous,” replied Aunt Harriet brightly. “I am expected to trot them out from time to time, you know. Well! I thought it would do my nieces no harm to be seen in their company.”

As Caitlin was still staring, fascinated, at the jewels, an other chuckle shook Lady Lynwood. “Now, Caitlin, pray remember that only a yokel appears amazed! Besides, I am not wearing
all
the Lynwood Diamonds. There is a coronet, naturally, and two brooches, and a ring, and a scepter—of all things! You can’t imagine how cumbersome. I am so thankful when I consider that by the time our dear Regent is crowned, my James will probably have married. His bride will have to wear them to the coronation, not I. I hope, for her sake, he chooses a
sturdy
sort of girl. La! I wore the coronet to a reception once, and had the headache for a week!”

By this time, Lady Lynwood had bundled her charges out the door and into a waiting carriage. Her nervous excitement was contagious, and Emily’s eyes were growing round as saucers. Caitlin could not help wondering what all the fuss was about, but when they alighted at the Dassinghurst mansion she began to perceive that this invitation was, indeed, something out of the ordinary. A massive stone facade greeted her astonished gaze as she was handed down from the carriage, with rows of liveried footmen lining an imposing flight of marble steps.

“Good gracious!” murmured Caitlin. Lady Lynwood threw her a speaking glance, and they processed solemnly up to the portico. Bowing lackeys divested them of their cloaks, and Lady Lynwood handed their invitation to a wigged, gloved, gorgeously arrayed individual who paced slowly before them to an overheated foyer.

“Baroness Lynwood! Miss Campbell! Miss Emily Campbell!” this personage bawled in stentorian tones as they stepped across the threshold. They entered a vast, brightly lit hall thronged with glittering people, and joined a rather loosely organized receiving line. Lady Lynwood immediately began chatting with a hawk-nosed lady in purple sarcenet, so Caitlin and Emily were deeply thankful when Lady Serena rushed up and greeted them affectionately. Serena looked very pretty in her pomona green crepe, and her light brown curls had been coaxed into modish ringlets on either side of her face. She seemed to be in unusually high spirits, and her eyes sparkled with mischief.

“So! You
did
receive the coveted invitation! Have you come to court the society of your betters? Or merely to ape their manners?”

Emily’s soft eyes dilated with alarm, but Caitlin rapped Serena with her fan. “If we ape
your
manners, Serena, Lady Dassinghurst will show us the door!”

Serena gave a choke of laughter. “Much you would care! Do try to acquire a little ambition, Caitlin.”

Caitlin pulled a face. “And toad-eat every titled dowager who crosses my path? No, thank you.”

“Well, it’s a pity you are not inclined to study the art, because you will find any number of instructive examples tonight. Lady Dassinghurst is continually surrounded by—” But Serena broke off, perceiving her brother escorting her mother and Lady Elizabeth in from the hall. “Never mind that! You must all come and say how-do-you-do to my brother. I want to see Elizabeth’s face when she finds you hobnobbing with the Dassinghurst set!”

“Serena, you are incorrigible!” exclaimed Caitlin, and turned in time to see Lady Elizabeth entering the room on the arm of a tall gentleman dressed in the height of elegance, but with none of the extremes of fashion. There seemed to Caitlin to be something arresting about him that immediately drew, then held, her attention.

Serena’s brother has a distinguished air, she thought approvingly. It was due more to his bearing and manner than his exquisite tailoring. Caitlin could not immediately see his face. He was bending his head attentively to hear what his fiancée was saying.

“The Countess of Selcroft! Lady Elizabeth Delacourt! Viscount Kilverton!” came the announcement from the portal. Serena pulled Lady Lynwood’s party back to the entrance to introduce Caitlin and Emily to Lord Kilverton. Lady Serena had spoken of him so frequently, and with such affection, Caitlin had a great curiosity to meet this paragon of brothers who had unaccountably offered marriage to a prig.

While Emily was murmuring a shy greeting to his lordship, and Lady Lynwood was reminding him of certain exploits he had shared with her son James, Caitlin was at leisure to observe Richard Kilverton. He was a good-looking man, with a rather aquiline cast of countenance, a lean, athletic build, and a marked resemblance to Serena. His air of quiet elegance, however, differed from his sister’s lively mischievousness. He had her coloring, and something of her manner; the appreciative gleam in his eye when he looked at Emily lent a good deal of humor to his expression and brought an involuntary smile to Caitlin’s face. Then he turned to meet Caitlin—and she had the oddest sensation that the breath had been knocked out of her.

Her opinion that Lord Kilverton was a good-looking man was instantly forgotten. Caitlin could no longer tell whether he was handsome or plain, and had she been asked she could not have described a single feature of his face. He simply struck her as the embodiment of an ideal. Had she met him before? she wondered dazedly. It must be the resemblance to Serena, she decided, as her hand was taken in a cool, firm clasp and they exchanged bows and pleasantries.

Lord Kilverton, bowing to Miss Campbell, was experiencing a similar impact. Because he had so obviously admired her sister, he turned to catch Caitlin smiling humorously up at him in an irresistibly frank and friendly way; one couldn’t help but return such a smile. He found himself shaking hands with a girl whose flaming hair and creamy skin was gorgeously set off by the primrose silk of her gown. A few bright curls dropped across her shoulders and softly framed her face. It was a face he somehow felt he knew. The slant of her auburn brows, the laughter in the depths of her eyes, the smile on her generous mouth, all seemed oddly familiar to him. He had heard Miss Emily Campbell described as the Beauty of the two, and could only wonder at the perversity of people’s taste. His instant and overwhelming impression was that once one beheld Miss Campbell’s brilliant coloring, dazzling smile, and air of well-bred elegance, the other girls in the room faded like candles in the sunshine. He found it difficult to take his eyes off her. But where on earth could he have seen her before?

The group stayed and chatted a few minutes, and as Caitlin was speaking with Lady Selcroft she felt Lord Kilverton’s eyes on her. She finally turned to him inquiringly, and caught him regarding her with a slight, puzzled frown. Seeing her raised eyebrow, he laughed and begged pardon.

“Am I staring at you, Miss Campbell? You will hardly be appeased when you hear my excuse. I have a strong impression that we have met before, and I am trying to recall where or when that may have been.”

“How very original!” observed Miss Campbell in a congratulatory tone, surprising a snort of laughter from his lordship. Unfortunately, this drew Lady Elizabeth’s attention.

“May I share the joke?” she inquired archly, taking Kilverton’s arm with a proprietary air. He turned courteously to include her in the conversation, but the laughter left his eyes.

“I am afraid Miss Campbell caught me staring at her rather rudely, and has given me a well-deserved set-down,” he said lightly. “Behold my discomfiture!”

“Indeed?” said Elizabeth frostily. She was clearly offended It was unclear, however, whether she was offended more by the idea of the plebeian Miss Campbell giving a set-down to one so far above her, or by the unwelcome picture of her fiancé staring at another woman. “And what is there to laugh at in that? Whether you have been rude to Miss Campbell or she has, in fact, been rude to you, I see nothing humorous in either event.” Elizabeth smiled thinly. “You will think me old-fashioned in my notions, I suppose. I do not find modern banter amusing.”

There seemed to be nothing to say to this. Kilverton bowed, and Caitlin bit her tongue to keep from uttering a crushing retort. Her aunt then claimed her attention and drew her off to present her to other acquaintances. Caitlin gratefully escaped before she could be betrayed yet again into unladylike conduct by Lady Elizabeth’s condescension.

Lord Kilverton watched her walk away. He was struck anew by something familiar in Miss Campbell’s graceful carriage. He frowned in an effort of memory.

Suddenly his expression changed to one of startled speculation. “Good God!” uttered Richard Kilverton, raising his quizzing glass and staring after Miss Campbell’s departing figure. Could it be possible—?

Chapter VII

T
hroughout the evening, Caitlin was aware from time to time of Lord Kilverton watching her, and was puzzled and astonished to find herself so aware of him. It was completely unlike her to notice a man’s eyes upon her. When she glanced up to find her eyes meeting his across the room for perhaps the fourth or fifth time, she deliberately held his gaze, with so much reproof in her expression that he colored slightly and looked away.

There! she thought triumphantly. At least he won’t stare at me again! She wondered fleetingly what he meant by it, but it wasn’t until the party was going in to a very late buffet that she had leisure to reflect on Lord Kilverton’s strange behavior.

What ails the fellow? she wondered crossly, helping herself to lobster patties. It is impossible that we have met before this evening. And even if we had, why should he stare so? Unless—

A ghastly suspicion assailed her.

Unless when we met before, he could not see me!

With an exclamation of horror, Caitlin turned involuntarily to look at Lord Kilverton, and her eyes, wide with dismay, met his yet again. He was
still
watching her! And even as her eyes met his, she knew her expression of shocked realization was confirming his own suspicions. The interest in his gaze sharpened into triumph, and his eyes danced with unholy amusement. At her expense! She immediately looked away, covered with confusion and blushing scarlet.

“No! Oh, no!” she whispered. Hardly recalling where she was, she turned blindly with some vague notion of escaping the room. Emily, however, was at her side and touched her arm with timid concern.

“Caitie, are you ill? What is amiss?”

Caitlin stared unseeingly at her sister, her thoughts in turmoil, her color fluctuating alarmingly, and her expression quite distracted. “Ill?” she repeated numbly. “No, I am not ill. I merely—that is—oh, this is dreadful!”

“Dreadful? What is dreadful?”

Caitlin, becoming aware of Emily’s anxiety and the curious gaze of an inquisitive woman nearby, made an effort to control her rising sense of panic and appear more normal. She took a deep breath, and schooled her features into a calm and rational expression. After all, she was at Lady Dassinghurst’s reception! Nothing untoward could occur. But as she was opening her mouth to reassure Emily, a dreaded voice was heard behind her.

“Miss Campbell, we meet again! Allow me to recommend the trifle, which has apparently escaped your notice.”

Lord Kilverton audaciously slapped a spoonful of trifle onto the plate trembling in Caitlin’s hand. She did not dare look up at him, but ventured to respond in a voice that shook only slightly.

“I dislike trifle!”

Emily’s sweet, worried gaze turned to Lord Kilverton. “I am afraid my sister is not feeling quite the thing.”

“Very understandable,” replied Lord Kilverton, with quick sympathy. “Such a press of people round the table! I feel it myself.”

“The heat is a little oppressive,” agreed Emily innocently “We did not look for such warm weather in May. One feels it more when it is unexpected.”

While her sister spoke, Caitlin cast a mute, but agonized, glance up at her tormentor. She immediately looked away again, but she knew her expression had been eloquent of horror and embarrassment. Even a heart of stone must feel compassion for such distress! Lord Kilverton, however, appeared unmoved.

“Yes, indeed!” he agreed blandly. “Even the strongest person can be overpowered by”—his eyes flicked toward Caitlin—“unexpected heat.”

Caitlin almost gasped aloud at this astonishing piece of insolence. She glared indignantly up at his lordship and found herself confronting such laughing eyes, in such a solemn face, she had to look hastily away again. How appalling to discover within herself a temptation to
laugh
at this hair-raising situation! What was wrong with her? She bit her lip, and achieved an icy politeness.

“It is somehow impossible to believe you know the first thing about it, my lord. You certainly do not have the appearance of one who is easily overpowered.” She dared to look challengingly at him, but was immediately sorry she had done so. He was smiling softly down at her, with laughter still in his eyes, and something else as well. Something that sent a fresh wave of color to Caitlin’s cheeks and brought her heart into her throat.

“I assure you, Miss Campbell, I am extremely conscious of the heat surrounding us,” he said softly. “It is only by the strongest effort of will that I am not at this very moment succumbing to it.”

Caitlin was thrown into such confusion she hardly knew where to look. Terrified, she took refuge in impertinence.

“If that is the case, I wonder you do not quit the room! Most
gentlemen in distress
are capable of rescuing themselves!”

Emily was shocked by her sister’s extraordinary rudeness, but Lord Kilverton actually laughed out loud. As if Caitie had said something witty! thought Emily, bewildered but relieved.

“I will rescue us both,” announced Lord Kilverton with unimpaired good humor. “Shall we take a turn round Lady Dassinghurst’s admirable gardens? I am persuaded the fresh air will do us a world of good.”

Caitlin uttered a strangled syllable which Emily thought must signify assent. Lord Kilverton did not fall into this error, however. As Emily turned back to the buffet table, he lowered his voice confidentially.

“Come, Miss Campbell, why do you spurn my escort? You will give me a very odd opinion of you, you know. Do you always walk unattended?”

Caitlin addressed his lordship in an agitated whisper, stammering a little in her distress. “Certainly not. That is—I mean—why, it’s none of your affair!”

“I hope you do not expect me to stand by the buffet table and listen for your screams, while you walk round the garden alone. I cannot be certain I would hear a cry for help in all this hubbub.”

Anger suddenly stiffened her spine and banished all desire to laugh. She turned to face him, her eyes blazing. “How
dare
you accost me in this fashion? This is the greatest piece of rudeness I have ever encountered!”

Kilverton chuckled. “Is it?”

Caitlin flushed scarlet. “No—it is the second-greatest piece of rudeness! But you are responsible for the first, as well! I must tell you I am shocked—deeply shocked!—by your conduct, my lord. You must be perfectly aware that our first meeting shamed me to the core—and through no fault of my own!”

“Yes, I thought it was you,” remarked Lord Kilverton in a tone Of great satisfaction, which caught Caitlin up short.

She instantly realized that it was only her last speech that had actually given her away. He had succeeded in putting her to the blush without ever mentioning their first meeting in so many words. Had Caitlin held her tongue, she might yet have pretended not to recognize him. If only she had had the presence of mind to ignore his ill-bred innuendos! She could have blamed her agitation on—oh, anything! How pleasant it would be to stare uncomprehendingly into his handsome face and tell him freezingly that she did not understand his manner or his remarks! Too late now! Her seething silence allowed him to continue urbanely.

“You will recall my earlier observation that I thought we had met before. How gratifying it is to have one’s intuition confirmed by subsequent revelations! I am most eager to renew our acquaintance, Miss Campbell. Do let me take you round the gardens—at once!”

Caitlin’s voice shook with outrage and mortification. “It is a wonder I did not recognize you instantly, for no one else could be so dead to shame! Round the gardens, indeed! I would not willingly walk across the room with you!”

“Well, you’re out, there,” replied Lord Kilverton affably, “because if I’m not mistaken, my sister means to invite you to eat supper with our party. Unless you wish to appear nohow, you must, in fact, walk across the room with me. I am glad of it. It has become something of an ambition of mine to tuck your hand into my elbow.”

She stared at him in wrathful astonishment, furious that he had somehow invested his words with such intimacy that she felt her cheeks growing hot. “This is beyond anything!” she choked. “I will thank you, my lord, to remember your surroundings! This is no darkened street, and I am no longer a stranger to you. There is no excuse for your effrontery!”

But in fulfillment of his prophecy Serena suddenly appeared, chattering cheerfully, taking Caitlin and Emily firmly by their elbows and ushering them over to the table where her brother, herself, Lady Elizabeth, and a certain Captain Talgarth had established places. Caitlin helplessly allowed herself to be propelled to the table by Serena, with Lord Kilverton following in their wake. Her only consolation was the thought that she had not, after all, been forced to take Lord Kilverton’s arm.

With a heightened color and wooden expression, Caitlin seated herself stiffly at the small table. She eyed her plate resentfully. It contained nothing but two lobster patties and an enormous spoonful of trifle.

Caitlin’s agitation was such that she could neither eat nor attend to the chatter and laughter surrounding her. The sound seemed to wash over her in meaningless waves while her mind worked furiously to hit on an escape. It occurred to her that she and Emily might excuse themselves on the grounds of seeking their aunt. Caitlin tried in vain, however, to catch her sister’s eye. Serena had placed herself and Captain Talgarth between them, and Emily, overwhelmed at finding herself in such exalted company, seemed unable to lift her eyes from her plate.

Caitlin was still trying to draw Emily’s attention when she suddenly became aware that Serena had laid an insistent hand upon her wrist. “Do say you’ll come!” exclaimed Serena.

Caitlin blinked at her friend, momentarily confused. “I’m sorry, Serena, I—”

She felt Serena’s fingers tighten, and a slippered foot pressed Caitlin’s toes beneath the table. Serena was sending what was obviously meant to be an urgent signal. Even more confused, Caitlin halted her apology. Serena, her eyes overbright and her laughter a little breathless, rushed into speech.

“It is a bit sudden, but you cannot possibly have plans for tomorrow morning, Caitlin—you know you were to have gone riding with me. Well, I simply forgot to tell you about the Richmond drive—so silly, but quite my own fault! Now, do say you’ll accompany us, or I’ll believe you’ve taken offense at my carelessness.”

“Well, I—”

“And Miss Emily Campbell, too, of course!” cried Serena, swiftly turning to include Emily in her invitation. “Are you free tomorrow morning, Miss Campbell?”

“Oh, yes!” said Emily, her soft eyes glowing. “I would like it of all things.”

“Then it is settled!” cried Serena gaily. Caitlin managed a rather weak smile as she wondered what had just been arranged for her morning’s entertainment. She would have to discover their plans from Emily later. And what was the meaning of that extraordinary expression on Lady Elizabeth’s face? She looked as if she had just swallowed a lemon. Caitlin, preoccupied with her own thoughts, had clearly missed something important.

Lady Elizabeth, however, was far too well-bred to parade her annoyance in public. It was not until she was alone with Lord Kilverton in the carriage as he escorted her to her home that she allowed herself to express her views.

“What do you think of your sister’s new friends?” she began, with a playful little smile. “For myself, I do not quite like to see our dear Serena encouraging such persons to think themselves at home among the
beau monde.
”

Kilverton was mildly surprised at her tone. “Do you mean the Campbell girls? What’s wrong with them?”

“Oh, nothing at all. I’m sure they are both very good sorts of girls—in their proper sphere. The younger one seems to be an innocent, at least—although appearances can be deceptive, of course. But the elder!” She laughed gently. “I do not think there is any scheme too base for that girl’s effrontery. I fear poor Serena is being sadly taken in.”

Kilverton’s brows snapped together. In addition to the aspersion cast on his sister’s judgment, he found himself disproportionately annoyed with Elizabeth for criticizing the elder Miss Campbell. “If you have any reason to suspect my sister is deceived in Miss Campbell, you had better address your remarks to her. I warn you, however, that I have never known Serena’s instincts to err when it comes to judging character, and you will have a difficult time persuading her she has been mistaken in her friend.”

“I have already spoken to her, Richard, and I fear it is just as you say. Serena has disregarded my advice in what I can only consider to be a reckless and headstrong manner. She insists on continuing her sponsorship of these Campbells. I hope she may not live to regret it. There is a streak of stubbornness in dear Serena that I fear I must deplore. I hope in time to teach her to respect the counsel of those older and wiser than she, but as yet I see no signs of her heeding me. I fancy it is because your dear papa has been weak for so long, and your mother, you know, never asserts her authority. As the youngest child, and the only girl, it is perhaps natural that Serena has grown up a trifle
spoilt.
”

Kilverton listened to her in gathering wrath. “Let me advise you, Elizabeth, not to attempt to correct Serena! She is a young woman, not a child, and any influence you may gain over her can only be won through befriending her. I hope you did not try to preach to her, or, God forbid, assert your imaginary ‘authority’ over her.”

Elizabeth stiffened. “In what way, pray, can my authority be considered imaginary? I will be an older sister to her.”

Kilverton gave a crack of laughter. “You may keep your own sisters firmly under your thumb, but you won’t do so with mine! Lord! I’d give a monkey to have seen her face when you tried to induce Serena—
Serena!
—to abandon her friends! She must have flown up into the boughs.”

Elizabeth’s chagrined expression confirmed the accuracy of Kilverton’s guess. Her lips compressed into a thin line and her voice sharpened angrily. “I did not realize how cavalierly you would regard your sister’s behavior, or that you would show so little regard for her reputation. Foisting a—a
mushroom
—onto the
ton
will not endear her to the likes of Lady Dassinghurst! Serena has reached an age when she must court influential hostesses, not alienate them. If she has a preference for low company, she would do well to hide it until she has contracted an unexceptionable alliance.”