The Virgin Huntress (6 page)

Hew frowned. “The child wants for discipline.”

“Her father indulges her every whim, and yet I am as much to blame. It is all we can do to keep a rein on her.”

“Yet you
chose
to conduct such an ungovernable hoyden to London?”

“There were circumstances, changes that made things vastly uncomfortable for her.”

The exchange was interrupted by the butler’s appearance. He gave Diana an apologetic look. “Beg pardon, madam, but a message is arrived from Lord DeVere’s running footman.”

“From Lord DeVere?” Diana accepted the missive with a look of surprise. Hew noted the slight tremble of her hands as she broke the seal. He strode to her side as she scanned the contents and then collapsed in a chair. “Thank God! She is safe!”

“She is with my brother?”

“Yes. He has taken her for a drive.”

“Then you know Vesta is safe.”

In only seconds, Hew saw fury replace her relief. “That is small consolation considering the company she is in. Mighty high-handed of him, don’t you think? To have absconded with the girl without so much as a by your leave!”

“Yet he shows you considerable favor in having sent the dispatch.” Hew gave a wry smile. “For my brother generally answers to no one.”

“He is an abominable man!” Diana said with a scowl.

“Inarguably.” Hew chuckled. “My lady,” he began, suddenly sober. “You were speaking only a moment ago of your reasons for coming to London. Am I to suppose it was due in part to Ned’s remarriage?”

“Yes. Vesta is vastly displeased about it. One can hardly blame her for being unsettled, given the suddenness of it.”

“I pray you would indulge my impertinence, but might I assume the marriage made you uncomfortable as well?”

“Perhaps,” Diana answered evasively.

“You have feelings for Ned?”

“Only of a platonic nature,” she said. “I have known Edward for half my life. He is a good and kind man. I think sometimes had he asked, I might have been persuaded to assume a legitimate, rather than surrogate role as Vesta’s mother, but now there is no longer a need. She is grown.”

“But what of yourself? Do you not desire security?”

“What woman does not?” She laughed. “Yet, I have a home for as long as I wish and an income sufficient to my modest needs.”

“What of companionship?” he asked.

“I have had that with Edward and Vesta.”

“And affection?”

Diana briefly met his inquiring gaze and turned away. “Surely every woman desires all those things, Hew, but they are not always to be.”

“I shan’t hedge any longer,” he said with growing impatience. “You must know I wish to pay my address to you, Diana. I can offer you security, my affection, and utmost fidelity.”

“Priceless gems,” she answered with a sad smile. “But do you not seek passion in a marriage?”

Hew’s face instantly suffused with heat. “I would expect that to follow.”

“There you are wrong, dear Hew. Affection may spring from mutual respect, but passion can never be willed. It just
is.
” She added softly, “Sometimes whether we desire it or not.”

“It’s my brother, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Her retort was quick, too quick.

“I know about the leasehold, but the rest was mere speculation until the dispatch. Don’t deny it, Diana. Your reaction to his missive betrayed you, and your disquiet disturbs me.”

“As you well know, my husband’s death occurred at your brother’s estate. It was all a most unpleasant episode that I have no desire to resurrect.”

“Please know it is not my desire to further unsettle you, yet as a gentleman, there is one more thing I must ask—did my brother, Lord DeVere, at any time importune you?”

He could almost see her hackles rise. She answered tersely, “There is nothing between me and Lord DeVere.”

Her too carefully worded reply and
is
as opposed to
was
confirmed his suspicions. “Pray pardon my impertinence, my lady.”

“Hew, you are all that is good and honorable. You have my greatest respect and admiration, but I have no wish to wed. I would never do so again unless I could give my heart. I cannot. And you deserve much more.”

“That is your final word?”

“I’m a woman who knows my own mind.”

Hew couldn’t deny his disappointment. Diana was all that one could want in a wife, beautiful, intelligent, and poised. They understood one another and no doubt would have rubbed along well, yet he was surprised by what he
didn’t
feel—crushed. “Very well then,” he said with a fleeting smile. “We will speak no more of it.”

***

“Pratt!” Lord DeVere ran his head groom to ground upon his return. “I wish to know all about this misadventure in Hyde Park with Lady Vesta Chambers.”

The groom studied the toe of his boot with a crimson flush. “Cap’n Hew told you about that, eh?”

“Damned right he did!” DeVere thundered. “Why didn’t you apprise me of the incident? Did I not put the girl under
your
protection?”

“That ye did, my lord.” The groom’s shoulders slumped.

“Then how the devil did you let a horse get away with her?” DeVere demanded.

“Wi’ all due respect, my lord, ‘tweren’t no accident.”

“The devil you say!”

“Aye, my lord. There be no devil like a
she-devil.
”

DeVere gave his groom a piercing look. “And what does that mean?”

“’Tweren’t quite what the cap’n and my lady thinks.”

DeVere felt his temper subside. “Talk to me, Pratt. What
really
happened?”

“Well, when we rode to the park, to my mind the wee miss was in a fit of pique, hot as her little mare she was that Cap’n be fawning all over my lady.”

“Was she, indeed?”

“Aye, my lord, a wee rogue wrapped in a pretty package is that one. I begin to think sommat amiss when she lost her hat. The cap’n and my lady was riding ahead, so they didn’t see when she asked me to fetch it for her. T’weren’t really the hat what spooked the horse, as the hat were already on the ground. After I dismounted, I seen the miss throw away her reins and spur the horse.”

“Preposterous! That’s damned reckless, dangerous, and altogether absurd!”

“That may be, my lord.” The groom laid a hand on his heart. “But ‘tis also God’s honest truth.”

“You mean the little wretch endangered her own life in a fit of jealous pique?”

“Aye, my lord.”

“You knew this and failed to expose her fraud?”

Pratt regarded his master with a plaintive look. “Ye should have seen the little vixen! ‘Twere some ‘o the best ridin’ I ever seen. There be few men with the bollocks to do what she done. Mayhap Cap’n Hew be one o’ the few. So ye understand, my lord, I hadn’t the heart to peach her.”

“So you say the entire escapade was just a fit of passion because Hew was making up to the baroness?”

“Aye. That be the way I seen it.” Pratt nervously twisted his cap while he awaited the master’s verdict. “Your pardon for the breach o’ trust, my lord?”

“Don’t get into a lather, Pratt. I’m not about to dismiss you,” DeVere said. “Indeed, I have a more fitting punishment in mind.”

“How’s that, my lord?” asked the worried groom.

“Given that you’re already complicit with the scheming little baggage, I intend to put you completely at her disposal. From this moment on, Pratt, you are to answer
solely
to Lady Vesta. Not the baroness. Not Captain Hew. Whatever the girl’s whim is to be your command. Without question. Without hesitation. This injunction is to be superseded by no one but myself. Do you understand me, Pratt?”

“Aye, my lord.”

“Shameless little hussy.” DeVere chuckled under his breath as he departed his stables, his former black mood utterly forgotten.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

“Vesta!” Her godmother nearly ran to her when she entered the vestibule. “Where on earth have you been?” She clasped the girl’s shoulders with a stern reproach. “Don’t you know we were worried sick about you?”

“But why?” Vesta asked innocently as she removed her bonnet and gloves. “I was with my godfather.”

Diana led her into the drawing room. “But how was I to know that, Vesta? And moreover, how came you to be with him in the first place?”

Vesta bit her lip. “Did I not say? He invited me for a drive.”

“No! You didn’t say!” Diana retorted.

Vesta tried to look suitably contrite. “I’m so sorry to have worried you, Aunt Di, but I was so eager to see my godfather, and he has yet to pay a call.”

“I would strongly discourage him from doing so, Vesta.”

“But why?”

“Because you are in my charge and should do as I ask,” Diana replied with an evasiveness Vesta couldn’t comprehend.

“But he has a box at the Theatre Royal for us, Aunt Di!” Vesta protested. “It’s for
The Maid of The Oaks.
By the by, I’ve invited Uncle Vic and Captain Hew for afternoon tea tomorrow.”

“Tell me you did not!” Diana retorted with an expression of outraged mixed with dismay.

“But I just told you I did! Why should I not? I am excessively fond of my godfather. This is my father’s house, after all, and Uncle Vic is his best friend. Besides, you appear to have no objection to entertaining Captain Hew.”

Diana sniffed. “That is my own business, young lady. Besides, they may be brothers, but I assure you the two are cut from distinctly different cloth.”

“You are unfair, Aunt Di!”

“I have my reasons to be, Vesta. You may entertain
him
if you like, but I feel a megrim coming on and just may feel the need to spend tomorrow abed. I pray you will make my excuses to Lord DeVere.”

“Of course, I shall,” said Vesta. She smiled her secret smile, thinking the hand couldn’t have played out any better.

***

“Where have you been, missy?” Polly scolded Vesta with a wagging finger the moment she entered her bedchamber. “My poor lady was almost in vapors after you disappeared. They all but raised hue and cry over you.”

“Hew? Captain Hew?” Vesta said breathlessly.

Polly shook her head. “A
hue and a cry,
daft girl.”

Vesta glared. “I had need of some air.”

“Four hours worth?” The maid shook out Vesta’s discarded shawl with a snap.

“I remembered I needed something from the apothecary. But then I got lost.”

“And you just happened to find yourself again?” Polly’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“I
found
my godfather who took me up in his chaise. Indeed, it’s even now parked in the mews. He said he has given it and a postillion for my exclusive use so I need never get lost again. It’s so much more practical and maneuverable on these crowded streets than Papa’s great lumbering traveling coach.”

Polly’s eyes widened in her fleshy face. “Do you mean to say you was out driving with that dev—with Lord DeVere?”

“Of course. We drove to Richmond where he showed me some sights and then had Pratt drive me home.”

Polly gave her a chastising look. “While my poor lady wore herself out after she and Captain Hew spent nigh on three hours traipsing over London looking for you.”

“Captain Hew?” Vesta said. “He
was
worried about me?”

“More like he was worried about
my lady
what was worried about you.”

“Must you sour everything, Polly!” Vesta willed herself not to emphasize the statement with a foot stomp. “Did the gowns arrive yet? They were supposed to be delivered this afternoon, were they not?”

“Aye. There be a day dress, a riding habit, and an evening gown apiece, along with all the gloves, fans, and other finery from the haberdasher.”

“Ooh!” Vesta squealed. “I must see them at once!”

When Polly laid the three ensembles out on the bed for inspection, Vesta admired the riding habit she’d ordered in crimson to match Captain Hew’s uniform, thinking it would certainly suffice. She thought the military cut of it gave an impression of maturity and even enhanced her scanty, five-foot-two-inch height. The other two gowns, modestly fashioned in soft, satin pastels in the new French shepherdess mode that had delighted Vesta only days ago, now seemed juvenile choices. Her heart sank. How could she ever get Hew to notice her when she looked no more sophisticated than a dairy maid?

“Please fetch Aunt Di’s gowns,” she commanded. “I wish to see those as well.”

Polly heaved a sigh and brought in a lovely gown in old gold, one cut to show off Diana’s generously proportioned figure, but also one that would perfectly bring out the golden hue in Vesta’s hazel eyes. “It appears the modiste has made a mistake,” Vesta said. “This one should have been fashioned for me. Pray call for Mister Pratt. I shall need the carriage at once.”