Page 21 of The Society Catch
‘Quite sure. I dislike the way he looks at me and he tried to blackmail me after I had got into a scrape.’ She caught his quizzical expression and nodded, ‘Yes, that night at Vauxhall. And yes, it is Rufus Carstairs, I suppose you have already guessed. But as for marrying someone I do not love, how can you say that?’ Joanna was hurt and surprised that he could fail to understand. ‘If the lady you love spurned you, could you just shrug and walk away and think, “I’ll find someone else”? Of course you could not, not if it were true love. I will never feel like this about anyone else, and I will not marry anyone I don’t love.
‘Imagine being tied to someone you did not hold in the deepest affection. I know some unfortunate women find themselves having to accept distasteful suitors, or men have to make duty marriages to restore their family fortunes, and I truly pity all of them. I would rather remain a spinster than marry anyone other than…him. And,’ she added vehemently, ‘Icannotlike or trust Lord Clifton.’
Giles appeared taken aback by her vehemence, but although he had raised his eyebrows on hearing who her suitor was he said nothing, so she asked, ‘Will you obey your father in the question ofyourmarriage?’
‘No,’ he retorted hotly, ‘I will not.’
‘You see? In matters of the heart feelings run very deep.’
He regarded her thoughtfully over the rim of his glass. ‘You are sure that this unfortunate experience has not made the entire business of marriage distasteful to you?’
‘Oh no,’ Joanna looked directly into his concerned grey eyes and smiled ruefully. ‘Oh no, not if it were marriage to the man Ilove.’
That evening brought a report that Milo Thomas had been intercepted near Lincoln and three distressed young women rescued. Joanna wondered anxiously about the reception they would receive when they returned to their homes and whether they would have the reassurance and support she was enjoying from Giles and from the Geddings.
‘And what about the ones who are already in those dreadful places?’ she asked vehemently as they sat down to dinner. ‘What is going to happen to them?’
‘I will be laying evidence with the Bow Street magistrates,’ the Squire said reassuringly. ‘They will check all of the addresses in Thoroughgood’s notebooks and ensure that every young woman there is free to leave. If any have been kidnapped and er…forced, then the justices will take the appropriate action.’
‘Yes, but what becomes of them?’ Joanna persisted. ‘What on earth happens next?’ There was an uncomfortable silence around the table. ‘When I get back to London I am going todosomething about this.’
‘My dear,’ Mrs Gedding said gently, ‘There is nothing that an unmarried girl of good familycando about it.’
Joanna knew that was likely to be only too true. ‘I wish I were a rich widow,’ she declared vehemently. Giles sat back in his chair with a gasp of laughter and she caught his eye, defiantly. ‘Well, I do. Not that I would wish anyone dead, of course not, but it seems to me that the only women who have any freedom of action at all are rich widows.’
The Squire looked faintly scandalised and, although Mrs Gedding sent her an amused look of understanding, Joanna thought it best to take herself off to bed as soon as possible at the end of the meal.
When she woke the next morning it was to the feeling that she had been ill, in a fever, and that now she was back to normal. The spectres of the Thoroughgoods and her terrifying experience became less nightmarish, although her determination to do something about the plight of the girls forced into brothels was no less ardent. Perhaps Hebe, when she had recovered from the birth, would be able to help.
But with the sense of recovery came the anxiety about how her parents would react and the more pressing realisation that not only was she in the same house as Giles but that she had been having conversations of quite shocking frankness with him. As she dragged the brush ruthlessly through her hair she thought it was only by some miracle that he had not guessed the identity of the man she loved, the man whose presence she was fleeing from.
She was so preoccupied with these thoughts that she walked straight into Giles in the hall outside the little parlour that did service as a breakfast room. Joanna knew she was blushing frantically but could think of nothing to say, other than to stammer, ‘Good morning.’
Chapter Ten
Giles opened the door for her and ushered her through. The room was deserted. ‘Good morning, Joanna. May I pour you some coffee?’
She sat down abruptly, making a business of shaking out her napkin so as not to meet his eyes. ‘Yes, thank you.’
Giles put the cup in front of her and took a seat opposite. ‘Might I trouble you for the bread? You are feeling more yourself this morning, I think.’
‘What?’ Joanna looked up, startled, and saw he was regarding her with an expression halfway between amusement and sympathy. ‘I am feeling better, yes, but how do you deduce that?’ Her heart was beating irregularly. Did he really understand her so very well?
She waited, biting her lower lip, while he buttered his bread, a slight frown between his brows. ‘How do I know? Well, yesterday we were having extremely frank conversations without you turning a hair. In fact you were quite unnaturally calm, which convinced me you were still suffering from shock. This morning you react as any gently bred young lady would at the realisation that the man she has just bumped into was the very one with whom she was discussing mistresses, houses of ill-repute and the perils of the married state only the day before.’ He smiled as she bowed her head in confusion. ‘You blush very prettily.’
‘Oh.’ Joanna gasped indignantly. ‘You are just saying that to make me blush more. Really Gi…Colonel Gregory…’
‘That is better,’ he said approvingly. ‘I would have hated to see you revert entirely to, what was it your mama called you? Oh yes, the “perfect debutante”.’
‘I was never that,’ Joanna said sadly, ‘although I did try so hard. Colonel, was Mamaveryangry?’
Giles stood up to carve a slice of meat from the joint on the sideboard. ‘Cold beef? No? I do wish you would stop calling meColonel. What is wrong with Giles? After all I am a family friend, almost a friend of your childhood.’
‘It seems hardly proper.’
Giles’s expression was so comical that Joanna burst out laughing. ‘Giles, do stop looking at me like that. I realise that after everything that has occurred it must seem finicky of me to cavil at first names, but believe me, I truly am trying to behave myself as I should. But do tell me about Mama.’
Giles flipped open the lid of the mustard pot and looked round for the spoon. ‘She was not angry at all when I saw her, but you must remember she was very much shocked and upset and anxious to have you found. I cannot vouch for her mood when she knows you are safe. And of course, she was most anxious to keep the news from your highly eligible suitor.’
