Page 42 of The Society Catch
‘I thought I would take my sketch book and go down to the south paddock to try my hand at drawing the horses. I flatter myself that I can draw a bowl of fruit or a landscape with tolerable ease, but I have never tried to draw an animal.’
‘Are you sure it is not that you want to have a look at that little mare Giles was so pleased about at dinner last night?’ Hebe teased.
‘Well, of course Moonstone is lovely, and Giles is most kind to let me ride her, but the new mare sounds very spirited.’
Hebe laughed. ‘Try and see if you can wheedle him into letting you try her this evening. If he has another successful day he will be in a good mood.’
Joanna found her sketch book in the drawer where she had left it on her last visit to Tasborough, picked up a wide straw hat by its almond-green ribbons and ran down the stairs without bothering to set it on her hair. Despite everything she couldn’t help feeling happy this morning. The sun was shining, Giles seemed content with the way his plans were progressing and she had put on the most becoming of her new muslin gowns. The skirts were simple white fabric with a subtle figuring of whiterose buds in the weave. The bodice was the same shade as her hat ribbons, with puff sleeves and a narrow satin trim around the neck.
Humming quietly to herself, and letting her mind wander dangerously towards daydreams of what Giles would think when he saw such a fetching ensemble, Joanna reached the bottom of the front steps and turned away across the lawn towards the corner of the complex of stable yards and the way to the paddocks. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a curricle turn between the high brick pillars of the front gate far off down the drive, but ignored it. A visitor for Alex and Hebe, no doubt.
She reached the entrance to a little yard, unused except for hay and feed storage and would have walked past if it wasn’t for a pitiful mew from inside. One lost kitten, its eyes just open and its legs scarcely under control, was staggering across the cobbles, squeaking its distress.
‘Oh, you poor little thing. Where’s your mother?’ Joanna dropped hat and book onto a low wall and went to pick up the protesting scrap of fur which immediately attempted to suck her finger.
‘What a charming picture,’ a voice remarked from the entrance to the yard. ‘Quite the subject for a sentimental print.’
‘Rufus.’ It was Lord Clifton. His driving coat was carelessly open, he carried his gloves in one hand and as she stared at him he swept his hat from his blond head and made her an elegant bow. ‘What on earth are you doing here? Have you come to visit Lord Tasborough?’
‘Joanna my dear, how low you rate your own attraction. I am here to see you, of course, and to continue the discussions we were having about our impending nuptials before you were so inconveniently summoned to your cousin’s bedside. That is the excuse your parents are putting out is it not? I would not like to get it wrong and cause embarrassment. It is always so difficult torecall in these cases what the story is. Chicken pox? The needs of an aged aunt? How convenient to have a cousin in the country.’
He strolled towards her as he spoke and Joanna backed away, still clutching the kitten which sank needle-claws into her hand. ‘I do not know what you mean. My cousin asked for me to stay, and I am most certainly not going to discuss her health with you. As for ournuptialsI have told you before, I would not marry you if you were the last man – ’
‘On earth, yes I remember.’ His eyes glittered blue. Joanna backed away further then stumbled as her foot found the central drain. She regained her balance but the few seconds brought him closer. ‘But you see your parentsdowant you to marry me, and beside my title and my fortune I have the other inestimable advantage in their eyes of being willing to marry you despite whatever havey-cavey activities you have been up to the past few weeks.’
‘If that is what you think, then I wonder that you care to offer for me,’ Joanna continued to back, her eyes never leaving his face. She had been so right to mistrust him on sight, she thought, desperately racking her brains to recall whether this yard was entirely enclosed or whether there was a gate through into one of the others. But the sapphire gaze held hers like a stoat with a rabbit and she could not turn her head to look.
‘As I told you before, Joanna, I desire you. You are very beautiful, a collector’s piece. And somehow, whatever scrape you have got yourself into, I think you are untouched. Ah yes, you blush so prettily.’
Another man for whom a virgin was a prerequisite,Joanna thought wildly. ‘Perhaps, perhaps not,’ she said as casually as she could and saw his eyes narrow.
‘I would not joke about it if I were you, Joanna. Now where was I? Oh yes, the list of your advantages. Respectable breeding, lovely manners when you try and, of course, it would please mymama to have me marry her old friend’s daughter.’
She backed into something solid. Looking down she realised it was the mounting block. Carefully she set the complaining kitten down on the bottom step and straightened up. To either side the walls were uninterrupted by anything but loose box doors standing open to reveal bales of hay or sacks of feed. No escape that way.
‘How did you know I was here now?’
‘Your mama told me, of course.’ He tossed his gloves onto the mounting block. ‘Now come here, Joanna, let me kiss you and we will discuss plans for our honeymoon. Italy I thought. You will like Italy.’
Mama, how could you?Joanna realised with a burning sense of hurt just why the lovely new clothes had been sent. And she had fallen neatly into the trap by putting on the most becoming gown that morning. Her mother simply could not know what a hateful man her best friend’s son had become or she would never have schemed for this meeting.
‘Rufus, go away. I have absolutely no intention…’ He took one stride forward and seized her, his hands clamping hard on her upper arms as he jerked her towards him.
‘No, stop it.Giles!’The last word was wrenched out of her as Rufus pulled her hard against his chest and fastened his mouth on hers. Joanna struggled wildly but the folds of his caped riding coat flapped around her, confusing her, his hands were too strong and then the sensation of his open mouth crushing her lips against his was too overwhelming. She was vaguely aware of being pushed backwards, of her heel catching painfully on a threshold and the sense of surrounding walls, then all of her being was concentrated on struggling against the hands which were on her body, the mouth which seemed intent on dragging the breath from her until she surrendered.
Giles exhaled deeply and leaned back against the cobwebbed stable wall. ‘We’ve done it, Hickling.’ The groom grinned back, his face as sweat-begrimed as Giles’s. At their feet a filly foal lay in a wet jumble of legs, the mare already licking and nuzzling it, urging it to stand on its impossibly long limbs for its first suck. Giles dragged his wrist across his forehead and stopped as the groom exclaimed, ‘Don’t do that, sir. You’re a right mess as it is.’
Giles looked down at his filthy torso and then across at Hickling. ‘Do I look as bad as you?’
‘Worse, Colonel. Better be putting yourself under the yard pump, if I may be so bold. Won’t be doing for any of the ladies to be seeing you in that state.’
Giles reached for his shirt, thought better of it and opened the half-door. ‘Can you manage now, Hickling?’
‘Aye sir, thank you. I’ll find you a bit of towel.’
Giles stretched and strolled across to the pump. The sun was hot on his bare back and the sudden shock of cold well-water made him gasp as he stuck his head and upper body under the flow. He emerged running wet and scrubbed his head vigorously with the piece of rough linen the groom handed him.
‘Thank you. I’ll send my valet over to pick up my clothes, if he ever speaks to me again once he’s seen these leathers.’ Giles strolled out of the main yard intending to lean on the paddock rails and admire his new bloodstock. Alex would be pleased with his new addition and soon the Gregory stables would be full of mares carrying the new lines he hoped to breed.
