Page 29 of Fortune Favors the Frivolous
“I’d like to remember it properly,” she said, emboldened by their shared adventure and the new understanding blossoming between them like a flower unfurling in spring sunshine. “When I’m not half-asleep and confusing it with dreams about knights and ladies.”
For a moment, something flickered in his eyes. Something warm and promising and decidedly ungentlemanly that made her pulse race. Then he shook his head slightly and smiled, a smile that reached his eyes and made them crinkle at the corners in the way she’d always loved.
“Let’s get you and Venetia safely back to London first,” he said, his voice slightly rough with an emotion she was beginning to recognize. “Then we can discuss… proper kisses.”
The promise in his words sent a thrill through her that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the adventure that awaited them.
Not just the journey back to London, but the journey of discovery they’d begun in each other’s arms.
Chapter Fifteen
“Your aunt iskeeping to her bed rather late, Miss Playford, is she not?”
Venetia kept her head down and her voice steady as she replied, “Aunt Pike does like to conserve her energy during long journeys.” She stirred her tea with deliberate slowness, avoiding the piercing gaze directed at her from across the table.
“For she is, as I have known her, a generally busy, rather early-to-rise sort of woman. Would you not agree?”
Venetia raised her teacup and smiled at the abominable woman across the table from her. With an effort, she managed to keep the liquid in the porcelain cup from spilling.
How had she found herself in such a situation? She was exhausted, her traveling dress was crumpled from all those hours of close confinement in Lord Windermere’s carriage, and she was sure she must smell of horse from her race across the countryside with Henry.
Mrs. Gascoyne didn’t seem to notice. The sunlight streaming through the inn’s windows caught the silver threads in her hair, giving her the deceptive appearance of a benevolent matron.
Did the woman believe her? Or did she suspect that Aunt Pike was not in the bedchamber from which Venetia exited with Henry into the passage, and now she was determined to trap Venetia, like a cat toying with a cornered mouse?
“Aunt Pike did complain of a megrim when she went to bed,” Venetia said artfully, smoothing an imaginary wrinkle from her sleeve. “Maybe I should check on her and see if she needs anything.”
“Oh, I’m sure she’d have sent a message down if that were the case.” Mrs. Gascoyne waved Venetia back into her chair, her bony fingers fluttering imperiously. “Or perhaps I could go up and lend a sympathetic ear if she’s feeling so poorly.”
“Oh, there’s really no need,” Venetia protested as sweetly as she could. She’d certainly learned a lot over the past three years when such an offer under such circumstances would have had her sweating and choking on her response. “Aunt Pike can get a little testy when she’s not feeling up to snuff. I shall ask the innkeeper’s wife if she could make up a soothing posset, perhaps.”
“Yes, that would be a kind thing to do for a kind woman. Mrs. Pike is so very considerate to all others. A godly woman, wouldn’t you say?” Mrs. Gascoyne’s eyes narrowed slightly, her lips pursed in an expression that suggested she was already certain of the answer.
Venetia thought her aunt the last thing from a godly woman she could think of, but she managed a muted, “I believe people are always very different amongst their nearest—”
“And their dearest. And that is what you are, is that not so, my dear Miss Playford? You are your aunt’s closest living relative and, having no children of her own, it must have been a great comfort to her to know she had you to look after her in her twilight years. I had supposed that a gel like you would not marry, having not been endowed with a fortune.” She hesitated, her fingers drumming a slow rhythm on the tablecloth. “But then the events of last night. Well, I’d feared my husband had jumped to conclusions, having seen you in company with the young gentleman Mr. Ashworth—”
“Well, now, I’m afraid itwasrather jumping to conclusions since I only met Mr. Ashworth here while Aunt Pike and I were already staying here. A great coincidence it was indeed, for his sister, Charlotte, is a very great friend of mine.” Venetia smiled with what she hoped was convincing innocence, though her heart fluttered like a trapped bird against her ribs. “And as Mr. Ashworth was in such a hurry to expedite a very important personal matter, I’m not entirely sure he understood properly what was being insinuated.”
“Oh, he certainly did. And if you want to keep it secret for now, then our lips are sealed until it’s made public. But, my dear…” Mrs. Gascoyne leaned her whole body across the table. “I’ve no doubt your aunt is delighted you’ve won the interest of a man of such considerable prospects as Mr. Ashworth.” She hesitated, and her eyes narrowed. “And I’m sure she sanctioned your meeting with him last night, as she was no doubt offering all the required chaperonage. But she has not been well, has she?” Mrs. Gascoyne cleared her throat and went on, haltingly. “What I mean to say is… Has your aunt warned you of the dangers of consorting with young men like Mr. Ashworth when she is not physically present?”
Venetia widened her eyes as if the suggestion of liberties was front of mind and something she was at great pains to avoid. “She has,naturally, but as I said, Mr. Ashworth’s sister is a dear friend of mine. Really, it is not quite as it appears for Mr. Ashworth happened to be looking in on Aunt Pike when you saw us in the passage, for I had just come out to say goodbye… at Aunt Pike’s request. I’m afraid… well, Mr. Ashworth is indeed a very eligible potential suitor, but he is not, in fact,mysuitor. Really, he was simply doing a kindness to Aunt Pike, being coincidentally at the same inn.” The lie tasted bitter on her tongue, but Venetia kept her expression placid.
Mrs. Gascoyne pushed back her chair suddenly, the legs scraping harshly against the wooden floor, and hailed one of the young serving girls who had been hovering near the doorway. “Enough of this talk about your poor aunt when I know she would be down if she were well. We will ask the kitchen to make a posset and we will take it up to Mrs. Pike and reassure both ourselves that she is well.”
“Oh, really, Mrs. Gascoyne, that won’t be necessary. Did your husband not say he wanted to be on the road shortly?” Venetia’s voice took on a note of desperation that she couldn’t quite disguise.
Mrs. Gascoyne shook her head, her look serene though her eyes were sharp with suspicion. “I do not believe he said anything of the sort, so I can’t imagine where you got that from, my dear. No, let us go up together and see your poor Aunt Pike.”
“But—”
“She will not mind when she sees it is her old friend, Mrs. Gascoyne. And my husband does like a ramble in the countryside when he has the chance. A great bird watcher, is Mr. Gascoyne. And a great upholder of virtue, too, so he will not think of us departing from this inn before we have satisfied ourselves that you are in safe hands, which means ensuring that your aunt is well enough to see that all is right with you, young lady.” She rose, fixing a brook-no-argument look upon Venetia, her thin frame vibrating with moral conviction. “Come now, we’re going to see your Aunt Pike and I won’t hear another word.”
“But the posset—” Venetia made one last, feeble attempt at delay.
“Yes, we’ll organize for one to be brought up by and by. However, my concerns are rapidly rising that if your aunt truly was in sufficiently good health to look after you, she’d be well and truly up by now.”
Miserably, Venetia trailed after the woman who’d taken on the self-appointed de facto role of moral arbiter in Venetia’s affairs and who set up an interminable chatter all the way up the stairs about the godly works of the godly Mrs. Pike until Venetia feared she might scream. Her footsteps on the wooden stairs felt like a slow march to the gallows.
