Page 53 of An Innocent Maid for the Duke
‘Please, Grandmama, do not concern yourself. I am sure Miss Nightingale simply went a little farther afield than she intended.’ He bowed and strode down the sloping green sward towards the jetty where several young men lounged about, no doubt hoping to encourage some unwary female to board one of the punts.
Was that where Rose had gone? This urgent need to find her surprised him. In all his relationships with women, he had always been the one in control. With Rose he felt like a ship lost at sea.
How easily she’d abandoned him to Lady Alicia, while she went off having fun. Disgruntlement stirred in his chest. And worry.
Rose was too much the innocent to be safe around these young rakes. Rakes not unlike himself only a few months ago. He had no trouble imagining the sort of things they might get up to.
‘Westmoor. How fortunate to meet you here.’
Inwardly, Jake groaned as he realised the source of the hail-fellow-well-met voice with its distinctive lisp. This was a man he’d prefer not to meet anywhere, though he wouldn’t give the fellow the cut direct since he was also one of the Marquis’s guests. Nor did he wish to appear overly anxious about Rose. Damn the gossipmongers.
He tamped down his impatience and gave a sharp nod to the thickset fellow. ‘Bowles.’ He’d known Nash Bowles since university. The man lived on the fringes of society. His reputation was, if not tarnished, then not highly polished. He was rumoured not to have paid his debts. Worse yet, he had attempted to entrap Fred’s wife into marriage and Nicholas had held him in low esteem. All of which put him beyond the pale as far as Jake was concerned.
Now the blasted man was eyeing him with a narrowed gaze. Like a predator spotting prey? Damn his impudence.
‘I have a business proposition for you,’ Bowles saidsotto voce, glancing around as if he was imparting some great secret.
‘Really, Bowles? At a party?’ The man was an idiot. He moved them a couple of steps away from anyone who might be within earshot. ‘Send a note to my man of business, why don’t you?’
Bowles smiled with the great bonhomie that some ladies found charming. It set Jacob’s teeth on edge. ‘I want to talk to you about Vitium et Virtus.’
Here? The man wanted to discuss the club in a public place, with ladies present. He glared. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’
The man bridled a little, then caught himself and flashed another of his oily insincere smiles. ‘With Bartlett gone, you have need of another partner, I should think. What if I told you I learned things in Europe that would bring in fabulous wealth? Special offerings for those with unusual tastes.’
Jake kept his hands loose at his sides. He would not let this jackanapes make him lose his temper. He curled his lip in a perfect imitation of his father when disgusted. ‘Not interested.’
Bowles shifted from foot to foot, glancing about him. ‘Think about it. That is all I ask.’ He bowed. ‘Good talking to you, Your Grace.’ He sauntered away, with a strangely graceful gait for so thickset a man. He flourished his cane as if he wasn’t the most irritating man in London.
Jaw clenched, Jake watched him make his way across the lawns, bowing here, and pausing to exchange a word there. Gall. The man certainly had gall. Jake shook his head. He wasn’t going to let an idiot like that ruin his day. What was ruining his day was not finding any sign of Rose.
She was nowhere near the jetty. Nor was she one of the ladies lounging beneath parasols in the little flat-bottomed boats being wooed by eager young gentlemen in straw hats.
Rose would not have got into a boat with a stranger.
His stomach settled at that certainty. He looked along the bank. Upstream the edge of the river became reedy and the path petered out. Downstream the path meandered into a small stand of trees intended to look natural, but carefully planted to provide dappled shade. He chose that direction and set off with a lengthened stride.
Around a bend in the path he found her seated on a wooden bench looking out over the river to the fields on the other side. Though she sat with shoulders straight with her hands in her lap, she looked so forlorn his heart wrenched.
And the relief he felt was out of all proportion to discovering her whereabouts.
She did not turn her head when he sat down beside her, but he had no doubt she knew that it was he.
‘Rose,’ he said softly.
‘Your Grace,’ she replied, her voice calm.
‘Jake when we are alone, remember?’ he said in teasing tones, unsure of her mood.
‘Are we alone?’
‘It would appear so, unless you are hiding some other fellow in the bushes hereabouts.’ He gave her a gentle shove with his shoulder.
She cast him a glance of disdain. ‘I’mnot hiding anyone.’
‘Nor am I.’
‘You and Lady Alicia make a very striking couple.’
