Page 63 of A Sense of Misgiving
‘Just frightened half out of my wits.’
‘We’ll take you home. Sam’s on his way with the curricle.’
‘I want to know why, first,’ Mary said, lifting her chin and turning a tear-stained accusatory glance upon Lucy, who stood in the doorway looking furious yet oddly complacent. ‘What have I ever done to you, Lucy, to deserve such treatment? All I have ever been is your friend. Does my friendship mean so little to you?’
‘Don’t take it personally, my dear. It isn’t just you that I resent, but your entire family.’
Mary shook her head, dislodging a few errant curls. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Ask Luke. He knows.’
‘You have the advantage of me,’ Luke snapped disdainfully.
Lucy walked further into the conservatory, two spots of colour standing out against her otherwise pale skin. A beautiful hothouse flower denied an opportunity to flourish. Rain pelted down on the glass roof, but no one took any notice. Every eye in the room was on Lucy Arnold, including Redfern’s from his position in the armchair where he continued to nurse his injuries. So much for the hardened soldier, Paul thought derisively. A couple of punches had disabled him for real this time.
‘You are no better than your father,’ Lucy said, sneering at Luke. ‘He reneged on his promises, too.’
‘Careful,’ Luke warned in a deceptively mild tone. ‘I have not reneged on any promises, and certainly none made to you, since there have never been any. I would take care about bandying unsubstantiated accusations about if I were you.’
‘You led me to believe—’
‘I led you to believe nothing, Lucy. We were children. I am sorry if my being your friend led you to suppose that there was more to it than that on my side, but if that’s what you thought then you quite mistook the matter. We never once discussed our futures. I made you no promises, offered you no assurances.’
‘But our fathers, they agreed…’
Luke shrugged. ‘If they did, which I doubt at least insofar as my own father is concerned, then he never said a word to me on the matter.’
‘Well, of course you would say that.’ Lucy screwed up her features into a mask of disgust, playing the part of the victim she believed herself to be. ‘But I know the truth. I know how you used to look at me back then. It told its own story.’
Luke flapped a hand. ‘I admired your beauty, nothing more. If you thought otherwise, then you saw what you wanted to see, and are now embarrassing yourself.’
‘I thought you would want me still.’ Lucy lowered her voice to a sulky whine, sounding like a petulant child. ‘I was willing to be your mistress, Luke, to take as much of you as you were prepared to offer me, such is the power you wield over me.’
‘Is that why you resumed our friendship when you came home from the continent?’ Mary demanded, fire in her eyes. ‘It wasn’t me who interested you. You used me to get to Luke, hoping that I would fall for your heroicbrother and solve his financial problems at the same time. You resent my family and hoped to gain revenge on the lot of us. And your revenge would have been complete indeed if I’d remained blind to your brother’s many faults.’ She wiped her brow with the back of her hand. ‘Thank the good lord that did not happen.’
‘I waited and waited for your proposal, Luke,’ Lucy said, ignoring Mary’s scathing put down. ‘I turned down a dozen eligible offers because I was convinced it was me you wanted and that you would propose when you felt ready to make the commitment. But you did not, and I was in danger of being left on the shelf. Me! The most eligible and pursued debutante of my season. It was intolerable. Beyond insulting.’
‘Unbelieveable,’ Luke said without an ounce of sympathy in his tone. ‘We cannot always expect to have what we want in this world, but since you have been spoiled and indulged your entire life, I don’t suppose you understand that.’
‘I accepted Arnold as a last resort, which is why you find me in this hovel when I deserve so much better.’ Despite Luke’s warning, Lucy seemed determined to air her grievances. ‘And yet you don’t even want me as a mistress and seem to prefer that mousy companion you employed to keep your senile grandmother in line.’ Lucy twirled around, her skirts almost tripping her as they tangled with her feet. ‘It’s utterly mortifying.’
‘I have already warned you to mind what you say,’ Luke said in a mordant tone. ‘Miss Latimer has nothing to do with any of this and I will not have her name brought into it.’
Mary widened her eyes, sharing a bewildered look with Paul at Luke’s staunch defence of Flora. Clearly, she had not seen what was clear to Paul, although it was one subject that he had not discussed with his friend. He didn’t know how to broach it.
Lucy shook her head. ‘I cannot understand it at all.’
‘You married Arnold, so make the best of it and put the past behind you. I am taking my sister home now and you will not be invited to Beranger Court again.’
‘My war hero of a brother is not good enough for your family either,’ Lucy cried, her voice shrill.
Paul harrumphed. ‘Your brother is no hero. Look at him.’ Paul resisted the urge to kick the man while he was down. ‘He got that scratch on his face scrapping with another officer and a court martial was only avoided because you brother used his influence.’
Mary gasped. Lucy hung her head. Redfern said nothing at all.
‘He told me he intended to take up a career in the law, which is when I first doubted him, although I hoped I was wrong,’ Mary said. ‘I knew that he doesn’t have a degree, so how could he possibly follow that career path? I concluded that he wanted to impress me by proving that he had every intention of working for a living and was not simply after my fortune. Perhaps I wanted to believe it for a little while.’ She glanced up at Paul, who gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze. ‘If he had taken more time, courted me more assiduously, I might have been persuaded to accept his proposal.’
‘He had no time,’ Paul replied. ‘He knew that we might check up on his background and couldn’t afford to take that risk. He needed matters to be resolved quickly. I assume he engineered this afternoon’s outing in order to propose.’ Mary nodded. ‘You declined and so he decided to force your hand in the basest manner possible.’ Paul shook his head. ‘You disgust me.’ he said to Redfern, reaching forward and shaking the man by the collar. Redfern’s jaw wobbled from side to side in the way jaws shouldn’t, and he howled.
