Page 60 of Masquerading with the Duke
Frankie, in the process of putting on her bonnet, looked up sharply. ‘I imagine that they will be. As you know, I don’t issue invitations. Nor did your mother. She told me that this tradition was so well established that all her friends put in appearances without the necessity for a formal invitation. Not that I am sure the Redrows qualify as friends precisely, more acquaintances, but I cannot see them missing the event. Your secret affairs with Clarence and Braden involve them, one assumes, since you just mentioned his name. Well, I suppose you won’t tell me so I shall just have to draw my own conclusions.’ She tilted her head and sent him a saucy smile. ‘Of course, if I reallywanted to know, I would have found a way to make you tell me before now.’
‘Witch!’ Zach pulled her to her feet and kissed her, almost impaling his eye on the brim of her bonnet in the process. ‘Just don’t become too intimate with Mrs Redrow. If things turn out the way that I hope, we will be dropping the connection.’
To his astonishment, Frankie didn’t press him for further particulars. ‘With all the family here, as well as our intimate friends, I doubt whether I shall exchange more than a dozen words with Mrs Redrow.’
‘Well then, if you are ready, we had best put in an appearance.’
Most of the family were already in the drawing room, from which much laugher and the drone of a dozen conversations emanated. Leo ran up to them, full of excitement and looking disconcertingly grown up.
‘Mama, Papa, we’ve been waiting for you for ages! The clowns have arrived.’
Their son looked scrupulously clean in his pale blue skeleton suit with its ankle length trousers buttoned to a high-waisted matching jacket and with his first ever ruffled white shirt peeping out from beneath it. Zach heard Frankie give a little gasp, probably dismayed by the passing of time that had already wreaked so many changes in the development of all their children. Their eldest looked very dashing in his white stockings, strapped slippers and military-style cap.
Zach recalled his own excitement and how important he’d felt when he himself had been decked out in a similar outfit and permitted to mix with the adults. He squeezed Frankie’s hand, knowing she would be thinking about the day in the not too distant future when Leo and Josh would go off to preparatory school together. Leo would mature overnight as a consequence, and would no longer be her little boy.
Zach smiled over his head at Amos, who was occupied with answering one of Charlotte’s endless questions. His brother’s daughter, the eldest of the next generation, had a lively and inquisitive mind that kept them all on their toes; much like Anna had when Zach had been a child.
He glanced outside. The grounds were already filling with villagers and local gentry, all dressed in their finest; lively and determined to enjoy themselves.
‘They’ve got a new bowler, I hear,’ Vince, the most enthusiastic of them all when it came to cricket, told Zach. ‘Look at the bounder. That’s him.’ Vince shaded his eyes against the sun with one hand and pointed to a tall, very large and fit looking young man with the other. ‘We’re doomed.’
‘Don’t be so defeatist,’ Zach said, slapping his shoulder. ‘Right, shall we?’
Zach and Frankie, with Leo in between them smiling and waving indiscriminately, stepped out onto the terrace. They were greeted by a loud cheer and hats being thrown into the air. Clearly, inroads had already been made into Clark’s beer.
They were soon swamped by some of their close friends who awaited them on the terrace. The villagers respected the invisible dividing line and waited for Zach and his family to mix with them on the lawns. Leo hopped from foot to foot, already bored with adult conversation and keen to romp with the village children. As if on cue, Ariana and Martina scooped him up, along with Josh and Charlotte, even though they were not supposed to be working today, and they disappeared into the throng.
‘Should we be worried?’ Frankie asked.
‘Heavens, no,’ Zach replied. ‘The girls want to make themselves useful and if anyone tries to harm a hair on any of the children’s heads, then the perpetrator will be ripped apart by the crowd. This annual tradition is too important to the villagers for them to risk allowing anything to happen that would see me bring it to an end. And harming any of our children would certainly have that affect.’
‘You’re right, of course, but a mother has a duty to worry. It’s rather expected of her.’
Zach squeezed her arm. ‘So is enjoying yourself, and you will have me to answer to if you if fail to.’
She gave a little squeak. ‘You terrify me.’
Zach leaned closer and whispered in her ear. ‘I adore you,’ he assured her.
*
Jared was glad that he decided to ride one of his steady carriage horses on the day that the Park lifted its petticoats and allowed the hoi polloi into its hallowed grounds; or so one wit had described the occasion whilst in his cups at the local tavern. As soon as he reached the common leading to the Park, Jared was caught up in a procession of people on foot, in wagons, on mules and every conceivable form of transportation, all in the best possible spirits, but noisy enough to have driven Equinox into a frenzy of misbehaviour.
There appeared to be some sort of temporary corral for the villagers’ conveyances but Jared was waved past it by a liveried footman, and assumed that his horse would be accommodated in the duke’s stables. That proved to be the case. After a short wait, during which he passed the time of day with other mounted gentlemen, he surrendered his horse into the care of a harried groom, straightened his coat and then sauntered through the crowded park, alive to the fact that Ramsay would already be here.
He swerved to avoid a young woman, already a little the worse for drink, dancing somewhat wildly to a tune played on a whistle. She was cheered on by a small gaggle of men, encouraged by them to reveal more flesh than was appropriate. A juggler had attracted the interest of a pack of children; a fortune-teller had a lengthy queue forming outside her tent. Someone had organised some sort of running game for the children that required them to bowl a hoop. The noise was deafening, but Jared sensed no malice on anyone’s part. They were all here to enjoy the duke’s hospitality and make the most of their day off.
Jared worked his way through the crowd, rubbing shoulders with men and women from all walks of life, and reached the terrace where the family and gentry mingled. There were several long trestles set out on the lawns immediately in front of it. People were gravitating towards them, experience no doubt suggesting that the food was about to be served. Those in the know were anxious to secure the best seats and first pick of the sumptuous offerings. Jared glanced around, casually inspecting the throng, wondering if Redrow was amongst them. He couldn’t see him anywhere and was prevented from continuing to look when the duchess came over to greet him.
‘I am so glad you could join the mayhem,’ she said by way of greeting.
‘I’m told that my presence is vital to the reputation of the duke’s cricket team,’ he replied, bowing over her hand.
‘Oh dear! Have you been roped in? I hope you realise just how seriously everyone takes it. If you have been lured by the prospect of a friendly game, then I regret to say that you have been most grievously misled.’
Jared placed a hand over his heart. ‘Now I am petrified.’
‘You will have occasion to be if you are instrumental in beating the villagers. About the only time they don’t try to kill one another is when they join forces in an effort to emerge victorious over Zach’s team at cricket.’
