Page 31 of Lady Audacious
He had taken Emily in and seemed very attentive. Too attentive. Reuben scowled. He didn’t like to think of the cove sniffing around his sister’s petticoats. The Mortimers were highly respectable and Reuben had known them all his life, but their son was younger than Reuben and their paths had seldom crossed during their respective adolescences. Fresh from graduating university, Philip Mortimer would presumably help his father with the administration of his estate, which was considerably smaller than Amberley. He seemed equally keen to impress Emily, who appeared indifferent to his attentions.
‘I adore all the dogs,’ Emily said.
‘My sister is insisting upon running one of the dogs in the race under her own name,’ Reuben said, sending Emily an affectionate smile. ‘She won’t listen to me when I tell her it’s an unsuitable pursuit for ladies.’
‘I was not aware of that,’ the countess said. ‘Are you absolutely sure, Emily?’
‘Oh, Mama, don’t fuss so. I always attend the races anyway, so where is the harm in it?’
‘I will go with Emily, to put your mind at rest, ma’am,’ Sarah said, smiling deferentially.
Damn, Reuben thought, picking up his wine glass and taking a healthy swallow. He had just carelessly played straight into Sarah’s hands.
‘And I shall back your dog against your brother’s,’ Philip Mortimer added.
Chapter Nine
Odile was woken by a wet tongue licking her face. At first disorientated, she sat up too sharply and almost knocked the puppy from the bed.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said, smiling and stroking the little dog’s sleek head. The puppy’s whiplike tail slashed across the bed in ecstatic response. ‘I can see that you are revived, despite the fact that it’s only just light. I can now stay in bed for as long as I like. Everything was so regimented at Miss Mackenzie’s establishment, you see. A time for this, a time for that, and bells. Always bells ringing. I was enjoying the luxury of a little peace, even if you do snore. Could you not have slept for a little longer?’
The puppy leapt from the bed, ran to the door and scratched at it, well-mannered enough to make her requirements obvious without barking about them. Sighing, Odile threw back the covers, washed quickly in the previous night’s cold water, dressed in her lad’s attire and scooped the puppy up beneath one arm.
‘Come along then. Your body is already too long for me to comfortably carry you. Your rear legs are dangling down, but there’s no help for that.’
The puppy wriggled but didn’t attempt to get down and seemed happy enough to be tucked beneath Odile’s arm as they descended the stairs, thereby precluding the possibility of any accidents happening inside the house. Odile assumed that animals were a bit like small children and didn’t have a great deal of control in that regard.
Mrs Blaine was already bustling about in the kitchen when Odile entered it. Judging by the smells of frying bacon and baking bread, she had been up and about long before Odile’s guest had roused her. She smiled at the older lady but didn’t pause to talk, the dog’s requirements taking priority.
As soon as they were outside, the puppy scampered off, still limping slightly, and attended to her business. Odile wondered if she would now take herself back to Amberley Hall. She was unsure how she would feel about it if she did, having already become inordinately fond of the creature. The puppy, nose to the ground, weaved in and out of the overgrown flower beds but quickly returned to Odile’s side when she called her, waggling her spindly tail and staring up at her through huge, devoted eyes.
‘Oh, so you intend to stay for a while, do you?’ The puppy followed Odile back into the kitchen, looking up at her the entire time, her tail never still. ‘You have already decided that Mrs Blaine is a soft touch, I suppose, and clever creature that you are you realise that you don’t have to compete with your brothers and sisters in this establishment. Be that as it may, little one, don’t get too comfortable. I dare say the earl will send someone to collect you today and I will have no choice but to return you to him.’
The puppy whined, making is seem as though she understood what Odile had said to her, but quickly transferred her attention to Mrs Blaine when she placed a bowl of scraps on the floor. The puppy devoured them in seconds flat and then pushed the bowl round the floor with her nose, presumably checking to ensure that she hadn’t missed anything before looking up at Mrs Blaine through large, liquid eyes.
‘Oh no you don’t,’ Mrs Blaine said smiling. ‘That was more than enough for a little thing like you.’
Odile smiled too as she sat down and broke her own fast, feeling contented yet oddly tense. What she had to be anxious about she could not have said, but her unsettled feeling endured. By the time she had finished, her servants as well as the men working on the roof had arrived. Odile issued them with tasks to perform and the place was soon alive with activity.
She herself could do little inside the house, other than get in the way, since it was obvious that Doris took a dim view of her mistress helping with the tasks that she had given the girls to do. Rather than enter into a battle of wills with the recalcitrant maid, Odile decided to make a start on the gardens. It was hardly a priority but the weather was perfect. There was barely a cloud in the sky, she loved being outdoors, and these particular gardens were the place where she felt the most at home. The place where she hoped to have more flashbacks that would lend clues to her previous life.
The puppy seemed happy to join her and she toiled away for a good hour, blocking out the sound of the men working on the roof periodically calling to one another. Odile scolded Doris when she emerged from the house for the third time and told her curtly to resume her duties inside.
Odile had cleared almost the entire bed where she had first found the azaleas, and sat back on her heels, pleased with her progress yet hot and tired from the unaccustomed physical labour. Some of the weeds had been stubbornly determined to remain where they were and several battles of wills had ensued before Odile prevailed. But other than restoring order, she was no closer to understanding why these gardens felt so soothingly familiar, or why she had inherited the property at all for that matter.
She glanced up when she sensed a presence behind her, thinking it must be Harris or Mrs Blaine returned from the errands they had undertaken in the village that morning, coming to report on their progress. Instead, when she straightened up she was confronted by a man she had never in her life seen before.
‘Who are you and what is your business?’ she asked curtly, assuming that Harris and Mrs Blaine had not yet returned after all, otherwise the man would not have got past Harris. Had she known on a vicarious level that she would be confronted by a stranger who had come here with demands to make? A man who made her shiver because she sensed that he was dangerous. That would account for the unsettled feeling she had been unable to shake off.
‘Odile. I would know you anywhere,’ the man said in a voice that was almost cultured. He smiled at her and held out a hand, which she ignored. Instead, she scowled at him and the puppy growled.
‘You have the advantage of me, sir. I have absolutely no idea who you are and yet you seem to know me intimately, given your free use of my name.’
‘Forgive me.’ He flashed what was probably intended as an ingratiating smile. ‘You were still a child when we last met and you called me Uncle Bertie.’
‘Uncle?’
Odile squared her shoulders and wiped the dirt from her hands on the sides of her breeches, continuing to assess the man with suspicion. As a teacher, she had quickly learned to gauge character. She knew which girls enjoyed studying, which of them would go to extreme lengths to avoid it and which of them had calculating dispositions that they concealed beneath a superficially obliging persona. This man definitely fell into the last category and she didn’t trust him an inch.
