Page 66 of Lady Audacious
Sarah wanted to point out that a person of Miss Aspen’s lowly status was unlikely to know much about the correct way to behave, but held her tongue. Emily had been taken in by the hussy but would soon be disillusioned. Sarah could be patient when patience was called for.
‘I think Reuben is almost here,’ Emily said, glancing to the left, where the road was visible and a gentleman on a grey stallion could be seen approaching Fox’s Reach. Sarah waved and Reuben raised a hand in response.
‘Well then, we shall greet Miss Aspen together.’
But when Sarah preceded Emily into the stables feeling a wonderful sense of anticipation, the scene that greeted her caused her smile to fade abruptly. Miss Aspen and Joe were not jumping apart when Reuben rode into the yard. In fact, it was immediately apparent that they hadn’t been embracing at all, since Doris had planted herself firmly between them.
‘What the devil…?’
Sarah felt the red mist descend over her eyes and knew she was about to lose control. She fought against it but this one was building so fast, so strongly, that she trembled violently from head to foot as she attempted to hold it off.
‘Sarah…’ Reuben jumped from his horse, frowning as he observed her vibrating body. ‘Are you quite well?’
‘Sarah, what is it?’ Emily asked at the same time, touching her shoulder.
‘I think Joe and Doris can answer you,’ Miss Aspen said, an edge to her voice. ‘And are more likely to be honest.’
‘How dare you!’
Miss Aspen’s calm, disparaging tone was Sarah’s undoing. The demons simply couldn’t be held at bay in the face of such insolence and such unwarranted provocation. She screamed and launched herself at an unprepared Miss Aspen, knocking her to the ground and tugging at her hair, shouting obscenities that even in the height of her fit Sarah knew had no place in a lady’s vocabulary. She simply couldn’t help herself. It was too much to bear. She pummelled her fists into Miss Aspen’s body several times before a strong pair of hands pulled her upright.
‘What in heaven’s name has got into you?’ Reuben’s furious face loomed over her for mere seconds. He then turned and offered his hand to Miss Aspen, helping her to her feet and making solicitous enquiries about her wellbeing. ‘Did she hurt you?’ he asked. ‘I cannot apologise enough. I have absolutely no idea what came over her.’
Miss Aspen’s man, for it was he who had pulled her off, kept his hands on Sarah’s trembling shoulders and forced her to sit down. The mist had lifted and Sarah already knew that she had lost.
Nelly had been right; she shouldn’t have come but should instead have exercised patience. Miss Aspen would have let herself down eventually. The anger drained out of her and she felt empty, bereft, and close to tears.
‘She was attempting to show me in a poor light,’ Miss Aspen said softly. ‘I am very much afraid that the balance of her mind is disturbed.’
Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again without speaking. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t make matters ten times worse.
‘Doris came to me this morning, explaining that Miss Farquhar had been paying her to report my activities back to her,’ Miss Aspen said. ‘I cannot approve of Doris’s disloyalty but she redeemed herself by telling me that Miss Farquhar wanted to bribe Mr Wright to…Well, the long and the short of it is that you were supposed to find him and me in a passionate embrace when you arrived this morning.’
‘What?’ Reuben glowered at Sarah, looking doubtful. ‘Are you absolutely sure? I cannot believe it.’
‘It does seem rather ridiculous, doesn’t it?’ Miss Aspen shrugged. ‘I had some difficulty believing it myself when I was first told. It’s very implausible, unless you reach the same conclusion as me, which is that Miss Farquhar is not of sound mind.’
‘How dare you!’ Sarah cried, aware that her voice was now weak and ineffectual, a consequence of the fatigue that always overcame her after one of her episodes.
‘She knows that you and I have spent time together these past days, Lord Amberley, but not why. She has jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion, and I fear has been blinded by jealousy.’
‘Ye gods!’
Sarah glanced at Emily, her last hope of support, unable to bear the blistering anger in Reuben’s glower.
‘Please don’t be too hard on her, Lord Amberley,’ Miss Aspen said. ‘She needs help and kindness, not censure.’
‘I can see that. If you will excuse me, I will escort her back to Amberley Hall and arrange for her to be returned to her mother’s care. That is the best I can do for her. Emily, stay here with Miss Aspen. I shall return directly.’
Sarah felt she ought to protest. Reuben thought she had behaved badly but only because her ruse had failed. It was sometimes necessary to resort to underhand tactics for the greater good, but she would never be able to make him see it. She had been betrayed. People were a constant disappointment to her. She had only had Reuben’s best interests at heart, but she knew from the compassionate manner in which he had looked at Miss Aspen that she would never succeed in pointing out the monumental error of judgement he was about to make. Gentlemen could be so blinkered when they met an attractive female who stirred their passions and made them forget what mattered. If Miss Aspen had actually beenattractive, perhaps Sarah would not feel the slight so badly.
She allowed Reuben to pull her to her feet and walked listlessly at his side as he conducted her back to his home. She knew she had lost the respect of the only man she would ever love and that a grim future awaited her. She would not be permitted to remain here, and in truth she no longer wanted to. Not if it meant seeing Reuben paying court to the drab Miss Aspen, whose common roots would have a most detrimental effect upon his noble family’s name. Seeing him happy when he ought not to be, seeing the entire order of the world as she knew it turned on its head, would make her permanently unwell.
‘Pack our things,’ she said to Nelly when she returned to her room. ‘We are leaving. I have lost.’
Chapter Nineteen
A month had passed since the extraordinary episode with Miss Farquhar. Odile still shook her head every time she thought about the lengths to which some women were prepared to go in order to achieve their ambitions. Miss Farquhar seemed to think she had some divine right to Reuben’s exclusive company, and had lost her fragile hold on her sensibilities when she failed to get her way.
