Page 21 of A Sense of Paradise
She smiled and looked pleased but the door opening precluded her from making any response. She turned to watch their guests walk into the room, her expression impassive. Archie offered his hand to Louis, who hesitated before taking it.
‘This is Miss Latimer,’ he said. ‘Flora, this is Eloise Garnier and Louis Faucher.’
‘Enchantée, mademoiselle.’Louis offered her an appreciative smile as he bowed over her hand.
He could see what he would doubtless describe as a certainje ne sais quoiin her too, Archie thought. Either that or he sensed Archie’s connection to her and it delighted him to know that he had no abiding interest in Eloise. Eloise herself looked taken aback by Flora’s familiarity with the room and the manner in which she clearly felt so at home. She took the chair across from her that Archie indicated, perhaps awaiting a more fulsome explanation for her presence—one which Archie failed to provide.
‘I have discussed the reasons for your being here with Flora, since they concern her.’
‘Concern her how?’ Eloise asked, frowning.
‘Flora’s father was until recently the Dean of Salisbury Cathedral.’
‘An important religious man,’ Louis said, nodding.
‘Indeed, but I discovered something to his detriment that resulted in his being demoted and sent away from the religious seat of power in Salisbury. Not unnaturally, he resents my interference in his illegal activities.’ Archie paused, sensing Eloise’s growing curiosity. ‘The reason I am telling you this is because I believe Lord Avery deliberately enticed Maurice to this country for a specific purpose.’
Eloise gasped. ‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘Lord Avery was involved in the disreputable activities that brought about my father’s disgrace,’ Flora told them. ‘He blames Lord Felsham for his reduced circumstances. He has not revealed Lord Avery’s part in his wicked deeds, nor the identity of any of the other highborn participants, which means they are now beholden to my father.’
‘And he is calling in favours in a concerted effort to see me disgraced,’ Archie added briskly. ‘Flora will not mind me revealing that she defied him by leaving the family home and taking a position as companion to the Dowager Countess of Swindon. When that lady passed away, Flora refused her father’s order to return to the family home and instead set up independently in Lyneham. Her youngest sister has subsequently joined her there, adding to Latimer’s anger at being disobeyed, and he wants both of his daughters back.’
Eloise nodded slowly. ‘And he thinks that if you are discredited, she will have lost a powerful ally.’
‘It sounds very dubious,’ Louis said slowly. ‘How could a clergyman hope to get the better of a gentleman of your stature, Lord Felsham?’
‘Well, that’s the question that plagues me,’ Archie replied. ‘How long ago did Lord Avery appear in France and take an interest in your friend, Eloise? And more to the point, what made him choose your quiet area?’
‘He came about two months ago,’ Eloise said, closing her eyes in an effort to recollect. ‘About then, I think.’
Louis nodded. ‘Oui,it is true.’
‘He claimed to be interested in the wine,’ Eloise added, ‘but also asked if it was where you had spent your convalescence. He said he was a friend of yours and you had mentioned your stay to him.’
‘He is no friend of mine, and I haven’t set eyes on him since my return to England.’
‘We are right then,’ Flora said, exchanging a worried glance with Archie. ‘This is an orchestrated attempt to discredit you.’
‘Lord Avery tried to charm me,’ Eloise told them, ‘but I was not impressed by him and so he turned his attention to Celine with a speed that, now I come to think about it, spoke of desperation.’
‘I still fail to see what he hopes to gain from the situation,’ Pawson said from his position at the back of the room. ‘You pretended to be your cousin when in France but no one in this country doubts who you actually are, guv’nor. Nor does anyone care about the deception, other than tattling about it at the time. Simpson, the wronged husband, is now six feet under and even if he’d known that you survived your fall, you were in no position to give him the satisfaction he had a right to demand. You couldn’t even stand up, which would have been satisfaction enough for Simpson. In other words, there is no scandal to be extracted from your time in France, so why the need for Maurice?’
‘That is what I intend to discover,’ Archie said, firming his jaw.
Chapter Six
Flora had been partially reassured by Archie’s insistence that he had no abiding interest in Eloise, and also accepted that he had not anticipated her arrival on English soil. Indeed, he would hardly have allowed them in the same room as one another if that had been the case.AndPawson had been in the room when Archie embraced the French lady. He would have dismissed his man if that embrace had been instigated with romantic intentions.
For all his faults, Archie was a man of integrity; his word was his bond. She believed that he loved her but still struggled to accept that she would always be enough to satisfy his needs. She had seen how quickly Pamela had become disillusioned with married life. If she proved to be a disappointment to him in the bedroom then Archie’s passion would wane, he’d look elsewhere for solace and Flora would have given up her hard-won independence for no purpose.
She knew that she worried too much about situations in which she had no experience, and therein lay her problem. Archie was vastly experienced and she suspected that he had not permitted his physical limitations to hold him back when it came to satisfying his carnal desires. If she could only persuade him to…well, to anticipate their wedding day. She blushed furiously when the idea took shape in her mind. The highly respectable daughter of a once senior cleric harbouring such a notion should have shocked her rigid. She might no longer live by the standards of the strict Christian tenets that had formed the bedrock of her upbringing, but even so…
Not that she was likely to get anywhere with her rebellious thoughts. Archie was being uncommonly stubborn in that regard, and seemed determined to treat her with the utmost respect. Which was all well and good, but how was she supposed to know if she would be able to satisfy his needs if they didn’t…well, experiment a little first? There was a time and place for gentlemanly conduct, and this was most decidedly not it.
Unless she asked Archie to release her from their engagement, she would soon be the Marchioness of Felsham, unsure what to expect after they had exchanged their vows. There was only so much information she could glean from books, and she had no one whom she could turn to for advice.
The prospect of her forthcoming elevation to the higher ranks of the aristocracy sometimes made her blink when she considered how far she had come in little more than two years. Her rank ought to be enough to pacify her if her husband grew bored with her. That status wouldsatisfy most women, but not Flora. Nothing less than Archie’s exclusive and abiding love would afford her the peace of mind and the contentment she so desperately craved. She glanced at Eloise’s lovely profile, wondering how she would achieve that ambition when she was so…well, ordinary by comparison to her rival, and probably all the others who had preceded her.
