Jack considered.“I suppose I was a bit annoyed about the horse.But actually, it was quite exhilarating.I’d never been robbed before.”
A few jaws dropped.Durward let out a shout of laughter.“That’s the way to look at it!”He raised his glass to Jack, and added, “I shall cultivate that attitude.Because I know damned well I’d just fly into a rage at the injustice and get myself or someone else killed.”
“Well, no one died at the time, though I don’t fancy poor Whitey’s chances at the assizes.”
“And his capture was your message to Lady Sark,” Durward said.He jerked his head toward Carily and his follower and possibly other devotees of Tabitha’s.“Theseidiots were all getting jealous, imagining you were some unwitting go-between in a love affair.”
“Why would she need a go-between?”Carily demanded aggressively.The implication being, presumably, that he was right here under the same roof.
“Exactly,” said Durward with a hint of contempt.“You needn’t try to sully the lady’s reputation for your own gratification.”
Carily glared at him, his face flushing with anger.“What the devil do you mean by that?”
“Nothing,” Hawthorn said hastily.“He means nothing.And none of us will be giving Durward cause to flee the country again, will we?”
There were a few guffaws at that, particularly from the older gentlemen.Durward himself grinned good-naturedly and finished his port.
Hawthorn pushed the decanters around the table.“Drink up, gentlemen, and we’ll rejoin the ladies.”
“What is our entertainment this evening?”Barty Yeo, Tabitha’s brother, asked.
“Your choice of cards or moonlight dancing on the terrace,” Hawthorn replied.“If the rain stays off and if there is a moon!”
“Do you dance, Duke?”Carily asked, as though determined to find a tear to worry at.
“Up to a point,” Jack said.
“What point?”Durward asked, apparently entertained.
“Gun point,” suggested someonesotto voce.
“The point of foolhardiness,” Jack said lightly, “on the part of the lady concerned.”
“I expect you’re a positive card sharp, then,” Carily mocked.
“No,” Jack said, bored.“This is excellent port, Hawthorn.Which merchant do you use?”
***
TABITHA HAD RARELYbeen so relieved to escape to the company of her own sex.She was annoyed with Louisa for placing her beside Carily again, for the man was growing increasingly impossible, as though he sensed something in Jack’s arrival that was against him.
Unfortunately, it was inspiring him to show-off his closeness to her, as though she had granted him the right to touch her hand, lean too near, even stroke her leg beneath the table.He couldn’t have known just how close to screaming that brought her.But she had every intention of avoiding him for the rest of the evening—for the rest of the week, in fact.
In the drawing room, she flopped onto a chair whose arms were too narrow for anyone else to perch on and thought with peculiar intensity of Jack.He had looked quietly stunning in dark evening dress, dignified without being haughty, handsome in a way that appeared tasteful and good-mannered rather than overly frail.All the same, she could see him unwittingly setting a fashion trend for that refined look and knew it would amuse him.
Not that she had watched him except from the corner of her eye occasionally, to be sure he was not struggling.He wasn’t.He appeared to make Louisa laugh and even entertain the exacting Lady Kenwood without obvious effort.She wished he was beside her now, his company soothing, unthreatening, expecting nothing and yet...
He moved her.There was something about him that both aroused and melted her.He always made her think in different directions.And laugh.A mass of contradictions that inspired the same in her.He made her feel alive in agoodway, and not a desperate, brittle sort of good either.
He would make someone the most perfect husband.How sad that it would not be her...
As though her thoughts had conjured him, he strolled into the room with Sir Peter, saying something over his shoulder to Durward that brought forth the latter’s distinctive crack of laughter.Towards the back of the group, Carily entered, deep in conversation with Barty.That made her uneasy, too.But at least it kept him away from her.
“Is it dark enough yet for the moonlight dance?”Amelia Kenwood asked eagerly, causing a general ripple of excited laughter.Tabitha went out of the French windows with Louisa to gauge the weather.Footmen were summoned to light lanterns and torches and one of the dowagers, who had been a fine musician in her youth, took her place at the pianoforte, sorting through music.Tabitha supervised the placement of chairs and extra shawls, to make sure there were always two chaperones outside with the young people.
“How ridiculous that you and I should be chaperones,” Louisa whispered with a gurgle of laughter.“I feel no older than these children!”
I do, Tabitha thought.A lifetime older... She ached for the growing up many of them would face.At least she would have some control over Lily’s.Though when the first dancers spilled outside for the country dance set, she was not best pleased to discover Lily’s first partner was Carily.He even threw Tabitha a look of triumph, as though he expected to have made her jealous.
