Once more heads turned, but now people not only smiled, they actually spoke to her. ‘Miss Summerby! How pleasant to see you again. We hope you are enjoying the pleasures of Brighton?’
‘Hypocrites,’ muttered the Earl as he guided her to her seat. ‘Believe me, Miss Summerby, I didn’t intend us to be harassed by sycophants.’
‘I suppose it’s only to be expected, my lord. After all, they are your admirers and that’s why you arranged these outings—to restore me to public favour. I am grateful.’
‘Are you?’ he said. ‘Really?’
During the lecture he looked distracted and once it was over and they had to pass those eager faces again, the Earl was polite but cool—until someone, a well-dressed man around his age, came up to him, thrust out his hand and said, ‘Rivington! We haven’t met for years. But I was at Eton with you, remember?’
To Kate’s great surprise, the Earl looked at the man’s outstretched hand and ignored it. ‘I remember you,’ he said, ‘extremely well.’ Then he walked on, leaving the man staring after him.
The Earl, keeping Kate firmly by his side, pressed on to the exit but his face was dark as thunder. As he helped her into his carriage and they moved off, he was silent for a few minutes untilat last he said, ‘You know, privilege isn’t always a blessing. It can have its drawbacks.’
She waited. Once she might have quipped, ‘Indeed. It must be dreadful, being born to wealth and high rank,’ but this time she knew better, because of the bleakness in his eyes.
‘That man,’ he said, ‘was at school with me, as he claimed, but he was no friend. Shall I tell you why?’
She said quietly, ‘Please do.’
And she listened, as he told her how his mother had fled the family home with her lover long ago. He explained very briefly how he and Oliver were returned to their boarding school to face gossip and bullying because of the scandal, and Kate found herself gripping the edge of her seat—not because the road was rough, but because she was shocked by his impassiveness as he related the story.
She said at last, ‘How old were you when all this happened?’
‘Old enough to look after myself,’ he said. ‘I was nine, but my brother was only six.’
What?Old enough to face such a situation at only nine years old? Aloud she said, ‘Did your father not realise how much of an ordeal this must have been for you?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. After our mother’s flight, he distanced himself totally from us, probably because we reminded him too much of her. That man who spoke to me back there was one of the pupils in a higher year who took great delight in tormenting us, especially Oliver. But the bullying didn’t go on for long because I fought back, you see.’
‘Even against the older ones like him?’
‘Even against the older ones. Fortunately, I’d had some basic tuition in boxing.’
For a moment Kate was silent. Overcome. At last, she said, ‘I am very sorry to hear this. Is your mother still alive?’
‘I have absolutely no idea. My father made sure that her name was never spoken again in our household.’
‘Thank you, my lord,’ she said softly, ‘for telling me this.’
‘You were bound to hear about it anyway, sooner or later.’ He waved a hand of dismissal then said, ‘Do you care to tell me about your family, Miss Summerby?’
She chose her words carefully. ‘Compared to you, in many ways I was lucky. My father and mother married for love and my childhood was a happy one, but my mother sadly died when I was sixteen and I fell ill the following year. Fortunately, I recovered almost completely, except for my slight lameness.’ She tried to say it as if it didn’t matter.
‘So that meant no dancing for you?’
‘No dancing for me, since I would probably fall over and knock my partner over too! You will have noticed my clumsiness already. Can you imagine me in a crowded ballroom? The prospect is quite laughable!’
He wasn’t laughing. ‘That must have troubled you considerably, especially as your Season drew near.’
‘Oh, I tried to resist my debut for as long as possible. But my father and older sister insisted, so at the age of twenty I gave in and was not a success, which was no surprise to me. But I’ve moved on, and I am perfectly happy to live now as an independent woman.’
He was looking at her again in that unsettling way of his. ‘Didn’t any of the men you met realise you are actually very pretty?’
Oh, this man. The things he said to her that shook her wayward heart. ‘Not in the least!’ she said lightly. ‘I could not compete with the Season’s beauties, so I’m afraid I developed certain strategies to deflect careless comments about my failure as a debutante.’
He was nodding. ‘Like the way you dealt with Gascoyne when you arrived at my party that first night.’
‘Telling him his breeches were unbuttoned? Yes, that kind of response works well, I’ve found. I’ve had a fair bit of experience of men like him.’
