“It is indeed quite beautiful but I wonder how long it took some poor girl to produce such a fine piece of material. Can you imagine the strain of embroidering with silver thread for hour upon hour?”
“My dear Celeste, with your dark eyes and hair, you would look like a princess in a gown of white silk!”
The girls spun round, dropping hasty curtsies as they realised Andrew Moore and Archer Maitland were standing behind them, bowing, their hats in their hands.
“Andrew! Dr Moore, why what a surprise to meet you here.” Jane flicked a quick sideways glance at her cousin. Her voicesounded odd; almost as if she was acting the part of being surprised and she suddenly wondered if Dr Moore had been theperson who had mentioned the Burlington Arcade and that he could be found there shopping at a certain time of day.
“I am here to purchase another trunk for my journey out to Greece,” Andrew said with a beaming smile, offering Celeste his arm. “Please, do come and help me choose which one to buy. A lady’s opinion is always of great value. I have a perfectly good suitcase but Archer says it is a disgrace and will fall apart before I reach the ship that will carry me to France and overland to Greece.”
They walked further down the Arcade and Jane could do nothing but follow with Archer at her side, James following a discreet distance behind them. Jane waited for her companion to speak but he was silent and at last she could bear the silence no longer. A few months ago she would never have spoken first, but that timid girl seemed to have disappeared since her stay in Dorset.
“I am surprised to see you indulging in such a frivolous pastime as shopping, Mr Maitland. I thought you would be hard at work in your office, righting wrongs and making laws.”
“I am not yet in a position to make laws, Miss Jane, and believe me, I have nothing against shopping when there is a purpose to it, a goal to be achieved. I fear that like most men, I do find the endless gazing into windows with no intention of purchasing any of the items on display very irritating.”
Jane tried to suppress a smile but felt her lips twitching. She had so often heard her dear papa say exactly the same thing to her mama when they were out and about in town.
“You laugh at me, Miss! How unkind.”
“No, no, I assure you, I am not laughing. Well, perhaps a little. I suspect most gentlemen have the same attitude as you do yourself, my father for instance. But you must admit you are all very useful for carrying packages and parcels. Poor James, here, has had to follow us around all morning without expressing amoment of annoyance, although I know he would much prefer to be back at Matlock House about his other duties.”
Archer sighed and ran his fingers through his dark hair. “And I should be in my new offices, dealing with a several legal cases. I would be happy to show the place to you, and your sisters, of course, if you would care to call round one day. The rooms need attention, as does the furniture. You may have ideas that would be of help.”
Jane hesitated: she wanted to say that surely it should be Anne alone he was inviting to see the place where he worked. It was Anne who would probably furnish and decorate it in a suitable elegant style. But, rightly or wrongly, she wanted to go, to have just this little part of his life entirely to herself, a memory she could bring out and savour in the dark days that lay ahead when he had married her sister.
Jane was just about to reply when—“Archer, pray come and give us a moment of your valuable time, my friend!” A shout from Andrew who was waving his hat above the heads of the crowd further down the Arcade: Celeste was hanging on his arm, laughing up at him with a smile that could only be called inviting. Several passers-by looked at the couple and walked on, seemingly shocked by her behaviour.
The Italian girl looked happier than she had done for days and Jane felt a quiver of disquiet. Why was Celeste behaving in this flirtatious way with Andrew when she was already spoken for by Colonel Fitzwilliam? It was scandalous and the Colonel would be so upset and hurt by his future wife making such an exhibition of herself.
Why, only that morning she had received a letter from her godfather, stating that he was making a good recovery, as was Susannah, and that they were planning to travel up to London very soon where he would tell the whole family his good news.How dreadful it would be if he arrived to find Celeste and Andrew involved in a flirtatious fashion.
“It pleases me to see Andrew so happy,” Archer murmured. “He is a good man but sometimes I feel he is lonely and deserves a companion to accompany and care for him through life.”
Jane came to a sudden stop. “A companion? Through life. Marriage? Can you possibly mean Celeste, Sir?”
Archer shot her a sharp glance. “Indeed I do. Surely it is obvious to you that Andrew has strong feelings for your cousin?”
“But that cannot be! It is impossible.”
His face darkened. “I am aware that Signorina Celeste is a member of the Fitzwilliam clan, albeit a distant one, but even if Andrew does not carry a title, surely your family would not treat him with disdain? He is a clever man with prospects to climb to the top of his profession, a man held in great esteem amongst his peers. It is rumoured that one day soon he will receive a knighthood for the work he does. He is to give a lecture at the Royal Society next year when he returns from Greece. That will bring him into even greater prominence.”
Jane did not see his expression as she shook her head impatiently, unaware that her usually pale cheeks were now pink and flushed. “But they cannot marry! Celeste and Andrew? No, he must be dissuaded of such an idea.”
Oh, how could she possibly explain the situation to him without breaking a confidence? How could she make Archer understand that she was more bothered about Andrew having his heart broken than Celeste. Once Colonel Fitzwilliam was in London, claiming her as his intended, the Italian girl would stop this silly behaviour. If she did have certain feelings for Andrew, Jane was quite sure that her cousin would deal quickly and firmly with any emotional upset. She was not a girl who would let heart ache linger for too long.
“Are you concerned that living in Greece in difficult conditions might prove too much for Celeste?”
“No, no, of course no.” Jane was hardly listening to what he was saying: all she could think of was how upset her godfather was going to be if this turned out to be true.
“Then I can only surmise that you have more than your fair share of the Darcy pride that your sister talks of so eloquently. Andrew Moore might not be as socially acceptable as Archer Maitland but he is far the better man. I must admit I am disappointed in you, Miss Jane.”
“Oh please, you do not understand.”
“No, I don’t. What is there to understand except the spectre of snobbery raising its head, just as it used to do when we were at school.”
He laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I used to fight the boys who bullied Andrew because he was from a family they considered to be beneath them. As that is not an option here, I will just say that I fear we have nothing else to say to each other at this time, so I will bid you good day!”
He bowed then walked swiftly along the Arcade, pushing though the crowds to where Andrew and Celeste were standing in a doorway conversing with the owner of a shop selling a variety of leather items.
