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Of course, it wasn’t surprising since he’d only known Odette for the three months she’d spent in Bombay with her father, while he’d known Katherine much longer than that. Not as an adult, of course, but from childhood. That would explain why his memory was so sharp with respect to his childhood friend and not so much with regard to the woman he’d marry. One didn’t marry childhood friends who eloped the very same day that the fellow she had professed to love was sailing off to new adventures.
Of course, he’d make a joke of it, when they met once more. He couldn’t tell her how wounded he’d been at the time. Boyish pride; nothing more.
Odette. That’s where his future was. With the lovely, russet-haired young woman who’d lost her slipper when descending the stairs of Government House to her carriage. When a street urchin had snatched it up then disappeared, Jack had chivalrously swept her into his arms and carried her to her conveyance. What more romantic start to a lifelong union could there be for a man like Jack, a romantic at heart?
Nevertheless, he was looking forward to seeing Katherine once more, and seeing through his own eyes how the last seven years had changed her.
It was not a plan that won approval from his intended, he learned, after their mutually tender welcome and lingering embrace. And truly, it was lovely to hold a soft, beautiful woman in his arms, and to kiss her and know that his marital path was set. Jack was not a philanderer with a roving eye, so the occasional dalliances over the past few years had always been unsatisfactory due to the discovery he was not with a woman whose acquaintance he wished to further in the direction of marriage.
Now he would be married before the end of the summer, and he’d install Odette in the handsome townhouse in Cavendish Square he’d purchased; though now he’d accompanied her, with her aunt in tow, back to her father’s townhouse immediately after their reunion at the docks.
“I think it’s very unwise, dearest,” Odette was saying, as she curled her soft little hand about his. He was seated on the arm of the sofa on which she’d ensconced herself; her flounced skirts taking up most of the available seating. But he preferred it like this. Odette’s aunt had discreetly taken up position in a dark corner where she was bent over her tatting while Odette’s father rested in his darkened room upstairs.
“Of course, I’m not jealous that you’d wish to see a female friend you’ve known since childhood, but I do think you should bide your time. For the sake of what people will say about me and her.”
Odette had spent more than an hour pressed up against Jack in
the chaise that had transported them to London, her happy chatter and clear enjoyment at being allowed so close to him resonating with Jack. She was witty and informed and, he thought, quite the perfect choice, putting aside the few occasions during his last months in Bombay where he’d wondered if this engagement had been a little rushed and peremptory.
“Bide my time?” he queried plucking at the knee of his trousers, newly made up for him at London’s most exclusive tailor. How things had changed. Jack had money; all of it acquired through his own hard work and shrewdness. “I haven’t seen Katherine in seven years. If she hears I’m in London and haven’t seen her, she’ll be offended.” A thought occurred to him. “You don’t imagine her husband will be jealous? Is that it?”
“It’s because she has no husband that I think you should bide your time.”
Jack blinked.
“Darling, she can’t be that good a friend if you didn’t know she was widowed seven months ago.” Odette laughed at his shock. “So it’s certainly not good form to entertain a male caller, regardless of how long you’ve known each other.” Odette tapped him playfully on the nose with her fan and tickled his ear, about to change the subject, Jack felt sure.
“Widowed? No, I didn’t know,” he said, feeling unaccountably unsettled by the news, though he couldn’t quite decide why for he’d never liked Marwick particularly, and had thought him definitely not good enough for Katherine.
“Well, she is, and the fact that she’s wallowing in this terrible scandal right now, means I think it could be misconstrued if you call on Lady Marples at this time.”
“Scandal?”
Odette raised her eyebrows. “She’s mired in it! Goodness, Jack, you tell me she’s an old friend but you know nothing about her, it seems.”
“Well, I didn’t know anything about a scandal,” Jack muttered. Dismay churned in his stomach. Poor Katherine.
“Her husband was hardly a gentleman, though that was no excuse for what she did. Ouch, Jack. You’re holding my hand much too tightly.”
Jack released his grip and ran his fingers around the rim of his shirt collar, which suddenly seemed too tight.
“What did she do?”
“Some say it was taking a lover that killed Lord Marples. But that’s just a rumour.”
This was getting a little too much for Jack. He wanted to prise every last bit of information from Odette that he could, and he wasn’t sure if she was testing him over his interest in Katherine which he had to admit was considerable.
“I thought innocent young ladies like you didn’t discuss such matters,” he remarked more mildly than he felt.
“In six weeks, I shall be a worldly married lady, and I believe it entirely appropriate to start testing my wings, so to speak. To tell you the truth, I’m just repeating what I heard my aunt whispering to Mrs Gunning the other night, and I wanted to see how you’d respond. Are you shocked? Disappointed? Or are you not surprised? After all, Lady Marples scandalised everyone by eloping with Lord Marples, whom she must have known her parents would have forbidden her to marry, even though everyone put on as good a show about being accepting about it and Lord Fenton even paid off some of Lord Marples’s debts.”
“My mama wrote nothing about this, and she’s a friend of Katherine’s parents, Lord and Lady Fenton.”
Odette raised her hand to cup Jack’s cheek. “I’m sure she had much more important things to talk about than Lord Marples’s gaming debts. He lost the most enormous sum of money not long before he eloped with your friend, Katherine. She must have been quite madly in love with him if she was prepared to embark upon married life in such dire circumstances, for do you know that the creditors came from all over, until he couldn’t take it anymore and ran away, before members of his family came to his rescue and started paying them off so he and Lady Marples weren’t starving in the streets. Finally, it seems, Lord Fenton parted with a small fortune so his daughter could hold her head up in society. Though that took some time, I’m told. But let’s not talk about these wicked people with whom we have nothing in common, for you, Jack, are clever and cautious and wouldn’t dream of acting with the kind of haste that makes such a mess of things. Which is why you’re my ideal husband, and now that I see that Aunt Sharp has nodded off, won’t you kiss me again?”
By the end of the evening, Jack could almost believe he was the happiest man alive. Odette’s delight at seeing him after their months apart was touching and gratifying, and it was only with the slightest effort he managed to whip up the enthusiasm required as he shared with her the musings of their future together.
He was a little surprised she thought his townhouse needed such complete refurbishment when he took her there to show it off. He’d bought it partly because he was fond of the old-fashioned panelling and wall colourings, but if redecorating to Odette’s taste would make her as happy as she said it would, then he certainly had the funds to gratify her wishes.
