Nicola Cornick Collection: The Last Rake In London / Notorious / Desired. Nicola Cornick
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you said earlier.’ Charlotte raised a disbelieving brow. ‘I thought quite otherwise when I saw the way that Jack was watching you. And as for the way he looked at Gregory Holt when Greg was holding your hand … Why, I half-expected him to challenge Greg to a duel over you, and they have known one another for years. I was never more astonished in my life!’
A wave of colour washed into Sally’s face. ‘Lord Holt is an old friend of my family,’ she said carefully, ‘and so no doubt he feels he has some licence as an old acquaintance.’
‘Well, I don’t think Jack thought so,’ Charley said blithely. ‘I thought he was going to punch him!’
‘I assure you, you are quite mistaken,’ Sally said hurriedly. ‘Mr Kestrel and I have clashed very badly over this matter of the elopement and there truly is very little between us but hostility. It can only be a matter of indifference to him that Lord Holt is a friend of mine.’
‘If you say so,’ Charlotte said, with patent disbelief. ‘And if you truly do not like Jack very much, then I cannot blame you. He is dreadfully arrogant and overbearing. I will make sure to sit you a long way away from each other at dinner.’ She grabbed Sally’s hand. ‘Oh, do stay, Sally! The weekend will be so much more fun if you do! I like you so much!’
In the face of such artless friendship Sally felt unable to refuse. ‘I am happy to stay overnight, Charley,’ she said smiling, ‘but then Mr Kestrel and I must work out what best to do to retrieve Bertie and Connie. And,’ she added on a note of warning, ‘I think you might have a difficult job persuading Mr Kestrel to stay. As soon as you mentioned the words Great-Aunt Ottoline, I saw him turn pale.’
Charley giggled. ‘Oh, Aunt Otto dotes on Jack. Mind you, she does have a determination to marry him off and she is frightfully strong-minded.’
‘Show me a member of your family who isn’t,’ Sally murmured.
They went out into the hall. Jack and Stephen Harrington were emerging from the library. Sally thought that Jack looked slightly less angry than when she had last seen him, but as soon as his gaze fell on her he frowned.
‘Jack,’ Charlotte began, ‘it is all decided. You are to stay here tonight.’
‘No,’ Jack said.
That, Sally thought, was quite unequivocal. He did not want her mingling with his family and friends. Equally she was sure that he wanted to keep the matter of Bertie’s indiscretion with Connie from becoming common knowledge, especially if the situation could yet be salvaged.
‘If you are quite restored, Miss Bowes,’ Jack added coldly, ‘we will continue our journey.’
‘Jack—’ Charley said again, but surprisingly fell silent as Stephen shook his head slightly. There was an awkward pause, broken by the sound of an imperious knocking at the front door. A footman hurried to open it. Patterson, who had evidently been distracted eavesdropping on the scene in the hall, adjusted his gloves and rushed forward to announce the new arrival.
‘Lady Ottoline Kestrel!’ he announced.
Sally saw Jack go rigid. There was a look of perfect horror on his face. ‘I thought that you told me Great-Aunt Otto was arriving later,’ he hissed at Charlotte, out of the corner of his mouth.
‘This is later!’ Charlotte hissed back. ‘It’s not my fault! Don’t upset her, Jack. She is very frail these days!’
‘She doesn’t look very frail to me,’ Jack said grimly.
Sally looked at the tiny, bejewelled figure of Lady Ottoline Kestrel as her personal maid helped her into the hall. Although she was as thin and delicate as a little bird, and stiff in her movements, there was something strong and indomitable about her. Her eyes, the same dark brown as Jack and his sister, were sharp and piercingly alive. Her face was sunk in wrinkles, but beneath them Sally thought that she could see the same elegant bone structure that Charlotte possessed. Lady Ottoline must have been a beauty in her youth. Now she was simply terrifying and it was impossible to recognise the winsome girl Sally had seen in the portrait at the Wallace Collection. A huge hat adorned with ostrich and pheasant feathers nodded on Lady Ottoline’s brow and her coat was trimmed with matching plumes.
‘Good gracious, how many birds must have died in Aunt Otto’s service!’ Charley whispered irreverently. She hurried forward, raising her voice. ‘Great-Aunt Otto! How lovely to see you!’
‘Humph,’ Lady Ottoline said, inclining her cheek regally for her great-niece’s kiss, ‘how are you, Charlotte? And is that your dreadful modern contraption on the gravel outside, Jack? Didn’t realise you were going to be here, though I suppose it is good to see you again, boy. Couldn’t get the carriage up to the door though, with that machine there—it scared the horses!’
‘I do apologise,’ Jack said, following his sister’s lead in bending to kiss their great-aunt. ‘I will move it at once.’
‘See you do,’ Lady Ottoline said. ‘You can bring my bags in whilst you’re at it. Severs is too old to carry my luggage.’
Sally thought that if the coachman was as ancient as the maid, it was surprising they managed to totter anywhere at all. But Lady Ottoline, for all her physical frailty, was as sharp as a needle. Her piercing dark gaze was even now pinning Sally herself to the spot.
‘And this is?’ Her tone was icy.
Jack and Charlotte exchanged a look.
‘Good afternoon, your ladyship,’ Sally said. ‘My name is Sally Bowes—’
‘And she is my fiancée,’ Jack finished. He grabbed Sally’s hand and gripped it hard, speaking over the outraged squeak of pain and denial that she made.
‘I do apologise for not introducing you properly, Aunt Otto,’ he said. ‘In the excitement of your arrival I quite forgot. Sally darling—’ his tone forbade all argument ‘—this is my great-aunt, Lady Ottoline Kestrel.’
‘Forgot your own fiancée, eh?’ Lady Ottoline said. Her eyes appraised Sally’s flushed face and softened slightly. ‘Well, well, Jack. You do surprise me. For a moment I thought you’d brought one of your fancy women to a family party at your sister’s house.’
‘God forbid,’ Jack said silkily. He slid an arm about Sally’s waist, drawing her unyielding body close to him. His glance commanded her silence. She looked up at him and he gave her a smile so full of charm that she felt her knees weaken.
‘We must have a chat later, my dear,’ Lady Ottoline continued, giving Sally a wintry smile that was somehow more fearsome than her hauteur. ‘I am anxious to learn all about you.’ She looked sharply at Jack. ‘Does your papa know?’
‘Not yet,’ Jack said. ‘It is but a recent development.’
Lady Ottoline smiled again. ‘Indeed. How charming. I shall send the news to Robert myself as soon as I have rested and partaken of tea. I only use the telephone in emergencies, but I feel this qualifies.’ She nodded to Sally and beckoned to Charlotte. ‘Come along, Charlotte! I want to see whether you took my advice and had the chairs in the Green Bedchamber reupholstered after my last visit. They were shockingly uncomfortable …’ Still talking, she hobbled off with the maid in her wake, and Charlotte shot Sally an agonised look before hurrying after her.
There was silence in the hall. Jack’s gaze was locked on Sally’s face.
‘I’ll go and help with the baggage,’ Stephen Harrington said hastily, looking from one of them to the other. ‘And move the car.’
‘So,’ Sally said, as the front door closed behind him and Patterson retreated discreetly down the passage to the servants’ quarters, ‘I am your fiancée now, am I, Mr Kestrel?’
Jack drove his hands into his trouser pockets. ‘My aunt is both old-fashioned and increasingly frail in her health,’ he said. ‘I had no wish to distress her by introducing you as my mistress at a family party.