A Most Unsuitable Match. Julia Justiss
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noise of the excited crowds calling and hooting, the women ululating, the tramp of boots, hooves and elephant feet! The sound of the drums and the strange melodies of the native lutes, the scent of marigolds, incense, perfume—and dung. And clouds of dust, enveloping us and coating our mouths and uniforms.’
She laughed, her eyes shining. ‘You describe it so vividly I can almost hear it—and smell it! You are a marvellous storyteller! My twin sister, Temperance, who has a great desire to explore foreign places, has collected all the travel journals and memoirs she can find, but hearing such episodes described by someone who actually lived them is so much more fascinating than merely reading about them. Tell me more!’
So he did, secretly delighted when she begged him to continue his tales through one more circuit around the park before he returned her to her aunt.
When they finally turned down the pathway and saw Lady Stoneway and another matron sitting on a bench, her rapt expression faded. ‘I hate it that it isn’t wise for me to associate with you. It was so...energising to talk about something truly interesting, rather than having to confine my remarks to innocuous observations on the weather, or monosyllabic murmurs of appreciation for whatever a gentleman is prosing on about!’
‘Good heavens! Is that what you have to do to look respectable?’ When she nodded, he shook his head. ‘How...stifling. And how much I admire you!’
She gave him a sharp look. ‘It isn’t polite to mock.’
‘No, I’m entirely serious! It’s fortunate I have no desire to mingle in polite society, for I probably wouldn’t last half an hour before I got thrown out on my ear. I’m far too prone to ignore convention and say exactly what I think, hang the consequences.’ He chuckled. ‘Which, probably, is why I was never a success at school and the Army in India looked askance on me. I ask too many questions and probe into too many areas they would prefer left unexplored.’
Miss Lattimar smiled—and she really was temptation incarnate when she smiled, he thought. A soldier ought to get a medal for bravery or restraint for resisting the completely understandable urge to kiss her senseless on the spot.
‘My governess was for ever warning me and Temperance against doing that,’ she was saying. ‘Although Temper is so much braver and bolder than I am. She does tell people what she thinks. Defies them about casting us in the image of our mother, too, instead of trying to deflect them and please everyone, like I do.’
‘It takes self-control and admirable discipline to limit what one says. Particularly when the comment one struggles to suppress is bang on the mark. I’d say that makes you the one who is strong and brave.’
She looked startled, as if she’d never thought that of herself. ‘How kind of you to say so! I only wish I could believe it. Much as I try to be perfectly behaved, so that society will come to believe I am not my mother, I must confess, sometimes I feel like giving up the effort. Abandoning prudence and caution, raising my skirts and running through Sidney Gardens shrieking, just to see the look on some censorious matron’s face. Or stripping off my stockings and wading in the fountain—like Temper and I used to wade in the river at home.’
‘Probably best to suppress such impulses,’ he said—even as it pained him to think she felt compelled to restrain that bright, exuberant spirit. ‘I doubt they would be considered very suitable in a vicar’s wife.’
He regretted the words immediately, for they extinguished the merriment on her face in an instant. ‘I might be able to wade in a fountain, in the privacy of my own garden, with my children accompanying me,’ she said after a moment.
‘I hope you will.’ Yet, he couldn’t help a probably futile wish that somehow, she would avoid a fate that, to him, seemed destined to lock her for ever in a role where her natural charm and zest for life would be straitjacketed.
Just beyond speaking distance from her aunt, she stopped, as if she needed to armour herself to return to the world of rules and subterfuge. Lips parted, she gazed over at him, regret at having to part and longing on her face.
A wave of desire swept through him to carry her away from the propriety-bound world she was about to re-enter, off somewhere they could be alone. Where he might succumb to the urge to kiss her that had dogged him from the moment he saw her again.
From the widening of her eyes and the little intake of breath, he knew she felt that sensual pull as strongly as he did. And he was as helpless to resist it as a cobra hypnotised by a mongoose.
Giving him a tiny negative shake of her head, as if wordlessly acknowledging both the desire and the impossibility of indulging it, she said, ‘I have to go back.’
‘To the world of society and its rules.’
‘Yes. But I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed our walk. Maybe...maybe we can find a way to walk together again in future. I imagine my aunt will be fatigued and want to return home at once, so I’ll say good day to you now, Lieutenant.’
He bowed. ‘And to you, Miss Lattimar.’
They had nearly reached the bench on which both women sat before their approach was noticed. ‘Prudence—and Lieutenant Trethwell?’ Lady Stoneway said, looking both surprised and confused.
‘Miss Lattimar!’ the other woman exclaimed. ‘Where is my cousin?’
‘Lord Halden...encountered a group of friends, who pressed him to accompany him immediately on a...a mission of some importance.’
‘But—he just left you, unaccompanied?’ Lady Stoneway cried.
‘Fortunately, Lieutenant Trethwell was at hand to make sure I returned safely,’ Miss Lattimar said, giving him a quick, silent plea that he not contradict her slight alteration of events.
His lips tightening, he understood all too well. He’d already overheard some salacious remarks made about her by several of the soldiers joking with Fitzroy-Price that day in the Pump Room. Men who spoke of her like that would have no compulsion about insulting her by carrying off her escort and leaving her to fend for herself.
But it didn’t say much for her escort that he’d agreed.
No wonder she’d been looking so dejected when he came upon her!
‘Well, Lord Halden shouldn’t have left me here, without proper escort back to my house!’ the other matron said angrily. ‘And so I shall tell him, when next I see him. Careless boy!’
Johnnie’s cynicism deepened. He had no idea of the identity of the overdressed, self-important woman with Miss Lattimar’s aunt, but she conducted herself just like the wives of the high-ranking men he’d known in India. Concerned only with her own consequence and well-being, sparing not a thought for the beautiful young woman her cousin had left alone, vulnerable to attack by any ruffian who might have come upon her. No matter how unlikely it was that a ruffian would be roaming about Sidney Gardens on a sunny morning.
‘Shall we all walk together to engage a sedan chair, Lady Isabelle?’ Lady Stoneway suggested. ‘I’m sure that’s what Lord Halden expected we would do.’
The matron visibly brightened. ‘You are right, Lady Stoneway. Of course that’s what my cousin must have thought. No need of him to keep his friends waiting, when we might escort each other.’
‘Before we go, Aunt Gussie, don’t you want to thank Lieutenant Trethwell for making sure I came to no harm?’ Miss Lattimar said, her voice calm, but something steely in her eyes. ‘And present him to Lady Isabelle?’
Lady Stoneway looked uncertain for a moment before nodding assent. ‘You are quite right, Prudence. I do thank you for safeguarding my niece, Lieutenant. Lady Isabelle, may I make you acquainted with Lieutenant Lord John Trethwell? His elder brother, as you may know, is now Marquess of Barkley.’
Lady Isabelle’s cool expression indicated she knew exactly who he was and, for a moment, Johnnie wondered if she were debating whether or not to give him the cut direct. Which wouldn’t bother