His Makeshift Wife. Anne Ashley
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took her, gaping in astonishment, a moment or two to comprehend fully in which direction the housekeeper’s thoughts were heading. ‘You must be all about in your head, Janet!’ Briony at last exclaimed. ‘I’ve no designs on Dr Mansfield whatsoever. I’ve no desire to marry any man. You should know that. Why do you suppose I always flatly refused to accompany Godmama on any one of her many trips away when I knew her intention was to stay over for any length of time in the capital? I knew what she was about. She’d have had me parading the Marriage Mart in front of all the eligible bachelors before I knew what was happening. Eventually even she realised she’d never persuade me to marry.’
‘Ah, but, Miss Briony,’ Janet murmured, ‘not all men turn out like that father of yours.’
‘Maybe not,’ she conceded, ‘but young as I was I never forgot what he did to my mother.’ Briony fixed her gaze on the wall opposite, her eyes all at once losing every vestige of softness. ‘The Honourable Charles Winters … Ha! There was nothing honourable in him. He married my mother for her money, pure and simple. Then, the instant he had his hands on her dowry, he deserted her for the fleshpots of the capital. I don’t even recall what he looked like now, his visits were so few. I only remember the change in my mother, after his excesses had killed him, and she was forced to sell the family home in order to pay his debts. For five years we lived in cramped, rented accommodation, with poor Mama taking in sewing in order to buy a few luxuries. I never knew what life might have been like had Mama married a half-decent fellow. It was only after Lady Ashworth brought me here to live with her that I started to appreciate just how comfortable my mother’s life had been before her marriage.’
Reluctantly accepting it would be futile to discuss the topic of marriage further, Janet sighed and went across to the bed to place an arm around those slightly drooping young shoulders, which showed more clearly than words just how dejected her young mistress was feeling at the present time.
‘Chin up, Miss Briony! I’m sure the mistress left you something. She was far too fond of you to have left you penniless, even if you did flatly refuse to marry Master Luke. And I’m sure she left me a little something as well. Who knows, it might just be enough to start us up in our little boarding house by the sea.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Janet.’ Capturing one work-roughened hand, Briony held it between both her own, her personal woes momentarily forgotten. ‘I was so angry, I didn’t stop to think about anything or anyone else. I took one look at Kingsley’s asinine expression, as though he found the whole interlude highly diverting, and stormed out in high dudgeon.’
Releasing the hand, Briony went across to the window once more, all at once feeling slightly ashamed of herself. ‘I shall pay another call on Mr Pettigrew, if only to apologise for my behaviour. And I’ll ask him then about your bequest. I meant to ask about Mary Norman, as it happens. Even that slipped my mind. All the more reason to swallow my pride and return. But I’ll leave it for a day or two, until I’ve calmed down and am more myself.’
Unfortunately, even this slight respite was to be denied her, as Briony discovered the following morning, when the young maid Alice came in search of her to reveal that Mr Kingsley had called and awaited her in the front parlour. For a moment or two Briony toyed with the idea of denying him an interview, but then swiftly thought better of it. Sooner or later she was going to be forced to consult with him, if only to discuss what was to be done with Lady Ashworth’s personal effects. Surely he would not be so mean spirited as to object to her keeping a few personal items once belonging to the woman who had become a second mother to her?
Either he genuinely did not hear, or he chose not to acknowledge her entry into the parlour, for he continued to stand with his back to the door, seeming to contemplate the flower bed directly in front of the window. Surprisingly, Briony didn’t take offence at this initial lack of acknowledgement to her presence, mainly because it provided her with the golden opportunity to study him closely and, more importantly, unobserved.
Grudgingly, she was obliged silently to own that he was a fine figure of a man by any standard. Tall and straight-limbed, he carried his clothes exceptionally well—clothes in the latest mode that clearly boasted the workmanship of an expert tailor. His appearance alone suggested strongly that, already, he was a man of no small means.
Memory stirred and she recalled her godmother once having revealed that his father, although her younger brother, and therefore not the direct heir to the viscountcy, had married well and had become a wealthy young gentleman in his own right, boasting a fine property in Derbyshire, as well as a town house situated in one of the most fashionable areas in the capital.
This wealth must surely have been bequeathed to Luke, his sole offspring, Briony reasoned. Furthermore, since the tragic death of Viscount Kingsley’s only son and heir a matter of two years before, Luke Kingsley had become the heir to the viscountcy and, as a consequence, must surely have been receiving an allowance from his uncle. So, unless he had been consistently squandering vast sums at the gaming tables and elsewhere during the past couple of years, he shouldn’t be short of money. So, why was he here? Surely he wasn’t seriously contemplating his aunt’s ludicrous proposal?
He turned suddenly, too suddenly for her not to be caught red-handed appraising his manly attributes, and she was obliged to witness a crooked, self-satisfied smile curl his lips as he moved towards her, as though he was quite accustomed to finding favour in feminine eyes.
‘Briony, forgive me, I didn’t hear you come in.’ He grasped her hand briefly, much as he had done at the lawyer’s office the previous morning, and as he did so scrutinised her face.
Although perhaps not conventionally beautiful, Briony knew she was well enough, having features both regular and very pleasing. If there was a serious flaw, it was that her countenance tended to be far too expressive on occasions and, as a consequence, very prone to revealing precisely what was passing through her mind to any discerning soul.
Luke Kingsley might indeed have possessed many of those attributes she most disliked in his sex, but no one could ever have accused him of being slow-witted, or lacking perception, as his next words proved.
‘Oh, come now! Surely we need not stand on ceremony?’ he cajoled, clearly having accurately interpreted her slight feeling of chagrin at his familiar use of her given name. ‘We played here together as children, as I recall, even if it was over a decade ago.’
‘We did no such thing!’ she took great pleasure in refuting. ‘But if you wish to dispense with formality, I do not object. In fact, I believe it will save time if we dispense with needless pleasantries altogether and come straight to the point of your visit.’
Again she witnessed the half-crooked smile curl what she was silently obliged to acknowledge was a rather attractive masculine mouth that was neither too narrow nor too broad. Just perfect, in fact. ‘I’d quite forgotten how forthright you could be on occasions. You were never one to hide your teeth. Very well, let us have plain speaking, but at least let us make ourselves comfortable first.’
Although she complied readily enough by seating herself in one of the chairs, something in her mien once again betrayed the fact that she wasn’t perfectly at ease in his company. Nor was she quite able to conceal the annoyance she was still experiencing over the contents of her godmother’s will from those all-too-perceptive and rather fine grey eyes of his, as he confirmed a moment later.
‘Evidently you are still feeling immensely peeved at what the good Mr Pettigrew revealed to us both yesterday. Very understandable. I wasn’t altogether overjoyed myself,’ he freely admitted, clearly surprising her somewhat. ‘I might have wished my aunt hadn’t attempted to interfere. I think we might possibly have rubbed along very much better without outside interference. But there it is. For reasons best known to herself, she chose to do so. And I’m afraid we must make the best of it.
‘No, please allow me to finish, Briony,’ he went on, when she attempted to interrupt. ‘I can guess what you are desperate to say—that a union between us is out of the question, preposterous. And in normal circumstances I would be inclined to agree with you wholeheartedly. But these circumstances are not usual and I would ask only that you do not dismiss the