Chapter 11

 

 

Aphrodite dropped the curtain over the window. Nothing to be seen outside. Dark clouds that threatened rain hid the early morning light. Not that it was early. Nine o’clock, probably, but she felt as if it were the break of dawn.

She hadn’t slept well. Terpsi’s shouts after Callum had echoed in her mind, followed by pictures of Aski in his foolish disguise. Thank goodness he hadn’t caused many problems lately, but it was absurd to trust any of her siblings to behave themselves for any reasonable length of time.

And, of course, Mrs. Horne. The tapping of her cane had filled Aphrodite’s nightmares the few moments she slept.

Additionally, she’d worried because Frederick spent all his time with his mother and ignored her, his fiancée-to-be. Would he always be his mother’s son, not her husband? It didn’t bode well for a marriage.

Mama and Papa loved being together. She’d always believed she and her husband would enjoy each other as they did. Well, perhaps not exactly as her parents did, but she had believed they would like to be together, that they would not allow anyone to interfere with spending time in each other’s company.

She was blue-deviled. Definitely so. With a sigh, she turned toward the mirror and inspected her toilette. Mignon hadn’t been pleased to be roused so early, but Aphrodite insisted. She was determined to see Terpsi and could hardly wander through the hall in her night rail and tangled hair.

She looked fine, Aphrodite thought as she studied her reflection. Her face was pale, but the pomona green robe over a cream slip embroidered with leaves of the same green brought out the glow of her hair and made her skin look translucent.

Then Aphrodite leaned closer to the mirror. She definitely was haggard. Wan. Almost deathlike. She imagined that there were women who, after a sleepless night spent worrying about her family and future, would arise looking beautiful and refreshed, but she was not one. She arose with a megrim that all the tea and lavender water in Essex would not relieve, and, she noted, the furrows between her eyebrows were so deep they seemed to cut into her flesh. She picked up the brush and smoothed back a curl that had escaped the attention of a sleepy and much put-upon Mignon. Then she rubbed her cheeks and bit her lips in an attempt to bring some colour to her face, but the result made her look feverish.

Could anything else go wrong? Please, dear Lord, nothing else. If anything more were to happen, she would just wash her hands of her family and Windwillow and run back to London.

She sighed again, knowing she would never do any such thing, although the thought gave her the first moment of pleasure she’d had since Warwick had held her in the hallway and comforted her.

How wonderful it would be if there were a person with whom she could share the burden of her family and the responsibility that went with being the only sensible one. Oh, she wished there would be another person who would help her and love her and comfort her, as Warwick had for a moment. Sadly, she reflected as she remembered the scene with Mrs. Horne, that person would not be Frederick.

Of course, she told herself briskly, neither would it be Warwick, because he was a terrible rake and she was engaged, almost, to his cousin. That betrothal, after all, was why she was here and having a marvelous time, a perfectly marvelous time!

She slammed the brush back down on the dressing table and left the room, massaging the lines between her eyes in the hope of either rubbing them away or causing them to become so enormous that everyone would realize what they were doing to her and stop it!

As she marched down the hallway toward Terpsi’s room, Aphrodite heard faint sounds that seemed to be soft mews. She stopped. What could that be? Was a kitten trapped or hidden in the hallway? Indeed, the noises came from the curtained alcove between her room and Athena’s. Perhaps the animal was trapped there.

Then Aphrodite studied the inch of space between the curtain and the carpet and saw a flash of pale pink, almost the colour, she thought, of Athena’s new slippers.

Athena’s new slippers, her mind repeated. Not a cat but Athena lurked in the hidden alcove. Why would she be there, making those sounds? Then she noticed that next to the slippers was a pair of shiny men’s boots.

“Athena!” Aphrodite thundered as she reached out and pulled the curtain back across the rod. There stood her younger sister on tiptoes, in the muscular arms of a footman wearing the Horne’s brown livery. He kissed Athena very thoroughly while Athena returned the kiss with great enthusiasm. Soft little sounds emanated from her throat.

“Athena!” Aphrodite repeated even more loudly after a few seconds, when neither participant seemed aware of her presence.

Athena leaped away from the young man and looked at her sister with the eyes of a wounded cow, a blue-eyed cow. “Oh, Ditie, I didn’t know you were there.”

Aphrodite said not a word. She stood in the hall with her arms crossed, her toe tapping, and her eyes flashing.

What a fool to believe that nothing more could go wrong. She should have known that, with her family, the number of disasters that could happen approached infinity.

“This is Grant. He’s one of the footmen,” Athena explained with a flutter of her hand in the young man’s direction. He, at least, had the sense to look self-conscious.

“So I gathered,” Aphrodite said in an icy voice that was reflected in the stare she fixed on the guilty pair. “I believe he should return to his duties. I did not realize that Mrs. Horne pays him to cuddle with her guests. Perhaps I should mention it to her.”

Grant’s face blanched. He moved out of the alcove so quickly that Athena nearly fell. “Oh, please, my lady, don’t.” He dropped on one knee. “I promise I will never do it again. If you tell her, I will be sacked, and I have a mother and sister at home.”

Aphrodite waved him away, and he dashed down the stairs without a backward glance at either woman. She didn’t really care, as long as he kept his mouth shut.

“Oh, Ditie, don’t look so disapproving.” Athena stepped into the hallway and straightened her dress. “It was just a little kiss.”

“Just a little kiss? Snuggling behind a curtain with a footman in the home you are visiting? Have you lost all sense of propriety?”

“Oh, Ditie, I’m a Herrington.” Athena twirled, the skirt of her gown billowing around her.

“And if Mama ever found out that you allowed a footman to fondle you . . .”

“But, Ditie, he looked so handsome in his livery. I could not resist. I came out into the hall and saw him and it was magic.” Athena folded her hands under her chin and gazed off into space, her face that of an angel hearing the heavenly chorus. “He smiled at me, and I smiled at him. Then I put my arms around his neck, and we went in there.” She nodded toward the alcove. “It was really nice, Ditie,” she said with the smile of one who was completely unrepentant. “I like kissing men. Please do not get in a pelter because I do not regret it a bit.”

“Athena!”

“But, Ditie.” Athena turned toward her sister. “There is one thing I want to tell you that may make you feel better. I promise you that I will not cuddle with grooms or stable boys ever again.”

“That is commendable,” Aphrodite said, confused as to why this confession was forthcoming.

“Outdoor servants often have dirty hands. The last time I kissed a groom, he left filthy handprints all over the back of my dress. You know how I dislike dirt.”

“Athena! That is not how a proper young woman behaves and that is not the reason a proper young lady doesn’t cuddle with the outdoors servants. Or with any servants. Or any men!”

“Oh, Ditie, don’t cut up rough with me. You are nearly engaged to one man and flirting with Warwick. You have two men interested in you, and I don’t have any, so don’t tell me I’m misbehaving.”

With those parting words, Athena danced down the hall.

Aphrodite leaned against a massive marble table that held a picture of Mary Magdalen. How fitting, she thought.

She didn’t feel like seeing Terpsi now and didn’t want to see Athena again until she determined how to deal with the chit. The child obviously needed a strong man to guide her.

No, Aphrodite didn’t want to see any of her brothers or sisters. Were Aeolus or Artemis or Ares or Celina or any of the younger children to appear, she would hide in that curtained alcove herself. She didn’t want to hear Terpsi argue or see Athena flirt, and she most certainly didn’t want to watch Aski’s ribbons fly around his head. She felt most unsisterly at the moment.

She marched back to her chambers and grabbed a delectable confection of blond straw decorated with tiny pink flowers and green leaves, tied it on, then left the rooms again. When she had tromped down the steps to the ground floor, Aphrodite discovered the entrance hall was empty. Everyone must be in the morning room having breakfast, she thought as she let herself out the front door. The rain had not yet begun, although she really wouldn’t have cared if it had. The gloom fit her mood perfectly. She stamped to the small clearing that overlooked the lake and took a deep breath of the humid air. The clouds parted, and a ray of sunshine fell on the white marble summerhouse below her.

Peace and quiet. Solitude. That was what she needed.

A breeze blew the clouds away from the sun, and its light poured down on her and the scene. The vista should have relaxed her, but she feared nothing would.

Fortunately, there was no one there, no one to note the deepening of the wrinkles between her eyes or the tightness of her shoulders caused by worry about her family or her tendency to screech at those whom she did, truly, love most.

What should she do about Athena? She turned solution after solution over in her head, but no inspiration came. With a sigh—oh, my, she was doing a great deal of that—she closed her eyes to search for a solution within.

After a moment, Aphrodite heard a noise and opened her eyes. Warwick stood before her. She closed her eyes again.

“Don’t try to ignore me, fair Patience.”

“I am not patient. I wish you would stop using that absurd nickname. I am the most impatient person I know.” Her voice had risen to an ear-splitting level. “Please go away and leave me alone or I shall be even ruder to you.”

“You have much more patience than do I. If your brothers and sisters were mine, I would have murdered the lot of them years ago.” When her eyes shot open and a militant sparkle appeared within them, he hastened to say, “Don’t cut up rough with me. I know you love them, but they are a rare handful, and you know that. You’ve spent your entire life getting them out of one scrape after another. Perhaps it’s time to quit.” He sat on the wall and scrutinized her.

Although she had come to the same conclusion herself, she glared at him.

“What is causing your unhappiness?” He took her hands with one of his and massaged her brow with the other. “Why are you so hipped, fair Patience?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she snapped and stepped away from him so his hands fell in his lap. “Just a belle-mère who would frighten Wellington, a fiancé who spends all his time with her, my sis . . .” Goodness, she couldn’t tell Warwick about Athena. She couldn’t ruin her reputation. Athena would do that soon enough herself. She began again. “A brother who commits the greatest of follies, and a man who places wagers about my character in the books at White’s.”

Oh, my, she hadn’t meant to say that last. It had tumbled out with her other grievances. She glanced a Warwick.

“Shall we discuss those issues one at a time?” Warwick grasped both her hands in his. “Would you believe me if I told you that I didn’t place that wager?” He waited. When she didn’t reply, he continued. “I went there with several friends who had seen us dance together the previous evening.”

Aphrodite looked over his shoulder to study the lake below her. She could feel his eyes search her face. Then he turned her hand over and began to rub her palm.

“They seemed to believe that there was something between us.”

Aphrodite stared at him and, again, pulled her hand from his. “What do you mean? There has never . . . well, there may have been once, for a short while, two years ago, but it was ephemeral. No one else knew about it.”

“My friends thought they saw an attraction between us that evening. They felt we shared a certain passion.”

“Absurd.” Aphrodite walked to the other end of the balustrade. “Passion? I don’t feel . . . do you? I mean, passion? Between us?”

“You must have felt it.” He got to his feet and stood next to her. “I know you did. I am not the only one to have noticed it. All my friends did. I did. Certainly you must have felt something.”

“A few years ago, yes, I felt an attraction for you, but it came to naught.” She moved away from him.

“Yes, it came to naught. Neither of us was ready for that. You were too young, and I was too wild, unable to recognize love. But I never forgot that kiss.” He stopped and smiled when he saw her look of disbelief. “I was not ready at that time to care for just one woman. That does not mean that nothing happened.”

“The next night, I saw you kiss Leticia.” She turned toward him, her eyes flashing and her breast heaving with anger, but when she saw the admiration in his eyes, she stepped away from him. “No, that was not the time and neither is this. Remember, I am engaged to your cousin.”

“Only if Aunt Matilda agrees,” he reminded her. “Do you believe that I didn’t make the wager? That it was made in my name? I would never do anything to hurt your reputation.”

“Yes, I believe you.” She attempted to push past him but he blocked her way.

“Well, if we have cleared that up, suppose you tell me about this brother who commits the greatest of follies and probably expects you to clean up after him.”

“It is nothing. I need to return to the house.”

Aphrodite moved past him when he stepped aside but stopped when he spoke again.

“I know that the conte or the conti, whichever, is really your brother Asklepios. Do you want to tell me more? I wish you would believe that I stand as your friend and would like to help you.”

“You know? How?” She turned and stared at him.

“It was not difficult. He obviously wasn’t Italian, and Susannah says Geoffrey has spoken about your brother. You said he was a scamp. He looks like a Herrington; he acts like one.”

“Oh.” Aphrodite dropped onto the bench, then looked up at him. “Does everyone know?”

“Probably. They are just pretending not to. Susannah said she thought it was a wonderful prank.” He sat next to her. “Do you want to tell me about it? Or do you prefer to carry the burden alone?”

“No, it would be very nice to talk about it with someone who has an ounce of understanding.” She looked up at him, stricken. “Oh, I didn’t mean that to insult you. Terpsi believes Aski’s disguise is a marvelous antic, and Athena hasn’t even noticed he’s here. They are no help at all.”

“Well, why don’t you tell me?” Warwick held up his hand. “I promise I will not tell another person.”

The story of Aski and Geoffrey’s adventure with the recently deceased dog caused Warwick’s lips to quiver. As she spoke, Aphrodite realized the humour of the situation and began to laugh. By the time she had finished the story, both were chuckling.

“Oh, it is so foolish, I know, but Aski is right. If our father ever finds out about this, Aski will be in great trouble.”

“I would have thought that Aski was used to being in great trouble with the proctors at Cambridge and the parents of his friends. With adults in general.”

“Yes, he is, but Papa is different. He can make you feel like such a failure. We would rather be harshly punished than have to face him.”

“Wouldn’t Aski foresee the consequences of his actions? Why would he pull this prank if he didn’t want to have to face his father?”

“Certainly you know my family by now, Thomas. Most Herringtons do not foresee the consequences of their actions. An unfortunate family trait that some find quite charming.”

“But which has caused his loving sister grief.”

“Oh, no!” Aphrodite turned toward him, eyes wide in amazement. “Concern, but not grief. My family entertains me as much as it confounds me.”

“And yet you spend so much time rescuing them.”

“In the past, I have, but no longer. I have decided it is quite up to them to get out of their scrapes without me.”

“A commendable resolution, fair Patience.”

“Yes, and I mean to carry it through.”

“But breaking the habit of years . . .”

“May be difficult,” Aphrodite agreed. “But it is necessary. After all, when I am married—” She could not look into his eyes as she said this. Her voice faltered. “When I am married, I will not be able to rescue them. I will have to look after my . . .” Again the words stuck in her throat. “My children, not my siblings.”

“My bitch at Crusader’s Cross just threw a litter,” Warwick said. “I think a magistrate might look kindly upon receiving a pup from the future Earl of Wharton, don’t you? After all, consequence should be good for something, perhaps to relieve part of the burden from one I ca—I can help.”

“Would you? Would you really?” Then her delight turned to distress. “No, no, that isn’t possible. I would be rescuing him again. Or, you would be.”

“I am not rescuing him,” Warwick said with such a gentle tone in his voice that Aphrodite turned to look into eyes filled with understanding and compassion. “I wish to help a most valiant and loving sister, to remove the frown and worry from her face.”

“Oh!” Aphrodite’s hands flew to the furrows between her eyebrows. “I had hoped no one had noticed.”

“They are almost imperceptible.” Warwick took her hands and held them. “You have cared for your family alone for far too long. Please let me help you.”

“But why?”

“Because I would like to see you smile again, to watch you dance as you did at Almack’s, as if without a care. I want to see you rested and calm so those tiny lines of worry will disappear.”

“But why?”

Warwick studied her face for a moment. She could see the gentleness in his eyes turn to a glitter. What that meant, she didn’t know, but she had a hard time catching her breath and wished he would draw her closer to his broad chest, that she could rest her head against the strength of his shoulders.

Idiot, she told herself. You have forgotten yourself with this man before. But she couldn’t break the pull of his gaze or the desire she felt to move closer to him. And she was, after all, soon to be formally engaged to Warwick’s cousin, she reminded herself as her body seemed to tilt toward him.

“Aphrodite?”

Both she and Warwick turned to see Frederick walking toward them. In the same instant, Warwick dropped her hand and she moved away from Warwick.

“What are you doing out here?” Frederick demanded. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Oh, Warwick and I were just . . . discussing things. You know, like the weather.”

“Yes, I discovered Lady Aphrodite out here when I was taking a walk down to the lake.”

Frederick studied the slate gray sky. “Windy and wet for a walk, I would think.”

Warwick spoke slowly and forcefully. “And yet, as I said, I was taking a walk when I discovered Lady Aphrodite here, enjoying the sunshine.” The clouds floated across the sun again. “And the fresh breezes.”

A sudden gust of wind tore Aphrodite’s bonnet from her head and tossed it across the grass toward the driveway.

“Excuse me, I must finish my walk.” Warwick nodded at both of them. “And I will capture your charming hat and return it to you.”

Aphrodite placed her hand on Frederick’s outstretched arm, on the arm of her fiancé-to-be, she reminded herself, and nodded. “And the subject we were discussing . . . ?” she asked Warwick.

“I will look into that and talk to you later.” Warwick dashed down the driveway just as large drops of rain began to fall.

As Aphrodite and Frederick ran toward the house, there was no opportunity to talk, but once they reached the shelter of the entrance hall, Frederick said, “You and Warwick will talk about the weather later?”

“Yes. We had a most interesting discussion of rain and . . . snow and . . . oh, such. Always a topic of interest.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Now, if you will excuse me, I need to have Mignon arrange my hair again.”

“What about breakfast? I was waiting to eat it with you. That is why I was searching for you. Mother is feeling much better.”

“I am glad she has recovered. Perhaps I will ring for some chocolate and toast.” She started up the stairs, then turned back to Frederick with a smile. “I am truly sorry I missed eating with you. Perhaps if you will let me know next time when you are available. I would like to spend time with my husband-to-be.”

The words rang false to her ears.