In the Brief Eternal Silence (42 page)

But St. James surprised her by taking not a
step forward, but a step backward. He was laughing softly at her
dumbfounded (and she feared, disappointed) look, and he swept her
hand, fingers spread, to the side of his face, laying it in the
prior branding of her palm in a mock slap that showed everyone the
perfect match her hand was to his mark. The dancers about them
stuttered to a stop and the musician's playing died in mid
chord.

Miss Murdock, with high color, stood in the
center of this attention. St. James caressed her palm across his
cheek and even in all her chagrin, she was aware of the pale,
burning skin of it, how her fingers with a mind of their own
twitched into a caress, causing his eyebrow to raise a degree
higher in his forehead. Then he slid her palm down to his mouth,
and she understood where the other had been for show, this was for
her alone, and he kissed the palm of her hand with an intensity
that made her for the first time in her life, feel as if she would
faint.

And all she was aware of as everything swam
in her eyes was St. James' low, delighted laughter.

Then Andrew was there, and she was not sure
how it came about, still being nearly insensible upon her feet. St.
James was gone and she was in Andrew's arms as they had been in the
salon just a few hours ago, and he was whispering with desperation
in her ear, “Hand on my shoulder. One, two, three! One, two,
three!” Her feet moved and her eyes cleared and little by little
she realized that Andrew had saved her. The musicians struck up
again and the other dancers began to dance and everything went from
chaos to a veneer of normalcy. “Where is he?” she asked in a numb
voice.

“He is gone, Lizzie. He has gone.”

“You have tutored me well, Andrew,” she
choked. “When a man makes improper advances you told me I was to
swoon from the thrill and danger of it.”

“Just dance, Lizzie. Just dance.”

She did, and although she did not immediately
understand the importance of it, she came to realize that if she
had left the floor after St. James' display and not danced with
Andrew, there was no one in society that would not have snubbed her
and branded her a fallen woman.

As it was, she was dangerously close.

Chapter Seventeen

“What now?” she asked Andrew, for she was
well aware that the dance could not go on forever. Nor did she wish
it to, for she wanted nothing better than to go curl in a ball
somewhere and cry her eyes out.

“I do not know,” he told her, worried. “I can
not possibly dance two dances in a row with you after his little
show. I can only think that I lead you off the floor with as little
fuss as possible and we leave immediately. Damn him! Why would he
do such a thing to you? He has effectively ruined all your chances
with any other suitor, for it will be thought that you are
used—Nevermind!”

“Goods,” she ended tonelessly. “I expect that
was his intention all along.”

Andrew gave her a sharp glance and she saw
that he had a deal more maturity in his eyes than she had witnessed
before. “For whatever bloody purpose?” he demanded.

“Oh, nevermind, Andrew, for I can no longer
even guess myself,” she answered with weariness.

The music ended and he took her arm and as
judiciously as possible led her from the floor, but they were not
even to the edge when Ryan Tempton stepped to in front of them.
“Miss Murdock,” he asked with a sober smile. “May I have this
dance?”

Miss Murdock did not even have a chance to
answer for Andrew exclaimed in a relieved whisper, “Good man,
Tempton! Take her,” and she was passed from the one to the other in
short order and headed out onto the floor again.

“Oh, Ryan,” she began, dispensing with
formalities as soon as the music started. “You should not have put
your reputation at risk by dancing with me. Bad enough that
Andrew—”

“Not at all, Miss Murdock,” he returned with
a warm grin on his raw-boned face. “I intend that we have such a
good time out here that everyone will be rushing to dance with you
to see what all the fuss is about.”

She laughed in surprise, admiring his
unorthodox approach. “I fear that I shall not be much help, for I
am not enjoying myself in the least!”

“That is only because you have not had the
proper partner, but I am here now and so that problem is remedied,”
he told her with mock loftiness.

“Is it as bad as I fear?” she asked.

“It is merely all in how you look upon it,”
he told her with attempted lightness. “If you act as though you
were deeply affected, then it shall be every bit as bad as you fear
and worse, but if you can endeavor to act as though St. James were
only being his usual naughty self, and that you put no weight on
his actions, then they will have nothing to believe but that he
were merely misbehaving again. Which will hardly shock anyone. So,
please, Miss Murdock, try to laugh and look carefree, and I am sure
between Earl Larrimer and myself, and one or two others, we can get
you out of this nearly intact.”

Miss Murdock did laugh, because he managed to
make it all seem somehow ridiculous. “I should not even care,
because I plan on leaving at the end of the week. It is just more
shock than anything, that he could truly be so bad!”

“I'm afraid I suffered the same shock on the
night of your unfortunate meeting with him. But I am beginning to
think there is usually a method to his madness. Although, I
confess, I do think very badly of this night's piece of work. But I
also happen to know that what he was about earlier today directly
benefits you, so I have that to measure with also.”

“Really? What?”

“No, no. I am sure he means it as a surprise
so I will not tell. Only let me assure you that I think, knowing
what little I do of you, that you shall enjoy it very much.”

“Well,” Miss Murdock said with returning
spirit, “I was certainly surprised this evening and I can assure
you that it was not at all to my liking! So forgive me if I look
forward to this further surprise with some trepidation.”

He laughed and she was moved to join him and
this time it was not quite so forced, and she realized that it all
was as easy as he had said, for although a great many people were
still watching her, they were now shaking their heads as if to say
to themselves, that St. James! Up to his old tricks. No wonder she
had obviously already slapped him once before. Good for her.

She pondered this then frowned with worry.
“Oh, dear, Mister Tempton, but I believe for every notch I go up in
their eyes, he goes down three.”

“Not at all, for if he is showing interest in
you and you are clearly not allowing him leeway, then they have
nothing to believe but that good shall prevail and he will in the
end do the proper and propose. I am proud to say, Miss Murdock,
that I believe you are fast being hailed as a 'rake-reformer'!”

“Good God!” she exclaimed, almost losing her
step, but he guided her on without incident. “And he planned it
all, I am sure. That bloody fool!”

He twinkled down at her. “I suspect the same,
Miss Murdock, for he seemed to me today rather taken with his
notion of marrying you.”

“Well, I am not at all taken with the notion
of marrying him,” she returned. “And as you are aware that he
wishes to marry me for no other reason than—than to obtain my
horse, then I think you can well understand why,” she said.

“I can not believe he would be going to all
this trouble for a horse, Miss Murdock.”

“Well,” she said, dropping her eyes from his
in sudden guilt, “he is!” And now I am lying for him, she thought.
He treats me shabbily in front of several hundred people, and I am
lying for him. Lord help her, whatever next?

“No, no. I don't believe that. St. James
seems to hold you in a

respect that he reserves for few people.”

“And he has a fine way of showing it!”

“Nevertheless,” Ryan coaxed, “I am sure he
saw in you something from the first that the rest of us are just
beginning to discover.”

“Yes,” Miss Murdock returned, angry at St.
James, herself, and the whole mess, “he says I have a way of asking
questions that he can not answer, and then he goes on to answer
them in a way which then makes me wish I had not asked!” And she
blushed hotly, and shoved ruthlessly the image out of her mind
of—Oh, damn it! She had to think of something else!

“Really?” Ryan asked, a great deal diverted.
“That is a very odd basis for a marriage: to be forever playing
games with each other.”

“Well, he is a very odd man,” Miss Murdock
returned, and was amazed that her voice had taken on a defensive
quality. First I attack him, but if anyone else does, I turn right
around and defend him. She glanced up at Ryan's laughing face. “Oh,
do not point it out to me, for I have already seen it,” she said.
“I can not wait for this night to be over.”

“Forgive me if I can not agree,” Ryan teased.
“For I can not remember when I have had such a jolly time at
Almacks or a better time dancing with a female. T'is almost better
than Whites!” he confided.

Their dance came to an end and Ryan went to
take her once again from the floor, headed very much in the
direction of Lord Tempton, his brother, so that he could be
convinced to come to Miss Murdock's aid also, but he did not reach
him for they were stopped and she was asked to dance by a nice
looking young man whom she had not even made acquaintance with
before.

Her suspicion that Andrew had been busy
enlisting another man to aid her in her hour of need was laid to
rest when she asked her surprised partner upon taking the dance
floor with him, “And how were you prevailed upon to rescue me from
being ruined, Mister Thomas?”

Choking back an incredulous laugh, he
answered, “They could not have prevailed upon me to not come and
dance with you, Miss Murdock, for I wish to see for myself what all
the hullabaloo is about!”

From there they struck up an excellent
conversation, and Miss Murdock, distracted by his banter, found to
her surprise that she was having a very good time and, to her
gratitude, her partner told her that he was having a most
unexpected good time also. “It is usually frightfully dull, Miss
Murdock, and we all have you to thank for livening it up. And the
Duke, of course,” he dared to add.

“Oh, he is just being as he usually is,” she
said with a great deal of feigned unconcern. “And you must not put
too much weight upon it for I am sure he will be here the next time
making some other poor girl the object of everyone's attention. At
least until the ladies of the board have had enough of his antics
and revoke his vouchers from him again!”

“That, Miss Murdock, will be a sad day
indeed! I have not the pleasure of his acquaintance, but from his
reputation, I had no idea he had such a spirit of fun! Rather
naughty, yes, but I can see that he must know you well enough that
he was confident you would see the humor in it and so no harm
done.”

Miss Murdock agreed.

She was most gratified when yet another man
asked for her hand for dancing, and from that point on she did not
see any of the party she had come with until Andrew managed to
catch her for a final dance. “I have been trying for an hour to
step back in!” he told her with a pleased grin. “I think we have
managed it.”

“Thank you, Andrew,” she told him. “It really
was not necessary, for I am leaving soon at any rate, but I would
have so hated walking from the floor dejected and humiliated. Did
he leave me there?”

“No. I—I'm afraid I busted in, for I very
much feared what he would dare to do next. But he was not at all
upset and only nodded to me and asked if I could handle it. Then he
turned his back and left directly. I don't even think he spoke to
grandmother again. The place was positively roaring with
speculation.”

“I thought all that roaring was the blood in
my ears,” she admitted.

“Thank God you were still lucid enough to
dance!” he told her, fretting. “I just do not remember St. James
ever being so, well, cruel.”

“It was cruel, wasn't it?”

He didn't answer her and she was grateful.
They were both silent for a moment, and then she asked, “Did I look
as close to fainting as I felt?”

“No. Just very stunned.”

“He may not have realized—” and she stopped,
biting her lip.

Andrew comforted her. “I am sure he did not!”
He swallowed and continued in a low voice, “And thank you, Lizzie,
for telling me all

that nonsense in the salon this evening.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling foolish. “I—oh,
dear.”

He gave a sudden laugh, his old self. “I knew
all along. You were doing it just a tad too brown, you know!” With
that he swung her into an exuberant circle that had everyone that
remained (for quite a few had left with the lateness of the hour)
once again staring at Miss Murdock. But she only laughed and did
not care.

She would not find out until some time later
that if the crowd in Almacks had not been roaring with speculation,
as Andrew had said, that they all would have heard the gun shot
that was fired from outside shortly after St. James made his
exit.

If St. James felt any satisfaction with the
predicament he had placed Miss Murdock in, he did not show it. His
face was unconcerned as he nodded to Bertie, who, he would wager,
he had to thank for the fine crowd attracted as witnesses tonight,
and several other familiar faces as he made his way through the
crowd at Almacks. He would have liked to turn, even once, to see if
Andrew were indeed handling it, but an air of carelessness better
suited his purposes.

When he reached the wide double doors, he
pushed his shoulder against them hard, and went out into the cold
of the night. There he paused, leaned for a single moment against
one of the cool, white pillars that stood on either side of the
entrance with his arm stretched above him and his head resting on
it. But he did not close his eyes. He stared out into the darkness
that was beyond the twin torches that lit the steps below him.
After a moment, he dug out his pocket watch with his other hand,
opened it, glanced at it, and then returned it. Not a bad piece of
work for under thirty minutes.