Lady Anne's Deception (3 page)

“Well, you can always judge someone by the company she keeps,” Annie flashed back.

“Girls! Girls!” admonished Aunt Agatha. “Mind your manners. Marigold, you are not to refer to such a class of persons again. A true lady does not know that such people exist. And, Annie, you are too bold and forward in your ways.”

The rest of the journey toward the Trevelyns’ house in Kensington was accomplished in stony silence.

It was a very large white house, quite modern, and set a little apart from its neighbors. A striped canopy was over the door and a red carpet stretched across the pavement where two constables stood on duty.

Annie had long cherished a dream of
descending
into a ballroom. But she was to find that most ballrooms were
up
or
through
rather than down.

They powdered their noses and left their cloaks in a room off the hall, then mounted the staircase to be greeted by their hosts, Lord and Lady Trevelyn. Aunt Agatha went first, then Marigold, and then Annie behind her sister. They had almost reached the top of the stairs when Marigold jerked her elbow backward and caught Annie full in the middle.

Annie lost her balance and fell backward. She would have toppled down the length of the stairs to the tiled hall below had she not cannoned into the man who was mounting the staircase directly behind her.

He caught her in his arms and steadied her on the stair, then smiled down at her.

She had a bewildering mixture of sensations, sights, and emotions.

There was the feel of a hard, muscled arm around her waist; a masculine smell of cologne and tobacco.

A startled glance upward revealed a handsome, tanned face with sleepy blue eyes fringed by long lashes, a mobile, humorous mouth, and a strong chin.

And then he spoke. “Well, it’s my lucky evening after all. Life is stale, flat, and unprofitable, I thought, and this ball is going to fortify my jaded opinion, and then all of a sudden a beautiful redhead is thrown into my arms.”

“I wasn’t thrown,” said Annie, breathlessly disengaging herself. “I was pushed.”

“Really! By whom?”

Annie looked up. People were passing them on the stairs, casting them amused glances. Of Marigold and Aunt Agatha, there was no sign.

“Oh, never mind,” said Annie. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Where is your chaperone?”

“I think she’s forgotten about me or she thinks I am following behind,” Annie replied. “That is, my aunt is my chaperone. She must have gone ahead into the ballroom with Marigold.”

“And which one of ’em pushed you?”

“Oh, I must just have tripped,” said Annie hurriedly. It would be too vulgar for words to start accusing her sister to this sleepy, smiling gentleman.

“Then I shall escort you,” he said, holding out his arm.

Annie cast a fleeting look up at his handsome face as she once again mounted the stairs. It was a pity he didn’t have more animation, she decided.

Lady Trevelyn, a tall, arrogant lady with a high nose and high color, extended a limp hand to the curtsying Annie and then murmured to Annie’s companion, “Delighted to see you, Jasper.”

“Jasper.” Annie giggled. “You sound like a story-book villain.”

“Oh, I am.” He smiled lazily. “I’m quite awfully wicked. Now what is your name? The majordomo is waiting.”

Annie murmured her name.

The majordomo shouted, “The Marquess of Torrance, Lady Anne Sinclair.”

Annie turned to her companion to say “So
you’re
the Marquess of Torrance,” but he was already bowing and turning to make his way to join a party of friends.

Aunt Agatha sailed up, looking pleased with Annie for the first time. “I didn’t know you knew Torrance.”

“I didn’t. I mean, I don’t. Marigold pushed me down the stairs and I fell against him.”

Aunt Agatha sighed. “When will you stop this childish behavior of blaming Marigold for everything? No, not another word.”

Annie joined Marigold, who was sitting on a rout-seat against the wall, pouting.

“How
bold
you are, Annie, to pretend to stumble so that you could get an introduction. But it doesn’t work. Anyone could see that he wasn’t in the least interested in you.”

“You shouldn’t be so nasty,” retorted Annie. “It makes your face go all funny.”

That struck home. Marigold switched on a glowing smile.

Annie thought furiously. Now that she knew that the man who had saved her from falling was none other than the Marquess of Torrance, he was all at once imbued with a sudden charm.

Annie still had a great deal of the schoolgirl in her. She had also been brought up to believe that any gently bred woman’s sole goal in life was to secure a husband, the way a man might wish to succeed in, say, an army career. And so ambition and competition were born anew. She would like to show Marigold that she, Annie, could secure a husband. She would also like to get the one man her sister seemed interested in.

Her large gray eyes roamed around the ballroom. It was not as large as she expected it to be, but it was a very elegant room for all that. An orchestra played the inevitable “Merry Widow” waltz from behind a screen of palms and hothouse flowers. The smells of exotic cooking wafted in from the supper room. The men were beginning to sign their names in the girls’ dance cards, and a few couples were circulating the floor.

And then, all at once, she saw the now familiar figure of the Marquess of Torrance studying herself and Marigold. She would not have recognized him from the photograph. In the photograph he had looked vital and alert. In reality he was even more handsome, but he seemed languid and sleepy.

His clothes were exquisitely tailored, and he wore a fine set of diamond studs in his shirt. He drew on a pair of white gloves and began to stroll in her direction.

Annie’s heart beat hard.

And then he bent his black head over Marigold’s hand and asked her for the next dance. He smiled lazily down at Annie, then turned and murmured something polite to Aunt Agatha, who was sitting on Marigold’s other side. Then he led Marigold onto the floor.

Marigold turned and flashed a triumphant smile at Annie. All of Annie’s newfound confidence in her appearance deserted her. It never dawned on her that the marquess would naturally ask the elder sister first. She felt that no one at all would ask her to dance.

And so she was quite startled to find a young man with a large, waxed moustache looking down anxiously at her and waiting to sign her card.

Annie danced very well. As the evening wore on, although her card was rapidly being filled up, her triumph had a sour taste, for the marquess showed no signs of asking her to dance.

At last, there was only one space left, the last waltz. Just when she had given up hope, he seemed to materialize beside her. “If you are not too frightened to dance with such a wicked man as myself, Lady Annie, then may I beg the pleasure of the last dance?”

Annie mutely nodded, and he wrote his name in the last space on her card. “Annie” was all she could think of. Not “Anne.” Marigold must have said something, must have told him she was called Annie.

Anticipation of that last dance quite removed Annie from reality. She was sure she chatted with her partners; she vaguely remembered that a Mr. Russell had taken her in to supper and that he had talked about hunting with religious fervor. Soon the last dance loomed up, and there was no sign of the marquess. Had he forgotten? Inside her white silk ball gloves, Annie’s hands began to feel damp with nervous perspiration.

He had not danced with Marigold again, that was one consolation. But then he had danced with so very few ladies.

And then all at once it was time for the last waltz and he was walking toward her, mysteriously appearing from somewhere.

Her heart beat hard. She was not in love with him, of course, but ambition can be almost as burning and heady an emotion as love.

Lady Trevelyn did not believe that very slow, romantic waltzes should be featured at the end of the evening. They could lead to quite impossible alliances. And so this waltz seemed to be played in double-quick time.

The Marquess of Torrance did not pay any attention to the beat, merely moving slowly round and around, and holding Annie rather more tightly at the waist than he should.

Annie also found that she was being danced slowly into one corner while the rest of the guests spun around the area of the floor.

“Why are we staying here?” she asked. “It looks odd.”

“I haven’t the energy, my dear Lady Annie,” said the marquess. “Terribly fatiguing to go hopping about the place at this hour in the morning. I don’t approve. Besides, my face gets all red and my shirt wilts, and you wouldn’t want that to happen.”

“But I feel a bit silly. I feel as if everyone is looking at us,” ventured Annie timidly.

“They are?” He stopped suddenly, stared about him with a hard expression, and then relaxed. “No,” he said equably. “No one is paying us the least attention.”

He must be blind, thought Annie. Marigold’s glare is stabbing me from straight across the floor.

“You know,” he went on seriously as he put his arm firmly around her waist again, “you really must stop thinking that everyone is looking at you. That sort of thing can lead to all sorts of trouble. There’s a friend of mine, Bertie,
he
thought that. Drove him mad. He solved the problem all the same.”

“What did he do?”

“He shaved all of his hair off. Bald as a coot. Didn’t wear a hat. Of course, everyone looked at him then.

Everyone
does
stare at a bald chap when he’s quite young. Never wore a hat, did Bertie. He also wore his coat back to front. It was a great relief, he said, to know that everyone
was
actually staring at him.”

Annie stifled a giggle. “Is he still bald?”

“Oh, no,” said the marquess, seriously. “He was quite cured. After a month of walking around like an eccentric billiard ball, he felt he’d had it, so he put his coat on the right way and grew his hair again.”

“I simply don’t believe you.”

“Now that’s very rude,” chided the marquess. “How can we possibly become friends if you are going to disbelieve every word I say?”

“Friends?” said Annie. “I—I mean . . . you . . . me?”

“Why not? It has been known to happen. It’s not very shocking, you know. I mean, people aren’t going to whisper behind their gloves and say, ‘Isn’t it
shocking
? Torrance is
friends
with Lady Annie,’ now are they?”

“Well . . . no. You’re teasing me!”

“I? Nonsense. I am too lazy to tease anyone.”

“The music has stopped and we’re still dancing and people
are
looking at us!”

“So they are,” agreed the marquess, coming to an abrupt halt and gazing about the room with a ludicrous expression of dismay on his face. “I was enjoying your company so much, Lady Annie. I quite forgot.

Well, I shall probably call on you tomorrow. Manchester Square, I think your sister said. I’d better ask Miss Winter’s permission. What a lot of white stuff that lady does put on her front. Old Colonel Butterworth danced with her last SEASON, you know, and his valet had to use a bucket of turpentine on his evening clothes to repair the damage. The old boy smelled of turpentine for the rest of the Season, and that sort of thing’s not fair, not when you can’t afford another suit of togs. I wonder if Miss Winter has ever considered that? Perhaps I shall tell her.”

“No!” said Annie, in alarm.

But he was already ambling indolently in Aunt Agatha’s direction. She watched him anxiously, but he was obviously not saying anything shocking.

“I think you girls did very nicely,” commented Aunt Agatha, on the way home. “Torrance asked for permission to call.”

“Yes, to see me,” said Marigold triumphantly.

“Well, he didn’t say
just
you, Marigold. He asked for permission to call on
both
of you.”

Marigold gave a jarring laugh. “Annie! When was anyone ever interested in her, with me around?”

“We’ve never had young men around before,” Annie flashed back.

“Young! Pooh! Torrance is at least thirty.”

“That’s not old, but maybe it’s too old for
you
?”

“Oh, no,” Marigold said sweetly. “I have quite made up my mind to break his heart.”

“It’s me he’s interested in,” said Annie defiantly. “He asked
me
for the last waltz.”

“And what a little fool you looked, too, dancing on after the music had stopped. Lord Clabber, who had been dancing with me, just laughed and said you must have had a little too much to drink at supper.”

Annie’s face flamed with mortification. “Well, it wasn’t my fault. It was
Torrance
who didn’t want to stop dancing. And he—he said we were
friends,
so there.”

“Oh, really! Just like a big brother. Now men in love never want to be friends. Wicked marquess! To cultivate the friendship of my little sister just to get close to me.”

“That’s it!” exclaimed Annie, seeing that Aunt Agatha had fallen asleep. “I’m going to punch you on the nose!”

She sprang to her feet and the open landau swayed dangerously. “Just you try!” screamed Marigold, lashing out with her fan.

“Ladies! Ladies!” called the coachman. “Your ladyships will have us over.”

“What is going on here?” Aunt Agatha’s stern tone as she woke up made both girls subside silently into their seats. “Can’t I close my eyes for a moment, Annie, without you starting a fight?”

The dawn sky was pearl gray and the birds were beginning to sing in the trees of Hyde Park as the horses pulling the landau clopped over the cobblestones. A water cart was washing the street silver, and already shopkeepers were taking the shutters down from their windows. A crossing sweep doffed his hat, and Annie, despite her sulks, could not resist giving him a wave. Her anger never lasted long.

Carts laden with flowers and vegetables were straining toward Covent Garden market. Thin spirals of smoke were beginning to rise from the chimneys, and, in Manchester Square, there was the smell of frying bacon as the servants started the day’s work.

The footmen jumped down from the backstrap to assist the ladies in alighting. When they were on the shallow steps in front of the house, Annie suddenly remembered Marigold’s wicked push at the ball. As her sister moved forward to enter the house, she stuck out her foot. Marigold tripped and went sprawling into the hall.