More than a Mistress/No Man's Mistress (81 page)

She had definitely added up that column correctly, she thought now, her head bent over the account book. She had added it three times and arrived at the same total each time. The trouble was that there was no more
paperwork to do and she did not want it to be at an end. She wanted to lose herself in work.

But the door opened suddenly and Maria's flushed, excited face appeared around it.

“Viola,” she said, “you are to come up immediately to Mama. She has sent me to fetch you.”

“Why?” Viola was immediately suspicious.

“I am not going to say.” Maria smirked importantly. “It is a secret.”

Viola sighed in exasperation. “He has not come back, has he?” she asked. “Tell me if he has, Maria. I do not want to see him and you may go back and tell Mama so.”

“I am not saying,” her sister said.

As Viola made her way upstairs, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps it was Daniel Kirby who had called. But Maria would not be so excited about that, surely.

“You will never guess,” she said from just behind Viola.

There were two ladies in the sitting room with her mother, who was looking almost as flushed as Maria. Two very grand ladies, both dressed in the first state of fashion, the one quietly and expensively elegant, the other brighter and more flamboyant.

“Viola.” Her mother stood, as they both did too. “Come and make your curtsy to these ladies, who have been kind enough to call upon me and ask to make your acquaintance too.”

Maria slipped past her into the room, but Viola stood just inside the door.

“This is my eldest daughter, Viola Thornhill,” her mother said. “Her grace, the Duchess of Tresham, and Lady Heyward, Viola.” She indicated first the elegant, golden-haired lady and then the other.

Viola was never sure afterward if she curtsied or not. She did know that somehow her hands found the doorknob behind her back and gripped it as if for dear life.

Both ladies were smiling at her. The duchess spoke first.

“Miss Thornhill,” she said, “I do hope you will forgive us for calling on you and your mama without any warning. We have heard so much about you from Ferdinand, you see, and longed to make your acquaintance.”

“I am his sister,” Lady Heyward said. “You are every bit as lovely as I expected. And younger.”

Did they know?
Did they know?
Did Ferdinand know they were here?
Did the Duke of Tresham?

“Thank you,” Viola said. “How very obliging of you to call upon Mama.”

“Her grace has invited us to take tea with her at Dudley House tomorrow afternoon, Viola,” her mother said. “Do come and sit down.”

Did they know?

“Actually, Mrs. Wilding,” the duchess said, “we would like to take Miss Thornhill for a drive with us today. It is far too lovely a day to be spent indoors. Can you spare her for an hour?”

“I am working on my uncle's books,” Viola said.

“But of
course
you can be spared,” her mother said. “Run and change into one of your pretty dresses. I cannot imagine where you found that old thing you are wearing. Whatever will her grace and Lady Heyward think of you?”

“Please come,” the duchess said with a warm smile for Viola.

“Yes, please do,” Lady Heyward added.

There seemed to be no other choice but to go and
change. Ten minutes later Viola was seated in a very luxurious open barouche beside Lady Heyward while the duchess sat on the seat opposite, her back to the horses.

Please not to the park
.

But the barouche turned in the direction of Hyde Park.

“We have disturbed and upset you,” the duchess said. “Please do not blame Ferdinand, Miss Thornhill. He did not send us. He told us you had refused his marriage offer.”

“You must have seen from your visit to my uncle's inn how unsuitable such a match would have been,” Viola said, clasping her gloved hands in her lap so that she would not fidget.

“Your mother is a real lady,” the duchess said, “and your younger sister delightful. We did not meet the older girl. You have a half-brother at school too, I believe?”

“Yes,” Viola said.

“We were so very curious, you see,” Lady Heyward said, “to meet the lady who has stolen Ferdie's heart. You
have
stolen it, Miss Thornhill. Did you know that? Or did he neglect to tell you, as gentlemen so often do? They can be such foolish creatures, can they not, Jane? They will make a perfectly decent marriage proposal in which they list all the considerable advantages of making a match with them and neglect to mention the only one that really matters. I refused Heyward when he first offered for me, even though he went down on one knee very prettily and looked very foolish, the poor darling. Everyone says he is just a dry old stick—at least Tresham and Ferdie say it, because of course he is so very different from them. He is not really stuffy, at least not
when one is private with him, but when he first offered for me he made not the slightest hint of a mention of love. He did not even try to steal a kiss. Can you imagine anything so provoking? How could I have accepted him, even if I
was
head over heels for him? Now, what was it I set out to say?”

“You wondered how I could have refused Lord Ferdinand,” Viola said. The barouche was turning into the park, and her heart was beating faster. Of course, this was not the fashionable hour, which would draw the whole of the
ton
into the park in a few hours' time, but even so, she might be recognized at any moment. “There are very compelling reasons, believe me, none of which have anything to do with the regard in which I hold him. Not the least of those reasons is that I am not a daughter of my mother's marriage. Perhaps you wondered why my name is different from hers. It is her maiden name, you see.”

“You are a natural daughter of the late Earl of Bamber,” Lady Heyward said, taking Viola's hand in her own. “Which is nothing to be ashamed of. Natural sons cannot inherit their fathers' titles and entailed property, of course, but apart from that it is as respectable to be a natural child as to be one born within wedlock.
That
need not keep you from wedding Ferdie. Do you love him?”

“There is a reason,” Viola said, turning her head away so that her face would be hidden by the brim of her straw bonnet, “why that question has no relevance at all. I cannot marry him. And I will not explain to you. You must take me back to my uncle's inn, please. You would not wish to be seen with me. The duke and Lord Heyward would not wish it.”

“Oh, Miss Thornhill, do not distress yourself,” the duchess said. “I am going to tell you something that very few people know. Even Angeline will be hearing it for the first time now. Before I married Jocelyn, I was his mistress.”

Lady Heyward's hand slipped away from Viola's.

“He kept me in the house where Ferdinand took you on your return to London,” the duchess said. “Jocelyn has kept the house. We always spend an afternoon or two there when we are in town. It holds many fond memories. It was there we learned to be happy together. But that does not alter the fact that I was a mistress. A fallen woman, if you will.”

“Jane!” Lady Heyward exclaimed. “How utterly, splendidly romantic. Whyever have you never told me?”

So they
did
know, Viola thought. How rash of them to bring her out with them like this, in an open carriage.

“It was always a matter of pride with me,” she said, her head averted again, “to keep on asserting that I would be no man's mistress. You knew one man, your grace. During the four years I worked, I knew so many men that I lost count. I never even tried to keep count, in fact, or wanted to. It was work. It was entirely different from your situation. I was famous. I was much in demand. I might still be recognized at any moment. Take me back home.”

“Miss Thornhill.” The duchess leaned forward and took Viola's hand in both her own. “We three are women. We understand things that men will never understand, even the men we love. We understand that what brings men pleasure by the very nature of the act can bring us none unless it is more an emotional than a physical experience, unless there is some sort of love
commitment from and to our partner. We understand that
no
courtesan embarks on her career with a free or joyful heart. We know that no woman could enjoy such a life. And we know too—as men most certainly do not—that the woman, the
person
, is something quite distinct from what she does for a living. You are uncomfortable with us. You probably resent us. But I know—I sense—that I will like you very much indeed if you will allow me to. Do you love Ferdinand?”

Viola turned her head sharply to glare at the duchess and pulled her hand away. “Of course I love him,” she said. “Of
course
I do. Why else would I have refused him? It would be a magnificent coup, would it not, for an illegitimate whore to marry the brother of a duke? Well, this illegitimate whore will not do it. I can do only one thing in my life to demonstrate how very much I love him.
One thing
—I can refuse him. I can make him believe that the prospect of returning to my old life is more enticing than the possibility of marrying him. If you love him, you will take me home now and go back and tell him how coldly and disdainfully I received you. I have feelings. I have
feelings
, and I cannot stand much more of this. Take me home.”

The duchess turned her head and called new instructions to the coachman. Then she turned back to Viola.

“I am so sorry,” she said. “We are such meddlesome creatures, Angeline and I. But we both love Ferdinand, you see, and hate to see him miserable. Now it breaks my heart to see that you are every bit as unhappy as he. We chose the park deliberately as our destination. We
wanted
to be seen with you. We want to make you respectable.”

Viola laughed bitterly. “You do not understand.”

Lady Heyward touched her arm. “Oh, yes,” she said, “we do. But Jane chose the wrong word. We are not going to make you respectable, Miss Thornhill, but
respected
. We Dudleys have never been respectable, you see. I would never be a simpering miss. Tresham was forever fighting duels before Jane intervened one time and caused him to get shot in the leg—and it was always over women. Ferdie can never resist the most outrageous and dangerous challenges. But we never wanted to be respectable—how dull that would be! We are respected, though. No one would dare
not
respect us. We could make you respected too if you would give us the chance. How exciting it would be. I would give a grand ball—”

“Thank you,” Viola said quietly but firmly. “You are both very kind. But no.”

Conversation lapsed until the barouche turned into the inn yard again. The duchess's coachman jumped down from his perch to assist Viola to alight.

“Miss Thornhill.” The duchess smiled at her. “Please come for tea with your mother tomorrow. I believe she would be disappointed if you refused.”

“I am delighted,” Lady Heyward said, “to have met Miss Thornhill of Pinewood Manor at last.”

“Thank you.” Viola hurried into the inn before the barouche turned to leave again.

She had a new plan. It had come to her full-blown after they had left the park. It filled her mind with dizzying hope and bleak despair both at the same time. She needed to think through a few details.

ERDINAND ROSE FROM HIS BED THE FOLLOWING
morning much later than he had intended. Of course, he had been out most of the night, dragging John Leavering and a few of his other friends from party to party—not the sort he normally attended—and even to a couple of the more notorious gaming hells. But there had been no sign at any of them of Kirby.

He intended to spend the day at Tattersall's and a few other places where the man was likely to be. He would have to be patient, he decided, though patience was not a virtue he had much cultivated. If Kirby was seeking clients for Viola, then he must do so in the places Ferdinand intended to haunt.

He was just finishing breakfast when his valet announced that a visitor had called. He handed his master a calling card.

“Bamber?” Ferdinand frowned. Bamber up and about before noon? What the devil? “Show him in, Bentley.”

The earl strode into the dining room a few moments later, looking as ill-natured as ever and more dissolute than usual. His hair was disheveled and his eyes bloodshot. He was unshaven. He must surely have been up all night, but he was not wearing evening clothes. He was dressed for travel.

“Ah, Bamber.” Ferdinand got to his feet and extended his right hand.

The earl ignored it. He strode up to the table, reaching into a capacious pocket of his carriage coat as he did so. He pulled out a couple of folded papers and slapped them down.

“There!” he said. “It was an ill wind that blew me to Brookes's that night, Dudley. I wish I'd never set foot there, and that's the truth, but I did, and it can't be helped. Damn you for all the trouble you have caused me.” He was reaching into an inner pocket as he spoke. He brought out a sheaf of banknotes and set them down beside the other papers. “Here is an end of the matter, and I hope not to hear another word about it for the rest of my days—from
anyone.
”