After that the crowd began to disperse, for some of the gentlemen had been invited to dine at the Anchor Inn and the ladies were to prepare for the ball in the evening. Rachel waited for James Kestrel and started to feel a little irritable. He had been gone a good half-hour and she was marooned in the curricle with no way of getting home. People were starting to stare at her now. Rachel tilted her parasol to shade her face from the curious glances, whilst inside she fizzed with irritation. She sat getting hotter and hotter and more and more annoyed, until finally she scrambled down from the curricle and went in search of James Kestrel. He was not in the refreshment tent, nor could she find him among the rapidly dwindling crowd on the shore. Rachel was accustomed to walking and decided that James Kestrel’s discourtesy deserved that she should leave him there and walk home. Hot, bothered and with the wrong footwear for a two-mile walk, she set off up the path towards Midwinter Royal.
She had not gone more than fifty yards when she saw James. He was standing in the shelter of a copse of oak that stood back from the path, and he had certainly not seen
Rachel. He was too busy, for Miss Helena Lang was locked in his arms and he was kissing her passionately.
Rachel stopped. Her first thought, absurdly, was that she would never have expected Mr Kestrel to do anything so rash as to embrace a lady in public in full daylight. Her second thought was a not unreasonable anger at being left sitting like a lemon in James’s curricle whilst he paid court to Miss Lang. It was not that she was jealous, precisely, for she had never wished his amorous attentions to be turned in her direction. It was more that she felt cross-grained and a fool when she had known what was going on between James Kestrel and Miss Lang and yet she had still accepted his attentions. Perhaps, Rachel thought wretchedly, James had been using her to deflect interest from his courtship of Miss Lang. Perhaps under his sober exterior he was as much of a rake as the rest of the family and fully intended to court Rachel’s fifty thousand pounds—whilst making love to another woman. And perhaps
she
was almost as culpable, for had there not been an element of immaturity in her behaviour in wanting to make Cory jealous by accepting James’s escort?
Rachel set her jaw, turned her back and retraced her steps to the shore, where she decided that it would be fitting punishment for James Kestrel if she were to requisition his curricle and drive home, leaving him behind.
It was unfortunate for Rachel that Sir John Norton, flushed from his victory in
Breath of Scandal,
had just come ashore, waving the silver cup above his head. The engraved glass bowl that was his other prize gleamed on the stern of the yacht as Sir John splashed through the shallows and clambered on to the bank. Seeing Rachel walking alone towards the others, he slid an arm about her waist with odious familiarity and gave her a smacking kiss. ‘Congratulate me, Miss Odell! Was that not the most tremendous victory?’
Rachel just managed to restrain herself from slapping his smug face. His wet arm was still about her waist and it was
causing an unpleasant dampness to seep through her muslin dress. She flushed bright red at the curious and amused looks on the faces of those watching, and slipped from his grasp. ‘Excuse me, Sir John. I shall leave you to celebrate with your friends.’
Sir John made another grab for her. It was clear now to Rachel that he had been drinking, a course of action that seemed rather foolhardy when in control of a sea-going yacht.
‘Not so fast, sweetheart! What are you doing all alone, anyway? I’ll take care of you. Come aboard with me…’
‘No, thank you,’ Rachel said, feeling the panic rising. The Marneys’ barouche had gone and she did not recognise any of the stragglers on the shore. She was almost tempted to run to James Kestrel’s curricle, where the groom still stood, wooden-faced, at the heads of the patient horses. It was ridiculous to be stuck here and at the mercy of a drunken and oafish Sir John.
‘Miss Odell!’ Rachel turned with relief to see Lord Richard Kestrel at her elbow. ‘May I be of service to you? Escort you back to your party, perhaps? You seem in some distress here.’
Rachel turned to him with gratitude. ‘Thank you, Lord Richard. I fear that my companion has rather left me at the mercy of all and sundry.’
Richard cast John Norton a disdainful glance. ‘Go and sleep it off, Norton,’ he drawled, ‘and confine your attentions to your yacht in future.’
Sir John mumbled something that might have been an apology and sloped off, and Richard offered Rachel his arm.
‘What can my cousin be doing, leaving you on your own like that?’ he queried with a smile. ‘Surely James has lost what little sense he had in the first place—and all his manners.’
‘I do believe your cousin became distracted by something else,’ Rachel said with a hint of asperity. She caught the
edge of Richard’s look and saw amusement and a certain degree of admiration in its depths.
‘Then more fool him,’ he said easily, ‘for his loss is my gain.’
Rachel smiled inwardly. It was curious that she was strolling along the water’s edge with a gentleman generally accepted to be the most dangerous rake in the kingdom, and yet she felt not the slightest degree of apprehension and certainly no
frisson
of attraction. She
liked
Richard Kestrel, and surely mere liking was the kiss of death for a rake. Yet she could not seem to help herself. Even knowing that the Kestrels had some odious wager going on amongst themselves could not dampen her enjoyment of his company.
‘Since we are such good friends these days, Miss Odell,’ Richard said, ‘I do not scruple to ask a personal question. My cousin’s bad manners notwithstanding, how do your romantic affairs progress?’
Rachel arched her brows at his familiarity and decided to repay him in kind. ‘About as well as your own, my lord,’ she said.
Richard pulled a face. ‘That badly? You are in dire straits indeed!’
They were still laughing together when they walked slap into Cory Newlyn. Rachel had not even noticed his approach, so engrossed was she in Richard’s company. Now, however, her throat tightened with apprehension and she felt her breathing constrict. There was such a look on Cory’s face as he watched them together that she genuinely wondered what he was about to say.
Richard, too, had noticed the tension in the air. He raised his brows imperceptibly. ‘Ah, there you are, old fellow,’ he drawled. ‘I was hoping to see you. Do you object if I take the curricle to escort Miss Odell back home? She finds herself benighted here—’
‘All evidence to the contrary,’ Cory said. His voice was smooth, but there was an odd expression in his eyes. ‘No
young lady who has been befriended by you could consider themselves benighted, Richard.’
The lines of amusement deepened about Richard Kestrel’s mouth. ‘You flatter me, Cory. I am, of course, honoured to have Miss Odell’s company.’
‘And fortunately I may now take your place,’ Cory continued, ‘for I recall that you have an engagement in Woodbridge, do you not?’
Their eyes met and Rachel, watching, saw some kind of message pass between them. It did not seem entirely friendly. Then Richard laughed and raised both hands in a gesture of amused resignation.
‘Of course I do, Cory. I am indebted to you for reminding me. And I am more than happy to surrender Miss Odell to your protection.’
Rachel reddened with a mixture of ire and embarrassment. For Cory to revert to behaving like an over-zealous elder brother was too much, particularly when she had warned him against it before. She glared at him.
‘I have no need of your escort, thank you, Cory,’ she snapped. ‘I can quite easily walk back to Midwinter Royal from here.’ She turned pointedly to Richard Kestrel. ‘Thank you for coming to my rescue, my lord. It is much appreciated.’
Richard bowed elegantly. There was a spark of humour in his eyes. ‘Yours to command, Miss Odell.’
‘Richard—’ Cory said, and now the threat in his voice was quite clear.
Richard laughed. ‘How entertaining that I have at last found a means to irritate you so profoundly, old fellow. It is the first time in twenty years you have given me the advantage!’ He raised a hand in farewell and strolled away, leaving the two of them together.
Cory’s hand closed around Rachel’s elbow and he practically dragged her away. After they had gone twenty-five yards, Rachel shook herself out of his grip.
‘I do not believe that you have a carriage in Suffolk, do you, Cory?’ she said sweetly. All her bad temper seemed to be building up into a positive tidal wave. ‘Are you intending for me to ride before you on poor Castor until he founders, or had you thought to drag me all the way home on foot?’
Cory shot her a hard, unsmiling look. ‘Just because you have made a fool of yourself in front of everyone with Sir John Norton, Rachel, I do not see why you should vent your displeasure on me.’
Rachel knew that this was what she was doing and the knowledge just made matters worse. She had been expecting something quite different from Cory and she now discovered that she did not want him to revert to acting as her friend. This was foolish, for she was the one who had demanded only the previous day that he should never kiss her again. Standing there on the shore of the Deben, with Cory looking at her as though she were a slightly tiresome little sister, she found that this was not in the least what she really wanted. It seemed to be all that was on offer, however.
Her voice rose with indignation. ‘I did not make a fool of myself. Sir John was drunk and importunate, but I could quite easily have taken care of myself—’
‘Indeed?’ Cory said silkily. He gave her a comprehensive look that brought even more angry colour into her face. ‘It did not look like that to me.’
‘You were not there!’
‘No, but I saw what happened.’
‘Then,’ Rachel said, with childish contrariness, ‘why did you not come to my rescue yourself? Fortunate that Lord Richard was on hand to do what you were reluctant to do yourself!’
She heard Cory draw a sharp breath. ‘Lord Richard…yes…’ he said slowly. ‘You are playing a dangerous game there, Rachel.’
Rachel shot him another furious look. She had a stitch in her side from the speed with which Cory had hurried her
away from Richard Kestrel, and now she stopped and pressed her hand to it.
‘Lord Richard and I are friends,’ she said haughtily. ‘There is no more to it than that.’
Cory’s expression was frankly disbelieving. ‘Friends? Good God! Having seen how you treat your friends, Rae, he must be honoured to receive such a mark of distinction.’
Rachel pressed her lips together. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that you can be the most loathsome man of my acquaintance sometimes, Cory.’
‘And that is up against some pretty stiff competition,’ Cory observed. ‘Sir John Norton, James Kestrel…’
Rachel bit her lip hard to prevent herself from exploding.
Cory put his arm around her waist and tossed her up on to the seat of a phaeton painted in green and gold with the ducal crest of Kestrel on the side. Tom Bradshaw had been standing beside it with the patient expression of a man who has been trained to wait—and to pretend that he is deaf under all circumstances. Cory took the reins from him.
‘Thank you, Bradshaw. You may walk back.’
‘Thank you, my lord,’ the valet said resignedly.
‘How ungenerous of you,’ Rachel exclaimed, looking back as Cory turned the phaeton on to the road and the luckless Bradshaw started to trudge towards Midwinter Royal. ‘Besides, this is not your phaeton, Cory. Have you stolen it?’
‘Do not be ridiculous,’ Cory snapped. ‘I borrowed it from Justin Kestrel.’
Rachel gave an angry sigh. ‘You need not put yourself to the trouble of taking me home, you know.’
Cory gave her an unpleasant smile. ‘Believe me, Rae, at the moment the prospect of setting you down by the wayside is an appealing one. Did you get out of bed the wrong side this morning?’
Rachel’s temper snapped. ‘No, but I wish I had not got out at all! I have had the most intolerably tiresome time of
it. Besides, I do not see why you felt the need to offer in the first place. Lord Richard would have been quite happy to escort me.’
‘Richard is dining at the Anchor,’ Cory said, ‘whereas I am returning to Midwinter and so may take you up with me instead. I am sorry if you do not like it.’
Rachel let out an angry sigh. All her accumulated resentment about the wager burst out like a cork exploding from a bottle.
‘I do not suppose that it matters whether it is you, or Richard Kestrel, or his brother the Duke who escorts me home! The ladies of the Midwinter villages are interchangeable to you, it seems. Perhaps Sir John Norton is in on your little wager as well, hence the scene by the river?’ Another thought suddenly struck her so forcibly it hurt. ‘Perhaps when you kissed me that night it was part of the same game that you are all playing! I will say this for you all, Cory—you are a bunch of scoundrels who certainly know how to enliven a dull stay in the country!’
There was a silence so sharp that Rachel could hear her own angry words echoing in her head. She saw Cory’s hands clench on the reins.
‘Just what the devil are you talking about, Rachel?’ he said, with deadly calm. ‘What wager is this?’
‘Oh, do not pretend not to know,’ Rachel exclaimed. ‘I heard you speaking to Lord Richard at the ball, asking how much flirtation you were expected to undertake as part of Justin Kestrel’s plan—’ She broke off as Cory took one hand off the reins and closed it hard about her wrist. He did not hurt her, but the shock was sufficient to silence her momentarily. She gasped. ‘Ouch! What are you doing?’
Cory did not reply for a moment. He let her go and Rachel sat rubbing her wrist with her other hand, though it was not in the least bit damaged. Something had changed the tone of their discussion, however. Rachel was forced to admit that in a strange way she had been almost enjoying the
slightly childish, irritable squabbling with Cory. But now his face was hard and set and she felt a tremor of apprehension run right through her.
‘I am asking you to keep quiet for the time being whilst we are on this road,’ Cory said pleasantly. He shot her a look. ‘I am begging you, in fact.’