Page 51 of Not Quite a Lady
Lily’s hand clamped down on Lord Gledhill’s arm as he exclaimed under his breath and took a step forward. ‘No, please,’ she whispered.
‘But what went wrong?’ The little brunette was gazing up into Lord Randall’s face with an adoration that made Lily want to slap her.
‘Not something one can discuss in front of innocent young ladies such as yourselves, my dear.’ He patted her hand as her eyes grew wide. ‘Suffice it to say, a gentleman expects certain standard of conduct from the lady he marries.’
There were sniggers around the circle of his cronies and both young ladies blushed with horrified delight.
‘Damn it all!’ Lord Gledhill tried to turn Lily away and steer her back into the crowd. ‘You go back to your chaperone, Miss France, I am going to take this fellow to task.’
‘Oh, please no,’ Lily begged. ‘The last thing I want is a scene, here of all places.’
‘Looks as though you are going to get one any way,’ he remarked, giving up on his efforts to persuade her to move. ‘Here is your mystery man.’
‘Lord Randall.’ It was Jack, there could be absolutely no doubt about it, although she could hardly see him. The calm, chill voice cut through the giggles and chat like a blade of ice.
Adrian turned. ‘And who might you be?’
His back effectively blocked Lily’s view. She ducked sideways between the palm and a pillar and saw Jack was regarding Adrian steadily, his expression perfectly pleasant – until one saw the dark, dangerous, flint of his eyes.
‘Allerton. It is a long time since we were both at Eton, but we have met twice since then. Quite recently.’
Eton?What dangerous game was Jack playing? Was he attempting to purloin the entire identity of the unknown Lord Allerton?
‘Allerton? Good Lord yes, I recall now. You were a skinny little wretch then weren’t you?’ Adrian’s laugh was an insult all of itself. ‘And you vanished mid-term one year because your father ruined himself – I remember now. Coal wasn’t it? Or something equally grubby.’
‘Yes,’ Jack agreed levelly. ‘Coal. And after our recent meetings I find I have the most pressing desire to discuss matters further with you.’
‘Recent?’ Randall stared at Jack. ‘What can you mean?’ Then Lily saw the recognition dawn and Adrian’s lips draw back into a snarl. ‘You! You were the man in that coffee house – and you were the one in Li…’
‘Exactly.’ Jack took a step forward. ‘And before you start bandying a lady’s name around I suggest we go into the retiring room behind you.’
‘Absolutely. Excellent idea.’ George Gledhill strode forward, effectively sweeping Lord Randall with him.
As he went he caught the arm of a serious looking gentleman who had been observing the scene with disapproval. ‘Mountain out of a molehill – see what you can do to smooth things over out here, Perry, there’s a good fellow.’
Ripples of disturbance spread out from the scene, but most of the gentlemen left outside the door turned aside, making conversation, acting as though nothing untoward had taken place.
Lily realised what was going on – a matter of honour, a lady involved, bad form to draw attention to it.
Jack had vanished, as had Lord Randall, along with Lord Gledhill and a few of the men who had been close at hand. The door of the retiring room was firmly shut and Lily, behind her sheltering palm, was unobserved.
She found she was shaking and leaned back against the wall to steady herself. Jack had bluffed his way into the ball, apparentlyset on picking a fight with Adrian. Butwashe bluffing? Adrian appeared to accept his explanation of who he was. But a title?
Trying to pull herself together she stepped out of her shelter and found herself next to Lord Winstanly.
‘What an extraordinary scene,’ she said lightly. ‘Did you say you knew the gentleman, my lord?’
‘Knew his grandfather the fourth earl: this one’s the spitting image. Great family, sadly diminished now, of course. I hadn’t realised there were any of them left.’
Earl?Jack was an earl? Emotions chased through Lily, so jumbled she could not distinguish any of them clearly except one. Anger.
She looked around: somehow she was going to find out what was going on in that room.
Jack nodded his thanks to the tall man who had so neatly cut them out of the crowded room and into this private chamber. There were six of them, incongruous in a room that had obviously been set aside as a boudoir for ladies to rest in.
Flowers decked the little tables, candles shimmered in crystal holders and bowls of dainty sweetmeats stood around. A screen, delicately hand-painted, cut off the draught from the door on the far wall.
The six men regarded each other with varying degrees of puzzlement and hostility. Jack held his peace. Let Randall blunder himself into a situation where a challenge was inevitable. With any luck it could be achieved without mention of Lily’s name.
