Page 61 of Miss Dramatic
“Phillip noticed it at once,” Lady Phillip said. “You were not subtle, sir.”
Rose dabbed at her cheeks with Gavin’s handkerchief, which bore the light, woody fragrance she associated with him, and with unforgettable intimacies. She wasn’t about to return it to him, despite her present anger.
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings,” Gavin said, directing the words solely to Rose. “I wasn’t aiming for a subtle performance at the buffet. I am also sorry I could not explain what I was about earlier, but if you can stand to listen, I’d like to explain now. Ineedto explain, and if we could send the ladies off to the village with Mama and get Tavistock and Phillip in here immediately, I’d appreciate that as well.”
Lady Phillip marched from the room, while Lady Tavistock studied her brother. “This is serious, isn’t it?”
Gavin reached for Rose’s hand. “Deadly serious, and that was before I found the woman I love in tears.”
ChapterFourteen
“I’ll explain to Mama that she must lead the next charge on Pevinger’s ladies’ parlor,” Amaryllis said. “I won’t be gone long.” She aimed a look of sororal doom at Gavin, then left him alone with Rose.
Who hadn’t withdrawn her hand from his, but neither had she accepted his apology.
“Drysdale wants something I don’t have,” Gavin said. “I learned of his ambitions only this morning. He is conspiring against me and my family, despite the DeWitts’ connection to Tavistock and his lofty circle. My theatrical past has risen up to haunt me exactly as Grandmama and Mama feared it would.”
Rose dabbed at her eyes with his handkerchief. “How can Drysdale hurt you, Gavin? He’s a jumped-up strolling player, mediocre at best, and hardly well connected.”
Gavin led her to the reading table, lest he take a wing chair and pull her into his lap. Such nonsense would doubtless earn him a ringing scold, but he treasured even Rose’s scolds.
“I’ve underestimated him,” Gavin said, holding an end chair for Rose, then taking the seat at the head of the table. “He has cronies and familiars in London, and some surprisingly well-placed families will allow the occasional younger son to frolic among the thespians.”
Rose tucked Gavin’s handkerchief into a pocket. “To say nothing of the company kept by opera dancers who rub shoulders with seamstresses who are married to the fellows in the orchestra, one of whom might also have a post as an organist at St. Somebody’s, and so forth. I spent enough time in Town to realize it’s a series of connected villages. I found the complexity unappealing. Hard to know who somebody truly is when he’s a carousing rake one evening, a churchyard dandy the following Sunday, and the next MP from some banker’s home village the day after that.”
Some banker’s pride and joy had much to answer for—a challenge for another time. “You have it precisely, and Drysdale is threatening to use those connections to see to it that Diana’s come out is a disaster.”
Rose stood and paced the length of the windows. “You want to tell yourself he couldn’t possibly do that. He’s being outlandish, and nobody would be stupid enough to listen to him, but gossip doesn’t work like that. Gossip seeps up from the servants’ hall like rising damp. It creeps down the flue like coal dust. It wafts around the churchyard like the stink from the river when the wind is just right. The people who matter would hear of your family’s failings not from Drysdale, but from trusted sources.”
“You truly do not care for London, do you?”
She stood at the window overlooking the garden, her figure lonely and dear. “I feel toward London as you likely do toward the countryside. The shires have many fine qualities, you are connected to some lovely people there, but it’s simply not right for you.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
She aimed a look at him over her shoulder. Analytical, dispassionate, not the look of a woman in love. “You tell yourself that you’ll manage here in Crosspatch Corners, that there’s nothing truly wrong. That a vague discontent is hardly worth noting, much less dwelling on, and you have much to be grateful for—all true. And yet, somewhere more honest than your mind—your heart perhaps—knows differently. You aren’t fine at all.”
Gavin rose and drew her away from the windows. “I haven’t been right since I left you in Derbyshire. Lately, I’ve wondered if that, rather than a life limited to my own perfectly lovely village, is what’s plaguing me.”
Rose considered him. “I am beset, too, Gavin, and I am part of your past. I want a future with you, one free of intrigue and the sort of posturing you got up to at lunch. You’ve summoned your in-laws because you seek to warn them, don’t you?”
“Of course I must warn them. I’ll let Mama and the girls know what’s afoot as soon as Phillip and Tavistock have been informed.”
“And then?”
And then loomed a series of possibilities, all of them vexing. “Drysdale maundered on about a necklace, and he claims I also owe him money, a sum greater than the amount I found among my clothes in Derbyshire. I can repay him the money easily.”
Rose shook her head. “He’ll come around, again and again, his entrances exquisitely timed to cause you embarrassment and worry. Until it’s Caroline’s turn to make a come out, and then Diana will have a daughter, and so forth. He truly is a plague, Gavin. Dane had creditors like that, but fortunately, what he owed them were debts of honor, so claims of interest were only so much attempted bullying.”
“These creditors harassed you upon Dane’s death?”
“Like vultures flapping around a carcass. I’m convinced Dane spent time in the country mostly to avoid his duns. He’d sell a couple of hunters, pawn some of the Roberts family jewels, and then he’d be off again. He had no respect for Colforth Hall. Considered it a ball and chain, but without an heir to consent to breaking the entail, he was stuck with it. My sole redeeming quality was my ability to squeeze money out of the place. My settlements stated that the property came to me if we had no children—and thank heavens and Mama’s solicitors for that.”
Gavin took her hand, then slid an arm around her shoulders. “Dane was a disgrace. I love my family and my home, Rose. I’m not Dane. I’m also not a natural fit with the role of country squire.”
She curled into his embrace, and for a moment, all the menace and mayhem Drysdale threatened slid away.
“You are a better fit than you think. You love time spent in the saddle. The neighbors are all fond of you, your sisters adore you, and your land prospers.”
