Laura Matthews (22 page)

Captain Andrews and Pontley were taking their leave before Glenna was aware that they had risen, and she flushed at Pontley’s amused eyes on her. She was not even aware until after they left that the party at the vicarage had been invited to dine at Lockwood that evening, since Captain Andrews had to leave in the morning. In spite of Mrs. Thomas’s protests that the notice to his cook was too short, Pontley had overcome her objections with the calm assurance that his cook would be delighted to put more than two courses on the table for a change.

Thinking that Phoebe might desire a few moments to herself, Glenna did not follow when her friend announced that she was going to her room. Phoebe indignantly came back to grab Glenna’s hand and tug her from the room, murmuring in answer to her protests, “Don’t be a goose! What should I want more than to talk with you and hear you say over and over how lucky I am? Come now, tell me.”

“I should not call it luck, Phoebe. How could he help but come and offer for you? I have been expecting him daily.”

“Have you now? You never said so to me.”

“I did not wish to see you puffed up in your own conceit, my love,” Glenna retorted with a grin. “But I shall tell you that I am remarkably happy for you, and that Captain Andrews is fortunate to have won your hand.”

They had reached the room they shared and Phoebe sat down at the dressing table. She toyed with the brush and comb, fingered the boxes and ruffles. “I want nothing more than to marry James, Glenna, but I am afraid I will be so lonely when he is away. There is no one I know there. What will I do?”

“You will make friends as you always do, love, and it is to be hoped that you will find your sister-in-law a good companion. And then there will be things to do around the house, and I should think you will read about shipping and such so that you will understand what Captain Andrews is talking about. Sometimes he will take you with him, too, which you will enjoy enormously. When there are children I dare say you will be busy enough,” she concluded dryly.

“Glenna, what will I do if he is away when I am brought to bed?” Phoebe asked, suddenly panic-stricken.

“My dear girl, you don’t suppose you will be without servants, do you? And no doubt your sister-in-law will be with you constantly at such a time.” Phoebe did not appear completely satisfied with this argument and Glenna took her hand and squeezed it. “Very likely your mother will come to stay with you, and if not, you may always send for me, whether Captain Andrews is at home or not.”

“Yes, of course. You are too patient with me, Glenna. It is just...the jitters, you know. Everything was decided so suddenly. Next week I will be torn from my parents, to live with a man I have known only a few months and seen but a few times.”

Glenna studied her closely. “If you wish for more time to get to know him, I am sure he will accommodate you.”

“No, no. If I could I would marry him today! But I don’t know if he really knows me well enough. You see, I have never been cross around him or impatient. How will he react when he finds I am not always so even-tempered?” she asked despairingly.

“I see what it is! You think he will stop loving you when he finds what a truly despicable person you are,” Glenna managed to say over a gurgle of laughter.

Phoebe flashed her a fierce glare. “Oh, you can make light of it if you wish, but it is very true that I am not the paragon of virtue he thinks me. It would be most difficult to behave so—so piously all the time. James must expect it of a vicar’s daughter.”

“He expects nothing of the sort, Phoebe, for he is hardly addlepated.” When Phoebe made to protest further, Glenna held up a hand to fend off her retort. “I do understand what you mean, my dear, but it must ever be the case. Two people who are attracted will always be on their best behavior. Surely it is the same with Captain Andrews. You will learn to accommodate one another, though I can see that the first year of marriage must be something of a revelation. You would be amazed to hear Pontley...“ She thought better of what she had begun to say and fell silent.

Her curiosity aroused, Phoebe plagued her to hear what Pontley had disclosed. “Surely you did not tell him of Jennifer’s behavior today.”

“He seemed to know that she had lost her temper, though she certainly would not have told him, now would she? When he began to rattle off a list of possible ways in which she might have misbehaved, I was stunned. Why, he was perfectly casual in suggesting that she might have destroyed our props or ripped up the manuscript. So you see, my dear, that a man in love is capable of accepting even the most erratic behavior, and you could not compare with Jennifer even if you put your mind to it.”

“But her flirtation with Kilbane!” Phoebe protested, astonished at this revelation.

“Did not seem to bother him in the least,” Glenna finished for her. She remembered the strangely flippant tone of his speech and felt confused once again. “Anyway, I trust you will find that Captain Andrews wishes to have you just as you are."

Phoebe sighed and smiled. “Actually, you know, I look forward to finding out what he is like when he’s out of sorts. Do you suppose he will walk out of the house in a huff or not speak to me? For all I know he may wake every morning like a bear, growling and truculent. Or he may be full of spirits and... Well, I am anxious to find out,” she murmured, her face coloring.

“Indeed, I don’t blame you.” Glenna went to the wardrobe and began to sort through Phoebe’s gowns. “You should look your best this evening. What do you say to the silver and blue silk? I think it is even more becoming to you than the apricot satin because it is cut so simply, but the apricot is delightful with your fair hair.”

* * * *

Jennifer had recovered her spirits by the time the party from the vicarage reached Lockwood, and Kilbane watched wonderingly as she acted as though nothing had ever happened to disrupt the rehearsal that morning. Since the vicar was one of the party he treated the girl carefully so that he might not be accused of undue attention to her. Jennifer responded to this treatment by being especially affectionate to Pontley, turning for his agreement when she spoke, and proprietorially discussing her plans for Lockwood.

This was accepted in better grace by the viscount himself than by his aunt, who appeared in high dudgeon. Pontley had seated the dowager at the foot of the table with the vicar to her left, and Phoebe’s father had hard work of it keeping her in conversation.

It fell to Glenna’s lot to entertain Kilbane, whose distraction was very evident to her. “When do you return to Cambridge, Kilbane?”

He stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment and then declared, “I should leave a day or two after the play. It really doesn’t matter much, you know. If I did not return at all the world would lose no scholar.”

“Very few men are there to become scholars, I should think, but surely you pick up some useful knowledge.”

“Nothing that will help me on the Irish estate, Glenna. I have learned, however, to play a good game of whist and a first-rate hand at piquet, to say nothing of the most dashing way to tie a cravat. I should not mind in the least terminating my university career.”

“Are you considering doing that?” she asked, concerned.

Kilbane picked idly at his fish and gave a dreary shrug. “No, I don’t suppose so. I had not thought much about it, but I will be coming down soon in any case.”

Glenna felt a definite annoyance with Jennifer Stafford at that moment. To see Kilbane, light-hearted, carefree Kilbane, in such a state of dejection made her wish to shake the beautiful, heartless chit who was just then feeding Pontley a bite of her roasted cheese, her eyes leveled challengingly on Kilbane rather than her fiancé. And Kilbane did not miss the gesture in spite of his conversation with Glenna; his eyes were miserable, though he attempted to keep a polite smile on his lips.

The buzz of conversation around the table, ever sporadic at this dinner party laden with undertones, ceased unexpectedly and Glenna found herself asking into the silence, “Will you return to Ireland when you come down?” She had no other reason to ask him than that she wished to distract his attention from Jennifer and cheer him if she could.

Every eye seemed suddenly to be on her and Kilbane. Even Phoebe, who was generally too intent on Captain Andrews to note the talk around the table, chanced to glance across at Glenna. Jennifer’s eyes blazed, and in an effort to claim the attention of those present she piped saucily, “Well, of course he shall, Glenna. How else would his potatoes get planted?”

Kilbane ignored her and answered Glenna as though the girl had not spoken. “Yes, I plan to live on the estate, for I have been an absentee landlord too long. My father always objected to the landowners deserting their properties to fritter their time in England in wasteful and frivolous pursuits, and I have come to understand his reasoning.”

There was a wealth of insinuation in the remark, provoked by Jennifer’s sarcasm, and he turned to regard her coldly. To his astonishment no more than Pontley’s or Glenna’s, tears sprang to her eyes and she hastily pushed back her chair and fled from the room.

When Kilbane made a move beside her, Glenna restrained him with a firm grip on his coat. “Please let her go. It will do her no harm to suffer for the pain she causes with her outbursts of temper,” she whispered sharply to him. Although he sat rigidly through the rest of the meal and answered Glenna with absent politeness as she continued to ply him with mundane observations on the weather and the progress of the play, he made no further move to follow Jennifer.

Ostensibly unmoved, Pontley continued to chat with Mrs. Thomas and seemed unaware of the empty chair on his left. Toward the end of the meal he proposed a toast to the newly engaged couple, though his remark that he wished them a long life of health and happiness gave rise to speculations in each of his auditors that Pontley himself would be hard pressed to share the same fate with his future bride. The dowager, still pink with indignation at her niece for making such a scene, eventually rose to lead the ladies from the room.

In the Crimson Saloon they found Jennifer, her chin raised defiantly, but the signs of tears still upon her face. The dowager pointedly ignored her, and though her exasperation was still high, Glenna could not leave Pontley’s fiancée to her own shame. She approached the girl and asked softly, “Would you come with me to refresh myself?”

Jennifer nodded like a solemn child undertaking an adult duty and led her companion from the room to a retiring room beyond the stairs where a basin of water awaited with cloths and towels. Although the water was cool, Glenna dipped a cloth in it. “Let me rid you of your tear stains,” she said gently, and Jennifer obediently allowed her to remove the traces of distress from her face and tuck the wisps of golden hair into place. “There, you look much better. Did Lord Pontley mention that we will not be rehearsing for the next two days?”

“Yes. Is—is it all right for me to continue in the play?”

“We are counting on you, Jennifer. There is a good deal to be done before the performance and Phoebe will have other concerns much of the time. Have you gathered together most of the props?”

“All of them, I think. I have found the most adorable bonnet for me and a truly remarkable wig for you to wear. You would not believe the collection of costumes in the attic here!” Jennifer enthusiastically detailed her find as they returned to the saloon, meeting the gentlemen at the door. Her stolen glimpse of Kilbane showed him watching her warily but with concern, and Glenna gave her an encouraging smile. So Jennifer, her own eyes penitent, met his, and said, “Forgive me if I was rude, Lord Kilbane.”

The Irishman smiled at her and took her hand. “I am perhaps too sensitive about my homeland, Jennifer. Let us forget the matter.” He led her into the room as though no contretemps had occurred during the meal, and the vicar watched, half-relieved, half-anxious. He could not be comfortable with the tender warmth of Kilbane’s smile at the girl, though he was pleased that there should be no more hostility between the two of them.

Captain .Andrews regarded Pontley quizzically, but was only rewarded with a shrug and a grin, which Glenna could not help but see. She flushed guiltily when Pontley murmured to her, “You are too good to take Jennifer in hand and point her in the right direction.”

“I—I did not mean to... That is, I thought only to raise her spirits, sir, and end any discord at your dinner party.”

“Yes, and I am grateful to you.”

There was no reading his enigmatic expression, and surely the light in his eyes was only the result of his partaking of a good glass of brandy, but Glenna hastily excused herself to seek Mrs. Thomas’s company. It seemed a great deal safer than the viscount’s.

Chapter 18

The days before the performance were filled with activities related to that event as well as to Phoebe’s wedding. Captain Andrews had left to make arrangements with his man of business in London and to obtain a special license, but he promised to return in time to see the play given. There were no more expressions of doubt on Phoebe’s part; she went about only partially involved in the activities around her, a delightful smile playing perpetually on her lips.

Her head full of props and Christmas, wedding preparations and thoughts on leaving the vicarage, Glenna pushed aside any sadness of her own. She noted that there was no more wild flirtation between Jennifer and Kilbane, but their easy camaraderie was based on a deeper level of affection which made Glenna even more upset. No one could fault Kilbane for his treatment of the girl, and yet the current which ran between them seemed far more hazardous to Glenna than the showy flirtation had ever been.

As he had promised, Pontley came to their assistance in preparing for the play. The Lockwood footmen transported furniture and props to the schoolroom and the viscount himself assisted Glenna in the painting of a backdrop for the country house scene. She was fascinated by his abilities with water colors; the two scenes took shape beneath his large masculine hands as though he were composing a melody which ran through his head.