requires.’
‘I cannot argue with you, Miss Earle,’ said Hannah severely. ‘But I am going to fetch Miss Wimple. You
Hannah marched out but left the door open.
Belinda surveyed the marquess with a militant eye. He was still in his evening dress and his hair was powdered. His eyes looked aloof and remote. ‘Well?’ demanded Belinda sarcastically. ‘Tell me all about this love at first sight.’
He sat down on the bed and looked down at her. ‘I was trying to save your reputation.’
‘Good!’ said Belinda, her eyes flashing. ‘Now you have done that … go away.’
It was obviously the moment to tell her he loved her, but his pride would not let him. He had already been made too vulnerable by this girl who could wrench his heart-strings so easily. She did not love him, he thought sadly, or she would not look so contemptuous and angry.
Then he began to find himself becoming angry. There was that mouth, just below his. He put his hands on either side of her body and leaned down. He bent his head … and passionately kissed a mouthful of blanket. Belinda had dived under the covers again. He stood up and stripped the covers off her and threw them on the floor. He knelt on one knee on the bed, grasped the front of her night-gown and jerked her up against him. ‘Now, you will kiss me,’ he said.
Belinda opened her mouth to scream. He covered her mouth with his own and began to kiss her with single-minded intensity. Belinda beat at his shoulders and then pulled at his powdered hair, giving it several painful yanks, but he had the rest of her body and mouth imprisoned. The hand holding the front of her gown was pressed tightly against her breast. Her body was turning to liquid fire and her lips were beginning to tremble beneath his own.
Hannah Pym stood in the doorway again. For a short moment, shock kept her silent. Such blatant passion was indecent. They were both alike. They must get married and leave the world safe for decent people who did not know the meaning of lust.
‘My lord!’ she called loudly.
The marquess dropped Belinda on the bed and then looked at Hannah with a basilisk stare. Hannah felt her authority shrivel before that stare. Hannah, the gentlewoman of independent means, fled; even Hannah, the housekeeper ruling over a large staff, melted away. She could feel herself back in the kitchens of Thornton House as a scullery maid. She felt like apologizing for her very existence, and only Duty, stern daugher of the voice of God, made her give herself a mental shake and say in a strong voice, ‘They’ve gone; fled. Miss Wimple and Mr Biles, and a footman tells me they’ve taken the earl’s carriage!’
‘Good riddance,’ said the marquess.
Hannah’s eyes flew to Belinda. Belinda was looking the picture of shame. If he had told her he loved her, she would be radiant. Men! thought Hannah bitterly.
‘Why have they gone?’ asked Hannah. ‘They had no need to flee.’
‘They had every need, madam,’ said the marquess. ‘Mr Biles is already married.’
‘Married? Does Miss Wimple know?’
‘I doubt it.’
‘But we must save her,’ said Belinda.
‘My dear heart,’ he said in a testy voice that robbed the words of any affection, ‘you are rid of a companion who did her best to blacken your name.’
‘I do not like her,’ said Belinda. ‘But I am going to try to find her. I cannot stand by and see even such as Miss Wimple ruined. She does not have much money, and if he abandons her there is nothing left for a lady to do but to go on the streets.’
‘Might stop her damned moralizing,’ said the marquess savagely.
‘We will all go,’ said Hannah soothingly. ‘My lord no doubt has a carriage.’
‘Which is staying in the stables.’
‘Which you will get out of the stables,’ said Hannah, ‘unless, of course, you have no affection for Miss Earle whatsoever.’
He looked at her in silence. Hannah met his gaze steadily. Hannah did not care a rap what happened to Miss Wimple, but she was frightened to leave matters between Belinda and the marquess as they were. If Belinda was allowed to go ahead on the coach to The Bath in the morning, then perhaps by the time the Marquess of Frenton should be calling on that moralizing great-aunt to ask permission to pay his addresses, he might instead have been snapped up by some designing female. And Hannah did believe that it was never any good for the path of true love to run smooth.
The marquess looked at Belinda. Her face was flushed and her hair tumbled and he realized with a shock that he found her very beautiful indeed and doubted that he would ever think of her as an ordinary-looking female again.
‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I will change into my travelling clothes. Miss Pym, I suggest you go to the servants’ hall and tell the coachman that neither you, Miss Earle, Miss Wimple, or Mr Biles will be taking the stage. Oh, and I gather the Judds are to remain here. He will have an empty coach. Give me half an hour and then meet me in the hall!’
7
Sir Philip Sidney
‘They will have headed for the city,’ said the marquess, meaning Bath. ‘We shall go in that direction first.’
He helped the ladies into the carriage and climbed up on the box. Hannah was disappointed. She had not expected the marquess to drive his carriage himself. She had hoped the couple would have had the opportunity to talk to each other on the journey and get to know each other better. Hugs and kisses were all very well, thought Hannah, giving her nose a tug. But how would they ever find out if they were suited if they never had a chance to talk?
‘Do you think he is angry with us?’ ventured Belinda, peering out into the snow-covered blackness. Although the snow had stopped falling, the countryside was white.
‘For going in search of Miss Wimple? He was at first, but now I think he is reconciled to it, and he must be glad to be shot of the Jordans, as are we all.’
‘Did you mark that when Penelope Jordan joined the others in my bedchamber that her eyebrows were quite thin?’
‘No, I did not,’ said Hannah roundly. ‘I had other things to think about.’
‘Well, they were,’ said Belinda triumphantly. ‘And that means she wears false eyebrows.’
‘A dangerous practice,’ said Hannah severely. ‘It is one to be avoided. Mrs Clarence gave a dinner party once and there was a certain Sir Brian Curtis and his lady present. Right in the middle of dinner, he roared across the table at his wife, “Your left eyebrow is slipping.” Most mortifying for the lady. And then there was another gentleman who had strictly forbidden his wife to wear paint. She appeared in the drawing-room with a little rouge on her face. He grabbed a napkin, soaked it in seltzer, seized her, and scrubbed her face clean before the whole company.’
‘How dreadful! It is just as well this business of me marrying Frenton is all a hum. Marriage is a state to be avoided if a female can afford it.’
‘True,’ said Hannah gloomily. ‘Men
‘And there is mine,’ said Belinda. ‘He would take my very soul away,’ she said, half to herself.
