Kathleen E. Woodiwiss(33)

“Ah, there it is!” Anxiously she flew to it and snatched up the tiny box.

Ralston was instructing the servants as they tossed his bags down from the coach, so she had time enough. As she had watched Pitney do so often, Shanna took a bit of a pinch and held it to her nostril, inhaling deeply.

“My lord!” she gasped. It was as if a searing iron were being thrust down her throat. She sneezed and sneezed and sneezed again.

Thus it was, as had been her intent, that when James Ralston entered the room, Shanna sat in a state of tearful distress, tears flowing down her cheeks and her eyes as red as if she had been weeping for hours. Daintily she dabbed at her nose with a handkerchief and sniffed loudly.

“Madam?” Ralston approached a step, his thin features tense as he tried to control his ire, his hand working on the crop.

Shanna glanced up, wiping her streaming tears with the lace handkerchief. Her chest burned, and she gasped for air.

“Oh, Ralston, ‘tis you. I had not expected—”

His reply was curt. “I hastened lest I should find matters awry—”

“Oh, had you come sooner—” Shanna sniffled wistfully.

“Madam.” His tone was clipped, short. “I made my way straightforth to the Marguerite, escorting some of the precious goods we salvaged from the grounded vessel and there found startling news awaiting me. You have commissioned Captain Duprey to take you aboard for passage home, and in the course of events I found you have been both married and widowed in my absence. Is this correct, or have I been led astray by that erring Frenchman?”

Shanna effectively used her kerchief at the corners of her eyes as a sob lifted her bosom. “ ‘Tis all true.”

“Madam—”

“Madam Beauchamp. Madam Ruark Deverell Beauchamp,” Shanna stated.

Ralston cleared his throat tersely. “Madam Beauchamp, am I to understand that in the brevity of a week you have been able to choose a husband for yourself after a full year of failure to even find a man bearable?”

“Do you regard that fact impossible, Mister Ralston?” It was difficult to hide her irritation.

“Madam, with another woman I would not in the least doubt the possibility of such an occurrence.”

“And with me, Mister Ralston?” Shanna’s brows raised and her eyes were less than warm. “Do you count me incapable of love?”

“Nay, madam,” he answered with care, yet he recalled the extensive number of gentlemen he had himself introduced for her consideration, hoping that one of them might marry her, and, afterwards, share with him a percentage of the dowry. “It just seems, madam, that you are more selective than most.”

“And so I am,” she replied primly. “Otherwise I might have betrayed myself by choosing someone less dear to me than my own beloved Ruark. ‘Tis irony that what so late found is so soon lost. The details of his death I care not to dwell upon, for he was taken from me swiftly, a stumble from the carriage, and he was gone. Alas, my loving Ruark.”

“And you actually shared a be—”

Shanna’s head snapped up in a haughty display of indignation. “Mister Ralston! Do you seek to insult me with crudeness? Or is it unusual to your mind that a husband and wife should lie together on their wedding night?”

“I beg your pardon, madam.” Ralston’s cheeks darkened as he realized the danger of his question.

“I do not abide this doubting of my word, and it does me ill that you should press me so. But since you have displayed your curiosity so blatantly, let me calm it. I assure you, sir, that I am no longer a maiden, and a child may be forthcoming.”

Having issued that statement as any outraged widow might, Shanna turned aside, a slight frown of worry troubling her brow, for she did in truth wonder if she were carrying Ruark’s seed. It was such a brief encounter, but still there might be the chance. It was not her desire to raise a child without a father. Mentally she counted the days until she would know the truth. Only time would see an end to her dismay.

Ralston misread her manner. She could well damage his lucrative relationship with her father, and the concern in his voice was real.

“Madam, I did not mean to distress you.”

Shanna faced him again and then paused as she looked beyond him to see Hergus in the background. She caught the frown that briefly touched the Scotswoman’s face as Mister Ralston turned also. It was with some effort that the maid maintained a semblance of respect toward the man. Having been with the Trahern family for almost twenty years, Hergus was not lacking for confidence and often expressed herself with complete frankness which did not necessarily lend to flattery. She had not approved of the men Mister Ralston had presented to her young mistress, and her dislike of Ralston had grown apace with her disdain for those he brought. It was Shanna she gave her loyalty to, and any who doubted it enough to threaten the mistress would find the fact out to their chagrin.