Mistress at Midnight(5)

'There are ears everywhere in a gathering such as this one, Mrs St Harlow, and it is prudent to protect a reputation.'

She shook her head and looked away. 'Oh, mine is lost completely  already, my lord. I doubt anything else I do could lower it further.'

Again he smiled, the freedom inherent in such a thought enlivening. 'How  old are you?' Said before he could think, said from the very depths of  interest.

'Twenty-six. An old maid. A woman on the shelf of life and happy for  it.' Her eyes strayed to a set of females of a similar age sitting  against one wall. 'I used to pity them until I realised how very  liberated they actually were.'

His fingers tightened about hers, gloved tonight in a strange hue of  grey. He wished he might have felt her skin beneath, the warmth of it  and the smoothness.

'My uncle seems more than taken with you and that is saying something. He seldom has time for anyone in society.'

For the first time that evening, genuine warmth entered her eyes. 'I  always liked him, too. He showed me around the gardens at the Atherton  country seat once and I helped him collect the eggs from the henhouses.'

'Most people ridicule him.'

'Most people loathe me so perhaps the thread in common allows us communion    .'

'I do not loathe you, Aurelia.'

She tripped as he said it and fell up against him, the red in her face  climbing into beetroot, though the dance music chose that particular  point to end and he shepherded her back to her sister.





Chapter Three


Aurelia's cheeks burnt molten and the anger in her rose. Hell and  damnation, but she was doing exactly what she had promised herself she  would not do. She was feeling again and the ache about her heart made  her sick and disorientated.

Not here, she chastised herself, not here amongst the wolves and jackals  of a group who would like to do nothing more than tear her to pieces. A  plain and untitled girl did not get away with treating one of their own  the way she had treated her husband, after all.

Biting down, she swallowed, the thick glass in her spectacles blurring  the edges of the room and making her queasy. Leonora at least looked  happy and the young man beside her was both personable and well  presented. Perhaps this evening would not be such a total loss after  all.

Lord Hawkhurst stood next to a beautiful woman, her face wreathed in kindness.

'Lady Cassandra Lindsay, may I introduce Mrs Aurelia St Harlow.'

Lady Cassandra did not falter as she put out her hand in welcome, the  grasp of her fingers warm and lingering. Such unexpected amiability was  surprising, for it was far more common to encounter only censure.                       
       
           



       

'It has been a long while since I remember Stephen conversing so fervently with a dance partner.'

'The music did not allow him the courtesy of bidding me farewell, I am  afraid, my lady,' she returned. 'I am certain he was much relieved when  he was able to escape, though he has promised my sister a dance.' She  got this in because Lord Hawkhurst looked anything but happy on the  other side of the small circle of people.

'Oh, I rather think her card is full already, Mrs St Harlow. My brother Rodney has pencilled in at least two waltzes.'

Leonora fussed prettily as Lady Lindsay introduced her brother to Aurelia and a small bloom of hope lingered in the air.

Could it even possibly be this easy? When Aurelia looked across at Lord  Hawkhurst she saw the gold shards in his eyes harden. He was the tallest  man in the room and easily the most prepossessing. No wonder women fell  over their feet to be near him. But there was something under the  visage that he presented to this society that was … darker.

Glancing away, she made much of extracting a lace handkerchief from her  reticule. Charles had had the same sort of darkness, and look where that  had got her.

Her sister, on the other hand, had a broad smile on her face and was  using her fan most agilely. Aurelia had never seen her so animated and  hoped that this was not a bad thing. Did men like a woman to talk quite  as much? Was it not too forward to tap a man on the arm in the way that  she was doing? Lady Lindsay's brother did not look in the slightest bit  offended so perhaps such behaviour was expected. The headache that had  been forming all day raked at the sides of her temple because she  doubted that they would ever be given such a chance as excellent as this  one again. The thought of coming away without contacts was dispiriting.

'Mr Northrup enjoys riding, Lia. I said he should accompany us for a  canter around the Park.' Her sister's eyes were wide with hope, the blue  in them matching her gown.

'Perhaps he should be careful, then, not to jump hedges,' Hawkhurst  drawled in reply, though Cassandra Lindsay merely swatted his arm with  her fan.

'Take no notice of Hawk, Mrs St Harlow. Charles was always taking great  chances to show off his jumping skills. I couldn't believe he had not  broken his neck before he … ' She petered off, her brow furrowing, and the  man beside her, whom Lia did not as yet know, began to speak.

'Before he died in the same way that the legends abounding in Transylvania tell of?'

Vampires? He spoke of such? The conversation amongst this group of  people seemed irreverent and quick witted. No taboos. No carefully  untouched subjects, and after Charles's rigid lack if humour such wit  was refreshing. They laughed a lot, too, she thought, though Lord  Hawkhurst's smile came nowhere near his eyes.

'You must not mind Hawk and my husband Nathaniel at all, Mrs St Harlow. I  know how very difficult Charles's death must have been for you and I am  certain that Rodney would love the chance of being invited into the  charming company of your sister for an afternoon's ride. Where do you  reside here in London?'

'Braeburn House, Lady Lindsay, in Mayfair.' Leonora was quick with her  directions and Aurelia could only applaud her sister's acumen at seizing  the moment, but the thought of Hawkhurst paying a social call was  worrying.

What would he see there that she had tried to hide? Would they expect to  meet Papa? Was there a chance he might talk with those about the area  and understand things that she had been so successful thus far in  concealing from others?

She was so exhausted with trying to tie all the threads of her life  together she could barely breathe. How quickly could it all unravel?

The arrival of a young blonde woman and an older one within the group  changed the tone of what was spoken of as introductions were given.

'You look as beautiful as ever, Lady Berkeley,' Cassandra's husband said as he kissed the back of the woman's hand.

'You were always the flatterer, Lord Lindsay. Your mother was the same, God bless her soul.'

The chatter was convivial and familiar between the people who had grown  up all of their lives inside the sheltered world of the ton. Were  Stephen Hawkhurst and Elizabeth Berkeley a couple promised to each  other? The thought made Aurelia's head throb harder and she knew that  she did not fit in here. She watched as the younger Berkeley woman shyly  laid her gloved fingers on Lord Hawkhurst's arm and asked him a  question beneath her breath.

His reply was as softly given back, the girl's cheeks glowing as  excitement filled her eyes. Elizabeth Berkeley was like the first flush  of some exquisite English rose: all promise, sweetness and hope. Aurelia  could not remember a time when she had ever been like that.                       
       
           



       

At five she had watched her mother pack her bags and disappear. At six  she had been the unwanted stepdaughter of her father's new wife and at  seventeen Charles St Harlow had entered her life, like a falling star  burning brightly.

Another waltz was struck and Lord Hawkhurst and Elizabeth Berkeley  excused themselves to take to the floor, his arm around the young  woman's waist in a careful ownership, the height and colouring of each  exactly complementing the other.

'Did you know Hawk well when you were married to his cousin, Mrs St  Harlow?' The question was from Cassandra Lindsay, eyes full of curiosity  as she moved to stand directly beside Aurelia.

'No, I never once met him. His uncle, however, was a friend.'

A smile lit up Lady Lindsay's entire face. 'Alfred is rather picky about  who he accords friendship to. Take Elizabeth Berkeley, for instance. I  doubt he realises she exists.'

'She is very beautiful.'

'And quite lovely with it, which is a relief beyond measure if Stephen should decide to offer for her.'

'Which he will?' Aurelia had not meant to ask the question, and from the  sharp interest in green eyes knew she had made a mistake by doing so.  She was glad of the barrier of thick glass.

'Lord Hawkhurst has never taken a wife and his estate is more than  healthy, so it behoves him to provide heirs. How long were you married  to Charles?'

'Three years, my lady.' The tone of her voice was flatter than it should  have been but tonight, with Leonora's face alight with possibility and  hope, Aurelia was finding it hard to feign her usual pretence.