That she’d spoken unguardedly was without question, but that she’d been provoked was also true. She recalled his dark face inclining towards hers, his eyes dark with memories, his jaw tense with fury. Had she ruined everything? And yet, if the rumoursweretrue, didn’t she need to know for her own sake?
‘It would make you as good as complicit, and by marrying me, your soul would be stained by my sin for all eternity!’
Josephine shivered and gazed out at Knightswood’s rolling lawns, picturing her brothers and sisters careering down the soft grass. She’d watched them so often as a child, picturing herself among their joy, and never tiring of their tales of tree-climbing and swimming when they returned. They were chased by faded images of Huntingly Manor, leering at her in the half-light, withholding secrets. Hadn’t she sensed the shadows at the outset? And yet what choice did she have when Matilda’s entire future was at stake?She could never let her innocent younger sister pay such a price.
‘Energy? No! Sisterly patience– most definitely!’ Henry retorted, pulling the bandage off and threatening his laughing sister with it. ‘Thank the Lord we are back to Oxford next week. I should find myself fully mummified otherwise.’
‘Don’t give me ideas!’ Matilda snorted, throwing herself on the settle beside Edward and casting an eye across the page he was reading. ‘“The importance of flora and fauna for native amphibious species”,’ she read aloud before wrinkling her nose. ‘How can you find teeny, tiny, crawly things so interesting?’ she complained. ‘You’re so odd, Edward– you can do anything you wish, whenever you wish to do it, and you choose to study lizards?’ She rolled her eyes so dramatically, everyone chuckled. ‘If I were a gentleman, I’d doallthe things that made me feel truly alive, like Lord Huntingly! He leaves one in no doubt that he really has lived– I mean, apart from the wholedubious duelthing, of course.’ She grinned, ignoring Fred’s groan of disapproval. ‘You can feel it, even at a recital, which, by the way, wassoinspirational, wasn’t it? It made me realise howexcessively tediousmost of these evenings are, but truly, I shall recall his words for a long time to come. I could almost conjure the battlefield and the fighting between the gods!’
Josephine listened with growing unease as her younger sister described her delight with Lord Huntingly, wondering if her admiration extended further than she knew. Matilda had never expressed any interest in anything but horses and adventures before, but her decided interest in the enigmatic Lord Huntingly somehow made sense. She swallowed. Perhaps Thomas had a point after all? Perhaps Matilda had always been more suited, and yet how could she ever have abandoned her to such a man? It would be like trapping a butterfly with a malign flame.
‘Really, Jo, I think things have turned out well for you.’ Matilda shrugged. ‘And Lord Huntingly made Sir Francis look a hapless schoolboy reciting Byron, which made me very happy…’ She trailed off, laughing, dodging a cushion swat from Henry, while Edward rolled his eyes at the pair of them.
‘Well, I don’t think that’s quite fair,’ Fred defended from the corner of the room. ‘Francis had clearly prepared something he thought the ladies would enjoy, whereas Huntingly sought only to impress. I thought he did splendidly!’
Josephine glanced at her brother as a frown settled upon his sunny features, and felt another twinge of concern.
‘Pooh! Lord Huntingly called him a crowing peacock and now I shall never see him as anything else,’ Matilda declared airily.
‘Matty!’ Josephine chastised. ‘I do not believe that was intended for our ears, and you certainly shouldn’t repeat it.’
‘Of course it was, and you’re the greater simpleton for not realising it,’ Matilda retorted. ‘I think he did it for your benefit, Jo. You didn’t see the look on his face when you were gazing at Sir Francis, he looked as though he could commit another murder!’
‘Matilda!’ all four of her siblings gasped this time.
‘What? And anyway, I don’t blame him,’ she continued, winding herself up to a finale. ‘There is nothingremotelyheroic about reciting pretty words, or talking at great length about one’s own literary studies… Words should convey colour and emotion and experience– all of which Lord Huntingly has by the wagon-load! I think Lord Huntingly is ten times the gentleman Sir Francis is and, if you can’t see that, you shouldn’t be betrothed to him!’
Matilda picked up her skirts and flounced from the drawing room.
‘Well, what on earth was all that about?’ Edward enquired, eyeing Josephine over the top of his magazine.
‘Girls!’ Henry replied knowingly, rolling his eyes. ‘Fancy a swim?’ he asked in the next breath. ‘This is all devilishly dull.’
‘Excellent notion! There’s far too much talking this morning.’ Edward grinned, abandoning the dietary habits of amphibians in favour of fresh air, and leaving Josephine alone with Fred for the first time in weeks.
‘Well, that was exhausting.’ Josephine exhaled, closing the drawing room door and treading across to the window.
‘Some things never change,’ Fred agreed with a faint smile which swiftly faded. ‘I say, Jo,’ he added awkwardly, ‘I’ve been meaning to ask– Matilda’s outburst aside, of course– if you’re content with your arrangement? With Huntingly, I mean?’ He pulled at his stiff collar. ‘I can’t help but recall our conversations before Thomas confirmed your betrothal, and it’s been plaguing me. Anyway, I wanted to say I can talk with him again… if you wish me to?’
Josephine smiled at the only brother who’d ever tried to take care of her.
‘Thank you, Fred,’ she replied, ‘but you and I both know that will change little where Thomas is concerned.’ She took a deep breath. ‘In truth, I feel I may have changed things myself last night.’
Fred eyed her with concern. ‘That sounds ominous, but I know better than to poke my nose in where it’s not wanted. Pon’ rep, for what it’s worth, Jo, I don’t think Francis is thinking of marrying anyone any time soon, anyway.’
Josephine regarded her brother, recalling the letter she’d pushed under Sir Francis’s door on Miss Amelia’s behalf earlier– and before that, his compliment as they entered the Davenports, and the attention he paid her during his stay at Knightswood. He certainly didn’t act like a gentleman who was disinterested in female company, but perhaps that was just his way. She closed her eyes, conscious of a small dull ache, and yet determined not to lose herself to any more daydreams.
‘Is his family suffering financial hardship?’ she asked, forcing herself to think of Amelia’s predicament.
Fred stared in bewilderment, before he threw his head back and laughed in a way she hadn’t heard for a long while. She frowned, wondering if he was still partly inebriated.
‘Hardship? I hardly think so, the Dashtons are as rich as Midas!’ he chortled, wiping his eyes. ‘No, it’s just there are some gentlemen who are made for marriage, and some who aren’t, and, well, Francis is… somewhere in the middle,’ Fred explained, a faint flush creeping into his cheeks.
‘He’s not sure if he’s made for marriage?’ Josephine repeated, thinking again of Miss Amelia, before shrugging. ‘Well, I’m sure Sir Francis is very dedicated to his studies and entitled to live his life how he chooses. He will marry when he’s good and ready, I suppose.’
‘Perhaps,’ Fred replied, eyeing Josephine warily, ‘though I’m not sure I will, and who knows, maybe Francis won’t, either.’
Josephine stared at her sensitive brother, wondering why he felt the need to obstinately deny the possibility of marriage for either himself or his Olympian friend, just as Sir Francis himself was announced.
