My Naughty Minette (6 page)

“He’s not angry or disappointed as much as he’s worried about you,” said Josephine. “He’s looked after you so long and now he has to let you go. I think that’s what upsets him most. This was so...sudden. I’m not sure he was ready to lose you.” She traced one of Minette’s blonde curls. “I know
I
wasn’t. I’ve grown used to your company, and I’ll miss you terribly when you’re off at Barrymore Park being Lady Augustine.”

Lady Augustine.
How many times had she dreamed of having that title? “You’re going to have a baby to keep you busy,” she pointed out. “You and Aurelia both.”

“And you’ll have one too, soon enough,” said Josephine. “All our children can be playmates and grow up and be fast friends like the three of us, and like the gentlemen. You’ll see, Minette. Everything will be well.”

“Yes,” Aurelia concurred. “It doesn’t matter how things begin, you see, but how they develop over time. Don’t give another thought to last night’s proceedings. Smile instead, and look to the future. Think about it this way—you could be Lady Priscilla, about to be cruelly jilted.”

“She deserves it,” said Minette, “for playing that awful baroque recital last night. Everyone will assume that’s the reason, don’t you think?”

Aurelia and Josephine burst into laughter and Minette managed to laugh along with them. That was her talent, after all, her gift to the world, as people often told her: to smile and be amiable, and make everything bright.

The necessary public actions were slated to take place that afternoon, with Aurelia’s help as hostess. She planned a tea party outside for the house guests and insisted that everyone must attend, since the weather had blessed them so majestically.

August wandered about the picnicking tables with a sense of dread, waiting to play his part. He would need to approach Minette in full hearing of Lady Priscilla—and as many other house guests as possible—bend over her hand, and ask her in an attentive and lovelorn way if she would accompany him on a walk around the lake. Such a bold invitation would signal to everyone that his affections were now focused on Warren’s sister, not Lady Priscilla.

If he was to marry Minette, he needed to quickly and publicly dash Priscilla’s expectations, as much as it would infuriate the girl.

At least he had not yet officially proposed to Priscilla. If they’d been betrothed, things would have been a hundred times more wretched, for to break an engagement was the height of crass behavior for a gentleman. As it was, he would make some powerful enemies for choosing Minette over Priscilla. The one mercy was that no one—save his closest friends—knew the reason why.

Arlington approached him with a glass of iced punch. “Something to shore up your courage,” he said quietly.

August accepted the drink, grateful for his friend’s support. Warren hadn’t spoken to him since he left the room that morning, and Townsend was busy helping Aurelia oversee the party. Arlington looked at him closely, without judgment. “Holding up, old man?”

“Yes, of course. But ask me again later, when this business is done.”

“Aurelia’s got all the young ladies sitting together. If she can get Lady Colton in the general vicinity, you had better make your move.”

August grimaced and took a sip of punch, then coughed as it burned down his throat.

Arlington smiled. “I added a little brandy to it. I hoped it might help.”

“I thought Aurelia was starting a new fashion in garden party beverages.” He took another sip of the adulterated punch, and let out a long breath, holding the glass up as if in a toast. “Thanks. My last drink as a free man.”

“You haven’t been a free man in a long time. We all know that.”

The friends fell silent. August gazed at Minette, wondering how she managed to look so happy and carefree after last night. But of course, it was an act, just like the act he was about to perform. He knew her well enough to see the faint tension in her brow and the restless movements of her fingers. “Tell me it’s going to be all right, Arlington.”

“It’s going to be all right. Minette already loves you, of course, and Warren will come around and forgive you some day. Colton’s going to cause trouble for you where he can, but never forget, you’ve got powerful friends too.”

His Grace the Duke of Arlington was one of those powerful friends. At thirty-one, he’d been in control of a sprawling network of interests for over a decade. Townsend was in line to be the next Duke of Lockridge, while Warren was a wealthy earl with excellent Parliamentary connections. And, of course, August would inherit the Barrymore marquessate from his father at some point. Some very near point, now that the French pox had advanced to ravaging the man’s heart and mind. Yes, August was not powerless or friendless.

Only very disappointed in his recent behavior.

“I suppose I’d better go. There’s Lady Colton sitting down right between the two of them.” August drained the rest of his drink in one swallow and handed it back to his friend.

“Godspeed,” said Arlington. “Remember, you love her. You’ve always loved her. You just haven’t been able to express yourself until now.”

“It’s a ridiculous story, isn’t it?” August ran a hand through his hair and straightened his cravat. “No one will believe it.”

“Enough people have seen Minette pining over you these last ten years. Perhaps you’ve only just become aware of her as a woman, rather than a girl. I don’t know. Something like that. Go now, quickly. Aurelia is giving you looks.”

August set off across the lawn. One foot in front of the other toward the two women, one dark and regal and haughty, the other like a blonde, fluttering butterfly. He could see Minette trying very hard not to notice him approaching.
Perhaps you’ve only just become aware of her as a woman, rather than a girl.
Yes, he’d become aware last night, when he’d filled his hands with her delectable arse and traced the curves of her waist and her magnificent breasts. As soon as he remembered, he pushed the memories away.

Lady Priscilla looked up expectantly as he approached. Perhaps she thought this was the moment of his announcement. Perhaps she believed his friend Lady Townsend had planned this idyllic party so he might finally declare himself. Her round, unblinking eyes regarded him with utter possessiveness. That he might be approaching another—the idea would not even occur to her. She smiled and tilted her head as if to address him.

August stopped instead before Minette.
Remember, you love her. You’ve always loved her.
“Lady Wilhelmina.” His voice caught on her formal name, for nerves. Perhaps it would make this seem more realistic. “How pretty you look today. I wondered if you might honor me with a walk around the lake.”

“Oh.” Minette made a choked sort of giggle, as if she were surprised. “Why, I suppose that would be fine.”

“There’s a great deal of pretty scenery.”
Pretty scenery? Shut up, you dolt. Minette, move!

She put down her cup and fiddled with her fan, and pushed back her chair. It took perhaps ten seconds but to August, it felt like an hour. All the conversations in the immediate vicinity halted. He might have heard a gasp. In his peripheral vision, he could see Lady Colton’s lips drawn tight across her teeth, and Priscilla’s smooth dark hair beneath her light-colored bonnet. He managed a clumsy look in their direction, in fact, smiled at all the ladies at the table as any gentleman might do.

“Thank you so much,” said Minette as she came around the table and offered her hand to be placed upon his arm. “I’ve been wanting to walk about the lake for some time now. I’ve been sitting too long eating too many cakes.” Her sparkling laugh sounded perfectly natural. How he admired her for it. He looked only at her as they walked back across the garden, past a bank of flowers and shrubs, to the stone stairs that provided access to the foot path.

It was a perfectly proper thing to do, of course. The picturesque lake was in full view of the entire garden party. He only had to make sure he looked at her like a man falling in love, which was rather difficult, since she was prattling on about geese.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, exasperated.

“I was just wondering if geese and ducks hatch their young in the same season. Do you know if they do? Because I thought I saw a goose down here a few days ago, or perhaps it was a duck, and it looked smaller than the others, and I wondered if it was a baby. Or, you know, a younger one.”

“We’re far enough away now that you don’t have to make up mindless conversation.”

She gave him a confused look. Of course, she hadn’t been making up mindless conversation. She’d only been being Minette. “I don’t know if geese and ducks hatch in the same season,” he said. “Perhaps we can ask Townsend’s groundskeeper.” He tightened his hand over hers. “Not right now. Right now we make everyone believe we’re falling in love with each other.”

She looked up at him, a quick, shy look he couldn’t interpret, then out across the lake. The banks hummed with insects, and yes, there was a great family of geese, some larger than the others.

“You have always called me a goose,” she said, turning with him onto the path.

“No, Warren calls you a goose. I’ve always called you a nuisance, which you have been. Thanks to you, Lady Priscilla is probably back there planning our demise, along with her mother and father’s help.”

“Do you think so?” She looked at the ground, then off to the trees, then out into the distance. Anywhere but him. “Will you be terribly sad not to marry her?”

August shrugged. “I never liked her. You know that. But I never wished to marry my sister either.”

“I’m not your sister.”

“You might as well be. I did all the things for you that I did for my own sisters. Sat at blasted tea parties, carved dolls for you, rescued you from trees. Come to think of it, I did rather more for you than I did for my own sisters. You’ve always been a scamp.”

She made a protesting noise that ended up in tinkling laughter. “You did rescue me a great deal, didn’t you? Do you remember the time the dog bit me?”

“It didn’t bite you. You only thought it did.”

“But you swept me up in your arms and shooed the dog away.” She had a faraway gaze, as if she were remembering the moment. “I thought you were the most heroic fellow.”

“I was what? Fourteen? Fifteen years old? I thought myself a heroic fellow too.”

How things had changed. He remembered the day that dog had chased Minette about the garden because she was covered in sticky sweets. She had quickly gone hysterical at its jumping and licking, and when August lifted her up, she’d sobbed in relief and clung to his neck. His own sisters were older and treated him like a paltry young knob. At that age it had pricked him to madness, and here had been a young, defenseless cherub whom he could rescue and protect. He’d envied Warren his little sister for years, until Minette grew up and started mooning over him in her determined fashion. Then things had become decidedly awkward, since he couldn’t think about her in any romantic way.

Even now, as he looked down at her delicate hand on his arm, and her blonde curls peeking from beneath her bonnet, he thought,
What the devil am I going to do?

The answer to that was nothing. He would do nothing. He and Minette would have a marriage in name only, until and unless the day arrived that he could see her as something more than an innocent child. It didn’t help that she was back to chattering about baby ducklings.

“Why don’t we sit down?” he asked, steering her toward a weathered wooden bench. He brushed away the leaves, and then they sat together, rather closer than they’d ever sat before.

“And then,” said Minette, “well, you would never believe it but this little duckling nipped its brother on the tail, or perhaps it was his sister, it’s impossible to know, and the other turned around and gave a hilarious, tiny sort of snarl. I’m telling you, I’d never heard a noise like it. And it was the cutest little duck, all fuzzy and furry, you know, just before its feathers had come in. And Lady Julia and I just watched and laughed, wondering if a full row would break out. It didn’t, you’ll be pleased to know, but we still talk about that snarling little duck. Why, perhaps it was rabid.”

August gazed into her eyes in what he hoped was a lovelorn fashion. “Perhaps it had only had enough of the other duck poking at it.”

“You know something I learned recently? I forget who told me, some gentleman, but he warned me in no uncertain terms that swans were unpleasant creatures and that one should never approach them if one can help it. No matter how pleasant and graceful they look, he said they could be excessively violent if they were in that mood. Which is sad, because I always thought it great fun to feed bits of food to the swans when we visited Lansing Grange. They had black and white swans, and even these sort of grayish in-between swans.” She thought a moment, putting the tip of a finger to her chin. “Although perhaps they were only white swans in need of a good scrubbing.”

“Minette.” He took her hand, surprised to find it shaking. “Let’s not talk about geese anymore, or ducks, or swans, or anything else to do with water fowl.”

She looked down at her lap, then looked back at him. “Of course, if you prefer not to. What else would you like to talk about?”

“Did I hurt you?” he blurted in a rough voice.

He hadn’t meant to ask it. He had meant to bring up some safe and offhand topic, but Minette’s fingers were trembling, and he couldn’t bear to think why.

“Do you mean...?”

“Last night. Did I hurt you? I want you to know that I won’t— That we needn’t—” He sighed. “If I hurt you, I swear I didn’t mean to, and I won’t do any such thing again.”

“I know you didn’t mean to,” she said. Her hand had gone limp in his. She opened her fan to flutter an insect away. “The thing about swans, whether they be black, or white, or—”

“Minette.”

“I was going to say that I wanted swans at my wedding for the longest time, but I don’t anymore. Warren says you’re going to get a special license and marry me next week. So there won’t be any time for swans, or a great deal of planning. But now that I know more about swans and their unpleasant dispositions, I don’t want them at the wedding anyway.”