Always a Maiden (The Belles of Beak Street #5)(52)

She smiled back.

He gave a sharp look to the man he’d been conversing with. “Lady Susanah, I must beg your forgiveness. Something has come up and I must leave town for a few days.” He took her hand but squeezed it so tightly she thought it might break. “I will be back in plenty of time for the wedding.”

“What has happened?” she asked with a distress that wasn’t feigned. Her hand hurt. “Has one of the children fallen ill?”

As if he realized what he was doing, his grip eased. “Nothing for you to worry about.” He turned her back toward her mother and gave her a little shove. “Please make my excuses to your parents.”

Susanah looked to see if anyone had noticed his punishing hold on her hand or the ungentlemanly shove. But no one seemed the least bit aware. Her legs were stiff and uncooperative as she moved back to join her mother, and she resisted the impulse to shake her hand.

“Lord Farringate has been called out of town,” she told her mother. “He asked me to inform you and Papa.”

“What?”

Susanah shook her head an audacious plan forming. “He is very upset. Perhaps I should go with him.”

“You are not married, yet,” her mother pointed out.

“Yes, but I will soon be his wife, and it will be my duty to offer him my support, will it not?”

“Susanah,” her mother said sternly.

She turned and scowled at her mother. “It isn’t as though I would run off alone with him. I would only go if there is a proper chaperone. His sister or another couple to keep an eye on me, but he is to be my husband, and I do owe him my loyalty.”

Her mother’s jaw dropped.

Before her mother could collect herself, Susanah turned and ran into Lord Ashton. He steadied her with his hands on her arms. “Where are you off to?”

“I…” She couldn’t say anything here where her mother could hear, so she stared up at him in mute appeal.

His brow furrowed. “May I—”

“I would be ever so grateful,” she said and took his arm, steering him away from her mother as quickly as she could.

Lord Ashton tried again, “Annabelle feels she has been remiss in not congratulating you sooner on your upcoming nuptials.”

She put her finger to her lips. Lord Ashton squinted at her, then pressed his lips together. Pointing toward Lord Farringate’s back, she whispered, “Pretend you are escorting me to my fiancé’s side.”

He did as she asked all the while casting skeptical glances in her direction. She only hoped her mother would read it as concern. He probably thought a few bats had decided to circle her belfry.

He balked as they neared the entrance.

“Please, just lead me through the door, and I’ll explain everything,” she whispered. She didn’t dare look back to see if her mother was watching, nor speak in a normal tone in case Lord Farringate, who was just ahead of them, heard her.

“I’ve a feeling I need the protection of my wife,” Lord Ashton said.

Susanah stepped to the side into a shadowed portion of the entry hall, as Lord Farringate called for his hat and carriage. She risked one glance over her shoulder and heaved a sigh of relief when she didn’t see her mother following her.

One of the footmen manning the entrance approached. “How may I assist you?”

“Show me to a room where I might have a private discussion with Lord and Lady Ashton,” she said.

The footman blinked, and she let go of Lord Ashton’s arm. She drew herself up to her full height and tilted her head up imperiously. Not that her stature gave any weight to her demands. But she needed audacity right now. If haughtiness got her what she wanted then she would use that.

Her plan would only work if her parents believed she had left with Lord Farringate and a proper escort. Even then it was a poor plan.

“Hop to it, man,” said Lord Ashton when the footman looked like he would object. “There has to be a library or morning room where we can be private a moment.”

The man looked back and forth between them probably thinking he was being asked to facilitate some illicit affair. He finally said, “This way.”

Lord Ashton stopped at the door and said, “I’ll be back in a minute with my wife.”

The footman looked apoplectic for a minute. “Very good, sir.”

She couldn’t imagine what he was thinking. Not that it mattered as long as he didn’t fetch her parents. She remembered Evan’s council to offer a gratuity to buy a servant’s silence but she only had a few coins in her reticule. She opened it. Instead of going for a coin, her fingers went straight to the tin as if she needed to think of Evan to give her strength.

She slid into the darkened room.

Had it been so easy for Evan to arrange illicit trysts?

A few minutes later the footman ushered in Annabelle and her husband and armed them with a lamp. She stared at Annabelle.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake.” She tightly gripped the tin. Evan had been angry at her when he left. Of course, he was. She’d told him that Lord Farringate’s marriage offer was better than his. But that was true if the only measure was a title. “I need your help.”

Annabelle folded her arms across the bodice of her deep red ballgown. “Why on earth would we help you?”