Behind the Rake's Wicked Wager - By Sarah Mallory Page 0,83
she clapped her hands in delight.
‘Well, is this not my great good fortune? Mr Camerton is taking the ladies to see the grotto, too, and he has been regaling them with all sorts of stories about Mr Sheridan’s time in Bath. It is clearly the most salacious gossip, and I am desperate to hear it!’
‘Can events that happened forty years ago be considered gossip?’ Jasper enquired.
Charles Camerton had the grace to look a little guilty. ‘The ladies seem to like it.’
‘Well, since you do not wish to listen you may give your arm to Miss Prentess for a little while,’ said Zelah. ‘She will not want to hear the stories again. There, now we can all be comfortable. Shall we walk on?’
The party thus rearranged they began to move, Jasper and Susannah following the others. Jasper sought for something to say to break the awkward silence.
‘I fear we are the victims of two extremely managing female minds. I acquit Charles of being anything more than a pawn in their hands.’
‘I beg your pardon.’
Her despondent manner wrenched at his heart.
‘Come now, this is not like you,’ he said in a rallying tone. ‘You are more like to rip up at me.’
She gave a little shake of her head, keeping her face averted.
‘I have treated you very badly. Kate told me it was Mr Camerton, and not you, who divulged the secret of Florence House.’
‘To good effect, since you now have a patroness.’
She looked round at that.
‘I am aware that I have you to thank for that, too.’
He raised his hand and touched her pale cheek.
‘You have had a very horrid time of it recently, I think. Were you sorry to terminate your engagement?’
‘No. I was more concerned for Gerald, but when he told me the true state of his feelings I knew we must call it off.’
Jasper hesitated before saying slowly, ‘Perhaps you are afraid of marriage.’
‘Perhaps I am, a little.’
‘Because of what happened to your sister.’
‘Not just that.’
Her fingers trembled against the crook of his arm and he brought his hand up to cover them.
‘Will you not tell me?’
‘I have tried for so long to blot it out,’ she whispered. ‘I have told no one.’
Jasper looked up. They had fallen some way behind the others.
‘There is no one to hear us, only the trees.’ He pressed her fingers. ‘Have we not shared enough for you to know you can trust me with your confidences?’
‘Every experience I have had has shown me that men are not to be trusted.’
‘You trusted Gerald enough to become betrothed.’
‘Gerald was never a town beau.’
‘Yet still you cannot bring yourself to marry him.’
‘I began to think, to realise. At some stage he would want to— I would have to...’ She shuddered. ‘I could not bear the thought of it.’
‘Tell me, Susannah.’
They walked on in silence. Jasper kept his hand over hers where it rested on his sleeve. He wanted to pull her into his arms, to kiss away her sadness, but she was tense, like a filly on the edge of bolting. She began to speak.
‘My Uncle Middlemass took me to London when I was eighteen. You know his money came from trade, so there was no formal presentation at court, but he had many acquaintances in town, so our society was not limited. On one evening at a party I recognised the young man who had courted Florence. He did not recognise me—even when we were introduced he did not remember the name. I was incensed. I followed him and his friends to the card room. I told him what had happened to Florence—’ She broke off. A gentle wind was sighing through the trees and making the spring flowers dance around them, but she did not notice any of it, her eyes fixed upon some unseen point in the distance.
‘He laughed. He said if she had been foolish enough to give herself to him then she deserved her fate. They were all laughing, all those fashionable young men with their windswept hair and elegant neckties, laughing at the fate of my poor sister. Then he grabbed me and began to...to kiss me. He said he’d wager I was as wanton as my sister. If it had not been for the timely entrance of a servant I do not think he would have stopped. And the others were standing by, watching.’ She shivered. ‘I managed to make my escape but I will never forget. He was laughing as I fled down the stairs. He saw