Jane Feather - Valentine

"Lieutenant Fairfax, my lady," the butler intoned before Elinor could respond to this insouciant reassurance.

"I trust I'm not intruding, Lady Belmont." Edward came in on the announcement, his eyes immediately searching out his betrothed. "I know it's early, but -"

"You couldn't keep away," Rosie finished for him matter-of-factly. "I don't know why you don't live here, Edward. I'm sure it's more comfortable than your lodgings, and it would save you a deal of traveling time."

"Rosie!" protested Emily. "You make it sound as if Edward isn't welcome."

"Oh, but of course he is," Rosie said placidly, taking another piece of toast. "It was only an observation. Clarry's knight is the same. He's practically moved in, too."

"That's enough, child," Elinor rebuked her. "Sit down, Edward. You know we're always pleased to see you."

Edward sat down next to Theo, observing with a grin, "You managed to escape the tabbies."

"Edward, for shame!" Elinor protested. "Such an example for Rosie!"

"Oh, I don't mind," Rosie said. "Did the dragons really make Mary go green? Clarry said she was quite pea-colored when she came downstairs."

"That's enough. I don't want to hear another word about the Gilbraiths," Elinor said in a tone that they all knew meant business.

"Very well, Mama," Theo said with a placating smile. "But will you invite her to go visiting with you or something… just to relieve me of a little of the burden?"

Elinor's expression so clearly indicated how little she relished such a prospect that her daughters burst into peals of laughter, and accusations of "hypocrite" flew around the table. Elinor shook her head ruefully. "I suppose we should all take a turn."

Edward took the cup of coffee Emily poured him. "Well, I hope you'll excuse me this morning. I was hoping to persuade Emily to drive with me in the park after breakfast."

"Oh, it'll have to be later," Theo said. "Emily and Clarry are coming on an errand with me."

"Oh, well, I'll accompany you, then."

Theo chuckled. "I don't think you want to do that, Edward. You'll be most uncomfortable." She turned to her mother. "We may have the barouche, mayn't we?"

Elinor sighed. "I suppose so, if you promise you're not up to some mischief."

"Mama, I am a married woman," Theo declared loftily. "How could you possibly think such a thing?"

"Very easily," Elinor said wryly.

"Well, I have to be back by eleven o'clock, because Jonathan is coming to finish his portrait," Clarissa said. "He's going to hang it in the hall of his mother's house, and she's going to give a soiree so that people may see it. Once they realize how talented he is, he's bound to get a host of commissions."

"I haven't seen it yet," Theo said. "Do you like it?"

Clarissa blushed. "He won't let me see it, not until it's finished."

"Well, if I were you, I'd just take the cloth off and have a peek when he's not here," Rosie declared.

"That's cheating," Clarissa exclaimed.

"I don't see why. It's a picture of you, not anyone else, so it sort of belongs to you. At least that's what I think."

"You have the same unorthodox attitude to conventional rules as your sister," Edward said pointedly.

Theo glanced at him. They'd had no chance to talk in private about the disastrous events at the Fisherman's Rest. He seemed to have forgiven her for involving him, but she knew he was curious to know what had transpired between herself and Stoneridge. She would tell him later, when she explained about the other scheme percolating in her mind. She'd need his involvement there too, but his role wouldn't require physical intervention. Once she'd explained her suspicions and her plan to him, she was convinced he would give her his wholehearted support, as he'd always done.

She leaned across and pecked him on the cheek. "Don't be stuffy."

"Someone needs to be where you're concerned," Edward said, burying his nose in his coffee cup to hide his reluctant grin.

Theo, perfectly satisfied with this response, pushed back her chair. "If Clarry has to be back in two hours, and I have to be back to look after my mama-in-law, we'd better get moving. I've no idea how long this is going to take."

A renewed chorus of What? rose round the table, but she just grinned mischievously and went into the hall to give order for the barouche to be brought around.

Fifteen minutes later the three of them were on their way to a discreet establishment on Bond Street.

Sylvester awoke while his wife was spearing bacon in the Belmont breakfast parlor. He lay for a few minutes savoring his bodily ease and the miraculous absence of pain. His mind still retained the ghastly memories of his agony, and the memories made the present sense of well-being even more precious.

"My lord." Henry, alert to the slightest hint of movement from the bed, drew back the bed curtains, an anxious smile on his lips.

"Good morning, Henry. What's the time?"

"Past nine o'clock, sir."

"Good God!" His mind flew to Theo. He saw her face, hovering over him, her smile, those pansy-blue eyes filled with compassion and something even deeper than that. It was that something that had soothed him, had stopped his protests at her presence during his torture. He could feel her hand on his brow, cool and soft.

He sat up on his pillows. "I'm not mistaken in believing that Lady Stoneridge was in here?"

"No, my lord."

"Why the devil did you let her in?"

Henry cleared his throat. "I didn't, sir. She came through the window."

"What?" He remembered she'd told him she'd flown through the window, but it had meant nothing to him at the time.

He swung out of bed and strode to the window, flinging it wide onto the noisy bustle of London town waking for business. He stepped out onto the balcony, looked across at Theo's, then looked down into the street. His scalp crawled as he imagined that perilous crossing.

The woman was incorrigible. Utterly, totally incorrigible. He returned inside, shivering at the chill wind blowing through his nightshirt. "Bath, Henry."

"Right away, my lord. And breakfast." Henry hurried to the door, then paused. "Oh, her ladyship asked me to give you this as soon as you awoke." He hastened back to the secretaire and handed the earl the folded paper.

"Thank you." Just what was she up to now? Sylvester ran a hand over his unshaven chin with a grimace. "Hurry with that hot water, man."

Henry left, and the earl opened the sheet. Theo's distinctive script jumped off the page at him:

Dearest Sylvester,

Henry assured me that you'll be quite well when you awake, or I wouldn't have left. I will be in Brook Street when you're able to come and find me. Your mama is still asleep, so I feel sure she won't need me for a couple of hours.

Love, Theo.

Two large impetuous-looking kisses followed the signature. He folded the letter again and placed it in a drawer in his secretaire, a slight smile curving his mouth. She had never called him "dearest" before. The whole tone of the note was different from her usual undecorative communications, and he knew Theo was incapable of dissembling her feelings. They spilled from her with the purity of the bubbling source of a mountain stream. He saw her eyes again as they'd been during those dreadful hours, and a spurt of joy shot into his veins.

Henry came in with a breakfast tray, followed by two footmen bearing a hip bath and jugs of hot water. Sylvester's nose twitched at the aroma of coffee, and he sat down hungrily to break his long fast while his bath was filled.

Theo was still going to have to go back to Stoneridge, he decided. Just until he'd sorted out Neil Gerard. Then, with the past securely behind him and no shameful revelations to fear, he would go to her and they would break new ground with this marriage.

That settled, he enjoyed a leisurely bath and shave and dressed in buckskins and top boots. Henry eased a coat of olive superfine over the powerful shoulders and handed him gloves and his hat.

Filled with the euphoric well-being that he knew as well as the hell that preceded it, Sylvester strolled down the stairs. There seemed to be no sign of his mother or his sister, he thought with guilty relief. With luck he'd be out of the house before they put in an appearance.

"Have my horse brought round, Foster."

"Yes, my lord."

"With all dispatch," he added, casting an involuntary glance over his shoulder at the stairs.

Foster bowed, that glimmer of unholy amusement in his eye again. "Certainly, my lord. And what should I tell her ladyship when she comes down?"

"Uh… uh… oh, that Lady Stoneridge and I had some very important business to conduct, but that we'll join them for nuncheon," Sylvester said.

"Quite so, my lord."

"So what do you think?" Theo made a slow turn in front of Edward.

Edward stared at this extraordinary vision. "It's shocking," he said slowly.

"Yes, isn't it?" Clarry agreed. "I couldn't believe it. Emily and I just sat there like dummies while Monsieur Charles snipped away and it all fell all over the floor, yards and yards of it."

"Oh, you exaggerate," Theo said. "There wasn't that much."

"There was," Emily said. "You've never cut it, not even an inch."

"Well, I have now," Theo declared with undeniable truth. "I know it's a shock, Edward, but do you like it?" She stood on tiptoe to peer at her reflection in the mirror above the mantelpiece.

"It's very sophisticated," Edward pronounced after a minute. "And you don't look at all like yourself."

"But is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Theo demanded impatiently. "/ like it. What do you think, Jonathan?"

Clarissa's beloved looked up from his easel, cast an abstracted eye in Theo's direction, and announced, "Clarissa must never do such a thing."

Theo raised her eyebrows, wondering if that was an answer to her question. If it was, it wasn't particularly encouraging, although judging from Clarissa's delicate flush, she had found the proscription thoroughly pleasing.

"Theo, Stoneridge has just ridden up," Emily said from the window, where she'd been gazing down onto the street.

"Ah," her sister said, coming to stand beside her at the window. Sylvester swung off Zeus, tossing the reins to an urchin who'd run up to him as soon as he'd drawn rein.

"This is going to be interesting," Theo murmured, her heart jumping with pleasure as she looked down at him, anticipating the feel of him beside her. Sylvester stood for a minute on the pavement, tapping his whip into the palm of one hand, before he strode rapidly up the steps to the front door.

Theo turned to face the parlor door, a tiny smile on her lips.

The door opened and Sylvester entered the room. Whatever he'd been about to say died at birth. He stared in disbelief at his wife. "What the devil have you done, Theo?" he demanded, once he got his breath back.

"Do you like it?" She tilted her head on one side, imps of mischief dancing in her eyes that seemed even larger than usual.

"Come here!"

"Do you like it?" she repeated.

"I said come here!"

Everyone but Theo jumped, and Clarissa flinched at this bellowed command. Theo obeyed with some alacrity.

He caught her chin, turning it from side to side to examine her profile. Then he turned her round and examined the back view. "I ought to wring your scrawny little neck," he declared finally.

"But you like my neck," she said with an air of injured innocence, turning back to face him. "Don't you think it's a sophisticated cut?"

"Yes," he said reluctantly. "But I've lost my gypsy." Theo was transformed. The raven's-wing hair now clustered in soft curls around the small head, glossy ringlets falling over her ears and wisping over her forehead. It gave an elfin look to the gamine features and accentuated the size and depth of her eyes in the most startling way.

"Oh, Theo." Elinor's shocked voice came suddenly from the open door behind them.

"My sentiments exactly, ma'am," Stoneridge said dryly. "Why would you do such a thing, Theo?"

"I've been meaning to for days," she said. "It is my hair, Sylvester. Mine to do with as I please."

"Did you sell it?" asked Rosie, who'd come in with Elinor.