“Not unless she was goaded,” Michael pointed out. “Caitlyn’s quick to take umbrage, so perhaps it was due to something Alexander MacLean said or did.”
Triona wrapped a pair of shoes in brown paper and placed them in the portmanteau. “Grandmother is forever telling us about the MacLean pride; sometimes I think she would do better to warn us about the Hurst pride. It is just as formidable.”
“Mam loves to talk about the MacLean curse,” Mary said with a delicious shiver. “An entire family, cursed to cause storms whenever they lose their tempers! Just imagine!”
William’s eyes twinkled as he curled his hands into claws and hunched his shoulders, saying in an old-woman brogue, “Don’t ye be forgettin’, me dearies, the MacLeans were cursed! Cursed, I tell ye, by the mysterious white witch. Now when they lose their tempers, the storms do fly!”
Everyone chuckled except Mary. “You shouldn’t mock Mam. She’s a very wise old woman. Father says half the village wouldn’t be alive if not for her knowledge of healing and herbs. Besides, who’s to say that there’s no such thing as a curse?”
“Father, for one,” Robert said. “He says it’s all nonsense. And as Mam is his mother, I’d think he’d know.”
Michael moved restlessly on the settee. “Whatever the truth about MacLean, he can’t be happy with Caitlyn making such a spectacle of him.”
“It sounds as if both Caitlyn and MacLean have been misbehaving. Fortunately, we are not responsible for MacLean.” Triona placed her portmanteau by the door, then gathered her cloak, scarf, and good bonnet. “I hear the carriage at the front door, and I daresay Nurse is waiting for me.”
Michael smiled sleepily. “Good luck, Triona. Remember, Father is due back a week from Friday.”
“Which is why I plan on being home at least two days before that, at the latest. Father will never be the wiser if we all”—she looked at Robert—“keep our mouths closed.”
“And if you don’t,” Mary said smugly, “I shall tell Father who spilled milk all over his favorite copy of The Odyssey.”
Robert started. “How did you know—” At Mary’s amused gaze, he colored.
“So either hold your tongue, or face Father’s wrath,” she warned.
Robert flung up a hand. “Fine! But if some ill comes of this trip, I will tell Father I attempted to warn Triona against it.”
Triona pulled a pair of old gloves from her cape pocket and put them on. “Oh, Robert, stop being so gloomy. Nothing ill will come of this. Besides, Father said I could visit London once he returned. You could say I’m only going earlier than planned.”
“Father wanted to escort you himself.”
“And so he shall—next time.” Triona glanced in the mirror and tucked a stray strand of hair into her bonnet. “Time to go.”
William bent to collect her portmanteau. “If I didn’t know that Mr. Olson would inform Father if I missed a tutoring appointment, I would go with you.”
Triona smiled at her brother. “It does my heart good to know that you’re willing to make such a sacrifice.”
William grinned. “It would be a grand lark.”
Triona laughed, then turned to Robert. “Stop glowering and give me a hug good-bye. I shall miss you!”
His stern expression softened and he complied.
Next was Michael. She bent and gave him an especially big hug. “Stay inside and make sure you take the medicine Dr. Felters left for you.”
Michael scrunched his nose, his brown eyes large in his thin face. “If I must.”
“You must.”
She looked at Mary, who hugged Triona and whispered, “I’ll keep an eye on Michael. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“Thank you.” Triona smiled at her younger sister and, with a grin, said loudly, “You’re in charge, Mary. Make sure William meets with his tutor, and Michael gets his medicine, and Robert doesn’t pour milk on any more books, and—”
Over the protests of her brothers, Mary laughed. “I will.”
“Excellent! Good-bye, my dears. I will return as soon as I have cooled Caitlyn’s spirits a bit.” Triona went downstairs, William following with her portmanteau.
Smiling, she greeted Nurse and continued to the carriage, her mind already leaping ahead to London. Despite her cheery words to her siblings, she couldn’t help but worry.
Triona’s earliest memory was of watching Caitlyn trying to climb the banister to slide down it, though they’d been expressly told not to. Later, her leg in a cast, Caitlyn had told Mother and Father she was glad she’d done it, because it’d been such fun.
Even at age five Caitlyn had been a handful, while Triona had dutifully gone about life, never giving her parents a moment’s fear. Her parents never knew how often Triona intervened to keep Caitlyn from falling into worse scrapes, either. Triona understood her twin sister better than most; she knew how Caitlyn’s restless spirit made her yearn for excitement. There was little Caitlyn loved better than the chaos that magically appeared everywhere she went. She didn’t exactly start it, but she rarely did anything to halt it once it began.
Triona, meanwhile, prized order above all things. And as the oldest, she was frequently called upon to provide exactly that for her many siblings. So rescuing Caitlyn now from yet another scrape was nothing new, and yet, somehow, Triona couldn’t shake the feeling that this time something was different.
Caitlyn, what are you into now?
Chapter 2
“Och, me lassies! Ye dinna know the trouble a man can be—especially one who ignores ye, no matter what ye do.”
OLD WOMAN NORA TO HER THREE WEE GRANDDAUGHTERS ON A COLD WINTER’S NIGHT
W hat do you mean, she’s eloped?”
Aunt Lavinia pressed a handkerchief to her trembling mouth. Seated on her overstuffed pink-fringed settee, her equally overstuffed figure encased in mulberry silk, her feet bulging over the edges of her black satin slippers, she looked as if she were about to pop.
“It’s tragic!” she wailed. “I went to Caitlyn’s room a little while ago and—I put her in the blue chamber, you know, as it has the prettiest views, and—”
“Aunt Lavinia, please.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry.” Aunt Lavinia’s eyes, usually a merry blue, filled with tears. “I went to see if Caitlyn preferred mutton or cold sliced beef for dinner. Cook has both, you know, for she always goes to the market on Wednesday, and—”
“Aunt Lavinia!” Triona silently counted to ten.
“Sorry, my dear. As I was saying, I went to her room and discovered”—Aunt Lavinia took a shaking breath—“she was gone!”
Triona waited. “And?”
Aunt Lavinia blinked, looking disappointed with this prosaic reaction. “Nothing more. She was just gone, and I have no idea where she might be, so I came here to repose with my smelling salts and try to think what to do.”
“And then?”
“I must have fallen asleep, for when I awoke, you were here.”
Nurse harrumphed her displeasure.
“But…how do you know she eloped? Couldn’t she just be out with friends?” Triona queried.
“Oh, no! I asked and no one had called for her. Nor did she take the coach, nor ask for a horse to be saddled—nothing!”
Triona mentally reviewed the many letters she’d received from Caitlyn over the last few weeks. “She loves shopping. Could she have gone to that milliner’s shop off St. James’s? Or perhaps to the British Museum? She loves the portrait hall.”
Aunt Lavinia sighed. “Oh, dear, I hadn’t thought of looking for her. I suppose I should have, but since the note said—”
“There’s a note?” Triona’s voice cracked on the last word.
Nurse made a noise between strangulation and disgust.
“Of course there’s a note,” Aunt Lavinia said, blinking her confusion. “How else could I know she’s eloped?”
“How else indeed,” Triona said through gritted teeth. “May I see the note, please?”
Au
nt Lavinia waved a plump hand bedecked with an astonishing assortment of rings toward the gilded escritoire in one corner of the crowded drawing room. “It’s over there somewhere. I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore! Ah, how ill your sister has used me! And after I was so generous as to sponsor her for a season! I wish you had been able to come with her, Triona. I’m sure you could have curbed your sister’s spirits!”
I would have at least tried. Triona managed a small smile. “Perhaps there’s a clue to her whereabouts in the note.” She crossed to the small desk, aware of an ache in her legs and back. They’d ridden to London with only the briefest stays in posting inns, sleeping on lumpy beds. The trip had taken more than two days, and every bounce of the carriage, every jolt over a poorly kept road, had rocked her and Nurse through and through. They were exhausted beyond thought, so arriving to find Caitlyn nowhere in sight was disappointing, to say the least.
Triona reached the small desk and saw, on a pile of notes and invitations, a folded paper bearing a familiar spidery script.
Dearest Aunt, Caitlyn’s excited scrawl read, forgive me, but by the time you read this, I will be gone. I can’t explain except to say that when I return, you will be very happy to see me and we shall laugh together at my foolishness.
Triona’s heart sank. Caitlyn seemed to think running off was nothing more than a lark. Had she sunk so low in good sense and behavior?
Rest assured that when I return, all will be well. Caitlyn had underscored “well” so heavily that she’d torn the paper. Until then, yrs etc, Miss Caitlyn Hurst.
The “Miss” was underscored as well. Was that because when she returned, she would no longer be a “Miss”?
Triona handed the note to Nurse, who glanced through it before saying sourly, “It doesna say where she is, but it also doesna say where she’s not.”
Aunt Lavinia moaned and waved the smelling salts beneath her nose.
“We’re too late,” Nurse added. “Miss Caitlyn’s gone and ruined hersel—”
“Don’t say it!” Triona’s stomach roiled at the thought. “We must find her before any real damage has been done. Where is Uncle Bedford? He’ll know what to do in this situation.”
Aunt Lavinia sniffed noisily. “He’s at White’s. I sent a message, but I vow those doormen hold on to notes from wives so the men will stay and spend more funds on—”
“Fine. We’ll start the search ourselves. How long has Caitlyn been gone?”
The older woman looked at the small ormolu clock on the mantel. “Two hours.”
Triona relaxed. “Only two hours? That’s not so long!”
“We ate a late lunch and had a pleasant discussion about her latest plan before she went up to take a nap.”
“Plan?”
“Oh, yes. I told her it was chancy beyond words—it never would have worked.”
Triona sat on the settee and took her aunt’s plump hand between her own. It took a good deal of self-control not to smack it. “Aunt Lavinia, if we’re to find Caitlyn, you must tell us about this plan. What was she trying to do?”
“Why, to trick Alexander MacLean into proposing marriage, of course!”
Triona opened her mouth and then closed it.
Aunt Lavinia nodded, her soft brown curls bouncing under her lace cap. “I must have looked just as shocked as you when she first told me. But then she explained it was because of a wager MacLean made her, that no matter what, he would never offer her marriage.”
“All of this for a wager?”
“She doesn’t like to lose, as you know.” Aunt Lavinia sighed heavily. “I vow, having your sister here has been an amazing amount of work. The house is never quiet, and people are forever coming and going. And don’t get me started on the flowers! The bell never stops ringing and has quite destroyed my nerves, and—”
“Aunt Lavinia, about this wager?”
“I was getting to that.” Aunt Lavinia glanced at the open door before she leaned forward and said in a loud whisper, “Your sister wanted to learn when MacLean was leaving town, so she could hide in the seat locker of his carriage.”
“What?”
“Ha! That’s exactly what I said! Once they were well under way, she was going to pop out of the seat box and surprise him. If she stayed hidden until he was so far away that he could not return her before nightfall, her reputation would be ruined and MacLean would have to propose to her, and then she’d win the wager.”
Triona gaped. “Aunt Lavinia, pray tell me that you urged her not to do anything so scandalous!”
Nurse snorted.
Aunt Lavinia cast an uneasy glance at Nurse before saying, “Of course I did. Although I must say that, as plans go, it was a very good one.” She suddenly giggled. “Can you imagine Alexander MacLean’s surprise when he found Caitlyn in his seat box? Lud, we had such a merry time discussing how shocked he would be. He’s such a proud man that—”
“Lord, save me fra’ the fools o’ the earth!” Nurse exploded.
Aunt Lavinia flushed. “I never thought she’d actually do it!”
Nurse turned to Triona. “Yer sister’s been an impulsive one since she were a bairn. What I dinna understand is how she thinks this mad plan o’ hers will work. MacLean could just send her back to London on the mail coach and continue on his way.”
“Oh, no,” Aunt Lavinia said in a voice of surety. “If there is one thing the MacLeans are, it’s honorable. But…Caitlyn didn’t plan on accepting his offer of marriage. She just wanted to win the wager.”
“But she’d be ruined!”
“I did point that out, but Caitlyn was sure she could keep everything quiet. I told her to be sure she did, for she’s been invited to the Devonshires’ rout and those invitations are very hard to come by.”
Nurse harrumphed. “That’s madness, ’tis!”
Triona agreed. Not only did it show a distressing lack of propriety, but Caitlyn obviously had not thought her plan through. Besides thinking she could keep her hijinx a secret, she hadn’t considered the logistics. Though some carriages had storage beneath the seats for blankets and cushions and warming pans, even in the most luxurious carriage the space was quite small. Triona shuddered to think of being trapped in such a place.
Nurse shook her head. “Caitlyn will come to a bad end this time, mark my words. Ye dinna play with fire an’ no’ expect to get singed.”
Aunt Lavinia’s plump face folded with disapproval. “I can understand Caitlyn’s behavior completely.” At Triona’s surprised look, she continued, “You would, too, if you’d seen how rude Alexander MacLean has been to her since she arrived. And she the belle of the season, too!”
Triona sighed. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Caitlyn was ever ready to rise to a challenge, real or not. “I thought she’d be so busy enjoying the season that she’d stay out of trouble.”
Aunt Lavinia brightened. “We’ve been inundated with invitations! Dukes and earls and viscounts and barons—everyone wants to be seen with your sister. Beau Brummel himself walked with her the length of Bond Street and called her ‘charming’!”
There were no words to describe the rapture on Aunt Lavinia’s plump face; her aunt had clearly been living vicariously through Caitlyn’s successes, Triona realized. “Even Brummel’s good word will not be enough to save my sister if she’s ruined herself.”
Aunt Lavinia’s smile faded. “I suppose not. Things were going so well before Alexander MacLean arrived in town. Your sister hasn’t been the same since.”
“What did he do?”
“He took her into instant dislike when they first met in Hyde Park! Her horse got away with her—she would ride your uncle Bedford’s prize mare, though Caitlyn is just learning—”
“So she met Lord MacLean and he wasn’t impressed.”
“It was more than that. He barely acknowledged her, and told several people—horrible gossips, all—that despite her beauty, he thought she had no character.”
Triona frowned. “How rude.”<
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“Exactly!” Aunt Lavinia said eagerly. “Then his brother Hugh came to town, and things got worse. Where Alexander was cool, Hugh was frigidly cold, not acknowledging her at all.”
“He cut her?”
“Yes! People began to talk, and then laugh. Naturally Caitlyn couldn’t stand for that! I told her to pay him no mind, for he’s always cold to women.” Aunt Lavinia glanced at the open door again before saying sotto voce, “Hugh MacLean has no regard for females at all. They say he has over a dozen illegitimate children!”
Nurse clacked her tongue. “That’s the MacLeans fer ye. Cursed they are, and the devil’s own way with women.”
Aunt Lavinia eyed Nurse with a cautious eye. “So it seems. Anyway, Caitlyn was infuriated and foolishly allowed it to show, which made Alexander laugh openly at her, and they had words about it—at one of the biggest balls of the season! Both of them said things they shouldn’t have, and then he told everyone he knew that she couldn’t attach him if she tried.”
“Good Lord! Caitlyn wouldn’t take that very well.”
“No woman would,” Aunt Lavinia said hotly. “Naturally she had to retaliate, so she wagered that she could bring him to his knees—literally.”
“Did you try to talk her out of such a silly notion?”
Aunt Lavinia sniffed. “I told her to be discreet, though the child was well within her rights to demand satisfaction.”
Wonderful. Just when Caitlyn had needed a calm, logical head to guide her impulsive thoughts, she’d received outraged encouragement.
Still, Caitlyn’s actions seemed extreme—even for Caitlyn. Triona frowned. “Aunt Lavinia, Caitlyn’s not in love with Alexander MacLean, is she?”
Aunt Lavinia blinked. “Lud, no! She bristles every time he’s near.”
“Sounds like love to me,” Nurse said glumly.
“Oh, no, not at all. It’s just foolish pride.”
Triona sighed. “I wish I could speak with her. I’d be worried about that note, but from what you say, so long as MacLean hasn’t left town, she’s still here in London and there’s no need to worry.”