Rogues, Rakes & Jewels

“Straightened out?” Jewels cocked a puzzled look his way. “Whatever can you mean?”

“Oh, yes, yes—Ryker will explain … very complicated. I would get it all muddled, and besides, he has to be here when he explains, you see … and oh, yes, that is it. He asked me to speak with you.”

She raised a brow. “Did he?”

“Yes, he said to tell you that you must not concern yourself—he will be back.” Robby smiled. “There … that’s it in a nutshell, for I can’t remember exactly what he said to tell you …” He leaned in a bit towards Jewels and confided quietly, “Was a bit in m’cups last night, you know.’

She smiled in spite of herself, for rather than alleviating her distress regarding Ryker’s sudden departure, his parting words served to incite her frazzled nerves into a temper.

“And why …” Jewels head was up high. “… should I be concerned about Ryker’s comings and goings?” She wanted to slap Ryker’s face for assuming she would be distressed at his departure. “Please do excuse me, my lord …” she said as nicely as she could and took the steps.

Robby watched her a moment and frowned before he said to her retreating back, “Precisely what I told him—why should Miss Henshaw be concerned … but he told me to …” He shook his head, as Jewelene was already at the top of the stairs and nearly out of sight. He shrugged his shoulders and strolled back into the breakfast room for another cup of coffee.

*

In the morning room, Ben Clay had managed finally to get Elizabeth alone since her mother was off visiting a neighbor.

Their heads were together as they conversed and laughed and conversed some more, and Elizabeth discovered the hope that Ben might feel as strongly about her as she did about him.

They heard Jewelene and Robby conversing at the head of the stairs, and then they heard Jewels as she scurried up the stairs to her bedroom, where she closed the door a bit harder than usual.

Elizabeth frowned. “Something has overset her … I should go and see what is wrong.”

“Yes, and I am due in Yarmouth. I should not have stayed with you so long … especially … alone.”

She smiled a soft smile at him. He was all things wonderful to her. He had a heart that was as big as he stood tall. She gave him her hand as she walked him to the front door, and he bent low over it, murmuring, “Elizabeth?”

And then their eyes met, and she thought she would faint from lack of oxygen.

“Until tomorrow, beloved …” he said on a husky note.

She watched him leave and held a hand to her heart. Beloved! It rang in her ears, it tingled her spirits, it breathed life into her being. Beloved! It was such an enormous word spoken by the man she adored. She turned and, with a sigh of utter joy, made her way to her cousin.

*

A knock sounded at Jewelene’s door. Although she was too blue-deviled to talk to anyone, when Elizabeth called her name, she sighed and replied, “Come in.”

Lizzie peeped around the door and then entered immediately, for she could see that her cousin had been crying. She went right to her, sat beside her on the bed, put a comforting arm around her, and waited for the floodgates to open—and they did.

All the while, Lizzie patted Jewels and comforted with unintelligible words, words that meant nothing more than ‘I am here’, and then she offered as Jewel’s sobs subsided, “Oh dearest, it will all work out in the end … life has a habit of turning one upside down, and then gravity rights us. You will see …”

“Gravity won’t help, Lizzie—he doesn’t love me!” wailed Jewels. “He doesn’t …”

Elizabeth blanched, because at that moment she could think of only one person Jewels was close enough to love romantically. “Ben?”

Jewels was distracted enough to stop crying. She sniffed and looked at Lizzie as though she had just grown another head. “Ben? Of course not … but that is another thing …”

“What is?” Lizzie was at sea.

“You and Ben, of course. We shall have to bring Aunt Dora about, but how is the question, when she so disapproves of his gaming house, and he must make a living after all …”

Lizzie blushed rosily and wondered how the subject had turned upon her own situation. “But … Ben and I … Ben …”

“Oh tush, Liz—did you think I would not know how you two feel about each other?” Jewels found her handkerchief and made a royal mess of it before balling it up, staring at her cousin, and put a wagging finger in her face. “One would have to be blind …” She sighed. “You two will do … it will be fine.” Jewels sniffed again.

“Then you are not in love with Ben? It is not Ben who has made you cry?” Elizabeth frowned as she racked her brain for an alternative.

Jewels looked at Elizabeth for a moment, eyes wide, and then released a hoot of laughter. “Me—in love with Ben? Why—Lizzie, Ben has been in my life for as long as I can remember and has been a big brother as though he had been born to the position. Silly goose …”