His Christmas Countess

‘I have no demands. I needed to know what Henry was doing—I haven’t seen him for a year. I’ll stop him, I swear. I’ll do everything I can to stop him.’

‘Do you take me for a fool, my dear?’ He turned to face her fully, his voice a snarl of frustrated fury now. ‘Do you think because I sampled your very rustic charms that I can be cock-led into another compromising situation? Have you any idea what life is like lived at the toleration of a Bible-thumping old bigot who doles out his money like drops of his own blood, always alert for any moral lapse that can be the excuse for a sermon or for withholding funds?’

‘No, but—’

He caught her wrist, jerked her towards him. ‘There are many reasons why I do not drag you down to the nearest magistrate’s office this minute, but there are equally many, many reasons why you should be very afraid of me, my dear. Very afraid indeed.’

Over his shoulder she could see Jeannie, her face a picture of anxiety and indecision. Stay there, do not try to help. Stay there, she tried to signal.

Then he was jerked away from her. The wooden box fell to the ground and burst open, two duelling pistols fell out on to the grass, exquisite death glinting in the winter sunshine.

‘Take your hands off my wife before I break all your fingers,’ Grant said pleasantly, his own hands fisted in the lapels of Lord Baybrook’s elegant coat. ‘You’ll need them to fire one of those pretty toys you’ve just dropped.’

For a long moment they stared into each other’s eyes, almost nose to nose, two male stags in their prime locking antlers over a female. Then, when Kate thought she would burst with the tension, Jonathan stepped back, hands raised in the fencer’s signal of yielding.

‘Your wife? Allundale, is it not? I am Baybrook. My apologies, I had no idea. In fact, I had misread the situation totally. The lady asked me something and I thought—forgive me, madam—that she was...well, not to beat about the bush, I completely misunderstood her status. I could see no one with her. I was deep in thought and most unfortunately leapt to the conclusion that she was...er...importuning me.’

‘Lady Allundale?’ Grant’s rigid formality failed utterly to veil the fury in his eyes.

He’ll kill him, Kate thought. If he has the slightest idea what is happening... Jeannie, thank heavens, was keeping her distance, had turned away from the three of them so the child in her arms was not visible.

‘It was, as the gentleman says, a misunderstanding. I was cutting across to the path, stumbled and caught at his arm and must have blurted out some words of apology. When he spoke to me I was confused, I did not realise what he thought and then when I did I was agitated, which made things worse... Jeannie had fallen behind, so I appeared to be unescorted.’ She managed a tight social smile for Jonathan. ‘Sir, it was entirely my fault. I am quite unused to London.’

He was a quick thinker, she had to hand it to him. And a brilliant actor. He was all contrition, all elegant apologies, and Grant was left with no option but to accept them. He bowed, the merest inclination of his head, and offered Kate his arm. Jonathan bowed in his turn, picked up the pistols and strode off towards the Queen’s Walk.

‘Did he hurt you?’ Grant demanded the moment they were alone. She shook her head and saw him relax a little. ‘And what the devil was Jeannie playing at? Well?’ he demanded as the maid hurried up to them. ‘When you escort your mistress your duty is to stay with her, not stroll about like a moonling.’

‘Anna has been very fretful,’ Kate said hastily. ‘I expect that is what held you up, Jeannie.’

‘Yes, my lady, and then when I saw the gentleman, I didn’t know what to do. Not when I had Lady Anna, because I thought he would frighten her.’

‘Very well. Where is the carriage?’

‘Waiting near the palace, my lord, at the end of the Queen’s Walk.’ Jeannie gave Kate the tiniest of nods.

‘I’ll go back with you in that case. I was walking back from the Palace of Westminster across the parks. Fortunately.’

‘Yes, wasn’t it.’ Kate clung to his arm and hoped he would attribute her shakiness to the after-effects of the encounter with Jonathan and not shock at his own appearance combined with a hideously guilty conscience. ‘That gentleman was not a friend of yours, then?’

‘The Viscount of Baybrook? No. I’ve hardly ever seen him that close to. The man was a gazetted rake, and a wild one at that, before his marriage. I never ran in those circles, even when I was sowing my own wild oats—the gambling was too deep for me, for one thing, and I dislike being sodden with drink half the time. Now his father-in-law holds the purse strings so tight that Baybrook hardly dares sneeze without permission, by all accounts.’ They walked on in silence until they were almost at the gravelled walk bordering the high walls of the fine houses that overlooked Green Park. Grant’s fingers stroked reassuringly over hers and gradually her breathing calmed.