Once and Always (Sequels 1)

“In a way, he is right,” Caroline remarked, her expression faintly puzzled, “but he is going to a deal of trouble just to keep the gentlemen from pressing offers on you.”

Victoria stared thoughtfully at the neat beds of daffodils blooming beside the path. “I know that, and I’ve wondered about it. Uncle Charles is fond of me, and I sometimes have the feeling he still harbors the hope Lord Fielding and I might eventually wed if Andrew doesn’t come for me.”

Concern clouded Caroline’s gray eyes. “Do you think there’s such a chance?”

“None at all,” Victoria said with smiling earnest.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Caroline sat back against the squabs. “Good. I should worry about you if you married Lord Fielding.”

“Why?” Victoria asked, her curiosity thoroughly aroused.

“I wish I hadn’t said that,” Caroline murmured miserably, “but since I have, I suppose I ought to tell you. If your Andrew doesn’t come for you, you ought to know what sort of man Lord Fielding really is. There are drawing rooms where he is admitted but not really welcome. . . .”

“Whyever not?”

“For one thing, there was some sort of scandal four years ago. I don’t know the details because I was too young at the time to be privy to any really scandalous gossip. Last week, I asked my husband to tell me, but he is a friend of Lord Fielding’s and he won’t talk about it. He says it was all trumped-up nonsense circulated by a spiteful woman, and he forbade me to ask anyone else because he said it would stir up the old gossip again.”

“Miss Flossie says the ton is always on fire with some sort of gossip and that most of it is flummery,” Victoria commented. “Whatever it was, I’m certain to hear all about it in the next few weeks.”

“You won’t,” Caroline predicted emphatically. “In the first place, you are a young, unmarried female, so no one will tell you anything even slightly scandalous for fear of offending your sensibilities or sending you into a swoon. Secondly, people gossip about others, but they rarely tell their tales to the people involved. It is the nature of gossip to be carried on behind the backs of those most intimately concerned in the story.”

“Where it does the most damage and provides the most titillation,” Victoria agreed. “Gossip was not unknown in Portage, New York, you know, and it was mostly flummery there, too.”

“Perhaps, but there’s more I wish to warn you about,” Caroline continued, looking guilty but determined to protect her friend. “Because of his rank and his fortune, Lord Fielding is still considered a splendid catch, and there are a great many ladies who also find him extremely handsome. For those three reasons, they’ve hung out for him. However, he hasn’t been at all nice in his treatment of them. In fact, there’ve been times he’s been positively rude! Victoria,” she concluded in a tone of the direst condemnation, “Lord Fielding is not a gentleman.”

She waited for some reaction from her friend, but when Victoria merely looked at her as if that defect in Lord Fielding’s character was no more significant than a wrinkled neckcloth, Caroline sighed and plunged ahead. “The men are nearly as afraid of him as many of the ladies are, not only because he’s so very cold and aloof, but because there’ve been rumors about his duels in India. They say he’s fought dozens of them and killed his opponents in cold blood, without a flicker of emotion or regret—they say he’ll challenge a man to a duel for the most minor offense—”

“I don’t believe that,” Victoria put in with unconscious loyalty to Jason.

“You may not, but others do, and people are afraid of him.”

“Do they ostracize him, then?”

“Just the opposite,” Caroline said. “They positively pander to him. No one would dare give him the cut direct.”

Victoria looked at her incredulously. “Surely everyone who knows him isn’t afraid of him?”

“Almost everyone. Robert genuinely likes him and he laughs when I say there is something sinister about Lord Fielding. However, I once heard Robert’s mother tell a group of her friends that Lord Fielding is wicked, that he uses women and then discards them.”

“He can’t be as bad as all that. You said yourself he is considered a splendid catch—”

“Actually, he’s rated the best catch in England.”

“There, you see! If people thought he was as terrible as you think they do, no young lady, nor her mama, would ever seek marriage to him.”

Caroline snorted indelicately. “For a dukedom and a magnificent fortune, there are those who would marry Bluebeard!”

When Victoria merely chuckled, Caroline’s face clouded with confusion. “Victoria, doesn’t he seem strange and frightening to you?”

Victoria carefully considered the answer to that as the driver turned their carriage back toward Jason’s townhouse. She remembered the biting lash of Jason’s tongue when she first arrived at Wakefield and his awesome anger when he caught her swimming in the creek. She also remembered the way he had smoothly outcheated her at cards, consoled her the night she cried, and laughed at her attempt to milk the cow. She also remembered the way he had held her close against his body and kissed her with fierce, demanding tenderness, but she immediately cast that recollection out of her mind.

“Lord Fielding’s temper is quick,” she began slowly, “but I have noticed that he is soon over his anger and willing to let bygones be bygones. I am much like him in that respect, although I don’t become angry as easily as he does. And he didn’t challenge me to a duel when I threatened to shoot him,” she added humorously, “so I cannot believe he is so very eager to shoot people. If you asked me to describe him,” Victoria concluded, “I would probably say that he is an exceedingly generous man who might even be gentle underneath his—”

“You’re joking!”

Victoria shook her head, trying to explain. “I see him differently than you do. I try to see people as my father taught me I should.”

“Did he teach you to be blind to their faults?” Caroline asked desperately.

“Not at all. But he was a physician who taught me to look for causes of things, not merely symptoms. Because of that, whenever someone behaves oddly, I start wondering why they are doing so, and there is always a reason. For example, have you ever noticed that when people don’t feel well, they are frequently ill-tempered?”