Gazing calmly at the moonlit fields, she calculated they had at least a forty-minute drive ahead of them. She waited patiently for the move she was sure would come and tried to marshal her resolve to deflectit. As the minutes ticked by, the damning knowledge slowly seeped into her consciousness that, if her guardian was to suddenly become afflicted with propriety and the journey was accomplished without incident, far from being relieved, she would feel let down, cheated of an eagerly anticipated treat. She frowned, recognizing her already racing pulse and the tense knot in her stomach that restricted her breathing for the symptoms they were. On the thought, she raised her eyes to the dark face before her.
He was watching the countryside slip by, the silvery light etching the planes of his face. As if feeling her gaze, he turned and his eyes met hers. For a moment, he read her thoughts and Caroline was visited by the dreadful certainty that he knew the truth she was struggling to hide. Then, a slow, infinitely wicked smile spread across his face. Caroline stopped breathing. He leaned forward. She expected him to take her hand and draw her to sit beside him. Instead, his strong hands slipped about her waist and, to her utter astonishment, he lifted her across and deposited her in a swirl of silks on his lap.
“Max!” she gasped.
“Sssh. You don’t want to wake Mrs. Afford. She’d have palpitations.”
Horrified, Caroline tried to get her feet to the ground, wriggling against the firm clasp about her waist. Almost immediately, Max’s voice sounded in her ear, in a tone quite different from any she had previously heard. “Sweetheart, unless you cease wriggling your delightful derriere in such an enticing fashion, this lesson is likely to go rather further than I had intended.”
Caroline froze. She held her breath, not daring to so much as twitch. Then Max’s voice, the raw tones of an instant before no longer in evidence, washed over her in warm approval. “Much better.”
She turned to face him, carefully keeping her hips still. She placed her hands on his chest in an effort,futile, she knew, to fend him off. “Max, this is madness. You must stop doing this!”
“Why? Don’t you like it?” His hands were moving gently on her back, his touch scorching through the thin silk of her gown.
Caroline ignored the sardonic lift of his black brows and the clear evidence in his eyes that he was laughing at her. She found it much harder to ignore the sensations his hands were drawing forth. Forcing her face into strongly disapproving Unes, she answered his first question, deeming it prudent to conveniently forget the second. “I’m your ward, remember? You know I am. You told me so yourself.”
“A fact you should strive to bear in mind, my dear.”
Caroline wondered what he meant by that. But Max’s mind, and hands, had shifted their focus of attention. As his hands closed over her breasts, Caroline nearly leapt to her feet. “Max!“
But, “Sssh,” was all her guardian said as his lips settled on hers.
CHAPTER NINE
The Twyford coach was also the scene of considerable activity, though of a different sort. Augusta, in sympathy with Mrs. Alford, quickly settled into a comfortable doze which the whisperings of the other occupants of the carriage did nothing to disturb. Lizzie, Sarah and Arabella, incensed by Amanda’s misfortune, spent some minutes giving vent to their feelings.
“It’s not as if Sir Ralph’s such a good catch, even,” Sarah commented.
“Certainly not,” agreed Lizzie with uncharacteristic sharpness. “It’s really too bad! Why, Mr. Minchbury is almost at the point of offering for her and he has a much bigger estate, besides being much more attractive. And Amanda likes him, what’s more.”
“Ah,” said Arabella, wagging her head sagely, “but he’s not been making up to Mrs. Crowbridge, has he? That woman must be all about in her head, to think of giving little Amanda to Keighly.”
“Well,” said Sarah decisively, “what are we going to do about it?”
Silence reigned for more than a mile as the sisters considered the possibilities. Arabella eventually spoke into the darkness. “I doubt we’d get far discussing matters with the Crowbridges.”
“Very true,” nodded Sarah. “And working on Amanda’s equally pointless. She’s too timid.”
“Which leaves Sir Ralph,” concluded Lizzie. After a pause, she went on: “I know we’re not precisely to his taste, but do you think you could do it, Bella?”
Arabella’s eyes narrowed as she considered Sir Ralph. Thanks to Hugo, she now had a fairly extensive understanding of the basic attraction between men and women. Sir Ralph was, after all, still a man. She shrugged. “Well, it’s worth a try. I really can’t see what else we can do.”
For the remainder of the journey, the sisters’ heads were together, hatching a plan.
———
Arabella started her campaign to steal Sir Ralph from Amanda the next evening, much to the delight of Amanda. When she was informed in a whispered aside of the Twinnings’ plan for her relief, Amanda’s eyes had grown round. Swearing to abide most faithfully by any instructions they might give her, she had managed to survive her obligatory two waltzes with Sir Ralph in high spirits, which Sarah later informed her was not at all helpful. Chastised, she begged pardon and remained by Sarah’s side as Arabella took to the floor with her intended.
As Sir Ralph had no real affection for Amanda, it took very little of Arabella’s practised flattery to make him increasingly turn his eyes her way. But, to the Twinnings’ consternation, their plan almost immediately developed a hitch.
Their guardian was not at all pleased to see Sir Ralph squiring Arabella. A message from him, delayed by both Caroline and Lady Benborough, to the effect that Arabella should watch her step, pulled Arabella up short. A hasty conference, convened in the withdrawing-room, agreed there was no possibility of gaining His Grace’s approval for their plan. Likewise, none of the three sisters had breathed a word of their scheme to Caroline, knowing that, despite her affection for them, there were limits to her forbearance.
“But we can’t just give up!” declared Lizzie in trenchant tones.
Arabella was nibbling the end of one finger. “No. We won’t give up. But we’ll have to reorganize. You two,” she said, looking at Sarah and Lizzie, quite ignoring Amanda and Alice who were also present, “are going to have to cover for me. That way, I won’t be obviously spending so much time with Sir Ralph, but he’ll still be thinking about me. You must tell Sir Ralph that our guardian disapproves but that, as I’m head over heels in love with him, I’m willing to go against the Duke’s wishes and continue to see him.” She frowned, pondering her scenario. “We’ll have to be careful not to paint our dear guardian in too strict colours. The story is that we’re sure he’ll eventually come around, when he sees how attached I am to Sir Ralph. Max knows I’m a flighty, flirtatious creature and so doubts of the strength of my affections. That should be believable enough.”
“All right,” Sarah nodded. “We’ll do the groundwork and you administer the coup de grace.”