Free The Ruby Pendant by Mary Nichols Page B

from him.
    They returned
to the picnic spot without exchanging another word. Juliette retrieved her
shawl from her mother and returned the coat with a polite 'Thank-you.'   The servants packed up the napery, the
cutlery and the empty dishes and set off in the town coach back to London.
    The cricket bat
and ball were retrieved from under the tree where they had been discarded;
coats, bonnets and hats were donned, shawls and reticules gathered up and
everyone climbed into their carriages or saddles for the return journey.
    Juliette,
sitting beside her mama in the barouche, found herself watching the straight
back of Philip Devonshire as he rode alongside, with a huge feeling of loss.
Her stomach was tied into a hard knot of discomfort, which she could not
persuade herself was anything to do with eating on the ground. It was made up
of disappointment and not a little anger that she should have allowed herself
to believe that he was interested in her. His interest in her was no more than
his way of executing the task her father had set him, to keep an eye on her.
Well, he need not bother!
    As the
cavalcade drew up at the junction of Park Lane and Mount Street from where
everyone would disperse to their homes, she noticed James had remained demurely
with them the whole way. Perversely she smiled at him and he jumped down from
his phaeton and strode over to her.
    `Miss
Martindale, a successful outing, do you not agree?'
    `Yes, indeed.'
    `Perhaps you
would consider a ride in the phaeton. I would drive very carefully, I promise
you.'
    `If Mama
consented, then I should like that,' she said, favouring him with a dazzling
smile, which Mr Devonshire was meant to see.
    `Then may I
call for you tomorrow afternoon? We could take a turn in the park, very
sedately, of course.'
    `Mama?' She
turned to her mother. Lady Martindale appeared to be daydreaming. Hearing
Juliette's voice she pulled herself together.
    `Yes, yes, but
I think Thomas should ride alongside.'
    There was no
room in the phaeton for three people and agreeing to ride with a gentleman,
even on a crowded carriageway where everyone could see them, almost constituted
a declaration. It was not exactly an offer but it would be tacitly assumed that
one was inevitable and would be accepted. Juliette was aware of this and she
had no idea why she let it happen. Thomas's presence on the cob would be no
more than a fop to convention. It was folly to agree, but Mr Devonshire had
just dismounted and was standing beside the carriage watching them, and she
certainly did not want him to think he had upset her. It was an act of
defiance, of self-defence.
    `I shall expect
you at two o'clock,' she told James, then turned to bid Philip Devonshire
goodbye in the coolest voice she could manage, a gesture which apparently left
him unruffled but caused a smirk of satisfaction on James's face.
     
    James arrived with the phaeton in good time the following
afternoon, boyishly eager, and in less than fifteen minutes they had turned in
at the park gates. Juliette felt quite regal sitting in the phaeton high above
everyone else; though the ride was not exactly comfortable, it was invigorating
and James was at his charming best, keeping the horses to a walk and bowing and
smiling to everyone they met.
    `I am the envy
of the ton today,' he said, turning to look at her. She was dressed in a gown
that had a powder-blue bodice of jaconet and a skirt of white muslin over a
blue silk slip. A little jacket of matching blue velvet and a bonnet whose
underbrim was trimmed with tiny blue flowers, set off her pale complexion and
silvery hair to perfection. Beneath her silk parasol she looked like a goddess.
    `Thank you.'
    `Would you care
to drive?'
    Juliette, who
had been wondering if she dare ask him to let her take over the ribbons, turned
to face him, her eagerness undisguised. `Oh, may I?'
    `Naturally, you
may.' She closed her parasol and laid it on the seat beside her. He handed over
the reins, though he kept his