Free The Danbury Scandals by Mary Nichols Page B

stranger. I had seen him before, several times.’
    ‘Where and
when?’
    She told him
everything, including her doubts, finishing, ‘I am sorry, my lord, I should
have come to you before, but I could not see that he was doing any harm. I
still don’t think so.’
    ‘Mark saw him
in the village too?’
    She nodded.
    ‘That might
account for his anger, don’t you think? It was not just last night’s
indiscretion he objected to, was it?’
    ‘I suppose not,
but he had no right to challenge the man like that.’
    ‘Come,
Maryanne, you are part of our family and Mark is very fond of you, as I am; he
was only protecting you. Thank goodness no one else saw you and he was able to
cover up your absence.’
    ‘I am grateful
to him, of course, but if there had been a duel, as Mark wanted, it would have been
all over London.’
    ‘Yes, it would
seem the young man had more sense than Mark on that score. You know his name?’
    ‘At first he
said it was Jack Daw.’ She watched his mouth twitch in a smile. ‘Oh, I am sure
that is not his real name. Lady Markham called him Saint-Pierre...’
    ‘Saint-Pierre!’
His lordship almost dropped the cup of coffee which, at that moment, he was
carrying to his lips. He set it down hurriedly. His face had gone very white
and his hands shook a little, but his eyes were bright - with what? Fear? Hope?
Anger? She could not tell. ‘Where did he come from?’
    Why had his
lordship not heard the name before? she asked herself. But then, she reasoned,
he did not often listen to gossip, nor had he been present when Lady Markham
had introduced them. And last night Mark had referred to Adam as ‘that damned
Frenchman’.
    ‘I don’t know,’
she said. ‘No one seems to know; he just appeared. I believe he is French, but
he speak English very well.’
    ‘It can’t be,’
his lordship murmured. ‘They are all dead.’
    ‘My lord?’
    He seemed to
shake himself. ‘‘Tis nothing. Where is he staying in London?’
    ‘I have no
idea, but surely he will not stay in town after refusing a challenge? Not that
I am sorry about that, I could not bear it if either of them were to risk arrest
or be hurt on account of me. Please don’t try to find him. I beg you, let
sleeping dogs lie.’
    ‘Let sleeping
dogs lie,’ he repeated softly. ‘Can it be that easy?’
    ‘I don’t
understand, my lord.’
    He seemed to
pull himself out of a daydream to answer her. ‘No, of course you don’t. Now, we
will say no more about the matter; there is no need for anyone outside the
family to know about it. It is an indiscretion I am sure you will not repeat;
isn’t that so?’
    ‘Yes, my lord.’
    She would not
repeat it, could not because she was sure the opportunity would not arise
again. If Adam had any sense, he would leave the country, go back home to
France and forget whatever it was that had brought him to England. But he had
left her emotions in a tangle and the more she tried to straighten them out,
the more confused she became. Had she really wanted a complete stranger to kiss
her like that? In the cold light of day and facing this gentle man who had
loved her and befriended her all her life, even if she had not known of it, she
could only look back in horror at her own weakness and stupidity. It must be,
as Caroline so often said, that she did not know how to go on in a society
which allowed flirting so long as it was conducted in the prescribed manner. It
was looked on as a kind of game, but only for those who knew the rules, not
young unmarried ladies at their first coming out.
    Her confusion
was not helped by Lord Danbury’s reaction on learning the man’s name. It had,
for a moment, thrown him off balance, and sent him into another time, another
place, and confirmed her suspicions that it was the Danbury family and perhaps
his lordship in particular who were the objects of the Frenchman’s curiosity.
Or was it more than curiosity? Hatred perhaps? She had no answer to that and now
she