Chapter NINETEEN
“I’ll make all the arrangements,” Garrett announced the next afternoon at Cass’s parents’ town house. The four friends were enjoying a lavish tea prepared by the Monroes’ cook in an attempt to lure Cass into eating something.
Cass had reluctantly come down to the drawing room to greet her friends, but she seemed entirely uninterested in anything on her plate. Cass’s parents had gone out to make some social calls and so the four of them were alone in the house with the servants.
Cass sighed. “I’m not certain it’s such a good idea.” Resting her chin in her hand, elbow propped upon the table, she pushed her biscuits and teacakes around her plate. She’d been doing so all afternoon and had yet to take a bite.
“Oh, but it is. I think it’s a brilliant idea. Don’t you, Jane?” Lucy kicked Jane, who sat next to her on the settee.
Jane barely glanced up from the newspaper she’d been reading. “Pardon? Yes. Yes. Brilliant!” She pushed up her spectacles on her nose and took a large bite of her own biscuit.
Lucy nodded. “See there, dear, everyone’s in agreement.”
Cass turned soulful blue eyes to Garrett. “It’s ever so nice of you to offer your house in Bath to us for the remainder of the summer, but I just don’t know that I should leave London right now. If Penelope receives another letter from Julian, I want to be here in town so I can learn the news right away. And there’s always the chance that he may write to me himself.”
Lucy patted Cass on the back. “But dear, you said yourself that Penelope and her mother are retiring to their country house for the rest of the summer soon. No one stays in London in August. We must go. The post will make it to Bath just as surely as it will make it to London. It’s even a bit closer to Penelope’s country house, is it not?”
Cass’s eyes brightened a bit. “I suppose that’s true.”
“It’s absolutely true,” Lucy said with a nod. Garrett quickly agreed.
“I, for one, am all for it. Any excuse to get away from my mother’s watchful eye,” Jane said. “I consider this the start to Lucy’s experiment to help me dissuade my parents from forcing me to marry.”
Garrett slapped a palm on the table. “The devil you say. Your parents are forcing you to marry? That’s news.”
“In theory,” Jane replied. “Aren’t all parents forcing their daughters to marry?”
“You make it sound as if you’re off to the gallows,” Garrett replied, rolling his eyes.
“It feels like it.” She smiled at him sweetly.
“In your case, if they’re forcing you, they obviously haven’t done a very good job at it,” Garrett added.
Jane closed her eyes and pushed up her nose. “That is because I have become quite adept at sidestepping their attempts. Well, that and the fact that no one wants to marry a bluestocking. That part is merely luck actually.” Jane laughed at her own joke.
“I’ve never known anyone so proud of being a bluestocking,” Garrett said, snapping his own bit of newspaper open in front of his face.
“And I’ve never known someone so proud of being a dissolute rake. Oh, and profligate gambler. Mustn’t forget that.”
Garrett allowed the edge of the paper to fold down so he could eye Jane over its top. “I gamble only upon occasion, and I’m hardly dissolute.”
“If you say so.” Jane went back to paying more attention to her teacake than to Garrett. “This trip to Bath is just what I need,” she continued. “Besides, I cannot wait to go to the circulating library there. It’s one of the best in the country.”
Garrett leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs at the ankles. He let out a long breath. “Of course you can’t wait. Take you to a holiday town and all you’re interested in is the library.”
Jane tapped the tip of her finger against the paper. “Careful, Upton, or I’ll wonder at your quarrel with libraries. Though I suppose it does help one’s attitude about such things if one is able to read.”
Garrett shook his head slowly in a long-suffering manner. “I’ve been to the circulating library in Bath many times, Miss Lowndes. In fact, I’m one of its most devoted patrons.”
This time Jane didn’t even glance up. “Yes. I’m certain they’re appreciative of your coming in to look up the remedy for a sick head after a night of too many cards and too much drinking.”
Lucy gave them both a warning look. “Would you two stop? We’re doing this for Cass, remember?”
“Yes, of course.” Garrett turned back to face their friend. “Just say the word, Cassandra, and I’ll make it happen.”
“I suppose Mama will be all right with it,” Cass said tentatively, taking a sip from her juice glass.
Lucy covered Cass’s hand with her own. “She will be, dear. Aunt Mary will be there with us so it’s all properly chaperoned. We’ll drink the waters at the Pump Room, take tea, go for a daily stroll along the Upper Crescent. You’ll see. You’ll feel better in no time.”
Cass gave her a weak smile.
“And the best part is,” Lucy added, pressing her lips together tightly, “we’ll be getting away from that odious Duke of Claringdon.”
Jane raised a brow. “And here I thought you’d got over your intense dislike of the duke, Lucy.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Lucy’s gaze fell to the tablecloth. She swallowed. She hadn’t told Cass about the kiss she’d shared with the duke. But the more vexing question was—why hadn’t she told Jane about it? Or Garrett? They all told one another everything. But something inside her, some inner hidden part, was embarrassed, shy even. And it was a singularly unpleasant and new experience. She’d never been shy a day in her life, and she certainly shouldn’t be shy about anything involving that blowhard the Duke of Claringdon. So why hadn’t she told them?
Very well. She would. Just as soon as they made it to Bath and safely away from that man. She would tell Jane and Garrett and they would all think of some way to dissuade him once and for all. Perhaps the time away in Bath would cool his ardor … for Cass. Surely, he would be leaving London soon for the lands and properties he’d been given as a part of his dukedom. Wouldn’t he?
Cass bit her lip. “I know I should be flattered by the duke’s attention but I just cannot be.”
“Of course you don’t have to be, dear.” Lucy patted her hand. “If you don’t like him, you don’t like him.” And if you don’t like him, why did you kiss him?
Cass nudged her biscuit again. “It’s not that I don’t like him, it’s just…”
They all knew what she wanted to say. He wasn’t Julian. It always came back to that.
“Oh, Lucy. You said he mentioned last night at the party that he intended to pay me another call today, didn’t you?” Cass asked.
Lucy swallowed. “Yes, that’s right.” Though she hadn’t mentioned any of the rest of her conversation—among other things—with the duke.
“Promise me you’ll stay with me today. When he comes to visit, I’ll need you.”
“Of course I promise, dear.” She didn’t relish the thought of being in the same room with him, but she couldn’t leave Cass to fend for herself with the blackguard.
“And I promise to leave immediately and secure our travel plans to Bath.” Garrett stood and made a sweeping bow in the general direction of all the ladies.
Lucy smiled brightly. “We’re going to Bath!”