Simply Scandalous Read online

  "Give me that!" Swale snatched the little green box and threw it as hard as he could.

  It arced across the sky, sparkling in the sunlight, green and gold, and then it was gone, vanishing beneath the surface of the lake like the mighty sword Excalibur.

  Horatio screamed as though Excalibur had been driven through his body and, in the next moment, he dove into the lake after the Regent's gift.

  "Pompous ass," Swale muttered, hurrying over to Serena. In one easy movement, he swept her off her feet into his arms. "You're better off without him, you know. Coming, Julie?"

  Julie threw up her hands. "I'll get her ladyship's shoes and hat!"

  As she scooped them up, she saw Horatio break the surface of the water and then dive back down, almost as if he were trying to rescue a drowning child.

  "If you want him, Julie," Swale jeered, swinging around with Serena in his arms, "go and fish him out!"

  "I really am quite able to walk, my lord," Serena murmured in embarrassment as Swale carried her up the path.

  "Nonsense," he replied. "You are light as a feather. Not like some people-eh, Julie?"

  Juliet trudged behind them, rolling her eyes.

  "You saved my life, my lord," she heard Serena say.

  "You were very fortunate I happened to be there," Swale replied. "I was looking for Julie, and I thought you were her. Not that you bear the least resemblance to Julie, but from a distance, any two females bear certain-er-charming similarities. Up close, of course, there is no mistaking you for Julie. I saw you take off your hat and your shoes, and I asked myself, What the devil is Julie up to now? Thought you might be gathering more newts." This last remark he tossed over his shoulder to Juliet. "I was going to advise against it. Then you went in," he went on to Serena. "It must have been deeper than you thought, old girl. You sank like a stone. Fortunately, I got to you in time."

  "Yes, very fortunate, my lord," Serena whispered. "I am so grateful to you. When I think that I might be dead right now ... when my sister is in such a fragile state ... Miss Wayborn!" Blindly, she stretched out her hands to Juliet "Please do not alarm my sister with reports of my accident."

  "Of course not," said Juliet.

  "They will be so worried about me at Silvercombe. You see, I left without telling anyone where I was going. I did not mean to go so far ..."

  "I shall send a message at once," said Juliet, increasing her pace. "And as soon as you are dry, Benedict will send you home in his carriage. Your sister need not be alarmed at all."

  "Thank you, Miss Wayborn. My lord, I think you must put me down now. I don't wish Sir Benedict's servants to see me like this. I assure you I can walk."

  Juliet put the lady's slippers on her feet, and Swale reluctantly set her down. He would have kept his arm around the lady's waist, but Juliet took this office upon herself, handing him Serena's hat instead. "You're very kind, Miss Wayborn," Serena murmured.

  As they entered the garden near the terrace, servants came out of the house to help. Juliet was informed that Sir Benedict wanted her to appear before him in his study the instant she returned to the house. It was not an interview she anticipated with any pleasure.

  Swale answered for her. "Please inform Sir Benedict that Lady Serena has met with a slight accident in his lake and that Miss Wayborn and I will attend him as soon as she is made comfortable." He cast a sidelong glance at Juliet. "Agincourt?"

  She nodded, and he barked out the order to make Agincourt ready for Serena.

  Juliet ran to her own room and brought her best nightdress and dressing gown for Serena to wear while her clothes dried. Benedict found her in the hall.

  "Not now, Benedict! Serena needs my attention."

  "Yes, what has happened?" he demanded. "Is she injured? Shall I send for the doctor?"

  "She walked here under her own power," Juliet replied. "She is in danger of catching cold-I will know better her condition when she is warm and dry. She fell into the lake and was nearly drowned."

  "Good Lord," breathed Benedict, deeply distressed. "I must know the exact spot where she fell in! There should be no place near the bank where the water is deep enough to be a danger."

  "Lord Swale saved her," said Juliet quickly. "You must not blame yourself, Benedict! I believe there has been no permanent harm. I must go to her now."

  "Of course," said Benedict. "I would not detain you. But when she is comfortable, you will come to me in my study. I must speak to you on a very important matter."

  Juliet nodded. 'Will you send word to Silvercombe and, without alarming Lady Redfylde, let them know that Lady Serena is in our care?"

  "Of course."

  In Agincourt, Swale had taken the coal scuttle from the maidservant and was building the fire himself. "Out," Juliet told him. "Betsy can certainly manage, and it is of the utmost importance that Serena change out of her wet clothes as soon as possible."

  "You are in very good hands," Swale told Serena before closing the door.

  As Betsy started a good blaze in the hearth, Juliet helped Serena peel off her damp muslin and put on the nightdress and quilted robe she had brought from her room. Overriding the lady's protests, she made her climb into the big red and gold bed and pulled the heavy coverlet up to her chin. "Sir Benedict will never forgive himself if you catch cold, you know. He is already threatening to send to the doctor."

  She dismissed the servant and found a towel to dry Serena's long, dark hair.

  "The tea will be here soon," she said gently, "and a little brandy."

  "You're very good. I'm sure I don't deserve it." Serena's violet eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Miss Wayborn, can you ever forgive me?"

  Juliet stiffened. "I am sure I was quite as horrid to you as you have been to me," she said guiltily. "I never liked you. You know that."

  "But you were right not to like me," said Serena. "I never cared for your brother at all. I only wanted to hurt Horatio. Is Mr. Wayborn's heart very much broken?"

  "His heart. . ."Juliet scoffed. "Cary doesn't really have a heart, you know. His pride was hurt, but he's much more worried about his arm than his heart, I promise you."

  Serena grimaced. "Yes, I've never really been able to give a man a lasting passion for me." Her face crumpled, and she began to sob.

  Juliet could not help but feel sorry for her. It must be bitter indeed to be jilted not merely once but twice within six months! Seating herself on the bed, she began brushing out Serena's hair in an attempt to soothe her. "You did not really fall into the lake, did you?" she asked gently.

  Serena turned her face away. "Please do not tell anyone, Miss Wayborn. I'm so ashamed. How selfish of me! I thought only of my own misery. My death almost certainly would have caused my poor sister to miscarry. And I never considered that Sir Benedict would feel responsible if I-if I died on his property. I only knew that I was wretched! In my despair, it seemed the only way to end my suffering."

  Juliet listened silently.

  "I knew that Horatio was returning today to hear your answer. I did not mean to come here, but somehow, I found myself at the lake ...

  "How did you know that? "Juliet asked curiously. "I told no one he had proposed to me."

  "He told me so himself when he came to Silvercombe to pay his respects."

  "Insufferable conceit! "Juliet declared stoutly. "Why, he visited Silvercombe before he solicited my hand! "

  "He gave me to understand you were very eager to accept him, Miss Wayborn, particularly after being scorned by everyone in the village. He thought you would accept him gratefully."

  "He may have come to hear my answer," Juliet said dryly, "but I promise you, he did not listen to it! I never meant to accept him, and I would have told him so three days ago, but he begged me-insisted-that I take the time to consider the matter very carefully."

  Serena wiped her eyes. "And are you seriously contemplating a marriage with Lord Swale?"

  Juliet stiffened. "Yes, I am. We are very deeply in love, and if you do not love him-and I suspe
ct you don't-I insist that you break your engagement to him at once! "

  "Miss Wayborn, I am not engaged to Lord Swale," Serena replied with an expression of astonishment.

  "Of course you are," said Juliet. "He came to Surrey for the express purpose of making himself agreeable to you."

  "Then he has failed rather spectacularly!" said Serena with an abrupt laugh. "I can think of no one I have ever met in my life who is less agreeable, except, of course, Horatio."

  "Don't you like him at all?" cried Juliet, her own partiality for Swale making Serena's indifference difficult to accept.

  "Lord Swale smells of cheese," said Serena. "And he's so clumsy-! Yesterday, when we were walking to the village, he kicked me some eleven times!" She became increasingly animated as she recalled the experience. "Kicked my shoe from my foot and then had the gall to pretend Iwas the clumsy one! And he would insist that I was some sort of weakling-that I could scarcely walk without his assistance. Assistance, he called it! Shoving me along the path with his beastly hand at the small of my back. I grew sick to death hearing myself compared so unfavorably to yourself. Miss Wayborn could walk to Scotland without so much as a blister on her toe! Miss Wayborn is so brown and healthy! Forgive me, but how I hated Miss Wayborn!"

  "Please call me Juliet," said the delighted young lady.

  "As I knew-as I thought-you were shortly to become engaged to Horatio, I heartily wished you to the devil! I was so eager to get away from Lord Swale that I pretended to faint." She sighed. "Unfortunately, his lordship's chivalry was aroused, and he saw it as his duty to see me safely home. On the way, he told me everything Miss Wayborn did to keep herself so healthy and that I would soon be dead if I did not follow her excellent example of a hearty diet and daily exercise! "

  "But if you were never engaged to him . . . " Juliet bit her lip in confusion. "Why would he tell me he was engaged to you if it isn't true? Why would he make such a point of asking my permission to place the notice in the newspapers?"

  Serena shook her head. "Oh, Miss Wayborn!" she cried softly. "I am very sorry for you because I can see that you really care for the brute. But I can tell you something about Lord Swale that will cure you of that."

  "You are mistaken, "Juliet said coldly. "I will be sick forever!"

  "I wish for your sake I were mistaken," Serena replied sadly. "I'm afraid it is the talk of London. When you beat him in the race, his lordship vowed revenge.

  "That is all in the past," Juliet scoffed. "That was before he met me."

  "Indeed! He vowed to follow you into Hertfordshire and make you love him, ruin you if he could, and then abandon you. I am sorry to pain you, Miss Wayborn, but I heard it from Mr. Alexander Devize with my own ears. They are taking bets in London as to whether or not he will succeed in seducing you."

  "I don't believe you," Juliet whispered, fighting off a horrible feeling of dizziness. "He loves me! I know it. He would never abandon me. You heard him say he was engaged to me! So did Horatio!"

  "But has he ever actually asked you to marry him?"

  Juliet felt her blood run cold. The hairbrush fell into her lap. "No," she admitted in a hollow voice that exactly matched the hollow feeling in her chest.

  "Has he ever declared his love for you?"

  She shook her head. "He has never said it. Not even in Latin," she added bitterly.

  "If he has told you that he is engaged to me, it could only have been to make you jealous, Miss Wayborn. There is no truth to it. He never sought my hand, and I certainly would never have bestowed it upon him. I don't know if I will ever recover completely from my attachment to Horatio."

  "Then it was all a lie," whispered Juliet, tears spilling from her eyes. "He told me he was your betrothed to make me jealous. And it worked. I was horribly, insanely jealous. Oh God, what a fool I have been! I daresay he kicked off your shoe so that I would have the pleasure of watching him restore it to your pretty foot! The fiend!"

  She struggled to breathe. "Why do we let them do this to us?" she groaned.

  "They use us however they please," said Serena bitterly. "They use us against one another. They use us for their pleasure. They use us as broodmares like my poor sister! From this day on, I am no more a romantic, Miss Wayborn. The facts are too much against it. You are fortunate to discover his perfidy now. It took me seven years to realize the truth about Horatio."

  Juliet covered her face with her hands. "It does me no good. It is too late for me now. He's done it! He's done everything he set out to do. He has seduced me. He has broken my heart. He's ruined me. And if I sue for breach of promise, he will make my disgrace public. How could I be so stupid? He isn't even handsome! "

  Serena shook her head. "I'm very sorry for you, Miss Wayborn. One thing I have learned though-they are not worth drowning ourselves over!"

  She smiled through her tears, but Juliet could not smile back. "They may be worth being hanged for murder for!" she answered, jumping to her feet. "Please excuse me!"

  She went directly to her brother's study.

  Benedict was seated behind his desk. Swale was sitting in the armchair on the other side of it, cracking his knuckles. Both gentlemen rose as Juliet entered the room, and Benedict started forward. "How is Lady Serena?" he asked his sister. "Is she quite well? Does she require anything? Should I summon the doctor?"

  Juliet ignored the barrage of questions; strode past him to Swale, who was grinning at her; and cracked him across the face as hard as she could with the back of her hand.

  `Julie!" he spluttered. "What-"

  Mercilessly, she struck him again, then doubled over in pain, nursing her hand.

  Benedict was too shocked to speak.

  "You ... serpent!" she hissed at Swale, her face livid in some parts and white in others. "I have just had the most interesting conversation with Lady Serena, my lord." Wincing as excruciating pain traveled through her hand, she paused to rub it. Beyond an expression of surprise, Swale seemed undisturbed by the two blows he had received.

  'What did the silly cow tell you that made you want to hit me?" he demanded. "Whatever it is, it's a lie!"

  "Is it?" she shrieked at him. "Is it a lie?"

  "Calm yourself, Julie. You'll burst a blood vessel," Swale murmured, his face turning pale, except for a pink mark her hand had left on his cheek.

  She shook off his hand. "Is it a lie that you vowed to seduce me, to make me fall in love with you and then abandon me? Is that a lie, sir? Because, you know, they are making book on it in London! Did you come here to ruin me? Has it all been a game?"

  "Oh, that," he said roughly. "Damn it!"

  "Oh, that! Is that all you can say to me?" she cried, shaking out her hand.

  "Here." He clawed at his neckcloth until it came free, then offered it to her. "Wrap up your hand, you silly girl!"

  She struck out at him wildly and missed.

  "For heaven's sake," he said, sidestepping her easily. "I will not let you hit me again until you have learned how to do it without breaking your own hand!"

  Juliet collapsed into a chair, weeping bitterly. "I should have let Benedict throw you out when he wanted to!"

  "I daresay," he murmured. "I'd give you my handkerchief to cry on, but I seem to have already given it to some other weeping female."

  Benedict stepped forward with his. "Calm yourself, my dear," he said gently as she blew her nose. "Now that I know absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not engaged to him-"

  "Engaged to him!" cried Juliet, flinging up her head. "I had rather marry an organ grinder's monkey. Indeed, he is the last man on earth whom I would ever marry! I loathe him! Make him go away, Benedict! I never want to see him again."

  "For God's sake, Julie," shouted Swale. "I didn't come here to seduce you. I went to Hertfordshire to seduce you!"

  "Oh!"

  "I think you had better go, my lord," said Benedict coldly. "You have upset my sister. You are no longer welcome in my house. I will contact the Post and have the announcement
universally contradicted. Good morning, sir."

  Juliet sniffed loudly. "What announcement?"

  "Never mind," her brother said gently. "I will deal with the matter myself. Try not to worry, Juliet. Why not go to your room and lie down?"

  "What announcement?" she repeated.

  "She gave me permission," said Swale, starting forward. `Julie, you know you gave me permission to put that in! I dare you to deny it."

  "You don't mean to say-" cried Juliet. "You don't mean to say you actually did it?"

  "Certainly I did."

  "But you can't have done! You couldn't! Ginger, you can't go about the place announcing you are engaged to people you are not, in fact, engaged to!"

  "Not in fact engaged to! I like that, miss! "

  Benedict hastily folded up the newspaper on his desk. "My sister has told me in no uncertain terms that she is not engaged to you. This announcement is meaningless, and the Post will be forced to print a retraction or suffer a lawsuit! Juliet is a minor, and I never gave my permission to print any such announcement."

  "Let me see that!" Juliet demanded, jumping to her feet.

  "It will only distress you, my dear," said Benedict.

  He tried to keep it from her, but Juliet succeeded in wresting the newspaper from his grasp. She gasped in shock, and all the color drained from her face. "It says ... it says that you are engaged to me," she panted. "Oh, Ginger!"

  "Indeed," said Benedict, shaking his head, "printed one thousand times!"

  "That cost a pretty penny, let me tell you!" said Swale.

  "Not half as much as my lawsuit will cost you," Benedict snapped. "You can't go about the place, wil you nil you, putting announcements in the paper ...

  Juliet, meanwhile, had fallen back into her chair. She looked at Swale shyly. "And the sandwich boards too?"

  "Sandwich boards!" Benedict's eyes started from his head. "What sandwich boards?"

  "Two dozen," Swale confirmed, "walking up and down Hyde Park at the fashionable hour between five and six every evening for a month. `Geoffrey Ambler, Lord Swale, is pleased to announce his engagement to Miss Juliet Wayborn,' printed fore and aft. I think I shall add the words Amor vincit omnia, my love. `Love conquers all."'