Runaway Bride by Hodge Jane Aiken

Author:Hodge, Jane Aiken [Hodge, Jane Aiken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2014-06-16T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

As for Mainwaring, he had spent a maddening day in pursuit of Jennifer, who must be told of Mandeville’s silencing. Calling in Grosvenor Square at what he considered the earliest possible moment, he had found her just ridden out; returning, later, he had learned from his friend the butler that Lady Beresford was in possession of the field, and had retired without leaving his name. He was in no mood for his aunt. The butler, however, had told him that the Duchess and Jennifer were engaged to Lady Sefton and he had gone there, hoping for a quiet moment with Jennifer, but had encountered Charles Laverstoke on the way. This was a fresh shock. Jennifer must be warned of the Laverstokes’ presence in town. But Charles, who was genuinely fond of his formidable guardian, proved hard to shake off and Mainwaring arrived at Lady Sefton’s only to learn that his grandmother and Jennifer had just left for Almack’s. His luck was out indeed, for Lord Sefton then pounced on him with a long account of a recently contested by-election in one of his boroughs. It was impossible not to listen politely to his host and essential to pretend an interest in a subject supposed to be so near to his heart. When he finally managed to disengage himself, it was only to realise with something like despair that it was half past ten and he was wearing trousers. There was no hope of getting home, changing into the knee breeches essential for Almack’s and reaching there before the doors’ inexorable closing at eleven o’clock.

He spent a bad-tempered, restless evening wandering between various clubs and gaming houses in St James’s, choosing them more for their nearness to King Street and therefore to Almack’s than from any preference of his own. He did not admit to himself that he hoped, by ‘accident’ to encounter his grandmother and Jennifer on their way home, but the fact remained that he spent a remarkable amount of time in and about King Street. Inevitably, as he went from place to place, meeting a friend here, joining in a game of cards there, he drank rather more than he would have if he had fixed himself in one spot. This did nothing to improve his temper. It had been a long, hard day; in fact, he reminded himself, saying an irritable goodnight to the doorman at Brooks’, it had been two hard days; he had not been to bed at all the night before. It was not surprising that he was feeling a considerable effect from the wine he had drunk.

But at last his patience, such as it was, was rewarded. Loitering in the doorway of Frank’s Parlour in King Street, he heard, from across the road, the stentorian cry for the Duchess of Lewes’s carriage. He said a brisk farewell to the friends to whom he had been saying a slow one for ten minutes and walked casually across the road, arriving at the entrance of Almack’s as the Duchess and Jennifer came out to the carriage.

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