Page 7 of A Hint of Scandal (The Mismatched Lovers #2)

B efore the call to go into supper came, Max had rather neatly managed to steer his mother towards one of her old beaux, the widowed Duke of Dunbar, a handsome, white-haired, lion of a man he’d heard her mention more than a few times in passing. How handy it had been to have come across him standing all alone, and with a somewhat forlorn expression on his face. This had been vanquished the moment he’d set eyes on Lady Westbury, and Max hadn’t felt in the least bit guilty at abandoning her to the elderly gentleman’s attentions. She even seemed quite flattered by them.

Having returned to check with Maria that Arabella was to be escorted into supper by the polite young man she was at present dancing the cotillion with, and that Maria was to go in with one of her oldest friends and had no need of his chaperonage, he’d beaten a hasty retreat onto the terrace.

With the music of the cotillion sending him on his way, he crossed the terrace and headed down into the garden, content in the knowledge that no one else was likely to resort to the summerhouse even for a romantic tryst, as it was still so chilly. At least there was as yet no fog hanging in the air. The bane of London nights.

He’d just been settling himself for some quiet reflection, when a movement outside on the path had caught his eye, and the door swung open to allow entry to the figure of a woman. By her silhouette, which showed her as tall for her sex but slender and graceful, he concluded that she must be young. She closed the door behind her with decided firmness and sat down on the bench beside it, the sound of her smoothing her gown carrying through the night air. That she couldn’t see him had been obvious.

Whatever was she doing here when she should be inside, on the arm of some beau? Or, heaven forbid, had she arranged a tryst here with her lover? Should he show himself before something that would lead to acute embarrassment on all sides occur?

He’d never for a moment suspected she would turn out to be the same rather plain young woman who’d spilt her lemonade down his waistcoat. The young woman he’d been wondering about ever since that moment, for a reason he couldn’t fathom. And now, here she was, pouring out her dearest wish to him as though they were old friends, perhaps made the more willing to confide in him because they were partly obscured from one another by the darkness. And her dearest wish had turned out to be something he would never have guessed. She wanted, above all things, to travel to Egypt and see the remains of that ancient civilization.

And the strangest thing of all was that this was something he could talk to her about, because he’d been there himself.

“It is infernally hot there,” he said, by way of a starter. “Unlike this summerhouse. Too hot for most young ladies.”

She chuckled. “I imagined it would be. You will find, Captain, that I have done my homework. I have studied many books on the subject and also pored over maps to spot out the places I would like to see. If, one day, I’m lucky enough to go there, which sadly seems unlikely.”

“I was there myself, last year.”

Her eyes widened and sparkled in the feeble light. “You were? How splendid. You are so lucky to have visited. I envy you.”

He couldn’t help but smile. “It was not under the most ideal of circumstances, I can assure you. I couldn’t recommend that you should hope to have the same experience as I had. Although I did manage to return with one or two mementoes for my brother, who is writing a book about Egyptian antiquities.”

“Oh.” Realization must have dawned. “I suppose, now I think about it, that you went there with the army?”

He nodded. “I did. I served until quite recently in the Third Squadron of the 20 th Light Dragoons. We were stationed for a short while in Messina, which is in Sicily. The island at the foot of the Italian Peninsula.”

She nodded. “I know where Messina is.” Her tone had turned a little sharp as though offended by his assumption that she lacked geographical knowledge. This was a girl who seemed to pride herself in her learning. Unlike Arabella.

He ignored the rebuke in her tone. “Under Major-General Mackenzie-Fraser, we embarked as part of a six thousand man expedition, plus us, the cavalry, of course. But our cavalry only numbered seventy-four men and four officers, so we were but a small part of the force involved. I was a mere lieutenant back then, serving under Captain Delaney, our commanding officer.”

“Where in Egypt did you land?” Her eyes had lit up. Did he have her enthralled already? The feeling was heady. To have someone, a young lady in particular, even if she was plain, hanging on his words when he spoke of his army service was a new sensation. Not that he’d ever spoken of it much before. It was a past he’d always steered clear of bringing up, so strong was his longing to be able to return to it.

“Alexandria, but with only fourteen of our thirty-three ships at first. I remember it was the sixteenth of March. We had a rough sea, and it was hard to get ashore, but we got a thousand men disembarked, plus us Dragoons, and we set to and assaulted the city, which was being held by three hundred Turks. When the missing ships turned up, and we were up to full numbers, the Turks capitulated and we occupied the city.”

Somehow, with her in the quiet privacy of the dark summerhouse, it felt quite natural to be recounting his lost days in the 20 th . He’d put them out of his mind for so long now it felt almost a relief to be able to talk about them. He had a sudden vision of the cloudless blue skies burning down on the flat delta land of the River Nile, and of the endless, green, irrigated fields stretching away towards the far horizon.

Her next question brought him back to the chilly present. “What did you bring back for your brother?”

He shrugged. “Small things only, that were easy to carry with me. I had to buy them from street vendors as I had no opportunity to search for them myself. He was particularly pleased with the blue glazed shabti that would once have been in a tomb, and the scarabs, as well as some old papyrus covered in hieroglyphs. Unreadable, of course, but he was pleased with his gifts. The locals make money from digging up old tombs and the like and selling off the contents to any who ask.”

She nodded. “What was it like? I mean, what was it really like? Being there. Seeing the land. The remains of that civilization.” She was leaning forwards now, as though his words held real interest for her, and the sensation that he liked her interest settled over him like a warm blanket. Hard to imagine any of the other young ladies present tonight as being so enthralled.

“Hot. Hot as I imagine hell to be. The sea was azure blue, and the sky matched it. The city walls shone bright enough to dazzle the eye, as did the walls of the houses. Heat rose up in visible waves from the ground, making the air shimmer, despite the earliness of the season. Summer lasts forever in Egypt.”

She frowned. “I have read it is so. But the natives all wear loose clothes the better to keep themselves cool, do they not?”

He smiled again, and nodded. “They do indeed. It might not have been so bad for us had we imitated them, but we wore our British uniforms as a badge of pride.” How good it would have been to have donned the flowing robes of an Egyptian instead of the stifling wool of his own cavalry uniform.

“And you saw action?”

“I did. But very little at first. As I said, the Turks surrendered Alexandria to us the moment our other ships arrived and they knew themselves outnumbered. We were inside the city for a good while.”

She gave a little sigh. “What was it like? What was Alexandria itself like? I’ve read so much about it. Did you attempt to discover the location of Alexander the Great’s lost tomb? See where the Pharos stood? Visit Ptolemy’s Serapium?”

She seemed remarkably well-informed on the sights of Alexandria. “I saw the remains of the Serapium. There are wonders there, on every street, that I don’t have the words to do justice to. But the Pharos is long gone, tipped over into the sea, I was told. And as for Alexander’s tomb—I believe none alive know its exact whereabouts, although many seek it.”

She clasped her hands. “I should like to be the one who finds it. My dream has always been to study the ancient remains of Egypt at first hand. Every epoch interests me—from the earliest pharaohs right through to Ptolemaic Egypt and beyond.”

He shook his head, further surprised by how glibly the correct terms slipped off her tongue. “It would be better for you to study it from afar. Visiting it would not be a safe undertaking. Especially not for a woman.”

She fell silent for a long minute as though digesting this warning. “But how else am I to see such wonders as the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx? And the River Nile—how can I live without ever having laid my eyes on that mighty waterway?”

Such enthusiasm. And from a woman.

She leaned forward a little more. “Tell me. Did you see the pyramids for yourself? They are a sight I would give anything to lay my eyes on before I die. Indeed, I believe I could die happy if I’d seen them.”

He shook his head. “Sadly, no. I admit I would have liked to, but our stay in Egypt was a military one, and our purpose to drive out the Turks and secure for Britain a base from which to operate against not just the Ottomans but also the French.” He paused. “Something I’m ashamed to say we failed at.”

She sat back as though disappointed in him. Most people, especially women, knew very little of the details of the war Britain was fighting. He had the feeling that despite her apparent knowledge of Egypt, her interest was confined to its past and not its present.

“Where did you fight, then?”

“We attacked Rosetta…”

This brought her forward again. “Rosetta? Where they discovered the famous Rosetta Stone? The stone which even now resides in the British Museum and some say will be the key to understanding hieroglyphs?”

He nodded.

Her eyes sparkled in the dim light. “That is something I would also give anything to go and see.” How wistful she sounded. “But even though we’re in London for the Season, I doubt very much if my family will allow me to do so. None of them would want to go, and they certainly wouldn’t allow me to go alone.”

Curiosity overtook him, encouraged by the companionable dark. “Why would they not wish to go and see something as interesting as that?”

She sighed. “My brother, who is in truth only my half-brother, and his wife are here solely for my pretty niece to make her debut in society and find herself a suitable match. That is also the only reason I’m here. They’ve brought me because Letty insisted. She persuaded them that I should come too as I am so useful to her. To all of them, I suppose.” She paused. “Well, to both Letty and Lady Gilbert, as I’m very good at running errands and doing their hair, but not so much to my brother, who I think sees me as a nuisance he is forced to tolerate.” Her voice trailed off.

For the first time in a long while Max felt a twinge of sympathy for another human being. He might be hampered by his arm, but this girl was hampered by her family, as he’d initially suspected on observing them from afar, and also from judicial enquiry of Maria, well out of his mother’s earshot. “And you? What do you want?”

She chuckled, her momentary melancholia brushed aside. “What I want is immaterial. But, as you have so politely asked, what I would like, as I cannot up sticks and bolt to Egypt, is to visit the British Museum and see what they have on show in their Egyptian rooms. Particularly, I would like to see the famous Rosetta Stone. That would be the next best thing to traveling to Egypt myself.”

He slapped his left hand on his thigh. “Then you will do that. And I shall take you there. I don’t think your brother and his wife can object to you having a gentleman caller who wishes to take you out walking. Accompanied by your maid, of course. Can they?”

This silenced her again, for a full two minutes this time. Her whole body, silhouetted against the pale light of the windows, had stiffened.

Max waited as the silence stretched on.

Eventually, she found her voice again, suddenly almost timid, as though she couldn’t believe someone would want to do something for her alone. She must have spent a long time at the beck and call of her brother’s family. “You-you would do that? For me?”

He nodded. “I would. To encourage a fellow scholar in their studies.”

“But everyone says a woman cannot be a scholar. Ogden has told me so many times. Whenever he catches me with a book, in fact. And Araminta says it is unmaidenly to study foreign civilizations.”

He huffed. “Of course a woman can be a scholar, and it makes her all the more interesting and not at all unmaidenly. A woman who can talk of nothing but the weather or what hat she should wear is as insipid as…” He groped for a simile and failed. “Well, she’s insipid, and that’s all there is to say about that. I think an outing with you to the British Museum would be anything but insipid. And besides, my own sister-in-law, who is altogether too solicitous of my welfare, would see a visit by me to anywhere as progress.” Especially if she thought he was going in the company of a young lady. He indicated his arm. “I have been a little self-conscious of my disability, you see, and didn’t want to come up to Town at all.” Why was he even admitting this to her? He certainly wasn’t about to confide in her that this was also a quest to obtain a suitable bride just so he could inherit his estate.

She turned her head and the light caught her smile. “I would be delighted to accompany you to the British Museum, Captain Aubrey. And proud to do so with a war hero.”

Whatever had given her that idea? He shook his head. “I’m no hero, so please don’t think I am. Everything I’ve done in my life was just my duty to my king and country.”

She smiled again. “You may say that, but to me you are my hero, if only for the fact that you have offered to do something for me that will make me happy.”

She didn’t need to tell him no one had ever tried to make her happy before. He’d guessed that already.

Max got to his feet. “Now, I think it might be an auspicious time for us to return to the ballroom. But not together, or tongues will wag. If you like, I will go first, and brave the curious stares of the servants. You, perhaps, should wait here for ten minutes or so before returning. I wouldn’t want to give anyone cause to gossip about you.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Captain Aubrey. I shall look forward to renewing our acquaintance when you come to call at Great Titchfield Street. My brother has taken a house there for the Season. You will find us at number thirty four.”

He bowed. “Until tomorrow, then. Or perhaps I should say until later today, as midnight has passed. I wish you goodnight, Miss Gilbert.”