Page 16 of Ambition (The Chaplain’s Legacy #6)

The Bucknells descended to sweep Papa away to be introduced, and although Osborn watched Olivia relentlessly, he made no move to follow her as she processed around the room on the earl’s arm.

Eventually, inevitably, they came round to Osborn, who rose to make his bow. The earl, having excellent manners, exchanged some conversation with the simpering Lady Douglas first before turning to Osborn.

“Kiltarlity. It is a while since I have seen you. You have suffered some tragedies in your family since last we met. My condolences. How are you?”

“Well, sir, I thank you. Sadly grieved by the loss of my brothers and father, but we must soldier on, must we not? You have suffered some reverses yourself of late, I understand, and far more challenging than mine.”

Papa looked suddenly stricken. “True, but as you say, we must soldier on and find what comfort we can.”

“In your daughter I am sure you find great comfort,” Osborn said, with a smiling glance at Olivia. “A man whose spirits cannot be lifted by so lovely a companion is a man without a heart.”

“Indeed.” Papa’s face softened, and he patted Olivia’s hand where it rested on his sleeve.

“Olivia has barely left my side since the dreadful events first unfolded. She it is who has dragged me away from home for the first time, and now that I am here, I find myself already looking forward to getting out with the hunt. There is a meet tomorrow, I understand?”

“There is, at Chilford, where I am staying with Marsden.”

“Marsden, eh? Another of Izzy’s court. Is Davenport here as well?”

Osborn laughed easily. “I fear not. He is recently married and cannot tear himself away from his beloved, even for the hunt. But we shall have good sport, I am sure. You have your hunters with you? You will need a good string, for there is a meet almost every day just now. Do you still have that big bay you used to boast of?”

They were soon deep into a discussion of horseflesh, and Olivia’s attention wandered. Looking around the room, she saw Osborn’s sisters waggling their fingers at her invitingly, so she made her way there.

“Lady Elizabeth. Lady Lucilla,” she murmured as she curtsied.

“We did not expect to see you here,” Lady Elizabeth said, looking at Olivia with a somewhat supercilious glare.

“We should have guessed,” her sister said. “Robert was so insistent, there had to be a reason.”

“Yes, but how did she get an invitation here?” hissed Lady Elizabeth. “The Duke of Camberley’s hunting box is for the Bucknells.”

“And their guests,” Olivia said calmly. “Lady Esther Franklyn is a Bucknell herself. She is chaperoning me.”

“Who is that older gentleman talking to Robert? Do you know, Lucy? Oh, I recognise him now. It is Lord Rennington.”

Lady Lucilla gasped. “Oh! He is… a very well looking man, is he not? For his age, that is, and they do say…”

The sisters turned in unison towards Olivia, who was trying very hard not to laugh.

“Is it true?” one said.

“That he is looking for another wife?” the other said. “For we heard rumours.”

“It is true,” Olivia said, smiling at them. “He is looking for someone young and pretty, who is not a bluestocking, not excessively pious, will not fuss over him and can ride well, but not recklessly. Do you know anyone like that?”

They exchanged knowing glances, but Olivia was confident they would not be a danger to her father. Lord Embleton was another matter. They had driven him away from Harraby Hall, and perhaps they might drive him away from Leicestershire, too.

The Franklyns arrived just then, and Olivia was drawn into Lady Esther’s orbit for a while as she circulated among her various relations.

After a while, she noticed that Mr Franklyn was sitting a little apart, a newspaper open on his knee, although he was not looking at it.

Instead he was watching all that was going on in the room, a little smile on his lips.

Olivia crossed the room to sit beside him. “Shall you join the hunt tomorrow, Mr Franklyn?”

“No, I am not a hunting man,” he said equably.

“I like a horse well enough if it jogs me safely from one place to another, but jumping hedges and walls and streams has never greatly appealed to me. I shall watch the departure, I think, for Lady Esther will want to be there, but after that we shall retreat to the house… or perhaps pay some calls. Whatever my wife wishes to do.”

“Do you always do as she wishes?” Olivia said.

He chuckled. “Not always, no. A man likes to be the master in his own house and have matters ordered to his liking, but in gatherings such as this… this is Lady Esther’s territory.

Here I defer to her experience and understanding of the rules of society.

I was not born to this sort of life, unlike my wife…

or you, Lady Olivia. I was nothing but an ordinary attorney in Newcastle until my unexpected inheritance gave me wealth and the ability to take a higher position in the world.

I have been fortunate to find a wife to show me the way, and it pleases me to watch her moving in her proper milieu now and then. ”

“Do you ever go back to Newcastle?”

“Sometimes. I am not ashamed of my background — no one should ever be ashamed of what he once was, or of what he is, for that matter. We are all equal in God’s eyes, after all, from the King down to the lowliest beggar on the streets.”

“Even me?” she said in a whisper. “Even someone who is… illegitimate?”

“Certainly,” he said. “You are the same person that you were six months ago, and all rational people will understand that and judge you as people have always been judged — by their actions, and not by an accident of birth. And if a few people look down on you now, as some look down on me, why then they are not worth knowing and you need not regard them.”

“You do not think it is wrong of me to be… ambitious?”

“I have the utmost admiration for ambition,” he said, with a smile.

“In my first marriage, I married the daughter of my employer, and for my second I dared to look at the daughter of a duke, and look how well that has turned out. So why should not you be ambitious, and dare to look at a duke… or a marquess, as he is at present?”

“You know, then?” she said in a low voice.

“I know,” he whispered back, “and I wish you the very best of luck, Lady Olivia.”

“Thank you. I shall need it.”

“Not so much as you might think,” he said, eyes twinkling. “I believe he is ripe for marriage, and you have such charming manners. I think you would make an excellent duchess.”

“His father would not approve of me.”

“Now there you would be wrong. When Embleton offered for Bea, he told us that his father would leave him to make his own choice. The duke sounds like a sensible man, so you need not concern yourself over that. But… a word of warning, my lady. My wife is every bit as ambitious as you. Having failed to marry a title herself, she was determined that Bea would do so, and Bea got into some difficulties in pursuing that idea. There was talk of putting a man in a compromising situation, and that is a very bad way to win a husband. I trust you would never be seduced into such a thing.”

Olivia blushed at the memory of her failed attempt to kiss Lord Embleton, but she answered composedly, “I know how to behave in a ladylike manner, I hope.”

“Of course,” he said easily, and deftly turned the subject.

Lady Kiltarlity soon rose to leave, her daughters also jumping up with alacrity. Osborn, who had been lurking a little apart from the rest of the company, one shoulder leaning against the wall as he watched Olivia, showed a marked unwillingness to depart.

“Must we go so soon?” Olivia heard him say plaintively to his mother.

But the carriage was summoned and in a very few minutes he was obliged to take his leave, throwing just one long glance across the room at Olivia.