Duncan Sisters Trilogy - The Bride Hunt Part 18

Again he considered before saying mildly, "On occasion. When your hackles are raised. I'd like you to be able to control that response."

"Because they will try to provoke it in court."

"I think you should be prepared for it."

Prudence was silent. He had every right to point that out, and she couldn't help but recognize its truth. But it was a wretchedly uncomfortable recognition nevertheless.

Chapter 12.

They were driving down the high street in Henley-on-Thames now. The pavements were crowded with Sunday-morning strollers, the green lawns edging the river dotted with pedestrians enjoying the sunshine. A few rowboats were on the river and Prudence realized that the air was a lot warmer now. But that, of course, could have something to do with the fact that their speed had slowed to a crawl and in her fur casing she was beginning to feel like a hibernating bear.

Gideon spun the wheel and turned under an archway into the cobbled back court of an Elizabethan timbered inn. He turned off the engine and jumped down. Prudence was too eager to make her own descent to await his help and stepped down, resisting the inelegant urge to rub her backside that seemed rather numb after the jolting drive.

"Go in and order coffee," he said. "I'll join you in about five minutes when I've put more fuel in the engine." He hauled out a can labeledPRATTS MOTOR SPIRITfrom the enclosed compartment at the rear of the motor.

Prudence stretched and rolled her shoulders, then took off her hood and the fur coat. "It's far too hot for these." She laid them on the pa.s.senger seat of the car. "I'll see you inside."

The Dog and Partridge had a comfortable parlor just off the saloon bar. A cheerful maid promised coffee and currant buns and directed Prudence to the ladies' lounge. When she emerged, refreshed, her hair tidied, she found Gideon already sitting in the bow window, pouring coffee. "I'd suggest we take a walk along the river but I want to be inOxfordfor luncheon," he said as she sat down.

"Why do we have to go all that way? Why don't we stop here?" Prudence selected a sugar-sprinkled currant bun from the plate.

Gideon frowned, as if puzzled by the question. "I intended to drive toOxford," he said.

"But you could change your mind," Prudence said, regarding him quizzically. It occurred to her that perhaps he couldn't.

As if in confirmation, he said, "When I've made a plan, I like to stick to it."

"Like to, or need to?"

He added sugar to his coffee with careful deliberation. It was not a question he'd ever asked himself, but the answer was immediate. "Need," he said. He looked across at her with a rather rueful smile. "Does that make me very rigid and pedantic?"

She nodded, and drank some coffee. "I would say so. I'll need to bear that in mind when I'm looking at candidates. Some women find that quite comforting...knowing that someone isn't going to change his mind."

"Somehow I think that you are not one of them," he observed, taking a bite of currant bun.

"Spot on," she said with a cool smile, breaking a tiny piece off her bun.

"We seem to be concentrating on my character flaws this morning," Gideon observed. "I had been hoping for a pleasant day of getting to know one another."

"Isn't that what we're doing? Flaws and all?" she inquired. "And on that subject, if Barclay's barrister is going to attack me, wouldn't it be better if you asked me first the hostile questions he might ask...spike his guns, as it were. Then I might be able to respond with proper composure."

"That was one of the tactics I was considering," he conceded. "But whenever I start to ask them, you attack with all the ferocity of a swarm of hornets."

"Ah, but that was because I hadn't realized it was a tactic. Now I know that it's just preparation and you're not expressing your own views, I'll practice moderating my responses." She took off her gla.s.ses and rubbed them on a napkin, unaware that it was a reflex action whenever she felt on her mettle. "Am I right to a.s.sume that you aren't expressing your own views?"

"It wouldn't matter if I were. My views are not at issue here." He pushed aside his coffee cup and sat back in the deep leather armchair. The light was dim in the low-ceilinged parlor, and the diamond-paned windows let in little sunshine. In the gloom he noticed how her hair glowed a rich copper and how her eyes were a brilliant glinting green in the smooth cream oval of her face.

"To answer an earlier question," he said, "I have decided that a woman's personal appearance is very important to me."

Prudence set down her coffee cup. "She must be beautiful?"

He shook his head. "No, not at all. Interesting...unconventional. Those are the adjectives I would choose."

"I see."

"Aren't you going to write that down?"

"My notebook is in the motor." She wanted to glare at him; she wanted to smile at him. But instinct told her she could do neither. Not unless she was prepared to let down her guard. He was trying to draw her into playing this game of allurement. It wasn't naked seduction, it wasn't as ba.n.a.l as flirtation, it was just a beguiling invitation to join the dance. And a little voice that she tried to ignore was questioning: Why not join the dance?

The answer, however, was as clear as day. She...her sisters...they all needed this man's complete professional attention. She needed his single-minded professional attention on the issue, or she'd lose her own. There was no room for anything but a purely business relationship with the barrister. And besides, she reminded herself, she disliked him excessively.

When it was clear that he was not going to get a more interesting reaction, he said neutrally, "Ready to continue?" He stood up, shoveling a handful of coins from his pocket onto the table.

"SinceOxfordneeds to be the destination," she said, rising in her turn.

"You will enjoy it," he promised, moving ahead of her to open the door to the bright, sunlit outdoors. "And I own, I'm curious to see how well I remember punting. It's been nigh on twenty years." He gave an exaggerated sigh. Prudence closed her lips firmly. She was not going to give him the compliment he was fishing for. She was not going to join this dance.

"I don't think I need this fur," she commented when they returned to the motor. She folded it carefully over the back of her seat.

"You'll need the hood and the goggles," Gideon said, putting on his own goggles. "And I think you'll find in a few minutes that you need the coat. Once we're on the open road." He put on his own coat then turned his attention to the crank that would start the engine. It sprang to life after a couple of turns and he stowed the crank and climbed behind the wheel, saying as cheerfully as if he was not beginning to feel disheartened, "Ever upwards and onwards."

"How far is it from here?" "About twenty miles. We should do it in an hour, or just over. The road's quite good. I'll be able to open her up." Prudence fastened the hood beneath her chin, reflecting that his clear enthusiasm at the prospect of bouncing along rutted roads at top speed was not something she could share. She pulled the fur coat up over her shoulders as the rushing air chilled her anew and rather gloomily contemplated the prospect of the three-hour return journey. By the time they leftOxford, the sun would be going down and the air would be even colder. Her companion, who was humming contentedly to himself, obviously had no such qualms.

"Are you ever free in the afternoons?" she asked.

Gideon stopped humming. "Unless I'm actually in court, or have a business meeting, I can be," he said.

"Why?"

"We usually use our At Homes to introduce likely couples. I was thinking that you could vet some of the possibilities one afternoon."

A terrier with a bone, no other description would do. He sighed and accepted the inevitable. "And do you have any possibilities in mind? Apart from this Agnes Whatever-Her-Name-Is."

"Hargate," she said. "And I really think you're doing yourself a disservice by not at least meeting her.

You would like her very much. You haven't even listened to a description."

"I had an instinctive reaction," he stated. "The minute you mentioned her, I knew we would not get on at all."

Prudence surveyed him with growing irritation. "I don't know how you can be so certain."

"Well, I am."

Prudence opened her notebook again. She looked at the few names that she and her sisters had come

up with. "All right, let's try again. You might get on well with Lavender Riley. I'm sure I could get her to come to an At Home if you were available on a Wednesday."

"No," he said firmly.

"No, you wouldn't be available on a Wednesday?"

"No, I would not be interested in Lavender Riley."

"How could you possibly know that? I haven't told you anything about her." Exasperation rang in her voice.

"You told me her name. I forgot to mention that names are very important to me. Perhaps you should write that in your little book. I could not possibly live with someone called Lavender."

"That is so ridiculous. You could give her another name...a pet name."

"I find the whole concept of pet names quite revolting," he said. "Besides, everyone else would be calling her Lavender. I'd never get away from it."

"If you're just going to make frivolous objections-" She stopped abruptly. She was just laying herself open to mockery by persisting, and she wasn't going to encourage him any further.

However, it seemed he didn't need any encouragement. He continued blithely into her frozen silence, "Now, the names of the virtues I find most appealing. Hope-"

"Hope is not a virtue," Prudence snapped.

"Oh, I think a hopeful character is a virtuous one," he demurred. "But Charity is an appealing name; Patience, I like. Oh, and Prudence, of course. Now, that's a very attractive name, if a rather stolid virtue."

Prudence clasped her hands inside her m.u.f.f and refused to smile.

He glanced at her and grinned. "Come on," he said. "I can see you want to laugh. Your eyes are shining."

"You can't possibly see what my eyes are doing behind these goggles."

"I can imagine them very easily. Your mouth is quivering just the tiniest fraction, and when it does that your eyes sparkle. I've noticed often."

"Considering what little reason I've had to smile in your company since we first met, I find that an unlikely observation."

"It was intended as a compliment," he said rather plaintively.

"An empty one, in that case." She shrank deeper into her coat as the motor's speed increased and the wind whistled by.

"You are a very stubborn woman," Gideon said. "I had planned a delightful day out and you're doing your level best to spoil it."

Prudence turned sideways in her seat to face him. "You had planned a delightful day out. Without one word of consultation with me. Without a moment's consideration of my own possible plans, or indeed of my wishes. And now you're accusing me, who was dragged along w.i.l.l.y-nilly, of spoiling your plans. You said we were going to work on the case."

"Well, we are, but unfortunately it's not going as well as I had hoped," he said. "I wanted to see how you are when you're relaxed, comfortable, not on the offensive...or defensive. I had thought that if I provided the right situation and surroundings, you would show me that side of yourself. If such a side exists," he added a shade dryly. "If it doesn't, this is indeed a wasted day."

Prudence was silent for a minute. Then she said, "It does, actually. Why do you need to see it?"

"Because that's the side that's going to win this case for us," he said simply. "I want the warm, intelligent, compa.s.sionate Prudence Duncan on the witness stand. Can you give her to me?"

There was silence then between them. Prudence was absorbed in her own reflections and a.s.sumed her companion was in his. It was such a simple, reasonable explanation, and she was beginning to wonder why she had resisted the appeal of this outing, fighting his efforts to charm her, disarm her, amuse her, with such dogged persistence. There was surely no need to do so, not when his objective was so directly related to their libel suit.

Gideon broke the silence finally. "It's a lovely day, we have a delicious lunch waiting for us, followed by a quiet trip on the river. We'll stop for dinner in Henley on the way back, and then you can sleep the rest of the way home curled up in your furs. How could you possibly resist such a prospect?"

"It is irresistible," she responded, feeling the tension suddenly leave her shoulders. She hadn't even realized how tightly clenched her muscles had been, as if she had been arming herself against something. "If you promise not to annoy me, I will show you my other side."

"I can't promise," he said, turning to smile at her. "Sometimes it's inadvertent. I'll ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt if something slips."

"All right," she agreed. "Just for today. But in return I ask that you listen to two things about the case that I have to tell you. We don't need to discuss them, but you need to hear them so that you can think about what we should do."

"Fire away."

"First, my father is going to take the stand as a character witness for Barclay." She watched for his reaction but there was none. He merely nodded.

"Don't you see how awkward...in fact, terrible...that is?"

"Not really."

"But you'll have to attack Father."

"I will attempt to shake his faith in his friend's probity, certainly."

"But you won't be unpleasant to Father?"

"Not unless he makes it necessary."

Prudence absorbed this. He sounded so matter-of-fact and unperturbed by what for her was a hideous prospect. "I'm afraid he might recognize me...or my voice, rather," she said after a minute. "I don't know if I can disguise my voice well enough to fool him."

"What did you have in mind?" he asked curiously.

Prudence chuckled. They had decided she should adopt the accent Chast.i.ty had used when meeting their first paying client, Anonymous, at the very beginning of the Go-Between venture.

"Oh, but I am fromParis, moi. EnFrancewe do not ask ze ladies such questions.Non, non, c'est pas comme il faut , you comprend? Ze Mayfair Lady, she is most respectable.Vraiment respectable. Respectable, that is what you say over 'ere, n'est ce pas? "