Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The Countess Winstone took Lydia's hand as they stood together at the front of the ballroom and admired the work they had done together to make this night so magical. There were fresh and magnificent blooms paired with ornate candelabras, plus the exquisite floral fabrics decorating the walls and windows.

Everyone was in high spirits, especially since they would all be going home soon. The night felt like a special way to mark the near end of their confinement together and move forward with lovely memories of Winstone hospitality.

"We make a good team, do we not, Lady Lydia? Though it was not your responsibility to do so, I was quite impressed by how much you helped the staff with bringing our plans for the event to life. I daresay it was fun to make our own floral arrangements and add edible blooms to our pretty little cakes! I believe you are quite ready to be a viscountess, my dear."

Lydia squeezed Lady Winstone's hand and felt sincere gratitude for her compliments. She was also surprised by how quickly their bond had grown this past week and by how much the countess had allowed her to be involved.

"I appreciate your guidance, my lady. I agree that it was fun working side-by-side with you."

The two women embraced, then walked hand-in-hand together to the refreshment tables for glasses of punch and to admire again the petal-topped cakes they'd designed.

"Mama, you have outdone yourself! This might be the finest ball you've ever hosted!" Henry complimented his mother at the table, where he and his wife Maria were already enjoying the sweets.

Lydia noticed Henry's red and swollen cheek, and the countess did, too.

"Henry, what happened to your face? Are you quite well?" Lady Winstone reached out to touch her son's cheek. "Tell me you did not walk right into the sconces hanging from the hallway walls again."

Henry chuckled and shook his head. "No, Mama. It's nothing to worry about. But I have been instructed to tell you that Joseph is… ah, tending to Oliver at the stables momentarily. However, I also have much better news to share. Maria and I do." He and Maria exchanged a sweet smile, then looked back at Lady Winstone's face as her eyes narrowed and her smile faded.

"Oh dear. What has Oliver done now? Henry, please go help Joseph and ensure that my ball doesn't end with a misstep of scandalous behavior," Lady Winstone whispered, then stuffed a tiny cake into her mouth and vigorously chewed it.

"Mama, please calm yourself. Joseph has it in hand. While we wait for his return, we'd like to announce that Maria is…" Henry stopped speaking when his mother put her palm in the air in front of his mouth as she swallowed her cake.

"Do not dismiss me, Henry. I will have nothing, including one of my sons, ruin my night. Whatever you and Maria have to say can wait until…until…" The countess looked down to see Maria smoothing her hand over her belly with a barely noticeable bump. "Oh! Oh my! Maria, are you with child?"

"I am, my lady." Maria smiled as Henry hugged her from the side and beamed at his mother.

"Oh, that is wonderful news! I'm going to be a grandmother! I'm going to be a grandmother!" The countess hugged her son and daughter-in-law, then pulled them both along with her as she announced the happy news throughout the ballroom.

After congratulating the couple herself, Lydia watched them walk away with the countess. She seemed to have completely forgotten about Oliver and Joseph.

But those brothers were all Lydia could think about as she searched the ballroom for William and Sophia. What if they were also at the stables? If so, would there be a terrible altercation between Oliver and William?

Thankfully she spotted them both, each standing on opposite sides of the room. William was speaking with Lord Briarwood against one wall and Sophia was dancing in a ring with other ladies, including Lydia's mother and sisters, near the opposite end.

It was the perfect time for Lydia to slip away and check on Joseph. Plus, if Oliver had found out about William, she wanted to know. She cared deeply for Joseph, but she could not let him or his brothers plot to harm anyone in her family, even if William deserved to pay for what he's done.

If she and her family could just get home again before William and Sophia were found out, maybe all of their troubles could quietly disappear.

Without incident. Without scandal. And without hasty accusations that could ruin the future happiness of a husband and wife.

***

Lydia snuck into the main stable through a back door and held the hem of her new dress high above her ankles. Though she assumed the stable hands kept it as clean possible, the smell permeating through the dark building said otherwise.

How William and Sophia felt comfortable being intimate in a place that smelled like that was beyond her. Horses were beautiful creatures, but they did not make even a building as spacious as this one smell good.

"Is anyone there? Lord Winstone?" Lydia hesitantly called out in the dark and tiptoed a few more steps forward, hoping not to step in anything that would ruin her slippers.

She silently scolded herself for suddenly caring about such things. Since when did she become a woman who planned balls and cared for the state of her shoes? Her time at Winstone House had made her almost unrecognizable to herself, including all the ways in which she and Joseph had gotten closer.

That beast from the spring had morphed so quickly into her pretend fiancé and sensuous playmate. Then he'd stolen her heart having done very little to earn it.

Except for his surprising intelligence and sharp wit, of course. And his endearing playfulness and undeniable charm. Plus, his handsome face and solid, masculine physique with an impressive appendage when compared to the size of a young lady's stroking hand…

"Over here, m'lady!"

Lydia jumped and called out with fright. "Oh! You scared me! Is that you, my lord?"

"Yesssssss! Come find me, missssss! Then drag me to the river where I might drown from the sorrows of an unwanted man!"

Lydia released a heavy sigh as she recognized that the voice in the dark was not Joseph's. She let go of her dress and put her hands on her hips. "Oliver Penton, is that you?"

"Indeed, my lady! Are you an angel from above? Have you come to take me to your heavenly bed and make me whole again?" Oliver's slurred words were followed by loud laughter and the sound of liquid sloshing in a bottle as it was undoubtedly tipped toward his mouth.

Lydia shivered and took several steps backward. A drunken man who was shouting such things to a lady was an instant threat to her safety and reputation, no matter his family name. She had to get out of there, and quickly.

"I am a friend of the family, sir! I will leave now and get you some assistance."

"Don't leave me, my guardian angel! You are my only hope of redemption and eternal bliss!"

It sounded like Oliver had started crawling in her direction when Lydia decided to quit stalling and run. In other circumstances, Oliver Penton was probably a fine gentleman with impeccable manners. But that night he sounded like a madman who had lost all sense of reality.

"Heavenly angel, come back!"

Tears sprang to Lydia's eyes as panic took hold in her chest. She was so disoriented in the dark that she stumbled on her hem and fell to the dirt floor, then hopped back up again, gasping and desperately trying to find her way back to the stable door she'd entered shortly ago.

"I can hear you, my angel! Please do not run away! There is still hope for us, is there not? I have cared for you the best I could, my darling! But what is left of a man's spirit his dreams are stolen away?"

Oliver kept crawling and hollering as Lydia felt her way along a row of stalls where a horse touched its nose to her hand. The unexpected feel of its wet nose made her scream and stumble again, but this time her hem caught on something sharp on the stall door and ripped her dress open as she fell.

"Lydia! Where are you?" A different and welcome masculine voice shouted from the opposite end of the stable and turned Lydia's head as she struggled to pull herself up again.

"Joseph? I am here! Over here!"

Lydia's heart soared as she turned to see the viscount holding a lantern above his head while he walked quickly toward her. As he got closer, he slowed to hang the lantern from a hook along the wall, then sped up again.

So focused on each other, neither Joseph or Lydia saw that Oliver had collapsed in the path between them, about five feet from where Lydia was sprawled in the dirt. Despite the light Joseph's lantern provided, the stable was full of dark shadows that made it all too easy for the viscount to trip over his brother's unconscious body and land right on top of Lydia.

When Lydia screamed again from the impact, she heard her parents calling her name from outside the stable and thought she must be hallucinating. But as Joseph moaned and crawled forward to remove his face from the tear in her dress, she saw more brightly-lit lanterns dancing like enormous fireflies through the stable door.

"Did I hurt you, little nymph? Are you alright?"

Joseph's voice was close to her ear as she felt the weight of his body lift off her back. She turned her head to see him on his hands and knees above her, then shifted her gaze back to the dancing lanterns that were accompanied by gasps and angry shouts.

"What is the meaning of this, Joseph? What have you done to Lord Briarwood's daughter?" Joseph's father stood over his oldest son and pulled him up by the arm. "Explain yourself!"

Joseph groaned with pain as he struggled in his father's grip to gain his feet again. Lydia knew it was his second fall of the day and his body must be all the worse for it.

When he was finally face to face with Lord Winstone, Joseph seemed to finally notice that his father wasn't alone. The countess stood at his side with frightened eyes and a hand clasped over her mouth as Lydia's parents raced into the stable behind her.

"Nothing happened, my lord. I tripped over Oliver and fell onto Lady Lydia. I was trying to protect her from your middle son's drunken behavior." Joseph reached down to Lydia to offer her his hand. "Let me help you up, my lady."

"Unhand her, you rake! Was it so difficult to wait for your wedding night, Winstone? This is a disgrace!" Lord Briarwood swatted Joseph's hand away and crouched over his daughter as Lydia watched the misunderstanding unfold from below.

"Papa, he's telling the truth! I was running to get help for Oliver after I found him out here!" Lydia rolled over to try to cover herself but the rip in her skirt revealed much of her legs no matter which way she turned.

"Her dress is torn! Oh, my poor Lydia. She is compromised, my lord! What will we do?" Lady Briarwood dropped to the dirt floor and hid her exposed shift the best she could while pulling her into her arms.

Lydia, still dizzy from the fall and all the frights that came with it, held tightly to her mother's arms and tried to get her to listen. "Mama, Joseph and I both fell down. I ripped my dress on the stall somehow. It's not Joseph's fault. It's because of Oliver!"

Lydia pointed to where he had passed out and then started to choke from shock. Oliver was gone.

How is that even possible? Was he pretending to be unconscious and then slipped away in the chaos?

"My dear, you are delirious from the attack on your innocence. Please quiet yourself and do not worry. I'm sure Lord and Lady Winstone will do right by us." Lady Briarwood looked up at Lady Winstone, who was still shaking in disbelief.

Then Lady Winstone looked from Lydia's mother to her son and spoke in barely a whisper, "You will marry her immediately, Joseph."

"You can bloody count on that, son! Your mother is right. You will marry this girl before her family leaves our home." Lord Winstone shoved Joseph away from Lydia and her mother, then turned back to his wife. "Victoria, make the arrangements. Lord and Lady Briarwood, I am terribly sorry for my son's actions. We will make this right, if you are agreeable to immediate nuptials in our home."

Lord Briarwood shook Lord Winstone's hand and nodded as Joseph made one more attempt to set the record straight.

"Lord Briarwood, please trust that I would never force myself on a woman and especially never on Lydia. What you think happened here did not happen. If you cannot trust me, please trust your daughter. We are telling the truth."

Lydia watched as Joseph tried to keep his composure and make them understand, but it was no use. Every one of their parents looked back at him with disgust and anger and, if she was reading Lady Winstone's pained expression correctly, shame.

"I have never been so disappointed in all my life, Joseph. But you can make amends as a much better husband to Lydia than you were a fiancé. Please do us proud by becoming the upstanding gentleman we raised you to be." Lady Winstone bent down to help Lydia and her mother rise to their feet and lead them out of the stable.

"Wait! Lady Winstone, please! Joseph did not hurt me. He did not take advantage of me. Why is no one listening to me!" Lydia wriggled out of her mother's embrace and stood her ground until her father stepped in front of her and commanded her attention.

"What's done is done, Lydia. No matter the circumstances, you were alone with the viscount in a compromising position. The two of you were already engaged, so this should not be an issue for you. We are simply having the wedding immediately to keep any rumors of scandal at bay. Do not protest any further. The decision has been made." Lord Briarwood stared into Lydia's eyes until she looked down at her feet.

"Yes, my lord," she whispered, not daring to look up at Joseph's face as her parents escorted her out of the stable. She kept her eyes focused down at her torn dress, regretting ever having left the ball as a favor to William.

By following the Winstone brothers, she'd accidentally brought on the one thing she and Joseph had originally gotten engaged in order to avoid. An arranged marriage.

Joseph had asked her to join him in the engagement ruse to thwart his mother's attempts at marrying him off to someone at her ball. But that was exactly what had just taken place. He would be forced to make Lydia his bride before he knew whether he loved her.

Lydia felt so ashamed that she had caused that to happen to them both. But what she knew with complete certainty, as she followed her parents back into Winstone House in deafening silence, was that the man who had just defended her in the stable was the only man she could ever want. Ever love. Ever need by her side, even though she did not know yet if they were truly compatible.

Unfortunately, they would no longer have time to find out before committing their lives to each other. She only hoped Joseph would find a way to at least forgive her if he could never love her after everything that had gone so terribly wrong.