Caroline frowned, remembering now that Harry had told her before leaving for Calcutta how the English commander, then in charge of all the Allied occupation troops in Paris after Napoleon’s first abdication, had been forced to station a personal guard because of assassination threats. ‘How did it happen?’
‘Miss Claringdon didn’t know the details, only that he returned to London under a cloud. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, when Napoleon escaped from Elba and headed to Paris, gathering an army as he marched, Mr Ransleigh disobeyed a direct order to remain in London until the Vienna matter was investigated and sailed to Belgium to rejoin his regiment.’
‘Did he fight at Waterloo?’ Caroline asked.
‘I suppose so. There’s still talk of a court-martial, though. In any event, Miss Claringdon says his father, the Earl of Swynford, was so incensed, he ordered his son out of the house! Lady Mary Langton, whom everyone thought he would marry, refused to see him, which ought to have been a vast good fortune for some other lucky female. Except that it’s now said that he has vowed never to marry and has been going about London with his cousin Alastair, always in the company of some actress or … or lady of easy virtue!’
A glimmer of a memory stirred in Caroline’s mind … Harry, talking about the ‘Ransleigh Rogues’, four cousins who’d been at school with him before they all joined the army and served in assorted regiments on the Peninsula. Brave, strapping lads who could always be found in the thick of the fight, Harry had described them approvingly.
‘Miss Claringdon was nearly in tears as she told me the story,’ Eugenia continued. ‘She’d quite thought to set her cap at him before he began making up to Lady Mary … but now, with him dead set against marriage and keeping such scandalous company, no well-bred maiden would dare associate with him.’
‘An earl’s son, too.’ Lady Denby sighed. ‘How vexing.’
‘Well, Mama, must we leave? Or do you think we can remain and avoid the Ransleigh gentlemen?’
For a moment, Lady Denby stared thoughtfully into the distance. ‘Mrs Ransleigh and her elder daughter, Lady Gilford, are both eminently respectable,’ she said at length. ‘In fact, Lady Gilford is the most influential young hostess in the ton. I’m sure they will talk privately with the gentlemen who, once the situation has been explained, will either take themselves off, or remain apart, so as not to compromise any of Mrs Ransleigh’s guests.’
‘So they don’t inadvertently ruin some young innocent before she even begins her Season?’ Caro asked, winking at Eugenia.
‘Exactly.’ Lady Denby nodded. ‘Though I’m convinced it will be handled thus, just to make certain, I shall go at once in search of Mrs Ransleigh and make enquiries.’
Caroline laughed. ‘Goodness, Stepmama, how are you to phrase such a question? “Excuse me, Mrs Ransleigh, I just wished to make sure your reprobate son and disgraceful nephew aren’t going to hang about, endangering the reputation of my innocent girls!”’
Eugenia gasped, while Lady Denby chuckled and batted Caroline on the arm. ‘To be sure, it will be more than a little awkward, but I’ll word my question a good deal more discreetly than that!’
‘Perhaps she will lock the gentlemen in the attic—or the wine cellar, so none of the young ladies are at risk of irretrievable ruin,’ Caroline said.
‘Caro, you jest, but it is a serious matter,’ Eugenia insisted, a worried frown on her face. ‘A girl’s whole future depends upon her character being thought above reproach! A ruined reputation is irretrievable, and I, for one, don’t find the discussion of so appalling a calamity amusing in the least … especially after Miss Claringdon told me Lady Melross arrived this afternoon.’
Lady Denby groaned. ‘The worst gossip-monger in the ton! What wretched luck! Well, you must both be extremely careful. Lady Melross can winkle out a scandal faster than a prize hound scents a fox. She’d like nothing better than to uncover some misdeed she can report back to her acquaintances in town.’
‘Very well,’ Caroline said, sobering at the sight of her stepmother’s agitation. ‘I shall behave myself.’
‘And I shall go and make discreet enquiries of our hostess,’ Lady Denby said. ‘Eugenia, let me escort you to your room, where you should remain until dinner, while I … acquaint myself with the arrangements.’
‘Please do, Mama. I shan’t stir a foot from my chamber until you tell me it is safe!’
‘You’d best make haste,’ Caroline said, anxious to see them out of the door before her stepmother recalled her intention to ride and forbade her to leave her room. She didn’t intend to let adherence to some silly society convention get in the way of riding the best horse she’d ever trained.
The two ladies safely dispatched, Caroline tugged the bell pull to summon Dulcie to help her into her habit. Extracting the garment from the wardrobe, she sighed as she thought of the much more comfortable breeches and boots she’d sneaked into her portmanteau. Though she was sensible enough not to don them when her hostess or the guests might be about, she did intend to wear them on her daily dawn rides.
Might she encounter one of the scandalous Ransleigh men this afternoon? If Mrs Ransleigh was going to banish them from the house, the stables were a likely place for them to retreat.
Despite Eugenia’s alarm, Caroline felt no apprehension about encountering either Alastair or Max Ransleigh. She doubted either would be so overcome by her charms that they’d try to ravish her in the hayloft. As for having her reputation ruined merely by chatting with them, Harry would consider that nonsense, and his was the only opinion besides her own that mattered to her.
A knock at the door heralded Dulcie’s arrival. Caroline hurried into her habit, anxious to be changed and gone before her stepmother finished her errand and returned, possibly to ban her from riding for the duration.
She didn’t slow her pace until she’d escaped the house and made it safely down the lane leading to the stables. Curious now, she looked about the grounds as she walked and peered around the paddock, but saw no sign of anyone besides the groom who had saddled Sultan for her.
She had enjoyed the ride tremendously, thrilled as always to order Sultan through his paces and receive his swift and obliging responses. As she turned him back towards the stables, she had to admit she was a bit disappointed she hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of the infamous Ransleigh men.
It would be interesting to come face to face with a real rogue. Her stepmother, however, would be aghast if she were to converse with either of them, given their terrible reputations and the fact that Lady Melross was now in residence. Were that woman to observe her exchanging innocuous comments about the weather with either Mr Ransleigh, she’d probably find herself branded a loose woman by nightfall.
Although, Caroline thought with a grin as she guided Sultan back into the stable yard, being pronounced ‘ruined’ in the eyes of society might be positively advantageous, if it relieved her of having to suffer through another Season and made her unacceptable as a bride to anyone save Harry.
The idea struck her then, so audacious that her heart skipped a beat and her hands jerked on the reins, causing Sultan to toss his head. Soothing him with a murmur, she took a deep breath, her pulse accelerating. But outrageous as it was, the idea caught and would not be dislodged.
For the rest of the way back to the stables and from there to her chamber, she examined the idea from every angle. Stepmother would probably be appalled at first, but soon enough, she and Eugenia would be off to London, where Caro’s small scandal would be swiftly forgotten in the excitement and bustle of Eugenia’s first Season.
By the time she’d summoned Dulcie to help her change out of her habit into one of the unattractive dinner gowns, she’d made up her mind.
Now all she needed to do was track down one of the Ransleigh Rogues and convince him to ruin her.