Page 88 of Appointment in Bath

He’d been so focused on progress, he hadn’t stopped to consider the irreparable damage he could be doing to Meg’s dignity. To her reputation.

To her heart.

She was a young lady he cared about, not a production timetable. A young lady who had been raised by his parents’ oldest enemy. There was history to consider. Ivo had thought that it didn’t matter. That he could ignore it. He’d been too idealistic to recognize that, while the past may not be sufficient to obstruct the future, it was certainly informed by it.

Striding back to his stallion, he began to understand how deeply his impetuousness had hurt Meg. Far worse, his actions had driven her to put herself in harm’s way. Why, she could even now be injured or lost!

But there was no time for indulging his fears—or conscience.

Mounting Snap, he galloped back to Beasley Park. Once there, he bounded up the stairs to his room where he ferreted out a trunk and two of the battered leather cases that had accompanied him on his journey through Europe. He was midway through packing the entire contents of his wardrobe when Partridge scurried into the bedchamber, aghast.

“Master Ivo! If you required your things, you had only to summon me.”

“I’ve no need of your valeting, Brutus.” Ivo tossed two of his evening coats into the trunk in a haphazard heap.

Partridge groaned at seeing the fine fabric treated so carelessly. “But sir—”

“I’m going away for a time. I’ll see to my luggage myself.”

The valet gave him a long-suffering look. “Master Ivo, you must know it’s impossible. Why, even in the most remote outpost of the Alps, you were ever in need of my services. The care and pressing of your clothes—the polishing of your boots—”

“I’ll see to that myself, too.” Ivo threw in a pile of shirts. “It can’t be that difficult.”

“The job of a valet is one of the utmost complexity. One must know how to preserve fabrics. To remove stains and attend to the mending. Not to mention the other errands I perform for you. Sending messages. Posting letters. Making inquiries into—”

“If you want to help,” Ivo said, cutting him off. “Summon Andrew to bring the gig around. I require a ride to the coaching inn.”

“The coaching inn!” Partridge did a fair impression of a man about to fall into a swoon.

“That’s right.” An idea occurred to Ivo. “By way of Mr. Pinnock’s residence,” he added.

Pinnock was no use to Ivo at present, but there was someone in his household who would be. Someone who could perform all of the necessary services Partridge had mentioned. And who, unlike Partridge or any of the other servants at Beasley, owed his unreserved loyalty to Ivo.

“Mr. Pinnock is joining you on your journey, sir?” Partridge asked with no little relief. “May I assume you’re off on railway business, then? Not business of a personal nature?”

Ivo fixed the traitorous fellow with a cool glare. “Eager to inform my parents? Or is it my brother who awaits your report?”

Partridge hung his head. “Master Ivo—”

“Inform them, by all means.” Ivo hoisted his trunk onto his shoulder. “You may tell them I have an appointment in Bath.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Meg had been in Bath but two days when her father arrived in Pulteney Street. He was greeted by Mrs. Philips and Miss Adams in the parlor while Meg remained in her room upstairs, seated on the edge of the bed, so sick to her stomach at the prospect of facing him that she thought she might cast up her accounts.

It was Miss Adams who had told her to wait.

“I shall handle your father,” she’d said. “He may vent his ire on me. By the time you join him, he will be in better spirits.”

“I didn’t think he would come,” Meg had said hollowly. “I never expected—”

“Did you not? I thought you a sensible girl.”

“I hope I am. It was my good sense that told me he’d refrain. His health is suffering after all. And…I m-mean nothing to him.”

Miss Adams had only patted Meg’s arm in conciliation as she’d departed. “Your good sense needs mending, my dear. We shall address that while you’re here, you may be assured of it.”

A half hour later, Meg was summoned to join them in the drawing room. She found her father there, seated on the settee. He was rather pale beneath his freckles. The journey had plainly worsened his pain.