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‘—and for another, your health is unequal to the strain of a London Season.’
‘Nonsense, I have never been better!’
‘What is more,’ pursued Delagarde, ignoring these interpolations, ‘I have not invited you to remain here above the few days you intended.’
Lady Hester suddenly clapped her hands together. ‘That reminds me! I have not brought near enough with me for a whole Season. My abigail will have to go down to Berkshire at once. Oh, and you will have to open up all the saloons. We cannot receive morning callers in the drawing-room, and if we are to give a ball—’
‘A ball! Let me tell you—’
‘Or, no. It is too late to secure a suitable date. A small party, perhaps, and meanwhile we will introduce Maidie quite quietly—’
‘You cannot introduce her in any way at all!’ Delagarde interposed, in considerable disorder. ‘Good God, I will not be sponsor to a lady looking as Maidie does! I should lose all credit with the world.’
‘You are very right,’ agreed Lady Hester, laying an approving hand on his arm. ‘Her appearance will not do at all. I had not thought of it in all this excitement. She must be properly dressed. I shall see to that at once. Maidie cannot object to acquiring new gowns. You need have no fear, Laurie. I will make sure she does not disgrace you.’
‘If her conduct today is any indication of her company manners,’ Delagarde said bitterly, ‘there is little hope of preventing that.’
But Lady Hester was not attending. ‘We will not make too obvious a stir, I think, for that may defeat the purpose. A soirée at the start of next month will serve admirably. At first, though—’
‘Aunt Hester!’
‘—we shall make it our business to call upon all the leading hostesses. As Maidie’s sponsor, you will of course accompany us.’
‘If you think I am going to dance attendance on that cursed wench morning after morning—’
‘Laurie, what am I thinking of?’ interrupted his great-aunt, unheeding. ‘The servants! We shall never manage with this skeleton staff. You must send to Berkshire immediately. Or, stay. Lowick may go down himself and make all the necessary arrangements.’
‘Aunt Hes—’
‘Gracious, there is so much to be done! I must see Lowick immediately. He and I will put our heads together, and—’
‘Aunt Hes, will you, for God’s sake, attend to me?’
She stopped in mid-stride, and looked at him with an air of surprise. ‘Yes, Laurie?’
‘Aunt Hes, stop!’ he uttered desperately. ‘I will not— I have no intention— Oh, good God, I think I am going mad! Aunt Hes, if you bring that wretched girl to live here, I promise you I shall remove!’
‘Nonsense. Move out of your own house? Besides, we need you.’
‘We!’ he said witheringly. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’
‘Why?’ A trill of laughter escaped Lady Hester, as she made for the door. ‘My dear Laurie, I have your interests wholly at heart, believe me. Do not be taken in by Lady Mary talking lightly of an “independence”. Brice Burloyne was a nabob.’
‘What has that to do—’
But Lady Hester was gone.
Delagarde stood staring at the open door, mid-sentence and open-mouthed, hardly taking in the significance of her last utterance.
‘I do not believe this is happening,’ he muttered.
Was his life to be turned upside down in a matter of hours? He cursed the ill-timing that had brought his great-aunt on a visit just at this moment. She was invariably content to remain in residence on his estates at Delagarde Manor, where she had lived, courtesy of his mother’s generosity, since before Laurence had been born. Her criticism rankled. Idle and hedonistic, indeed! Was he any more so than any other of his class? And what the devil had she meant by saying that he had no responsibilities? Was he not landlord to a vast estate? To be sure, he employed an agent to administer the lands, and his steward could be relied upon to keep all smooth in his absence.
Was that the burden of her complaint? That he was absent from Berkshire for a good part of the time? Good God, one could not be expected to kick one’s heels in the country all year round! Who did not spend the Season in town?
Another thought struck him, and his eye kindled. If this was a dig at his continued bachelorhood—! To be sure, he had to marry some day. The line must be carried on. But there were Delagarde cousins enough for the succession to be in no immediate danger, even were he not in the best of health. Nor was he reckless in his sporting pursuits, which might put him in danger of accident. In fact, he took sufficient account of his responsibilities not to merit that criticism in the very least!
What the devil should possess her to say such an un-handsome thing of him? Aunt Hes was not wont to criticise, and he strongly suspected that she had made that up on the spur of the moment. A ploy to push him into agreeing to sponsor that dreadful girl. Well, he had not agreed! What whim should take Aunt Hes to rush to the wretched female’s aid, he was at a loss to understand.
What had she said? Brice Burloyne was a nabob? One of these Indian fortunes? Oh, good God! And he was to figure as trustee, heaven help him! No doubt the creature would expect him to ward off fortune-hunters on her behalf. A vision of his hitherto ordered and pleasant existence rose up, and he could swear he saw it shatter. No! No, he would not be coerced.
Striding to the bell-pull, he tugged it fiercely, and then marched out into the hall just as a footman came quickly in through the green baize door at the back. Already he discerned an air of bustle about the house, for Lady Hester’s abigail was hurrying up the stairs, accompanied by one of the maids, and the stout housekeeper, pausing only to bob a curtsy to her master as he came out of the parlour, set her foot on the bottom stair and began to puff her way up.
‘Where is Lowick?’ Delagarde demanded of the footman.
‘Mr Lowick has gone upstairs to confer with her ladyship, my lord.’
‘Oh, he has, has he? Well, go up and bring him down here to me. And send for Liss at once!’
‘I am here, my lord,’ said his valet, entering the hall from the green baize door, as the footman ran up the stairs. Liss had apparently held himself ready, for he was burdened with several articles of clothing.
‘My coat, Liss! My hat!’
‘Both here, my lord.’
Delagarde allowed his valet to help him into the greatcoat, and seized his hat. He was standing before the hall mirror, placing the beaver at a rakish angle on his head, when his butler came hurrying down the stairs.
‘Ah, Lowick,’ Delagarde said, turning. ‘Listen to me! If that female should return here, you will—’
‘Lady Mary, my lord?’ interrupted the butler. ‘You need have no fear, my lord. Her ladyship has given me very precise instructions. All will be in readiness to receive her.’
‘But I don’t want you to receive her!’
The butler bowed, and permitted himself a tiny avuncular smile. ‘Her ladyship has explained that you are a trifle put out by the inconvenience, my lord.’
‘Put out!’
‘It is very natural, I am sure, my lord. I understand that there is an obligation which your lordship is determined to honour.’
Delagarde gazed at him. Devil take it! Aunt Hes had neatly outgeneralled him. Working on the principle, he dared say, that it was never of the least use to try to keep things from the servants. No doubt she would have the entire household duped in no time at all, everyone working to thwart him. How the devil was he to refute the obligation now, without appearing churlish or dishonourable?
‘So she has drawn you in, has she?’ he muttered balefully.
The butler gave him a puzzled look. ‘I beg your pardon, my lord?’
‘Never mind.’ He received his cane from the valet with a brief word of thanks, and turned back to his butler. ‘Lowick, I am going out.’
‘Yes, my lord. You need not fear that every courtesy will not be extended to the young lady, my lord. The housekeeper is even now receiving her instructions to arrange for Lady Mary’s accommodation.’
‘I do not wish to hear anything about it! Let me out!’
‘But will your lordship not take breakfast first?’ asked the butler, opening the front door for him.
‘The only breakfast I require is of the liquid variety—and potent!’ He started out, and then paused, turning on the top step. ‘And if Lady Hester should enquire for me, inform her that I have left this madhouse, never to return!’
Maidie, meanwhile, ensconced in the Hope family coach with her abigail in attendance, was congratulating herself on the outcome of her mission. To be sure, there had been a dreadful moment when she had doubted her ability to bring it off, but the entrance of Lady Hester Otterburn had changed all that. She was heartily glad of it, for she was now certain that, left to himself, Lord Delagarde would have repudiated her. It was fortunate that Lady Hester had been visiting just at this moment, for failure did not bear thinking of! What in the world would she have done?
Not having made any contingency plan—for how could she have guessed that Delagarde would dislike it?—she might have found herself at a loss. She supposed she would either have had to retreat to the Sussex house which was no longer her home, or to have continued on to the Shurland town house and revealed herself to Adela and Firmin, neither of whom had the least idea that she was in London. No, she would not have done that. Nothing would have induced her to gratify Adela with a show of willingness.
But she was not, she remembered with a resurgence of emotion, obliged to do either of those things, thanks to Lady Hester Otterburn deciding, for whatever reason, that she wished Delagarde to meet his obligation—and it was an obligation! Maidie had seen quite enough of Lady Hester to guess that she possessed sufficient influence over her great-nephew to ensure that she had her way.
Arrived at the Coach and Horses where she had passed the previous night, Maidie lost no time in relaying the story of her success to her duenna.
It had not been with Miss Ida Wormley’s unqualified approval that she had set forth that morning. Indeed, having kept up an incessant discourse against the scheme throughout the two-day coach journey from the Shurland estates at East Dean—to which Maidie had paid not the slightest heed—the Worm, greatly daring, had made a final attempt to prevent her from going at all.
‘I do wish you would not, Maidie,’ she had begged, almost tearfully. ‘It would be the most shocking imposition, and I do not know what his lordship will think of you.’
‘It does not matter what he thinks of me, Worm,’ Maidie had declared impatiently. ‘Do stop fussing! Unless you would have me wed Eustace Silsoe, after all?’
‘No, no, I am persuaded he could not make you happy,’ had said Miss Wormley, distressed. ‘And after the manner in which Lady Shurland has behaved towards you, I cannot blame you for wishing to seek another way.’
‘Well, then?’
‘But not this way, Maidie! To beard Lord Delagarde in his own home! He must think you dead to all sense of decorum. And what he will think of me for allowing you to behave in this unprincipled way, I dare not for my life imagine!’
‘Have no fear, Worm,’ Maidie had soothed. ‘I will make it abundantly clear to his lordship that the scheme is mine, and mine alone. Do not be teasing yourself with thoughts of what he may think of you, but set your mind rather to the programme of how we are to go on once we are installed in his house. You will be obliged to take me about, you know, for we cannot expect Lord Delagarde to chaperon me. It would be most improper.’
But Miss Wormley had been in such a fever of anxiety that she had been unable to set her mind to the resolution of anything. Besides, as she had several times informed her charge, she had no idea how to set about such a programme since she had never moved in fashionable circles. Maidie knew it, and did not hesitate to set her mind at rest as she related her doings at the Delagarde mansion in Charles Street.
‘I must thank heaven for Lady Hester,’ sighed Miss Wormley, setting a hand to her palpitating bosom, and sinking down upon the bed.
For want of something to distract her mind, she had been engaged, when Maidie returned with her abigail in tow, in collecting together those of Maidie’s belongings that were scattered about the bedchamber they had shared at her insistence, for she could not reconcile it with her duty to allow her charge to sleep alone in the chamber of a public inn in the heart of the capital.
‘But was not his lordship very much shocked?’ she asked presently.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Maidie carelessly, removing her hat and smoothing the unruly bands that had held her hair tightly concealed under it. ‘But I took no account of that.’
‘No, I should have known you would not,’ agreed her duenna mournfully. ‘The large portmanteau, Trixie.’ Rising again, she directed the abigail how to pack her mistress’s clothing. Her own accoutrements were already neatly stowed in the smaller receptacle. Then she turned again to Maidie, adding, ‘You never take account of me, after all.’
She spoke without rancour. A colourless female of uncertain age, Miss Ida Wormley had become inured, after near eleven years, to the knowledge that her influence over Lady Mary Hope was but sketchy. She suffered a little in her conscience, which led her to overcome a natural timidity and speak out, whenever she felt her principles to be at odds with Maidie’s conduct. But, despite the fondness with which she knew her charge regarded her, she could not flatter herself that her advice and protestations were attended to.
‘But I thought perhaps you might attend to Lord Delagarde.’
‘Humdudgeon!’ snorted Maidie indelicately. ‘You know very well, dear Worm, that Great-uncle counselled me never to allow myself to be impressed by rank.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Miss Wormley, repressing a desire to disabuse her charge of her unshakable faith in the wisdom of the deceased fifth Earl’s counsel.
‘In any event,’ Maidie pursued doggedly, ‘Delagarde is only a viscount.’
‘Only!’ sighed Miss Wormley.
‘But he’s ever so fashionable, m’lady,’ put in Trixie suddenly. ‘Ain’t that right, Miss Wormley?’
‘Oh, yes. Lord Delagarde is always finding a mention in the Court sections of the London journals, and I recognised his name often in your great-uncle’s copies of the Gentlemen’s Magazine.’
‘Yes, and in them scandal pages often and often! Breaking hearts left and right. Abed here, abed there—’
‘Trixie!’
‘Is that true?’ asked Maidie, interested. ‘Has he had many such associations?’
‘You must not ask me, Maidie!’ uttered the Worm, blushing. ‘Trixie should not have spoken. It is all nasty gossip.’
‘But is it true?’ persisted Maidie, unheeding. ‘I can readily believe it, for he is certainly personable.’
‘Is he, m’lady?’ asked the maid, awed. ‘What is he like?’
‘He is tall and dark, and very cross!’
‘Now, Maidie—you should not! I am sure Lord Delagarde must be all that is amiable—even if it is true that his name has been linked with a number of fashionable…oh, dear, I did not mean to say that!’
‘It does not signify. You are bound to think well of him, Worm,’ said Maidie, ‘for you are more closely related to him than I. For my part, I find him excessively temperamental. I only hope he may not take it into his head to interfere in my concerns. My dependence must be all upon Lady Hester.’
It seemed, when the party arrived back at the Charles Street house, that her dependence was not misplaced. She was touched by the enthusiasm of Lady Hester’s greeting, and noted, with a rush of gratitude, that her champion encompassed Worm in the warmest of welcomes.
‘You and I, my dear Miss Wormley, must sit and enjoy a comfortable cose in the not-too-distant future. We call ourselves cousins, that much I know, but I am hopeful of pinpointing the exact relationship if we exchange but a few of our respective forebears.’
‘Oh, Lady Hester, you are too good,’ uttered Miss Wormley, quite overcome. ‘And your kindness to dear Maidie—’
‘Nonsense,’ said Lady Hester, brushing this aside. ‘Come now, let me guide you to your chambers.’
There was a bevy of servants busy about the transfer of the many trunks and boxes from Maidie’s carriage into the house, but they stood aside for her ladyship and her guests to pass. Pausing only to give some final instruction to her coachman, who was waiting in the hall, Maidie followed her hostess, throwing a word of thanks to the various attendants who were bearing her belongings upstairs.
Rooms were in the process of being prepared, and Maidie, having traversed two flights of the grand staircase and a couple of narrow corridors to arrive there, was delighted to discover that her allotted chamber had a southern aspect.
‘Oh, is that a little balcony?’ she exclaimed, moving to a pair of French windows.
‘The veriest foothold only,’ said Lady Hester. ‘It opens on to the gardens, however, so you may use it to take a breath of fresh air now and then.’
Maidie was not attending. She was tugging at the bolts, and had pulled them back and dragged open the windows before Lady Hester could do more than protest that she would let in the cold. Miss Wormley, who might have concurred, was distracted by the arrival of the luggage, and at once made it her business to inform the servants which pieces should remain in this room.
‘This will do excellently,’ Maidie said with approval, for the balcony extended out for quite two feet, and must be double that in width. Yes, she could set up here easily, and have an excellent view. Stepping on to the balcony, she looked up at the sky and ran her eyes around the horizon. On the second floor of Delagarde’s house, there was some little disturbance to the eyeline from the tops of the surrounding buildings. The attics would have been better, but it was a temporary inconvenience. At least she might continue her work. She had been afraid that it would have been interrupted altogether.
Turning back into the room, she directed Trixie to close the windows again, and looked around for a suitable table. Ah, yes. That little whatnot over on the other side of the four-poster bed. It looked to be free of odds and ends. She might lay her charts on top, and keep it at her elbow.
‘The room is to your liking, then?’ asked Lady Hester.
Maidie turned to her. ‘It will serve very well, thank you.’ She thought she read amusement in the elder lady’s eyes, and wondered if she had not been quite polite. ‘I mean, it is very nice indeed.’
