Deception (13 page)

“Not only is he a danger to us all,” Mrs. Pettigrew retorted, “but my husband has reason to believe that he may well have taken advantage of your naive nature, Miss Wingfield.”

Olympia glared at her. “I assure you, Mr. Chillhurst has not taken advantage of me.”

“He apparently absconded with a shipment of goods that your uncle sent to you,” Mrs. Pettigrew said.

“Quite untrue.” Olympia got to her feet. “Mrs. Pettigrew, I regret that I must ask you to leave. I have a great deal of work to do this afternoon and I cannot afford to waste my time like this.”

“Have you seen any sign of the proceeds that you ought to have realized from your uncle’s last shipment?” Mrs. Pettigrew asked coldly.

“Not yet. But there has hardly been time for the goods to have been sold in London, let alone for us to have received the funds.”

“My husband informs me that you are highly unlikely to see any money from that shipment,” Mrs. Pettigrew
said. “But, to be sure, your financial situation is not my major concern.”

Olympia flattened both of her hands on top of the desk and set her teeth. “Just what is your major concern, Mrs. Pettigrew?”

“Your reputation, Miss Wingfield.”

Olympia stared at her in disbelief. “My reputation? How is my reputation in danger?”

Mrs. Norbury apparently felt it was time for her to do her part. She coughed slightly to clear her throat. “It is not proper for a single woman such as yourself to have, shall we say, a close association with a person of Mr. Chillhurst’s sort.”

“Quite right,” Mrs. Pettigrew said. She gave the vicar’s wife an approving look and then rounded on Olympia once more. “Your Mr. Chillhurst must be dismissed at once.”

Olympia narrowed her eyes at both women. “Now see here, Mr. Chillhurst is a tutor in this household. As it happens, he is a very good tutor and I have absolutely no intention of dismissing him. Furthermore, neither of you has any right to spread lies and rumors about him.”

“What about your reputation?” Mrs. Norbury piped up anxiously.

A movement at the corner of Olympia’s eye caught her attention. She turned her head and saw that Jared was leaning very casually in the doorway. He smiled slightly at her.

“My reputation is my concern, Mrs. Norbury,” Olympia said bluntly. “Do not bother yourself about it. No one else has bothered about it for the past several years and I have gotten along just fine.”

Mrs. Pettigrew lifted her chin. “I regret to say this, but if you will not listen to reason, we may be obliged to take action.”

Olympia eyed her in disgust. “And just what sort of action would that be, Mrs. Pettigrew?”

“We have a duty to see to the welfare of those three innocent young boys who are in your care,” Mrs. Pettigrew said coldly. “If you will not provide them with a proper home then my husband will have to take steps to see that they are removed from your household.”

Panic and rage ignited like dry tinder inside Olympia. “You cannot take my nephews away from this house. You have no right to do so.”

Mrs. Pettigrew gave her a thin, superior smile. “I’m certain that if my husband were to contact a few of the boys’ other relatives and inform them about the situation in this household he would find one or two who would be willing to take charge of your nephews.”

“Not bloody likely,” Olympia shot back. “They’re here in the first place because no one else wanted them.”

“That situation might alter when they learn that the boys are being raised by a young woman of dubious morals. I’m sure Mr. Pettigrew will find someone in your family who can be persuaded to do his duty by the boys.” Mrs. Pettigrew’s smile grew more threatening. “Especially if Mr. Pettigrew offers a small stipend to provide for your nephews to be sent away to school.”

Olympia was literally shaking with the force of her anger. “You would pay someone to take my nephews away from me and put them into a school?”

Mrs. Pettigrew gave a brisk nod of her head. “If necessary, yes. For their own good, of course. The young are so very impressionable.”

Olympia could not stand it any longer. “Please leave at once, Mrs. Pettigrew.” She glanced at the vicar’s wife who was cowering in her chair. “You, too, Mrs. Nor-bury. And do not bother to return. I will not tolerate either one of you in this household again. Is that quite clear?”

“Now, see here, young woman,” Mrs. Pettigrew began sharply.

Whatever she was going to say was forestalled by a startled shriek from Mrs. Norbury who had risen from her chair and turned toward the door.

“May the lord have mercy, that must be him.” Her hand went to her throat in a fluttery little gesture of fascinated horror. “It is just as you said, Mrs. Pettigrew. The man looks very much like a murderous, bloodthirsty pirate.”

Mrs. Pettigrew swung around and regarded Jared with grave disapproval. “A pirate, indeed. Allow me to tell you, sir, that you have no business in a decent household.”

“Good afternoon, ladies.” Jared inclined his head in a graceful, mocking bow. “I do not believe we have been properly introduced. I am Chillhurst.”

Mrs. Pettigrew marched toward the door. “I do not hold conversations with your sort. If you have any claim to civility, you will leave this household at once. You are causing great damage to Miss Wingfield’s reputation and there is no knowing how much damage you have already done to the minds of her young nephews. To say nothing of the harm you have done to her financial affairs.”

“Leaving so soon?” Jared straightened and got out of Mrs. Pettigrew’s path.

“My husband will deal with the likes of you.” Mrs. Pettigrew sailed out into the hall. “Come along, Cecily. We are leaving.”

Mrs. Norbury nervously eyed Jared’s black velvet patch.

“I beg your pardon, sir,” she mumbled. “I hope we have not offended you.”

“Ah, but I am offended, madam,” Jared said very softly. “Deeply offended.”

Mrs. Norbury looked as if the devil himself had spoken. “Oh, dear.”

Jared gave her a chilling smile. Then he went to the front door and opened it wide.

“Do hurry, Cecily,” Mrs. Pettigrew snapped.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming.” Mrs. Norbury collected herself and darted toward the door.

“Here now, what’s going on?” Mrs. Bird appeared from the kitchen, tea tray in hand. “I’ve just got the bloody tea ready.”

Olympia went to stand in the hall beside Jared. “Our guests will not require tea this afternoon, Mrs. Bird.”

“Typical,” Mrs. Bird complained sourly. “Go to a lot of trouble and no one drinks it. Some people have no consideration for common folk.”

Olympia stood beside Jared and watched as Mrs. Pettigrew’s coachman clambered down from his perch to usher the two women into an elegant new landau. The twin folding hoods of the carriage had been raised, even though the weather was very fine that afternoon.

Mrs. Pettigrew stepped into the vehicle, followed closely by Mrs. Norbury. The coachman closed the door.

A scream echoed across the garden.

“God save us,”
yelped Mrs. Norbury. “There’s something in here. Open the door.
Open the door.”

“Get us out of here, you dolt,” Mrs. Pettigrew shouted to her coachman.

The coachman hurried to open the carriage door. Mrs. Pettigrew leaped from the landau. Mrs. Norbury was not far behind.

Olympia heard the unmistakable
rivit-rivit
of several frogs. Through the open carriage door she could see what appeared to be at least half a dozen of the creatures hopping about inside the landau.

“Remove those horrible creatures at once,” Mrs. Pettigrew ordered. “Get them out or you will be dismissed immediately, George.”

“Yes, ma’am.” George took off his hat and frantically began scooping frogs off the cushions.

Olympia watched the confusion in the drive with a sense of growing trepidation. Between the croaking frogs, the swearing of the coachman, Mrs. Norbury’s cries of dismay, and Mrs. Pettigrew’s venomous glances, she sensed impending disaster.

Jared watched it all with a small, quiet smile.

When the last of the frogs had been evicted from the landau and Mrs. Pettigrew and the vicar’s wife installed instead, Olympia turned at last to look at Jared.

“What became of the geometry lesson?”

“It was temporarily put aside in favor of a lesson in natural history,” Jared said.

“When was that decision made?”

“When Robert, Hugh, and Ethan saw the Pettigrew carriage pull into the drive a short while ago.”

“I was afraid of that,” Olympia said.

“There is no great harm done,” Jared said. “I believe all of the frogs have survived. They shall find their way back to the pond.”

“Mr. Chillhurst, you have no notion of the harm that has been done. Matters could not be worse.” Olympia turned away in despair and walked back into the library.

Surprised by Olympia’s grim expression, Jared followed her into the library and closed the door.

“What’s the matter, Miss Wingfield? Surely you are not overly concerned about the frogs in the Pettigrew carriage?”

Olympia gave him a dismayed look. “That business with the frogs could
not
have come at a worse moment.”

“Why?” Jared watched her intently. “Do you regret your defense of me already?”

“Of course not. You are a member of my staff and as such you are under my protection.” Olympia went to the window
and stood looking out at the garden. “Mrs. Pettigrew is an extremely unpleasant woman who has a habit of interfering in everyone else’s affairs. I do not regret defending your presence in this household for one moment.”

“Thank you.” Jared studied the proud line of her graceful spine. “I do not believe anyone has ever done that before.”

“Done what?”

“Leaped to my defense.”

“Oh. It was nothing.” Olympia lifted one shoulder in a small shrug.

Jared smiled slightly. “Not in my view, Miss Wingfield.”

“Mrs. Pettigrew had no right to attack you in that manner. And neither did Mrs. Norbury, although I suppose one must find some excuse for her. She is not a very strong female.”

“Unlike yourself,” Jared said. “But even the strongest of females must have a care for her reputation. I collect from what I overheard a few minutes ago that Mrs. Pettigrew is deeply concerned about yours.”

“Apparently.” Olympia did not turn around.

“What about you, Miss Wingfield?” Jared took a step closer and stopped. He was not certain what to do or say next. No woman’s reputation had ever before been in jeopardy because of his actions. Dull, unexciting men of business such as himself rarely got into situations in which they succeeded in being a threat to any female.

“I do not give a fig for my reputation.” Olympia clasped her hands very tightly in front of her. “Aunt Sophy always said that a reputation was nothing more than the world’s opinion and the world was frequently wrong. The important thing was one’s honor and she made it clear that was a private matter between oneself
and one’s conscience. I am not the least concerned about what Mrs. Pettigrew thinks of me.”

“I see.” Jared supposed he should be relieved to hear that Olympia was not going to hold him responsible for damaging her reputation. He wondered why he felt no great weight being lifted from his shoulders. “If you are not dispirited because of Mrs. Pettigrew’s opinion, then what is the problem, Miss Wingfield?”

“Did you not hear her, sir? She threatened to send my nephews away,” Olympia whispered. “She said that they should not be exposed to the immoral influences in this household and that her husband would be willing to pay some distant relative to take them.”

“Bastard,” Jared said under his breath.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It was nothing, Miss Wingfield. It just occurred to me that Pettigrew is more desperate than I had realized.”

“Yes. I was not aware that Squire Pettigrew and his wife were quite so concerned about my reputation.” Olympia swung around to face him. Her eyes gleamed with determination. “It might be best if we took the boys out of Upper Tudway for a while. Do you think we shall realize enough money from the sale of my uncle’s goods to provide for a trip to the seaside?”

Jared elevated one brow. “Yes, I am quite certain you will have enough money to go to the seaside.”

“Excellent.” Olympia brightened. “When do you think we shall hear from your friend in London?”

“Any time, Miss Wingfield. Perhaps tomorrow or the next day.” It would not take Felix Hartwell long to dispose of Olympia’s goods, Jared thought. He only hoped that Hartwell was making some progress on his investigations into the embezzlement matter. Perhaps there would be news on that front when word came of the sale of the Wingfield shipment.

“I am very glad to hear that,” Olympia said. “If we remove ourselves from Upper Tudway for a fortnight or so, perhaps Mrs, Pettigrew will calm down. I am also hopeful that Squire Pettigrew will not be overly enthusiastic about the notion of paying someone to take my nephews. He is rather careful with his money.”

Jared contemplated the situation for a brief moment. “Miss Wingfield, your plan to take the boys and decamp to the seaside is not a bad one, but I believe it will be unnecessary.”

Olympia’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why is that?”

“I had intended to pay a call on Pettigrew in the near future. Now that Mrs. Pettigrew has begun making threats, I believe I shall not put the conversation off any longer. I shall call on him tomorrow.”

Olympia eyed him with a quizzical gaze. “I do not understand, Mr. Chillhurst. Why do you wish to speak with Squire Pettigrew? What will you say to him?”

“I shall endeavor to explain to him that neither he nor his wife will be allowed to make any more threats or to overset you in any way. In short, I shall tell him to stay out of your affairs.”

“Jared
. I mean, Mr. Chillhurst, you must not do anything that will cause yourself more trouble.” Olympia hurried across the room and put her hand on Jared’s arm. “You must consider your own reputation.”

Jared smiled briefly. “My reputation?”

“But of course. A tutor must be extremely careful. I shall be most happy to give you an excellent reference when you leave us, of course, but if Squire Pettigrew puts it about that you are a wicked influence on youth, well, there is no telling how difficult it might be for you to obtain another position.”