Julia Justiss (9 page)

Molly shook her head. “Harrison will still sack me.”

Helena grinned at her. “If your worst fears are realized, I shall hire you back myself. Now, here is another guinea to soothe your worry with ices at Gunter’s.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Molly took the coin. “Iff’n I do get sacked, Ma would say I’d be better off going to the workhouse myself than taking that job. You be the most unusual lady I’ve ever met, and that’s the truth.”

If you only knew, Helena thought ruefully, watching the Marylebone workhouse fade from view as the carriage headed back toward Mayfair.

T
HREE WEEKS LATER
, in great good humor, Adam ran up the front steps of the Darnell town house and swept inside, tossing his coat, hat and cane to the butler.

“Are the ladies at home?” he asked Harrison.

“They just returned from their afternoon calls.”

“Would you have them join me in the Green Salon? At once, please.”

Harrison didn’t flicker an eye at the unusual summons. “Yes, my lord. Should I send refreshment?”

“Have James bring up a bottle of Papa’s best claret. And Harrison,” Adam continued, grinning as he placed a gold coin in the butler’s hand, “you may wish me happy.”

Harrison permitted himself a small smile. “Excellent, my lord. Allow me to convey my own and the staff’s best wishes to you and Miss Standish.”

Adam trotted up the stairs to the parlor chuckling at Harrison’s congratulations. Trust one’s servants to know everything that was going on without one’s having to utter a word, though given the time he’d spent calling on Miss Standish, Harrison’s surmise was hardly a wild guess. However, his steward’s additional
demands for funds to cover the repairs at Claygate having spurred Adam to suppress his initial misgivings and conclude his courtship with unusual speed, he expected his news would elicit a bit more surprise from the ladies.

As he went from the landing into the hallway, he caught a glimpse of a tall, dark-haired figure disappearing around the corner. Probably his stepmother’s ward, he thought, though the girl vanished before he got a good enough look to be sure. Come to think of it, he’d still not seen Miss Lambarth since the night he’d brought her home. He felt an illogical sense of disappointment at having missed her once again.

He’d seen evidence of her presence, though, in the library, where Harrison told him she spent a great deal of time. She’d added a thick Aubusson rug in front of the sofa by the fire. He grinned as he remembered their conversation in the lawyer’s office, wondering if she kept the fire in her chamber hot enough to curl the wallpaper.

True to Lady Darnell’s word, his stepmother had handled every detail of Miss Lambarth’s care, sparing him having to make any decisions about her and keeping the herds of tradesmen his valet complained about from inconveniencing him, for which he was most grateful. Not that he’d spent much time at home to be inconvenienced.

He entered the parlor, poured himself a celebratory brandy and downed a bracing sip. He trusted Lady Darnell had made her cousin’s child feel welcome—and hoped she’d made progress in schooling the girl on
how to behave in Society. Since Priscilla was to become his wife, Adam should introduce Miss Lambarth to his fiancée. Indeed, the girl ought to be present when Lady Darnell invited the Standish family to dine, as she was certain to do once she’d heard his announcement.

A moment later Charis hurried in, Lady Darnell on her heels. “What is it, Adam?” his stepmother cried, an anxious expression on her face. “Is something amiss?”

“On the contrary, everything is excellent! Please sit, ladies. I know you will be relieved to learn that the…troubling times we’ve suffered since Papa’s death are at an end. An hour ago I proposed to Priscilla Standish and was accepted. I hope you will wish us both happy.”

Lady Darnell’s frown dissolved into a smile. “Adam, you sly dog!” she exclaimed, coming over to give him a hug. “I’d heard from my friends that you had an interest there, but being so preoccupied with Helena and with the Season just begun, I had no idea you meant to move so quickly!”

“Why impose some artificial delay? Priscilla assured me she has had her fill of being courted as one of society’s leading Belles and is as eager as I to formalize our engagement. And though I’m sure there are any number of excellent young ladies making their bows this year, I’ve no interest in a chit straight out of the schoolroom.”

The footman’s arrival with the wine halted conversation while the bottle was opened and poured. Holding up his glass, Adam said, “To Priscilla
Standish! A lovely, accomplished young lady whom I hold in the highest regard and affection. May she make me as excellent a wife as I shall earnestly endeavor to make her a husband.”

After his sister and stepmother had answered his toast, Adam continued, “I hope you will both welcome Priscilla to the family with as much warmth as I trust she will soon extend to you.”

Nothing that though his stepmother was beaming at him, Charis looked pensive, Adam extended an arm. “I’d have a hug from you, too, sister!”

She smiled then and came over to embrace him. “Miss Standish is very rich, isn’t she, Adam?”

He kissed the hand he still held. “Yes, sweeting, although I hope you don’t think so poorly of me as to hint that I proposed to her only for that reason.”

“Of course not. I know you were friends when I was still in the nursery,” she said.

“Yes, and a merrier-spirited little girl you could scarcely imagine. The scrapes I led her into! You were too small to remember them, I suppose.”

“I didn’t meet her until the beginning of this Season. She…she doesn’t seem very lively now,” Charis observed.

“Naturally she is upon her best behavior when she goes about in Society—as I expect you to be!” he said, a niggle of unease troubling him at his sister’s lack of enthusiasm.

Lady Darnell intervened with the observation that she must give a dinner so that the families might become better acquainted before the ball Miss
Standish’s parents would doubtless host in honor of their engagement. After a discussion of possible dates, Lady Darnell excused herself, leaving the siblings alone.

Wishing to dispel his lingering uneasiness, Adam said, “I’m a bit disappointed that you aren’t more enthusiastic about my news. You mustn’t worry that my taking a wife will distance you from my affections! Your welfare will ever be one of my primary concerns. Indeed, my settling my future so early in the Season frees you to enjoy your own. Though your dowry still won’t be what I would wish it, you may concern yourself solely with judging a suitor’s character, without concern for the size of his purse.”

“As you could not?” Charis asked bluntly.

“You mustn’t think that!” Adam returned. “True, ’tis important to the restoration of Claygate that my bride be wealthy, but truly Priscilla is the choice of my heart.”

“Is she? How can you be sure, with the Season scarcely begun and you having played no part in Society since you joined Wellington years ago? There might be…other ladies in London who are rich, accomplished and attractive. Some fascinating lady who would completely enthrall you. For excuse me, dearest brother, but when you speak of ‘regard’ and ‘affection’ I cannot believe your heart is truly engaged.”

Squelching the smidgeon of doubt her words evoked, Adam gave her an indulgent smile. “I may not have described what I feel for Priscilla in terms as rapturous as those contained within the pages of one of
your Minerva Press novels, but my affection for her is real. And more substantial a base for a lasting marriage, I believe, than more poetically intense emotions.”

“’Twas not in the pages of a novel that I learned of devotion, but by watching Bellemere and Papa,” Charis countered. “She loves London, yet during Papa’s life she was completely content to remain at Claygate. On the very few occasions when she went to town, he fretted the whole time she was away. And though some may think her frivolous and empty-headed, when he fell ill, she nursed him with untiring devotion, refusing to turn over his care even to his valet, and sank into a melancholy for months after his death. Indeed, ’twas not until Helena arrived to occupy her that she has seemed more like her old self. Can you avow such intensity of emotion for Miss Standish?”

“Sounds rather uncomfortable,” Adam replied, wishing he’d never broached the subject. “Perhaps in my salad days I fancied myself violently in love with some dashing creature or other, but it always ended in disillusionment. I suppose ladies possess more sensibility, but gentlemen don’t experience such excess of feeling—at least not one of my mature years with an estate to set to rights.”

“So you say,” Charis replied, looking unconvinced.

Anxious now to end the exchange, Adam kissed her cheek. “With my future settled, we should discuss which of the young men you’ve met thus far you admire most.”

Though the lift of her eyebrows told him Charis recognized quite well that he was trying to turn the
subject, she said, “I do thank you for sparing me having to marry wealth. I only wish you did not have to do so! But since you ask it, I will try to be happy for you and welcome Miss Standish with sisterly affection.”

“I know you will.” Having had no luck with his first diversionary tactic, Adam tried another. “You mentioned Miss Lambarth a bit ago. How is she doing? Will she be ready to appear at Bellemere’s dinner for Priscilla?”

At once Charis smiled. “She is doing wonderfully! I think when you next meet her, you’ll be delighted with the changes Bellemere has wrought.”

“Our stepmother has ever been a wizard at equipping a lady to look her best—as the recent additions to your wardrobe attest! If we don’t have a crowd of young bucks worshipping at your feet within a week of your formal presentation, the young men of London must be blind.”

“Worshipping at my feet as you assure me a mature gentleman would not? Then I must hope for young suitors!” Charis replied with a giggle.

“I’m relieved to hear of Miss Lambarth’s progress. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to present to Priscilla a girl whose odd behavior made her appear attics-to-let.”

To his surprise, Charis’s smile faded. “Helena is nothing of the sort!” she retorted hotly. “Indeed, I believe her mind to be brilliant! All her tutors have expressed their astonishment at the breadth of her knowledge of literature, philosophy and mathematics. She performs splendidly upon the pianoforte, which is
amazing since she confided that she had not played at all since her mother left! She’s even proficient at fencing—”

“Fencing?” Adam interrupted, eyebrows raised.

Charis colored. “She has a dancing master, too, and is becoming just as proficient at that. She’s a most unusual girl, who interests herself in almost everything.”

Adam had a swift, disturbing vision of a thin waif trying to defend herself at sword point. Shaking it off, he said, “So I observed when we first met. But if we can sit through the length of a dinner without her embarrassing us in front of Priscilla, I will be content.”

Charis stiffened further. “If she should do something…not quite right, it would only be because Bellemere has not thought to instruct her about it or our way of doing it does not seem logical. Her mind is very precise. And she learns with amazing speed—Bellemere never has to correct her for the same mistake twice.” Charis smiled. “’Tis most entertaining to see our everyday habits and behavior through her eyes!”

“You are quite her champion,” Adam observed wryly. “I had hoped she could be like a sister to you. If you have become fond of her, I am glad of it.”

“I love her! She has a dry wit and is wonderfully kind, though I know I’m not nearly as clever as she is. I’m never bored in her company. She has such a novel perspective—one never knows what she will say or do next.”

Given how exacting Priscilla’s mother was, this last confidence was not precisely reassuring. Adam said a
quick prayer that the upcoming dinner—meant to show his prospective in-laws that his breeding, if not his finances, was fully worthy of their daughter—did not turn into a disaster, courtesy of his stepmother’s unpredictable ward. “Well, I hope she’ll not be too entertaining in front of Mrs. Standish. She’s…rather conventional.”

Charis made a face. “Overbearing and opinionated, I would describe her—but as she is to be your mama-in-law, I shall say no more.”

“If you are indulgent of Miss Lambarth’s lapses, I expect I shall be, as well. But I must be off. I’m to dine at Grosvenor Square, then meet Dix at White’s, where I expect to toast my engagement handsomely.”

Charis wrinkled her nose. “Which means you will drink to excess and return home too foxed to stand.”

Adam laughed as he gave her a hand up from the sofa. “And what would you know of that, minx? I shall certainly celebrate this early and providential solution to our difficulties, and be happier still that you may enjoy your Season without my having to worry about expenses.”

Arm in arm, the two siblings strolled into the hall. After rising on tiptoe to kiss Adam’s cheek, Charis said, “I shall be happy, too—if it all works out somehow.” And with that cryptic remark, she walked away, leaving him staring thoughtfully after her, a tiny bit of unease still lodged in his chest.

L
ATE THAT EVENING
, garbed in one of her new silk night rails under a dressing gown of fur-lined emerald satin,
Helena descended to the library after chatting with the ladies upon their return from the musicale they’d attended.

’Twas nearly the last event they would go to without her, Aunt Lillian had told her this afternoon. Now that Helena’s wardrobe was complete and since she had so quickly assimilated the essential rules of social behavior, her aunt wanted Helena to start accompanying them on morning calls to Lady Darnell’s friends, two of whom, Lady Jersey and Mrs. Drummond Burrell, might be counted upon to send vouchers for the all-important assemblies at Almack’s. Once Helena appeared there, she could expect a flood of invitations to routs, musicales, dances, balls, masquerades and alfresco breakfasts.