He looked at her with a rueful smile. “Does it show? After all these years, I thought I had learned to hide it. Even as an objective friend, however, I would like to help her. You don’t abandon your friends when they are in danger. Such an ambitious man as Henry is dangerous.”
“You don’t have to convince
me. I
think he is a positive menace, but she won’t listen to reason. All I have done is turn her against me with my nagging. She won’t feel kindly disposed toward anyone who shows Henry up for the scoundrel he is either.”
“True, I must tread softly. The heart always rules the head, especially when the heart is
in love,
whatever that cliché means. I have come to associate it with another four-letter word:
hell.”
“I’ll go to Sidmouth’s do tonight with them, to try to keep her feet on the ground. I do nothing but harp at the poor girl lately, but then she is acting very badly. She is with him this instant, I know, reading over his shoulder.”
“I wouldn’t leave them too much alone.”
“I am not worried about seduction. She ain’t
that
far gone that she has lost her morals. He is at pains to keep up the
appearance
at least of a gentleman. As Fordwich has not turned him off, he would not be thinking in terms of bolting to the border for a runaway match.”
“I wish he would suggest it. That would open up her eyes fast enough.”
“Don’t count on it. I’ll go and ask her to drive out with me. If I catch cold, it will be her fault, and I shall insist she dance attendance on me.”
“Good girl. I must be off now.”
Lady Margaret shook her head sadly at his retreating form. What dependence could be placed on a foolish girl who took up with that rattle of an Aldred, when she had a fine fellow like Eskott dancing at her skirts these five years—more. No dependence at all. She turned and walked swiftly toward the study door.
Chapter Eight
Lord Eskott sought out Taffy Barker at Lord Sidmouth’s
ball to see if he could discover anything amiss with Aldred’s personal life. The necessary preliminaries regarding the state of their respective health and the fineness of the party were quickly covered.
“Your friend, young Aldred, is rising fast in the world,” Eskott said at length, glancing to the floor, where Henry was performing an exquisite bow to Madeline during the course of the cotillion.
“Knew he had it in him,” Taffy agreed. “Very capable, popular fellow at Christ Church. Best-liked man in his class. Don’t believe he ever made an enemy.”
“A man who has not made a single enemy at his age must have a very obliging set of principles, ones that change with the company he keeps,” Eskott said, making a joke of it.
“Wouldn’t say so,” Barker answered, choosing to take offense at the jibe. “Haven’t an enemy myself, so far as I know. Not what you’d call a real enemy. The Sanfords were put out with me that I didn’t offer for Caroline, but as to enemies—no such a thing.”
“Rumor has it Henry left a lady behind crying willow when he left,” was Eskott’s next venture.
“Anges Dannaher? Devil a bit of it. She was the one gave him the rush. That is to say, her uncle did it for her. Aldred ain’t well inlaid, but he’ll do. Do very well for himself. How’d you hear about Agnes? But you’re a friend of Lady Madeline, of course,” he went on, answering his own question.
“Was he actually engaged to Miss Dannaher? You paid him a visit a while ago, if memory serves.”
“No, never got so far as an engagement. Hinted him away before he came up to scratch, you know. He wanted to court her, but it was frowned upon. They’d have been more than happy to have each other, but the old uncle thought he could do better for the gel. Daresay he will too, despite her looks.”
“Is she not well endowed? Physically, I mean.”
“Between you and me and the bedpost, Eskott, ugly as a badger. Nice, lively, entertaining gel, but plug ugly.” He screwed up his face and shook his head to indicate his repulsion at the girl’s looks. “Not that Henry could find a fault in her appearance. You never want to hint it in front of him.”
“Odd that he would have been dangling after an antidote.”
“Love is blind, folks say. Well, half of the county is blind to Agnes’s looks, and the other half is female, if you see my meaning. The fellows are all trying their luck, but Henry definitely had the inner track, till the uncle came down hard. Forbid the match.”
“At Christmas?”
“No, earlier. He had spoken of letting Agnes come up to town with Mrs. Aldred to visit Henry, but when Henry didn’t land himself in the honeypot in London fast enough to suit them, nothing came of it. Henry had some hope when he left last month to visit home that the thing might be kept alive, but he don’t mention Agnes now. I don’t really know what happened. No denying Henry’s taking his time settling into anything in the work line. Thought he’d be set up sooner than this. He’s choosy though. Always was,” Taffy said, then went on to more agreeable topics.
“Hear Prinney’s in the boughs with his old flirt, Brummell, again. Something to do with snuff and the Bishop of Winchester. Heard the details?”
“Beau made a point of requesting the regent’s servant to dump the remains of his box in the fire after the bishop helped himself to it without asking permission. The typical petty sort of bickering that occupies certain parties, who shall be nameless for fear of treason, when the affairs of state are in jeopardy.”
Each gentleman was eager to get away from the other. Eskott had no more interest in gossip than Barker had in more serious subjects. They each spotted another friend at the same instant, and used it as an excuse to part.
Eskott was a little disappointed with what he had learned. In his own mind, Aldred was clearly a scoundrel, making up to an ugly heiress, and happy to be rid of her when he got his clutches on a pretty one; but alas, it was not considered dishonorable to try to advance oneself in the world by means of a good marriage, providing the heiress’s family was agreeable. He had not behaved badly enough to stand accused of real treachery. He was too sly for that. Even while these thoughts ran around Eskott’s mind, the cotillion finished. He advanced toward the edge of the floor to intercept Madeline and Aldred as they came off.
Before they reached him, they were accosted by another gentleman, who asked Madeline for the next dance. “I am tired to death,” she answered merrily. “Henry and I are going to sit this next one out, and refresh our parched throats with champagne if we can find where Sidmouth is hiding it. I refuse to be fobbed off with that dreadful punch.”
To see her behaving so badly, so unlike herself, and particularly to see her show her marked preference for her cousin, caused Eskott to scowl. Glancing up, Madeline noticed Eskott staring at her.
“Let us discover what has got dear Eskott in the hips tonight,” she said to Henry, advancing toward him. “I expect Lady Susan is not paying you sufficient attention. Is that the trouble, Eskott?”
“It seems the style tonight for ladies to be rude in refusing to stand up with the gentlemen.”
“Eskott always makes it a special point to disapprove of me,” she explained to Henry in a playful way, while she clutched his coat sleeve.
“Not always. Only recently have I found cause to disapprove,” he said bluntly.
“You need not interest yourself in what partners I choose to reject, sir. It is really none of your business. Let us get our champagne now, Henry.”
Lady Margaret was fast advancing on them. “I see you are about to stand up with Maddie,” she said, smiling her encouragement of this scheme.
“Indeed he is not!” Madeline countered quickly. “I am not dancing this set. Get the champagne, Henry.”
“I’ll go with you,” Eskott offered, for his aim was to have a few private words with the young man. Henry did not object to this idea. In fact, he looked pleased with it.
“I don’t see Wellesley here tonight,” Henry said, glancing around the room. “I suppose you heard what the regent said of him? ‘A Spanish grandee grafted on an Irish potato’ he called him. It was presumptuous of Wellesley to aspire to the prime minister’s seat after all.”
“Is that why you refused his offer of a position?” Eskott asked.
“How the deuce did you know about that?” Henry asked, pleasantly surprised by the question.
“I told you, you are much discussed in our ranks, Aldred. Was it a good offer Wellesley made you?”
“It would have been good had he succeeded in his aim, but as he did not, he is expected to resign his seat in the cabinet. Certainly Lord Fordwich thinks so. I don’t see how he can go on serving under Perceval after his complaints.”
“Lucky you didn’t take his offer then.”
“There was more than blind luck in it. I waited to learn the outcome.”
“You don’t want to wait too long to make your decision.”
“Now don’t start tempting me again, Lord Eskott. You know my partiality to
some
of the causes you espouse. Catholic Emancipation, for instance, I feel strongly about, as many of us do, including Fordwich. It is the Old Lady of Manchester Square who has squashed the excellent idea.”
“Take care, Henry. Your talk is taking on a salty, Whiggish tone. It is more usually only we who refer to Lady Hertford as the Old Lady,” Eskott said in an approving way.
“Well, if you have an
interesting
offer to make, Lord Eskott, I am not
irrevocably
rooted to either side yet. This scribbling I do for my cousin is only a stopgap measure to keep body and soul together. I had not the good fortune to be born the eldest son.”
“What you need is a rich wife, my young man.”
“That would be my last preference, to establish myself at the cost of my personal happiness. I am too young to be thinking in terms of a marriage of convenience.”
“Not all heiresses are old and ugly.”
“No, some of them are young and ugly,” he said over his shoulder, accepting two glasses of champagne.
“Some few are young and beautiful,” Eskott pointed out, hoping to hear from the man’s lips some words regarding Madeline.
“Yes, those are the unattainable ones,” he answered sadly, with a noble smile.
Eskott saw no hope of discovering more from this clever weasel. He took the wine back to Lady Margaret, and Henry and Madeline wandered off to be alone.
“Did you learn anything?” Lady Margaret asked.
“Less than will indict him; more than enough for suspicion,” he decided.
“Exactly the problem. He
says
the right things, but what he
does—
that might be a different matter. If he approaches you
directly
for a job, that will be a good indication of his duplicity, for he spouts the Tory doctrine better than any of them now. If he turns his coat on Fordwich, there will be no possibility he will allow the match. It is only Aldred’s parroting speeches that put him in such high aroma at home.”
“A pity he wouldn’t spout off there as he does in my company.”
“Don’t think to beguile him into it. He has more twists than a corkscrew. The pity of it is that if
you
offered him a good post,
you
would end up the villain of the piece. He has us bound wing and leg. I was never so vexed with anyone in my life. We must think of something to expose him.”
“We’ll have to do it pretty damned fast too,” Eskott added, looking across the room, to see Madeline and Henry just leaving. She was so wrapped up in him she failed to see two different sets of guests nodding and smiling at her. The ignored parties shook their heads as though to say, “She is in love. What can you expect?”
Being a man of conscience, Eskott took himself severely to task that night, after he left the ball. How much was jealousy coloring his opinion of Henry Aldred? The actual facts were that the fellow had been turned off by one heiress, and was now dangling after another.
He was looking for a lucrative position, which was surely not immoral when a man was without independent means. He was being rather devious about it, playing one end against the other and misrepresenting the nature of his work for Fordwich. He knew of plenty who had done worse, and been called wily, or even plain clever.
Not an admirable man certainly, but not really a villain at all. If it were anyone else but Maddie who was mixed up with him, Eskott knew he would not give it a second thought. As it
was
Madeline, he could not seem to think of anything else.
The direction of his thinking tended toward exposing Henry’s weaknesses. With this aim in view, he continued visiting the Second Court of St. James, where he became less welcome to Madeline with every visit.
Chapter Nine
“Good gracious, not another white gown!” Lady Margaret exclaimed when the parcel from the modiste was unwrapped.
“Henry likes me in white,” Maddie countered, lifting the confection from silver paper to hold it before her in front of the mirror.
“That seems to be all that matters to you nowadays, what Henry likes. You make a laughingstock of yourself, returning to white gowns like a deb, when you have been in colors for close to a decade. It is only to make yourself look young for him. Well, it don’t work, milady, I can tell you. You look a deal more attractive in deep shades, with your sallow skin.”
“Yes, Auntie dear. I know Eskott has been whispering in your ear his deep dislike of Henry, but I am not a deb, as you so frequently and kindly point out. As a well-seasoned old jade of twenty-five, I must be allowed to select my own colors.”
“Twenty-six next month, isn’t it?”
“Just so, and twenty-seven the year after, twenty-eight the year after that. Like the rest of mankind, I age a year every twelve months. Meanwhile, I am not quite over the hill.”
“You are beginning to look it, in those pale things you wear,” Aunt Margaret said, striding from the room in anger, and rattling the door after her one more time.
Madeline shook her head, mildly annoyed, no more. How was it possible to be angry with such a delightful world? She saw Henry every day, and nearly every evening. She worked with him over her father’s correspondence, having a much better grasp of business matters after her long interest in Papa’s work. They went to balls and routs and plays. She had made the acquaintance of Eskott’s poet, the much-praised Byron, and found him charming. Had she not been so much in love with Henry, she might have managed to fall in love with him, as the rest of London was doing.