* * * *
The sight-seeing excursion had to be put off when the weather changed abruptly. Thursday dawned grey and dreary, and by eight a light drizzle was falling, growing steadily heavier as the morning wore on. When Jerry arrived in Paddington with a note from his master suggesting postponement, Hester was disappointed. A little rain would not have stopped her, but she supposed it would not be very comfortable to be climbing in and out of a carriage with dripping clothes.
She had been looking forward to seeing Alice and to meeting Cousin Sophie and George Charworthy. Now she wondered if they might venture out to take tea with her. She would not have presumed to invite them directly, especially Miss Bardry, whose mother so obviously disapproved of her, but perhaps Lord Alton might prevail upon them to join him in a visit.
She dashed off a quick note to his lordship proposing the scheme, and assuring him that she would not take offence if he considered it ineligible.
Promptly at three o’clock, the Alton town carriage drew up in the narrow village street. The earl and his nephew descended, bearing huge black umbrellas, and escorted the young ladies to the door. Robbie had been on the lookout, and before the knocker could be plied, he flung the door open.
“Hello, Allie,” he said. “You look like a bird with all those feathers on your hat. Is that cousin Sophie?” Belatedly remembering his manners, he bowed as the visitors crowded into the cramped hallway.
It became even more crowded as Hester, James, and Geoffrey arrived to greet the guests, and Bessie to see why there was such a hubbub when no one had summoned her to the door. Gradually the confusion was sorted out, introductions made, damp pelisses and greatcoats carried off to the kitchen to dry, and the two younger boys banished thither, to their mutual and outspoken disgust.
The rest of the party repaired to the parlour, where a cheerful fire burned in the grate—a pleasant contrast to the wind-lashed rain beyond the window. The ladies were seated; Lord Alton placed himself firmly beside Hester; and Jamie took a hard chair against the wall between his sisters, where they might shelter him from the gaze of the alarmingly stylish young gentleman to whom he had scarcely been introduced. Mr. Charworthy found himself between his redoubtable uncle and his forbidden sweetheart, a veritable Scylla and Charybdis, though if he had ever heard of those perils of the Ancient World the impression had not been lasting. Philosophically, he took his seat and commenced sucking on the knob of his cane, his rather protuberant blue eyes firmly fixed on Miss Alice and Uncle David alternately, in accordance with his mother’s instructions to watch their behaviour in each other’s company.
Since he had very little idea what he was looking for, and would have been unable to present a coherent report if he had observed anything worthy of note, he felt scarce a twinge of guilt when he found his gaze wandering to the face of his inamorata, where it presently fixed. A modest young man, George was fully aware of his own deficiencies in the area of the brain-box. He had been known to refer to himself in a fit of despondency as a “regular Jack-pudding.” It was a source of constant amazement and gratification to him that Sophie Bardry, who was certainly wide awake on every suit, should have taken a liking to him.
They had known each other forever, as the Charworthy and Bardry estates in Staffordshire shared a boundary. Though three years his junior, she had often protected him from the starts of his younger brother, Terence, an enterprising youth of her own age. George had long admired her ability to deal with situations that left him floundering like a fish out of water, and if there was any fault to be found with her appearance, he was as unaware of it the sixth time his mama pointed it out as he had been the first. It had come as a shock when her debut had been postponed for a year in the vain hope that time and constant applications of Distilled Water of Green Pineapples might erase her deplorable freckles. He liked them.
Though in general an obedient, not to mention docile, son, George had not intention of submitting forever to his mama’s frequently announced opposition to his choice of a wife. Now that Sophie had formally left the schoolroom behind her, he was biding his time, awaiting the appropriate moment to act. He hoped he would recognise it when it came.
In the meantime, he listened admiringly as Sophie opened the conversation.
“I am happy to have the opportunity of making your acquaintance, Miss Godric,” she declared. “Alice has told me so much about you.”
“Thank you, Miss Bardry,” said Hester, wondering just what Alice had disclosed. “I am glad your mama permitted you to visit me—though a little surprised, I confess.”
“Mama does not know,” the young lady admitted blushing. “I told her only that Alice and I were going out with Lord Alton and George. She was quite thrown into transports and did not think to ask where we were going. I have been determined to meet you this age.”
“Determined!” affirmed George with a nod.
“My dear, I do not like you to deceive Lady Bardry.”
“She did not forbid me to see you, though truth to tell I believe that was because she never expected I might wish to do so. Mama does not know me very well. I am grateful to his lordship for bringing me here.”
George looked at his august uncle to see how he took this. Lord Alton was contemplating Alice, who was ravishing in a walking dress of rose Circassian cloth.
“Grateful, Uncle,” George pointed out to him, afraid he had missed the comment.
“My pleasure, George,” assured his lordship indulgently. In general he had little patience with his mutton-headed nephew, but he was prepared to put up with his asinine remarks so long as Lady Bardry was eager to push Sophie into his company. He wanted Hester to begin to feel at home in fashionable society, and though Miss Bardry was not precisely what he would have chosen, her manners and breeding were unexceptionable, and she had the advantage of being a close connexion. She would do for a start.
Another point in George’s favour was that Lady Ariadne ought to prove gratified by his sudden and belated interest in his heir, and her gratitude might with luck persuade her to receive Miss Godric with complaisance. That she would receive her in one way or another, and sooner or later, went without saying. But it would be much more comfortable for Hester if she did so with a good grace. He would have to invent some good reason for desiring her to take up Miss Godric. Once more his gaze settled, this time speculatively, on Alice. The germs of a plot began to take shape in his mind.
Even George could not fail to be conscious of his lordship’s abstraction and the way his eyes lingered on Miss Alice. So silent was David that Hester, who had noticed a slight limp as he entered, thought he must be in pain, and she revised her decision not to mention it to him for fear of embarrassing him. She waited for a moment when Jamie had entered the conversation, emboldened by Mr. Charworthy’s monosyllables, and was describing to the young ladies a trial he had attended with Geoffrey at the Old Bailey. Turning to Lord Alton, she spoke in a low voice.
“I am afraid your leg is not as well healed as we had hoped, sir. Is it very painful?”
“It aches a little when the weather is cold and wet,” he admitted, “but nothing to signify. Mistress Ivy warned me, you know! I expect it would be the better for some of your grandfather’s liniment, if I could bring myself to submit to being sent to Coventry.”
“That is not at all necessary. I have discovered an embrocation which works almost as well and without any odour that might lead to the end of your social life. I shall have an apothecary make some up for you.” Hester surprised herself with a distressingly unladylike desire to rub the ointment into his injured limb with her own hands. Only to be certain it was properly applied, she assured herself hastily. She would see that his lordship’s valet had precise instructions.
Lord Alton noted her faint blush and wondered what had caused it. He was afraid that his accursed leg had negated all the progress he had made in removing himself from the number of her dependents. He thanked her and hurriedly changed the subject.
“I hope you do not mean to cry off our excursion because of the delay. March is nearly here and the sun will surely show itself again soon. We must reschedule both the tour of London and Rob’s river trip.”
“The season will soon be in full swing, will it not? You will have little time for such things, and you must not consider yourself obliged to carry out plans laid in a more leisurely hour.”
“Hester, you have a poor opinion of me if you think I break promises so easily. Besides, both outings offer far more amusement than another round of breakfasts, ridottos, card parties, and balls. I am shocked to realise that I have been on the town these ten years and more, and have never been on a Thames steamboat nor climbed the Monument. And I am sure you will agree with me that one’s companions make all the difference to the enjoyment of any occasion.”
“Robbie was certainly very relieved that you did not mean to hand him over to a secretary.”
“Now that reminds me! How could I have forgotten? Bella and Barney asked me to convey to you an invitation to dine in Russell Square on Sunday. They generally ask a few close friends to take pot-luck. I shall be going and will be happy to fetch you and bring you home again.”
“David, I must not. You know I am determined to avoid entering society. If you will take me to see Mrs. Rugby one afternoon, I shall be vastly obliged, but not a dinner party.” Hester twisted her handkerchief in her agitated fingers.
“My dear, I do understand your scruples. However, the Rugbys do not move in the same circles as your sister’s aunt, and it is highly unlikely that you will meet anyone who is acquainted with her.”
“The circles must overlap. Indeed I know they do, for do not you belong to both?”
“Only because Barney and Bella are such very good friends of mine. You must not become a hermit for Alice’s sake. With her beauty and sweetness, she will do very well even should you proclaim from the rooftops that you are her sister.”
Hester smiled but was not convinced. His lordship decided it was time for stronger measures.
“I shall pick you up at quarter past six,” he announced. “You will not wish to make me come all this way for nothing. If you are not ready, I shall carry you off as you are. Must I apply to James and Geoffrey for assistance in the abduction?”
“No, my lord, I will come peaceably. You have me quaking in my shoes!”
“You’ll not gammon me, my girl. I misdoubt there is any man born could do that, nor woman neither.”
“Perhaps not. I am sadly lacking in sensibility.”
‘Which is just as well when Miss Alice has enough for two. I do not think it, though. Merely that you do not run shy.”
“I collect that is a compliment. Something to do with horses, I presume?”
He grinned. “As you know very well. Does Geoffrey enjoy riding my cattle?”
“Very much. He has been out every day, and Jamie once. I wish Geoff had some other occupation also. A boy his age needs to be kept busy, and he is not at all bookish like Jamie. I am afraid he will get into mischief. But I do not mean to bore you with an elder sister’s fidgets.”
At that moment Mr. Charworthy startled everyone by pronouncing a complete sentence.
“M’brother’s bookish,” he told James. “Introduce you.”
‘An excellent idea, George,” approved his uncle heartily, leaving the young gentleman speechless once more.
The visitors departed shortly thereafter, during a lull in the rain. Hester found herself with much to ponder, but Geoff and Robbie emerged from their exile in the kitchen, and for the rest of the evening she had no leisure.
The next morning she reluctantly sat herself down in the parlour to see what she could make of her best evening gown, wishing Alice were there to advise and assist. It was of good quality, having been purchased before her father’s death, but for that reason surely outmoded by now. She rather thought skirts were fuller this year. The blue satin slip with white lace overdress still fitted fairly well, and in any case a more classical style suited her slender figure better. A plethora of ruffles, bows, knots, and rouleaux appeared to be de rigueur, judging by Alice’s and Sophie’s dress, but she was inclined to think them fussy.
She had just set her needle unwillingly to a small rent in the hem when she heard a carriage pull up in the street and the door knocker sound. To her surprise, an unknown female voice enquired for her.
Bessie appeared.
“There’s a person to see you, miss. She won’t give ‘er name.”
Preferring not to be found mending, Hester put down her sewing and went out to the hall. The “person” was a tall, generously proportioned woman of about thirty, with improbably yellow hair. Judging by the number of frills, ribbons, and flounces that decorated her mantle, she was dressed in the height of alamodality. Diamonds sparkled in her ears of such a size that even the unsuspicious Hester guessed that they must be paste.
“Alas, Miss Godric!” she cried in a theatrical manner. “Yew dew not know me!”
“I’m afraid not,” said Hester cautiously.
“Ai am Mrs. Stevens. Ai am given to understand that my poor dear late husband’s grandfather was own cousin to yours.”
It sounded to Hester like one of Ivy’s stories; she could not help wondering what the poor dear late husband had died of.
“How do you do, Mrs. Stevens,” she said. “I am happy to make the acquaintance of a relative, however distant. Won’t you come in?”
“Oh, thenk you, Miss Godric! So kind! Ai had heard yew never turned away anybody in need.” Not giving Hester time to absorb this statement, let alone to wonder where she might have obtained such information, Mrs. Stevens rushed on. “Just a temporary difficulty, yew know. Alas, poor Ebenezer was not a thrifty man. Yew will say I should have learned to hold household, to be beforehand with the world. Yew are so raight, Miss Godric, so raight. But what can a poor widow do with nobody to advise her? It is low taide with me, Ai confess. Ai am but one step ahead of the bailiffs. Ai will turn to my dear cousin, Ai thought.
She
will not let me languish in the Marshalsea. Such a good-hearted young lady . . .”