The Courtship (26 page)

“I must have Helen. I cannot continue without her. Well, it is not exactly without her, but this other, it's madness, and it has to stop or I will hurl myself over a cliff, and than where would I be?”

“I believe you would be dead, my boy.”

“Not at all a good finish. Please, sir. Have I your permission to court and wed your daughter?”

Lord Prith stared at him. “I have heard of your sire. His name was Gilbert Heatherington, was it not?”

“Yes.”

“My dearest Mathilda was a friend of his second wife. Poor Marianne died within five years of her marriage to him.”

“Yes, sir, I was there. My father was obsessed with building a dynasty. But I am the only child of his loins who survived. He had no caring at all for women, none really for the children except that they live, which they didn't.” Lord Beecham stopped. There was no reason to continue this. His father was dead, all three of his wives, including his own mother, dead as well, and the innumerable offspring.

“I am not like my father.”

“But you speak of marriage as if it would be your downfall. Why would you consider marriage a bad thing just because your father mucked it up?”

“He humiliated my mother. He kept her pregnant every year until I could hear her begging him not to take her, not to force himself upon her, that she would die with the next pregnancy, but he just laughed and forced her, and that last time she did die, cursing him, but he didn't care. I believe he was with a mistress at the time. But I was there, sir, and I heard what she said. I heard her death. I despised him. I swore never to impregnate a woman, but then I realized that I had to have an heir, so I decided to wait, wait until it was almost the end of my time, and then I would take a wife and beget an heir.”

“How old were you when your mother died?”

“Ten.” He stared at Lord Prith. He couldn't believe at all that he had blurted that out of his mouth. It was said. It couldn't now be unsaid. He waited.

Lord Prith sat back in his chair. “I am sorry for that, my boy.”

Lord Beecham continued to stare at the man he hoped was his future father-in-law. He had spilled every bit of blackness in his soul, laid it all out for Lord Prith to examine. Now Lord Prith would realize that he wasn't the man for his beloved daughter. He had been stunted and embittered. He wasn't worthy of someone pure and wholesome, the only woman to make him beg to give his all to his marital duties until he was called to the other side.

But he wasn't worthy. It all came down to that. He waited to hear the ax drop on his neck.

Lord Prith said, “At least you are not short. That bodes well for you. Helen turns down short men.”

He blinked. Lord Prith was considering him? His confession had not set him irrevocably against him? He cleared his throat, and said, “No, I am two inches taller than Helen. She tries to pretend that I am not, but it is true. Two inches, perhaps even a quarter of an inch more than two inches.”

“You and Helen will have magnificent children. It is difficult, as you well know, my boy, not to impregnate a woman. You will not kill my daughter with too many birthings, will you?”

Even as Lord Beecham shook his head and said “No, I will not,” he remembered that Helen couldn't have children. She was barren. He felt a very deep shaft of pain, but he felt it for just a moment. In the grand scheme of things, his second cousin, a ship captain who lived in the colonies, in a place called Baltimore, could have his title, or one of his cousin's male children could have it. He was a good fellow, he wouldn't blight the Heatherington escutcheon.

But truth be told, Lord Beecham didn't care what sort of a man his cousin was. He wanted Helen and he wanted her forever. It was the oddest thing. He was standing in Lord Prith's dining room, Flock likely behind him in the shadows, not moving a muscle for fear of anyone realizing he was still in the room, and it didn't matter a single whit. He felt wonderful. He felt whole.

“I will protect Helen with my life. I am not a pauper. She will have everything she could possibly desire. I have a beautiful country estate in Devon. Paledowns. She will love it there, all rugged hills and valleys and the coastline, all jagged and old, sir, so very old.” He shut his mouth on his poetic outpourings. He was losing what few wits remained to him. He would make his summation pithy. Show the depths of his ardor with a few witty words. He cleared his throat and opened his mouth, and what came out was, “I have never met a lady like your daughter. She is radiant, sir. I cannot imagine how I could be so very lucky as to have her leap at me from her horse's back in Hyde Park and hurl me to the ground.” He cleared his throat. What had that come from? “Ah, Paledowns, sir, she will be happy there. She will also be happy in London. I have three other houses as well dotted over the northern landscape. She will doubtless approve of those as well. If she doesn't, she can discipline the caretakers and change things until she is pleased.

“I will worship her, sir, until I cock up my toes and pass to the hereafter.”

Lord Prith said comfortably, “You don't have to worry about things like that, my boy. My dearest Nell nests wherever she happens to find herself. Your home sounds like an excellent place for her, any and all of them. You know, now that I reflect upon things, my little girl did seem a bit on the quiet side whilst you were gone, my boy. Dare I say that she moped? Flock, are you still about, your ears all sharp?”

“Yes, my lord, but I have been staring at the epergne, my lord, wondering how best to clean all the little hidden crevices amongst all the grapes. I have barely heard a word anyone has said.”

“Good. Do you think that Miss Helen was moping—or is that too strong a word?”

“Miss Helen moped as I have also moped, my lord. I perhaps taught her through example how to mope properly. It is not too strong a word.”

“Good, I didn't think so. She was also distracted. I would catch her looking off into nothing at all, as if dazed. One of her lads at the inn let a thief steal several bridles from the stable. She disciplined him, but her heart wasn't in it, all could tell. She has lost flesh, which isn't good for her, since she is well nigh perfect just the way she is.”

“Yes, she is perfect.”

“Hmmm,” Lord Prith said, drank more champagne, and looked off toward a painting on the wall. Lord Beecham glanced at the painting, a line of rabbits hanging from a skinny rope in a sixteenth-century kitchen, ready for the cooking pot. He didn't like paintings like this though they were so very popular in nearly every dining room in London. They always put him off his feed.

“Helen isn't perfect, my boy,” Lord Prith said. “I must be honest with you, since it appears that you see her only with honey flowing from her mouth. She is her own woman. Perhaps one could call her occasionally obstinate and, rarely, just sometimes, a bit on the stubborn side. Those words aren't too strong, are they, Flock?”

“They are perhaps shaded by your loving parental eye, my lord.”

“She is used to doing precisely what she wants when she wants to do it. She is strong-willed and strong of limb as well. I have seen her knock a suitor from one side of the room to the other when he chanced to offend her. She didn't break anything, but the fellow had a black eye for a week.

“She has opinions, my boy, opinions that are her own, not necessarily gently formed by her dear father. She is interested in all sorts of things, as you very well know, what with this lamp business. She is a mistress of discipline. Yes, even I know this about my dearest Nellie. Her lads always strive to please her, but when they run afoul of what is right and proper, she does discipline them. Come to think of it, they sometimes beg for it, but she is fair in her judgments and doesn't always give them what they want.

“She won't let you tread on her like a rug, my boy. In short, my sweet little Nell is a handful, just like her dearest mother, my precious Mathilda.” Lord Prith looked over at Flock, an eyebrow arched in question.

“Well and accurately stated, my lord.”

“Thank you, Flock.”

Lord Beecham couldn't help himself. He asked, “Have you ever seen any of her lads in the stocks?”

“Certainly. Other villagers rent the stocks from her to carry out their own punishments. She is considered a goddess of justice in Court Hammering. Wives adore her because she won't allow their husbands to drown their livers in her taproom.”

Lord Beecham said, “She is much more than a goddess. I must have her, my lord.”

“Yes, I can see that you must. Very well, you have my permission. Do you agree that you know what you're getting into? That you aren't all afloat in a man's lust and blind to the very few nearly meaningless foibles my sweet Nellie occasionally exhibits?”

“No, not really, but I know enough to realize that I want to find out everything about her and each of her foibles during the next fifty years. Perhaps I will even wed her again upon occasion.”

“A charming thing to say, lad. Very well. Champagne, Flock. Bring a fresh bottle. Ah, and for my future son-in-law here, some brandy, nasty stuff. We don't want to force him to drink champagne and have him puke on Helen's slippers, now do we?”

G
EORDIE HAD SPILLED twenty pounds of oats into a huge mud puddle. He knew he would be punished, he was whimpering in a corner, knowing it would happen, and here Helen just didn't appear to care. She was just staring off at nothing at all. Actually, Helen couldn't stop thinking about why Spenser had grabbed that hunk of bread and run out of the inn. Then Gwen said, “Miss Helen, the stupid clumsy lout deserves at least a Level Six.”

Geordie shuddered with both anticipation and dread.

“What? Oh, a Level Six, Gwen? Isn't that a bit on the harsh side?”

“Twenty pounds of oats, Miss Helen, feed for the mud, not the horses.”

“Very well, then. Level Six.” Helen turned and walked back into the inn. It was nearly nine o'clock at night.

There was enough of a moon so that Geordie was clearly visible to all who wished to watch his punishment. When she heard Geordie yell, then moan, she just shook her head and went back into the small private dining parlor. She built up the fire. She took a cup of hot cider and sat there in her wing chair staring into the flames, seeing him striding out of the small parlor, practically reeling.

“Helen.”

She turned very slowly to see him standing in the doorway. “You ran away, with the bread.”

“Yes, but I came back. I ate the bread.”

“What do you want, Lord Beecham?”

“There is a naked man in the inn courtyard. His wrists are tied by a rope looped over the lower branch of that immense elm tree, and Gwen is whipping him. There were three other women in line, waiting their turn. They have switches, not hollyhock bunches.”

“Yes. Geordie spilled twenty pounds of oats in a mud puddle. It demands a Level Six punishment. Gwen believed that was appropriate.”

“I see. It all makes sense now. Will you marry me, Helen?”

She dropped her cup of cider. She sat there, stunned, watching the cider snake over her exquisitely polished oak floor toward the small rectangular Aubusson carpet. She moaned, jumped to her feet, and looked wildly around.

Lord Beecham untied his beautiful white cravat and handed it to her.

He watched her go down on her knees and wipe up the cider. She continued to wipe long after the cider was gone.

“Helen, it is all clean now.” He held out his hand. “You will rub the wood away.”

She ignored his hand and jumped to her feet, tottered a bit because she was dizzy, then sat down heavily back into her chair.

“I didn't run away from you. I rode to Shugborough. I have just returned from there. Your father gives me his permission to court you. Actually, he also gives his permission to marry you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

There was another yell from Geordie, followed by a deep moan. Helen said absently, “That was probably Miss Millbark. Did you notice how the moan was louder than the yell? She always teases before she strikes.”

“Helen, I don't care about Geordie's discipline at this particular moment. How many strokes does he get?”

“Only ten. Then he is forced to stand naked in front of the inn, holding a lamp, for three hours, unless it rains, in which case it is postponed until it is sunny again.”

“I see. Will you?”

She was shaking her head at him, saying, “This makes no sense. You desire me, I will grant you that, since I feel the same about you. But you don't love me. How could you? You don't know me.”

“Don't know you? My God, woman, if ours is not a marvelous beginning of knowing, I don't know what is.”