Her mama, much to Georgiana’s disconcertment, had now been accosted by the very Mrs Selby whom Mrs Hall had engaged her help to avoid, but there was nothing for it but to sit demurely beside her and search her mind for some diverting comments to offer by way of assistance to her mama.
However, as she seated herself, the Captain inquired of her if she would like some water, or punch, and Georgiana was obliged to thank him and give her assent. Upon receiving a glass, she smiled her thanks, expecting him to take his leave of her, but he sat beside her and lapsed into an awkward silence in which he seemed first to almost speak and then to think better of it.
The Miss Osbournes, she observed, were watching them from across the room, both with expressions of horror and pity. They were not alone. Even Eliza, seated with Colonel Walker at the card table, looked horrified. Georgiana wondered if Eliza was horrified at Captain Brandt himself or the fact that she, Georgiana, had danced with him! She returned her eyes to her companion and suffered quietly for him until he spoke again.
‘Do you not play at cards, Miss Hall? Do you prefer then, to observe rather than to participate? Nay, I cannot accuse you of that, since you danced with me, despite your mama’s disapprobation,’ he finally offered, the strain which she was becoming used to, once again tinging his voice.
‘I am not a great card player, Captain, it is true, but I would never want to be accused of not participating, even despite my “indisposition”, as Mama prefers to call it. I have always determined not to let anything hold me back from living the life I wish to live,’ she said in a low voice full of sensibility.
He remained silent, as if he wished her to continue, and she felt somehow enough at ease to be open with him. ‘I love to dance, to walk in nature, to climb hills, to play foolish lawn games with my sister. I do not for the world wish to let my limp prevent me from participating in anything which would give me pleasure, or which would benefit those around me. Mama would have me sit like a doll at every assembly, unseen— but no, that is unkind of me. And yet, I am fully sound of mind, and there is so much life to live, even with a limp! Why should I not live it?’ Then she checked herself, and smiled. ‘But as for cards, well, I am afraid have not the patience for the game.’
His unscarred side twitched. ‘Do you not, then, find that you simply cannot do some things you wish to do, because of your situation?’
Georgiana heard in his voice a bitterness which moved her.
‘ “There is so much life to live, why should one not live it?” ’, he repeated. ‘One cannot always live by such simple maxims,’ he continued. ‘Life is too complicated and too difficult, I think, for that to be true of all people. Especially for— nay, I envy you, Miss Hall, if you can live by that uncomplicated sentiment. But as to patience, you must long ago have mastered that quality; to be restricted, as you are, by your friends at home, however well-meaning they intend to be, to be obliged to always oblige others, to have the sweetness to always be sweet — but forgive me, I have offended you!’
Georgiana had turned her head away, her cheeks burning. She had at first supposed that he was referring to the patience her limp had taught her, but in the next second, she had perceived that he spoke rather of her personal situation, the ill-concealed disharmony between herself and her mama. She had kept her head averted, to hide a rising crimson which burnt her cheeks.
He addressed her contritely. ‘Please accept my apology, Miss Hall. As you see, I have too long been absent from society to understand that one’s thoughts must be tempered with good breeding and discretion. I must beg your leniency and throw myself at your mercy. That seems to be my lot, lately,’ he added mysteriously. ‘Forgive me. I am told I too often say what I think, without judging its effect on others.’
‘It is nothing. Perhaps we both of us say what we feel before thinking,’ she added, turning her earnest eyes to his. ‘And as for my lack of patience, I do not like cards for the game requires sitting still for long periods, and I prefer to be moving about. I daresay I must own that a lack of patience is a deficiency in myself, which I ought to improve upon, but, alas, I am afraid I do not care enough for the object of the improvement to put in the effort required to affect it,’ she added ruefully.
His face tilted again, and his good eye glinted. ‘Touché, Miss Hall. Perhaps you are right, and anything can be accomplished if one wishes it enough.’ Here, he paused, then said thoughtfully, ‘I myself confess to an excess of pride and a deficiency of humility, for had these not been my shortcomings, I would be in society more, and perhaps I would not have offended you as I did just now.’ He looked away, his scarred side hidden from her view.
‘Pride, Captain Brandt, can be a force for self-improvement,’ she said gently, ‘but it must be tempered with humility, or it can become a force for unhappiness.’
He turned to survey her, his expression unreadable beneath the strange pull of his features. ‘Yes,’ he replied simply after a moment. ‘Like yourself, I have until now, cared not enough for the object of the improvement, to put in the required effort to remedy it. You are correct. The fault is all mine. I wish, Miss Hall, that I had your enthusiasm for living life despite— but I have said enough. Will you excuse me? My friend, Lieutenant Hailsham beckons to me.’ He rose quickly and bowing briefly to Georgiana, he left her pondering his last comment for some time.
Four
Colonel Walker escorted Georgiana in to supper, Elizabeth on his other arm. Georgiana had not danced again, and although she had seen his head bobbing well above the other guests’ she had not been addressed by Captain Asher Brandt again. She had seen him in close conversation with her aunt at one point in the evening, and she presumed that the invitation to dine in Grosvenor Street had once again been issued, for her aunt was prodigiously solicitous to be of assistance to anyone in need of her warm heart. This meant that Georgiana would have an opportunity to speak to the Captain again, and she spent some moments, between conversations with the Colonel, considering how she regarded this possibility. She was still undecided when the Colonel spoke.
‘Now, that young man, with whom you danced, Georgiana, has a fine story behind him. You know, do you not, that Captain Brandt is the recipient of a medal for his noble service in the West Indies?’
‘My friend, Miss Osbourne, mentioned something of it, I recollect. But a medal for service implies great bravery, does it not?’
‘Aye, it does that,’ agreed the Colonel. ‘Should you like to hear the circumstances?’
‘Please!’ replied Georgiana with great curiosity.
‘At the time, I believe the Captain was serving alongside his older brother. It was a very unfortunate accident, but I am told Captain Brandt saved his ship and his crew from sinking.’
Georgiana’s eyes glowed with feeling. ‘Do go on, Colonel.’
‘Well, my dear, the story goes that the Captain’s vessel had been besieged by enemy fire off the coast of Martinique, I think it was, and had almost carried away a victory over the French. This was while Captain Brandt’s brother happened to be serving with him aboard the same vessel. Now, as for this brother, he was the older of the two, and had a seat in Yorkshire, and all the responsibility that goes with it. But due to his poor wife dying in childbirth, they say that the brother couldn’t bear to be at Thornleigh without her, even though he had the child, so he convinced his younger brother, your Captain Brandt there, to give him a position on his own vessel.’
‘How terrible!’
‘Well, the poor older brother would “pull the old devil by the tail” as they say, and insisted upon leaving his land and his duty, and going to sea with his brother in wartime! But it all ended badly, my dear, for the devil got him, by and by, for his troubles! Dam tragic tale, aye, it is!’
‘Do go on, Colonel. What happened?’
‘Well, ‘tis reported that enemy fire had caused a conflagration to break out below deck, but due to the incapacity of the men, who were weak from days of fighting, and a prodigious number of men
brought low by yellow fever, the fire became so fierce that the vessel was in danger from sinking and their hard-won victory lost. It is said that Captain Brandt himself, who had not left the fray for days and was as exhausted as his men, dashed below deck to assist, amid the risking smoke and flames, and suffering great burns because of it! He pumped water for an hour, with the help of one or two of the men, to save the ship from sinking. Due to his bravery, he managed to save the vessel, and the lives of the forty odd men on board.’
Georgiana’s eyes were very bright. ‘How terrible! It was a very brave act, indeed, to risk his life to save his men! But, Colonel, what of the brother? How did he come to die?’
‘Ah, it is a very sad thing, Miss Georgie. I recollect the brother was the only fatality in that fracas. I believe he had suffered a shot to the stomach, and there was nothing to be done to save him. It is a very sad affair, Miss Georgie, and I dare say it has affected the Captain deeply, as such things are apt to do, you know.’
Georgiana was thoughtful. She raised her eyes to look across the room to view him again in this new light, but he was not to be seen. ‘We truly must esteem our great navy, for there are none braver, or more noble,’ she said feelingly.
‘Aye, Miss Georgie, you are right there, certainly,’ replied Colonel Walker, ‘not forgetting all our militia brothers either. All excellent men, excellent!’ Much stirred up, he rose from the table and with some bowing apologies, and insistence that the minute she should need his help getting down the stairs, that she should send for him, he escorted an impatient Elizabeth back to the piano to hear a Miss Beaufort who was to sing and play ‘divinely, like an angel, you know’.
Georgiana, so frequently left as she was, to her own devices both at home and at assemblies, was quite at ease leaving the table alone, and after a moment of civil conversation with poor slighted Mrs Selby, and still full of admiration for the navy in general, and Captain Brandt in particular, she went to fulfil the private commission she had undertaken earlier.
On finding some plates of sweets unattended on a lonely little table in the corner, she surreptitiously unfolded her handkerchief, and secreted there three little cakes. Folding them up again, she was about to slip the contraband into her reticule, when she felt a presence, and she turned sharply.
‘You have such a slight figure, Miss Hall, that I would not have guessed you to be a secret cake-eater,’ her observer noted, his face tilting in its customary way. ‘Besides,’ he added, advancing slightly, ‘it strikes me that you would not stint to eat cake in the face of the world; in fact, all the more so if expressly forbidden the delight.’ He was most assuredly smiling at her now; she could detect the glint in his eye, and the curve of his lip was unmistakable.
‘I am afraid I cannot deny it, Sir; you have read me very well indeed. I am everything you make out: disobedient, headstrong, and fly in the face of good behaviour at every turn! And worst of all, when commanded not to eat sweets, I immediately take great delight in determining at once to eat five or six!’
Captain Brandt smiled his uneven smile, and Georgiana laughed aloud.
‘And now you have caught me stealing cakes, Sir. Pray, do not tell my hostess, or she will never have me back.’
‘I would not dream of it. Your secret is quite safe, Miss Hall. But am I to know why you might be secreting cake away from our good hostess’s table? It seems an intrigue that might amuse me greatly.’
Georgiana inclined her head to one side. ‘I am afraid it is rather a secret, Captain, and I would be grateful for your not mentioning it to Mama, or I will never hear the end of the matter!’
‘But, if I am to keep such grave and momentous secrets, it is only fair that I know the whole, or I will not know what I am to conceal or why.’
‘It does not hold that to keep a secret, you must know all its intricacies, Captain,’ she laughed. ‘But, since you are so very good as to keep mine, I am now obliged to you and find it not in my power to refuse such a request.’
‘If you feel yourself so much in my power, then I am under heavy obligation to exercise it with discretion,’ he returned, with a small bow. ‘It is in Miss Hall’s power of choosing only, if she wishes to reveal the secret that so intrigues me at this moment.’
She slipped the little package into her reticule. ‘The truth is that I have been commissioned to bring home cake, Captain. I may not say whom it is for, but let us say that the person who waits for it will not sleep until she feels she has extracted some small recompense for being omitted from the amusements tonight.’
‘Ah, then I think I can fathom of whom it is you speak. You have a younger sister, I believe? Your aunt spoke of you all to me earlier.’
Georgiana smiled warmly. ‘I do speak of my sister, yes. Julia is a little minx, and has me thoroughly wrapped around her little finger. But it is very hard on her, that when we attend my aunt’s engagements, to which we are invariably invited, she must be excluded so often because of her age.’
‘I see. Then I hope to have the pleasure of meeting your sister, Miss Hall, and of conversing with you again, for I am invited to dine at Mrs St. George’s later this week. In the meantime, I hope the cake will suffice to alleviate your sister’s disappointment at not being included this evening.’
Georgiana’s mind was agreeably occupied at this moment with the pleasant prospect of continuing their conversation, the story the Colonel had told her still large in her imagination.
But he was speaking again. ‘But now, regrettably, I must take my leave of Lady Young for I have business to conclude at my lodgings before midnight. Good evening, Miss Hall.’
‘Good evening, Captain.’ Georgiana watched after him, the novelty of having conversed with someone considered a true hero somewhat overcoming her other rational senses.
When she returned to her party, she found her sister alone, and Colonel Walker removed from her side. Her sister looked much put out and complained immediately to Georgiana.
‘How I detest these stupid private assemblies! There is no music to be had which is tolerable, and no good company at all! I so prefer to be the chooser of my own company than to have some of these insufferables thrust upon me. Lady Young may move in the right circles, but la, I am surprised indeed at the recipients of some of her invitations!’
Half surprised and moderately diverted, Georgiana waited a moment for more explanation, and when nothing more was forthcoming, except for a vigorous tapping of her sister’s foot, she ventured to ask her sister if something disagreeable had occurred.
‘La, no! Well, yes, since I would call that supercilious young Tom Laidlaw disagreeable! Why, he was ever so insolent to me! But it matters not, for I would not dance with such a stupid young man anyway.’
Georgiana raised her brows. ‘Oh, did you wish to dance with Mr Laidlaw? Did he ask you? I understood the dancing to be finished.’
‘Oh, I mean earlier! He quite cut me, when I walked past him for the purpose of being asked. He had no other partner, you know! These so-called fashionable men are all quite stupid, I declare, for it is abominably rude not to ask a lady to dance when she clearly has no partner! And only think, he did not ask anyone else to dance for the whole time, and when I purposefully walked his way a second time, in case he had not noticed me, only conceive what he did! He met my eyes, bowed, and walked away! The insolence! I am quite put out!’
‘But Elizabeth,’ inserted Georgiana gently, supressing a smile, ‘were you not asked by Colonel Walker to dance? I saw him approach you; you could have had all the dancing you wished!’
Elizabeth scoffed. ‘The Colonel? I despise the Colonel! His conversation is monstrous dull! Why, I only dance with the Colonel if there is no other partner to be got!’
Georgiana felt all the pain that the Colonel might feel, had he heard these comments, and rejoiced that he was nowhere near overhearing. She said as much to her sister.
‘Oh, as to that, I think the Colonel saw me trying to get Tom Laidlaw for a partner, and was stupidl
y offended. I believe he has gone to talk to Mrs Osbourne. He was quite cold with me when he left.’
Georgiana looked over the room and saw that it was true. She smiled at her sister’s caprices and shook her head. ‘It is no wonder that he has been offended, for if you first refused the Colonel’s offer and then tried to gain a different partner, that is very rude of you, and you ought to know better!’ Georgiana did not add that she suspected her sister’s ill-temper was due to having lost the attention of the one person who preferred her company, by showing her disdain for it so completely in soliciting the attentions of another! ‘Besides, Eliza, you ought not be surprised that Tom is not inclined to partner you, given the circumstances between you,’ she finished, with a speaking look at her sister.
Eliza blushed with the consciousness of her sister’s meaning. ‘Oh, do not you lecture me, Miss!’ exclaimed Elizabeth, moving away from a subject which gave her no pleasure and of which she never intended to speak again. ‘What do you know? You, who can only find the ugliest man in the room to dance with! Why, I would not lower myself to dance with a Captain or Colonel, if the conversation is to be dull or the view intolerable!’
Georgiana’s colour rose. ‘I did not consider it lowering myself, when I accepted Captain Brandt’s invitation to dance,’ she replied rather more sharply than she had wished and excused herself a short moment afterward. She went to Lilly Osbourne, who sat with her sister Esme, Colonel Walker and Mrs Osbourne.
Her friend met her with eagerness. She pulled Georgiana into a chair beside her and began in low voice. ‘I am all agape with horror, Georgiana! You cannot conceive what I was thinking, what horrors I was in, when you went to dance with Captain Brandt! But tell me, what is he like? What conversation had you? Was he dreadfully frightening?’
Beauty and the Beast of Thornleigh Page 5