by Rebecca King
‘What do you expect me to do with my guests? Am I to send them to the inn with the promise that you will cover their bill?’ Mariette asked, clearly annoyed at being thwarted.
‘Guests?’ Morgan demanded.
‘Yes. I invited them before the ball. It is too late to cancel it now. Do you want me to send them to the tavern and send you the bill seeing as you are too churlish to entertain them here?’ Mariette snapped.
Morgan launched out of his chair. ‘No, I am not going to pay their bill at the damned tavern. Now, if you don’t mind, Ralph and I are having a private conversation. Kindly knock from now on rather than just stalking into my house as if you own it.’
‘Oh, so I have to knock on my brother’s front door like a guest myself now, do I?’
‘Well, you can always come in through the servant’s entrance,’ Morgan drawled.
‘What, like your mistress does?’ Mariette threw him a snide look before she whirled around to stalk toward the door, but Morgan caught her before she could close the door.
Yanking her back around, Morgan leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. When he spoke, his voice was no louder than a sinister hiss. ‘Don’t you dare ever speak about my future wife in that way. Your behaviour is so atrocious you are looking like a hypocrite, Mariette. Improve your own conduct before you question anybody else’s or you can use the servant’s entrance from now on.’
‘You really don’t think that you are going to marry her, do you? People will never accept the likes of her in society. Doors will be closed on you should you stupidly wed the likes of her,’ Mariette sneered.
‘As they will to you,’ Morgan drawled.
Mariette’s face hardened. She stared at her brother. She knew she couldn’t forbid him to marry. ‘You have the entire female population in the ballrooms at your disposal. Any of them would be more than happy to be your wife, yet you have to choose her? Why? She has no money, no connections, no title. Don’t you think you should keep your infatuation as your mistress? Everyone in the village knows she is already. What is there to lose?’
‘And who has told them that she is my mistress, Mariette?’ Morgan was furious. He stared hard at his sister. He knew. He knew exactly who had given the villagers the impression that Sissy was his mistress. ‘I don’t know what has happened to make you so self-righteous and cruel, but I am not going to tolerate it any longer. How dare you besmirch Sissy’s name? Well, make no bones about this, Mariette, if there must be a choice between you and Sissy, there is no contest. You can go to Scotland and damned well stay there. Until you conduct yourself with more decorum you will no longer be paid your allowance. You won’t need it where you are going anyway.’ He turned away only for Mariette to grab his arm.
‘Wait. Where am I going?’
‘Did you not know?’ Morgan smirked. ‘You are going to stay with Cousin Henry in Scotland. Up there, you won’t need much in the way of money, or the height of fashion seeing as there is nowhere for you to go.’
‘I am not going to Scotland,’ Mariette snapped.
‘Oh, but you will. Mother is going to escort you just in case you take it in mind to try to escape it. You are going, Mariette,’ Morgan growled.
He was spared Mariette’s tirade by Alicia, whose carriage rumbled to a stop outside. It had barely jolted to a halt before she jumped down. She raced toward the front door as if she had the Hounds from Hell nipping at her heels. Alicia barely spared him a look as she sailed into his large entrance hall to stand firmly before her daughter.
‘Have you invited another group of guests to the Dowager House?’ she demanded of Mariette without preamble.
‘Yes, she has,’ Morgan replied before Mariette could.
‘Why would you take it upon yourself to defy us? We told you expressly that you were not to entertain anybody else,’ Alicia bit out.
‘It was too late to tell them that the invitation was rescinded,’ Mariette cried.
‘Don’t you dare lie to me,’ Alicia spat. ‘Those people turning into our driveway right now only live a few miles away. There is no reason why you couldn’t have told Hargreaves to hand deliver notes telling them that something has come up and you can no longer entertain them. You have expressly gone against our instructions, haven’t you?’
‘I will deal with them,’ Morgan growled, stomping toward the door.
‘You will look a fool if you do,’ Mariette called after him. ‘Besides, it isn’t my friends who are coming up the driveway. It is your darling Sissy.’
She nodded at the familiar black carriage rumbling up the driveway and smirked contemptuously only for her view of the carriage to blocked by the dark glare of her mother. She had never seen her mother so angry before and warily stepped back, but Alicia stepped closer until they were almost nose-to-nose.
‘As far as I am concerned Morgan can cut off your allowance. You are far too spoilt and opinionated to ever grace the ballrooms of ton. Your behaviour is petulant, spiteful, and far beneath your station. I am coming with you to deliver you to Scotland and will give Cousin Henry instructions that you are not to visit people until your manners improve. He doesn’t socialise much, thankfully. We don’t want you embarrassing yourself any more than you already have, do we? Now shut up, and don’t you dare speak until you are spoken to from now on, Mariette. You are going to stay by my side, and not utter a word to Sissy or Norma, do you understand me?’
Mariette’s expression remained frozen but the anger coursing through her flooded her cheeks with vibrant colour.
Alicia saw that sneering look Mariette raked her with. Furious at the arrogance of it, Alicia didn’t hesitate to slap her across the face. The loud snap of flesh striking flesh echoed around the silence of the hallway leaving Mariette clutching her wounded cheek and staring at her mother with wide-eyed horror.
‘Dare cross me again, and I am not above throwing you out on the street myself,’ Alicia snarled. Without taking her eyes off her daughter she called in a louder voice: ‘Boris.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Tell Hargreaves that our plans have changed. We are leaving for Scotland tonight. Tell Izzy to make sure all of Mariette’s belongings are packed and loaded onto the carriage. We are taking Stuart with us so we can keep travelling overnight and will only stop when we have to change horses. Mariette is going to be staying indefinitely at my cousin’s house and won’t be returning for the foreseeable future,’ Alicia bit out.
Stepping back, she raked her daughter with a dark look. She knew that had her husband been alive he would have fully supported the action she was taking.
‘I fear we have all indulged you far too much since your father passed away. You have become ungracious and an embarrassment to the family name. I am not going to risk you damaging everything your father and I worked for, no matter who you think you are. As soon as the guests have been either entertained or dispatched, you are to go to the Dowager House and prepared to leave it for good.’
Turning her back she went to join Morgan at the bottom of the stone steps. He was just in the process of handing Norma down from the carriage.
‘Boris,’ Alicia snapped. ‘Make sure that tea is brought to us in half an hour, please.’
Mariette descended the stone steps at the front of Morgan’s house and stared at the woman she blamed for both Alicia and Morgan turning against her. In that moment, she had never hated anybody as much as she hated Sissy Finchley. Mariette knew that had Sissy not decided to try to scheme her way into the house by seducing her brother, she would have been allowed to stay and life would have carried on as normal. Everything had been working well. She had no doubt that had Morgan not had his head turned by Sissy he would have eventually accepted Doralee, the friend she had planned Morgan would one day marry. Now, everything was being swept out from beneath her and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
Well, I have a few hours before I go to Scotland. I have nothing to lose. What I am not going to tolerate is having th
at woman in my family.
With a disgusted sniff, she stared hard at the woman Morgan was gazing at so adoringly as he was escorting her up the steps toward the entrance hall. By the time Mariette joined everyone she had a ready smile of welcome on her face that both startled and amazed Morgan and Alicia. Rather than leave, Mariette did as Alicia had instructed and remained with the party as they moved into the morning room. She perched on the chair and remained, outwardly at least, the epitome of a genteel lady. She didn’t engage in conversation but took tea and a small piece of cake off Boris with a quiet murmur of thanks. There was absolutely nothing in her demeanour that betrayed what she was truly feeling, she made sure of it.
While Morgan was relieved that his sister’s tantrum appeared to be over, he didn’t trust Mariette’s abrupt change of behaviour for one second. He rather suspected she was up to something but for the life of him couldn’t understand what it was. She had greeted Sissy and Norma with open if somewhat distant friendliness and was behaving as any polite, well-bred young woman should. But it was so uncharacteristic of Mariette that Morgan had to wonder what was behind it.
She is planning something, he decided and so made sure to keep a wary eye on her.
‘What is it, Boris?’ Morgan asked when the butler sidled into the room. He slid his cake plate onto the table between him and Sissy. Instinctively, his gaze slid to her, as it had every time she had moved since she had arrived. He was so entranced by her delicate beauty he struggled not to stare at her.
Boris’s reason for interrupting them soon jolted him out of his musings.
‘Miss Mariette’s guests are here, sir. I have put them in the library,’ Boris murmured for Morgan’s ears alone.
‘You let them into the house?’ Morgan launched out of his chair.
‘They made their own way inside, sir,’ Boris replied with a disgruntled look.
‘Leave it to me.’ Morgan turned to the women in the room. While he addressed them all, his eyes were on Sissy. ‘Please excuse me.’
‘Ah, there you are,’ a jovial voice called from the room opposite the morning room.
Mariette grinned at the man in the doorway of the library, a young fob of about twenty who was smiling widely at them, clearly enjoying helping himself to the Lord’s house. Her smile fell when Morgan blocked her view of her friend.
While Morgan quietly let himself out of the room, Alicia turned to engage Norma in conversation. Sissy stared at the closed door but before she could join in the conversation found Mariette sliding into Morgan’s chair.
‘I hear you are going to Scotland,’ Sissy began.
‘Yes. Out with the old and in with the new and all that,’ Mariette replied.
‘Mariette,’ Alicia rapped with a warning glare. ‘That is not the case and you know it.’
‘You must excuse us. My dear mother has decided that I should be packed off to the wilds of Scotland to rot away quietly because Morgan cannot socialise with his set anymore.’
Like spectators, Norma and Sissy looked from one side of the chaise they sat on to the other as they looked from Mariette to Alicia and back again. They then shared a look, wondering if they should make their excuses and go. In the space of just a few seconds the atmosphere within the room had become stiff and awkward. A thousand words were said between mother and daughter and hovered like a dark cloud over them all.
‘Morgan can socialise as much as he wants to. He just doesn’t want to socialise with your friends, Mariette,’ Alicia bit out. She offered Norma and Sissy and smile, but it didn’t enter her eyes which remained cold and hard.
‘Really?’ Mariette murmured in a tone that made it clear it wasn’t the truth.
Sissy suspected that the aside had been meant for her because of the sly look Mariette slid her.
‘I don’t see why there should be a problem. I mean, men take mistresses all the time. Morgan is no different to many men frequenting the ballrooms of ton,’ Mariette continued.
‘Morgan doesn’t have a mistress, Mariette, and I will thank you to not try to besmirch your brother’s character while under his roof,’ Alicia bit out.
‘Well, he isn’t going to tell you about his base needs, is he? You are his mother,’ Mariette smirked.
‘Maybe you shouldn’t avail yourself of the gossip and be so agreeable to thinking so poorly of your brother,’ Sissy murmured, seeing no reason why she should excuse or apologise for being friends with either Mariette’s brother or mother. ‘He has a reputation to uphold.’
‘One would think he would remember that when he chooses who he is seen out with,’ Mariette replied.
‘Mariette,’ Alicia snapped.
Before Alicia could throw her out of the room and scold her for saying what she had, Mariette pasted a smile on her face. But as she turned to slide her teacup onto the table, she rammed her saucer into Morgan’s, which slid across the table and landed in Sissy’s lap.
Sissy cried out when her dress was immediately soaked in tea, which ruined the material and left her drenched from the legs down.
‘Mariette,’ Alicia cried. ‘How dare you?’
‘Oops, I am sorry,’ Mariette offered with a spiteful smirk.
Sissy stood up and shook her dress out but struggled to withhold her tears. Mariette’s hatred of her was obvious to all of them. It was clear that Mariette had made no mistake. She had meant to ruin Sissy’s dress.
‘You had better go home and change. I will arrange for the carriage to be brought around to the front,’ Mariette offered with a cold smile of triumph.
‘No, you will not,’ Alicia snapped. ‘You had those new dressed delivered yesterday. Sissy is a little thinner than you but they will still fit her, probably even better than they do you. She can wear one of those.’
Mariette’s whirled around to glare at her mother. ‘But those are my dresses.’
‘You aren’t going to need them where you are going, are you? I mean, who is going to see you in them? Besides, like Morgan said, you have more than enough already,’ Alicia drawled. ‘If that wasn’t enough, they aren’t really your dresses. Morgan paid for them so they belong to him. I am sure he won’t hesitate to agree that Sissy should make use of them.’
With a warning glare at her daughter, Alicia tugged on the bell pull. Boris arrived within seconds. ‘The dresses Mariette had delivered here yesterday, are they still here, Boris?’
‘Yes, ma’am. I put them in the blue guest chamber like you told me to,’ Boris replied.
‘Good. Sissy, come with me and I will show you the dresses. I am sure there must be one you like. You must accept it from me as an apology for Mariette’s clumsiness. She always was clumsy. Norma, if you wouldn’t mind waiting here for a moment, I will be back shortly.’
Alicia positively shoved Mariette out into the hallway because she didn’t trust her daughter to be alone with the older woman either. She wished there was a way she could lock the door and stop Mariette getting back in. Instead, she speared Boris with a look.
‘Stay here, Boris. Make sure Norma isn’t interrupted,’ she growled.
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Go and see to your guests, Mariette. It is time they went on their way,’ she bit out with a nod to the library door she passed.
Mariette shoved the door open and sailed into the room. What she saw put another delighted smile on her face. Carefully stepping to one side, she purposely gave Sissy a clear view of Morgan, who was standing beside a stunning blonde woman. They were deep in what appeared to be intimate conversation. Doralee had one hand on Morgan’s arm in a proprietary manner which, with her head tilted toward him and a look of adoration in her eye, made it clear that theirs was a close friendship. He was smiling down at her as she regaled him with some recent exploit or other in hushed tones that only he could hear. It looked a cosy scene of intimacy that was enough to give Sissy a better understand that no matter how many dresses she borrowed she could never look as gorgeous as Doralee, or belong amongst the group of people
chatting happily in the library.
Sissy felt her heart break. If she had been able to, she would have turned and left. It was only manners that dictated she follow Alicia, who was already half-way up the main flight of stairs. Painfully aware of her own dishevelled state, Sissy felt it wrong to go upstairs into the main body of the house. She didn’t belong and knew it even without having seen Morgan just now.
Each step she took made the house become quieter, until an almost hushed reverence settled between her and Morgan’s mother. She had no idea why. Sissy didn’t bother to contemplate it too much. What she did was remain miserably quiet as she followed Alicia into one of the bed chambers lining the long hallway at the top of the stairs.
‘Now, there are several dresses in here. Let’s have a look at them, shall we?’ Alicia murmured more to herself than to Sissy. She sailed across the huge bed chamber toward the boxes positioned neatly on the huge four-poster bed in the centre of the room. Lifting the lids of each box she shook out the dresses and draped them side-by-side on the bed.
‘This is pretty,’ she announced, lifting a cream muslin dress liberally adorned with delicate lavender roses.
‘I am perfectly fine wearing this, although need to go home,’ Sissy whispered.
Alicia sighed and looked at her a little sadly. She knew then that no matter how much encouragement she could give her she could do little to persuade Sissy that the obstacles in her pathway toward a happier life with Morgan were breakable. Right now they looked as if they were huge mountains neither of them would be able to climb and that made her incredibly sad, not least because she suspected her son was already in love with the woman before her. The woman he could never have.
Damn you, Mariette.
Alicia suddenly became coldly furious, and utterly disgusted with her headstrong and wildly selfish daughter. She made herself a mental promise to herself that she would do whatever it took to get Mariette away from the estate for a while, and keep her away, if only to give Morgan a chance of finding happiness with Sissy. Hopefully, by the time Mariette returned, Sissy and Morgan would have presented their marriage to the world, been accepted, and Mariette’s spite would be unsupported by scurrilous gossips.