by Gay, Gloria
“Lydia is a beauty with a huge dowry. She will attract suitors like a bee to honey and they will be lining up to marry her.
“Why do you think I dress her like a servant? Because she might fancy one of them enough to marry and secure her inheritance away from us!”
“I have this strong feeling to just take off to the countryside, out in Surrey where we rented Lydia’s house, while the season lasts. Leave that meddling woman in the lurch!”
“Can’t do that,” Dwain said, scraping up the last morsel from his plate and stuffing it into his large fleshy mouth and sitting back on his chair.
“Remember, Jal, Sir Howard is connected to the Crown. He’s enough in Prinny’s favor that Prinny made him a knight. You don’t defy a court order unless you want to end up in gaol.”
“And you better get Lydia some decent clothes before the doctor reports you to whoever wrote out this Order,” said her brother.
“I guess you’re right,” Jalenta said with a shake of the head. “But I’m going to write to Lady Sandvel and insist I am to be Lydia’s chaperone during the season. She can’t deny me that. Nothing in the court order says I can’t be Lydia’s chaperone.”
Chapter 9
“What are you working at so assiduously, my dear?”
“Ah, Harry, I didn’t hear you come in. I’m writing a list for cook to order for our first dinner with Lydia.”
“I have not seen you plan a dinner with such enjoyment as you are this one, Julia.”
“Yes. I could not believe it possible, that we are to see our sweet Lydia after all these years. It seems like a dream.
“She was twelve turning thirteen when last I saw her, when she spent that wonderful month with us, and we celebrated her birthday. Only twice was she allowed to visit.
“She’s a young lady now.”
“It would have been so wonderful if we had been named as her guardians rather than…” Julia’s voice broke.
“Lydia cried so much when that awful woman came and dragged her out of our house against her will. I felt like she was yanking my own daughter from me.
“Only a very few times was Lydia able to sneak out a letter to me during all those years.”
“You have been happy with the preparations, my dear.” Sir Harold pulled Julia up gently from her seat and embraced her lovingly, “Do not ruin for yourself this bit of happiness concerning Lydia that has come our way.”
“It was just such bad luck that kept us from being able to raise her, Harold. She would have been the daughter we were not able to have on our own.”
Julia had long ago known that she was unable to bear children.
“I know, my dear,” Harold patted Julia’s’ cheek soothingly and sat beside her with a long sigh as she regained her seat on the sofa.
“The reason was that we lived in India at the time and for many years could not leave the work that provided our income.”
“We have such wonderful memories of India, haven’t we, Harold? Such a beautiful country, with its warm, wonderful people.
“Elizabeth, on the other hand, saw India differently, due to the illness she had contracted there and wanted nothing but to make certain Lydia did not stay there when she no longer had her mother.
“Yes,” said Sir Harold. “That was what influenced Elizabeth into naming that awful woman as Lydia’s guardian.
“I cannot believe she could think that woman and her half-brother would have Lydia’s best interest at heart, my dear. I can only believe it was because she had not seen them in years.
“Whenever we requested Lydia visit us, they found a reason to prevent her from visiting us. “I cannot even imagine the awful years Lydia has spent with them.”
Julia’s eyes filled with tears.
“I always wondered if that woman and her brother had anything to do with that beating you received from those vandals,” said Lady Sandvel.
“If they did, we’ll never know for sure, my dear. So let us look ahead only,” Sir Howard said, holding her close.
“We now have permission from the court and will soon see our dear girl again. You will be with her for twelve wonderful weeks and hold her close to your heart, as you have wanted to ever since she ran to you when she was a toddler and wouldn’t let go of you, her eyes awash in tears.”
“Those horrible people had to yank her away from me by force, Harold, both times that Lydia stayed with us.
“That told us how unhappy Lydia was with them.”
Chapter 10
“Is it definite, then,” Julia stated. “They will bring Lydia by the date specified in the court document, which is tomorrow?”
“It is set in stone, my dear, do not fret over it so. I can just imagine how that awful woman must be going on. She must be cursing us day and night!”
“There is nothing she can do about it, can she?” Julia insisted.
“No, my dear, nothing. It will be on Thursday—two days hence, at four in the afternoon when Lydia is brought here,” said Sir Harold with a wide smile. Do not worry so, my dear.”
“Jalenta insists in her note that once she is able to walk again, she is to be Lydia’s chaperone during the rest of the season.”
“She is so presumptuous,” said Harold, “I have never seen anyone like her. When we met her long ago, it was like meeting Satan’s sister.”
Julia laughed. “Imagine how she must look now, so many years later.”
“And we cannot deny her wish to be Lydia’s chaperone during the season?”
“We cannot do anything that will make Lydia more uncomfortable when she returns to her home with them.
“How I would love to tell that awful woman she won’t be allowed to chaperone Lydia! But unless she does something untoward, she will be allowed as chaperone.
“However, Dwain will not attend the events, for he will not have an invitation to any of them. He will only be invited to the dinner we give in Lydia’s honor.”
“Even that is too much for us,” said Sir Howard.
“If Lydia confides in us that she is being mistreated, as we have been informed, then we can move with more certainty about removing her from that place, won’t we, Harold?
“Yes. Dr. Vending’s proof will be very important, but it is Lydia who must have a wish to leave them.”
“I’m so glad that when I was able to walk again, I had the idea of applying to the Crown for a position as secret agent. What a happy day that was, my dear, for it saved us.”
“It was a dangerous occupation,” said Julia. “On several occasions you came close to losing your life. I was so grateful when the war ended!”
“As am I, my dear. I saw little of you during those years. That was what hurt me most. I lived in fear that I should die and then you would be left on your own with nothing to live on.
“I lived for your letters.”
“I’d rather not speak of it, my dear.” Julia’s eyes filled with tears at the memory of that awful hospital where he was placed with an injury so close to the heart and a fever so intense the doctor gave her very little hope of his recovery.
She had spent months with him in a place where the beds were so crowded there was no possible conversation.
And just when she thought that if Harold was not removed from that crowded ‘hospital’ room he would die, there came the order signed by Prinny.
Harold was placed in a small room by himself and a different doctor attended him. Slowly, he began to recover.
And then the wonderful most exciting thing had happened to them: Harold was knighted!
With the knightship came an adequate income rather than the tiny pension.
They would never again be fighting for their survival. It was a wonderful ending to the harrowing war years.
“I have written to Jalenta, Harry,” said Julia. “I told her that for now she may be Lydia’s chaperone, unless Lydia expresses a wish that she be removed as such. And as for that other creature, the half-brother, Dwain, I told her we do not control
who may or may not be invited to events in other houses.
“He will not be allowed to tag along with us, for he would be barred at the door to each event. Every place we go to will be by invitation. Thankfully, they check carefully the names against the invitation.
Chapter 11
“Simon, dear,” said his aunt, Lady Ellswood, “how good of you to attend so quickly on your return. As I said in my note, I have wonderful news for you on a matter you requested of me a long time ago. I have been anxiously awaiting your return to Town.”
“I am in suspense,” said Simon as he embraced his Aunt, Lady Cecily, and kissed her cheek tenderly. “Your note was mysterious, to say the least.”
“I wanted to tell you the wonderful news in person, my dear, for it is astounding.”
“What is astounding, Aunt?”
“We have found her, Simon! We have found Lydia!”
Simon gasped and for a few moments was unable to utter a word, his mouth partly opened.
Lydia? Was it possible?
Breathless, his heart pounding with joy, Simon stared at his aunt.
“You found Lydia?” his voice squeaked. “Is she all right?”
“Yes! And I am certain it is the right Lydia, my sweet nephew,” his aunt went on as he stared at her in silence.
Simon’s heart still beat erratically as he shook his head in wonder.
His aunt led him to her morning room and ordered tea:
“You see, Simon, I wrote the name you gave me at the time, of the woman who was her keeper. Jalenta it was, was it not?”
“Yes, Aunt,” Simon felt as if he were high on a mountain where the air was thin and difficult to breathe.
“Well, there just cannot be two women with such an odd name, can there?”
“It would be almost impossible,” Simon was able to gasp out.
“She—Lydia—is to have a season, my dear, sponsored by her relations, Sir Harold Sandvel and Lady Julia Sandvel.
“And get this, Simon: by order of the Court!”
Cecily clapped happily. “And, you may not know this, my dear Simon, they are my friends!”
“Your friends? You have not mentioned them before, Aunt.”
“And rightly so, my dear, because they are recent acquaintances.
“I was introduced to them in Bath last summer. We struck a mutual cord right from the start. They are the most amiable people you could ever hope to befriend.
“Sir Harold Sandvel was honored with the knightship by Prinny, for his valuable contributions to the Crown.”
Simon breathed audibly and sighed with contentment. Happiness might still be within his grasp.
“His work must have been in the spy business, for I have never heard of him,” he told his aunt. “The Prince has been awarding knightships to men who contributed greatly during the war in highly dangerous work as agents—or rather spies.
“These couriers took extremely important documents through enemy territory or penetrated cliques of spies or traitors.
“Sir Harold is lucky to have come away from such work with his life. Most of those valiant men died—many of them tortured before death.”
“Sir Howard was ill for a long time, Simon. He almost lost his life in that awful place they had the temerity to call a hospital.
“He began to improve only when Prinny interfered and had him transferred to a special clinic for the more extreme cases, at the request of Lady Sandvel.”
“I’m so glad the Prince interfered,” said his aunt. “But just listen, Simon: Sandvel’s close friendship with the Prince allowed him to secure an order from the court which granted him and Lady Sandvel visitation rights in order to sponsor Lydia for the whole of the season.
“Is that not just wonderful?”
“I can well understand why,” Simon said. “Nothing short of a court order will force that awful woman who is Lydia’s ‘guardian’ to allow Lydia a season.
“As you know, Aunt, I tried so hard to find Lydia through her guardian’s name—and through the years, nothing! It is a miracle that you have found her.”
“I believe it is because you were looking for someone named Jalenta, which, although it is that woman’s middle name, in life she goes by it as though it were her first. Yet in the court order that Julia showed me she is named Edra J. Conty.
“Jalenta figures only as an initial.”
“I hired Bond Street runners.”
“Your runners searched in London, where you believed Lydia and her guardian resided, is that not how it was?”
“Yes. I had met her in London and assumed…but after having no success in finding her, I did request of my Bond Street runner that he start looking inward, in the region closest to London.
“When there was no success, I afterwards paid more, so that he would hire two more agents to inquire in all the towns and inns along the Great North Road, and inward, where there might be a lead.
“Then it became necessary that I join the war effort. I just could not see myself sitting on the sidelines when my country needed me.”
“They did reside in London at the time you met them, Simon, but moved away shortly after, when Lydia came into an inheritance of a small estate in Surrey.
Jalenta moved the family to Surrey to supervise the repairs that had to be done in order to lease that house.
“The repairs took two years, much longer than anticipated and when the workers were finished and the house was leased, they moved back to the London house that had been leased on a month-to-month basis.
“All this Sir Harold learned when he was able to obtain the Order that compelled Jalenta to allow Lydia a London Season of twelve weeks duration, paid and sponsored by Sir Harold and Lady Sandvel.”
“It would have been impossible for your runners to look for her in the whole country, Simon.”
“Have you also learned Lydia’s complete name, Aunt?”
Lady Ellswood looked at her diary.
“Lydia’s last name is Millston. These details were provided to us by Lady Sandvel.
“From your experience with Jalenta, we were certain we could not obtain any information from her, so we did not even try.”
“And Lydia’s parents? Did you obtain their names, Aunt? “
Lady Ellswood looked again at her diary. “Conrad Bellamy Millston and Alexandra Eugene Ernstian Millston.”
She wrote the names on her notebook, tore off the page and handed the page to Simon.
“So hard to believe,” said Simon, staring at the names. “I hoped for years, Aunt. You cannot ever know how I despaired of ever finding Lydia.
“She was on the brink of telling me her name when her awful aunt returned and stopped her from uttering a single word. She and the bully man with her practically carried Lydia away and I lost them in the fog.
Afterwards, I realized they must have hidden within the grounds until I stopped searching and when I left, they then emerged from wherever they were hiding with Lydia.”
Chapter 12
“As the years went by, Aunt, Lydia would have faded from my mind, but for one thing that kept her memory alive for me,” Simon went on. “I was certain the abuse I witnessed by Jalenta must have continued through the years, and that alone kept Lydia in a corner of my mind.
“I could not forget that I had failed in my quest to help her.”
His aunt poured tea for him and handed him the cup. “You should not feel like that when no one would have done what you did, search for her for months.”
“But without success,” said Simon.
“Well,” said his Aunt Cecily with a smile, “your determination and patience paid off in the end, my dear, for I was always on the lookout for Lydia, due to your interest in her.
“From the age you told me she was when you met her, she must be about twenty-one or twenty-two, now, and unwed. She will have her first season a bit late, but she will have it.”
His aunt gazed at Simon thoughtfully. She was glad that the resolution of Lydia�
��s life and whereabouts would allow Simon, who was her dearest nephew, to finally move on with his life.
He had come close to being attracted to one or another of each season’s debutants but had never engaged his heart in any meaningful way.
It was as if he kept his life free, in case he should have to become Lydia’s champion, as he had wanted to for so many years.
Now was his opportunity.
“Amazing, is it not?” asked his aunt.
“And you won’t believe this, Simon,” she added, “that odd woman, Jalenta, continues to act in character.
“Julia told me she insisted on attending every event with Lydia as Lydia’s chaperone and that her brother be furnished with invitations to all events, as if Julia can just wave a wand and have him invited everywhere!
“Julia replied that only she, Jalenta, could attend as Lydia’s chaperone and that chaperones are not allowed to dance at Almack’s, as they are attached to the voucher of the lady they have come to chaperone. Also, that there will be no invitations to her brother.”
“I cannot imagine that woman dancing,” Simon said with a grimace. “It’s too taxing to the imagination.”
“As if she has ever been a true guardian,” Simon added when his aunt laughed. “An apt description would be ‘jailer’.”
“She seems desperate to assert her authority,” said Julia. “Can you imagine Lydia going about to all the social events with that awful woman in tow?
“Although she has been forced by the Court to allow Lydia a season with Sir Harold and Lady Sandvel, she probably wants to make sure Lydia does not reveal the treatment she receives at home.
“Julia told me she informed Jalenta she would allow her as chaperone to Lydia only while Lydia agrees to it.
“And as for the woman’s half-brother, Dwain, whatever invitations the man procures for the season he will have to procure on his own and attend on his own, which, as you can imagine, will be none, for they are not even on the far fringes of society.”