by Carola Dunn
The ladies, all dressed in grey or black, talked in hushed voices of long and painful labour, of the Regent's disgraceful absence from his dying daughter's bedside. Many blamed her death on Dr. Croft's harsh regimen of bleeding and restricted diet. Penny looked more and more unhappy, and Thea began to wonder just how little her brother's wife had been eating of late.
She blamed herself for not observing Penny more closely. Occupied in chaperoning Meg, whose crowd of admirers constantly increased, and absorbed in her own emotions, she had neglected her sister-in-law. She moved towards her just as the butler announced dinner.
Since ladies and gentlemen had such different interests in Princess Charlotte, conversation at table of necessity turned to other subjects. Thea found herself flanked on one side by a Member of Parliament, who harangued her at length on the topic of Rotten Boroughs, and on the other by a young man more tongue-tied than herself. Neither required much of her attention. She watched Penny, some way down on the opposite side of the long table.
Mrs. Trevelyan had given Penny Lord Hazlewood for her dinner partner, but had seated her next to Jason. Looking worried, Jason abandoned his own partner to press titbits upon his wife. Penny made a valiant effort to eat, but she seemed to have completely lost her appetite.
The events of the evening had been more than enough to overset her, Thea thought. The prospect of visiting the Trevelyans, Jason's absence when she most needed his support, and then the talk of the princess's death in childbirth—no wonder Penny appeared far from well. If Jason did not have the sense to take her home immediately after dinner, Thea decided she would send a footman to drag him from his port.
Then she recalled that Jason had urgently wanted to talk to Penny. “It's all settled at last,” he had said. What was settled? Was he going to explain what mysterious business had kept him from home all these long weeks? Curiosity gnawed at her.
At last Mrs. Trevelyan gave the ladies the signal to retire. Gentlemen stood as footmen moved to pull back chairs. With varying degrees of confusion as they gathered gloves and fans, the ladies rose. And then Penny dropped fan and gloves, raised her hand to her mouth, and swayed. Lord Hazlewood caught her as, eyes closed, she sank towards the floor.
Jason, who had at last politely turned to his partner, swung round. “Penny!” he cried and, fiercely possessive, seized her from the marquis's arms.
Alison Trevelyan was beside them in a flash, while Thea was still hurrying around the table. “Carry her to the library,” she directed, and caught her butler's eye. “Lady Emma, if you would not mind..."
A smart woman of about thirty nodded. Jason, holding Penny close, followed the butler from the room. Mrs. Trevelyan swept Thea, Meg, and their mother along behind.
"I am so sorry, Mrs. Trevelyan,” the dowager apologized in flustered distress. “Your dinner party..."
"Pray do not give it another thought, ma'am. Lady Emma will take the rest of the ladies to the drawing-room and I shall join them as soon as I know everything possible is being done to make Lady Kilmore comfortable. Oh dear, I hope nothing serious is the matter!"
"My sister-in-law is in the family way,” Thea told her. “I suspect she was distressed by the talk of Princess Charlotte."
"No wonder! It was perfectly horrid."
They entered a room lined with bookshelves, where Jason was laying Penny on a sofa. Gently he raised her head to put a cushion under it and the dowager bustled forward.
"No, dear, keep her head down and raise her feet. Less elegant but far more efficacious.” Taking charge, she lost her vagueness. From her reticule she produced a little bottle. “Thea, here is hartshorn. Mrs. Trevelyan, if I might trouble you for lavender water, and a little wine, and if possible a hot brick."
"Of course. I shall send for Mrs. Pugh, my housekeeper, and you shall have whatever you need.” She gave orders to the butler. “And see that a chamber is prepared, with the bed warmed, lest Lady Kilmore needs to stay the night."
"No!” cried Jason. White with anguish, he was kneeling by the sofa, chafing Penny's hands. “Mama, she is not so ill as that, is she?"
"I hope not, dear. Thea, you can stop waving the vinaigrette. Her eyelids are fluttering. As long as she is not bleeding...” She cast an anxious glance at her silent younger daughter.
Mrs. Trevelyan promptly said to Meg, “Will you come with me to the drawing-room, Miss Megan? Between us we shall tell everyone in confidence that Lady Kilmore is enceinte, then no one will think anything of her faintness. Do you know, I once thought it would be prodigious romantic to swoon, but I see it is not at all as described in novels.... “She and Meg went off arm in arm.
Thea silently blessed her. If Jason had once been in love with her, how could he ever have considered marrying Henrietta?
"Jason, go and stand by the door,” his mother ordered. “Make sure no one enters for a moment."
"I don't want to leave her."
"Just for a moment, dear. You may be her husband, but this is women's business."
Unwillingly he obeyed. The dowager sighed with relief when she discovered no sign of blood on Penny's undergarments. Jason rushed back to her side just as she opened her eyes. She burst into tears and he took her in his arms.
Tears pricked Thea's own eyes. Blinking them away, she fetched the glass of wine the butler had poured from a decanter he'd placed on a small table. “Will she be all right, Mama?"
"I believe so, but rather than risk a miscarriage, she ought to spend the night here, since Mrs. Trevelyan has so kindly offered."
Penny overheard. “Jason, I want to go home,” she wept.
"Then you shall, my darling. Mama, if I carry her, and she puts her feet up on the seat in the carriage...?"
The dowager acquiesced, took the wine from Thea, and urged Penny to drink. A little colour returned to her cheeks.
Thea went to answer a knock at the door and admitted the housekeeper, followed by a maid with a hot brick wrapped in a towel. Behind them stood Lord Hazlewood.
"How does Lady Kilmore go on?” he asked.
"Better, sir. Jason will take her home shortly. Have you seen my sister?"
"Miss Megan is conducting herself with admirable composure. She and Mrs. Trevelyan appear to be on the best of terms. Nonetheless, she looks a trifle woebegone."
Thea glanced over her shoulder at the group fussing about Penny. “I ought to go to Meg. Penny must keep her feet up in the carriage, so Jason will have to send it back for the two of us."
"I shall be happy to convey you both to Russell Square whenever you wish, but if I may make a suggestion, it will be best if you stay for a while."
"To keep people from talking? Yes, you are right. Just let me tell Mama, and I shall come to the drawing-room."
He waited for her, and she was glad to have him at her side when they entered, for most of the guests turned to stare.
Deserting two disconsolate young men, Meg sped to ask anxiously after Penny, and the Trevelyans came to join her enquiries. Mr. Trevelyan's genuine solicitude surprised Thea. Doubtless his wife had convinced him of the wisdom of putting aside his understandable animosity towards the Kilmores.
Reassured, Meg was recaptured by her new admirers. Lord Hazlewood and Mr. Trevelyan fell into a political discussion.
"It is an excessively political evening,” Alison Trevelyan said apologetically to Thea. “Philip is a Member of Parliament, you see. I was sure everything would go wrong when I was entertaining so many important people, but he says I did just as I ought when your poor sister-in-law fainted. Will you come and meet Lady Lansdowne and the Cheverells? I believe you will like them."
Thea would have much preferred to find a quiet corner, but she agreed and was rewarded. The Marchioness of Lansdowne and Lord and Lady Cheverell, after expressing kindly concern about Penny, returned to talking about charities. They included Thea without pressing her to speak. She did like them, finding their conversation interesting, and when Lord Hazlewood joined them, she discovered they were fr
iends of his.
She even ventured to ask some questions. Lord Hazlewood gave her an approving nod and no one sneered at her ignorance. A political evening, she decided, was a great improvement on a purely social occasion.
Taken by surprise when the tea tray was brought in, she exclaimed, “Is it so late? I did not mean to stay so long."
Lady Cheverell, an unpretentious woman of about Thea's age, smiled at her. “I am glad you did. Miss Kilmore. May I call tomorrow to ask after Lady Kilmore?"
Thea stammered out her direction, expecting the usual dismay, but the viscountess said, “Most convenient. Russell Square is on our way to the Foundling Hospital, is it not, Adam? Lord Cheverell and I are to visit there tomorrow, Miss Kilmore."
On the way home in Lord Hazlewood's carriage, Thea said with a sigh of satisfaction, “The evening did not turn out so badly in the end."
"How can you say so?” Meg demanded. “When Penny was taken ill like that!"
"She is not seriously ill.” Thea kept to herself her near certainty that Jason loved Penny after all, since Meg had never been told that Penny doubted it. “And I met some most agreeable people, Lady Cheverell in particular. I never thought to feel so comfortable with strangers."
Lord Hazlewood said teasingly, “Perhaps because they ‘have something to say,'” and Thea blushed as she recalled her earlier boast. He went on more seriously, “You have fallen into a nest of Whigs, Miss Kilmore, who are trying to better the lot of the poor, whether through Parliamentary action or private charity. Trevelyan was only recently converted to our way of thinking, by his wife, he claims."
"I like Mrs. Trevelyan immensely,” said Meg. “She is only a year older than I am, and she has read all the same romantic novels."
The marquis laughed. “A firm foundation for friendship."
"Who were those two young gentlemen you were talking to, Meg?” Thea asked.
"Lord Frederick and Mr. Mills? Just two gentlemen,” Meg said airily. “They asked permission to call."
"Have you met them before?"
"No, but they were properly introduced by Mrs. Trevelyan."
Thea sighed. Chaperoning Meg was no easy task when every young man she met proved susceptible to her charms. Thea had reached the conclusion that a proper introduction was unfortunately no guarantee of respectability. After all, Jason was received everywhere and had doubtless been properly introduced to Alison before he'd abducted her.
At least Meg's lack of fortune made that fate improbable, while also ensuring that few of her beaux were likely to become suitors.
As if he had read Thea's mind. Lord Hazlewood said, “I know no harm of Lord Frederick or Mr. Mills, unless political aspirations be considered a vice."
"They did not talk politics to me," said Meg.
"You surprise me,” said the marquis drily as the carriage turned into Russell Square.
The dowager had already retired, the butler reported when the Misses Kilmore entered the house. His lordship was abovestairs, but had asked to be informed when his sisters reached home.
"Thank you, Dunmow, I shall tell him,” Thea said. “How is Lady Kilmore?"
"Ever so happy, miss, if I may make so bold.” The butler beamed. “You see, his lordship's found her old abigail, as was with her ladyship before and was her nurse before that. Mrs. Nancy arrived just this evening. Such a reunion, miss, it was a pleasure to see."
"How splendid of Jason!” Meg exclaimed. “To think he has been searching for Nancy all this time. Penny has often...” A huge yawn cut off her words.
"To bed!” said Thea. “Too many late nights and you will lose your sparkle."
They went upstairs together. Thea was delighted that Nancy had been found, but the search surely had not occupied all Jason's time. Nor did it explain his announcement that all was settled. She tapped on his dressing-room door as Meg retreated to her chamber, yawning again.
"Come in.” Book in hand, a brown woollen dressing-gown over his shirt and pantaloons, he was sitting on a plain deal chair set close to the door to the bed-chamber. In one comer, the cot he had been sleeping on was turned down for the night, his nightshirt laid across it. A deal clothes-press and a cheap mirror completed the furnishings. Jason had given his wife a free hand, and he spent enough on his wardrobe to make a show in Society, but he had not spent a shilling of her money on his own comfort.
Thea had not been in his dressing-room before. She wondered whether Penny was aware of its Spartan simplicity.
He rose as Thea entered. “Ah, you are safely returned."
"How is Penny? Dunmow says you have found her Nancy."
"Yes, a month since. She had to work out her notice, and I didn't want to tell Penny in case something happened to prevent it. Penny is far happier to see her abigail than she was to see me when you came from Newkirk.” He sounded tired and disheartened.
"Oh, Jason, she was ill and exhausted, and then to see the state of the house! But worst of all, you scarcely seemed overjoyed by her arrival. You told her she looked as if she had one foot in the grave, and you were not even pleased that she is pregnant."
"How can I care about an heir when she is ill?"
Buoyed by a successful evening, Thea took a deep breath and spoke her mind. “Apart from the morning sickness, which Mama says will pass, Penny is only ill because she is afraid you don't love her. She has been on a reducing diet to try to look more like Alison Trevelyan and Henrietta, since you admire them so much."
"Once admired them! They are pretty enough. Penny is beautiful."
"You have not told her she is beautiful, that you love her."
"I have,” he said, indignant. “I told her both when I proposed to her."
Thea stared at him in shock. “That was months ago! You must tell her often, Jason. Particularly because of the ... the unusual circumstances of your marriage, though I suspect all ladies need frequent reassurance. And instead, you have been absent from home most of the time since we came to Town."
"I have been working with her lawyers—our lawyers. I wanted to sort everything out quickly so that we can go back to Newkirk, since London does not agree with her."
"It is not London that disagrees with her, and I expect she would have liked to be consulted on the matter. Penny has a mind of her own."
He smiled wryly. “That I know. I did not wish to trouble her with business in her condition. I can see I was wrong. In any case, she has to approve all I have settled with the lawyers. Thea, they have agreed to almost everything I proposed, even—"
"I'm glad, but you can tell us all in the morning.” She gave him a quick hug, then turned away and moved towards the door, feeling her face grow warm. “Now, forget your horrid cot and go and hold her in your arms."
His voice thick with longing, he said, “I must not disturb her rest when she is unwell."
"Jason, dear, that is the only way to make her well.” Thea escaped to her chamber. She couldn't wait to tell Roderick all about it, except—she put her hands to her hot cheeks—except for her final words of advice.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When the Cheverells arrived, neither Penny nor Jason had come down yet, though the green-and-russet drawing room was already well filled. Most of the callers were unattached gentlemen, from callow youths to the mature, if hardly venerable, figure of Mr. Glubb-ffoulkes.
"The Prince is sadly cast down,” he said, a sigh making his corset creak, his hopeful gaze fixed on the box of bon-bons he had brought for Meg. “Rushed back from Suffolk as soon as he heard Her Highness was in labour, but he was too late to say goodbye to his daughter. Now he won't stir from his room, won't even dress, won't talk of anything but the late sad event."
Meg at once comforted and silenced him by opening his gift and setting it at his elbow. Maria Turner and Jane Lewin had come to visit her, escorted by Sir Gideon. Thea suspected that, while they liked her sister, they also hoped to profit from the overflow of beaux attending her.
Several ladies, unable to bring the
mselves to brave the wilds of Bloomsbury, had sent footmen to enquire after Penny's health. The house in Russell Square, though admittedly a disadvantage, was proving less than a disaster.
The Cheverells did not stay long, but Lady Cheverell invited Thea to call the next day. “Not just for a formal quarter of an hour,” she said with a smile. “Come to tea and we shall have a comfortable cose."
Thea dared to hope that she had found a new friend, a rare and precious thing. She must tell Roderick. Where was he? Surely he would call today after last night's upset.
She looked up hopefully as Dunmow ushered in another gentleman. Lord Stewart entered and crossed the room to her side, his tread slightly ponderous though he was by no means a bulky man. The lines of grief on his face were less marked than when she had first met him, she thought. He was cheerful with her, and she had seen him laughing gaily while dancing with Mrs. Wilmington. The other day he had asked whether she had procured a riding habit yet—and that was another thing she wanted to talk to Roderick about.
In his presence, she would not mind making a cake of herself on horseback. She hoped he might go with her to one of the quieter parks to practise.
Lord Stewart proposed a drive in Hyde Park. Thea refused, luckily being provided with the excuse that she must stay with Meg. Their mother had gone to consult Lady Anne about Penny's health, physician-accoucheurs being in bad odour after Princess Charlotte's death.
The widowed viscount was still with Thea when Dunmow announced Lady Emma Osborne and Mrs. Trevelyan. Though pleased to see Alison Trevelyan, Thea was surprised that she had brought her older friend. Lady Emma seemed very proper and a trifle stiff.
"Miss Kilmore, is your sister-in-law recovered?” Mrs. Trevelyan asked anxiously.
"She is much better. In fact everything is much better,” Thea said, trying to infuse her voice with meaning. “She is resting in her chamber today and my brother is sitting with her. I shall send to tell him you are come, for he would wish to thank you for your kindness last night."