‘No, miss, I couldn’t let you do that. It isn’t proper.’
‘Proper be dashed,’ Aurelia said. ‘I’m not standing on ceremony when we have a visitor and those cakes look so delicious.’
She lifted the cake stand and led the way back into the parlour.
Cassandra and Dora were now sitting on the long low sofa before the window while her mother sat in a chair opposite the fire and Mr Harcourt sat opposite her.
‘The tea is here,’ Aurelia said, placing the stand of cakes on the small table. Her mother thanked her and ordered Sally to pour the tea. Mr Harcourt was examining a book of sketches of Greek vases: the ones that the girls had been expressly forbidden to look at due to the scurrilous subject matter. He looked up when Aurelia spoke. His eyes grew wide as they met Aurelia’s and he quickly closed the book so she couldn’t see the contents. He nodded his thanks and accepted a cup of tea from Sally, but when Aurelia sat down on the sofa between her sisters, his handsome face took on an expression of utter bemusement. Aurelia wanted to laugh out loud.
‘And here is my middle daughter at last,’ Lady Upford said as Aurelia arranged her skirts. Mr Harcourt’s eyes widened. He glanced towards the cake stand, then to Sally who was still pouring tea, then back to Aurelia.
He rose and crossed the room to take Aurelia’s hand. She smiled at him and pretended it was the first time they had met. What else could a lady do—after all, the mistake was not entirely on his part. She could have explained her identity when they first met and had compounded the confusion further by entering the room with the maid.
‘I am charmed to make your acquaintance, Miss Aurelia,’ he said. He had the grace to look abashed. ‘Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Harcourt.’
She gave him her hand and he kissed it lightly, just skimming his lips across the back and causing the small hairs to flutter. His eyes held hers and she thought she saw a flicker of humour in them that made her want to smile back.
‘How nice to meet you, Mr Harcourt. I do hope you weren’t waiting long without company.’
Lady Upford turned to Mr Harcourt and gave him an apologetic smile.
‘Aurelia organises servants so well. We have returned to the area after a long absence and when we left we did not think it fair to keep our staff on at half-pay so let them all go. Now we have discovered they have found employment elsewhere and we have had to employ entirely new staff. I must say the quality isn’t what it was. You must return to visit us in a month or so, Mr Harcourt. By then we should have managed to find a full complement of adequate staff so we can show you how Sir Robert likes his household to be run.’
Lady Upford continued to chatter. Mr Harcourt was listening politely, even though the goings-on of the domestic arrangements of a house which he had not entered more than ten minutes earlier could be of no interest to him at all. Mr Harcourt glanced over at Aurelia and his eyes crinkled enticingly. Aurelia had the urge to make a remark to him about the maid who had received him at the door and see how he reacted, but this would then open her up to questions from her mother and sisters and she did not want that. After the scandal she had narrowly escaped with Arthur she wanted to be under no scrutiny.
Mr Harcourt finished his tea and stood to stretch his legs. He walked about the room, making appropriately admiring comments about the paintings, then stood at the fireplace, looking barely more at ease than he had when waiting in the hallway. Presently Cassandra went to the piano and began playing a gentle air. Aurelia and Dora sat silently drinking their tea and listening as their mother tried to discover as much about Mr Harcourt as she could.
‘Are you a married man, Mr Harcourt?’
Aurelia nearly dropped her teacup at such an intrusive question. Mr Harcourt was standing half in profile to her and she saw his jaw tighten. His eyes flickered briefly to the corner of the room where Cassandra had paused playing to turn the page. Aurelia held her breath, realising that she was keen to discover the answer herself.
‘I’m not and I’m perfectly content with that state,’ Mr Harcourt answered in a more agreeable tone than the question merited. ‘Despite what fanciful female writers might have the world believe, not every single man is in want of a wife.’
Aurelia bit her lip so she didn’t smile. Her mother looked blank. She was not a reader and clearly had no idea what or whom Mr Harcourt was referring to.
‘Harcourt of Harcourt and Langdon’s Mill, you say,’ she asked.
‘Langdon and Harcourt’s,’ he corrected. ‘I’m very much the junior partner. Mr Langdon was unable to join me today in person owing to a slight cold.’
His eyes flickered to the carriage clock on the mantelpiece. ‘Do you have any idea when Sir Robert may return?’ he asked. ‘I know I breached etiquette terribly by calling unannounced and I would not want to keep you here if you are busy. I know how difficult it is moving into a new house and how much time that takes.’
Aurelia eyed him with a little more interest. His accent was unusual, now she considered it, not like the other members of the Cheshire town that she had heard since moving back. He was not local and presumably as much of a stranger now to the area as they had been when they moved away. A dull pain spread through her as she wished she could be back in Oxford.
The raucous sound of dogs barking broke through the genteel atmosphere as the door slammed and the sound of claws on the marble floor indicated Sir Robert had returned from his walk.
‘Artemis, down! Mercury! Hermes, leave that umbrella!’ Sir Robert’s booming voice echoed through the hall, penetrating the genteel atmosphere of the parlour. ‘Diana, to me!’
It was not only Sir Robert’s children who took their names from the classical world. Aurelia counted herself lucky he kept his more outlandish names for his dogs. There was a clatter of something being knocked over and Sir Robert rang the gong in the hallway loudly to summon his butler. Quickly Aurelia rushed to the door and attracted his attention.
‘Father, we have a visitor,’ she said.
Sir Robert followed his daughter into the room, still dressed in his walking clothes and sturdy boots with the dogs sniffing at his heels. Immediately Lady Upford began to shriek in protest at four Irish Setters rolling on the carpet leaving ginger hair everywhere. Mr Harcourt looked appalled at the uproar. Aurelia and her sisters began to separate them and drag them from the room and out around the front of the house.
Aurelia lingered long enough to hear Mr Harcourt’s measured voice saying, ‘I’m terribly sorry for trespassing on your time without an appointment, Sir Robert. I am your nearest neighbour in a matter of speaking. My call is for social purposes, though I hope you and I may have the opportunity to conduct business in the future.’
Aurelia paused in the doorway to listen for her father’s answer.
‘Do come with me and we’ll go somewhere a little more private and quieter,’ Sir Robert said. ‘This confounded noise is dreadful.’
The sisters looked at each other in amusement; it had been perfectly quiet until their father and his hounds appeared and ruined it.
‘What do you think he wanted?’ Cassandra asked. Aurelia fixed her hand on Diana’s collar. The bitch was coming into heat and making every attempt to escape to satisfy her urges. Aurelia felt sympathetic and half-considered letting her slip free for an hour of fun.
‘I can’t say,’ she replied, ‘but if Mr Harcourt is hoping Father might invest in his silk trade he is going to be sadly disappointed when he discovers how little money we have.’
His impudence at calling with no appointment had been surprisingly effective, though. Sir Robert would have been unlikely to see him formally if at all possible, as he was determined to have little contact with society.
Cassandra laughed bitterly. ‘A full complement of servants!’ she said, mimicking their mother’s tone. ‘What rot! Eight servants are all Father says we can afford for
the time being.’
They succeeded in putting the dogs back in their kennels. Aurelia lingered, petting them for a few moments, then returned to the house. The dogs had knocked the table askew so she spent a few minutes of rearranging ornaments, knowing the disarray would annoy her if she left it. When she heard Mr Harcourt’s voice she lifted his hat and coat from the stand, catching again the scent that had tickled her senses the first time. Mr Harcourt exited her father’s study a couple of steps ahead of Sir Robert. The men were laughing together, but Mr Harcourt paused when he saw Aurelia waiting and his brows lifted. She gave him a serene smile.
‘Aurelia, what are you doing?’ her father asked.
‘I heard your guest’s voice so thought I would find his coat for him,’ she said in an innocent voice. ‘I was here so it saves summoning the housemaid.’
She handed the garments to Mr Harcourt whose lips twitched into a quick, unexpected smile. He had nice lips, full and wide, and his smile was infectious. That she could look at a man so attractive without the least stirring in her heart was proof it was terminally broken. She acknowledged his thanks with a curtsy and watched him leave.
‘Are you looking to catch a husband, my dear?’ Sir Robert said, kissing her cheek. ‘If you are, then I can ease your mind and tell you Mr Harcourt is unmarried. Rich, too.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Aurelia snapped. ‘After the fiasco with Arthur I intend to remain a spinster for ever.’
She knew mentioning Arthur’s name would quieten her father down. He hated the very mention of the wretch’s name and it served him right that Aurelia should throw it in his face after his own tactless comment.
‘That’s good, my dear. I’d be stretched to find a dowry for any of you at present even if there was anyone of our position asking for your hand,’ Sir Robert said. He pressed her hand and Aurelia tried not to feel bitter that his not-so-secret vice had put them in such dire financial straits.
Sir Robert began looking around the entrance hall. ‘Now, what the devil became of my dogs?’
He wandered away, whistling and calling the names of the hounds. Aurelia watched him go, then returned to the blessedly peaceful sanctuary of her room and her translation of Ovid’s facial remedies for women. Purely theoretical, naturally, for what did she care how youthful her skin looked if she never intended to attract another man in her life?
Chapter Two
‘Good grief, Edward!’ Jonathan exclaimed as he walked into the study of Langdon’s home. ‘You owe me a large glass of something strong for agreeing to visit Sir Robert alone.’
Edward looked up from the book of engravings he had been peering at and gave a faintly questioning smile.
‘I should send you next time,’ Jonathan continued. ‘You’d be more appreciative of Sir Robert’s collection of pornographic Greek vases and Lady Upford would be less likely to try inflict her daughters on you as prospective wives.’
‘Did she do that?’ Edward asked. ‘I recall she was a silly but formidable woman when the family lived here before, but I wondered if time might have mellowed her. Not that I ever met her, of course. I would never be admitted into her circle. Trade and gentry don’t mix in their eyes.’
‘Consider yourself fortunate,’ Jonathan said. He passed a hand over his brow in an exaggerated manner. He spent hours each day in the stifling rooms of the factory amid the deafening noise of the machines, yet the half-hour he had spent in Lady Upford’s company had given Jonathan more of a headache than the most wearing day amid the looms. The atmosphere in the room had been claustrophobic and the incessant chattering of Lady Upford and the presence of three young ladies was daunting to a man used to the solitude of his own spacious house.
‘I imagine she needs to be formidable to keep a rein on her husband. If that man wasn’t a member of the aristocracy, I would go as far as to call him a buffoon,’ Jonathan said. ‘He shambled around the room, tried to ply me with whisky, asked if I preferred to play cards or backgammon and then offered me a pup should his bitch fall pregnant.’
Edward chuckled and Jonathan was glad to see his friend showing some signs of animation. He had been very withdrawn and serious since coming down with the cold he had been unable to shift for almost a month.
‘I’d go as far as to call him a buffoon anyway in that case,’ Edward said. ‘Did you manage to broach the matter of the land sale?’
Jonathan shook his head ruefully. ‘I presented my case as a social visit, so unfortunately not. He has invited me back to discuss the matter in a morning rather than afternoon when he says he will be more able to concentrate on matters of business. I wonder if he drinks to excess.’
His jaw tightened, remembering the decline his own father would descend into after too many spirits. All regrets that he had left a house as grand as Siddon Hall behind him vanished. He poured Edward a small glass of port and handed it to him with an impatient sigh.
‘We do need that land if we are to expand and adopt efficiencies. I’ve made an appointment to see him in a week which should give me long enough to develop some resilience to him and his wife.’
‘And his daughters?’ Edward asked. ‘Did they also require a suit of armour to encounter?’
Jonathan sat back in the chair and gazed into the fireplace, bringing the girls to mind. The eldest had been breathtakingly beautiful and the youngest amusingly boyish in her manner, but it had been the middle one who commanded his memory the most. The girl he had appallingly mistaken for a servant when he’d accosted her to take his coat and hat. Alternately cringing and laughing, he explained his error to Edward, who chortled.
‘I remember the girls. Of course they were all much younger when they left. I did wonder if they would grow into beauties like their mother or if they would be cursed with their father’s looks and temperament.’
‘The oldest two certainly have their mother’s looks,’ Jonathan said. ‘As to whether they have more sense than their father I could not say after spending so little time in their company. I’d hazard a guess that even the dogs I saw have more sense than him.’
Edward stared at him for what felt like an inordinate amount of time. ‘And did you find yourself feeling anything towards these girls?’ he asked.
Jonathan frowned. He wasn’t sure what he was expected to feel. They had been pleasant company. The eldest had sparkled with life and gaiety, but he’d been glad when she began to play the piano as he had been struggling to think what he could possibly say to entertain her. The middle one had been more diverting owing to being the only one in the house who appeared capable of doing anything and given the fact that they now shared an unusual secret. Her eyes had gleamed with mischievousness. The youngest was barely a year out of being a schoolgirl.
‘They are all very beautiful,’ he admitted. ‘And they are just as accomplished and well brought up as any young lady of their class and situation might be. They would be pleasant enough to spend an evening with, I am sure.’
‘And any longer than an evening? Would you consider any of them as wives?’ Edward asked.
Jonathan stood and began pacing round the room. The old question. The old vexing subject that he had made his feelings clear about over and over since reaching manhood. Whenever his circumstances had changed the threat of wedlock loomed as various fathers or mothers paraded their daughters before him. He and Edward had often laughed about how the ranks of unmarried had transferred their arrows from the older target to the younger man as soon as the two men had gone into partnership. Now to hear Edward making the suggestion struck a chord that was atonal and unsettling.
‘You know I have no intention of marrying anyone. You and I are a pair of confirmed old bachelors, after all, and you’ve always known I intended to follow in your footsteps.’
He stopped before the fire and tapped his fingers on the mantelpiece. Edward placed his glass on the small table at his side. He stoked the fire, thrusti
ng the point of the poker deep into the glowing coals.
‘I was perhaps wrong to ever encourage you in that respect,’ Edward murmured, turning to Jonathan with a bleak expression on his face.
Jonathan raised his eyebrows in surprise. This was a side that Jonathan had never seen before. ‘You’re talking nonsense. You are perfectly happy being unmarried and so am I.’
‘I have my reasons for never having married,’ Edward said, staring into the flames. ‘And I hazard a guess they are different to yours. But I have known love and affection in my younger days—and affection in my older years. You have shied away even from those. Have you ever even known a woman?’
Jonathan folded his arms. ‘I shall not dignify that with a response.
It was an admission in itself and Edward clearly saw it. He gave Jonathan a faint smile. ‘You should consider taking a wife, even if one of these particular girls doesn’t appeal to you. Now, if you will excuse me, I shall retire for the evening with memories of a past I can treasure. Will you be able to say the same at my age?’
He left the room. Jonathan saw himself out, Edward’s words echoing through his mind.
Nothing more was said of the matter when the two men met in the mill offices the following morning and all talk regarding the Upford family concentrated on whether or not the baronet could be persuaded to sell the land needed.
* * *
By the time the day of Jonathan’s appointment came around he was determined to succeed, whatever the cost. The sky was cloudless and the morning mist had cleared, leaving a warm autumn day of the kind Jonathan particularly liked. Rather than going along the road through the town and round the long way, he walked down the narrow lane behind the factory to the river. He broke of a tall stem of grass and used it as a switch to knock the tops off other grasses, sending the tufts flying. By the time he reached the river bank his trouser hems were damp and he was regretting his decision.
He looked at the Bollin, which was the natural boundary between his property and Sir Robert’s land. The river was narrow here and meandered gently through the flat countryside. That idleness of the flow was half the source of Jonathan’s problem. There was nothing but fields at the edge of the parkland on Sir Robert’s side and most of them were not even being used for grazing at the moment. Surely Sir Robert would be happy to sell off the parcel that Edward and Jonathan needed.
The Silk Merchant's Convenient Wife Page 3