by Beverley, Jo
As Maria had said.
“Apparently she wanted me to be a conventional lady. I thought my father wrong about that, but Maria Vandeimen implied as much.”
“I suppose we all hope our children will find a smooth and easy path. You are contemplating barriers?”
Lucy eyed her. “You’re perceptive.”
“It doesn’t take great insight, but Nicholas expected this. He’s annoyingly insightful.”
“I suspected as much.”
“He predicted that you’d want to travel to Devon.”
Lucy stared at her. “Now that is irritating.”
“But is he right?”
“Yes. I can’t swing in the wind like this anymore. I need to know the truth. There is a truth to be known?”
“Many of them,” Eleanor said, not seeming uncomfortable with the question, but not answering it, either. “Isn’t that always the case? Even conventional people have their secrets and surprises.”
“And Wyvern is not conventional. Does he still have a torture chamber?” Lucy braced herself for the answer, suddenly aware that if he did, there was no hope.
“Heavens, no! Con started the destruction when he was earl. I gather there were offers to purchase what was left, but David had everything smashable smashed, everything meltable melted down, and anything flammable burned.”
Lucy let out a breath. “Good. Good.” She risked a direct question. “Is he insane? At times, at least?”
Eleanor didn’t seem startled. “Are any of us sane all the time? I don’t think he’s fit for Bedlam.”
That wasn’t entirely satisfactory, but it was better than it might have been. Lucy had come here in a ferment of need and uncertainty, but Eleanor’s calm manner was settling her. It made it seem that alarm was unnecessary and anything possible.
“I must go to Devon to find out for myself why David is so certain we should not wed, and I want to go now. No one will approve my going there, however, so no one can know I’ve gone. I have an idea of how it might be done, but I need help.”
Eleanor smiled. “You are not at all as you appear, are you? I’ll summon maids for the children and we can join Nicholas in the library.”
When they entered the room, Eleanor said, “You were right on all counts, you irritating man. Except that Lucy needs to get to Devon now.”
She outlined the situation as they sat and Nicholas Delaney listened.
“We live in Somerset, not very far from Crag Wyvern,” he said, “and we’ve been thinking of leaving Town. We prefer the country and there’s nothing to hold us here anymore.”
“We came to help a Rogue,” Eleanor explained, “and lingered to help Lord Darien.”
“The murderous one?” Lucy asked, surprised.
“That was his brother,” Nicholas said. “The current one’s burdened by the scandal of his name.”
“Like David,” Lucy said.
“Even the Mad Earl of Wyvern didn’t slaughter a young lady of the neighborhood and leave bloody tracks back to his house.”
“Goodness, I remember that now! I’d forgotten the name.”
“Alas, few in the beau monde did. Now that Darien is settled, we lingered for David. I had a hand in persuading him to claim the earldom. That was for Con’s sake, but it created its own obligation.”
“I see.”
“I think you do.”
“Balance is important in trade. In ideal circumstances everyone feels they did well from a transaction.”
“Even though there is nearly always a winner and a loser.”
Lucy shrugged, for it was true. “Do you have time to help me?”
“What do you need?”
His tone was so commonplace that Lucy hesitated to put her outrageous plan into words, but she must.
“No one is going to allow me to go to Devon on the instant in pursuit of Wyvern, so I have to go unnoticed.” Neither listener seemed shocked. “My father marries in a week. There’s no habit of communications between him and my aunt, Lady Caldross. When I returned to the City recently, she didn’t write to him about it. If I say I want to return again to assist in the preparations for my father’s wedding, it should happen the same way.”
“And as no one will be expecting you,” Delaney said, “no one will report that you haven’t arrived. Ingenious. It could go awry.”
“They won’t hang me for it.”
He nodded. “What do you need?”
“A carriage. Last time, my aunt sent me in hers, but that won’t do. It must seem my father has sent a carriage for me.”
“That can be arranged.”
“I’ll also need advice on how to get to Crag Wyvern. I’ll have to travel at speed, for I must be back in time for Father’s wedding. I can’t miss that.”
“In the midst of this, you’re concerned about such a conventional matter?”
“It’s not only convention. I want to be at his wedding to wish him and Charlotte well.”
“Then you’ll have only a few days in Devon. Is that worth an arduous journey?”
“Yes.” But she added, “How arduous?”
“It’s nearly two hundred miles and toll roads will only take you to Honiton. After that, travel will be slower and in time it will be best on horseback. Do you ride?”
Lucy wanted to lie, but said, “No.”
She thought he’d try to dissuade her at that point, but he said, “Pillion, then.” He glanced at his wife and must have received some agreement. “We’ll take you. Or rather, I will under cover of our departure for Somerset.”
Lucy relaxed, all her stress smoothing away. “Thank you. How are we to achieve it?”
“You’ll depart your aunt’s house tomorrow for the City in a carriage I send. It will bring you here, and we’ll be ready to depart for Somerset in a grand train of carriages containing family, servants, and baggage. At the Turnham Green stage, you and I will hire a chaise and six and hurtle onward at all possible speed.”
Lucy laughed rather shakily. “It feels like an elopement.” As her mother had eloped.
“If possible marry with all due decorum,” Nicholas Delaney said.
“I’m not actually eloping.”
“But you’re going adventuring, which is just as chancy. Are you sure?”
Lucy took a moment to weigh it all again, as something that could actually happen.
“Yes. I have no choice, you see. And even if I’m missed, I’ll be hard to trace, so I might not be stopped before I’ve found out what I need to know.”
“A lady of steady nerves and a clear head. David had you assessed right from the start.”
“He did?”
He smiled. “But I won’t say more on that. You and he must sort it out for yourselves.”
Lucy thought of one thing. “I must pay for this. It’s my enterprise.”
She expected a polite objection, but he only asked, “You have enough money on hand?”
“I can get it. From my bank.”
“Can you trust your banker not to mention a large withdrawal to your father?”
He might not go so far as to report to her father, but if they met, as they could well, he’d probably see no harm in mentioning it.
“I won’t be balked by that.”
“No need. I’ll fund it.”
“Thank you, but I will pay you back. I insist.”
“Very well. Is there any wrinkle we’ve missed?”
Eleanor spoke. “You must pack as if truly returning to your father’s for the wedding.”
“I’d not thought of that. A pity to haul a trunk along.”
“Leave it here and collect it when you return. A valise and a few changes of clothing will do for a few days. It will be very tiring to get there in a day,” Eleanor warned. “I’ll go more gently to Red Oaks, which could mean three days, and it’s about the same distance.”
“Nothing could be more tiring than fretting day and night.”
“Ah, love,” Eleanor said wryly. To her husband,
she said, “Will you stay with Lucy or catch up with us?”
“Once delivered, it’s for Lucy and David to deal with their affairs.”
Lucy had the feeling that even a little time apart was a trial to them, and yet they seemed such calm, sensible people.
“Is love enough?” she asked. “It must have been in my mother’s case, but I’ve known hardship to turn wives sour.”
“Husbands, too,” Eleanor said. “Perhaps such people only had fair-weather affection, or perhaps trials can wear away at even the deepest love. In your case, you need only discover whether what you feel now can endure what you discover.”
That felt ominous.
“David won’t change? Won’t move elsewhere?”
Nicholas answered. “Duty obliges him, but where love’s concerned, nothing is impossible. However, it would be cruel to try to move him to the City.”
“Yet not cruel to move me to the remote countryside?”
“It would be cruel not just to him, but to others. You’ll see what I mean when you get there. And as for the cruelty to you, that is for you to decide.”
“What about a chaperone, Nicholas?” Eleanor asked. “I don’t mean on the journey, but at the Crag?”
“Lucy might prefer to stay at Kerslake Manor. Where David was born and raised,” he explained. “His aunt and uncle are very respectable people. It’s much more normal.”
The opposite being abnormal.
With the plan laid out and possible, all the hazards became clear. She was going to slip away from London under a cloak of deception, travel alone with a man she hardly knew, and arrive unannounced at the door of the Earl of Wyvern’s ominous keep.
Perhaps it was she who was mad.
But the madness was compelling.
“I must do this,” she stated.
“Very well,” Nicholas said, as if they were arranging a drive out to Chiswick. “You must arrange your departure with your aunt. Once that’s settled, send word and we’ll do the rest.”
* * *
On the way home Lucy realized that she wasn’t practiced in deceit. Small matters, yes, like poetry and nightingales, but not serious ones. She thanked the heavens she didn’t have to attempt the deception with her father.
When she arrived she went straight to her aunt before she lost her nerve.
“I feel I should return home, Aunt, to assist with the preparations for my father’s wedding.”
She was prepared for objections, but Aunt Mary made none at all. “Very dutiful of you, dear.”
On to the next hurdle. Would her aunt insist on sending her home in her town carriage? “I’ll write to my father and ask him to send the carriage.”
“That would be kind. I confess ours is often needed at this busy time.” Then her aunt frowned. What had she perceived? “You will miss some promising entertainment, dear. Signor Berconi is to sing privately at Lady Ball’s.” But then Aunt Mary added, “Ah, Wyvern.”
Lucy’s heart thumped. How had Aunt Mary guessed?
All she could manage was a feeble, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you have fallen into rash behavior, Lucinda. The gossip I hear! It never serves to allow a gentleman liberties before marriage. Why should he believe that a lady will be a chaste and modest wife if she behaves otherwise unwed? He might’ve, in fact, leave Town to avoid further entanglements.”
Lucy knew she was fiery red, but could do nothing about it. Her aunt’s words might’ve even been true if she put the worst interpretation on David’s leaving. Which she didn’t.
“I will say no more, dear. A lesson learned. It is sensible of you to use such an excellent excuse to leave for a few days to let any talk die down. If you still favor the earl, he may change his mind, for you do offer much.”
Thirty thousand pounds.
How irrelevant that now seemed.
“And he himself is not unsullied,” her aunt added.
“You mean the insanity in the family.”
Perhaps she hoped her aunt would dismiss that flaw, but she said, “That and notoriety. A true gentleman or lady Does Not Cause Talk. A pity about Stevenhope, but you have other admirers. Do not despair of finding a good husband. All in all you are a good girl and a steadying influence on Clara. At the end of the month we will move to Brighton for some weeks. If you haven’t visited there, you might enjoy it.”
Lucy was assailed with guilt. For the first time she wondered what would happen if her deception was uncovered. Her aunt would become the center of talk, but more than that, she would be hurt.
“You’re very kind, Aunt,” Lucy said, and meant it.
She left then and made herself consider the idea that Wyvern had fled Town in disgust. Had he felt, as Aunt Mary said, that a lady who tumbled into such scandalous extremes in a theater stairwell would never be a trustworthy wife?
Definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but the world was never fair between men and women. The world approved of demure young ladies who kept their more disturbing talents under a bushel basket. It approved of ones like Lady Iphigenia, who seemed to lack any firm substance at all.
Days ago she would have been sure Wyvern had more sense, but now she wasn’t sure of anything. She entered the bedroom knowing that if she were sane, she should do as she’d said and go home. If Wyvern wanted her, he would know where to find her.
She wasn’t sane. She touched the bed, remembering that magical nighttime visit. The stairwell had been fiery passion, but the bedroom invasion had been magical. That had been pure David, and it was David she loved.
She hitched up to sit on the bed, chasing a thought. David, Earl, and Dragon.
David delighted her.
She admired the dutiful earl.
She thrilled to the dangerous dragon.
But secrets, secrets, secrets!
She had to know all.
She went to the desk to write the note to the Delaneys and then had Hannah take it to a footman for delivery. If anyone asked, she’d say she was canceling a future engagement.
She also told Hannah to have her small trunk brought down for packing. As she waited for the maid to return she saw an unconsidered obstacle.
Hannah.
She couldn’t leave her here, so she was going to have to take her. All the way to Devon? Her maid would be a chaperone, but the fastest post chaise was designed for only two.
When Hannah returned, Lucy hadn’t come up with a solution. She set to the simpler task of choosing what to take.
She needed only plain clothing for this adventure, but to support the fiction she had to take an assortment. The second footman brought in the trunk and Hannah began to pack the items already chosen.
“What’ll you take for the wedding, miss?”
Charlotte dressed simply, and she’d probably do the same for her wedding. Lucy had no desire to outshine the bride.
She said as much to the maid. “There’s the dusky blue morning dress at home. If I add the new blue spencer, it will be fine enough. And the white straw bonnet with the extra trimming removed.”
Hannah nodded, and found the spencer and the bonnet in its box.
“Won’t you want something fine in case there’s an evening event, miss?”
She must, for in the end she would be at home, involved in the wedding celebrations. Her tonnish clothes had made her an oddity in the past. “The sprigged muslin,” she decided, “and the cerulean blue.”
“The plain one, miss?”
“You know it’s a favorite. As I couldn’t bear to overtrim it, I haven’t worn it here, but it will suit the City.”
“It’ll be good to be back home, miss.”
Lucy smiled, but she no longer knew where home was. Nor had she come up with any way to deal with Hannah.
Chapter 26
The first part of the plan went off perfectly. A glossy town carriage arrived at the door. The trunk and boxes were loaded into the boot. Hannah entered the carriage and Lucy took a fond farewell of
her aunt and cousin.
It wasn’t long, however, before Hannah said, “Are we going the right way, miss? And why isn’t Sam Travers driving?”
Lucy ignored the second part. “We’re stopping at a friend’s house first.” But she soon saw there was nothing for it. “I’m not going home, Hannah. I’m going to Devon.”
The maid’s hand went to her chest. “Never say you’re eloping!”
“Of course not. But I have need to visit Devon and my friends are going to take me there.”
“It’s that Lord Wyvern, isn’t it? I knew he was up to no good, sneaking you off into the trees and kissing you there. I could see, never mind the tree trunks. And I heard tell you went off with him at the theater the other night. Oh, Miss Lucy, what are you up to?”
“Hush, Hannah. Nothing terrible, I promise. I’m traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Delaney and their children.” Children made everything seem more respectable. “I simply need to see where Lord Wyvern lives before I can make a decision.”
“But there’s proper ways to do that, miss. Not sneaking away like this.”
“Not without it seeming as if I’m committed. I want to make a free choice.”
“Better to choose another, I say. Everyone mutters that he has bad blood.”
“That’s why I have to see for myself. You won’t expose me, will you, Hannah?”
The maid rolled her eyes. “I should, and there’s no mistake. I should tell your father right off. But I’ll come with you.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. There’ll be no room in the carriage.”
“Then what am I to do?”
“I thought you could stay at the Delaneys’ house for the next few days.” Then Lucy was inspired. “Or perhaps you’d like a holiday?”
“Well, I never . . . ! Not but what I wouldn’t mind visiting my sister, who’s married to a Kentish man, out Erith way.”
“Perfect,” Lucy said with a sigh of relief. “We’ll arrange your travel there and I’ll let you know when I’ll be back so we can arrive home with none the wiser.”
“I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing, miss.”
“You are. I promise.”
Hannah looked skeptical about that, and no wonder. “And I doubt I’ll be able to keep it to myself forever. I’m not a one for lying.”