Courting Lord Dorney

by Sally James

  ‘Surely not! He can’t do that. Your father would stop him.’

  ‘But Papa won’t live for ever. And Gareth’s very convincing when he wants something badly enough. How do you think he persuaded Helen to marry him? She had far better offers. There’s no one else I can leave it to but you, and you say you won’t take it, and you’re older than I am anyway. I have to have a child, and to do that I need a husband!’

  Jane was persevering. ‘Gareth is older than you are.’

  ‘Only by a couple of years. But he could start to try and prove I’m mad as soon as Papa died.’

  ‘He doesn’t have any children. He only married Helen six months ago.’

  ‘But she’s increasing.’

  ‘And you want to use the rest of money to house your orphans?’

  ‘Yes. Most of it, I’m not saintly enough to give it all away! I found one house in Preston before I went to Harrogate, and left Papa’s attorney to deal with the purchase, and hire a decent couple to run it.’

  ‘Does the attorney approve?’

  ‘It wouldn’t matter to me if he didn’t, he’d do what he was told if he were being paid for it! But as it happens he’s all in favour, and so are his brother, who’s a Wesleyan preacher, and their wives. They will find more children, supervise the house, start to raise money to finance it, and perhaps find other people to help.’

  ‘Can you trust them?’

  ‘Yes, they’re all good people. They’re not of the Evangelical persuasion. They’ll give the children a good Christian upbringing, but they won’t be forever preaching duty and virtue at them, and not permitting innocent pleasures. I’ll take Jed there and get his sisters out of the workhouse. It’s iniquitous to split families like that, especially when their mother has just been killed in a horrible accident! They’ll all go to school and get a better start in life.’

  ‘What about their father?’

  ‘He was a soldier, he died at Waterloo. They all had to work in that wretched mill just to earn enough to eat. ‘

  ‘You can’t rescue all the mill children,’ Jane said.

  ‘But we can persuade other people to help, to give money, set up decent small houses, so much better than those horrid, monstrous workhouses where families are split. We’ll employ sensible couples, who are kind yet firm, to look after them and see that they are trained for decent trades.’

  ‘Was it really so dreadful in Harrogate?’ Jane changed the subject.

  ‘I hated the whole business. The men were all odious. I could see their busy little despicable minds calculating exactly how much a year I’m worth. They wouldn’t have cared if I’d been a hideous old hag with unspeakable diseases if only they could have laid their hands on my beastly money.’

  ‘Were they all fortune hunters?’

  ‘Yes, hateful ones. And the distressing thought is that now I could never be sure anyone wanted me and not my money. So I determined on this plan and I need you to help me.’

  ‘I thought you might,’ Jane said, with a laugh that was partly a sigh. She’d been involved in the younger girl’s exploits many times before, and although she normally enjoyed them in retrospect, at the time she was too apprehensive to appreciate them. ‘What are you going to do?’

  Bella grinned at her, knowing quite well what she was thinking. ‘I mean to find a husband who doesn’t know about my wretched fortune.’

  ‘But how can you do that?’ Jane asked.

  ‘I know I’m not beautiful, tall and slim and blonde like you are, but I’m not a complete antidote, even if I am three and twenty!’ she declared indignantly. ‘Someone might wish to marry me. I did have two offers when Aunt Maria brought me out with cousin Caroline.’

  ‘Yes and you told me one was a widower of fifty, a parson who had six children under ten and wanted someone to undertake parish duties.’

  ‘No wonder his poor wife expired! And the other was boy only a year older than I was. How could I even contemplate marrying a boy of eighteen, even if he hadn’t had dreadful spots he tried to hide with some sort of flour paste? Besides, you know how pretty Caroline is! She had a dozen offers, good ones.’

  ‘And married a rake who gambled away his fortune and her portion too. No wonder her mother is eager to get your uncle’s money. She must have been devastated when Gareth married so imprudently last year, and Helen had only a couple of thousand.’

  ‘She was, and I’m sure she’s hoping Helen dies when the baby is born! Then dear Gareth could offer for me. But let’s forget them. I’m determined on my plan, Jane. And I suppose I can lose weight if I eat less,’ she added more doubtfully.

  ‘I didn’t mean you were ugly!’ Jane protested, laughing. ‘You keep saying you’re not pretty, but Philip says you’re very attractive when you’re animated.’

  ‘Does he? Truly?’ Bella asked wistfully. Since her only season in London she had known few people, apart from neighbours and her father’s elderly friends, until her visit to Harrogate. No one had ever complimented her on her looks before she had unexpectedly inherited her uncle’s fortune a year before. She had soon grown suspicious of compliments after the first few days in Harrogate when she’d found herself surrounded by attentive men, old as well as young.

  ‘What I meant,’ Jane went on, ‘was that everyone here knows about it, and now everyone in Harrogate too. How can you meet a suitable man who doesn’t?’

  ‘Yes, that’s the difficulty, but if I change my name it ought to be possible to find someone, especially if I let it be known that I have a modest dowry. I have to do it soon or I’ll never know whether a man can love me for myself. And soon I’ll be too old for even a desperate parson or widower to consider!’

  ‘Will you go to London?’

  ‘I’d love to,’ Bella sighed longingly. ‘But how can I? Some of the people I met in Harrogate will be there for the Season, as well as some of our neighbours here in Lancashire, and they’d recognize me, even if the ones I met six years ago don’t remember me. No, I mean to go to Bath.’

  ‘Bella, do think! If you do as you say it will cause all sorts of complications. And there could be someone from Harrogate who’d know you.’

  ‘No one I know in Lancashire goes there, it’s not so fashionable now, and from what those horrid men in Harrogate said they regard it as dreadfully slow. I didn’t meet many of the older people who went to take the waters, so if any of them move to Bath they probably won’t recognize me. But I need you to chaperone me.’

  ‘They can’t all have been old.’

  ‘Well, some of them were young, but they were mainly the sons of wealthy mill or mine owners who’d never been out of Yorkshire in their lives except to go to London.’

  ‘And none you felt even the slightest tendre for?’

  ‘Not a whit! But they all knew I was rich and it was almost a race to see who could make me an offer first.’ She chuckled. ‘Lady Salway was afraid her job would be over almost before it began. It was, but not the way she expected. Really, Jane, I didn’t think even Papa would have foisted such a dreadful woman onto me.’

  ‘She answered an advertisement, didn’t she?’

  ‘With all sorts of glowing recommendations. I imagine they said those things to get rid of her. If they were genuine and not forged.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘It was when she left me alone with her nephew. He’s a beastly creature, and he tried to kiss me. Ugh! His lips were wet and flabby, and he kept trying to paw me. I kneed him where it hurt, and then told her she wasn’t fit to be a duenna, and she could pack her bags and go that very night. I don’t know if she did. I didn’t see her again before Meg and I set out early this morning.’

  ‘Then it’s unlikely she’ll complain to your father?’

  ‘She knows I’d tell him what happened. But Jane, I can’t endure to be foisted off with another woman like that. Please won’t you help me? Philip is away for another two months and you must be lonely here on your own, so why not?’

  ‘It’
s being deceitful,’ Jane said slowly. ‘Your father would be horrified.’

  ‘He won’t even know. Jane, it could be fun!’

  Jane shuddered. ‘For you, no doubt! You have no shame!’

  ‘If you won’t do it I shall have to travel on my own and hire someone from an agency when I get there.’

  * * * *

  Sir Daniel Scott clapped Lord Dorney on the shoulder.

  ‘Well met, Richard. It’s months since we last had a good talk. But what brought you up to Lancashire? I thought you only visited Fellside in the autumn, for the shooting?’

  Lord Dorney frowned. ‘I do, and so I decided it had to be sold. I’ve found a buyer but he has not yet offered a good enough price. He’s a wealthy cotton merchant who wants a country seat, and if he can offer what I think it’s worth it would allow me to carry on with the renovations at Dorney Court.’

  ‘I thought Robert had made all good, after your father died?’

  ‘He repaired the roof and the windows, but neglected to do anything for the farms. The rent roll is pathetically small. And Selina ruined the inside. I can’t live in her monstrous extravaganza.’

  ‘So you are selling the properties your mother left you to finance it?’

  ‘I have little choice. They are my only source of capital. I still have the hunting box, and I’ve rented out the town house for the season. I don’t want to have to sell them if it’s at all possible to keep them.’

  ‘And you will be back in London soon?’

  ‘I have to go to Bath first to see Alex.’

  ‘Then save yourself the expense of hiring rooms and come to stay with me. My town house is small, but big enough for two bachelors.’

  ‘Thank you, I’d like that. I’ve some good friends. Now tell me all about America.’

  Soon he was listening enthralled to Sir Daniel, who had just returned from a few months at the British Embassy in Washington, and forgot all about his abortive call on Mrs Grant.

  ‘So you think the matter of the boundary between America and Canada will soon be settled?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s in everyone’s interest to settle it. Wars are too costly. The Americans don’t want another war with Britain, and we’re too exhausted, we need a few more years to recover without indulging in more heroics.’

  ‘Is that what you thought about our little disagreement with Boney?’ Lord Dorney asked, laughing.

  ‘We had to stop him, but peace with America will be good for trade. They have cotton, which we need, and they buy many goods from us.’

  Suddenly he yawned. ‘I must sleep. We’ve a long ride tomorrow to Cheshire, and I hope you’ll stay with me there for a few days while I deal with matters at home before I go and report to the Foreign Office.’

  ‘And I to see how the work goes on at Dorney Court before I go and see Alex and this chit he wants to marry.’

  Chapter 2

  At breakfast on the following day Bella was still trying to persuade Jane. ‘I must spend a few days at home, I promised Jed I’d find his sisters, but we’ll start as soon as possible. Papa won’t want me there for longer than to ask what happened.’

  ‘But Bella! I promised to visit Philip’s godmother, Lady Fulwood, soon, and remain in London until Philip comes home on furlough. I can’t go to Bath.’

  ‘Tell her you’ll come later. Just for a few weeks, Jane! Please! And Philip can come to Bath if he has leave earlier. Jane, you can’t let me down! I mean to go, whatever you do. If you refuse me I’ll find some way, even if I have to tell Papa Lady Salway is still with me.’

  ‘You wouldn’t dare! You’d never lie to him!’

  ‘I will! I hate the very idea of deceiving him, but what else can I do when he won’t listen? I’ve never actually lied to him. If he asked me I always told the truth, but I’m determined to marry someone who loves me, not my fortune! You married for love, Jane, you can’t deny me the same chance!’

  ‘But Bella!’ Jane almost wailed. ‘I can’t!’

  ‘Then I’ll have to tell lies. I’ll soon find someone in Bath like Lady Salway. I must go soon. Jane, have you any notion of how fast gossip spreads? And how determined some of these fortune hunters are? Only a few people know about me now, and I can be sure no one in Bath does. After the Season, though, with all those wretches from Harrogate spreading gossip, it’ll be different. I’d expect to find coaches breaking down every day outside the gates, or riders waiting to rescue me from falling on every ride I took! I even heard of one man who deliberately crashed into a girl’s coach so that he could meet her, and several heiresses have been abducted! Ravished and forced to the altar for very shame!’ she declaimed in throbbing tones.

  ‘You’re not afraid of that, surely!’ Jane was aghast, and with a secret sigh of relief Bella knew she’d won.

  ‘We-ell,’ she hesitated. ‘One of the wretches hinted at something like that. But if I change my name and vanish from home, he can’t do anything. You will help me, won’t you, Jane dear?’

  By the following morning they had decided to send Bates to Bath at once to hire them a house for two months before Jane went to London.

  ‘That ought to be long enough,’ Bella said, but doubtfully. She was assailed by a sudden bleakness, a total lack of confidence in her ability to attract potential suitors.

  ‘I’ll say I’ve determined to try the waters for the cure of a minor digestive disorder which I’ve ignored until now, but which seems worse of late,’ Jane decided, entering into the deception wholeheartedly now she was committed. ‘We’ll hire servants there, who won’t be aware of your change of name,’ she added, ‘and Bates must return to look after this house while I’m away.’

  * * * *

  Mr Trahearne, although mildly surprised to see his daughter, accepted her carefully worded explanation that Lady Salway could no longer undertake her chaperonage, and she herself found Harrogate unpleasant. Her wish to accompany Jane to Bath seemed entirely reasonable, and absolved him from further effort.

  On the following day Bella went to Preston, taking an apprehensive Jed with her. He was clean and tidy, in respectable clothes which had been outgrown by the gardener’s son, and he rarely stopped asking questions, and demanding reassurances that Bella would find his sisters. When they reached the office of Mr George Jenkins, her attorney, he told her that the house she had bought was fit for occupation, and a decent couple installed.

  ‘Then let us go and I can meet them, and leave Jed to get acquainted.’

  Jed clung to her hand as they drove to the house, in a poor but respectable district not far from the town centre. Bella subjected Mr and Mrs Lloyd to a barrage of questions about their plans for looking after the children who would be consigned to their care, and was soon satisfied that they were an ideal couple to take charge of her orphans. They had one son, a little older than Jed, but Mrs Lloyd had been injured when he was born, and had never started another baby.

  ‘Much to our regret, Miss,’ Mr Lloyd added. ‘We’d have loved a big family, and this scheme will give us one.’

  Bella approved of them, and left Jed with firm instructions that he was to do everything they said on pain of being taken back to the mill. Then she and Mr Jenkins went to the workhouse.

  After a slight disagreement with the workhouse overseers Bella succeeded in taking Jed’s sisters away. She suspected that they were secretly relieved at having two fewer mouths to feed. Bet and Sal, seven and ten years old, were tearful in their thanks, and vowed they would keep Jed out of mischief. Bella went back to Mr Jenkins’ office satisfied with her progress so far.

  ‘You will keep me informed how they go on, and whether you find other children in need?’ she said. ‘I shall be staying for only part of the time in Bath with Lady Hodder, and it’s best you send my letters through her. I’ll send her direction as soon as possible. I mean to spend some time in Bristol, while I am in the area. Your brother recommended a fellow Wesleyan who is engaged in a similar project there, and I must meet him and see if we
can help one another.’

  And that, she thought with satisfaction, eliminated the possibility that Mr Jenkins might inadvertently give away her real name to Jane’s servants in Bath.

  * * * *

  When she reached home again and was sitting down after dinner with her father, Bella told him more of Jane’s plans.

  ‘So you didn’t like Harrogate, my dear?’ Mr Trahearne said, keeping his place in the book with one finger. ‘What a shame, it seemed such a good opportunity for you to mix in wider society than we have hereabouts.’

  Bella bit back her opinion of the opportunities her various suitors had seen, and smiled dutifully. ‘Jane is planning to spend a few weeks in Bath, and she has asked me to go with her,’ she said. ‘I expect some of the people there will be - well, younger. And Jane is reluctant to hire a companion, someone she doesn’t know. She would much rather have my company.’

  ‘I’ve no doubt of it, my dear. When does she plan to go?’

  ‘At the end of the week. So I may go, Papa?’

  ‘Of course, child.’

  ‘Thank you so much! I’ll send a message to tell her you’ve agreed.’

  His gaze strayed back to the book. ‘I shall miss you, my dear, but I am nearly at the end of my translation, and it would be an opportunity for me to complete it without feeling I am neglecting you.’

  ‘Of course,’ she agreed, dutifully suppressing the thought that her father never permitted anything to distract him from his passion for Greek literature. He really should have been a university don, she thought, and no doubt would have been if he had not met her lovely mother and been swept up for a few pitifully short months by a different sort of passion.