by Jane Rubino
A few days after his arrival, he came upon Lady Vernon and his elder niece, a girl of about three years in age. The two were sitting on the ground in a little copse not far from the border of Churchill Wood. Lady Vernon had been showing young Kitty how to collect dried stalks and grass and to weave them into baskets.
“Good morning, Lady Vernon,” Reginald greeted her.
She replied with an inviting smile, and so he made some general remark about the mildness of the weather and added, “It is excellent for a sportsman. I have never had the pleasure of shooting in this part of Sussex.”
Lady Vernon hesitated just long enough to make the young man recognize his clumsiness. To his credit, he did recognize it and began to apologize.
“Say no more, Mr. deCourcy,” she said gravely. “If I have been brave enough to return to the scene of my husband’s accident, I cannot shrink from any allusion to it. You have come from Bath, I believe? I hope that you left your uncle in good health?”
“Yes, I thank you.”
“I was so very grateful to him for traveling all the way from Bath last summer. My husband’s death was so sudden that I am certain many people who wished to come were unable to make the journey.” She paused just long enough for him to recollect that his own sister had stayed away.
“It would not be in my uncle’s nature to do less,” said Reginald. “Particularly as he always spoke of your family in terms of such high esteem.” He realized as he uttered this remark that he ought to have given as much credit to his uncle’s opinion as he had to that of Charles Smith.
Lady Vernon took pity on him and raised another subject. “And how do you like this part of Sussex? You will find it very quiet, I think.”
“A household with four children can only be quiet when compared to the animated society of Langford.”
“The Manwarings are very fond of company,” Lady Vernon agreed. “It was at Langford that I was introduced to a particular acquaintance of yours, Mr. Charles Smith.”
“And did you like him?” he said after a moment’s hesitation.
“If I did not, I would not say so to one with whom he professed a strong and steadfast friendship. It might get back to him in a way that would not do justice to my abuse and then I would be obliged to think ill of both of you.”
Reginald deCourcy laughed and perched on a tree stump beside them. “He has very lively manners.”
“Yes, very lively. But gentlemen who are not rich cannot afford to be solemn if they want to mix with people of fashion. Such people like to be amused.”
“And do you not like to be amused?” he asked.
“I think that reading and a little music and some good conversation are the only diversions that are suitable to my present situation,” she replied with perfect composure. “So it is fortunate that they are the ones that I prefer. I understand that you are a great reader.”
“Whoever told you so said too much.”
“Mr. Smith told the Manwarings that when you were at Bath you spent a great deal of time at the library.”
“When he is at Bath, Smith reads only the book. To him, anything more would be too much and any time away from the Pump Room would be too long. I am enough of a reader to see that Churchill Manor has a very superior library.”
“The late Mr. Vernon laid out a very good foundation, and my husband added to it considerably. Our daughter has always been a great reader, and the mere mention of this title or that from her would have my husband sending around to every bookseller in England.”
“Such devotion between father and daughter is remarkable. She must miss him all the more for it.”
“Yes, her spirits have been greatly depressed,” Lady Vernon replied. “Those who have only known her since her father’s accident will find her to be quiet and aloof, I am sure, but they do not know what she was before. I hope that in the company of other young ladies, she will become herself once more. She is very fond of your cousin, Miss Lucy Hamilton, who is all liveliness and good humor—her high spirits can only raise Frederica’s.”
“Yes, Lucy is very far from quiet and aloof.” Reginald laughed. “She will make Miss Vernon more cheerful, and Miss Vernon will, perhaps, make Lucy more prudent. I cannot speak for Miss Vernon, but for Lucy it will be a very great improvement.”
“That is because you are only a cousin.” Lady Vernon smiled. “A fond mother will always think her child is beyond any improvement.”
chapter twenty-five
Lady Vernon concluded that there was no great mystery to winning over Reginald deCourcy. He only wanted to be listened to. His parents dictated, his sister criticized, his friends gossiped, but none of them paid heed to any of his replies. With Lady Vernon, he experienced the novelty of being asked for his opinion and the satisfaction of giving an uninterrupted response.
She observed that his education had been thorough, his understanding was sound, and his tendency to think well of himself had not predisposed him to think meanly of others. His gentleness with his young nieces and nephews, his regard for his uncle Lewis deCourcy, and his very handsome countenance and figure were all to his advantage, and Lady Vernon’s opinion of him had improved by the time she next wrote to Mrs. Johnson.
Mr. deCourcy is certainly a very handsome young man. He is less insinuating in his manner than Robert Manwaring, and not as teasing as Sir James. He is lively and clever; his mind has not been idle, and he has a natural curiosity that makes his conversation more to my taste than Mr. Vernon’s or his wife’s.
Her good friend, always eager to find romance and intrigue in every situation, immediately dispatched a reply filled with the sort of errant good wishes which indicated that Lady Vernon’s praise of Reginald had been thoroughly misunderstood.
Mrs. Johnson to Lady Vernon
Edward Street, London
My dear friend,
I congratulate you on Mr. deCourcy’s arrival and advise you by all means to marry him. I hear the young man well spoken of and though no one can really deserve you, my dear Susan, there are reasons that he may be worth having. His father is very infirm and not likely to stand in your way long, and the estate is considerable and entailed upon Mr. deCourcy—after that, only his uncle Lewis deCourcy keeps Parklands from passing to the issue of the female line. Charles Vernon has got enough out of the deCourcys, and if he has squandered it, it is nobody’s fault but his own. Mark my word, he will want to keep Reginald at Churchill Manor as long as the Hamiltons remain at Parklands, as he cannot look forward to a marriage that will put another half-dozen deCourcys between himself and so valuable an estate. How diverting to think that his efforts to keep deCourcy from one wife have thrown him in the way of another!
By all means, engage the affections of young deCourcy as quick as you can. You will be very little benefited by the match until the old gentleman’s death, except for the enjoyment of Mrs. Vernon’s distress. Her ability to influence her brother’s opinions has always been a point of pride with her, and she will be rightly humbled to see how little the advice of a sister can go to prevent a young man’s being in love if he chooses it. Lady Hamilton and Miss Hamilton will storm, and poor Manwaring will not be easily consoled, for ever since you were left so rich there have been whispers that he is scheming to effect his emancipation from Eliza on purpose to ask for your hand. I am convinced that there is no true affection anywhere—everything is all about money!
I have seen Sir James, who has come to town to visit his tailor. I gave him what hopes I could of Miss Vernon’s relenting and told him a great deal of her improvements, and yet he would speak of nobody but you—indeed I was persuaded that he would marry either of you with pleasure. He is as silly and agreeable as ever.
Your faithful friend,
Alicia Johnson
Mrs. Johnson was so far persuaded that an engagement between her friend and Reginald deCourcy was probable that she did not wait for her friend to contradict it before she began circulating around London that, despite a tacit understan
ding with Miss Lavinia Hamilton, young deCourcy had fallen entirely under the spell of Lady Vernon.
The rumor was well established by the time Charles Vernon was obliged to go to town for two days in order to attend to some matters at the banking house and collect his dividends. He departed in high spirits—a respite from the agitation that Lady Vernon’s presence had produced and the prospect of getting his hands on money and spending it at cards made him very happy to quit Churchill Manor for London. Men, however, must talk about something when they are at cards, and polite inquiries after Lady Vernon’s health and spirits were followed by congratulations upon the likelihood of her being an even nearer relation.
Vernon was astonished and disbelieving—Lady Vernon and Reginald had scarcely a fortnight’s acquaintance. He imagined the effect that such a rumor would have upon Lady deCourcy and would almost have been willing to return to Parklands if he might have the pleasure of hearing the first vehement expression of her disapprobation.
And yet … The thirty miles from London to Churchill Manor were just enough to allow Vernon to consider what might be the advantage to him if such a rumor were true.
A new and very rich husband would surely divert Lady Vernon from any contemplation of what was due from the former one. The acquisition of Parklands for his line would be more secure than if Reginald married Lavinia Hamilton, as Lady Vernon had brought only one daughter into a union of sixteen years.
By the time he alighted from the carriage, Charles Vernon had decided that it would be an excellent scheme to have Reginald marry Lady Vernon, and he began his campaign to promote it upon his first evening home. Though it was Christmas Eve, Catherine had invited nobody to dine and so Vernon was able to address Reginald as soon as the ladies withdrew. He began by remarking that nobody had been in town—“Nobody at all!”—and set it down to the mildness of the weather, which kept everyone in the country. He urged Reginald to think of extending his visit into January and to send to Kent for his horses and hunters so that they might try for foxes when the pheasants gave out. “Catherine and the children will be very happy to have you prolong your stay, and my sister is in such better looks than when she first came that I must think your company does her a great deal of good.”
This invitation was accepted with an alacrity that Charles attributed to Reginald’s desire to further his acquaintance with Lady Vernon. When they entered the drawing room, Vernon announced, “My love, I have asked Reginald to continue with us a few more weeks. You and the children have been so happy to have him here that I know you will plead his case when you next write to your mother.”
Mrs. Vernon’s countenance hovered between a smile and a frown. She was very gratified that her husband wished to keep Reginald at Churchill Manor, as she supposed that it was done entirely to please her, but she had, in her husband’s absence, seen such marks of a growing intimacy between her brother and Lady Vernon that she was willing to forgo the pleasure of having him remain at Churchill Manor to prevent him from becoming another object of Lady Vernon’s idle flirtation. When she next wrote to her mother, therefore, she appealed to Lady deCourcy to hurry Reginald’s departure rather than give him leave to stay.
Mrs. Vernon to Lady deCourcy
Churchill Manor, Sussex
My dear Mother,
It is with great reluctance that I communicate anything that might depress my father’s health and spirits, madam, but unless something is done to prevent it, you will be deprived of Reginald for more than a holiday season. Charles has invited my brother to prolong his visit, and while I am confident that my husband thinks of nothing but my pleasure, I grow uneasy in witnessing the very rapid increase of Lady Vernon’s influence over Reginald. I always regarded her coming with some uneasiness, but very far was it from originating in any anxiety for Reginald—I could not imagine that my brother would be in the smallest danger of being captivated by her after hearing Mr. Smith’s account of her proceedings at Langford.
I did not wonder at his being struck with the gentleness and delicacy of her manners, and she is altogether so attractive that I should not wonder at his being delighted with her, had he known nothing of her previous conduct. But now her powers have so offset the accounts of Mr. Smith that Reginald is persuaded that they were all scandalous invention. Only yesterday he actually said that her loveliness and abilities were such that he could almost excuse Mr. Manwaring’s feeling the effect of them.
I can hardly suppose that Lady Vernon’s desires extend to marriage. She must know that though no formal engagement exists between my brother and my cousin, both families look forward to their union. I am convinced that her object is that of any hardened coquette, namely, the assurance that she is universally loved and admired. But Reginald is young and of such a warm nature that he may not understand that she regards him only as an instrument of her vanity.
I wish you could get Reginald home again under any pretense. I believe that a few hints of my father’s precarious state of health, and of Reginald’s duty to be at Parklands when the Hamiltons are there, must come from you.
How sincerely do I grieve that she ever entered this house! I wish she would leave us, but Mr. Vernon will not send his brother’s widow away. Therefore, if you can get Reginald back to Parklands, it would be for the best.
Your affectionate daughter,
Catherine Vernon
chapter twenty-six
The next week passed in a series of quiet dinners and subdued family gatherings. The Chapmans were invited to dine along with another couple or two from the neighborhood, the children sang carols in the servants’ hall, the servants assembled to toast the health of their master and mistress, and the mince pies were distributed, but these were the highlights of the season’s festivities. Lady Vernon supposed that Charles and Catherine kept the occasion quiet out of respect for Sir Frederick’s memory, but Reginald gave her to understand that the Vernons’ holiday was quite in keeping with what had been usual at Parklands, and all of his experience with Bullet Pudding and Hunt-the-Slipper had come about when he spent a Christmas season with one or another of his friends. Much to her dismay, Catherine Vernon realized that, in the wake of Christmas Day, she was obliged to undertake a role for which she had been ill prepared and toward which she was disinclined. She must visit the tenants, and distribute gifts and assistance to the poor, and pay calls to her neighbors and receive them in return, and assure them all that she and Mr. Vernon wished them health and happiness in the coming year. She had never accompanied her mother on such rounds when at Parklands, and all that she had gathered from Lady deCourcy was that one ought not to dispense too much in the way of shillings and sympathy and hot soup as it would only encourage idleness and ill health. When Catherine asked Lady Vernon to accompany her, therefore, it was not only to keep her from Reginald as much as possible but also to catch some hint as to how she was to conduct herself as mistress of the Vernon estate.
Though Catherine did not know how much ought to be given, she had no doubt of getting a warm and grateful reception. She had, for so long, been the beneficiary of flattery and approbation that she had come to expect it as her due. It distressed her, therefore, to see her tenants’ smiles bestowed upon Lady Vernon, to hear them inquire after Miss Frederica Vernon before they extended the best wishes of the season to Mrs. Vernon’s household, and in the end, she was sorry that she had not left Lady Vernon at home.
On the third day of visiting, Lady Vernon returned to her apartments to find a letter from Sir James. His anger at her going to Churchill was all forgotten—he was all good cheer and gossip.
Eliza Manwaring and Miss Manwaring have come to town, the former in pursuit of her errant husband and the latter in pursuit of any husband but one. Prepare yourself for something very shocking—Miss Manwaring does not love me! This I learned from Freddie, who is Miss Manwaring’s fast friend. I must reconcile myself to the fact that one who has been thrown at me for so many years has no desire at all to become my wife! To be rejected by
the object of one’s affection is a terrible thing, but to be rebuffed by one whom a fellow never meant to marry is far more humiliating. And yet—poor Eliza Manwaring is not ready to admit that spinsterhood is a kinder fate than the degree of misery she enjoys as a married woman.
Lady Vernon had folded up the letter and took up her pen to write a reply when she was startled by a sharp knock upon the nursery door, which was opposite that of her own apartments. The passage was a narrow one, and the nursery door was left ajar, allowing her to overhear a heated exchange between Reginald and his sister. “You do wrong to make our parents uneasy by apprehending an event that no one can think possible,” declared Reginald.
“My letter was intended for our mother only,” protested Catherine. “A cold that affected her eyes prevented her from reading my letter, which she then placed into our father’s hands. Do you now take Lady Vernon’s part? Do you forget how strenuously she objected to my marriage?”
“So we have been told—and yet what motive could Lady Vernon possibly have had for preventing a marriage that was materially to Charles’s benefit? His family could only welcome a connection with ours.”
“It was said that she believed me to be unsuitable and that a union with Charles could not possibly be a happy one.”
“But your marriage has been a happy one, Catherine, so you must either forgive Lady Vernon if she was in error or admit that you may have been. If you, who have lived in such retirement, have been the subject of rumor, think how those who live in the world will fall victim simply because it is in their power to do wrong. No character, however upright, can escape the possibility of misunderstanding.”
“And is that how you account for what was said of her behavior at Langford? You were ready enough, before you came to us, to credit Mr. Smith’s word.”