He made her a formal bow. 'As you wish,' he said. 'We shall not trouble you again.' He paused. 'You need not fear to visit India. We shall not be here.'
Chapter Ten
Giles kept his word to her, much to the disgust of Mair and Elspeth.
'But they promised!' both girls chorused.
Gina found that she was losing patience. 'You are no longer children,' she reproved. 'You must not behave as if some special treat has been denied to you. Both Giles and Mr Newby have been more than kind, but they have other calls upon their time.'
Then she looked at their downcast faces and relented. 'Cheer up!' she said. 'I plan to do more entertaining. You shall come down to dinner with our guests. Meantime we need to think about new gowns for you.' She picked up copies of The Lady's Magazine and Ackermann's Repository and left them absorbed in studying the latest fashions.
Her visit to India was brief that morning, and she was unsurprised to learn that plans for the subscription ball had been cancelled.
'I can't think it would be right to go ahead in the light of recent events,' India told her. 'Any celebration would be out of place in view of the assassination.'
'I agree, and people are still jittery. Have you more news from London?'
'Not much. There are no new developments, so Anthony tells me. The capital is fairly quiet, but the death of the Prime Minister has led to much rejoicing in the north.'
Gina changed the subject. 'How is Mrs Rushford?' she asked.
India gave her a faint smile. 'Subdued, I fear. She knows when she has gone too far with Giles.'
'Mrs Clewes's offer must have come as a shock to her,' Gina said kindly. 'Your mother had no time to consider the implications.'
'It's good of you to see it in that light, especially as she was so rude to you...'
Gina laughed. 'I often speak out of turn myself. I can't condemn it in others. When does Anthony return?'
'By Sunday at the latest, so he tells me. That wretched creature, Bellingham, is to be tried. If he's found to be insane, Anthony will try to save him, but he doesn't offer much hope.'
India's words were prophetic. When Isham returned a glance at his face told her the result of the trial. She did not question him, knowing that he would not care to distress her, but he spoke to Gina later.
'Is it all over?' she asked.
'Oh yes, justice has been served, or so the authorities would have us believe. Bellingham was tried with indecent haste. The result was a foregone conclusion. He was executed in front of Newgate prison in the midst of ugly scenes. The hangman was pelted by the mob.'
Gina shuddered. 'When will they stop these public executions?' she asked.
'That will come in time. For the present they are regarded as a salutary deterrent. Now let us forget the subject. I am in your debt, my dear, for the way you have supported India. She has come to rely on your good sense.'
'She has a great deal of her own,' Gina assured him.
'That's true, but I worry about her, Gina. Her mother attempts to fill her mind with fears.'
Gina was silent.
'Still the diplomat?' Isham smiled at her. 'Believe me, I don't need your confirmation. I was concerned before I left for London.'
Lost in thought he took a turn around the room. 'I have a little plan,' he said at last. 'Sir James Perceval and his wife are in London for Hester's season. Lady Eleanor is sister to Mrs Rushford. I have an invitation for Letty and her mother to join them. Do you think that it will serve?'
'It's doubtful,' Gina told him. 'Mrs Rushford sees an assassin behind every bush.'
'Then we must convince her otherwise. Bellingham is dead, after all.'
'You might suggest that she spends her time in choosing Letty's bride-clothes. That is, if...' She paused, but Isham understood her perfectly.
'She shall have a free hand,' he said at once. 'No expense will be too great if she can be persuaded to leave India's side. Will you help me?'
'I'll do my best,' she promised.
She wasted no time in setting about her task. In the event, Mrs Rushford needed little persuasion to undertake a trip to London, armed with rolls of bills in high denominations from her son-in-law and letters of credit drawn upon his bank.
Letty's shy objections were quickly waved aside.
'Are you out of your mind?' her mother demanded angrily. 'Here is Isham prepared to do his duty by you, as indeed he should, and you must make difficulties, you ungrateful girl!'
'I don't mean to be ungrateful, Mama, but shall I really need so much?' Letty thought with horror of the endless lists of proposed purchases drawn up by her mother. 'I mean...Anthony is paying all the expenses of my wedding...'
'And what has that to say to anything? Do you suppose that your brother-in-law can't afford it? Why, Letty, he is rich enough to buy an abbey. Besides, he told me himself that it would be his pleasure...'
Letty was reduced to silence, but she made it her business to seek out Isham in his study and thank him for herself.
'Nonsense!' he said warmly. 'If our roles were reversed would you not do the same for me?'
'That isn't very likely to happen.' Letty was forced to smile.
'Oh, I don't know,' he teased. 'I might invest in some dubious scheme and reduce myself to tramping the open road with India by my side. Do you suppose she would enjoy it?'
'With you, she would be happy anywhere, and under any conditions. You have made her so very happy, Anthony.'
For answer he kissed her cheek. 'Thank you, my dear. I wish the same for you and Oliver. Shall you see him when you are in London?'
Letty's face grew animated. 'Oh, yes. That is one reason why I have agreed...I mean...I don't like to leave India at this present time.'
'Letty, you will be doing me a service. You understand me? I think I need not say more. India must have peace of mind. You will oblige me by staying with your Aunt Eleanor for as long as possible.'
Letty understood him perfectly and she gave him a conspiratorial look.
'You and your mother need not fear the journey,' he continued. 'Giles and Thomas Newby will escort you.'
It was with a good deal of relief that he waved the little party off for London at the end of the following week. Then he ordered his horse brought round and set off for Abbot Quincey.
Gina welcomed him with unaffected pleasure. 'Is all well?' she asked.
'All is very well indeed,' he told her with mock solemnity. 'Today my prayers are answered. Isabel set off for London this very morning, with enough commissions to keep her occupied for weeks.'
Gina laughed aloud. 'Your plan worked then?'
'It did. I wish I could think of another. You don't suppose that she would care to live there permanently? I could take a house for her in some convenient part of the city.'
'You could suggest it,' Gina answered drily. 'She might agree to live with one of her bosom bows for companionship.'
'Are there any such?'
Gina laughed again. 'Now you are being unkind!' she accused.
'Sometimes I feel savage!' Isham said with feeling. 'And now she is at odds with Giles. He and Newby have gone with them, but he doesn't want to stay...' He glanced at Gina's face through half-closed lids, but her expression told her nothing.
'When will you come to see us, Gina? India has missed you these last few days.'
'I was being tactful,' she told him cheerfully. 'Now that you are returned from London, India has no need of anyone else.'
'She values her friends, my dear, and she looks forward to your visits.'
'Then I will come again tomorrow...' Secure in the knowledge that Giles would not return for several days, Gina was happy to agree.'
Her resolution not to see him had not weakened, but she missed him dreadfully. She'd tried to fill the gap by looking up old friends, but she and her childhood playmates had grown too far apart.
Her household duties were quickly undertaken, leaving her time to read, to study, to choose plants for the new o
rangery, and to consider embellishing her wardrobe. She found that nothing could hold her interest.
More than anything she longed to feel that familiar leap of the heart whenever she saw Giles. Now she dwelt on every detail of that beloved face, loving the way his mobile mouth turned up at the corners when he smiled, the strong line of his jaw and the look in his blue eyes whenever she caught him unawares.
Giles was handsome, certainly, but she'd have loved him if he had been the ugliest man alive. They were soul-mates. If only he'd accept that the bond between them held them both for life.
She pushed the wish away. She had a pile of correspondence to attend to. Her friends in Scotland must not be neglected, but her stay there seemed to have taken place in another existence.
'Mr George Westcott, ma'am.' Hanson ushered her visitor into the room.
Gina turned with a welcoming smile. For the past two weeks her cousin had been her most frequent visitor. She was puzzled. Surely he did not share her parents' hope that she would wed him?
Had he shown any sign of making advances to her, she would have sent him to the rightabout, but George seemed to be content to be her friend.
This morning he seemed troubled.
'Is something wrong?' she asked.
'My father is returned to Abbot Quincey,' he said miserably.
'I see...and you are come to tell me that we shall be one more for dinner this evening?'
It was only with the greatest reluctance that Gina made this offer. Her uncle was not welcome in her home, but not to invite him would give rise to unwelcome comment.
'Not exactly!' George seemed unable to sit still. He rose and began to pace about the room. 'I haven't been honest with you, Gina. Haven't you wondered why I call on you so much?'
'I hoped it was because you enjoyed my company.' Gina prayed that he was not about to make a declaration.
'Well, I do, of course, but you see, I had to come. My father would have made enquiries, and I'm afraid for Ellie.'
Gina saw that he was in great distress. 'You had better tell me all about it,' she said quietly. 'I don't understand you, I'm afraid...'
George sat down then and poured out his story to her. 'It isn't that I don't like you, Gina,' he explained at last. 'But I love Ellie and I want to marry her.'
Gina thought for a moment. She had no doubt that Samuel Westcott would carry out his threat to harm the girl if his son did not obey him.
'It's time for some play-acting, George,' she said. 'This evening you must follow my lead, and remember, you must not laugh. That would give the game away...'
George looked mystified. 'I cannot come at your meaning, cousin...'
'I mean that you must make up to me. I promise to languish under your ardent gaze. I may even rest my head upon your shoulder...'
George looked startled. 'Would that not be doing it too brown?'
'Perhaps. We must keep it within the bounds of decorum... Are we agreed?'
'It would help to throw my father off the scent,' he admitted. 'It's the money, you see. He wants to keep it in the family...'
This bald statement was a severe trial to Gina's composure, but she kept her countenance.
'I didn't imagine that it was my delightful temperament, or my beautiful blue eyes,' she replied.
George stared at her, uncertain as to whether or not she was teasing, and Gina groaned to herself. Ellie, whoever she was, would find George heavy going unless she shared his lack of humour. Even so, she sympathised with him.
It would give her the greatest pleasure in the world to outwit her unpleasant uncle. He deserved a sharp set-down. Her only worry was that she might overplay her hand, but she thought she could judge her manner to a nicety.
The inclusion of her uncle had made them nine for dinner. He apologised for upsetting the arrangement of her table, but she made light of it. In a further blow to convention she seated George at her right hand.
Her brother exchanged a speaking glance with his wife, and her sister did the same. The Westcott brothers nodded and smiled at each other. Only Gina's mother eyed her daughter with some suspicion.
Gina affected not to notice. She kept the conversation light, chattering about her plans for the garden, and asking for advice from the assembled company.
'I plan a shrubbery, of course,' she said brightly. 'George, what do you think? Shall it be a circuit walk around the garden walls, in the serpentine style, or shall I plump for the theatrical? Mr Garrick had twin theatrical shrubberies in his Thames-side garden at Hampton House, you know.'
George did not know, and it was all too clear, but he made a manful effort.
'Cousin, I've always admired your taste,' he replied. 'Whatever you decide will be perfection, I am sure of it.'
'Too kind!' Gina replied in sentimental tones. Apparently without thinking she laid her hand on his and pressed it warmly. 'When it is finished we shall walk there. In Horace Walpole's words I plan "odours beyond those of Araby''. It will be a haven of delight...'
George felt it was time to bring her down to earth. 'What plants will you choose?' he said.
Gina lavished an adoring look upon him. 'I thought of roses, pinks, honeysuckle and lilac among others. Are they your favourites too?'
George did not know a honeysuckle from a daffodil, but he did his best. 'I like snowdrops,' he said stoutly.
'Then we shall have those too, and other bulbs, as well as carnations and sunflowers. Oh, I can't wait to order all these treasures.'
'They'll cost you a pretty penny, my dear, but then, I suppose that is not of any concern to you...' Samuel Westcott seemed about to lick his lips. 'Tell me, where are your girls this evening?'
Gina gave him the briefest of looks, but it was enough. 'They are at dancing classes this evening,' she said. She did not miss his dreadful smile.
'Are they not over-young to be allowed out in an evening?' her mother said anxiously. 'You do not fear that they may be in danger?'
Privately, Gina considered that Mair and Elspeth were likely to be in more danger in her uncle's company, but she did not say so. He had a nasty habit of trapping young girls in passageways or hidden corners.
'They are in no danger outside this house.' Her look at her uncle was filled with meaning. 'I sent them in the carriage with two grooms for company...'
Samuel Westcott turned his head away and began to engage his brother in conversation.
'What do you say to this latest stab in the back?' he asked. 'I fear our trade will suffer even more.'
'The declaration of war by our former colonies? It isn't altogether unexpected. They've always resented our blockade of European ports, and they have no love for England.'
'We should have crushed that rebellion when we had the chance.' Samuel replied savagely. 'We should have sent more troops to the Americas. It's beyond belief that we could have been defeated by a rag, tag and bobtail of undisciplined farmers.'
'Yet they had something which our troops had not,' Gina observed. 'They were fighting for their belief in freedom. What was it they said; "No taxation without representation?" That sounded reasonable to me.'
Her uncle gave her a sour look. 'Much you women know about it, Gina! Leave it to those who understand these matters. Now they have invaded Canada. I regard that as the basest treachery. Our war with Napoleon has given them the chance they needed to strike when our backs were turned.'
Gina was about to reply when her mother caught her eye. As Mrs Westcott shook her head, Gina rose from the table.
'We'll leave you to your politics then,' she said as she led the ladies from the room.
Her mother took her to task at once. 'What can you be thinking of?' Mrs Westcott said severely. 'It's so unbecoming to put forward your opinions on matters which are of no concern to females.'
'Wars are of concern to everyone, Mother. Females have husbands and sons who may be called upon to fight. We cannot stick our heads in the sand like ostriches.'
Mrs Westcott sighed. 'You haven't change
d, my dear. You were always such a forthright child. It will not do, you know. Gentlemen do not like it. Take care, or you will become known as a blue-stocking.'
Gina kissed her mother's cheek. 'Is that such a dreadful fate?' she teased.
'You may not think so, but I do. Poor George looked shocked.' She gave her daughter a sideways glance. 'How do you go on with him?'
'George is a dear. He calls on me quite often,' Gina told her truthfully. She was well aware that this item of information would be passed on to both the Westcott brothers, and she had promised to help George.
'George looks quite moonstruck,' her sister observed. 'Shall you wed him, Gina?'
'I hardly know him well enough as yet. Besides, I have no thought of marriage for the present.' Gina's look was demure. Hopefully, the three ladies would take it as a sign of interest in her cousin.
'I'm not surprised!' Her brother William's wife was undeceived. 'Why should you re-marry? You have money enough for all your needs. Why condemn yourself to submitting to a husband's wishes, producing a child each year?'
Mrs Westcott scowled at her daughter-in-law. 'There is such a thing as a woman's duty, Alice. William would not like to hear you speak so freely. Besides, Gina would like children of her own. She told me so herself.'
'That's true,' Gina said with perfect truth. 'But I must consider carefully. There is no hurry for the moment.'
'You won't be young for ever,' her sister snapped. 'The years will take their toll, as they have done for all of us.'
Gina looked at both Alice and Julia with new eyes. Each of them was close to her in age, but the casual observer would have guessed at a wider gap. Discontent was evident on each face and the reason was not far to seek. They envied her her money and her freedom.
She tried for a lighter touch. Gossip was a favourite topic of conversation in all the Abbey villages.
'Do you hear anything of the Marchioness of Sywell?' she asked.
As she had hoped this brought immediate response from all three of her companions. They vied with each other to bring her up to date with all that had happened at the Abbey since she left.
Mr Rushford's Honour Page 14