The Late Heiress: The Amberley Chronicles

by May Burnett

  “I shall consider my reply carefully.”

  “Pray do so. What do you think of those clouds yonder, do they portend rain? A curricle is not the ideal conveyance for a long journey. We shall switch to a post-chaise at Chester.”

  “I would like that,” she agreed, “but do you have sufficient funds on hand? Mine would barely stretch to the stage.”

  “Leave all those worries to me.”

  “Very well.” She smiled. “That makes for a nice change.”

  ***

  It was very convenient to travel with a man who paid the shot, arranged for accommodations and meals, and generally relieved Nell of all those small worries and expenses that made travelling so inconvenient for a single female. In fact, it would be very easy to get used to this state of affairs.

  They spent one night in separate rooms at the modest inn in Liverpool, where she picked up her trunk and thankfully discarded her widow’s weeds, though she carefully repacked them. Nell had learned frugality over the past years. The clothes in her trunk were suitable for teaching, sober and unadorned, not what she would have chosen given any alternative. They were rather too modest for the sister of such a well-dressed young buck as Thomas, but whenever they were in company – not often, as they took private parlours for meals wherever possible – she assumed an air of piety, and strictly condemned any unnecessary luxury or expenditure. It was interesting how some people agreed, while the majority looked at her askance.

  “You know you could easily have bought something more dashing,” Thomas complained when they were at only two hours’ distance from his home in Yorkshire. “I feel like a brute, unwilling to buy nicer clothes for my poor sister.”

  “You have been paying for the coach and meals. To accept any more than that goes against my principles.”

  “I won’t insist, for those high-collared, prim garments do not make you any less fascinating, you know. They present a pretty challenge to a man’s imagination.”

  She shot him a quizzical look. Throughout their journey from the South Coast, since that one hint at his personal interest, Thomas had not betrayed his attraction to her by word or deed. He had behaved as though he really were the brother he pretended to be. Why was he now departing from this policy? It must be because his home was so close. Soon they would no longer have the chance to talk privately.

  He turned sideways, to look straight into her eyes. “I would not want you to think I have changed my mind, Nell. Pretending to be your brother has been difficult. I would so much rather pretend to be your husband, or even better, not have to pretend.”

  “There are still things you do not know about me,” she warned him.

  “I have my suspicions, as to that. Can you still not find it in your heart to confide in me? How can I prove to you that it is safe to do so?”

  There was a fraught silence. Her heart beat fast, panicked. Had he guessed? Dare she tell him the truth?

  Yet soon enough she would need to find allies, to proclaim to the world what she had hidden away so deeply she hardly acknowledged it to herself.

  She wavered only for a few moments. Maybe it was time for a leap of faith. “If you tell me your suspicions, I will tell you if you are right.”

  “Ah.” He smiled. “I have evolved a theory that your aunt and Nell Milding never existed – or rather, that the latter only began to exist some time in 1838. Am I right so far?”

  Nell nodded tightly.

  “Lady Marian is still alive, and right here in this coach,” he continued. “All points to this conclusion, although I would rather be wrong. You are more likely to accept me if you are merely a schoolteacher rather than a great heiress.”

  It felt strange that after all her precautions, all her lies, she was found out. Strange but liberating. “What gave me away?”

  “The suspicion obtruded itself, once I considered all the circumstances. Although you act older – doubtlessly from your teaching – you do not look older than twenty, even in sunlight. Your exaggerated fear of coming face to face with Lord Colville’s solicitor was unlike the intrepid Mrs. Smith, but all too understandable if the Earl is your legal guardian.”

  She nodded reluctantly.

  “The suggestion that the drowning victim was not Lady Marian would not easily occur to anyone who did not happen to know, better than anyone alive, that it could not possibly have been her.”

  “Logic might have suggested it to anyone aware that Marian was missing all these years.”

  “But nobody knew that – from what I can tell, Lord Colville had successfully hidden the fact. I suppose he told anyone who asked that you were an invalid, frail in mind and body.”

  Thomas had arrived at the truth, despite all her evasions and stratagems.

  How would it feel to speak freely, unearth all her secrets, discuss the past that she had not even been able to hint at to a single soul in years?

  Nell took a deep breath. “It all began one spring morning in 1838, a few weeks after my father’s sudden death. I had not previously met my uncle, as he was not on speaking terms with my father. On that day he and Robles came to the Hall. Robles went over the account books while my uncle dismissed all the long-serving retainers, my governess, everyone I had known since my childhood.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “He gave no explanations. Naturally I was angry and alarmed, and wanted to know his plans. That night I eavesdropped on his conversation with Robles from the priest hole in the dining room. What I heard exceeded my worst fears. I realised that unless I escaped from their clutches, I probably would not live to twenty-one, at least not in any way worth living.”

  “I want to say you cannot be serious, but will not so insult your understanding. You were very young. Are you quite certain of your facts?”

  Chapter 9

  Nell forced herself to relive the harrowing time preceding her flight from Colville Hall. “After chasing off our most loyal retainers and Miss Minnow, my poor governess, my uncle ordered me to stay in my rooms until he made other arrangements, as though I were a young child or delinquent. I was coldly furious, and determined to disregard this and any other order from my new guardian. From what my parents had thought of my uncle my expectations had not been high, but this –!”

  Thomas was listening intently. “He was estranged from your parents? Do you know why?”

  “My father and he were only half brothers, from different mothers. Uncle Bartholomew was brought up far away from the Hall, as his parents quarrelled soon after his birth, and there was little contact even after his mother’s death. He inherited little, and was resentful of my father’s title and wealth. Moreover, my uncle was involved in the Whig party from a young age, while my father was a Tory. Their mutual dislike grew over time.”

  “Sorry to have interrupted – please go on.”

  “It stood to reason that the dismissal of our butler, our housekeeper and my governess in a single day did not bode well for me either. It only took the new Earl an hour to cut down my whole world, eliminating any possible source of support I might have found in the household. He made no pretence of regret, and turned a deaf ear to my furious protests. It even seemed to fill him with glee to observe the anguish of his victims. I received the impression that he was vicariously punishing them for the dislike he had harboured towards my father all those years. That the new Earl did not bother to hide these feelings from me, I found alarming. He clearly did not care what I saw and thought.”

  “That does not sound like the man my cousin Roger described, and someone else recently called Lord Colville respectable and upstanding. What he did is unusual and hardly to his credit, but he was within his rights to dismiss his own employees.”

  “Without the pension they had every right to expect? He did not dismiss the kitchen staff yet, no doubt because he wanted to eat decent meals for the three days he planned to remain. The cook might have saved his career by adding poison to the meal carried up by our trembling footmen, but no doubt thou
ght the risk too great.”

  “I had no idea you were so bloodthirsty.”

  “Not in general, but whenever I think of Lord Colville I could cheerfully commit murder.”

  “So far he had not done anything too heinous.”

  “I am coming to that part. As the first course was served I squatted inside the priest hole on an old horse blanket, leaning back against the cold stone wall. There was a good chance the new earl would not know of the priest hole, a closely held family secret. The entrance is in the library, and from inside you can overhear the dining room and the library itself. The horse blanket will still be there, unless the Earl has found it since – you have to depress one of the carved birds in the frieze.”

  “And what did you overhear from that hiding place?”

  “Robles told the Earl that he had compiled the figures as requested. He added, ‘The various entailed properties amount to an income of six thousand pounds annually for you, give or take a few hundred, assuming reasonable crops and current prices. Lady Marian’s total income, more than half of which comes from capital invested in the funds, amounts to twenty-three thousand pounds per annum.’’

  Thomas turned to stare at her. “Are you sure of those numbers?”

  “Yes, to the best of my recollection. My uncle was surprised too. He exclaimed, ‘That much! For a mere schoolgirl!’ Robles then explained that the income fluctuated somewhat, as my inheritance comprised three estates: Wortagel Hall, Hightower, and Bexhill in Ireland. Prices and harvests varied from year to year, and Bexhill was a drain rather than gainful, possibly through the bailiff’s fault. But the bulk of my income was from the funds, and from a shipping line brought to the fourth earl by his wife, that he had much expanded and was still flourishing. It had never been added to the entail.”

  Thomas looked as though he wanted to speak, but after a moment nodded to her to continue. His brows were furrowed.

  “My uncle was angry at this news, which I suppose is understandable. Robles pointed out that my fortune would pass to another family when I married, likely soon enough. Lord Colville was reassured by the reflection that I could not legally marry before twenty-one without his consent, except in Scotland. He then asked what would happen if I died before reaching my majority, and seemed greatly cheered by the news that as my nearest surviving relative he would inherit my entire fortune.”

  Thomas frowned. “It is sinister that his thoughts would turn in this direction, but no proof of bad intent. One does discuss all possible contingencies with solicitors.”

  Nell was in no mood to give Lord Colville the benefit of the doubt. “You had to be there. For a while they just ate and drank, and then suddenly the Earl said that in view of my family history, clearly I came from sickly stock. My health had never been robust; he feared that the repeated tragedies I had suffered had unsettled my fragile mind, and threatened a complete loss of reason.” Her voice was wobbling a little as she recalled her anger and outrage; at the time she had barely stifled her indignant gasp. “Robles had to know full well that his master had only just met me for the first time, and was lying through his teeth. After a short pause, he said her was sorry to hear of my infirmity, though nobody could wonder at it in view of my sad circumstances. He said it drily, ironically, and added that wealth too often does not bring happiness.”

  Thomas’s blue eyes flashed. “It is clear that he and his master are cut from the same cloth. What hypocrites!”

  “They went on to discuss how much talk it would cause if I were placed in some discreet sanatorium for the insane. My heart was pounding and my breath was short – before that day, I could not even have conceived of such evil. They concluded that it might be prudent to wait until September. Lord Colville would send down a woman as my new ‘governess’, who would prevent anyone from seeing me in the meantime. He made her sound like a jailor, and that was no doubt what she would have been, had I still been there at her arrival.” She had had to listen to the men chomping and glasses clinking – quaffing her father’s best vintages, no doubt, – and had hoped in vain that they would choke on their food.

  “So you did not have much time to take countermeasures,” Thomas said with a sympathetic glance. “Many a girl of your tender age might have despaired, when faced with such betrayal.”

  “Would they? Under the circumstances, I knew I could not afford to indulge in such useless feelings. In any case, anger predominated. I wanted to burst out and pummel that miserable excuse for an uncle with my fists, but that would only have served as evidence that I was in fact unhinged. I subdued my fury and forced myself to plan an escape within the next twenty-four hours, before that governess-jailer could arrive. Did I mention that our family motto is ‘Don’t Cede an Inch’? I knew that I had to retreat temporarily, but I was determined that he should not get to keep my inheritance. Not because I care about it myself, but - ,” she hesitated a moment, unsure how to put it, “I felt that I would be betraying my mother and my dead siblings, if I allowed this villain to permanently deprive me of what should have been ours.”

  Thomas briefly squeezed her hand. His felt reassuringly big and warm.

  “They discussed whether the previous governess or the dismissed servants were likely to make a fuss over my disappearance from Colville Hall, and concluded that it was unlikely. They would find it hard to find new positions without a character, and my governess had been strictly forbidden any further contact with me. I had to agree with their assessment; poor Miss Minnow was timid at the best of times. Once that was settled, they only talked of the various properties. By then, the Earl seemed to consider my three estates part of his own fortune already.”

  “I see – you certainly had cause for alarm.” His voice was deep, soothing, and sent a shiver through Nell.

  “I considered appealing for help, but there were no other relatives left alive. The few neighbours who had ever seen me face to face – remember that I was still in the schoolroom – would hardly be willing or able to stand up against the largest landowner in the area, and my legal guardian, if they even believed me. And who would believe such a story without proof, merely on my say-so?”

  “I am doubly glad of my own large family when I consider your predicament.”

  “Once hidden in some sanatorium, I still would not be safe, as I would remain the nominal owner of my fortune as long as I was alive. How long would a sane person survive in such a place without going mad in truth? I had no intention of finding out. I would flee, and burrow deep down in some place where this cold-hearted villain would never find me, until I was of an age to confront and defeat him.”

  “I can enter into your feelings. But I wonder that you even thought of regaining your fortune, when your safety and future were in such peril.”

  “Do you? I was not going to meekly hand over what was mine. Even then, I looked forward to seeing my uncle’s face on the day when the girl he clearly regarded as a cypher, a helpless victim, got her revenge. But I knew it was a game for the highest stakes, and that my life would remain at risk until then.”

  “Was there nobody at all left in the household to assist you? But I daresay telling anyone would have been risky too.”

  “As you say, I could not take the remaining staff into my confidence. They might give me away to their new master to secure their own employment. Besides, without proof of his evil intentions, they would think it the right thing to restore me to my guardian. Fortunately I was not without resources. There were trinkets and jewels that the Earl and Robles did not know of. My mother always kept a supply of guineas for emergencies, and I knew where she had hidden them, in a secret drawer of her writing desk. The money was still there and would serve me, - this certainly qualified as an emergency. Mother would have approved. I did not care what my Father would have thought; it was through his carelessness that I did not have a trustworthy guardian. But I could live without guardian – I was already an adult in mind and body, even if the law did not agree.”

  “How did you
decide what to do, where to go?”

  “I asked myself, what would be the very last place Lord Colville would think to look for me?”

  Chapter 10

  “Not many sheltered young ladies of sixteen could vanish successfully,” Thomas commented. “Was it very difficult?”

  Nell welcomed the chance – the first ever – to explain how she had saved herself. Unconventional as it had been, she felt rather proud of her achievement, and basked in his tone of admiration. “My priority was to seize the hidden money and jewels, and to get well away. I put on all the woollen undergarments I could find, on top of each other, and then the clothes and hat of a groom, hiding my too long hair. The result was shapeless and odd-looking, but at least nothing like my normal appearance. I packed two of my simplest dresses, a light redingote and one pair of slippers into a single carpetbag. The gold I distributed in my boots, around my person –I used several detachable old-fashioned pockets – and even in my hat. I took my father’s seal ring, as proof of my identity, and some of his stationary.” It was nestling against her bosom even now, a reminder of her lost inheritance.

  Thomas nodded encouragingly, his expression intent.

  “Unaware that I had learned his plans, my uncle took no particular precautions. I wonder if he had already begun to think of me as a helpless invalid? That night I saddled my mare at three in the morning, while everyone was fast asleep. The stable hands were snoring up in the loft above me, but our horses were so used to me that they remained quiet. I rode cross-country, keeping away from the bigger roads, until about six. When I reached the outskirts of Grimsby I released the mare. Unless someone grabbed her, she probably made her way back to the Colville stables before lunchtime. I regretted having to give her up, but she was too noticeable and high-bred to keep.”

  “And you?”

  “I checked into a humble inn for a few days, still in male disguise. My beardless face made me look rather like a fat boy. I did my best to change my speech, imitating that of our grooms. To my relief, nobody was very interested in me.”