His face was hard with pride and self will.
Louisa remembered what Roderick had said about the love of money and the way it destroyed innocent lives.
It was almost as though Roderick knew something about Lord Westbridge. Something that nobody else knew.
A shiver climbed up her spine. She wished desperately that Roderick could be here now to look after her.
Because suddenly, she was frightened.
When it was time to leave, Lord Westbridge informed her that one of his grooms had already taken Firefly home. They would return together in his carriage.
The carriage was new and very luxurious, with his crest on the panels and the four horses were all jet black, perfectly matching.
“Oh, how beautiful!” Louisa exclaimed and ran to their heads.
He strolled up to join her.
“I have heard you spoken of as a notable horsewoman.”
“I love nothing so much as riding.”
“I have a mare in my stables that would just suit you. Next time you come we will ride together.”
He handed her into the carriage and she was astonished to see that it was piled high with mistletoe.
“I hope you will feel that you now have enough,” he said. “If not, I can always provide more.”
“That is very good of you,” she said.
He smiled. “Do you really think so?”
“But of course. When everyone hears about your kindness –”
He smiled. “Ah, yes, my kindness. Of course.”
She recognised that he was telling her that it was not kindness that had prompted him, but some other motive of his own.
He climbed in beside her and the horses started to trot. As they travelled Louisa realised that they were attracting a lot of attention. Carters on the road drew their vehicles to one side to let them pass.
The villagers of Lark Hatton stopped whatever they were doing and stared at the glossy carriage and equipage as it rumbled through the cobbled streets to the little Church.
They halted and Lord Westbridge assisted her down.
“Miss Hatton has brought you something,” he proclaimed to the vicar who bustled forward, followed by some of his flock who had been helping to decorate the Church.
“Lord Westbridge has kindly donated mistletoe from his land,” Louisa stated, and everyone exclaimed with delight.
Soon the mistletoe was gone from the carriage, but when the vicar invited them inside to see the decorations, Lord Westbridge declined, without consulting Louisa.
“Miss Hatton is tired, we must be going.”
He took her hand again to help her into the coach and they drove on. Louisa was aware of the curious looks that followed them. Soon, she knew, the news would be all over the County.
At last they reached Hatton Place. As they neared the house, Louisa saw Roderick watching their arrival, but his face showed no sign of his feelings at the sight of her returning in such state.
How did he feel after the way she had spoken to him in Lord Westbridge’s presence? Did he understand that she had only been trying to protect him? She must find him soon and explain.
As Louisa arrived home in glory, her thoughts were all of her groom and how soon she could see him alone to explain her conduct.
Alerted by a footman, her parents hurried out to greet them. Roderick came forward to take the horses’ heads. He did not look at Louisa but stood motionless, the perfect servant.
“I have been meeting your delightful daughter,” Lord Westbridge declared. “She used her arts to persuade me to give mistletoe to the Church and as her arts are considerable, of course I succumbed.”
These words covered Louisa with confusion. What must Roderick think, hearing this man boast of how she had used ‘her arts’ to entice him?
But her parents seemed overcome with joy, thanking Lord Westbridge repeatedly for bringing Louisa home and inviting him in ‘to partake of refreshment’.
He courteously declined and said he would see them the following evening.
“I shall look forward to it,” he said, raising Louisa’s hand to his lips. “May I hope that you too will look forward with pleasure?”
If only she could snatch her hand away so that he could not kiss it under Roderick’s gaze. But politeness forced her to smile and utter conventional words about her gratitude for his generosity to the neighbourhood.
When he had departed her mother bubbled over with delight.
“My darling, what a lucky chance that you happened to meet him.”
“Congratulations, my dear,” gushed her father, kissing her cheek. “You have made a conquest!”
“Yes, it is very obvious that he likes you,” Lady Hatton added.
“But I am not sure that I like him,” Louisa objected.
“Nonsense,” her mother corrected her quickly. “It is too soon to know how you feel. When you meet him again at our dinner party, you will get to know him better.”
“But will I like him better?” Louisa mused.
“Of course you will,” Lord Hatton said, quite sharply.
Louisa stared at her father. She was beginning to feel very uneasy indeed.
“Where are you going?” her Mama asked, as Louisa turned back to the front door.
“Just to the stables, Mama. I want to see that Firefly returned home safely.”
“She did,” her mother said. “I saw Blake lead her in. Go upstairs and change. We need to discuss preparations for tomorrow’s dinner and what you will wear.”
“Can’t I just go to see Firefly?” Louisa urged. She felt she would go mad if she could not talk to Roderick.
“Not now,” Lady Hatton asserted firmly.
“But Mama –”
“Louisa, I do not know what has come over you. You never used to argue with your parents.”
“Excuse me, my Lady.”
Roderick had appeared from the back of the house. “The maid said you wanted me,” he enquired.
“Ah, yes. Blake, tell my daughter that Firefly is all right and then you can run an errand for me into the village.”
Louisa was in despair. What she had to say to Roderick could not be said in front of her parents.
“I have given Firefly a rub down, miss,” Roderick said, giving a slight bow in her direction, but not raising his eyes to look at her.
He spoke woodenly, as though they were strangers. Louisa wanted to cry out. But Mama was watching.
“Thank you,” she said politely.
Lady Hatton had scribbled something onto a piece of paper. She gave it to Roderick.
“Go to Mrs Birley and say I want everything on this list first thing tomorrow morning. Her sweet pastries are the best in the district.”
Mrs Birley’s grand daughter, Jane, would be there, Louisa realised. She would smile at Roderick and try to flirt with him. Perhaps he would flirt back.
Louisa clenched her hands. There was an ache in her heart that she could not understand.
Arabelle had been briefly introduced to Lord Westbridge, but apart from that she had stayed in the background, watching everything with a satirical eye. Now she slipped an arm around Louisa’s waist and walked upstairs with her.
“He seems to be fabulously rich,” she observed when they were in their room. “And you and he make a splendid couple.”
“And now the whole countryside has seen us together,” Louisa cried in despair. “Oh, Arabelle, I feel as if a net is being slowly tightened around me and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
“Why should you want to stop it? He is handsome, wealthy and puts himself out to please you.”
“I don’t know – there’s something about him – that I cannot like.”
“Just what ‘arts’ did you use on him?” Arabelle asked curiously.
“None of course. Now what did you do all day?”
“I have been helping your mother to plan this grand dinner party.”
“Oh, it’s going to be terrible,” Louisa sig
hed. “They are just parading me in front of him. What will we all sit and talk about?”
“Don’t worry, there will be several other people present. All the major families in the neighbourhood are coming, also the Vicar and his family.”
“That’s a relief,” Louisa sighed.
When she had changed her clothes, she sat by the window for a while, hoping to see Roderick return from his errand in the village. But there was no sign of him and at last the two girls went down to find her mother in the hot house where she grew her favourite flowers, even in winter. She was selecting blooms for the table.
Lord Hatton joined them just as his wife had finished giving the gardener her instructions.
“I am determined to set the finest table in the County,” she announced. “I am sure that Lord Westbridge is used to only the best. That is why I sent for Mrs Birley’s pastries. I wish our cook could fathom her secret.”
Louisa studied the flowers, so that she would not have to look at her mother as she said,
“It is now late. Surely Roderick should have returned by now?”
“Roderick?” her mother echoed.
“I mean Blake. I asked him his first name.”
“My dearest, that was most unwise. Blake is nothing but a common working man and you are a lady. You must remember to preserve a proper distance at all time.” Louisa sighed.
“Yes, Mama,” she agreed meekly.
“But you are quite right. He is late. I wonder what is keeping him.”
“Probably stealing a kiss from Jane,” Lord Hatton intervened jovially. “Cosy little armful. Make him a good wife.”
“Really, my love,” his wife scolded, frowning at this frank speech.
“A young man ought to settle,” Lord Hatton resumed. “We have a cottage standing empty. He could marry her before Christmas.”
Louisa spoke in a strained voice.
“But perhaps he does not want to marry her. Maybe he doesn’t love her.”
“Love? My dear girl, that class of person does not have refined sensibilities. I think I will drop him a hint to get on with it.”
“I have a headache coming on,” Louisa said. “Excuse me.”
She ran quickly from the hot house.
It was nonsense. Why should Roderick not marry Jane Birley? The match would be most suitable.
But she wanted to cry.
*
She had no chance to see Roderick for the rest of that day or the next. She began to feel he was avoiding her.
All the servants were busy putting up Christmas decorations, until the whole house looked splendid.
‘But why must we lay ourselves out to please Lord Westbridge?’ Louisa thought. ‘Just because he is rich. That does not mean he will attract me or, even more importantly, excite me.’
She checked herself on that word, suddenly thoughtful. Only a few days ago she would never have thought about whether or not a man could excite her. She knew nothing about such things.
But she knew now.
She had known ever since the night she had struggled with Roderick and felt flames of delight flickering through her body.
This was the secret between men and women and discovering it was like passing through a door and knowing that there was no way back.
But Roderick was a servant. This secret was something a woman should share only with her husband.
Or with the man she loved –
The thought crept into her mind before she could shut it out.
The man she loved.
But that would be her husband, of course.
If her parents had their way, it would be Lord Westbridge.
Louisa covered her face with her hands.
*
On the night of the dinner party Lady Hatton supervised her daughter’s preparations, watching as the maid pulled the strings of her whalebone corset.
“Tighter,” she commanded.
“Mama, I can’t breathe,” Louisa protested.
“Just a little further, my darling, to show off your pretty waist.”
When the maid had finished, Louisa’s waist had lost half an inch and she slipped easily into the new dress her mother had bought her just before they left Paris.
It was made of pink silk with masses of ruffles and flounces, very tight in the waist and low in the bosom. In fact, quite immodestly low.
“Mama,” Louisa complained, dismayed by how much of her bosom the dress revealed. “It’s indecent.”
“Nonsense, my dear,” Mama replied calmly. “At night a woman is permitted an amount of décolletage that would be scandalous by day. Besides, you need a low neckline to show off the Hatton pearls. Papa took them out of the bank today.”
For some reason this increased Louisa’s sense of alarm.
“But the family pearls are only worn on very special occasions.”
“You will look very pretty in them. They will be yours one day.”
“Is this a very special occasion, Mama?” Louisa insisted.
Lady Hatton became awkward.
“I will not hide from you, my darling, that your Papa and I think that Lord Westbridge would make a most suitable husband for you. He is very rich. Ask Arabelle. She has most sensible ideas on this subject.”
“You would have everything a girl could want,” Arabelle observed placidly from where she was sitting on the window seat.
“Except a husband that I loved,” Louisa responded passionately.
“I beg you not to set your face against Lord Westbridge,” Mama pleaded, sounding strangely flustered. “You don’t know how important – that is, you would learn to love him after the wedding.”
“But I want to love my husband before the wedding.”
“Not another word now. See what a pretty gift I have bought you.”
She gave Louisa a charming fan of spangled pink silk with mother-of-pearl sticks.
“Now, hurry downstairs. Our guests will soon be arriving.”
Louisa walked slowly down, her arm through Arabelle’s. Inwardly she was very troubled.
Their guests began to arrive. First came Sir Philip and Lady Ainsworth, an elderly couple of great respectability and no offspring. Until now they had always looked up to Lord Hatton as the leader of the neighbourhood. Now that the settled order had been challenged, their nervousness was apparent.
Just behind them came the Honourable James Fanshawe and his lady, followed by the dowager Lady Salton and her brother, an insignificant creature who obeyed his terrifying sister’s every word in return for board and lodging.
They were followed by the Reverend Charles Lightly. Although he was a poor man, the Vicar’s standing in the neighbourhood guaranteed him a place at the noblest table.
With him was his wife and their youngest son, Simon, a tall thin youth with a serious manner. He had just returned from Oxford University and seemed already weighed down by learning.
Louisa watched their arrival with relief, thankful that Lord Westbridge was not to be the only guest, which would have meant a disagreeable air of particularity.
But Lady Hatton was far too clever for that. She greeted every guest as though he or she alone was the one she was longing to see.
“Thank you so much for letting us bring our boy,” the Vicar said to her quietly. “He studies too much and his brain is becoming over-burdened. An evening out will do Simon all the good in the world.”
At last they heard Lord Westbridge’s carriage arriving. The whole family walked outside to wait for him at the top of the steps.
Roderick was on hand to take the horses. He glanced up and saw Louisa, standing in the light from the doorway.
She sensed a sudden, horrid suspicion of how she must look to him – tricked out in her finery to attract a rich husband. Roderick would think she was greedy for money and status and despise her.
She wanted to sink with shame.
She raised her head. Why should she care what a servant thought of her?
But he was more than
a servant. He was a good, honest man. He was a better man than Lord Westbridge. Her instincts told her that this was so.
Lord Westbridge’s groom leapt down from the box and opened the carriage door. His Lordship’s voice carried to Louisa in the clear air.
“Take the horses to the stable, Benning. This fellow will show you the way.”
Louisa hated hearing Roderick called ‘this fellow’. Deep in her heart she knew it was not right.
Lord Westbridge ascended the broad steps. He greeted Lord and Lady Hatton politely, but his eyes were fixed on Louisa. She thought she detected a gleam in their depths and it made her flinch.
He took her hand and bent low to touch his lips to her skin. Louisa forced herself to smile.
They all returned to the warmth of the house and Lord Westbridge smiled at Louisa.
“So, my pretty thief, we meet again,” he began.
“I am sure my daughter is very sorry for taking your mistletoe,” Lady Hatton said quickly.
“I used the term only in jest, madam. Everything at Cranford Manor is Miss Hatton’s to command.”
Louisa wished he had not made such a statement. It seemed to carry a special significance and her parents thought so as well, because they exchanged glances. Was it her imagination that the guests, too, were casting sly looks at each other?
As the guest of honour, Lord Westbridge should have escorted his hostess in to dinner, but Lady Hatton stepped back, leaving Louisa no choice but to take his Lordship’s arm.
The others followed, the Fanshawes, the Lightlys, the Ainsworths and the Saltons, with Simon Lightly bringing up the rear with Arabelle.
At dinner Louisa found that entertaining Lord Westbridge was easy. All he wanted was an audience while he talked about himself and his grand house.
All around the table the local gentry listened with bated breath, as though they already recognised him as their new leader.
“You may ask your daughter, madam, whether Cranford Manor is vastly improved,” he said languidly.
Thus appealed to, Louisa replied politely that it was indeed a very fine place.
But she could not resist adding,
“But even when it was shabby, I thought it had great charm.”
A Heart in Heaven Page 5