by Mary Nichols
‘Then why come at all? What do you hope to gain?’
‘Your company for an evening. Is that not enough? I shall have a beautiful woman on my arm, the envy of every man present, even if it is only for one night…’
She was unsure whether to be flattered or annoyed that he was going to use her in that way, to make a point among the haut monde. ‘But I am not the right woman, Harry. I am the one who made your shame worse and everyone knows it.’ Another jolt forward, another stop. There were only two carriages in front of them now and they had reached the end wall of Carlton House. Light was blazing from every window and spilling from the front door on to the carriage at the head of the queue as it disgorged its occupants. ‘And they also know Mr Allworthy has offered for me. I am afraid it was very unwise of me to allow you and Anne to inveigle me into coming.’
‘You are afraid Mr Allworthy will disapprove?’
‘No.’ As the carriage immediately in front of them drew up at the door, she began to shake with apprehension. ‘Harry, it is not too late. Are you sure you need me?’
‘Oh, my dear Jane, be assured, I do need you.’ He turned to look at her, smiling. Again she felt there was more behind his words than the words themselves. What was he planning to do? And why drag her into it?
The carriage in front of them, empty now, was driven away and they drew up at the entrance. A magnificently liveried footman came forward to open the door of the carriage and she knew it was too late. Harry stepped down and turned to hold out his hand to help her alight. Together they entered the Regent’s residence. The servant who looked at Harry’s invitation simply waved them on; he had enough to do to keep people moving forward without questioning their identity.
With Jane endeavouring to keep her train from being trampled on, they found themselves being hustled along with the other guests, every one of them clad in colourful silks and satins and loaded with jewels and feathers. Anne’s estimate that there would be hundreds of them fell way below the mark; there were thousands. Only the most favoured were received by the Regent in a room hung with blue silk and decorated with white fleur-de-lys. ‘In honour of the French royalty,’ Jane heard someone say.
Harry edged forward, taking Jane with him, until they could see the Prince, who was dressed in the highly decorative blue and gold uniform of a field marshal. Fat and foolish though he looked, there was a certain charisma about him, which had nothing to do with the fact that he was the King’s heir. He talked animatedly to those nearest to him and seemed in no hurry to begin the banquet, while everyone stood about exchanging the latest on dit, wondering if they would be favoured with a word from the Prince. Jane’s feet ached and Harry’s leg was reminding him that his wound was still new enough to hurt when he had to stand for long periods.
‘There is Colonel Garfitt,’ he said, indicating a man with bushy side whiskers, standing close to the Regent. ‘I need to speak to him, if I can.’
The last thing Jane wanted was to be brought forward and presented to the Regent. It would be dreadful if it came to his notice that she was not the Miss Hemingford he had invited. ‘Then I shall stay here and wait for you.’
He disappeared in the crush and Jane found a spot by a pillar where she could remain unnoticed and watch everyone else. There were several reception rooms leading from one another and they were all crammed with people and she amused herself trying to guess who they were. So engrossed was she that she jumped when a voice at her elbow said, ‘Jane Hemingford, I declare!’ Jane swivelled round to face the Countess of Carringdale, who had lifted her quizzing glass to her eye and was inspecting Jane through it as if she could not believe what she saw.
‘Countess.’ Jane managed to bend one knee and was nearly overbalanced by someone pushing from behind. Aunt Lane had not exaggerated the Countess’s appearance, but since arriving the crush of people had ruined the stately effect; the padding under her skirt had slipped and the construction that held her hair up looked squashed. Taking out the seats from her coach seemed not to have worked.
‘What are you doing here?’ the Countess went on. ‘How did you get in?’
‘In the usual way,’ Jane answered, piqued by the note of disapproval she detected in the strident voice. ‘Through the door.’
‘I shall have to speak to Harriet Lane about this. What is the world coming to when almost anyone can push their way into the Royal presence?’
‘I am not the one doing the pushing,’ Jane said, wondering what her aunt had to do with who did and did not receive invitations from the heir to the throne. ‘It is everyone else pushing me. I am endeavouring to stand still.’
‘Impertinent, miss. Where is your escort? I assume you have an escort?’
‘Oh, indeed, yes, he is with the Regent as we speak.’
The Countess’s eyes looked as though they would pop out of her head. ‘I did not know Mr Allworthy was on intimate terms with the Prince.’
‘Neither did I.’ With every word she uttered she was digging herself into a deeper pit and yet she could not help herself. The words were out before she could stop them.
Harry compounded her iniquity by returning at that moment and taking Jane’s arm. ‘Sorry to be so long,’ he said.
‘Oh, I have been well entertained. You are not acquainted with the Countess of Carringdale, are you?’ She turned to her inquisitor. ‘Countess, may I present my cousin, Captain Harry Hemingford?’
The quizzing glass was raised again. ‘Bostock’s grandson?’
‘Countess, your obedient,’ he said, making her as elegant a leg as was possible in the confined space.
‘Come to grovel, have you?’
As they remembered their earlier conversation, her words were enough to make both Jane and Harry splutter. ‘To whom should I grovel, my lady?’ he asked, controlling his mirth with an effort.
‘His Highness, of course.’
‘I bowed. He seemed to think that was enough.’
Jane looked sharply at him. Had he really been received or was he bamming her, or more likely the Countess?
‘It is coming to a sad pass when a common soldier is granted an audience with the Regent. He cannot have known who you were.’
‘There is nothing common about the British soldier, my lady. His Highness and I are in accord on that point.’
Defeated, she turned to Jane. ‘Where is Mr Allworthy?’
‘I do believe he is at home in Norfolk.’
‘Then I think someone should appraise him of this night’s doings. It is not becoming for a gel who is all but engaged to one man to attend functions with another. And without a chaperon.’
‘The invitation did not include a chaperon,’ Jane said. ‘And Harry is my cousin.’
‘Second cousin, if I know my peerage.’
Jane gave her a little curtsy. ‘I stand corrected, my lady.’
‘You should not have accepted the invitation. You must have known it was a mistake.’
‘I cannot think the Prince’s advisers would make a mistake,’ Jane said. ‘They are too careful. And I do believe that is the Earl of Carringdale over there and he is looking for you.’
The Countess left them to go to her husband and they breathed a sigh of relief. ‘She makes me so angry I do and say outrageous things,’ Jane said. ‘And Mr Allworthy will hear of it.’
Harry laughed. ‘Does that worry you?’
Jane considered the question. ‘No. He is not the keeper of my conscience, but I shall write to him tomorrow and tell him all about tonight’s banquet. No doubt it will amuse him.’
‘Oh, no doubt of it,’ he said laconically.
‘Did you really speak to the Regent?’
‘No, I was gulling the Countess, but I spoke to Colonel Garfitt.’
‘What about?’
‘Nothing of consequence,’ he said airily. There had been no opportunity to talk to the Colonel at any length, but he had arranged to meet him the following day in order to report progress so far, but there was no need for he
r to know about that. He trusted Jane as he trusted his sister, but he did not want her involved. ‘I hoped he might find work for me.’
‘I see.’ So he wanted to return to active service. She did not know why that idea dismayed her, but it did. ‘And did he say he would?’
‘He made no promises.’
‘I shall be sorry to see you go,’ she said softly. ‘You have done your duty and should not be expected to return to the field. I am sure there are other things you can do.’
He turned and looked down at her. ‘Why, Jane, I do believe you care what happens to me.’
‘Of course I care,’ she said, feeling herself colouring under his gaze. ‘You are my cousin and brother to my dearest friend.’
‘Second cousin,’ he corrected her and they both laughed, easing the tension.
It was half past two in the morning before they sat down to dine, nearer breakfast time than supper time. Jane was astonished when she saw the table. It had a canal of pure water running down the whole length of it, fed from a silver fountain at its head. Its banks were covered in moss and flowers. Colourful fish swam in its bubbling current. The top table at which the Regent and his special guests sat was behind the head of the fountain and those at the lower end could not see him. News of what he was doing was filtered down from person to person.
‘The Princess of Wales is not here,’ someone said.
‘Did you expect she would be? He hates her.’
‘What of Mrs Fitzherbert?’
‘She isn’t here either.’
‘What of the Queen?’
‘No. She’d stay with the poor mad King, wouldn’t she?’
The extravagance of it all took Jane’s breath away and she fell to wondering how much everything had cost and who had paid for it. The silver-gilt plate alone must have cost a fortune and that was before any food had been put on it. If it were public money, and she guessed it might be, it would be better spent on the poor. It made her angry.
It was six in the morning before they rose from the table and eight by the time their carriage arrived at the head of the queue to take them home. ‘I was never so tired in my life,’ Jane said.
‘But it was an experience not to be missed, don’t you think? It is not everyone who can say they dined with the Regent. We shall have something to tell Anne and your aunt.’
‘I hope Anne is feeling better.’
‘Oh, so do I. Do you mind if I come in and see how she is?’
‘No, of course not, but I expect she will be asleep.’
Anne had moved to a guest room in their absence, but she was not asleep. She had heard them arriving and was sitting up in bed with a shawl about her shoulders when Jane tapped at the door and put her head round it. ‘Come in and tell me all about it,’ she said.
‘Harry is here.’
‘I should hope he is.’ And then to Miss Parker, who had been sitting in a chair beside the bed and had evidently been there all night, ‘Amelia, go to bed, I am perfectly comfortable.’
Her companion left and Jane sat on the edge of the bed. ‘How are you now?’
‘Better. But never mind me. Was it a big success?’
Harry had slumped into the chair Miss Parker had vacated. ‘It was noisy and extravagant, but Jane was a hit—’
‘I was not. No one even noticed me.’
‘Gammon! I was the envy of every man there.’
‘Well, who was there?’
‘Stow the quizzing until tomorrow, Sis. I am dashed tired, only came in to see how you did.’ He stood up and ran his hand through his hair, reminding Jane of Harry as a boy, returning home after a day in the fields, grubby, tousled and tired, but happy. They had all three been happy. He bent to kiss Anne’s cheek and then turned to take Jane’s hand and raise it to his lips. ‘Thank you, my dear, you made a tedious evening more than tolerable.’ With that, he bowed and was gone.
‘So?’ Anne asked. ‘What was it like? Did you speak to the Regent? Who was there? What did you have to eat? How did you deal with Harry?’
Jane laughed. ‘Anne, dear, I am also very tired; we were standing about for hours. Can you bear to wait until I have rested?’
‘Oh, how selfish of me. Go to bed, Jane dear, I will be patient.’
Jane knew perfectly well the last of Anne’s questions was the one she really wanted answering, but nothing had changed. She and Harry had called a truce, enjoyed each other’s company, had been able to laugh at the ancient court clothes of some of the other guests, and express their disgust at the manners of others and agree that it was too lavish by far, when there were people starving to death in some parts of the kingdom. But that was friendship, ‘the disinterested commerce between equals’, as Harry had said, and could never be anything more. Too much water had flowed under the bridge and could not be made to go backwards.
She went to her own room and, with Lucy’s help, took off the borrowed finery and was soon asleep.
It was the middle of the afternoon when Hannah woke her with washing water and hot chocolate. ‘It is a lovely day, Miss Jane,’ she said, pulling back the heavy curtains. ‘Lady Carringdale is downstairs talking to Mrs Lane and Captain Hemingford has come to see his sister.’
Jane completed her toilette in record time and made her way along the corridor to Anne’s room. Harry was sitting in the chair beside the bed. He rose when Jane entered. ‘Good afternoon, Jane.’
Jane greeted him politely, and then went to stand over Anne. ‘How are you, my dear?’
‘Better, I think, but so very tired. I cannot think why, when I have done nothing but sleep for the past twenty-four hours.’ Her voice was still very husky and when Jane put a hand on her forehead it felt hot and clammy.
‘Shall I have the doctor come again?’
‘No. I shall be well directly.’ She patted the bed beside her. ‘Sit down and tell me all about the banquet.’
‘Has Harry not told you?’
‘Oh, he has said very little. He ate a meal, but he cannot tell me what it consisted of, and he sat between two ladies but he does not know who they were or what they were wearing. And something about a river full of fish…’
Harry laughed. ‘I had eyes only for my partner. And by the time we sat down to eat I was so gut-foundered, I did not care what I ate.’
Jane sat down and filled in the detail of the evening, making it sound comical, and they were soon all three laughing.
‘But on a more solemn note, we did come face to face with the Countess of Carringdale,’ Jane said. ‘And she let us know in no uncertain terms what she thought of us. According to her, his Highness has run mad, inviting common soldiers to eat with him. By which, I collect, she meant with her.’
‘Oh, dear,’ Anne said. ‘I forgot about her.’
‘I believe she is even now filling my aunt’s ears with it,’ Jane said. ‘And she is determined Mr Allworthy shall hear of it.’
‘I know, for we arrived at the front door together,’ Harry said. ‘I bade her good afternoon, but she did not deign to answer.’
‘Worse and worse,’ Jane said. ‘She will tell Mr Allworthy you are never off the front step.’
‘But surely your aunt will explain?’
‘She will not listen.’
‘If Mr Allworthy believes ill of you, then he is not worthy of you,’ Anne put in.
‘Anne, please do not refine upon it,’ Jane said quickly. ‘I shall write to Mr Allworthy this very day. And you must rest. We are tiring you.’
Harry took his cue from Jane and they left the sickroom together, though after he had thanked her for looking after his sister they parted on the landing, and he went down to the drawing room where Mrs Lane and the Countess were gossiping over the teacups. He bowed to both, declined tea, and took his leave.
Tired as he had been after being up all night, he had slept very little. He felt as if he was losing control of a situation that was confused enough to start with. He had come back to England with a firm resolve to do something use
ful to help his country and try to forget what had sent him abroad in the first place. Jane was in the past, part of his childhood and adolescence, with no place in the life of the man he had become. And yet, as soon as he had set eyes on her again, he had known that was not true.
She was as much in his heart and mind as ever she had been and she was managing to push his good intentions right out of his head. He had never expected to be sent back into service, and this instruction to find a traitor was causing more problems than it solved. Anne and his grandfather thought he was going into manufacturing and Jane thought he was longing to escape from her and go back on active service. And now there was the Countess, on her high horse because he had taken Jane to the banquet. He had wanted to give her a treat, a break from her endless copying and looking after her father, but if he were honest with himself, he had used it as an excuse to spend time with her, and in that he had been ably assisted by Anne. But what had he gained by it, except more calumny heaped upon his head and hers? Jane herself was obviously anxious to allay any doubts Allworthy might have about the outing. If she did not intend to accept him, she would not care what he thought.
He turned into Boodle’s, found himself a seat in the library, ordered a bottle of wine and picked up a broad-sheet to read the latest news from the Peninsula. Wellington had won a victory at Fuentes d’Onoro and the French had been checked at Albuera. The tide of war was turning in the allies’ direction and he half wished he could still be out there with them.
He set aside the paper when Clarence Garfitt joined him, slumping heavily into the next chair. ‘Hemingford, sorry I am late. I had endless dispatches to read. Wellesley wants more guns and ammunition and we are losing shiploads to the enemy. It makes my blood boil.’
Harry beckoned to a waiter to bring another glass and, when it arrived, filled it from the bottle. ‘Your health, Colonel.’
Garfitt raised his glass and drank deeply before speaking. ‘Now tell me what progress you have made.’