No amount of wear and tear could disguise the cut and quality of Scott’s olive-green coat, or the excellence of Hoby’s top-boots, but a riding-coat and buckskin breeches, even when in the pink of condition, could not by any stretch of the imagination be considered eligible garments in which to pay an evening visit in Bath. A week earlier, the Duke would have shrunk from the very idea of presenting himself in Laura Place in such a guise, but the experiences through which he had passed had hardened his sensibilities so much that he was able presently to confront old Lady Ampleforth’s porter, who opened her door to him, without a blush. The sound of a violin, and a glimpse of a great many hats and cloaks in the hall conveyed the unwelcome intelligence to him that Lady Ampleforth was entertaining guests. He did not blame the porter for eyeing him askance but he said in his calm way: ‘Is Lady Harriet Presteigne at home?’
‘Well, sir,’ replied the porter doubtfully, ‘in a manner of speaking she is, but my lady has one of her Musical Parties this evening.’
‘Yes, so I hear,’ said the Duke, stepping into the hall, and laying down his hat. ‘I am not dressed for a party, and I shall not disturb her ladyship. Be so good as to convey a message to Lady Harriet for me!’
The porter, having by this time taken in the full enormity of the Duke’s costume, said firmly that he didn’t think he could do that, Lady Harriet being very much occupied.
‘Yes, I think you can,’ said the Duke tranquilly. ‘Inform Lady Harriet that the Duke of Sale has arrived in Bath, and wishes to see her – privately!’
The porter was staggered by this speech. He knew, of course, that Lady Harriet was betrothed to the Duke of Sale, but it seemed to him highly improbable that anyone so exalted would visit a lady in a crumpled coat and stained buckskins. He said cunningly: ‘Yes, your Grace. I will have your Grace’s card carried up to my lady.’
‘I haven’t one,’ said the Duke.
Upon hearing this brazen utterance, the porter saw his duty clearly marked out for him. He prepared to eject the uninvited guest, saying: ‘In that case, sir, you’ll pardon me, but I could not take it upon myself to disturb her ladyship!’
Fortunately for the Duke’s dignity, Lady Ampleforth’s butler sailed into the hall at this moment. The Duke said: ‘Ah, here’s Whimple! I hope you do not mean to disown me, Whimple. I wish to have some private speech with Lady Harriet.’
The butler stared at him for an unrecognising moment, and then gave an audible gasp. ‘Your Grace!’
‘Thank God!’ said the Duke, smiling. ‘I was afraid you had forgotten me, and meant to tell this stout fellow to hurl me down the steps.’
‘No, indeed, your Grace! I – I apprehend your Grace has but just arrived in Bath? Would your Grace wish me to announce you, or, perhaps…’
‘You may see for yourself that I am in no case to present myself to Lady Ampleforth. Lady Harriet, however, will forgive me for coming to her in all my dirt.’
‘Surely, your Grace!’ beamed Whimple, much touched by this evidence of lover-like impatience. ‘Perhaps your Grace would condescend to wait in the breakfast-parlour, where no one will disturb you? I will instantly apprise Lady Harriet of your Grace’s arrival!’
The Duke having expressed his willingness to condescend in this manner, he was ushered into a small apartment at the back of the house. While an underling lit the candles, the butler went away to find Lady Harriet. The Duke had not long to wait. In a very few moments Whimple opened the door for Lady Harriet to pass into the room. He sighed sentimentally, for he was a romantic man, and he had never before been employed as Love’s messenger.
It struck the Duke that his betrothed was not in her best looks. She was even a little wan, and she seemed to be suffering from some agitation of spirit. She was tastefully attired in a robe of white crape, profusely trimmed with blond lace, and with her hair in full ringlets, but she would have been the better for a touch of rouge. As the door shut behind Whimple, she looked almost shrinkingly at the Duke, and uttered in a faint voice: ‘Gilly! My lord!’
He stepped up to her, taking her hand, and kissing it. It trembled in his, and he was aware of her uneven breathing. He wondered why Harriet, who had known him all his life, should be so afraid of him. He retained her hand, saying: ‘Harriet, have I startled you? I am a villain to come to you in such a disreputable state!’
‘Oh, no!’ she murmured. ‘No, no!’
‘Indeed, I beg your pardon!’ he said, smiling at her. ‘But I am in the deuce of a fix, Harriet, and I have come to you to help me out of it!’
Her pallor seemed to grow more marked. She gently withdrew her hand from his. ‘Yes, Gilly,’ she said. ‘Of course I will help you out of it.’
‘You were always the best of good friends, Harriet!’ he said. ‘But it is quite outrageous! I have no business to ask such a thing of you!’
She lifted her hand as though to silence him, and then let it drop again. Averting her face a little, she managed to say with only the smallest tremor in her voice: ‘You need not tell me, Gilly. You never desired it. I – I knew that at the outset. You wish me to declare our – our engagement at an end, don’t you?’
‘Wish you to declare our engagement at an end?’ he repeated, quite thunderstruck. ‘Good God, no! Why, Harriet, what can you be thinking of?’
She began to twist into a tight rope the ends of the gauze scarf which was draped round her shoulders. ‘Is it not that, Gilly? Pray do not try to spare my feelings! I knew I was wrong. I should not have – But it is not too late! You see, I know! And indeed I do not blame you!’
‘Harriet, I have not the remotest guess at what you are talking about!’ the Duke said blankly. ‘What is it that you know? What can I possibly have done to merit this from you?’
Surprise gave her courage to look at him. She faltered: ‘I knew from Gaywood that you had disappeared. Of course I did not credit the wicked slanders which he said were running round town! But –’
‘Good God, were there any?’ he interrupted. ‘What did the fools say?’
‘Gaywood told me that people suspected Gideon of having murdered you, but –’
He went off into a peal of laughter. ‘Oh, no! No, Harriet, did they indeed think that? Then I expect he will murder me! It is a great deal too bad!’
She looked at him wonderingly. ‘You see, Gilly, you left no word, and someone saw you going to Gideon’s chambers the night you disappeared. And Gaywood said he would say nothing, only that he had no notion where you were. Of course, no one who knows Gideon would believe such a story!’
‘He is the best of good fellows! He should have betrayed me instantly. But what has this to do with the rest, Harriet?’
Her head sank; she studied the fringe at the end of her scarf. ‘It was Lady Boscastle, Gilly, who – who told us the rest.’
His brows knit for a puzzled moment. ‘Lady Boscastle? Oh, yes, I know! One of the matchmaking mamas! But what can she have told you? I have not set eyes on her since the lord knows when!’
‘She has just arrived in Bath,’ said Harriet, beginning to plait the fringe. ‘She – she passed through Hitchin on her way. You did not see her, but – but she saw you, Gilly. She came to pay a morning visit here, and she – she told Grandmama and me.’
She ventured to peep up at him, and was startled to see his eyes dancing. ‘The devil she did!’ he said. ‘Did she tell you I had Belinda on my arm?’
‘A – an excessively beautiful girl!’ faltered Harriet, gazing at him in mingled hope and trepidation.
‘Oh, the loveliest creature imaginable!’ he said gaily. ‘With not two thoughts in her head to rub together! No, I wrong her! There are just two thoughts! One is of golden rings and the other of purple silk dresses! Harriet, you goose!’
Colour flooded her cheeks; her eyes filled. ‘Oh, Gilly!’ she uttered. ‘Oh, Gilly, I thought – Indeed
, I beg your pardon!’
‘No, it is all my fault. I wonder you don’t send me to the devil!’ He saw that tears hung on her eyelashes, and put his arm around her, and kissed her. ‘Harry, don’t cry! I swear it is all a hum!’
Her head drooped on to his shoulder. ‘Yes, Gilly. I have been very stupid! Only I could not help thinking that perhaps you had met a lady whom you liked better than me.’
‘I have not. I am sure I never could,’ he replied.
She blushed, and wiped the drops from her cheeks. He drew her towards the table and set a chair for her, pulling up another for himself. ‘You always helped me out of scrapes, Harry!’ he said. ‘I am in such a scrape now!’
She smiled tremulously at him. ‘Oh, no, how could you be? Tell me! What made you run away from London?’
‘I was so tired with being Duke of Sale! Do you understand that, Harriet?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, for they worried you so. Gideon used to say that one day you would kick over the traces. Was that what it was?’
‘Not quite. Matthew was in a scrape, and I thought I could rescue him from it – and I was quite right: I did rescue him, and that was where Belinda came into my life. Harriet, I don’t know what the devil to do with Belinda! At least, I didn’t know until I thought of you, and then it seemed to me that the best plan would be to bring her to you. She is the most tiresome girl!’
There was quite a pretty colour in Harriet’s cheeks; she gave a gurgle of laughter, and said: ‘Is she, Gilly? But who is she, pray?’
‘She is a foundling,’ he replied. ‘Oh, I shall have to tell you the whole story! You will think I have run mad!’
But although Harriet was considerably astonished by the tale unfolded to her, she did not think he had run mad. She listened to him in breathless silence, her colour fluctuating as she heard of the dangers which had threatened him. But as the tale proceeded she began to perceive that his adventures had subtly altered him. She had never seen him look so well, or known him to be so gay; and there clung about him an air of assurance he had previously lacked. He chose to turn it all to a jest, and to laugh at himself for falling into such pitfalls, but it was plain to Harriet that this diffident young man to whom she was betrothed had a quite unexpected strength of character, and was very well able to take care of himself. She glowed, and although she could not help laughing at the absurdity of his position, she admired him too, and would have accepted a dozen foundlings at his hands without uttering a word of reproach.
‘Oh, Gilly what a scrape to be in!’ she said, when he came to the end of his story. ‘It is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard! What will Lord Lionel say, if he finds you out?’
‘He will clap me into Bedlam, I daresay. To tell you the truth, I care very little for what he may say if only I can be rid of Belinda! I must find this Mudgley-fellow! And of course that nonsensical girl has not the least notion where he lives! But the thing is, Harriet, I can’t continue at the Pelican with her, and I dare not be seen abroad with her – in this of all towns! – for fear of meeting someone I know!’
‘No, indeed! Only think of my feelings!’ she agreed, twinkling shyly at him.
‘Yes, and then there is this milliner to whom she was apprenticed! Harry, I am quite ignorant about apprentices! Do you know what happens to them if they break their indentures?’
‘No, but I am sure it is something dreadful. I believe they are quite bound for a number of years, almost like slaves!’
‘Good God! what must I do to get her honourably released, I wonder?’
‘Well, do you know, Gilly, I think perhaps I could do that,’ she confided, blushing a little.
‘No, could you indeed?’ he said eagerly. ‘I am afraid she is a very disagreeable woman. Belinda finds nearly every woman so, I own, but from what she has said to me about Mrs Pilling I do think she is an unkind, tyrannical female. Belinda is frightened to death of her! Would she be satisfied if I offered to pay her whatever is owing to her?’
‘I daresay she might be, but I don’t think you should appear in the matter at all,’ said Harriet firmly. ‘I have been considering, and I believe it may be something I can do for you quite easily. You know, Gilly, everyone knows that we are to be married in the spring, and all the dressmakers and the milliners want to make my gowns and trim my hats. Because it – it is a great thing to be marrying a Duke, and they think it will be the most fashionable wedding of the season. I cannot but feel that if I were to go to Mrs Pilling’s establishment, and tell her that I wish her to make me several hats to go with my bride-clothes she would be very willing to forgive Belinda.’
He was much moved. ‘Harriet, you are the best-natured girl in the world! But from her direction I cannot think that she is at all a modish milliner! You will not like to buy hats from her.’
‘I shall not mind, dear Gilly,’ replied Harriet simply.
He kissed her hand. ‘But your mama! What would she have to say?’
‘I – I shall not mind that either, if it is for you,’ said Harriet. ‘And I think I shall drive there in Grandmama’s barouche, and take my footman as well as my maid. I expect Mrs Pilling would like that. And then, you know, she will let it be widely known that she is to make several hats for me, and it will bring her a great deal of much more fashionable custom than perhaps she has ever had.’
He was not very conversant with feminine foibles, but he was dimly aware that his betrothed was making a considerable sacrifice for him. He thanked her warmly, adding after a moment’s thought: ‘And if you do not like them you may throw them away, after all!’
She laughed at that. ‘Oh, no, how extravagant! I think Mama would certainly have something to say at such shocking waste of money!’
‘Would she?’ he said, dashed. A happy thought occurred to him. ‘It doesn’t signify! You may throw them away as soon as we are married, and buy some new ones. Should you like to go to Paris? They have very good bonnets there. If only we can contrive to go without my uncle’s foisting Belper on to us!’
She said earnestly: ‘Gilly, no one can foist anyone on to you any more!’
He smiled a little ruefully. ‘Do you think so?’
‘I know it. Only if you let them, and you will not.’
‘Now I come to consider it,’ he remarked, ‘even my uncle would not expect me to take my tutor with me on my honeymoon! Harriet, I think we should go to Paris! We could have the most diverting time! Should you care for it?’
‘Yes, of all things,’ she said, looking tenderly at him. ‘But first we must provide for Belinda!’
‘So we must! I was forgetting about her. How vexatious it is! Are you sure you do not mind having her to stay with you until I have found Mudgley?’
‘No, indeed!’ she assured him.
He looked a little doubtful. ‘Yes, but I have just bethought me of your grandmother. What shall you tell her?’
‘I shall tell her the truth,’ Harriet replied. ‘For, recollect, she already knows that that horrid Lady Boscastle saw you in Hitchin with Belinda! And, if you do not very much object to it, Gilly, I shall tell her about your adventures, because I think she will be very much amused, and pleased.’ She smiled a little. ‘Grandmama is not at all like Mama, you know, and she has been saying to me that although she likes you very well she would like you better still if you were not so very conformable and well-behaved! Of course I shall not tell her about Matthew! And I daresay she would like you to bring Tom to visit her, for she dearly loves anything that makes her laugh. She will be in whoops when she hears of the backward-race! I wonder, will he get into mischief here?’
‘My God, I hope not!’ exclaimed the Duke. ‘Perhaps I had best go back to the Pelican, for if he comes home from the theatre and does not find me heaven alone knows what he may take it into his head to do!’
‘Perhaps you had,’ Harriet said regretfull
y. ‘And I must go back to the drawing-room, or people will begin to wonder. Grandmama will let me bring her carriage to fetch Belinda in the morning. What shall you do then? Do you mean to remove to Cheyney?’
‘Oh, no, I don’t wish to bury myself there! When Nettlebed has brought me my clothes, and I am fit to be seen again, I think I shall go to the Christopher. Do you attend the dress-balls? Will you stand up with me for all the country-dances?’
She laughed. ‘Oh, yes, but what will Tom do?’
‘Good God, Tom! I must send off an express to his father. I fear he is shockingly vulgar, and will forgive me for my atrocious conduct merely because I am a Duke!’
She rose, and gave him her hand, saying playfully: ‘It will be well for you if he does, Gilly!’
He kissed her hand, and then her cheek. ‘Yes, very true! He sounds a terrifying person, and would no doubt make short work of plain Mr Dash of Nowhere in Particular. Thank God I am a Duke!’
Twenty-one
When the news was broken to Belinda that she was to go to stay with a kind lady in Laura Place, she looked very doleful, and said that she would prefer to stay with Mr Rufford, because ladies were always cross, and she did not like them.
‘You will like this lady,’ said the Duke firmly. ‘She is quite a young lady, and she is never cross.’
Belinda looked beseechingly at him. ‘Please I would like to find Mr Mudgley!’ she said.
‘And so you shall. At least, you shall if I can discover where he lives.’
Belinda sighed. ‘Mr Mudgley would not let Mrs Pilling put me in prison,’ she said. ‘He would marry me instead, and then I should be safe.’
‘I shall do my best to find him for you,’ promised the Duke.
‘Yes, but if you don’t find him I shall not know what to do,’ said Belinda sadly.
‘Nonsense! We will think of something for you.’
‘Oh!’ said Belinda. ‘Will you marry me, sir?’
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