To Win the Lady

by Mary Nichols

  He nodded wearily. ‘First room at the top of the stairs.’

  It was all Georgie could do to make herself walk and not run up the stairs and knock on the door. A weak voice bade her to enter.

  Her aunt was propped up in the bed, fully clothed. Her face was ashen and her hair all awry. As soon as she caught sight of Georgie, she burst into fresh tears.

  ‘Aunt, whatever is the matter?’ Georgie ran to comfort her but it was some time before the lady could speak coherently.

  ‘I did not know what to do,’ she said, between sniffs and dabs with her handkerchief. ‘And then his lordship came and I simply could not tell him, and he insisted on riding with me, and then we broke down and you were missing. Oh, Georgiana, such a day as I have had, I never wish to endure another like it.’

  ‘Aunt, do please compose yourself and tell me why you are here. Were you on the way to Rowan Park?’

  ‘I went there, but your housekeeper said you had left on that great horse of yours, so what could I do but come after you? And then who should come along but Lord Dullingham, asking if he might ride with me, and how could I refuse him? But if he finds out the truth we are done for.’

  ‘His lordship is here?’

  ‘Yes. Did you not see him?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I believe he might have gone searching for you.’

  And come to some harm. They had arrested two conspirators but how could they be sure there were no more? Had they finished off the job they had started when they had held up the coach? Oh, had they not had enough troubles for one night? If only Richard were here! She forced herself to pay attention to one thing at a time. ‘Aunt, please tell me what has happened. Why did you abandon your plans to go to France?’

  ‘This!’ Her aunt fumbled about in her reticule and produced a piece of much folded paper. ‘This is what Lady Hereward found on Felicity’s pillow yesterday morning - well, the maid found it but it amounts to the same thing. She, her ladyship, I mean, brought it round to me just as I had all my packing done and was about to leave. The chit meant me to be gone before it was found, I’ll wager.’

  ‘Found on her pillow?’ Georgie’s heart sank. What had her foolish sister been up to? She opened the note and read it swiftly. Felicity had written:

  Dear Lady Hereward

  I am indeed sorry for the inconvenience and embarrassment I must surely cause you, but I am in desperate straits. I know that as soon as this race to York is done Major Baverstock will return to speak to me and I cannot put off seeing him again. I am leaving to be with the man I love. We will be married as soon as possible. I thank you most sincerely for looking after me so comfortably.

  She had signed it simply, ‘Felicity.’

  Georgie’s reaction was so mixed up she did not know whether to shout for joy or join her aunt in tears for the mull Felicity had got herself into.

  ‘Why are you smiling?’ Mrs Bertram asked. ‘It is no laughing matter, I can tell you. Poor Lady Hereward is prostrate with guilt that it should have happened. under her roof, though to be honest she always was more relaxed over discipline than I ever was. And now she is paying for that folly and us with her.’

  ‘I hope you did not tell her so.’

  ‘No, she feels badly enough about it without me ringing a peal over her. And I am partly to blame for allowing the chit to go to her.’

  ‘It was very thoughtless of Felicity not to think of that. But where can she have gone?’

  ‘I thought she might have come home to you, that she had heard something...’

  ‘Heard what?’

  ‘Of course I denied it, denied it absolutely, said you wouldn’t be such a scapegrace, but it is gaining ground...’

  ‘What is gaining ground?’

  ‘I thought Felicity must have come home to tell you to your face that she did not want to marry the Major. I had to let the Colonel go to Dover without me. I came post haste to fetch the pair of you back to London. We must announce both your engagements at once, before there is any more scandal...’

  ‘Please, Aunt, what have you heard?’ But she knew the answer and it sickened her.

  ‘That you have been entertaining Major Baverstock at Rowan Park and none there but you and a couple of cork-brained servants.’

  ‘They are not cork-brained and if it were not for them...’ Georgie paused. ‘It was Lord Barbour who put that rumour about, Aunt. It was he who came to Rowan Park and tried to rape me. Now, don’t go into a spasm, please, or you will not hear the end. Major Baverstock was in the stables at the time, talking to Dawson about his horses. Fanny ran and fetched him and he sent his lordship packing.’

  ‘It is beyond comprehension.’

  ‘It is the truth. Now, having got that out of the way, what about Felicity? Where do you think she may have gone?’

  ‘As she has not come home, as I hoped, I am forced to the conclusion that she must have gone to Gretna Green. Oh, how will we ever live it down?’ She heaved a huge sigh. ‘I have done my best for you both, you cannot deny it, and to be put to the blush by Lord Dullingham was the last straw.’ And once more she resorted to her sodden handkerchief.

  ‘You must be right about Gretna Green, but who is the man?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘Come, we must put our heads together. Who has been paying her more attention than usual?’

  ‘How can I know that, when she had been staying with the Herewards? The Major, of course, to start with, but after he left to make his arrangements for the race I don’t know. She went out and about with Juliette and the young people of her set. According to Lady Hereward, they were always well-chaperoned.’

  Suddenly Georgie understood. She remembered blushes and how one young man seemed to bring Felicity out of her shell more than any other, and the use of a given name, quickly corrected. ‘Including Captain Melford?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so, but surely not? Isn’t Juliette...?’

  ‘What’s that to the point? Do you know where Captain Melford is at this moment? He is in York, waiting for Major Baverstock to arrive. And York is well on the way to Gretna Green, is it not?’

  ‘Yes, but if Felicity has gone there the Major will see her and he will be embarrassed and angry and...’

  ‘I don’t think he will, Aunt.’

  ‘Why are you smiling like that? It is not the least bit amusing. Major Baverstock will withdraw his offer...’

  Georgie made herself look suitably grave. ‘He hasn’t actually made an offer yet, Aunt.’

  ‘Well, he never will now.’ She brightened suddenly. ‘Unless we can persuade him that Felicity went north to see him win the race.’

  ‘Certainly not; there has been too much pretence already, which is why we are in this bumblebath. But I agree we must try and find her. If she wants to marry Captain Melford, she must do it properly.’

  ‘If you are right and it is Captain Melford and not some scapegrace or tulip, it would not be so bad. But how are we to go? My coach is broken and the horses spent and whatever shall we do about Lord Dullingham? He mustn’t know. Is it too much to hope he has washed his hands of us and gone home by some other means?’

  ‘He would not be so ungallant.’

  ‘We must pretend to be going back to London and then turn round and go north. But the coach!’

  ‘Aunt, there is nothing we can do until daylight. Now, you try and sleep and I will see what is being done about the coach. If it cannot be repaired we must hire another and a driver too. Poor James must be as exhausted as you are.’

  Mrs Bertram lay back on her pillows and closed her eyes. Georgie bent to kiss her cheek and left her, smiling a little. It had not occurred to Mrs Bertram to ask her niece where she had been and what she had been doing, which was just as well; she had had enough to contend with for one night.

  Strangely Georgie did not feel tired; she felt elated and so buoyed up with hope, she wanted to laugh aloud. Felicity did not want to marry Richard! How blind they had all been an
d how very stupid! But that did not alter the fact that Felicity must be rescued from her own folly. An elopement would give the tattlemongers something to get their teeth into for weeks to come.

  She returned downstairs and went out to the yard to make enquiries about the coach, but at the back of her mind was another worry. What had become of Viscount Dullingham?

  She discovered, when she went out into the yard, that the coach had been taken into a workshop at the back of the premises and men were already working on it by the light of several lanterns. His lordship must have been truly silver-tongued, not to mention open-handed, to have worked such a miracle.

  There were more people in the yard now as the spectators began to drift back to return the mounts they had hired, to change their carriage horses or to order an early breakfast. Grooms and ostlers, rubbing sleep from their eyes, hurried about, calling to each other and commenting on the best twenty-four hours of business they had ever done. Those few who had been on duty earlier had taken to their beds and there was no one who had seen the carriage and its two occupants arrive. Georgie was beginning to think Mrs Bertram’s wish had been granted and the Viscount had returned home by other means, when he strolled into the yard.

  She was so relieved to see him, she dashed up to him and, without even waiting for him to greet her, said, ‘Oh, my lord, how pleased I am to see you safe,’ which was such an extraordinary thing to say that he looked completely nonplussed for a moment.

  Then he smiled slowly and tipped his hat. ‘And, my dear Miss Paget, I must say how pleased I am to see you safe. Now we have our mutual relief out of the way, do you mind telling me why you think I might have been in any danger?’

  ‘Those men. Oh, dear, I really do not know where to begin.’

  ‘I always find the beginning the most effectual, my dear. Shall we go inside and find a comfortable seat? I have a feeling this might take some time.’ He took her arm and guided her indoors to the parlour where he found them seats in a quiet corner away from all the young bloods who were going over every minute of the race and forming their own opinions as to why the Major should have lost his lead on Lord Barbour.

  ‘Now,’ he said, when they were seated with two steaming cups of coffee before them, ‘I take it you have seen your aunt?’

  ‘Yes, and what a tale she had to tell. I am very thankful, my lord, that you were with her.’

  ‘I do not think she is quite of the same mind, Miss Paget. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that some of the time she wished me in purgatory. There is something troubling her, but whenever I opened my mouth to ask if I could be of any assistance she started talking a great deal of trivial nonsense to prevent me speaking.’

  ‘Yes, I know, she told me. I am sorry she did not feel able to confide in you.’

  He smiled. ‘But you are going to.’

  ‘Yes.’ She was surprised how perfectly at ease she felt in his company. ‘It’s all on account of my sister, Felicity. I am afraid she has been rather foolish, but it is not entirely her fault.’

  ‘The beginning, if you please, Miss Paget.’

  She took a deep breath and told him the whole story.

  ‘Then we must go to York,’ he said when she had finished. ‘The race must be nearly over, but we will learn the result all the sooner, don’t you think? Is that not reason enough to go?’

  ‘Yes, my lord, but we cannot allow you to inconvenience yourself...’

  ‘Nonsense, it is quite an adventure, is it not?’ He was suddenly serious. ‘I must take my share of the blame for what has happened and the sooner all is put to rights the better. Now, you must not worry about a thing.’

  ‘Thank you, my lord. But there is something else I ought to tell you. While you and my aunt were having your adventure, I was having one of my own.’

  ‘Go on.’

  He listened intently without comment while she related it and when she had finished he patted her hand and smiled. ‘You were wonderfully brave, Miss Paget, and I am sure my son would agree with me.’

  ‘I knew those men were no ordinary highwaymen,’ she said. ‘Can you think why anyone should want to harm you?’

  ‘No, but it’s of no consequence.’

  She was not sure if he was telling the truth or not, but she could hardly call a man of his calibre to account, and if he chose to keep his thoughts to himself, then that was his affair. She had not been completely honest either; she had not told him of her love for Richard. She dared not, not until the business with Felicity had been sorted out and Richard himself had confirmed his love for her; he might even want to wash his hands of the whole Paget family. But oh, how she hoped not. He had given her a taste of paradise and she wanted to feast on it.

  ‘I do not trust Lord Barbour not to try something else to detain Rich - Major Baverstock.’ She corrected her slip very quickly but she was sure he had noticed.

  ‘We are a match for him, are we not? Now, it is nearly daylight. I shall go and see how the coach repairs are coming along and order breakfast for us all, while you go and wake your aunt and tell her that I have taken over the arrangements for the whole journey. You had better find one of your men and give him a message for your housekeeper. We can’t have a hue and cry because she thinks you are missing, can we? I am afraid there will be no sleep for you.’

  ‘I do not mind in the least.’

  An hour later, with a good breakfast inside them and a new axle on the coach, they were standing in the yard wondering if it would be safe to entrust the driving to Mrs Bertram’s exhausted driver, when Bert Dawson came in on the night mail with another of the Rowan Park men. They had been patrolling the early part of the race and had been able to snooze on the coach bringing them home. Dawson, Georgie knew, would be discretion itself and readily agreed to drive them. One of the grooms from the inn was given an exorbitant sum to ride ahead and arrange for fresh horses to be ready at the posting houses and in no time at all they were on the road again, hoping to snatch some sleep on the way.

  It was a forlorn hope. The coach was old and uncomfortable and the road in many places so full of potholes that they were thrown about like sacks of grain, and Mrs Bertram, remembering what had happened the evening before, was in a paroxysm of fear that fate would repeat itself. She would have liked to insist on going slowly, but she was as anxious as everyone else to reach their destination as speedily as possible.

  Late in the afternoon, when they were still several miles short of Grantham, his lordship suddenly broke the silence. ‘We’ll go to my shooting box. It’s only a mile or two out of our way and we will be sure of a comfortable bed and a good meal.’

  ‘But we won’t be expected, my lord,’ Georgie demurred.

  ‘My staff are used to unexpected comings and goings, my dear. They will rise to the occasion and find something, even if it not a banquet. And we will be able to set off again tomorrow much refreshed.’

  ‘But ought we to delay, my lord? Felicity has two days’ start on us.’

  ‘Yes, but she will have travelled by public coach, the mail at best, and I doubt she will leave York again immediately. My son will undoubtedly remain in York another day to rest and perhaps to celebrate, and Captain Melford is bound to want to join him in that.’ He smiled. ‘And to settle his wagers, one way or another. Add to that your sister’s undoubted fatigue and you have pressing reasons for remaining another day.’

  He sounded so calm, she felt reassured. ‘Do you really think so?’

  ‘Yes. Now, what do you say?’

  Georgie turned to look at her aunt who was sound asleep in the corner with her bonnet fallen over her face. Poor thing, she had tried to keep awake because she’d felt she ought to converse, but had given up the struggle a few miles back. She needed a good night’s sleep; they all did. `If you are sure it will not be too much trouble.’

  He put his head out of the window and called up to Dawson. ‘Take the turn to Melton Mowbray, driver. You’ll find a gate on the right-hand side about five miles up the ro
ad. Missen House, it’s called.’ He turned to smile at Georgie. ‘The house was my mother’s childhood home, but since I inherited it has been used by the family as a shooting box, though truthfully it is a trifle larger than one would expect.’

  Georgie smiled at his understatement when she saw the house, standing at the end of a long straight drive; it was a substantial country mansion. And what was even more surprising was the fact that it was not shut up as she had expected. The curtains were drawn back and some of the upper windows were open. The minute the coach drew up, the front door was opened by a man in a black tailcoat who stood on the step peering at them as if unsure whether to welcome them. But, of course, they were in Mrs Bertram’s old coach, not the spanking new Dullingham carriage. As soon as the vehicle stopped, Lord Dullingham stepped down and turned to help Mrs Bertram down.

  She was still half asleep, having been shaken awake by Georgie when they’d turned in at the gates. Now she looked about her, unsure where she was. The Viscount smiled. ‘Welcome to Missen House, ma’am.’ He went to hand Georgie down but she had already climbed out and was shaking the creases out of her riding habit. It was when he turned to escort them up the steps that he saw the servant. Georgie noticed the slight pursing of his lips and the drawing down of his brows; it was an expression she had seen on Richard when he was displeased. ‘Who are you?’ his lordship demanded.

  ‘Jenkins.’ There was something about his lordship’s bearing that made him add a belated, ‘Sir.’

  ‘Where’s Gordon?’

  ‘Gordon is no longer with us. If you give me your name I will announce you.’

  Georgie thought his lordship was about to explode. ‘I do not need to be announced in my own house, man. Someone should have told you.’ He walked past the astonished man and into the oak-panelled hall. ‘Where is my nephew? I assume it is he who gives you your orders?’

  The man looked blank and Georgie, passing him, whispered, ‘That is Viscount Dullingham. Did you not know?’

  ‘Don’t care who he is. My orders are to admit no one but...’ He stopped and turned as if to detain the irate Viscount but changed his mind and shrugged.