Mary Nichols

by Society Bride Working Man

  ‘I am often asked by my clients for advice about investments,’ Gerald was saying. ‘Everyone seems to be buying into railways these days. People seem to be making fortunes doing nothing at all. Is it really the bonanza it is made out to be? Shall I advise for or against?’

  ‘I should advise caution,’ Myles said, trying to concentrate on the question he had been asked and not on Lucy. She looked pale and troubled and he blamed himself for starting to talk about his feelings for her when he could not ask her to marry him. Not yet. Quite apart from the caution his father had advised, she was not ready to stand up to her father. ‘Pick your company carefully. Many of the proposed lines now receiving Parliamentary assent are wildly optimistic and will never be finished and some may run out of money before they even start. Money has to be found for setting up the company, legal expenses and getting a bill through Parliament, then there is engineering, surveying and paying compensation to landowners, not to mention buying rails, rolling stock and all the necessary equipment. Many thousands, sometimes the whole of the debenture, are gone before a spade full of earth has been turned. You need to be sure the company can deliver what it says it can, that the main contractor is reliable and that, at the end of the day, the line will be used and return a profit.’

  ‘You make me feel I should advise against it.’

  ‘No, I am not saying that—you cannot halt progress and the day will come when railways are taken for granted—but it is wise to go into facts and figures and the character of the proposers carefully before laying out capital.’

  ‘What about your own enterprise?’

  ‘That is sound. The line is vital to connect east and west and will be well used when the whole system is in place. The costs have been carefully calculated and we use our own team of navvies as far as possible. It is easier to control them than if it is left to sub-contractors to hire them.’

  Lucy was listening now. She felt what he was saying was important to her personally, that in a way he was speaking directly to her. ‘What happens if a landowner refuses to allow you to cross his land?’ she asked.

  ‘We try to come to a reasonable settlement, my lady,’ he said, turning towards her and paying her the compliment of treating her question seriously. ‘If we cannot, then we go to law to make a compulsory purchase.’

  ‘I see. Then you may expect a battle with my father, the Earl. He is adamant.’

  They both knew what that would mean. Luffenham and Moorcroft at daggers drawn and their offspring caught in the middle of it. The future, as far as Lucy was concerned, looked bleak indeed.

  ‘Oh, I think we shall reach an accommodation,’ he said, and she knew he was not speaking entirely about railways. How could he be so confident? Because he did not know her father as she did, she answered herself. Papa was of the old school, who wanted to keep everything exactly as it was, his domains, his way of life, his hold over his family, his tenants and workers, exactly as they had been in his father’s time and his father’s before him. He would fight tooth and nail not only to keep every acre of land he owned, but to dictate whom his daughter should marry. Well, perhaps he would not force her to marry someone she did not like, but certainly he would forbid her to marry someone of whom he disapproved.

  Deep in her sorrowful musings, she did not at first realise that the tea hour had come to an end and Myles was taking his leave. She was startled when he moved over to her and bowed. ‘Lady Lucinda, your obedient.’ The formality seemed to bring home to her that he had accepted her refusal to discuss the feelings they felt for each other; though she knew that was sensible, she was none the less cast down about it.

  She forced a smile to her lips, though she could not make the rest of her face follow suit. ‘Goodbye, Mr Moorcroft.’ Oh, how final that sounded. She might see him again, but she could not foresee a time when they would be able to talk to each other as they had done that afternoon.

  After he had gone, Sir Gerald returned to his study and Georgina subjected Lucy to a grilling, which she tried to withstand, but in the end she fled to her room in floods of tears. Georgie followed her. ‘Oh, Lucy, I am so sorry. I thought I was being helpful, leaving you alone together. I did not dream he would behave badly….’

  ‘He didn’t behave badly. Nothing happened, nothing, do you hear? Please don’t mention it again.’

  Georgie looked contrite. She put her arm about Lucy’s shoulders. ‘Don’t upset yourself, Lucy dearest. If you do not want to talk about it, then of course we will not. But when you do feel like confiding in me, I will listen.’

  The subjects of Myles Moorcroft, railways and marriage were carefully avoided for the rest of Lucy’s stay. They picnicked, went to the reading group, visited some of Georgina’s friends, toured the cathedral, shopped for presents for Rosemary, Esme and Johnny, and gossiped about their schooldays. By the time her visit was coming to its end, Lucy prided herself on bringing her emotions under some semblance of control. They laughed a lot, too; if Georgina noticed Lucy’s laughter was a trifle hollow, she did not comment. What Lucy was unprepared to find, when they arrived at Lady Croxon’s for Harriet’s engagement ball on her last night, was that Myles was among the guests.

  She saw him first, talking to a group of men. She could hardly miss him, because of his height. He was in impeccable evening dress, his normally long hair carefully groomed. She noted his easy stance, the way laughter was never far from his mobile face, the face of a man at ease with himself, which was very different from the picture of himself he had painted to her. She almost stumbled, but Georgie had a hand on her elbow and steadied her. ‘You do not have to speak to him,’ she murmured. ‘Just nod your head as you pass him.’

  She tried, oh, how she tried, to be cool and mature. She walked the length of the room beside her friend, her chin in the air and her pink-feathered fan working furiously. Coming abreast of where he stood, she paused and bowed. If he had only bowed in return and not spoken, she could have carried on. Instead he excused himself from the group and walked towards her, not hurriedly, but as if he had all the time in the world, and she stood mesmerised like a rabbit facing a loaded gun.

  ‘Lady Brotherton, Lady Lucinda, good evening,’ he said. She was, he noted, wearing the dress she had worn at the Gorridge ball, a delicate pink froth of silk and lace. It did not seem to have come to any harm from being in a rowing boat. She still looked wonderful and desirable. ‘Good evening, Sir Gerald. This is a pleasant surprise.’

  ‘Surprise, sir?’ Lucy queried, piqued. ‘I fancy it was more of a surprise to us than to you. How did you manage it?’

  ‘Lucy!’ Georgie exclaimed, shocked by the tartness in her friend’s voice.

  Myles smiled. Lucy Vernley was rattled and that was a good sign. Or so he thought. ‘My lady, I have known the prospective groom since childhood,’ he explained, refusing to rise to her bait. ‘Our fathers are lifelong friends.’

  ‘What a small world it is!’ exclaimed Georgie brightly. ‘Miss Croxon is an old schoolfriend of ours, isn’t she, Lucy?’

  Lucy nodded silently.

  The music had struck up for a waltz and Myles turned to Lucy and held out his hand. ‘May I have the pleasure of dancing with you, Lady Lucinda?’

  She had meant to refuse, she really had; she would not put herself through the torment of being close to him again, but somehow she found herself on the dance floor with him. For a big man he was very light on his feet and they danced in silence for a complete circuit of the floor. And then he spoke. ‘I truly did not know you would be here tonight,’ he said. ‘But now you are, it has made my evening happier than I could have hoped for.’

  ‘Mr Moorcroft, I hope you are not going to resume the conversation we had the last time we met, because as far as I am concerned there is nothing more to say.’

  ‘I was merely paying a compliment to the lady I am dancing with,’ he said. ‘If you do not care for compliments, you must be unique among women.’ He laughed softly. ‘But then you are unique. There is not ano
ther Lady Lucinda Vernley in the whole world, certainly not for me. And you must acknowledge there is not another Myles Moorcroft, either.’

  ‘I do not doubt it,’ she said. ‘Who else could dress the gentleman and fill a lady’s head with nonsense one day and fill a wagon with twenty tons of crock on another? You see, I do remember what you call it.’

  He laughed. ‘Oh, my dear, can you not unbend just a little and smile? Everyone will think we are quarrelling.’

  ‘Why should anyone be interested in us?’

  ‘Because, my dear, I am who I am and you are who you are.’

  ‘Yes, and I beg you to remember that,’ she snapped. But she smiled. She went on smiling all through the evening. She smiled at the other young men who came and claimed a dance; she smiled at their hostess and complimented her on a splendid occasion; she smiled when she congratulated Harriet. She smiled when she chatted to Georgina; she was still smiling when Myles came and asked for another dance. She smiled all through it, though they hardly spoke. Only once did she falter and that was at the end of the evening when he came to take his leave as everyone was making their way out to their carriages. He bowed and lifted her hand to his lips, looking into her eyes as he did so. ‘Au revoir, my dear,’ he murmured. ‘We shall meet again, you and I. Put a little of your pin money on me when Gorridge comes to challenge me.’

  She did not know whether he was talking about that wager or something else entirely and it puzzled her all the way back to the Brothertons’ residence.

  The next morning, after a sleepless night, the family carriage came to fetch her and she went home. Her visit had been a respite, but it had done nothing to settle her unease. The problem she had left behind was still there, made more poignant because of her meetings with Myles and the things he had said. She had called it nonsense, but it was sweet nonsense and made her realise that she could never contemplate marrying anyone else. She could not make herself fall out of love with Myles Moorcroft and into love with Edward Gorridge, however much her father might wish it.

  Chapter Six

  She had been home several hours, had given her siblings their presents and answered their questions about what she had done while she was away, then changed for dinner and was on her way to the drawing room when she encountered her father, who had evidently only just come indoors at the end of his day’s business on the estate.

  ‘Into the library with you,’ he said when she tried to greet him. ‘I want to speak to you.’ His tone was brusque and she followed him into the room with some trepidation, and stood waiting for him to speak.

  ‘Lucinda, I am displeased with you. I hear you have been talking to that navvy.’

  She knew perfectly well whom he meant, but pretended she did not. ‘Navvy, Papa?’

  ‘Moorcroft. You were seen at a public meeting, conversing with him.’

  ‘Georgina and her husband were interested in what the railway directors had to say and, as it is a subject that interests me, I agreed to accompany them. I did not know Lord Moorcroft would be one of the speakers.’

  ‘I am not talking about Moorcroft, but his son. He does not even pretend to be a gentleman.’

  ‘He behaved like one.’

  ‘Oh, I do not doubt he can put on airs and graces if he needs to, but he has no breeding. And you should not encourage him.’

  ‘I was no more than polite,’ she said hotly. ‘He spoke to Sir Gerald and Georgina and answered their questions about the railway while I listened. I can see no harm in that.’

  ‘Why on earth you should want to go to such a meeting is beyond me. It is not the sort of gathering a young lady of your rank should attend and I am surprised at Sir Gerald taking you to it. If Edward Gorridge had not told me he had seen you there, I do not suppose you would have seen fit to tell me.’

  She had not seen Edward in the audience, but then she had had eyes for no one but Myles. ‘I did not think it was of any great importance.’

  ‘Not important! What my daughter gets up to not important! You will go to no more such meetings and if you should encounter that upstart again you will not speak to him, is that clear?’

  ‘Yes, Papa.’

  ‘Now go to your mother. I will join you directly.’

  She made her escape, thankful that he did not seem to know anything about the Croxon ball. She would have been even more firmly scolded if he had known she had danced with Myles. Luckily he believed his displeasure was punishment enough and life at Luffenham Hall went on as it always had.

  The railway was coming after all. Lucy learned this one afternoon two weeks later after her father had met Lord Moorcroft and Viscount Gorridge and their respective lawyers in Peterborough. She was passing the library on her way out for a ride when she heard his voice. ‘I decided to let it go ahead,’ he said, apparently in answer to a question from her mother. ‘They made me an offer for that land I could not refuse. It will help to pay for the repairs to Home Farm. Sayers has been on at me for some time about them and there’s other things that need doing too. I made certain provisos, of course. It is to take the shortest line across the Luffenham land and stay on the other side of the river. I have also stipulated a station and coal yard where the rail crosses the road just outside the village. And the navvies are to be forbidden to enter the village.’

  ‘Lord Moorcroft agreed to that, did he?’

  ‘Yes. After Gorridge had had his say. He is all for it and was prepared to add his own inducement.’

  ‘Inducement? You mean if Lucy marries Edward?’

  ‘It wasn’t said in so many words, but I understood he meant something of the sort.’

  ‘I am reluctant to push Lucy into it if she doesn’t want him.’

  ‘Why shouldn’t she? It’s an ideal match. It’s up to you to make her see it.’

  ‘What about Edward? He did not seem in any hurry to propose when we were over there.’

  ‘Oh, you know what young men are, they like to pick their moment. I have no doubt he will come up to scratch when they come here.’

  Lucy hurried away before they came out and found her eavesdropping. She did not want to marry Edward Gorridge. How could she, when she did not have an atom of feeling for him? She would have to make it clear that she would not entertain marriage to him. But supposing doing that meant putting her father in a difficult situation with Viscount Gorridge over the railway? He would be furious.

  She hurried to the stables and took Midge out. In a furious mood, she rode hard until she found herself at the top of the rise from which she had first seen the men surveying. Here she drew rein and slipped from the saddle, standing beside the horse’s head and contemplating the view. There was no one there. It was green and peaceful. The river wound its placid way to the sea; a small stand of deciduous trees were showing their autumn colours, red, gold and brown; the sheep, beginning to grow their winter coats, dotted the opposite hill with flecks of white. The only evidence that a line was to be built was the row of white stakes hammered into the ground at intervals along the side of the hill on the other side of the river.

  How long before the railway builders arrived? How long before Myles was there, directing the men, shovelling crock alongside them, so near and yet as far from her as ever? The shape of the countryside would be changed. For a time at least it would be scarred, but she had seen on other lines how soon the grass returned once the men and all the paraphernalia they brought with them had gone, leaving behind only the gleaming rails. When that happened Myles would be gone, too. Where was he? Did he ever think of her? Angrily she brushed the back of her hand over her face to stem the tears, and climbed back into the saddle. She must endure and hope that something, anything, would turn up to solve problems that seemed insoluble.

  The Gorridge carriage, containing the Viscount, his wife and daughter, rolled up the drive one day at the end of October. Edward rode over on horseback. They arrived on the same day as the vanguard of the navvies, which gave everyone a talking point at dinner that evening and save
d Lucy having to force a conversation with Edward, who was seated beside her.

  ‘We saw them as we came along the road,’ Lord Gorridge said. ‘They were bringing in dozens of wagons loaded with their stuff. There was a couple of dozen of them, but no doubt the rest will be arriving in the next few days.’

  ‘Yes, I expect so,’ the Earl said. ‘I’ve been watching their progress as they came nearer. The line has reached the crossroads on the edge of the estate and they have been bringing up their equipment as far as that by rail. They have made a dreadful mess on the lane, breaking down hedges and dropping litter. I had to go down and speak to them about it. Moorcroft’s son was there and promised me they would clear it up once they had everything on site, so I shall go down tomorrow and see that they have.’

  Myles was there! Lucy’s heart gave an erratic jump before settling back to something approaching a normal beat. It only needed someone to mention his name to set her off dreaming and wishing, making her lose sight of her surroundings. The dining room faded, the long table with its gleaming cutlery and sparkling glass, the colourful gowns of the ladies, her own pale blue organza with its cream bertha, faded and she was back in that rowing boat, peacefully dabbling her hands in the water, watching his strong arms wielding the oars and listening to him talk nonsense and loving it. Would she see him again? Dare she?

  ‘He’s there, is he?’ Edward was saying. ‘I have some unfinished business with him.’