James had to bite his tongue to keep from a retort that his mother was his uncle’s sister-in-law, and his siblings were his nieces and nephews. James was tired of this constant threat. Instead he said, with as much calm as he could muster, “Uncle, your family is as grateful as I am that you care enough to help us out. I am sorry if my youth exasperates you, it is not consciously done.”
Ian Kent recognized the reprimand, however masked by the conciliatory language. “I wrote to a friend of mine, William Burn, after your last indiscretion,” he started. James recognized the name as one of the partners of a very well-known architectural office in London, Burn & Street. “They are sending one of their architects to Shropshire to do the preliminary land surveys for a new project. I have asked that you be able to accompany him. They have agreed. You will leave the first week in February.”
James couldn’t react. His mind was thinking of too many things at once. Regardless of how it had come about – for he knew his uncle was sending him out of London as a punishment – it was a wonderful opportunity for practical experience and the Burn & Street firm certainly gave this experience distinction. Travelling to the West Midlands in the middle of winter would not be an easy trip, however. Worse, he didn’t know if his travels would interfere with the visit by Dahlia’s brothers. Worse still, he knew very well that he would not be here for Dahlia’s visit to Miss McElroy and her performance at the Valentine’s Day Ball. All his planning to keep in touch with Dahlia – to see her here in London – was crumbling.
The great start to the New Year came to an abrupt halt.
Chapter 18
James knew better than to argue with his uncle. The first thing that came into his mind was that he had to write to Dahlia. A message through Miss McElroy would not do this time. He left the parlor and bounded up the stairs, nearly running into Lord Stanmer on the landing. A long-time friend of his uncle’s, Lord William Stanmer was a regular guest at the town house. He lived in Brighton, but visited London often for business. He and Lord Telford were so similar in their opinions and attitudes that James felt outnumbered when he was in residence and felt relieved whenever the man left for Brighton again.
“James,” Lord Stanmer said as greeting.
“Sir,” James said, continuing up the stairs.
Once in his room, James sat down on his bed and ran his hand through his disheveled hair, thinking of what to write to Dahlia...and how to write it. He had to be careful in the event that someone, like her father, would read it. James had no idea how many, if any, correspondences Dahlia was accustomed to receiving. He thought perhaps it was not a great number, which would certainly raise the question of who sent her a letter. Her father would be well within his rights to scan her letters, or intercept them entirely. The more he thought about it, the more he convinced himself he would have to use Miss McElroy.
Glad to have made a decision, he grabbed his coat and raced downstairs. He could hear his uncle commiserating with his friend in the parlor. No doubt reiterating, as he had so many times before, how ungrateful his nephew was.
James left the house and ventured into the cold London streets to cross town to where Miss McElroy lived. The sky was clear and the air crisp, and when he breathed in he felt refreshed, invigorated. It was as if each breath cleansed him of his uncle’s negativity. When he arrived at Miss McElroy’s residence, he was in too good a mood to remember that it was very early indeed to be calling on anyone, let alone a respectable, unmarried woman.
He rang the door bell several times and was just starting to get impatient when it was opened by a servant, looking a bit hesitant to see who was calling at this early hour.
“James Kent to see Miss McElroy,” he announced.
“Miss McElroy is…not able to see visitors at present,” said the servant delicately.
“Yes, of course,” said James, understanding the singer was most likely still asleep. “May I wait for her?” James knew from his previous visits that the servant would show him to an elegantly appointed parlor which happened to include a desk. He would use the time waiting for Miss McElroy to compose his letter.
As it turned out, James had two hours to compose the letter, which was sufficient time for numerous drafts. Several cluttered the waste basket in tightly-crumpled balls, and one or two lay on the floor where he had missed the circular target.
When Miss McElroy came down, she saw a slightly disheveled James who, during the course of his composing, had mussed his hair, untied his cravat, removed his jacket, and blackened his fingers with ink. Coupled with the mess both on and under her desk, Miss McElroy could only shake her head and laugh her hearty laugh. James looked up from the desk at the sound. He looked around at the state of the room in his immediate vicinity, and down at his hands. He gave a chortle. He stood up and gave a bow to Miss McElroy.
“Good morning, Miss McElroy, and my wishes for a very Happy New Year.”
“Oh, I daresay from the state of you, mine is starting out happier than yours,” she began, walking into the room and settling herself in a leather wing back by the fire. “So, I’m guessing,” she said pointing at the circle of disarray around the young man. “That you are experiencing difficulties with members of the opposite sex?”
James sat down again, smiling. The woman was so damned perceptive! “Yes, ma’am,” he owned. “Can you help me?”
“Help you in matters of the heart?” She laughed again, a sardonic look on her face. “My dear boy, I couldn’t even manage my own affairs in that realm.” She shook her head as if it would shake out the memories held there. “I’ll do what I can,” she said, once again herself. “For all the good it will do. So have out with it. What happened?”
James told her about the New Year’s party, the actress, and his uncle’s reaction to his early morning arrival.
“Well,” Miss McElroy began when he ended his tale. “If he had already spoken to this architect chap about the project, he was determined to send you away. You may have well have enjoyed yourself.” She said matter of factly. “Now, you have a schedule conflict because you will be on your way to Shropshire whilst the lovely Miss Talbot is on her way here to London, expecting to see you.”
“Yes,” James concluded. “I thought I should write her myself to beg her pardon for my absence.”
“And you want me to include your letter in one I send to her?”
“Would you?” He asked, thinking it a perfunctory question to which she would agree.
She did not answer immediately, to his surprise. “My dear young man. There are other considerations with Miss Talbot’s trip, not the least of which is that I have put her in the program for the Valentine’s Day Ball. If we send your letter to her, she may well not come at all!” He looked at her as if she had grown two heads.
“Don’t look at me that way! I know bloody well she’s not coming all this way to see me or to sing at the ball! Those are merely excuses for her to be in London so she can bump into you.” She waved her hand dismissively and laughed. “I’m not a fool, and I may be old, but my eyesight is perfectly good. All I needed was one night in the company of you two at the ball in Cirencester to know where her attention lies. And I know, despite where you have been laying, where your attention lies! No man is, shall we say indiscreet, with as many women as your uncle seems to think you are and yet worried about a young thing who’s more child than woman.” She paused, staring at James. “No, I think you must have very serious designs on our Miss Talbot.”
Miss McElroy obviously had a better sense of his designs than James did. He thought again of how irritating her perceptions could be, especially since they were quicker than his own.
“Pace yourself man. She’ll not come of age for several years yet. You have no idea what will happen between now and then – in your life or hers. I’m happy to assist Cupid in his work, but I’m not inclined to assist the Post in theirs. Give me your letter and it will be delivered to Miss Talbot in person – by me when she arrives here.” She saw Jame
s slowly accept this compromise.
“Thank you, Miss McElroy. I appreciate your assistance.”
“Yes, well. You’ve kept me long enough from my breakfast and I daresay you’ve not had any either. Come, join me,” she said getting up. “Life’s little surprises never seem so disturbing on a full stomach.” James rose and walked with her towards the dining room.
“Did you say the actress’ name was Daisy?”
James nodded.
“What is it with you and women named after flowers?”
Chapter 19
Three days after his visit to Miss McElroy, James received a letter from Dahlia’s brother Mark informing him of his arrival with Leland the last Saturday in January. That would give them about a week to renew acquaintances before he left London.
He had kept his date with the actress, Daisy, and another after that. She was entertaining and a very eager bed partner. Her theatre friends were a lively bunch who had outrageous tales of their travels and experiences in the entertainment world. James became very popular with the group, which included many women of various ages, as he started to bring his university friends to the soirees.
As Miss McElroy had pointed out, since he was already banished by his uncle to the wilds of the West Midlands, there seemed no point in drastically changing his behavior during his last month in the city. He therefore resolved to enjoy himself, with some moderation in his hours that could be noted by his uncle lest he vex him so greatly that he cut off all support entirely. As promised, his uncle had once again written to his mother, and he had received a letter from her. Her reproof was considerably more lenient than that of his uncle or his damned disapproving friend, Lord Stanmer. She wrote that while she understood his need to experiment with the delights that London night life had to offer, she did caution him against excesses which would endanger his education and professional goals. She did not mention the money that James sent her from his allowance, or how his behavior could threaten that as well, but he knew that was as much a fear of hers as any stain on his reputation and career possibilities. So while James still went out after dinner several times a week, he made sure to come home while his uncle was still up. After all, there was no point in meeting his uncle’s expectations if his uncle was not able to witness it. Lord Telford would look up from his book or his chess game with Lord Stanmer and make a comment such as “Back so soon?” as if to challenge him to go against his wishes.
Miss McElroy continued her invitations for James to join her for dinner parties. She loved to entertain, and her circle of friends, though just as entertaining as Daisy’s, were definitely several rungs higher on the social ladder. Her parties often included various levels of nobility, government officials, and clergy, as well as respected writers, philosophers, and musicians. Her social events were well-choreographed and the invitations thoughtfully planned to include just the right mix of occupations, stations, and personalities. It therefore amused James greatly when an invitation came to the townhouse addressed to Lord Telford. The invitation included himself and Lord Stanmer, whom James had mentioned many times, usually in very derogatory ways, to Miss McElroy. James could not possibly imagine how his uncle and Lord Stanmer would fit into any circle of invitees, but was eager to see whom she had chosen for this particular night. He was also surprised that his uncle accepted the invitation with only a few disparaging comments regarding the singer’s vivacious personality.
James was not as surprised by the assembled guests, however, as his uncle and Lord Stanmer. Miss McElroy had certainly made a lot of inquiries, however, to identify them since the party included three former classmates of his uncle and Lord Stanmer: Sir Nevel Huntsford, who had expanded his family’s already considerable wealth through shipping; Bishop John Wexford; and the Honorable Christopher Crandel, barrister. William Burn, the architect friend of his uncle’s for whom James would be working in Shropshire was there as well, along with another architect and member of the Royal Academy, Gerald Blackwell.
The uncle he saw clasping his old friends’ hands and smiling genuinely as they reminisced about their school days was a stranger to him, and he marveled at the transformation of his uncle and his stodgy friend into sociable beings animatedly talking to everyone in the group.
What did not surprise him, however, was how well Miss McElroy interacted with the all-male group. She was able to talk and joke along with the men on all subjects and they seemed to acknowledge her comments and thoughts on the law, church history, and business. She had apparently known Lord Huntsford, the shipping magnate, for some time although they had only recently discovered their mutual acquaintance with Lord Telford. She even drew Lord Stanmer into conversation and had him laughing at her story of sea bathing at Brighton and being completely knocked over by a wave that, as she put it, left her washed up on the sand like a beached whale. By the time dinner was served, the entire party was at ease and interacting like they had been friends for as long as his uncle and Lord Stanmer and their school cronies.
It wasn’t until the more subdued dinner conversation that James fully comprehended the reason for this conglomeration of invitees. This dinner was solely for his benefit. Miss McElroy had seated James at one end of the long, elegant dining table opposite herself. The two architects were seated in the middle seats on each of the sides, with his uncle and Lord Stanmer seated beside James and the Bishop and shipping tycoon beside Miss McElroy. As the conversations crisscrossed up and down and across the table, he soon realized that the questions exchanged by James and the architects had to be heard by Lord Telford and Lord Stanmer. James was a good student despite his uncle’s protestations regarding his extracurricular activities, and this was evident in his conversations with the architects. If Mr. Burn had any question as to why Lord Telford had insisted that he find a project for his friend’s nephew out of town, they were quickly erased by James’ obvious knowledge of architecture, its styles, history, and requirements regarding well-founded projects. Like it or not, Lord Telford was forced to acknowledge his nephew’s accomplishments – especially when Mr. Burn pointedly stated to him that James would be a very welcome addition to the Shropshire project team. Mr. Blackwell even joked that James should put in his credentials to the Royal Academy now. James knew it could take decades of work to be accepted into the Royal Academy for architects, but he was proud to hear he had the foundation to consider it. Apparently so was Lord Telford, who, by the end of the evening, seemed to look at his nephew in a new light.
The party also shed light on aspects of Lord Telford and Lord Stanmer that James would never have guessed. After dinner, brandy was served in the parlor and a servant offered the men cigars. Even Miss McElroy indulged in a very long, thin cigarette anchored in an elegant ivory filter. Bishop Wexford declined the cigar, as did James, but took out a pipe and soon had aromatic smoke rings ascending to the high ceilings. Sated from an exquisite meal and wholly at ease in the plush chairs, the men’s conversations turned to stories of each other’s exploits during their stint at university. James’ uncle and Lord Stanmer were featured in many of these tales. While the accounts were not explicit in details, perhaps out of deference to Miss McElroy’s presence, they were portrayed comprehensively enough that James knew his stodgy uncle was not always as upstanding and conventional as he was now. Lord Telford was enjoying himself too much with his old friends to realize that the hypocrisy of his heavy-handed insults of his nephew’s behavior was being publicized. At first, James felt a burning indignation for how his uncle had treated him. Then, he could only wonder what had happened in his uncle’s life to change him so from what sounded like a normal, fun-loving and carefree youth to the rigid, morally- and socially-conservative man he knew.
Although he recognized that the barrister, Lord Huntsford, and the Bishop must certainly act very differently in their public persona, he doubted, based on their behavior tonight, that they had left behind their exuberance and good humor in the university as his uncle and Lord Stanmer appeared to have do
ne. James tried to remember anything his parents may have told him regarding the family history to account for this transformation. Unfortunately, given his father’s break with that side of the family when he married Annabelle, he could recall very little and certainly nothing that would account for his uncle’s seemingly dramatic personality change.
The evening also illustrated to James the importance of well-chosen circles and Miss McElroy’s exceptional skill in forming these circles. In the course of several hours, James had been given an unprecedented view of his uncle and Lord Stanmer that he seriously doubted he would have ever seen otherwise. He had been given the opportunity to display his own knowledge and accomplishments not only to his uncle, but to two well-respected architects who would undoubtedly help him in his career – now on his own merits as opposed to the manipulations of his uncle. He had been able to converse with Bishop Wexford, who turned out to be the dean of the theological college where Dahlia’s brother Leland would be attending. He gave the Bishop notice of the young man and knew the sharp-minded clergyman would remember the name Leland Talbot. Although he couldn’t discern an immediate benefit for his acquaintance with the shipping magnate, he deduced that Miss McElroy had not invited him simply so that he could renew his friendship with Lord Telford. She was far too astute in her connections and there had to be many other former schoolmates of his uncle’s from which she could have chosen. When the party at last dispersed into the cold London night, James took his leave of Miss McElroy expressing his gratitude for an exceptional evening – much along the lines that the other men had conveyed their profuse thanks. But James gave her hand that he had bowed over and kissed an extra squeeze while the other men exchanged promises to get together again soon. He looked her straight in the eye and held her gaze as he held her hand a moment longer.
“Thank you,” he said simply. She knew from his look and the gentle squeeze of her hand that he was acknowledging all her careful planning for the evening and that she had been successful. He did not need to expound on all the reasons the evening had been a revelation and a benefit for him.
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