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Jack Chiltern's Wife (1999)

Page 3

by Nichols, Mary


  ‘Edward! I hope you know me better than that.’

  He smiled with relief. ‘To be sure I do. But what are you doing here? And so early in the day? Have you been to bed?’

  ‘No.’ She turned to look at him and noticed he was still wearing the gold satin evening suit and white stockings he had worn at the ball; his fair hair was tousled and there was a distinct stubble on his chin. ‘Then, no more have you.’

  ‘And you chastise me for that! Kitty, I wonder you have the effrontery, considering where you are. Last night was bad enough—do you wish to ruin your reputation entirely?’

  ‘Last night was your fault,’ she snapped. ‘And it is because of what happened last night that I had to see you today.’

  ‘Can’t it wait? I went on to White’s for a few hands after the ball and have only just returned home. I’m deucedly tired.’

  ‘You can go to bed when you’ve heard me out. You know my uncle is most displeased? In fact, he is furious.’

  ‘That much I deduced at the time, but an apology to him and to your good self when he calls on me today will surely set everything to rights. He must know I meant no harm.’

  ‘Whether you meant it or not, it has certainly been the result. He is determined to see us married.’

  ‘Married!’ He sat up with a jerk. ‘That’s going too far!’ He leaned forward to search her face. A very pretty face, to be sure, and one he was very fond of, but … ‘It’s a hoax, that’s what it is.’

  ‘It is no hoax, I promise you.’

  ‘But why? You ain’t a bad-looking girl. I’d go so far as to say you were one of the handsomest, and your grandpapa is a Viscount and wealthy too, so why pick on me? You can have any of the young bloods in town this year.’

  ‘I don’t want any of them.’

  ‘Just me?’

  ‘Not you, either.’

  ‘You don’t?’

  She laughed at the comical mixture of relief and indignation on his face. ‘No, I don’t. It is Uncle William’s idea and he will brook no argument, possibly because if he does my stepmama will insist on him sending me to my great-aunt in Scotland.’

  ‘No, don’t believe that. You’re bamming me.’

  ‘No, I’m not. Did you know he is meeting your father this afternoon to discuss arrangements for a wedding?’

  ‘No, by Jupiter, I did not. My father will skin me alive.’

  ‘But he will agree with what my uncle proposes?’

  ‘Very likely,’ he said morosely. ‘He has been rattling on at me to marry and settle down this past year, but I’m only twenty-one, for heaven’s sake, and I want to see something of the world before I do.’

  ‘Why didn’t you do as James did? You could have gone with him.’

  ‘James is older than me by more than a year, as you know, and he was sponsored by Viscount Beresford. I have no means to finance a protracted tour. I planned to enter the navy as the next best thing. But to be leg-shackled …’ He paused, contemplating the prospect. ‘I would make a terrible husband, what with drinking and gambling and staying out all night.’

  ‘I am well aware of that, Edward. If I loved you, I might overlook it, but as I do not love you and never will, not in the way of a wife for a husband, I do not propose to saddle myself with you.’

  ‘You are going to refuse me? Oh, you darling girl, I could kiss you all over again. In fact, I think I will.’ And he reached out towards her.

  She pushed him away. ‘No, Edward, I do not think you should.’

  ‘What would you have me do?’

  ‘You need do nothing, except to act the jilted lover, if you want to. I shall not mind.’

  ‘I say, that’s coming it a bit brown, ain’t it?’

  ‘You are a nice man, Edward, and we have been friends since we were children and I used to trail after you and James. I would like to think you are still my friend.’

  ‘Always, dear girl, always.’

  ‘Then give me money, as much as you can manage. I want you to buy me off …’ She sounded perfectly calm though, inside her blue wool gown, her heart was beating furiously.

  ‘Buy you off?’ He was visibly shaken that such a suggestion should come from a young lady who had been carefully nurtured. ‘Has your uncle put you up to this?’ Noticing the look of consternation on her face, he checked himself. ‘No, he would not do such a thing, being a man of the cloth and an honourable one. Your stepmama, perhaps? Now, she might.’

  She ignored this slur on Alice. ‘No one put me up to it. It was my own idea. They do not know I have left the house, though when Judith goes to my room to wake me she will see the letter I left and take it straight to my uncle. I have no doubt he will look for me, but I do not want him to find me.’

  ‘You surely do not expect me to hide you? God in heaven, the Reverend will scalp me.’

  ‘There is no need for you to hide me or even for my uncle to know I’ve been to see you. I shall be gone long enough for any scandal to die down, but I must have funds. You do understand, don’t you, Edward?’

  ‘And if I can’t lay my hands on any?’

  She shrugged. ‘We will be condemned to a loveless marriage.’

  He sighed heavily. ‘Very well, I will do my best. Go home and wait for me.’

  ‘No, I am never going home again. And I dare not go to any of my known friends because Uncle William is bound to go looking for me. I want you to take me to an hotel and book a room for me.’

  ‘Out of the question,’ he said firmly. ‘Do you take me for a mountebank? You are a gentlewoman, you cannot stay in a hotel alone. Nor yet with me. We should never live it down—’

  ‘My stepmama has already said we should never live down what happened last night either. It seems I am to live the rest of my days with my folly. I am past such considerations. Surely you know a discreet little rooming house tucked away somewhere?’

  He laughed suddenly. ‘You know, Kitty, you really are the most extraordinary girl. I could almost fall in love with you.’

  ‘Well, don’t,’ she said crisply. ‘Just do as I ask.’

  ‘It’s unthinkable you should go anywhere unaccompanied,’ he said. ‘Take a companion or a maid. Ask Judith. Ten to one, your stepmama will turn her off without a character.’

  Kitty sighed. He was right and she had been thoughtless to leave without making provision for the servant, who had been nurse and companion to her and her mother before her. Alice would be glad of an excuse to be rid of her. ‘I couldn’t ask her. It would mean taking her far from home and goodness knows how many adventures we shall have.’

  ‘Far from home,’ he repeated in alarm. ‘Kitty, where are you going?’

  ‘Better you do not know.’

  ‘Then let me fetch Judith to you.’ If anyone could dissuade Kitty from her folly, it would be Judith and, to be honest, he was out of his depth and needed to hand her over to someone more competent to deal with her.

  Kitty’s bravado was all on the surface and the idea of having a companion on her travels grew on her. Would Judith come? ‘Can you ask her without letting anyone else in the house know?’

  ‘I will do my best.’

  It was not until she was alone in a bedroom of a small, unfashionable hotel that the enormity of what she had done came to her, and she began to shake uncontrollably. And the thought of what she had yet to do almost made her turn from her resolve and rush straight back home.

  But the memory of the scene with her uncle and stepmother in the small hours of the morning, and the countless pinpricks of unkindness meted out to her by Alice over the years, stiffened her spine.

  She would not stay where she was not wanted and she would not marry a man she did not love, however many young ladies had done so before her and would do so in the future; if it meant loneliness and hardship, then so be it. She would endure it stoically. Quite how much hardship she was not yet to know.

  Chapter Two

  If he stopped to think, Edward might guess what was in her mind, Kitty t
hought, as she climbed into bed that night, having first taken the precaution of hooking a chair back under the door knob, but it might not come to him until it was too late. And he might remain silent, not wanting to implicate himself.

  He returned the following morning just as she was finishing a frugal breakfast in her room after a sleepless night. He was accompanied by her maid. Judith Sadler was a woman of middle years, almost as round as she was tall, with reddened cheeks and small blue eyes which easily sprang tears, as they were doing now, as they embraced.

  ‘Oh, Kitty, my love, what have you done?’ she cried. ‘Your uncle is silent and white-faced and your stepmama is screaming at him what an ungrateful wretch you are. They would have it that I knew aforehand what you were going to do and the mistress bade the Reverend beat it out of me. They could not believe I did not know where you were, nor couldn’t I believe it myself. How could you break my poor heart so?’

  ‘I am truly sorry, Judith, but you might have stopped me—’

  ‘For sure, I would.’

  ‘But you came when I sent for you?’

  ‘And why would I not? If ever you needed a body’s help it is now, and who else but me could you trust?’

  ‘No one, dear Judith,’ Kitty said, looking over the grey head at Edward. ‘Was it very difficult?’

  He smiled, turning his hat in his hand, anxious to be gone. ‘I paid a young girl to call on the rectory and say Judith was needed urgently by her sister who was ill and needed someone to look after her children until she recovered.’

  ‘But Uncle William knows Judith has no sister.’

  ‘Mistress didn’t know it and the Rector was out,’ the maid said. ‘She was glad enough to let me go.’

  ‘Thank you, Edward,’ Kitty said.

  ‘My pleasure,’ he said, though he looked far from pleased.

  ‘What about that other matter?’ she asked, hoping that, in fetching Judith to her, he had not forgotten about the money.

  He put a small purse of gold coins and some paper money on the table beside her empty coffee cup. ‘I managed to call in a few debts and borrow some more, but I wish I knew what you were going to do. The Reverend is sure to think of me before long and then what shall I say?’

  ‘Nothing. I have written to him again, trying to explain why I have done what I have done. I pray he will understand and forgive me. Will you see that it is delivered to him tomorrow, after mid-day?’

  ‘Why not today?’

  ‘Because I don’t want him to stop me.’

  ‘He will say that I should have stopped you. And he would be right. I don’t like it, Kitty, not above half I don’t.’

  ‘You can have the letter delivered anonymously; he need not know you were involved at all. I told you, you can act the jilted suitor.’

  ‘I shall look a fool.’

  ‘No, everyone will say what a lucky escape you had.’ She took his hands in both her own. ‘I am truly grateful, Edward. I could not have managed without you.’

  He laughed. ‘Blackmail is a very strong weapon, my dear. I had no choice.’

  ‘You had, but I am glad you did not take it.’

  ‘Goodbye, my dear, and good luck.’ He kissed her lightly on the cheek and left.

  Kitty turned to Judith, who stood in the middle of the room with a small travelling bag and a basket at her feet. The poor woman looked pale and worried to death, but she was, above all else, loyal to Kitty and would follow her and look after her through thick and thin, fire and water.

  ‘Fact is, Miss Kitty, I ain’t exac’ly sorry to be leaving the rectory. Not that I would have left while you needed me—your poor dead mother asked me to look after you and look after you I will. I suppose that’s why your stepmama never did take to me. She would have turned me off the minute you were married.’

  ‘You goose, Judith, I would have taken you with me. Which is what I am doing now. You will come, won’t you?’

  ‘I couldn’t have borne it if you had asked someone else to look after you.’

  ‘You aren’t going to try and tempt me to go back then?’

  ‘Would it serve?’

  ‘No, it would not.’

  ‘Then I shan’t waste my breath.’

  ‘Thank you, Judith. You know I was very desolate and frightened, but now you are here, I feel so much better.’

  ‘I took the liberty of bringing some more of your things,’ Judith said. ‘I thought you might be going somewhere a mite warmer.’

  She heaved the basket onto the bed and opened it to reveal two lightweight gowns, one in green silk, the other blue muslin, a thin lawn petticoat, shoes and a pelisse, as well as a carriage dress in brown taffeta for travelling and a flannel petticoat to wear in the January weather then prevailing and which they would not leave behind for some days.

  ‘What made you think that?’

  ‘You left Master James’s letter lying on your bed.’

  ‘Did anyone else see it?’

  ‘No, Miss Kitty, I put it in the basket and brought it with me.’

  ‘Oh, now you are here I feel quite cheerful again, so you may take that sorrowful look off your face and smile. We are going to have some high old adventures, you and I, and we are going to enjoy them. Can you imagine James’s face when he sees us?’

  Judith could not. That meeting was so far in the future that even thinking about what might happen in the mean time filled her with foreboding. But she smiled and began repacking the basket and Kitty’s valise.

  It was four o’clock the following morning when the two women arrived in Dover after travelling in a public coach since seven the previous evening. They were cold, tired and hungry, not to mention filthy.

  ‘We must bespeak a private room here,’ Judith said, as they climbed stiffly from the carriage. ‘For I declare I can’t go a step further until I have washed, eaten and slept.’

  Kitty, who had quite regained her spirits, laughed. ‘It is less than twenty-four hours since you left home and already you are complaining.’

  ‘I am not complaining,’ Judith denied the accusation sharply. It would never do for her mistress to think she was not up to the rigours of the journey or she might be left behind. Already she had had her own way about crossing the channel by the shortest route, having a great terror of the sea.

  She would rather face revolution in France than be drowned trying to sail round it, she had told Kitty. Adding that, if she were sick, how could she look after her darling? And that, she declared, was the one purpose of her life, to look after her charge and protect her from all the dangers that faced them, from lascivious sailors and Frenchmen who would chop off her head, to bad food and bed bugs.

  ‘Very well, we will stop here for a few hours, but then we must go to the harbour and find out when the next packet is due to leave, for I mean to be on it.’

  ‘And what story do we put about for a lady and her maid to be travelling alone without so much as a linkboy for an escort?’ Judith demanded, as she picked up Kitty’s luggage and followed her into the inn. ‘Everyone will know at once that you are running away.’

  ‘I am not running away. I have just lost my parents and am going to Italy to join my brother, he being the only relative I have left in the world. It is as near the truth as makes no difference.’

  ‘Your poor uncle would not think it so.’

  ‘No, but when we reach Calais, I shall entrust the captain of the packetboat with another letter to him, so that his mind is set at rest.’

  It was Judith’s opinion that a letter from the other side of the Channel was more likely to inflame the Rector’s mind than set it at rest, but she did not voice it.

  Picking up their luggage, Judith followed her mistress into the inn and demanded a room in a way which brooked no argument. They were soon ensconced in an upper chamber, enjoying a meal of chicken, ham, meat pie, fish and vegetables. What they could not eat they wrapped up and put in their baggage against a future need, not knowing how well provisioned the ship would
be, or how difficult it might be to buy food in France. And then they lay down to sleep.

  Kitty was woken three hours later by the clatter in the yard outside their window which told her another day had begun.

  She padded across the floor to look out of the casement and saw, in the growing light of dawn, that a coach had just arrived from London and its passengers were alighting. There were two portly men in frieze greatcoats and buff breeches and a tall man with dark hair tied back with a black ribbon who was, at that moment, doffing his hat in goodbye to a clerical-looking gentleman and his plump lady.

  At first Kitty thought it was her uncle and stepmama come to fetch her back. However, on looking closer realised this was not so, but it served to remind her of the need for haste and she quickly roused Judith; fifteen minutes later they were out on the street and making their way down to the harbour.

  They had the hoods of their cloaks up over their heads against the bitter, sleet-laden wind which blew from the north-east, numbing their fingers and toes. But it was a good wind for sailing and they hurried to the quay where they saw a schooner preparing for sea. People were coming and going from it and the sailors were busy on the deck. Kitty left Judith minding their baggage while she went to the ticket office and paid for their passage, then urged the reluctant Judith up the gangplank of the Faery Queen.

  They were directed below decks to a small dingy cabin which, so they were told by the crewman who conducted them there, was usually occupied by several ladies. ‘But you have it all to yourselves,’ he said, depositing their baggage on the floor. ‘This not bein’ the season for travelling, so cold and wet as it is, and what with the Frenchies as like to chop your head off as not. If I was you I should turn right round and go ashore ag’in.’

  They could not have taken his advice even if they had wanted to because, at that moment, there was a great crack above their heads as the wind filled the sails and the deck beneath their feet began to tremble.

  ‘Oh, God be merciful, we’re sinking!’ Judith exclaimed, clutching at Kitty.

  The sailor smiled. ‘Bless you, we ain’t sinking, we’re under way, as smooth as you please.’ And with that he left them to go about his duties.

 

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