by Ann Barker
‘What a charitable child you are,’ said her mother. ‘And when I think what a wretched time you have had of it!’
Eustacia looked from her mother to her godmother and back again. ‘But I have not, truly,’ she replied. ‘Lady Agatha has been so kind and I have made some new friends.’
‘I am pleased to hear it, my love,’ said her mother. ‘Of course Agatha’s kindness goes without saying. What I am referring to are your experiences of the last few days. First, your encounter with that Mo-rrrrison, then the disgraceful affair of Ilam’s knocking you down.’
‘Mama, please, it was not his fault.’ Eustacia protested. ‘He did not mean to hit me. It was an accident.’
‘An accident?’ exclaimed her ladyship. ‘How could the man strike you down by accident?’
‘He was trying to hit someone else,’ said Eustacia. ‘I got in the way.’
‘Eustacia Mary Louisa, it sounds as though you were in the middle of a brawl,’ said Lady Hope sternly. ‘How came this about?’
‘It was not a brawl,’ said Eustacia, very well aware that the more she tried to explain the events of the previous night, the worse they would sound. She would very much have liked to pretend to faint again, but her mother would not be fooled for an instant. ‘Lord Ashbourne and his son had a disagreement and I thought that Lord Ilam was going to hit his father so I rushed between them.’
‘It was gallantry of no mean order,’ said a new voice from the doorway. They all turned and saw Lord Ashbourne standing on the threshold. From the foaming lace at his throat and wrists to the mirror-like gloss of his boots, he looked as if he had been poured into his clothes. His jet black hair was caught at the back of his neck with a ribbon. His brows, of the same shade as his hair, soared in the arc that was so accurately depicted in his portrait. His eyes surveyed the company with lazy disdain. Naturally enough, he looked older than he did in his portrait. There was a touch of grey at his temples and faint lines on his countenance which might indicate dissipation, but these did not by any means diminish his air of fascination. Eustacia was not surprised that he turned Trixie weak at the knees. He almost did the same to her.
He moved away from the door, and bowed to the assembled company. Nothing in his manner betrayed any doubt of his welcome. ‘Agatha, my dear, it’s good to see you looking well after your recent excitement.’
‘Yes, I am well, and now you’ve found that out, you might as well take yourself off back to Italy, or wherever it was you were wallowing in debauchery,’ his sister replied forthrightly.
‘Oddly enough, that is not how I spend all my time, Sister mine,’ he replied before turning to Eustacia’s mother. ‘Lady Hope,’ he murmured, raising her hand to his lips. ‘If anything, you contrive to look even lovelier than I remember, were that possible. How do you do it?’
‘By the same means as you manage to be as much a scoundrel as ever you were,’ Lady Hope replied, taking back her hand as soon as possible. ‘No doubt we’re both as nature intended us.’
He laughed softly then turned to Eustacia. ‘Miss Hope, our greeting was brief the other night, but I believe I must count you as my friend. You are as lovely and as gallant as any child of Sir Wilfred Hope and Claire Delahay could hope to be.’
Eustacia’s mother straightened her spine. ‘You forget, sir, that I am no longer known by that name. I am Lady Hope, and I will thank you to stay away from my daughter.’
‘That will be a little difficult when she is my sister’s guest and I am honour bound to call and see how she does.’
Eustacia glanced at Lady Agatha. She had resumed her seat and was observing the encounter as if it were the performance of a play to which she had been given a front-row seat.
‘I am not referring to this morning,’ said Lady Hope. ‘I am referring to the night when, as far as I can see, you allowed my daughter to become embroiled in some kind of drunken brawl. I suppose I cannot expect any better from Ashbourne and his heir.’
‘I’m quite prepared to take the blame for my own misdeeds, but I do not see why all of Ilam’s failings should be laid at my door,’ complained the earl.
‘Ilam does not have any failings,’ protested Eustacia. She coloured, suddenly aware of how that must sound. Then all at once her head started to swim and she remembered the doctor saying that she must avoid getting over excited. Luckily, Lord Ashbourne was close enough to catch hold of her by the waist. Amid exclamations of concern from Lady Hope and Lady Agatha, who had got to her feet, he steered her solicitously to the nearest chair.
It was at this unfortunate moment that Ilam came in. ‘What the deuce are you doing to her now?’ he asked.
‘That sits rather oddly on the lips of the man who knocked her down,’ remarked Lady Agatha, staring coldly at her nephew.
‘It was a mistake, for which I have come to apologize,’ said Ilam, still staring at his father, who had settled Eustacia in her chair and was now straightening up.
‘I take it that this mannerless oaf is your son,’ said Lady Hope coldly.
‘He is my son,’ agreed Ashbourne. ‘I would have introduced him as soon as he entered the room, but as you know I was a little preoccupied, and while he may be a mannerless oaf, I am the only one who is entitled to call him so.’
‘You would defend him?’ exclaimed Lady Hope incredulously, whilst Ilam directed a look of surprise at his father.
‘I would expect you to be prepared to give him a hearing.’
Lady Hope stared at him for a long moment before saying, ‘If only Charlie were here, he would soon avenge any insult to his sister.’ She strode to the window and stood gazing into the middle distance.
After a pause, during which for a brief moment both men forgot their hostility, and their eyes met in bafflement as they wondered to whom Lady Hope could possibly be referring, Lady Agatha said, ‘Would you be so good as to ring the bell, Ashbourne? I think that Eustacia could do with a glass of wine and I’m sure that the rest of us could as well.’
As soon as his father had walked to the bell rope beside the mantelpiece, Ilam approached Eustacia’s chair and took her hand. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked her. ‘I would never forgive myself if—’
‘Unhand my daughter, sirrah!’ exclaimed Lady Hope, whirling back from the window.
Ilam straightened. ‘My lady you must allow me to apologize to her for what I did. Natural justice demands it.’
‘Does it indeed? Let me tell you, young man, that the authority of a parent demands that you tell me what you were doing out with my daughter in the dark.’
The butler came in with wine, which he then poured out at Lady Agatha’s signal. Ilam tried to take a glass to Eustacia before he was forestalled by Ashbourne. The earl turned to carry it to the young woman, but found Lady Hope in his way, her hand outstretched. Eustacia, who was now beginning to feel much better, barely restrained herself from laughing at this piece of farce.
‘Well, sir?’ said her ladyship after the butler had gone. ‘Explain yourself.’
Ilam sighed. ‘Anna Crossley, my foster sister, has been getting rather too fond of me recently. Eustacia saw it, but I didn’t.’
‘Who gave you permission to call my daughter by her Christian name?’ Lady Hope demanded haughtily.
‘I told him he might, Mama,’ put in Eustacia. She had been watching Gabriel with considerable interest. He was showing none of the lovelorn symptoms which males usually exhibited on meeting her mother for the first time.
‘You had no business to do so.’
‘On the night of the ball, everything came to a head,’ Ilam went on, ignoring this interruption. ‘Anna became distraught and ran off. Several of us went to look for her.’
‘I went to the gardens of Illingham Hall,’ Eustacia put in. ‘I thought that she might have gone there. When I arrived, I discovered that Lord Ashbourne had found her and was about to take her back to the ball. Then Gabriel arrived and … and misunderstood the situation. I tried to stand between them and Gabriel hit me by
accident.’
Lady Hope looked very slightly mollified. ‘Hmm. Perhaps you are not quite the complete oaf that I took you for; but a gentleman should never indulge in fisticuffs in front of a lady, no matter what the provocation. However, it seems to me that this girl you have mentioned has a lot to answer for; unless it was some action of yours that made her run off in the first place.’
‘It was, my lady,’ Ilam replied, flushing a little. ‘She is only a child and not to blame. She had discovered in the most brutal way that I was in love with someone else.’ He glanced down at Eustacia. On his face was the expression that she had searched for and failed to find when he had looked at her mother. Her heart began to beat rapidly. Slowly, she got to her feet and took a step so that she was standing beside him.
‘Indeed,’ exclaimed Lady Hope. ‘And how did she make this discovery.’
Ilam opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced by the quite unexpected sensation of a small but capable hand tucking itself into his.
‘We were kissing, Mama,’ said Eustacia.
‘What?’ demanded Lady Hope. This time her voice was definitely intended to wake those seated in the gods. ‘You had the effrontery to kiss my daughter? Without permission?’
‘I gave him permission, Mama,’ corrected Eustacia, turning as red as Ilam. ‘We were kissing each other.’ There was a soft chuckle from Ashbourne’s direction Before her ladyship could say another word, Ilam spoke. ‘Lady Hope, this is not the moment that I would have chosen, but I love your daughter and most earnestly desire permission of yourself and her father to pay my addresses to her.’
Eustacia squeezed the hand that she was holding, and Ilam winced. She lifted it, and saw that the knuckles were bruised. ‘Why, Gabriel, what have you done?’ she asked.
‘No doubt he has been brawling again,’ said Lady Hope with dignity. ‘Young man, your effrontery knows no bounds. I do not need to go over recent events I am sure, for you to understand that I have grave doubts about the suitability of a match between yourself and my daughter. Your ancestry, your violent temper, your impulsive nature, your ill manners and poor judgement all tell me that I would be unwise in the extreme to place my only daughter into your care. There would have to be some extraordinary evidence of your worthiness for me to consent to such a match. I am sure that her father will say the same.’
‘But Mama, I love him,’ Eustacia protested.
‘In his defence, I feel bound to say that Ilam is not to blame for his ancestry,’ put in Ashbourne, surprising no one more than his own son.
Before any more could be said, the door opened and Sir Wilfred stood on the threshold. ‘I found Morrison, but someone had beaten me to it and already knocked him down,’ he said in response to his wife’s greeting. ‘By George, I’d like to shake the fellow’s hand.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The marriage of Gabriel William Stafford Montgomery, Viscount Ilam and Eustacia Mary Louisa Hope took place three months later, on a glorious October day when the trees that surrounded St Peter’s Church seemed determined to dress the day with added glory.
The whole week that preceded the wedding ceremony was one of the finest and warmest October weeks that anyone could remember.
The days leading up to the wedding were very busy indeed. There were last minute alterations to be made to Eustacia’s gown, the details of the breakfast to be established and the house to be cleaned from top to bottom. Amidst all the excitement, Ilam and Eustacia managed to sneak away on more than one occasion.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see anyone in my life than when your father appeared and said what he did,’ Ilam told Eustacia as they walked along one of the avenues at the far end of the gardens that surrounded Woodfield Park.
‘So was I,’ agreed Eustacia. ‘The one thing that was guaranteed to sway Mama in your favour was if you had played a part in avenging the insult that Morrison inflicted upon me. I dare swear you acquitted yourself as well as Charlie would have done in your place.’
‘You flatter me, my dear,’ smiled Gabriel. She had told him about the mythical Charlie and his virtues very soon after his suit had been approved by her parents. Indeed, Lady Hope had become so reconciled to the match that she had ceased talking about Charlie, and had begun to speak of ‘dear Ilam’ instead.
Once Gabriel’s offer had been accepted, Lady Hope had insisted that if she had a wedding to organize then she needed to go home as soon as possible. Sir Wilfred and Lady Hope had stayed at the vicarage for only one night before returning to their own house with Eustacia accompanying them. Since then Gabriel had taken every possible opportunity of riding over to see her.
‘How could I do any other?’ he asked. ‘I told you, I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat.’
‘Did you really knock him down? For me?’
‘Twice,’ he answered. Then when she looked at him questioningly he added defensively, ‘He didn’t stay down the first time.’
‘Oh, Gabriel,’ sighed Eustacia. The viscount pulled her firmly but gently behind a large tree, and then enfolded her in his arms.
‘I don’t know how it should be,’ he said, ‘but when you look at me like that I find I simply have to kiss you.’ He suited his action to his words.
Eustacia looked up at him mischievously. ‘I was wondering whether that might be the case,’ she said demurely.
He had come from Illingham three days before the wedding, and was staying at the White Horse in the village. On previous occasions, he had been allocated a room in Woodfield Park, but this time, Lady Hope insisted that it would be bad luck for the groom to stay under the same roof as his bride.
Ashbourne also came to stay, but set up his temporary establishment in the Red Lion, situated in another village three miles away.
Eustacia tried to encourage her betrothed to stay in the same inn as his father, but the viscount refused. ‘We are speaking to each other civilly,’ he told her. ‘You’ll have to be content with that.’
‘You must not think that I want to interfere,’ she said to him, as she fiddled with the buttons on his waistcoat, ‘but it makes me sad to think that you cannot be close to him as I am to my parents.’
He took a step away from her and turned so that he was not looking at her. ‘He’s never shown any interest in me. Why should I bother with him?’
Eustacia thought about what Dr Littlejohn had told her, about the hardness of Ashbourne’s own father. ‘Perhaps he did not know how,’ she suggested, following him, placing a hand upon his back and stroking him gently. ‘Gabriel, you have spoken about Anna, and made allowances for her being just a child. Ashbourne was only her age when he was married, and barely older than that when he became a father. Can you not make allowances for him, too?’
He turned, looked down at her thoughtfully, then said abruptly, ‘Don’t let’s talk about him now. There are other things I would much rather do.’ He pulled her into his arms for a long passionate kiss. Eventually he drew away from her and murmured in a voice that was not quite steady, ‘Oh God, I wish it was our wedding day. I can’t wait for you to be my wife, Stacia. I think you know why.’
She blushed. ‘And I can’t wait for you to be my husband – for the same reason.’
‘Shall you mind marrying in that same church?’ he asked, after another lingering kiss. ‘If so we can always elope, although I think your Mama might be a trifle disappointed.’
‘No, it’s quite all right; I don’t mind at all,’ she assured him. Nevertheless, there was a shadow lurking in her eyes that he resolved to do something about.
Two nights before the wedding, Sir Wilfred and Lady Hope held a grand ball in honour of their daughter and her husband-to-be. There were some living locally who recalled that this was not the first time that Miss Hope had prepared for a wedding, and when her second engagement had been announced, one or two had been inclined to indulge in a little laughter at her expense. The sight of Ilam’s powerful frame and the sound of his title and that of
his father soon caused the amusement to shrivel on their lips. Most friends and neighbours were glad to learn that Sir Wilfred and Lady Hope’s only daughter would have another chance of happiness, and with a gentleman whose physique, fortune and status quite cast Morrison Morrison into the shade.
Needless to say, the Morrisons were not present, having very wisely decided to go abroad for the autumn, but the ballroom was full of plenty of other guests. Mr and Mrs Granby attended with Evangeline, who was dressed in a gown of a colour and cut that was far more suitable for a married woman than a single girl. Eustacia only managed a few words with her, but guessed that she had probably made a scene in order to get it. She seemed to have a number of gentlemen buzzing around her like bees around a particularly exotic flower.
Lord Ashbourne was not one of their number. Knowing his reputation for rakishness, Eustacia fully expected to see him making at least one attractive lady the object of his gallantry. Instead, he seemed to regard himself as being a kind of secondary host, chatting with the dowagers, exchanging snuff with Sir Wilfred, and enjoying a protracted conversation with Dr Littlejohn. He even conversed with his sister, who seemed, at the very least, to be prepared to be civilized with him.
At one point, whilst she was waiting for Gabriel to bring her a glass of lemonade, Eustacia glanced across at her future father-in-law. He was standing alone, looking, as always, as if he ought to form the model for an illustration in a book of fashion for gentlemen. It was not that he looked like a peacock. On the contrary, his style was more restrained than that of many other men present. His coat and breeches were of a shade that looked black in one light and blue in another, and his waistcoat was of palest peach with silver embroidery; but the cut of his garments was so exquisite that they looked at one and the same time more comfortable and better fitting than those of any other man present.