by Anne Millar
Yet when he saw the abject terror that his challenge engendered Thomas was left feeling pity for the wretched man. If only Horsley could have the sense to understand and accept his position. “From now on you will leave the handling of this regiment to me, Sir Theodore. For the sake of the troops there cannot be any confusion over who is in control. Is that clear?”
“I raised the regiment for the good of the country, Stainford. Thought it my patriotic duty.” The righteous whine of self pity nearly had Thomas regretting his forbearance. “No one can object to that surely?”
“No, but that doesn’t give you the right to take the men to Spain and get them slaughtered. Nor to encourage fools like young Hampton.”
“John wants to go to the war, he wants the chance to revenge his brother’s death.”
Thomas bit back the retort that John Hampton had no idea what he would find in Spain, the only sensible thing to do now was bring this interview to a close. “I will tell Horseguards that you will take no further part in training this regiment, Horsley. Best you see to it that you keep yourself out of the way.”
For a moment it looked as if Sir Theodore was about to have apoplexy, then his face took on a more cunning look. “Miss Hampton will be disappointed for her brother, Stainford. For you’ll not take him to Spain, will you?”
“Not your business, Horsley. We’re finished here. Unless you wish to ask for that satisfaction now?” That this puffing gobble-cock felt entitled to use Judith’s name incensed Thomas. Damn whatever it might cost him he wanted the man to accept his challenge. A bullet in Theodore’s Horsley’s brain would be enough to save Judith from her mistake before it was too late.
He realised his mistake from the feral light that came on in Horsley’s eyes. The man had no honour, he was patently incapable of thinking beyond his own advantage. Sir Theodore was not about to risk his life on the path of a pistol ball. All that Thomas had done with the renewal of his challenge was to betray his regard for Judith.
“You’d better send in Captain Hampton, Colonel Horsley. On your way out.”
~
Amara Guilmor looked to her husband for support before she launched into her plea. “Charles, it is unprecedented, and by no means certain that your father will be successful. Thomas may well challenge his decision at law and force the family to submit to a public examination of the events that led to this. Lord knows what the detailed terms of the Penwick entail are, it has been in place since the Stuarts and will have been amended and altered over the years by successive earls to suit their own ideas. By now it will be simply a honey pot for the lawyers.”
“My father is quite determined that Thomas be disinherited, Amara. Understandably.” His glance at his wife sitting across the table with her eyes downcast was part reproach, part appeal.
“Amara is quite right, Charles.” Rather than Lord Guilmor supporting his wife it was Henrietta Netley who spoke up to endorse her sister in law. “If Thomas were to take action it could take years for the case to be resolved. And can you be sure of what might emerge?” Her look at Jane Stainford was entirely questioning, and that young woman had the grace to blush.
“Jane made a mistake and regrets her conduct, Lady Netley.” Charles Stainford didn’t sound too certain of his ground and obviously felt impelled to develop his argument further. “Besides I’ve already resigned my commission to come back to Penwick and learn how to run the estate.”
“Laudable, Charles, laudable. Though heirs have been inheriting all unready to succeed their fathers for centuries without great impediment. Would you not rather have stayed with the army to see the end? Wellington hopes to make great strides this coming year.” Lord Guilmor was all quiet reflection to his wife’s impetuosity, but there was little doubt of the incisiveness of his words. “It is hard on the ladies of course, campaigning.”
“I did not make Charles come back to England, Lord Guilmor.” Jane Stainford had a doe eyed docility to her that Sir Edmund Hewston had seen rip an officers’ mess into warring rivalries in a matter of days. Now he decided the cause might be best helped by smoothing her feathers.
“I am sure of that, Jane. Foreign climes can be diverting and the Spanish are keen to honour the army now that Wellington is winning. All those soirees and balls must go some way to compensate for the hardships.”
“You make it sound quite dissolute to enjoy society, Sir Edmund.” Jane Stainford’s silky tone made her comment sound like an invitation.
“It’s natural enough, my dear.” Amara Guilmor chose her moment to intervene before the conversation could grow any more intense. “That picture behind you is the Plains of Abraham. My father and Charles’ grandfather were captains together in the 48th. The first thing they did after Wolfe had been casqued up and Montcalm buried was to organise a ball for what was left of Quebec society. Fifty years ago now, more in fact. So you see nothing changes, Jane.”
“My father sometimes talked of the balls in Philadelphia during the American rebellion.” Charles couldn’t have jolted Amara Guilmor more if he’d fired a pistol into her ceiling. She’d always put his father’s morose outlook down to his service in the unsuccessful American war. Not exactly the Stainford family tradition to serve on the losing side. Not really anyone’s tradition come to that. Still if he was to confide in anyone after the death of his wife it would have been his mercurial younger son.
“I so look forward to seeing the Earl.” Jane Stainford might have meant what she said, but no one else around the table would have concurred. “When we finally do arrive at Penwick.”
“You’re not going directly there, Charles?” Henrietta Netley might say very little but she missed even less.
“Some visits to pay first, Lady Netley. We’ve been in Spain for so long.” Charles made his reply as casual as possible but both Amara and Henrietta were immediately calculating who would receive the couple. One of the reasons for this dinner was to alleviate the isolation Charles and Jane were enduring in London. Though little else was to be expected for a pair so mired in scandal. And it was not the main reason of course.
“The Earl might be swayed if you were to tell him you did not want to replace your brother as heir, Charles.” Amara could feel her nerves shred as she put the metal to the grinder. If Charles retorted that Thomas deserved to be disinherited there was an end to it.
“Why do you think my husband should renounce his inheritance for the sake of your godson, Lady Guilmor? Thomas has behaved quite disgracefully.”
If anyone had the right to ask that question it was Charles, but he only looked embarrassed by his wife’s forthright demand.
“My dear it was the merest accident that George and Charlotte asked me to be Thomas’ godmother and not Charles’. I’ve watched the two of them grow up and I regret anything that comes between them. So unnecessary you know. And I’m a traditionalist. The eldest inherits, simple as that. George Stainford has acted far too precipitately and for too little cause.” Her husband had seen Amara settle herself back in her seat in that peremptory fashion too many times to give much for anyone’s chance of winning the argument. Jane didn’t even try. Her defiance shot she suddenly found her sorbet to be fascinating.
“Thomas is doing rather well with training the Loyal East Mercians, Amara. Most of them are close to the required standard. It should be relatively simple to find enough volunteers from their ranks.” Sir Edmund smiled before he went on. “Upset Horsley rather. The wretched man was at Horseguards complaining to all and sundry that his patriotism is being abused. Expected to take the regiment to Spain himself when the only gun he’s ever fired was at some grouse.”
“I’m pleased to hear it. Thomas has let himself down badly though over Judith. How the girl can think to wed Horsley I cannot imagine.” If Amara had been fierce with Jane Stainford she was despondent now, shaking her head over such ridiculous misjudgement in someone normally so reliable.
“I think Judith Hampton has landed herself a very advantageous match. When her fa
mily have never a feather to fly with she’s lucky Sir Theodore is prepared to overlook her lack of connection.” Jane Stainford was impervious to the warning looks of all three men at table. “Thomas was lucky to escape to Spain when she set her cap at him.”
“There’s a difference between connections and money, Jane.” Charles beat Amara to the reprimand by a fraction, and there was nothing feigned about the irritation in his reproach to his wife.
Still Amara Guilmor wasn’t about to let his rebuke stand in the way of the more comprehensive set down she felt was merited. “I thought Thomas went to Spain at his father’s behest, Jane.”
Charles lifted his head at the ice in that question but Jane still tried to work her way out. “All I meant was that it ended their connection.”
“And why do you think that was a good thing?” Even Guilmor shifted in his seat at the tone of that, and the sense of unease was palpable around the table. But it was Charles that Amara was watching. For a man who had shot his brother for dallying with his wife he was exhibiting no signs of jealousy at Jane’s attitude.
“Judith has found herself a comfortable match in Sir Theodore. He may not be prepossessing, but he is wealthy. And he still holds his title.” Jane Stainford was picking her words carefully to steer a line between defiance and compliance. She was clearly resentful of her interrogation and her mute appeals to her husband for help were going unanswered.
“I had not realised Sir Theodore was known to you, Jane?”
It was Charles who answered, perhaps tired of seeing his wife flounder. “We met Sir Theodore in London, Amara. He was both hospitable and amenable when few others were.”
Amara didn’t press him further to intervene with his father. She devoted the rest of the evening to smoothing matters instead, aware that Edmund had said rather more than was wise about his intentions for the fencibles. Though little more than Horsley must already have guessed. What interest Horsley could have in Charles and Jane wasn’t clear, any more than their interest in him. As his father’s heir Charles should have no need for funds and Sir Theodore could be no help in smoothing their path with the ton. Still it presented a potential new difficulty. Perhaps there was nothing for it but to take herself back to the country. Matters were certainly not progressing as they should.
~
Visits of the Horsley entourage to Oakenhill no longer engendered the same malicious glee in that household. For one they had become more frequent, for another only Sir Theodore came now and with no great escort. Most critically instead of being harmless entertainment the visits had become harbingers of change, and change that many had come to dread. Judith’s almost fatalistic resignation to the calls of her betrothed did nothing to quell the speculation.
“He was waiting for me to leave his office, damn it.” Judith for once was pleased that her father was abed upstairs. He would have objected to Sir Theodore’s use of such language and an argument would have ensued. Father had commented on John’s increasing intemperance since he kept company more and more with Theodore Horsley. Still Sir Edmund Hewston could have employed more tact with Sir Theodore. If only to spare her from the repercussions.
“The whole lot of them are against me, Judith. Oh, I know what they think. An earl’s son is one of their own, no matter whether he had the clothes off his brother’s wife or not.”
Judith couldn’t help imagining how her life would be spent listening to tirades like this, unless she was clever enough to avoid being in the same room as her husband. Like an spoiled child he could only become more frustrated, more ready to lash out at any opposition to his will. She looked at Theodore’s thinning hair and fleshy cheeks and felt a wave of repulsion, as he aged Sir Theodore Horsley was unlikely to improve in any respect.
“Stainford won’t get away with this. I tell you Judith, I will see to that.”
She was supposed to make sympathetic noises, sooth the hero’s wounded feelings, but she’d heard most of it already from John and frankly was bored by it.
“How can you stop him?”
She should have been more careful. made the words sound as though her greatest wish was to help Theodore, dearest Theodore, find some means to stop the usurper, but she hadn’t.
“Do you think it beyond me, Madam?”
That was incredibly rude of him and Judith felt herself flush. He had no right to call her by that title until they were married and even then with less disdain.
“I understand why you are angry over this, Theodore. But if there is nothing more to be done?” Judith hated herself for the cautious, compliant response when what she wanted to do was damn his eyes and throw him out of Oakenhill.
“I will stop him. I promise you. The ruddy man was shot by his own brother for defiling his wife. So much for the landed aristocracy. Poor as paupers, half of them, and no morals to speak of.”
Judith could feel the heat suffuse her face. To argue with him now was to invite retribution, but she boiled to hear him raving.
“Or do you take his part, madam?” There was a calculating edge to his question that left Judith feeling cold all of a sudden. “Has Stainford been filling your head with his scheming?”
Her first reaction was to deny it, after all the last thing Thomas Stainford had done recently was to come near her, but the resentment of being forced to refute the absurd accusation stuck in her throat. “You do not decide whom I receive at Oakenhill, Sir Theodore.”
Leastwise not yet. Though the new steward, Tomkin, showed far too much interest in what went on at the house, and not nearly enough diligence in how she wanted the estate run. He was also far too prone to demur when she gave him instructions, even after father had made no bones about directing him to obey her. Judith was quite convinced he saw himself as Sir Theodore’s man first and a Hampton employee second.
Still if Tomkin were a Horsley spy then Theodore knew that Thomas had not been to see her, and yet he was sitting open mouthed staring at her in astonishment, the half masticated scone he’d been enjoying clearly visible. Though his surprise was most likely at her defiance. He hadn’t been handed such a salutary put down since he’d dared to suggest they dispense with Mrs Rogers as a chaperone. She’d been cold as ice and self righteous as hell as she told him how improper that would be. Which made her a hypocrite, who would doubtless face his fully justified wrath on her wedding night. A reckless hypocrite then.
“I wonder that you care to continue with this betrothal, Judith. You evidence no desire to visit with me, and can barely be civil when I come to you.”
Poor Sir Theodore, how unlucky in his beloved. Still that’s what came of buying your bride from the ranks of the landed aristocracy. Poor as paupers, half of them, and no morals to speak of. She was tempted to tell him she did not care to continue with the betrothal. Mrs Rogers was no help either, Judith caught the housekeeper’s eye and could almost feel the older woman willing her to tell Sir Theodore what to do with himself.
“I must ask your forgiveness, Theodore. Our betrothal is dear to me.” The words were torture, pure and agonising, and Judith hated herself for uttering them. Emily Rogers’ evident disappointment cut to the quick as well, it was awful to see someone who’d helped raise you let down by what you had to do. For a minute she felt she was going to dissolve in tears, but there was more she had to say.
“I just need a little more time. To adjust to such momentous changes. Oakenhill takes much of my time with John so busy at the barracks and my father unwell.” There, she’d beggared herself to this moneyed lout. Please let him make no more difficulty.
“Tomkin should be taking care of Oakenhill, Judith. If he is unsatisfactory I will have him replaced. There is no sense in letting a valuable estate go to wreck.”
Biting back the retort that it was not his place to replace the steward of her father’s estate took most of her remaining restraint but Judith could see the impatience seething in Theodore Horsley and knew she had no latitude left. “Thank you Theodore, but it is not necessary. I wil
l make sure Oakenhill does not take too much of my time.”
“Good, because I have a little surprise I need your help with.”
The mock conspiratorial tone was enough to curdle milk, but Judith knew she had no option but to listen. This was a very hard path indeed. “Of course, Theodore.”
“Stainford has forbidden me, forbidden mind you, to attend drill or practice of the regiment.” Judith thought for a second he was going to lose control of his temper but Theodore Horsley made an effort to focus on what he had to say. “So I shall arrange an afternoon party at the officers’ mess for the ladies of the regiment. Nothing he can do to stop that. You, my dear, will preside as behoves your position as my betrothed. That will show him who is colonel of this regiment.”
Theodore Horsley knew when he had devised a winning plan to judge by the delight his rather feeble scheme was giving him. Yet there was so much that didn’t make sense in what he proposed. Why would a tea party for the ladies of the regiment show Thomas who was really in charge? How was this any type of surprise? Was Theodore simply trying to show her off to antagonise Thomas?
The trouble was that Judith couldn’t ask the questions that sprang to mind without triggering an argument with Theodore. One conclusion was inescapable: any attempt to warn Thomas would be causus belli to Theodore and probably enough to terminate their betrothal. Maybe that was the trap he was setting for her, born out of his suspicions over Thomas. That Thomas didn’t deserve her loyalty couldn’t stop her hating herself for a spineless weakling, but Judith knew what she had to do. “Of course, Theodore. I should be pleased to host your party for the ladies of the regiment.”
His smile confirmed the image of a man pleased to be in control of his surroundings. “Your father improves I trust, Judith.”