Parthena's Promise

by Holmes, Valerie

  “No, it is not the land I want, sir, as my Kent estate takes up so much of my time when I am not in Pall Mall.” He saw Bertram’s eyes light up. “It is the young lady who interests me, especially after setting eyes upon her again just now in all her beauty. I understood from Charles that she had vanished from your care, and yet I realised, when I met him at The Turn Pike Inn to discuss our other business, that the lady I had seen alight from the coach asking for transport to Leaham Hall was in fact your missing cousin.”

  “I do not follow.” Bertram was becoming agitated. “What would Charles be discussing Miss Munro with you for, sir? I assure you if you are considering a rushed engagement, or some sort of land grab, then I have to tell you that, as her legal guardian…” His words were interrupted when Jerome burst forth with laughter.

  He calmed himself and coughed. “My very good man! How low you think of me and my reputation. How amusing you are. Despite the fact that I would be breaking the law of bigamy as my own dear wife would hardly agree to move over to make room for the girl, the idea that I would risk my career on hitching myself to a wayward creature is very amusing.” He shook his head. “Indeed, I do not doubt she has some good breeding, but you are talking about a wench that will up and run away at the first sign of things not going her way. No, that is not what I meant at all.” Jerome shook his head to stress his disbelief.

  “Oh, forgive me. I misunderstood.” Bertram looked greatly relieved, but was quite flustered or excited by the turn of events.

  “No, sir, I have the ability to remove her and lose her for you, quite legitimately, without question, if that would help,” Jerome said, and leaned forward, interlacing the fingers of his hands in front of him as he did so. “Are you interested, for although I would gain entertainment from this distraction, I will not stay and repeat my offer? I have a reputation to uphold.”

  “But how would you do this, and why?” Bertram was now sitting on the edge of the chair he had pulled up opposite him, leaning and listening with intensity to Jerome’s words.

  Jerome deliberately leered at him. He had him in the palm of his hand. He was blinded by greed and not blessed with the greatest intelligence, or common sense, or conscience even it seemed. “Very simply for a debt owed to a dear friend who, when your deal is secured, will see me right anyway.”

  “Very well, how will you do this?” Bertram whispered.

  “I mean to invite her to London to be a companion to my dear young sister, Eleanor, for the Season and offer her the delights and fashions that the Season requires. If all goes well, we will tell her that she will have a permanent position. And when my sister must attend finishing school in Paris, she may find herself a husband, and we will help with introductions. How easy it will be to dazzle and bemuse her young woman’s mind.” He smiled, hating the rogue he was portraying, yet after years at war, a mere deception to a greedy fool was really neither here nor there on the scale of his “sins”. What was it compared to taking a life? Besides, this was in a very good cause.

  “And will you do all this for her?” Bertram looked incredulously at him.

  “No, of course not!” Jerome laughed. “Why on earth would I? But she will believe all. Therefore, when she willingly steps into my carriage, believing this to be so, she will be filled with enthusiasm for an adventure in a very different and exciting world. You do not need to know any more details about what befalls her. I will send word that she has run off with some young dandy who turned her head or such, if you wish to know anything, but a woman with such looks is always in demand in London, believe me.” He winked at Bertram who was so eager to believe his problems had so easily been solved that he would agree to any subterfuge Jerome explained. If he could arrest him then and there for his part in this make-believe scenario he would. Somehow, he would like to save Parthena, but in the process see Bertram fall. He wondered if Stanton had made enquiries into his estate or affairs. He supposed his reach would not stretch so far, but Jerome’s did.

  Bertram smiled. “I do not need to know any more. I shall leave it all to your judgement.”

  “Good! May I suggest I dine with you tonight and we can persuade Miss Parthena that her future would be best served by taking me up on my offer?”

  “Yes, yes of course. Do you wish to stay the night?” he asked, apparently quite taken by his cunning new friend.

  “I am afraid I cannot, for I have a room in the town, but perhaps you could meet me in the coffee shop tomorrow, say at a half past the hour of ten and we can run through the details of when I should leave. That is if she is willing. She must leave here happily, even if her happiness will not endure once in the city. I have my reputation to consider,” Jerome said and smiled.

  “Excellent idea. I will arrange for dinner then. Do you wish to meet her now? Soften her up a little.” Bertram winked at him.

  “Excellent notion, Bertram! Perhaps she could show me the garden and the path by the river. I understand from Charles the fishing is also excellent.” Jerome could not believe how easily Bertram had fallen into his plan. It was said that love was blind, but greed was a much stronger blindfold to one’s senses.

  “Yes, give me a moment and I will ask her to make herself ready for a stroll.” He scuttled from his study, which gave Jerome a chance to look around. He saw the large folder upon the desk and had a quick glimpse inside. He had seen enough laid out plans and drawings to quickly ascertain that Charles was not interested in fishing, but the fast flow of the river and the position of the estate gave it a favourable aspect for the building of a mill. More than one building was planned though, there was a manufactory also. Stanton was correct. These plans would destroy the village. To save her home, Parthena had to marry, and sharpish. But would she? Persuading Bertram to trick her was easy, but persuading Thena to wed him for the good of the village or to please his heart’s desire was a mountainous task. He could be seen as a prospector who had learned the truth and wished to also steal her birthright, or an opportunist, but would she see that he genuinely adored her? He closed the file and sat back down in the chair awaiting Bertram’s return.

  The man blustered in, shaking his head. “Women! I shall never understand them and am pleased to have escaped their grasp. I have no wish to have one pester me day and night. However, I will need an heir for my new estate soon enough.” He shrugged.

  “Are you staying here then?” Jerome asked, genuinely confused for a moment.

  “No, no, not this one! With the proceeds I have plans to buy a property in Kent. Mama has always been desirous of land near Hythe, perhaps we will be neighbours. So, once the funds of this one are through I can make the dear lady’s dream come true and then will be the time to marry and think of an heir to carry on the Munro name.” He did not look happy at the prospect.

  “You are planning quite an adventure yourself, it seems.”

  “Yes, quite.”

  Thena knocked on the door of the study. “Ah, there you are. Could you show Mr Munro around the grounds, my dear? I shall watch you from the window, but I fear my gout plays up again and I must save myself for dinner.”

  “Very well,” Thena answered. If she was trying to look less than enthusiastic, Jerome thought she was doing an excellent job of it.

  “Thank you, Miss Munro.” Jerome stood up. “I shall like to enjoy the gardens and, as for the fishing, I hear it is excellent.” He smiled and addressed Bertram. “Then I shall return to the village and arrange for the coach and so on.”

  “The coach?” Thena repeated as they walked to the main door.

  “Yes, I intend to return to London for the Season. My sister is so looking forward to it.” He was walking alongside Thena and she was paying him a deal of attention, which he hoped would impress Bertram who was following on behind, at least to the threshold. “Tell me, Miss Munro, have you seen Pall Mall or the gardens at Vauxhall?”

  “Why no, Mr Fender, I have not. Would you care to tell me about them?” she asked as she stepped out and walked carefu
lly down the steps to the path that ran around the old building to the main gardens that ran behind to the river.

  “Yes, of course,” Jerome said, and waited a moment before turning to Bertram and whispering to him: “By the end of this week, you shall say goodbye to your cousin for good and she you.”

  Bertram slapped him on his back and chuckled. “Good man,” he replied before shutting the door on them.

  Chapter 11

  Thena was surprised by Bertram’s request that she walk with Jerome alone around the grounds. If he had not whispered to her in the hallway previously as though he had not expected the opportunity to arise, she would have doubted where Jerome’s loyalty lay. He played his role, whatever it was, with complete and convincing confidence.

  “So tell me, Mr Fender, what guise do you appear in today, using your own name, but having Bertram’s agreement to our meeting – and in relative privacy?” She stopped at a rose and pointed to it as though discussing its colour or scent.

  “Simply, I have come to him as myself offering him my card and help in solving a problem that I have recently become aware of.” He smiled politely at her as they walked and talked.

  “What is that?”

  “Why, you, of course. I overheard him talking in town and have used my position to infer that I know his business partner and am a party to the knowledge that you stand in the way of him and their intentions. Since then I have seen the plans in his study and they are indeed dark for the future of this beautiful place.”

  “I have too. He will destroy everything here for the people. He will bring in many poor souls to work in his mill, and the village and the land will be changed forever. It galls me as there seems nothing I can do about it, Jerome,” she said, and looked up at him. “I owe you so much already that I can never repay, but is there any way you can help me to prevent him having his way here?”

  “That is why I am here. I met an old colleague of mine, a man who was at the Inns when I was there,” Jerome said.

  Thena looked at him and repeated, “The inns, what inns? Did he see us?” Her mind reeled at the thought that someone in the village knew that she had spent a night with Jerome.

  “Not that kind of inn. The Inns of Court in London – The Middle Temple…”

  “Oh,” she said, “I see.” But she really did not.

  “Come, walk and talk with me further. We must not arouse his suspicion.” They walked along with a foot or so between them so that they did not touch even by accident.

  “Mr Stanton trained where I did, at the same law school. He is your family’s legal representative and speaks well of your father and the village. He has a gift for you from your father – a key and I believe a letter for your twenty-first birthday, to be given you with the grandfather clock he also left you. Stanton did not tell Bertram of this, as it was for you only, not even when you disappeared. Bertram would have had him believe you had run away, Thena.”

  “I knew he must have left his affairs in order!” she said and was filled with a rush of emotion. Then she said, “I did no such thing. I would never run away!” Thena was appalled at how low her cousin would stoop to rid himself of her. What must Jerome be thinking of her and her small but seemingly corrupt cousin? She hoped beyond hope that he did not believe that it ran in her bloodline, and that was why she stole from him.

  She could not help but smile slightly, though.

  “What amuses you?” he asked.

  “My dear father has left me time.” She looked up at the sun. “I loved him dearly, but that clock represents words of wisdom he shared with me and reminds me of how precious our time with loved ones is.” Then she saddened. “If only I had loved ones left to care…”

  “Oh, Thena, he has left you precious little time. The will clearly leaves the estate to your cousin. The legacy of the land applies to it being kept as it is, if inherited by the direct line. The wording is not specific enough, and although it stipulates what happens if it is passed from father to son, or son-in-law, then it states separately what happens next if it should then have to go to the nearest male relative. However, because it was poorly prepared, the codicil of the land being kept as is, does not transfer once the original line is side-stepped to another, removed to – well, uncles, cousins, second cousins and so on.”

  Jerome was trying to make this simple for her to understand, she knew that, but the unfairness of it all galled her. “I meant what he has left me is the grandfather clock. It stopped some time ago, but Father always said that time was the most precious gift anyone can have. Yet, his sadly ran out too soon. If what you say is true, though, Bertram has won. I cannot stop this sale.”

  They had stopped walking by the banks of the river. Jerome glared down at the water as if trying to see the fish.

  “There is a way, Thena, but it requires a great sacrifice on your part, along with a willingness to trust me again.”

  Thena looked at him as his face betrayed how serious he was about what he was about to propose. She could tell by the way his features moved that he was trying to find the words he wanted, to explain to her as simply and effectively as possible. How difficult could it be for a man of law to express his thoughts, she wondered, but then his words came back to her… “Or son-in-law,” then she swallowed. Was he really thinking of stepping in to rescue her again? Surely a man like Jerome already had a wife? But then he had been at war, and war is a destroyer of the normal order of life.

  They walked along the river path a way, but stayed within view of the house as they were both aware that they were being watched by Bertram.

  “Thena, we have been thrown together in the most unlikely way, and yet I believe fate has had its hand in this. To stop Bertram and save your village you need to be married by the end of this month. That is it, in a nutshell.”

  “It is impossible...”

  “Hear me out, Thena, I do not wish to shock you… I know this is all very sudden and must seem incredulous to you, but he did not give you a chance, as he held the will’s contents from your sight and knowledge.”

  “No, Jerome, I mean, I think I know what you mean, but it is impossible because I mean the banns need weeks to be read and…”

  “That is if you wed in church in England, Thena, but there is another more daring way. Have you heard of elopement to a place called Gretna Green?” Jerome looked at her and smiled. “Scottish laws are different.”

  “How would I get away, and who would you suggest I marry – Mr Stanton?” She was trying hard not to change the way she walked as they strolled apparently purposefully along.”

  “No. Anyway, he already has a wife. No, I am proposing to you, Thena. I would be delighted if you would agree to be my wife. Therefore, I am suggesting that you and I go to Gretna Green and get a quick marriage licence and return quickly to stop him, save your village and…” he looked away momentarily, pointed to some imagined point of interest, and then looked back at her.

  She stopped and stared at him, Bertram momentarily forgotten. He would do this for her?

  “I find you beautiful, beguiling and I would be happy for us to really get to know each other well, but that is up to you. How we would do this is simple. I am only acting like a total cad for the benefit of your cousin. I have offered to remove you to London. You need to look excited, Thena, as if I am selling you a dream of attending balls and being dressed in such finery that no head will be left unturned as you enter the assembly or gatherings. I am supposed to be dazzling you with the prospect of a chance to see Society in all its glory and hypocrisy as part of this dream, and promise you that you will attend the finest events as companion to my fictitious younger sister, Eleanor, who is lonely.”

  Thena stared back at the river. This was a lot to take in. Could she trust Jerome? If she was his wife he would be the heir of this estate and not Bertram. She knew so little about him and yet he knew all her darkest secrets. Could he be so genuine, so lovely, handsome and kind that he would truly forfeit his freedom for her?
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br />   “We have little time left, Thena. I am to dine here tonight and you must be full of enthusiasm to meet ‘Eleanor’ and leave with me without a thought of looking back at this place. If you play this right and receive Stanton tomorrow morning, I will keep Bertram busy, and then within two days you leave this place with me. But instead of heading south to my London residence, we head north at speed to Gretna Green and in that way we can stop the blackguard. Take heart, I have money and property, I do not need to take advantage of your situation, but I can see why you love this place and I would promise to protect it for generations to come from the likes of Tripp.” He looked down at her with a great deal of what she saw as concern in his eyes. “Thena, I know it is a very difficult decision for you, but if you do not do this I have no great vision of a happy future for you. The man, I believe, would wish you harm – he wants you gone from his path. If I could arrest him for what he would like to do, then I would and he would be hanged, but he has not committed the act, yet, and I would be broken if I came so near to saving you, having you and lost the chance.”