That was ill said.
Godwin was aware that his words, said in anger, would accelerate the gossip. Fear returned in equal portion to the anger as he realized Miss Bellevue would not have him. His suit had been tenuous at best. This would be the last straw. Perhaps she already had decided for his brother. Had Cedric not warned him that Miss Bellevue hated gossip, and would go to any means to keep herself from being the brunt of it? And now he had just added fuel to the fire with his anger. He had been so careful. He had wanted to show her his best side.
Godwin had caught a whisper of the earlier rumor, which he had thought dispelled. Lord Fawkland had walked her home, in quite a state of disarray. He turned, but he could not make out who spoke. It did not matter. The fire was already a conflagration. There would be no stopping it now. It seemed to be a roaring in his ears. In the space of a heartbeat, everything had fallen out of control, and he had no idea how to fix it, short of fratricide. He knew he could not let Miss Bellevue marry Cedric. He could not. Cedric did not love her. He was playing with her heart to hurt Godwin. His brother would do naught but make her miserable. Surely his brother had done a fine job of making him miserable in the past years.
Godwin took a sip of his drink remembering the only bright spot in the conversation. Miss Bellevue’s friend, Miss Grant gave him a slight glimmer of hope. Captain Jack’s lady, Miss Lavinia Grant had the fragile appearance of a china doll, but she had stepped unafraid into this fray.
“And the lady?” Miss Grant had asked addressing Miss. Poppy. “She is my friend. What did Miss Bellevue say to Mister Gruger’s proposal? Did she accept him or nay?”
Godwin had a moment of panic then thinking that if Miss Bellevue said yes to his brother there would be nothing he could do. It was after all Miss Bellevue’s decision. He only wished he could have had time to woo her properly, but now he had no time at all. He was not sure he would have had the courage to ask such a question outright, but he needed to hear the answer.
“Nothing,” Alfreda Poppy had said shaking her head. “Mister Gruger was so charming, and his proposal so beautiful, but Miss Bellevue gave him no answer at all; only burst into tears.”
“Tears?” Miss Grant said surprised. “Julia! Cried? Miss Bellevue?” She looked around concerned. “Where is she? Please, where has she gone?”
Mrs. Poppy strode into the little group then, calming her daughters with her no nonsense attitude. “Girls, stop whispering at once. Miss Bellevue has gone home,” she answered Miss Grant, succinctly. “I have just called the carriage for Miss Bellevue and her sister. And all of you, if you have any love for the girl, you will stop your whispering this instant. Michael, dance with your sister. You, Captain. If I can impose upon you to dance with my other daughter? And Miss Grant…” Mrs. Poppy gestured, and Godwin, started towards the door, thinking to escape her orders, but the vivacious Miss Grant had put her hand on his arm.
“A moment, please Sir,” was all she said. Godwin looked at the slight girl, and realized that in spite of his wanting to bolt for the door, either to find his brother or Miss Bellevue, his leaving was not going to change anything. Miss Bellevue would probably not receive him at this late hour, and it would be best not to meet his brother just now. He might indeed kill him. Normalcy was the only choice to stem the gossip, if it could be stemmed at all.
“I feel this is my fault,” Miss Grant said, her delicate face creased into a frown of dismay.
“It is not,” Godwin replied. “My brother has been attempting to cause trouble since he first learned of my betrothal to Miss Bellevue.”
“But if you had not been so good as to come to my Mister Hart’s aid…I mean Captain Hartfield,” she corrected. “This would not have happened.”
Godwin shook his head. “Not now, perhaps,” Godwin agreed. “But my brother would have found a way to thwart my efforts to convince Miss Bellevue to accept my suit.” He looked at the Poppy girls now lining up for the very ordinary pastime of dancing. He wanted to rush after Miss Bellevue.
“I have not seen Julia cry on many occasions,” Miss Grant admitted without provocation. “I do not think they were tears of joy.”
He looked at the woman then, and saw intelligence in her eyes. “Do you think…” He paused. It would not be right to ask her friend if Miss Bellevue favored his suit. “It distresses me that she is upset,” he said instead.
Miss Grant smiled at him. “You care for her,” Miss Grant said, and he agreed.
“I do.” He excused himself and went looking for his brother, he had to do something. The night had just gone further downhill from there. The argument with Cedric. The fisticuffs. Miss Bellevue gone, and him with a blackened eye and split lip.
Godwin rubbed his sore cheekbone and accepted another drink from Jack. It was late. He thought about writing Miss Bellevue a correspondence, but decided he would call upon her on the morrow. That was the better choice. No good news ever came in a letter. He hoped his face did not look too awful, or would not look awful on the morrow. Perhaps he should wait a few days; deal with his brother before visiting Miss Bellevue....
“I am so sorry, I took you from your betrothed,” Captain Jack said as he pushed the fresh drink towards Godwin.
“It is not your fault, Jack. My brother is a thorn in my side. Father should have shipped him off to the King’s Service long ago. He is a spoiled child who has never learned to be a man.” He leaned his head against his hand. “There is no salvaging this wreck,” he said.
“Oh, never say never,” Jack replied. “Or underestimate the tenacity of a woman. Wrecks can be salvaged. As a matter of fact, I am going to have little enough time to court, Miss Grant. Apparently our esteemed British shipbuilders have managed to make my ship seaworthy, and new orders will be forthcoming.”
“Well, that is good news,” Godwin muttered, but he could not think about Jack right now. His thoughts were all for Miss Bellevue.
The dawn was breaking when Fawkland finally turned in for a few hours of sleep. He tossed and turned as thoughts of Miss Bellevue churned in his mind. He rolled over and looked at the ceiling. Perhaps he should go to call upon her. Perhaps he should discuss this entire affair with her. It was such an awful mess; he did not wish to speak of it. He was embarrassed for his brother, and hurt for himself. He did not want to go to her from a place of weakness. He wanted to be able to tell her that he had taken care of his brother, but what if she wanted his brother and not him? Would she not have accepted his brother last night if that was so? He finally gave up on sleep. In his mind, he rehearsed what he should say to her. Only what could he possibly say to her that she did not already know? What could he say that had not been said? Miss Bellevue would either believe him or not. She would accept Cedric’s proposal or she would not. The decision, as it always had been, was hers.
~.~
The morning sun shone brightly on the calling card on the silver plate. Julia stared at it. The angled script of Mister Cedric Gruger graced the card and she felt her stomach clench in anxiety. So this was his response to her letter? To call upon her? The summer sun was streaming into Jane’s sitting room where the two of them were conversing over tea. After their late night discussion and letter writing, the sisters were late in rising, but it was still early for visitors. They had not gone downstairs. They were still in their dressing gowns leisurely completing their morning toilet.
“Shall I tell Mister Gruger you are not receiving visitors?” Harrington asked.
“The letter was clear,” Jane added. “You do not have to see him, Julia.”
“I think I do,” Julia said with a sigh. She reached out a hand to clasp her sister’s for a moment. Jane had been right about sending the letter last night. Julia’s mind had settled, and she felt she had shed enough tears over the actions of Mister Cedric Gruger. She would tell him she had refused him and the matter was ended.
“Where shall I meet him?” Julia asked her sister.
“It is obvious from the hour that he expected to ca
tch you at the concluding stages of your toilet and be admitted to your dressing room,” Jane deduced.
“He shall have to wait then,” Julia said with a shrug. “Gentlemen are accustomed to waiting for ladies; though he is no gentleman.” Jane smiled at Julia’s flippancy.
“The morning room, I think,” said Jane. “It is bright, and not too formal, nor private.”
The butler frowned. “Do you wish to serve, My Lady?”
“No,” Julia said. “Not even tea. That is the point, you see.”
The butler nodded. “Very good. I will show him in when you are ready, Miss Bellevue.”
“Tell him if he wishes to wait, he may, but inform him that he will find no difference in speaking in person than he did in the correspondence,” Jane said.
“Yes, Countess.” Harrington did not crack a smile, but his eyes lighted. “Shall I have him wait in the foyer? Say that Miss Bellevue has not yet decided where she shall receive him, but he is welcome to await your pleasure?”
It was rude to leave him cooling his heels so, but Julia agreed. She quite liked Harrington at that moment for suggesting it.
Still, once Harrington left, the reality of the situation hit her, and Julia was flustered. They were not yet dressed for visitors. “It will take an age,” Julia said.
“Does it bother you that Mister Gruger has to wait?” Jane asked.
“No. no it does not.”
~.~
Outside the morning room, Julia was pacing on her sore foot. She could not be still.
“I can stay with you,” Jane said.
“No. I think I need to do this myself,” Julia said. “Mister Gruger thinks I can be manipulated. He thinks I am still a gullible child. I am not.”
Harrington had left Cedric standing in the foyer for a good forty minutes before showing him into the morning room and Julia could put this meeting off no longer.
“I shall be right here, if you need me,” Jane told her. Jane had seated herself at the window, just outside the door of the morning room. Any closer and she could listen at the keyhole, Julia thought with a smile.
The summer sun beamed in the windows. The breakfast area would be bright and cheery, but Julia was feeling anything but cheery. She nodded at Harrington. “I am ready,” she said with determination.
“Yes, Miss,” Harrington said as he opened the door for her.
Cedric wasted no time in touching her. As he greeted her, he caught both of her hands in his and kissed them. “I am afraid I did not make myself clear,” he said.
“You were perfectly clear, Mister Gruger” Julia said pulling her hands from his grasp, “as was my letter of reply.”
“Let us sit and talk,” Cedric said, leading her to a seat in the breakfast nook. “Have you eaten?” he asked.
Was he attempting to invite himself to breakfast? How had she not seen how impertinent he was! Julia had no intention of this conversation taking longer than needed, and that most certainly did not include breakfast. “I am not hungry,” she said, still standing which required Mister Gruger to remain standing as well. Instead of sitting, she walked across the room to the window, positioning the table between them. “Say your piece and be gone, Mister Gruger. I have nothing further to say to you.”
“You jest!” Cedric said. “You are but playing a piece,”
She stiffened. “I do not.”
“Surely you can see we belong together. We have been friends since childhood.”
“I am no longer sure that is true, Mister Gruger. I do not know that you were ever my friend.” She worried her hands together.
“You are listening too much to my brother.”
She stilled and looked at him. “Am I, Mister Gruger?”
“Cedric,” he said gently. “You remember when you used to call me, Cedric?”
“We were children. We are children no longer, Mister Gruger.”
“Nonetheless, we were friends. Can we not be friends again, Julia?”
She ignored the familiarity. She folded her hands together in front of her and looked at him with resolve. “Friends do not manipulate one another,” she said.
He scoffed, but she continued.
“Friends do not hurt one another. A friend does not take a friend’s property, nor ruin a friend’s property or nor her reputation. They do not leave one another open to ridicule and gossip.” She turned and fixed him with a stare. “Do you have nothing to say for yourself, Mister Gruger?”
“You always did care too much what others said of you,” he snapped, and Julia took a step back, surprised by the sudden venom when she expected an apology.
“And you cared too little,” she replied.
“So you wish to be a baroness,” he said. “That I understand. That’s what all women want, isn’t it? Money. A title.”
She was struck dumb. How could he say that to her? “I never desired a title,” she said.
He tsked. “No? Come now, Julia. It is only the title that makes you prefer my brother to me.”
Now he was being too brash. She sputtered, trying to think of a retort. Julia knew she should not have mentioned her prior betrothal to Lord Fawkland in her letter of refusal.
“You think he will have you, but he shan’t. My dear Julia, you are grasping,” Cedric said as he moved closer to her. “You see, my brother cares about what others say as well. I caution you. Do not make a hasty decision. I may change my mind, and no one would blame me. After all, I am a respected member of the Ton. I do not have to offer for you in my brother’s stead, nor take a wife with a sullied reputation.”
“Sullied?” she repeated, her voice strangled. “I am not. Your brother did not…”Julia began, but Cedric with even more poor manners interrupted.
“Oh Julia,” he said with feigned pity. “When will you realize it is not what you are; it is what people believe you are.”
“What have you done?” Julia asked horrified by the thoughts running through her mind.
“The Ton is awfully easy to convince of sin, Julia.” Cedric tsked and smiled and spoke in that honeyed tone that had fooled so many women of the Ton. You know what they will say. He brought his handkerchief to his nose in an affectation, before shaking his head, and whispering conspiratorially: “the poor deluded woman, in love with a rake like my brother. You must be aware my brother is known to be the father of one bastard.” He smiled his sickening smile at her. “Oh Julia it will be so easy for them to believe the worst of you considering your parentage. You have no one but me.”
She squeezed her hands together to keep from picking up one of the brass candlesticks and bashing him in the head with it. She could not believe this was happening. Did he think so little of her? That she would be so desperate to accept such a proposal? That she would tie her life to his dispite the disregard he had shown her? She had been right to refuse him. He had been manipulating her from the start. Did he think to convince her to marry him; by saying she was not good enough for anyone else? She could not quite believe her ears.
“I...I shall have myself,” Julia stuttered. “I have my own self-respect, and I think it is high time you took your leave, Mister Gruger.”
“Julia, be reasonable. Pride is cold comfort. Do you not see that my proposal is your salvation? After all that has happened, no other will offer for you. It is just like it always was when we were children. Nothing has changed. The women have not changed from the spiteful little girls they were. They will not accept you, and having a title will not help you any more than having the nicest porcelain doll would help you…or the best shoes or the latest fashions. They don’t like you, Julia. You do not belong, and you never will. You just don’t know how to play the game, and you do not even have the wit to see that. ”
Julia felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was him. It was Cedric who had broken her dolls as a child. It seemed he also had not changed and now, his cruelty nearly broke her heart… How could he be so awful? How could she have been so blind for so long? Lord Fawkland had warned her.
He had told Julia that his brother was not who she thought he was, and she thought The Baron was being arrogant. He was not. He was only being truthful.
Cedric held out his hand to her. “But I have always protected you, Julia,” he said. “Let me protect you from this scandal now. Just say the word and as my wife, you will be under my protection.”
Julia’s face blossomed red with anger and embarrassment.
“Under your thumb, you mean,” she blurted. “No! I would not have you if you were the last man on earth.”
“I might as well be,” he said.
Julia gasped. “Leave now, Mister Gruger,” Julia said loudly. She rang for Harrington who must have been waiting on the other side of the door with Jane, he appeared so quickly. The butler moved forward between them. Jane had also entered the room. Harrington was stocky enough to escort Mister Gruger out himself if things got ugly, but Julia noticed two more footmen had come to the door behind Harrington.
Julia realized that all these years Cedric was as much a part of making the scandal as he had been in protecting her from it. How could she have been so blind? Perhaps he was right. No one would want her after this, but that was no matter. She could not marry Cedric. He was nothing like the man she once thought he was. He was a monster.
“Shall I show the gentleman out?” Harrington asked, with just a bit of a lilt on the word gentleman. Harrington was addressing Jane but his glance shifted between the two ladies.
Julia answered him. “Mister Gruger was just on his way out.”
“Yes, Harrington,” Jane added “Please show him the door.”
Harrington came forward and put a hand on Cedric’s arm. “The Countess has requested that you leave, Sir,” he said in a tight voice.
“You shall not find another husband,” Cedric threw as a parting shot.
“Then, I shall get a cat,” Julia said. “And if you ever show your face here again, I shall teach it to scratch your eyes out!”
Cedric took a single step towards her.
The other two footmen stepped up.
The Baron in Bath - Miss Julia Bellevue: A Regency Romance Novel (Heart of a Gentleman Book 4) Page 19