by Mary Nichols
‘I am not a slug-abed, my lord.’
‘No, but it was such an eventful night for you, I thought you might still be recovering.’
‘No more eventful for me than for anyone else.’
‘You don’t say,’ he said, cocking one eyebrow in that teasing way he had which confused and infuriated her. ‘I had thought otherwise.’
‘James,’ Frances reproved him, ‘let us have no more of your teasing. Why are you here, anyway? Have you news of the necklace?’
‘I regret to say, no, though Major Greenaway is at this moment visiting every known jeweller and angling cove in London.’
‘Angling cove?’ Lavinia asked.
‘Receiver of stolen goods.’
‘And how would Major Greenaway know who they are?’
‘He has ways of finding out. It is in the nature of the work he does.’
‘Then let us hope he finds the necklace soon and the mystery is solved,’ the Duchess said briskly. ‘Lavinia we must return home if you are to be there to receive guests this afternoon.’
‘Receive guests?’ James murmured in Lavinia’s ear as they were leaving. ‘That would not be Lord Wincote, would it?’
‘Of course,’ she said, then laughed at the expression which crossed his face. It was there one second and gone the next, but it was enough to tell her he did not like the idea. ‘What have you against the gentleman?’
‘Nothing at all,’ he said airily. ‘Just be careful, that’s all.’
‘Oh, I shall. Not that it is any of your business, my lord.’
‘Then I beg your pardon.’
‘So you should.’ And then she relented and added, ‘You are expected too, you know. Had you forgot we are to have a rehearsal?’
He laughed suddenly. ‘Vixen!’
He saw them into their carriage before mounting his horse, which was being minded by a street urchin, and riding away.
‘Vinny, one day you will try his patience too far,’ the Duchess said as they proceeded at a brisk trot towards St James’s Square. ‘I cannot think why you do it.’
‘I don’t know, Mama, it is as if a little imp sits on my shoulder and whispers the words into my ear, and they just come out.’
‘I think, my dear, you would do well to banish that imp before you do irreparable damage. Think before you speak in future.’
‘Yes, Mama. But he started it.’
‘Then you are as bad as one another.’
They had arrived home and no more was said as they went up to their rooms to change before settling down to eat a light nuncheon in the nursery with Miss Hastings and the children. Afterwards Lavinia went down to the ballroom to work on the scenery until the arrival of the members of the cast.
Duncan strolled in with Benedict Willoughby, both trying to ape the latest fashions with collars stiff enough to cut their cheeks and their cravats tied in complicated knots. They were closely followed by James and Edmund. Lord Haverley and his daughters came next and then Mr Drew and Sir Percy, who brought Lady Rattenshaw with him.
‘Hope you don’t mind, me dear,’ he said to Lavinia. ‘Thought her ladyship might be some help.’
‘Of course,’ Lavinia said brightly. ‘You are welcome, my lady.’
‘I doubt Miss Graham will come,’ Sir Percy said. ‘Too upset, don’t you know, but aren’t we all. It’s not comfortable to know that people you are well acquainted with can do such a thing. Not comfortable at all.’
‘I do not think it is anyone we know,’ Edmund said. ‘It was either someone who came in from outside or it was one of the servants.’
‘Let us hope that is the case and the necklace will soon be recovered,’ Lavinia said. ‘But talking about it will not bring it back, so shall we make a start?’
She had hardly finished speaking before Constance arrived, pink and breathless. ‘I am sorry I am late,’ she said.
‘Oh, do not think of it,’ Lavinia said, as Lord Haverley hurried forward to escort the young lady to her place and sat down beside her. ‘We are pleased that you felt able to come.’
‘Oh I had to get away for a while. Everyone is so miserable and Papa is up in the boughs, as if Mama had lost the necklace on purpose to vex him. He’s had all the servants looking through every nook and cranny for it, convinced it never left the house. But it has not been found.’
‘Do you feel able to rehearse?’ Lavinia asked Constance. ‘Because if you find it too much, I can ask Lady Rattenshaw to read Helena’s lines.’
Constance turned eagerly towards the lady. ‘Oh, would you? You know I really did not want to take a part at all. I am no actress and am bound to spoil it for everyone else. Do say you will.’ She turned to Lavinia. ‘I can help in other ways. I could be prompter and mistress of the wardrobe.’
With this settled, they began reading through the first scene in which Egeus is furious that his daughter, Hermia, shuns the man he has promised her to and accuses Lysander of bewitching her.
Lord Haverley took the part of Egeus, Lavinia played Hermia, Edmund was Lysander and James, Demetrius.
‘With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart; turned her obedience, which is due to me…’ Lord Haverley proclaimed in ringing tones. And so it went on, with Hermia agreeing to meet Lysander in the woods so that they could run away together.
Lavinia was so wrapped up in the play that she did not see the looks that James and Edmund exchanged, the one accusing, the other complacent and enjoying the declarations of love he was making to Lavinia under the guise of the play. As far as James was concerned, Wincote had bewitched Lavinia, there was no other way of describing the hold he seemed to have on her. He held her with his eyes as he delivered the line, ‘The course of true love never did run smooth…’ And her loving answers, albeit made to the fictional character, made him writhe.
Why, oh, why had she chosen this play? James asked himself. For two pins he would withdraw. But he knew he could not. There was a kind of sharp relish in his torment that made it beyond him to forgo.
When Lady Rattenshaw began to read Helena’s lines, it became obvious they had found a treasure. She spoke with such assurance and feeling, the character came alive. Even her face and demeanour proclaimed her to be Helena, as if she had forgotten her own identity. Helena’s love for Demetrius and his rejection of her in favour of Hermia was keenly felt, especially as James brought his own frustration to bear on his part as the rejected lover. Lavinia was overjoyed. ‘Why, my lady, that was wonderful,’ she said, when they reached the end of the scene. ‘I do believe you have done this before.’
‘Oh.’ She seemed confused for a second, then smiled. ‘We used to put on little plays out in India, you know, simply to amuse ourselves. Not very different from this.’
‘Then you must help us all to aspire to your high standard, my lady,’ James said.
‘I, for one, will be honoured to be so instructed,’ Edmund said, not to be outdone.
‘I will do my best, then,’ she promised.
Servants appeared with refreshments, which gave everyone a chance to relax, talk about the play or chatter about the theft of Lady Graham’s necklace. Never had the guest list of a ball been so dissected and mulled over.
‘Well, my lady?’
Lavinia whipped round at the sound of Lord Wincote’s voice. He was standing at her elbow, clad in a light blue superfine coat with dark facings, which she had not seen before; she concluded his wardrobe must be very extensive, for she had never witnessed him in the same coat twice. ‘I am well, thank you,’ she said, pretending to misunderstand him.
‘My lady, you know I was not enquiring after your health.’
‘Were you not? Is my well being not of interest to you, my lord?’
‘I think, my lady, you love to tease. But today I am not of a mind to play your little game. You must know I crave a moment or two of your time alone.’
‘Lord Wincote,’ she said firmly, which was difficult because he was looking at her with that dark-eyed int
ensity she had come to know, and she felt helpless. ‘You must know that is not possible today. I cannot leave my friends. And Papa has not given me leave to see you alone.’
‘I wonder why you are doing this to me, my lady. Are you testing my steadfastness?’
‘If I am, then I am sure you are equal to it,’ she said, moving away before he could extract any kind of promise from her, and went to sit with Miss Hastings, the only person she could trust not to tease, confuse or coerce her.
‘He is a strange young man,’ Emily Hastings said, nodding towards Edmund who had gone to sit beside Lady Rattenshaw and was engaging her in conversation. ‘He has secrets, that one.’
‘Secrets, what secrets?’
‘My dear Vinny, if I knew that, they would not be secret, would they? But I can tell it by his looks. I recollect meeting Lord Byron once and he has that same kind of intense, brooding look.’
‘Oh, is that what it is, brooding? What can he be brooding about?’
‘That I do not know.’
‘He is very romantical.’
‘Oh, I see…’
‘No, you do not see,’ Lavinia said, her voice rising in order to emphasise her point. ‘You do not see at all.’
‘What does the excellent Miss Hastings not see?’ James said, coming to sit on the other side of Lavinia.
‘Why, Lady Lavinia finds Lord Wincote romantical, my lord,’ Emily said, with a smile.
‘Do you?’ James asked Lavinia.
‘Of course,’ the little imp on her shoulder said.
‘Then you are of a mind to accept his declarations of undying affection as nothing but the truth, are you?’
‘I do not see why not. He does not deal in double talk and conundrums, like some do. I know exactly where I am with him.’
He stood up suddenly. ‘Then I must congratulate you, my lady. Please excuse me.’
‘Now, what have I said?’ Lavinia demanded as he strolled away with every appearance of nonchalance. But she knew the answer; that little imp had been at work again. She longed to rush after him and tell him she had not meant it, that she was very far from knowing where she was. She was as lost as Lysander and Hermia in the woods.
Refreshments over, they resumed the rehearsal and Lavinia could not help noticing that Lord Wincote deferred to Lady Rattenshaw’s opinion on almost every point of discussion and wondered if he was trying to make her jealous. But she decided this could not be so, when, as everyone took their leave, he contrived to be the last to go and was thus alone with her, except for Emily Hastings, who deliberately took herself off to the far side of the huge room to study the scenery Lavinia had been working on.
‘My lady,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘You cannot go on avoiding me forever.’
‘I have not been avoiding you, my lord. I have much to do.’
‘So much that you cannot even spare time to hear an offer of marriage.’
‘Offer of marriage,’ she repeated.
‘You know perfectly well that was my intention. Ever since I met you—’
‘Less than a month ago,’ she said.
‘So be it. An hour, a day, a second, what does it matter? To me it seems like an eternity since I first beheld you, but however long ago it was, I knew, in that moment, that I wanted you.’ He seized both her hands and raised them to his lips one by one, looking deeply into her eyes as he did so. ‘Tell me you have felt the same, tell me I do not ask in vain.’
She gave a huge, deep sigh. ‘My lord, I do not know what to say.’
‘Say yes. Say you will marry me and soon too. The sooner the better…’
‘Why the haste?’
‘I am an impatient man.’
She laughed suddenly. ‘What has Hermia just said to Lysander about patience?’
‘Oh, that play. I only take part to please you, you know. And to speak Lysander’s words to you.’
‘Now, do you know, I rather thought you liked to strut your stuff. You asked Lady Rattenshaw enough questions about the part.’
‘Only because she knows so much about it. Goodness, you are not jealous, are you?’ He smiled broadly. ‘I do believe you are! Oh, that is most encouraging. I never thought… Oh, Vinny, my dear!’ He grasped her shoulders and would have kissed her but for a resounding voice coming from the direction of the door.
‘No one calls Lady Lavinia by that name except her closest friends,’ James said. ‘And I do not think you qualify.’
The thunderous look Edmund gave him was benign compared to the fury in Lavinia’s eyes as she turned on him. ‘James!’
‘Yes and in the nick of time, it seems.’ He gave a curt nod to Edmund. ‘On your way, Wincote.’ And when Edmund hesitated, added. ‘Do you want me to call you out, you blackguard?’
‘No!’ Lavinia cried. ‘I will not have it. Lord Wincote, please leave, I wish to have a private word with my brother. I will talk to you again another day.’
After he had left, with great reluctance and one dark look directed at James, she turned on her tormentor. ‘That was unforgivable…’
‘So it was,’ he said. ‘Taking advantage of you when you were alone. I could cheerfully have darkened his daylights.’
‘I did not mean him, I meant you. You are not my keeper. I do not need you to stand guard over me and I especially do not like you spying on me.’
‘I was not spying. I came back for my gloves. I left them on the table over there.’
She turned and realised that his gloves were indeed lying on the table, along with his cane, but she would not soften. ‘That does not give you the right to insult my…my friend.’
‘Friend! What I saw was not the action of a friend.’
‘No, it was that of a man overcome by his feelings. He had just proposed.’
‘And been accepted?’ he asked, unable to conceal his horror.
‘He might have been but for your untimely intrusion,’ said the little imp. ‘And for your information, I was not alone. Miss Hastings is over there.’ She turned to point her out and then they both burst into laughter simultaneously. Miss Hastings was sitting slumped in an armchair on the other side of the room, gently snoring.
‘Oh, Vinny,’ he said, suddenly serious. ‘I do not mean to quarrel with you, but I am concerned, especially when those who should be chaperoning you neglect their duty. Please, please, I beg of you, take care.’
‘Why are you concerned? Do you know something about Lord Wincote that I do not?’
He hesitated only a moment. ‘No. But your happiness and well being are very important to me.’ And then he spoiled it all, by adding, ‘Little Mama would never forgive me if I did not watch out for you.’
‘I have Papa to do that for me.’
‘But he is so involved with government and is more often absent than present.’
‘That does not mean he neglects me, James, nor that you can stand in his place.’ She smiled suddenly. ‘He has put a stipulation on any offer of marriage to me that will test the determination of any man who offers.’
‘What stipulation?’
‘That he will not pay out my dowry until I have been married two years.’
‘Has he, by Jove!’
‘So you see, you need not worry that Lord Wincote is after my money because he knows about it and it has not put him off.’
He picked up his gloves and cane. ‘Then I see you do not need my protection.’ He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. ‘I bid you adieu, my lady.’ With that, he turned on his heel and left without looking back.
Lord Wincote was waiting for him in the street when he emerged. ‘A word, my lord,’ he said, falling into step beside him.
A confrontation with the man was the last thing James wanted, but for Lavinia’s sake, he suppressed the jealous fury that engulfed him. ‘What is it?’
‘My lord, I can understand why you are so protective of Lady Lavinia—’
‘Can you? I doubt it.’
‘A brother, even a stepbrother, would be lacking in
sensibility not to be concerned for one so beautiful and desirable, but you are only a stepbrother…’
‘Not even that.’
‘It is how she looks upon you, she told me so herself. And because of that, I am prepared to overlook your unwarranted intrusion, just now.’
‘Unwarranted! You were about to kiss her.’
‘It is usual for a gentleman to kiss a young lady when she has been so kind as to accept his offer of marriage. I had his Grace’s permission to approach her and Miss Hastings was in the room, there was nothing havey-cavey about it.’
‘She accepted you?’
‘Oh, yes.’ It was said so complacently James felt like hitting him. Instead he bade him good afternoon and strode away.
He was bubbling with frustrated fury. The man was a mushroom, appearing overnight from nowhere. He was deep in debt and badly needed Lavinia’s dowry and yet he seemed not to mind that proviso the Duke had put on it, unless, of course, he had decided to gamble that his Grace would relent after the wedding, especially if refusing meant Lavinia would suffer. But that would be almost impossible to prove.
He turned into White’s, ordered a drink and sat down in a corner to think. How could he test the man’s intentions even further? Had he any right to do so? He had no claim on Lavinia’s affections. She had even told that cur she looked on him as a brother. And he, like a fool, perpetuated it.
‘Corringham, I have been looking for you.’
He looked up to see Donald Greenaway looking down at him. ‘Oh, it’s you. Any news?’
‘Yes, momentous.’ He pulled up a nearby chair and sat down. ‘Lady Graham’s diamonds were paste.’
‘Oh, the diamonds,’ James said dismissively. ‘I thought you meant about Lord Wincote.’
‘I’ll come back to him later.’
‘It might be too late. He has already proposed.’
‘The devil he has! Did she accept?’
‘As good as. He was apparently not put off by the fact that the Duke said he would not hand over her dowry for two years.’
‘Then he will have to find another source of money until then. I have it on good authority he offered to give evidence on behalf of the Queen for a consideration.’