Reluctant Widow

by Georgette Heyer

  ‘No, dash it, Ned, he is not the kind of loose screw to be breaking into houses at dead of night! Because the story he told Cousin Elinor was a pack of lies! You do not know the whole yet!’

  ‘Well, I may be mistaken,’ Carlyon said. ‘I merely suppose it may have been he from the fact of my having once or twice seen him in Cheviot’s company.’

  ‘Good God, I should not have thought he would have made a friend of a fellow like Eustace!’ said Nicky, quite shocked. ‘I believe him to be tolerably well-acquainted with Francis Cheviot, but there’s nothing in that, after all! I don’t care for Francis myself, but he is very good ton – all the crack, in fact!’

  The door opened to admit Barrow, who came in with a tray which he set down on the table at Miss Beccles’s elbow.

  ‘Barrow,’ said Carlyon, ‘do you know the name of any Frenchman whom Mr Cheviot may have been acquainted with?’

  ‘I did hear what his name was, my lord,’ admitted Barrow. ‘But I didn’t take no account of it, not holding with Frenchies.’

  ‘Was it De Castres?’

  ‘Ay, that’ll be it,’ nodded the henchman. ‘I knew it was something outlandish, my lord.’

  ‘Well, by Jupiter!’ ejaculated Nicky. ‘But – oh, wait till you hear the rest, Ned!’

  Carlyon nodded dismissal to Barrow, who went away again. Miss Beccles, drawing up her chair to the table, said: ‘Dear me, how commonplace it seems, to be sure, to be eating and drinking – such an excellent broth, too! – with so much excitement on hand!’

  The placidity in her voice caused her late pupil to look at her reproachfully. ‘I do not desire any more such excitement, Becky!’

  ‘No, my love, but I expect his lordship will know what is to be done. I am sure you may be quite easy in your mind.’

  Elinor perceived that her old governess had fallen all too easily under the calming spell his lordship seemed to hold over his admirers, and gave a defiant sniff.

  ‘But, Ned, listen to what followed!’ interrupted Nicky. ‘When I rode over yesterday, as you bade me, Cousin Elinor told me the whole, and of course I remembered at once how it is said that Charles II hid in this house, and I thought very likely there might be a secret way into it –’

  ‘Did you find it?’

  The widow’s colour rose. She fixed a pair of accusing eyes on Carlyon’s face, and demanded: ‘My lord, answer me this, if you please! Did you know of that secret stair when you brought me here?’

  ‘Yes, certainly I knew of it, but I thought it had been closed these many years,’ he replied.

  ‘Oh, this is too much!’ Elinor cried. ‘And pray why did you not tell me of it?’

  ‘I was afraid it might add to your distaste of the house,’ he explained.

  She struggled to maintain her composure. ‘Oh, no, how came you to think such a thing?’ she said sarcastically. ‘I am sure it was the only thing needed to make me quite comfortable!’

  He smiled. ‘Indeed, you have cause to be vexed with me,’ he acknowledged. ‘I beg your pardon! I collect that the stair is not, as I had supposed, closed?’

  ‘Closed! Nothing of the sort! All kinds of desperate persons are at liberty to come up it any time they choose!’

  ‘That is certainly quite undesirable,’ he said imperturbably. ‘If you have not already attended to the matter, I think steps should be taken to secure the entrance.’

  ‘You amaze me, my lord! I had not looked for so much consideration! Let me tell you that had I not allowed my judgement to be overborne by your brother’s pleading that door would have been sealed yesterday, and he would not now be lying there with his arm in a sling! Nicky, do pray, put it back! Dr Greenlaw said you should keep it still, remember!’

  ‘Oh, it’s no matter, cousin! Ned, I am persuaded you would not have had me shut up the stair! The more I thought about the occurrence the more I became convinced that fellow – De Castres, I mean, if it really can have been he – had come for some secret purpose. I told Cousin Elinor we should seek to discover what that might be, and I said I would spend the night in that little spare bedchamber where the trap-door is, just on the chance of the fellow’s coming back to have another touch at it.’ Carlyon nodded. ‘To own the truth,’ Nicky confessed, ‘I did not above half expect that he would.’

  ‘And I did not expect it at all!’ interpolated Elinor. ‘I do beg of you to believe, sir, that nothing would have induced me to have allowed Nicky to prevail upon me to let him stay in that room had I had the least notion of what was to happen! I am so distressed! If you are angry with me I cannot blame you!’

  ‘My dear ma’am, how should I be angry with you?’

  ‘Ned, I know it has all gone awry, but I did right to leave the stair open, didn’t I?’ Nicky demanded.

  ‘Yes, quite right. I collect that your visitor did indeed return?’

  ‘Yes, and I crept after him down the stairs. There was never anything like it! To think of such an adventure’s happening, and all because I was rusticated! I never expected any very particular good to come from that, you know, but only fancy!’

  ‘A very observable instance of the workings of providence,’ agreed Carlyon. ‘How came you to be shot?’

  ‘Oh, that was the most curst mischance! The fellow was making for this room, and I had reached the foot of the stairs, when all at once he stopped, and looked about him. I stepped back quickly that he might not see me, and what must I do but fall over the stupid suit of armour Cousin Elinor must needs keep at the bottom of the stairs!’

  ‘I do not keep it there!’ said Elinor indignantly. ‘I found it there!’

  ‘Well, I do not know how that may be, but I should have thought you would have moved it to a better place. However, it’s no matter, except that it ruined all. I had your pearl-mounted pistol in my hand, Ned, and I shouted out to the fellow to stand, for I had him covered, but he fired at me before I well knew what he would be about, and over I went again. I shot at once, and smashed the lantern he was carrying, but I don’t think I can have hit him, for he escaped by the front door before anyone could come to my aid. And the devil of it is that I still don’t know what it is that he wants, and I have a great fear that now he knows the game is up he will not come again. I have made wretched work of it!’

  ‘Yes, it is a pity he should have discovered your presence,’ agreed Carlyon. ‘However, it is of no use to repine over what cannot be mended. This is certainly very interesting, Nicky.’

  ‘Yes, indeed! Was it not diverting?’ struck in Elinor.

  He looked at her thoughtfully, but said nothing.

  ‘What are you thinking, Ned?’ asked Nicky eagerly.

  ‘I was wishing John had not gone back to London,’ Carlyon replied unexpectedly. ‘Never mind! He will be here again the day after to-morrow!’

  ‘John!’ exclaimed Nicky. ‘Why, what use would he be, I should like to know?’

  ‘He was telling me something which I cannot help feeling may have some bearing on this extraordinary event.’

  Nicky’s face was alight. ‘Oh, Ned, do you think – Is it possible that – You know, I told Cousin Elinor this morning I thought very likely that fellow might be one of Boney’s agents, only then you said it was De Castres, and I thought it had not been possible!’

  ‘It is certainly unexpected. Yet I believe it would not be quite the first time a scion of one of these émigré families has thrown in his lot with Bonaparte.’

  ‘How very shocking, to be sure!’ said Miss Beccles, shaking her head. ‘It makes one feel so very particularly for their poor parents. But young persons are often very thoughtless, I fear.’

  ‘It cannot be so!’ Elinor said. ‘Why, I have in the past known several such families, and they would be disgusted by the very thought of such a thing!’

  ‘No doubt the elder members of such families would be, ma’am, but there is no doubt
that Bonaparte’s career, and the régime he has set up, have kindled an enthusiasm for his cause in some of the younger men’s breasts. It is no wonder, after all! They have little to hope for in England, and, one supposes, can find little to inspire them with hope in the Bourbon King, and the set of men he keeps about him. But these are only surmises! We are running ahead a great deal too fast.’

  Nicky, who had been sitting with knit brows, said: ‘It is very well, Ned, but how should Eustace have had anything to say to French spies? I never thought that he had even common sense!’

  ‘A very unreliable agent, one would have said,’ concurred Carlyon. He frowned down at the lid of his snuff-box. ‘And yet,’ he said, ‘I will own that I have sometimes wondered where Eustace found the money to pay for some of his more expensive pleasures. This might be the answer.’

  ‘A Bonapartist agent!’ said Elinor. ‘Well, I thought I had known the worst of my bridegroom, but it seems I was at fault!’

  ‘I should think,’ said Carlyon, ‘that he was, rather, a go-between.’

  ‘I do not see that that would make him any better!’

  ‘On the contrary, decidedly worse.’

  ‘Oh, what an abominable man you are!’ cried Elinor, quite out of patience.

  ‘Hush, my love!’ interposed Miss Beccles, in gentle reproof. ‘A lady should never be uncivil, you know. His lordship must be quite shocked to hear you express yourself with such unbecoming violence.’

  ‘I wish I might shock him!’ said Elinor bitterly.

  ‘Well, I do not see why you should wish so!’ said Nicky, firing up. ‘And Ned is not an abominable man!’

  ‘A gentleman, Nicky,’ said Carlyon, grave as a judge, ‘should never contradict a lady.’

  Miss Beccles nodded her innocent agreement with this dictum. The widow eyed his lordship smoulderingly, but maintained a prudent silence.

  Carlyon, after casting her a somewhat quizzical look, seemed to become wrapped in his own meditations. Nicky, fidgeting restlessly for a little while, at last burst out with: ‘Do you think we should shut up the secret way? I mean –’

  ‘Oh, yes!’ Carlyon replied absently. ‘I do not think we can hope for him to come by that way a third time.’

  ‘Well, but, Ned, what must we do, then? It would be too flat to leave it as it now stands!’

  ‘Certainly not. But as the matter appears to be of considerable urgency I hardly think that we should be permitted to leave it. Some new form of approach must be expected. Time will show what this may be.’

  ‘Not to me!’ said Elinor, with resolution. ‘I will not spend another night in this house, and so I tell you!’

  ‘Oh, Cousin Elinor, you would not be so poor-spirited!’ Nicky cried incredulously. ‘Besides, what should you be afraid of when you will have me with you, and Miss Beccles, and Bouncer too?’

  ‘How you can have the effrontery, Nicky, to offer me that horrid dog as consolation is something that gives me a very poor idea of your chivalry!’ retorted Elinor. ‘What is more, I am not so callous that I would ask my dear Becky to remain an hour in this place! It is not at all what she has been accustomed to, I assure you.’

  ‘Very true, my love,’ sighed Miss Beccles. ‘When I was young I used to wish very much that I could meet with an adventure, but none ever came my way, and in the end I did not think of it any more. And now it has come to me, and all through my lord, who so kindly brought me to you!’

  ‘Becky, all my dependence is on you!’ almost wailed Elinor. ‘You cannot wish to remain in this dreadful house!’

  ‘But, my dear Mrs Cheviot, it seems to me such a comfortable house! And now that my lord is to close up the secret door, which, I own, I should not quite like to have open, I cannot see the least cause for you to leave it. And I am sure that if the dear doggie is to stay with us we must be quite safe.’

  The intelligent hound, who had sat up at the first mention of his name, flattened his ears, and lolled his tongue out gratefully.

  ‘If you knew as much of the dear doggie as I do,’ declared Elinor, ‘you would scarcely stay in the same room with him!’ She turned to Carlyon, and added: ‘Upon being told to guard me, the creature kept me in my chair for the better part of a day!’

  ‘Well, that was quite my fault!’ argued Nicky. ‘He did not perfectly understand what I said to him. And you must own he stayed at his post like a regular bulldog!’

  ‘Yes! And consumed a plate of meat, and a large marrow-bone, which he buried behind the sofa cushions!’

  ‘Poor old fellow!’ said Miss Beccles, in caressing accents.

  Bouncer, recognizing a well-wisher, got up, and thrust his cold, wet nose under her hand, assuming as he did so the soulful expression of a dog who takes but a benevolent interest in cats, livestock, and stray visitors. Miss Beccles stroked his head, and murmured dulcetly to him.

  Elinor fixed her eyes upon Carlyon. ‘My lord, do you expect me to remain here?’ she asked straitly.

  ‘Yes, Mrs Cheviot, I do,’ he replied.

  ‘But I may be murdered in my bed!’

  ‘Improbable, I think.’

  She swallowed. ‘But what would you have me do?’

  He looked consideringly at her. ‘I believe you would be well-advised to set about the procuring of mourning-clothes,’ he said. ‘I appreciate that your time, since I left you here, has been a little taken up by other matters, but this should have been thought of. I will send my carriage over to be at your orders, in case you should like to drive to Chichester. You will find a tolerable silk warehouse there, and may choose something suitable to your condition.’

  ‘But who is to receive any French agents who may call while I am gone?’ she retorted.

  ‘Oh, I will do that!’ grinned Nicky.

  ‘My dear Nicky, I am about to convey you home. I dare say Mrs Cheviot has had a surfeit of your company by this time.’

  ‘Oh, Ned, no!’ Nicky cried, aghast. ‘You could not ask me to leave Highnoons now! Why, anything might happen!’

  ‘Nothing is likely to happen.’

  ‘I do not know what makes you think so, my lord,’ remarked Elinor. ‘A man who will twice break into a house, and fire upon anyone who discovers him –’

  ‘I am inclined to think that that was a mistake.’

  ‘A mistake, was it!’ said Nicky, ruefully feeling his shoulder.

  ‘I dare say you startled him, my dear boy, and he fired before he had time to consider what he was about. He cannot have wished to make such a stir. In fact, his whole manner of conducting this affair appears to me to be the work of a novice. Depend upon it, someone must be behind De Castres, if De Castres it was.’

  ‘Someone more cunning, I dare say?’ said Elinor politely.

  ‘Undoubtedly.’

  ‘And who will perhaps descend upon me in his turn?’

  He smiled. ‘Perhaps,’ he agreed.

  ‘And all the advice you have to give me is that I should go to Chichester to choose mourning-clothes which I assure you I don’t mean to wear!’

  ‘I hope you will think better of that decision, ma’am. It is always a pity to put up the backs of people. I see that you have already made this room at least more habitable. But there must still be a great deal of work to be done in the house, which should keep you occupied for some little time. I believe you have no need to feel any undue alarm: violence cannot serve these people, and they are unlikely to attempt anything in the same nature again. What we have now to look for is something a trifle more subtle.’

  ‘Well, then, Ned, don’t you think I should remain here?’ urged Nicky. ‘Cousin Elinor will be more comfortable if I do, will you not, cousin?’

  ‘Of course there can be no question of your leaving while you are still so weak!’ she said. ‘You will scarcely take him out in this cold when he ought to be in his bed, my lord! I assure you, Miss
Beccles and I will take every care of him.’

  ‘I have no doubt of that, and am very much obliged to you both. Have either you or he looked through the contents of that desk, on the chance of discovering any clue to your mystery?’

  ‘No, but I would have done so!’ said Nicky. ‘Cousin Elinor would not permit it, however.’

  ‘Extremely proper. I am expecting Finsbury in Sussex tomorrow, and shall bring him here. But in the event it will be wise to assure ourselves that no dangerous document lies in that desk.’ He walked over to it as he spoke, and sat down before it, pulling open the top drawer. A welter of papers was disclosed, which Carlyon sorted out, laying them in separate heaps. The other drawers were in much the same condition, and Nicky’s eagerly expressed conviction that the desk possessed a secret hiding-place was found to be without foundation.

  Carlyon restored the papers, saying calmly: ‘There is very little here beyond bills and vowels.’

  ‘Good God!’ said Elinor. ‘Then I suppose I may look next to be dunned! How sobering it is to reflect that had I never met you, my lord, I might even now be peacefully established in Mrs Macclesfield’s house!’

  ‘Sobering indeed. I am persuaded you would have discovered her to be an overbearing female, and the children all grossly indulged.’

  ‘Nonsense! I dare say a most agreeable household,’ said Elinor firmly.

  ‘Now, my love, you know you had no very pleasant notion of Mrs Macclesfield’s character!’ Miss Beccles reminded her. ‘I have been telling his lordship how bravely you have borne all your reverses, and how thankful I am you are now in such good hands.’

  ‘Good hands?’ gasped the affronted widow. ‘Becky, are you in your senses? If you refer to Lord Carlyon, I really think you cannot be! I never did him the least injury, and only consider how he has served me! He forced me to marry a creature given over to every form of vice; he brought me to his house where everything is in dust and tatters, mice run across my bedchamber floor, and French agents walk in and out at will, shooting at anyone who dares to say them nay; he discloses to me with what I can only describe as the most callous unconcern imaginable that my late husband died apparently under a load of debt, which I shall no doubt be called upon to settle; and when I ask him what I am to do, all he can think of is to suggest that I should buy myself mourning-clothes!’