Wyrde and Wayward
(House of Werth, 1)
by
Charlotte E. English
Copyright © 2019 by Charlotte E. English
All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold.
Chapter One
The Scions of the House of Werth are all born normal. It is what happens afterwards that sets them apart from the rest of England.
Three years afterwards, to be precise.
No sooner had Augusta Honoria Werth set foot over the threshold of Werth Towers than her name was heard to resound about those ancient brick walls, uttered in the powerfully resonant tones of her Aunt Wheldrake. The syllables rolled through the great, craggy pile like controlled claps of thunder, and set the floor a-shake.
‘Where,’ thundered she, ‘is Augusta?’
The importuned lady in question paused to shake the rain from her shawl, a brisk summer shower having caught her unawares as she crossed the park. Werths she saw aplenty, as she swept her calm gaze over the darkly majestic great hall: Aunt Margaret crossing from one side to the other, a pile of linens in her hands; Cousin Theodore wisely disappearing into the library; and Mrs. Thannibour, her elder sister Nell, coming towards her, wielding an ugly but dry shawl with intent.
She did not, however, see Aunt Wheldrake.
‘Gussie, how late you are,’ hissed Nell, plucking her sister’s delicate, rose-coloured shawl from about her shoulders, and replacing it with the sad, slate-grey substitute. The wool prickled Gussie’s bare arms, and scratched woefully, but Nell was deaf to all protests, instead ushering her resolutely towards the enormous, polished oak staircase dominating the central hall. ‘Go, please,’ said Nell. ‘Pacify her, or we shall not have a moment’s peace.’
‘I do not know what peace is likely to be found on Lizzie’s third birthday,’ Gussie observed, but Nell was not listening, already hastening away.
Squaring her shoulders, Gussie faced the staircase with resolution, and climbed. ‘I am here, Aunt,’ she called, just as the thunder began, again, to roll.
Aunt Wheldrake’s face, crowned with a gauzy lace cap, appeared over the banister. ‘How late you are!’ she said, echoing Nell.
‘I am very sorry, Aunt, I was obliged to—’
‘Never mind that now,’ said she, descending with a whoosh, and taking a firm grip upon her niece’s elbow. ‘We are but five minutes from the Great Event, so you see you are just in time, and not a moment is to be lost.’ Wisps of roiling cloud swirled about her feet, and then about Gussie’s, who lurched unsteadily as she rose into the air. Swiftly was she borne away, sailing through the hall, the library and out into the gardens, where the rain continued, disobligingly, to fall.
‘Theodore!’ thundered Aunt Wheldrake as they soared past.
‘Er,’ he was heard to say, followed by the distant snap of a book hastily closed. ‘Yes! Coming.’
Aunt Wheldrake cast one dark look up at the glowering clouds, and the pitter-patter of rain slowed. ‘Insupportable,’ she declared. To the best of Gussie’s knowledge, her aunt’s stormy powers did not extend so far as to hold dictates over the rain; the coincidence of timing, however, was impressive.
She reminded herself not to be late to any more of Aunt Wheldrake’s parties.
On a pretty stretch of emerald lawn, just beyond the borders of Lady Werth’s lavender shrubbery, a white pavilion beckoned. Lady Werth herself sat in a cane chair beneath its domed interior, her husband at her elbow, and all the disparate scions of the Werth family line gathered around her. All, that is, save Gussie, and the shabby figure of Cousin Theo marching along in her wake.
‘Aunt Werth,’ said Gussie, stepping smoothly from her cloud, and bent to kiss Lady Werth.
She was rewarded with a huge smile. ‘Ah, Gussie, I knew you would not fail us. What do you think, then, of the birthday girl? Lucretia swears she shall be a mermaid, and indeed she can swim astonishingly well. Cannot you, Lizzie? But for my part I think it a great deal more likely that she shall surprise us all, and turn out a siren, or perhaps a fire-weaver.’
Privately, Gussie knew that Aunt Georgie had the right of it, for the Wyrde, when it came, rarely deigned to manifest in any manner of pattern. Mere mortal expectations were as nothing to it; it always did just as it pleased, and as such made a fitting curse for the wayward Werths.
The hopes of Lizzie’s mama must, however, be respected, so Gussie smiled at Aunt Wheldrake and agreed that Lizzie would make a perfect little mermaid.
‘What with her golden hair,’ said the proud mama, ‘and would she not look well all wreathed about in sea-jewels?’
‘Very well indeed,’ agreed Augusta, happy in her aunt’s restored temper. The members of the House being now collected, in an orderly fashion, where the Great Event was to take place, her thunders had departed, together with her mists, and she was able to take her place beside her husband with smiling alacrity.
A chair had been placed upon Lizzie’s right hand, undoubtedly designed for Gussie. Someone — Nell, most likely — had piled it high with fat, silken cushions. Being herself of ample figure, she treated her thin younger sister as though Gussie might break in half were she not properly wrapped up, cushioned and cosseted. But such overbearing care had its advantages, and Gussie sank gratefully into the cushions’ pillowy embrace as she turned her attention to Lizzie.
The child sat on the Wyrding Chair, so called because the throne-like structure had been wheeled out for every Third Birthday in living memory. Nothing about the chair mattered, of course. It was not, itself, Wyrded, nor could it have any impact upon the proceedings. But being oversized, gilded and ornately carved, it offered a majesty and a grandeur to these Great Events (as Aunt Wheldrake would have it) that would otherwise be lacking.
Lord Werth had his pocket-watch in hand. ‘And it is time,’ he announced, meaning exactly three years, to the minute, since the occasion of Elizabeth Louisa Wheldrake’s birth.
A hush fell. Every gathered Werth drew in a breath, and held it, all eyes fastened upon the tiny child shifting restlessly upon her enormous throne.
Gussie felt a moment’s pity for the little girl. Long-awaited as her birth had been, she had appeared at last, sixteen years after Lucretia Werth’s marriage to William Wheldrake, preceded by only one sibling, who had not survived. Small wonder, then, the weight of expectation that rested upon her; all her parents’ hopes must be satisfied in this one little child, for only a miracle would ever bless them with another.
And Aunt Wheldrake had set her heart upon the nature of her daughter’s Wyrding. She would be a mermaid in water, and a girl upon land. She would gain in power, and lose nothing, and of course she would be pretty.
Gussie cast up a silent wish of her own, that her poor aunt would not be too disappointed with whatever happened instead. And that she would contrive to control her temper, if she was.
Not that anything was happening at all, yet. Those collective, indrawn breaths were released at length, when poor Lizzie sat unchanged under her family’s scrutiny, growing anxious and restless but in no way uncanny.
Then a faint, dry rustling came, a whispering hiss, and Aunt Wheldrake clapped her hands together in delight. ‘Oh, it is scales!’ said she. ‘It is her mermaid’s tail! Quick, Lizzie, we must get you into the water at once.’ And she rose, and bustled forward, ready to scoop up the child and carry her straight to the winding beck that ran, half asleep, through the grounds.
‘Stay, aunt,’ said Gussie, holding up a warning hand. ‘I do not quite think—’
Further words were unnecessary, for a tiny storm caught up the ringlets of Lizzie’s golden hair, and whipped it all into a tangle.
It was no storm of her mother’s, for Aunt Wheldrake’s face registered dumb astonishment, and then bleak dismay — for the golden mass shifted, in the blink of an eye, into a nest of slim, gold-gilded snakes. At her approach, all those tiny heads turned as one, and uttered a sibilant hiss in chorus.
Aunt Wheldrake came to an abrupt stop, but too late, for one eager little monster lashed out with its ivory fangs, and sank them with alacrity into her wrist.
With a scream, Aunt Wheldrake retired, defeated, from the lists.
The assembled Werths waited to see whether Lizzie’s snakes would prove venomous, to be indicated by the sudden and fatal collapse of Aunt Wheldrake.
This undesirable development did not come to pass. Aunt Wheldrake clutched at her injury — but minor, to Gussie’s eye, though she keened and bristled as though it had come near to mortal — and gabbled something perhaps only her husband could understand.
‘Well,’ said Lady Werth into the ensuing silence. ‘And we have not had a gorgon among us since Werth’s Great-Aunt Maud. I shall fetch her diaries for you, Lucretia. I am sure they contain a great deal of practical advice upon the management of her hair, and other troubles.’ What her ladyship meant by “other troubles” presumably included a tendency to turn living beings into exquisite stone statues; an ability few gentlemen could consider desirable in a wife.
Already, one or two Werths were drawing away from poor Lizzie, as though she might leave nothing of the party behind her but a collection of statuary. Which, of course, she might. Aunt Wheldrake should consider herself fortunate only to have been bitten, Gussie thought, though there was no sign in her aunt’s face of any consciousness of a narrow escape.
At length, the disappointed mama drew herself up. ‘Mr. Wheldrake,’ she said to her husband. ‘If you will be so good as to take Lizzie? I believe I will begin upon those diaries at once, sister.’
Lady Werth gave a gracious inclination of her head, and dispatched a hovering footman with instructions to unearth these hitherto forgotten manuscripts. The defeated parents followed, bearing the birthday girl between them, and a silence fell.
At length, Lady Werth sighed. ‘And I wish she had been a mermaid, for her mother’s sake. But for her own, I do not think it at all a bad thing. A gorgon! She will be the quite the terror of society, in fifteen years’ time. I look forward to her effect upon the patronesses of Almack’s, should the wretched creatures still be in the ascendancy. Only let them tell her she is denied entry to their abominable establishment.’
Had she been a man, of course, she might wreak havoc rather further afield, for tales of a long-ago Phineas Werth’s services to king and country were legendary at the Towers. He was said to have turned a whole platoon of advancing cavalry to stone, with a single flick of his riotous locks. And he was insufferable about it, too. There was no talking to him at all.
As a lady, Lizzie’s influence might extend no farther than the elite social establishments of London, but Gussie amused herself very much in picturing the results.
There were reasons, perhaps, why the Werths were not always entirely popular abroad.
Chapter Two
Upon Gussie’s return across the park, she found a warm welcome awaiting her. Being as it was the kind of welcome born of expectation, she knew she must soon disappoint. Nonetheless, she enjoyed a moment’s heart-swelling gratitude upon beholding the familiar and beloved outlines of Lake Cottage, its arched roof and prettily-shaped gables visible from some distance. Lord Werth had granted her residence there only some eight months previously, prior to which she had maintained her abode at the Towers. Here she had privacy, and a right to her own style of comforts. Solitude, too, or nearly enough, her uncle’s only stipulation being that Someone must live with her, to preserve her respectability. Every other Werth being, at present, suitably disposed of elsewhere, that someone was her former governess, still beloved by Gussie and Nell, and glad of a comfortable situation.
Fortunately for both, she was also excellent company.
‘And?’ said Miss Frostell, coming out of the parlour just as soon as Gussie stepped into the house. ‘How did it all go off?’
Gussie paused to discard Nell’s scratchy grey shawl, wondering in the process what had become of her favourite rose-coloured one. She would have to go up to the Towers again in the morning, to enquire after it. ‘Considering the hopes riding on Lizzie’s birthday, it could only be a let-down,’ she said.
Miss Frostell made a grimace of sympathy, and ushered her former charge into the parlour. ‘She is not, then, become a mermaid?’
‘A gorgon,’ sighed Gussie, and sank onto the sofa.
Miss Frostell, a far better needlewoman than any Gussie Werth, and a fine housekeeper too, listened to her recounting of the afternoon’s events in quiet sympathy, providing murmured commentary as befitted the extent of the calamity. She was not Wyrded herself, this excellent Miss Frostell, and rather regretted the fact — except that today, a different feeling animated her sweet, thin, withered face. Was that a modicum of… relief, in her hazel eyes? When Gussie was a child, they had speculated together of the gifts for which Gussie wished; of the forthcoming day when the Wyrde might choose her after all, and answer all her childish dreams. But none of those dreams had ever included a head full of snakes.
‘That is unfortunate,’ said Miss Frostell, when Gussie had finished. ‘The poor child. I had thought — well, there have not been so many curses in the current generations, have there? Not true misfortunes.’
‘If we pass over Theo, then no. I believe most of us are not too badly circumstanced.’
‘Yes, poor Theo,’ sighed Miss Frostell, with a degree of tender feeling that might be considered unwise. A woman of quiet habits herself, Miss Frostell saw Theo’s bookish tendencies as attractive; in fact, she appeared to find everything about Theo attractive, even his flyaway, rust-coloured hair and his outmoded attire.
Truly, there was no accounting for taste.
‘Oh, and now for a surprise,’ said Miss Frostell, picking up her embroidery frame. ‘A letter has come for you. I have set it upon the table there, just beside you. It has the look of an invitation about it.’
Gussie had not noticed the missive upon coming in, her head full of too many other things. But there it lay indeed, crisp and white against dark mahogany, addressed in a hand she did not recognise. Miss Frostell’s hints she disregarded; her governess had Imagination, and a way of wishing on her dear charge’s behalf. These wishes invariably involved Gussie’s ascension out of the ranks of the poorer Werths, and into great plenty, a trajectory only to be achieved by marriage; and that, of course, required an introduction to more gentlemen. Every letter bearing the name of Augusta Werth was an invitation, but only to Miss Frostell’s fancy. Reality was hardly ever obliging enough to follow suit.
But as she unfolded this particular letter, it dawned upon her that Miss Frostell, for once, was right: she was invited somewhere. She, Gussie Werth, least impressive of her line and a poor spinster to boot. In open-mouthed astonishment she read the following lines:
My dear child. You will not know me, for we have never been introduced. I hope you will forgive the liberty I take in thus addressing you, however, for I number your aunt among my dearest and oldest friends, and I am persuaded she would be delighted by the proposal I write to make you.
I shall be holding a little gathering at Starminster. I very much hope you will consent to make one of the party, and give me the honour of your company, for the period of a few weeks.
I trust your esteemed uncle, Lord Werth, will find nothing objectionable…
The letter went on in a similar style for several more lines, and was finally signed, Esther, Lady Maundevyle.
Gussie looked up from this puzzling missive, several questions at once upon her lips.
Miss Frostell forestalled her. ‘Maundevyle?’ she breathed. ‘Lady Maundevyle? Why, is she not a famous hermit?’
‘If she is, she must be a rich hermit,’
said Gussie. ‘Without which quality, the world would not find her habits half so interesting.’ She read the letter over again, without deriving any particular benefit from the exercise; the invitation still made as little sense.
She set it aside. ‘Where is Starminster, Frosty? Do you have your peerage about you?’
Miss Frostell got up at once, and rummaged about among a collection of paraphernalia in the pretty bureau occupying one corner of the room. She returned at last with a small volume in hand, fresh-printed and new, for Miss Frostell liked to keep her peerage up to date.
‘Maundevyle,’ she said, paging through the book. ‘Here they are. Viscounts only — not your dear uncle’s equal, then, quite. Principle seat: Starminster, in Somerset.’
Having enjoyed few opportunities to travel, Gussie had yet to venture beyond the borders of Norfolk. Somerset, she knew, was quite on the other side of the country, representing a journey of some days.
Miss Frostell closed the book. ‘Your correspondent must be the Dowager Viscountess, Gussie. The current incumbent is named Henry.’
‘Naturally I am overcome with joy at her gracious condescension,’ said Gussie, but absently, her mind still turning upon the problem of her letter. What could the Dowager Viscountess Maundevyle want with her?
‘He is four-and-thirty years old,’ continued Miss Frostell. ‘And,’ she added, with the air of a woman applying the crowning glory to a string of brilliant achievements, ‘he is unwed.’ She stood, beaming.
Gussie’s wandering attention sharpened. ‘Unw— Frosty! You are not matchmaking? Again?’
‘Why, of course I am. Your aunts may have given up on you, but I have not.’
‘For shame. Are we not happy here?’
‘Blissfully, and I shall cry for a week when you go away. But you are wasted here, Gussie. A woman of your talents—’
‘I have no talents,’ said Gussie. ‘Do not you know it is common knowledge, among the family?’
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