Allerdale: Confirmed Bachelors Book 1

by Jenny Hambly

  “I would ask you to grant me the favour of taking you for a drive the day after tomorrow,” he said.

  Chapter 15

  Miles grinned as he saw the relief in Miss Edgcott’s expressive eyes.

  “As I had already agreed to go for a drive with you, sir, that is an easy favour for me to grant you.”

  “For some strange reason,” he murmured, “I thought you might have changed your mind.”

  The rueful smile she offered him, confirmed his suspicion. Having decided only that morning that she was not at all the sort of girl he would wish to have for a wife, he should not perhaps have pressed the point, but he had taken uncommon delight in sparring with her, and the temptation to tease her a little more had been too great.

  “Why would Miss Edgcott change her mind?” Lady Brigham said.

  She smiled reassuringly at Eleanor. “If it is because you are afraid he will overturn you, you need have no fear. Miles is a first-rate whip.”

  Miles thought the smile that curved Miss Edgcott’s generous lips, a little mischievous. He was sure of it when her eyes turned to him with an innocent expression that did not suit her. It immediately put him on his guard.

  “Is that so? That puts a completely different complexion on the matter. I have always wished to learn to drive a curricle and pair.” She smiled sweetly at him. “Would you be so very obliging as to give me my first lesson?”

  Charles gave a bark of laughter. “Allerdale never allows anyone but his groom to handle his horses, I am afraid, Miss Edgcott. You are aiming for the moon!”

  “Something I am quite sure, Miss Edgcott is aware of,” Miles said wryly.

  “No! How could I be?” she said, disappointment writ clear in her widening eyes. “Of course, if you doubt your ability to teach me, I quite understand; excelling at something yourself and being able to pass your skill on to another, are two very different things.”

  Miles’ lips twitched. He was fully aware that the little minx was trying to goad him.

  “I am afraid you are quite right, Miss Edgcott,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t like to admit it, of course, but I fear I’d make a hash of it.”

  He struggled to preserve his hangdog expression as he saw the flash of annoyance in Miss Edgcott’s eyes.

  “You allowed me to drive your horses,” Georgianna said, a dimple peeping in her cheek.

  “Yes, and if I remember correctly, it was a disaster! Tibbs said that if I ever allowed a female to handle the reins again, he would be forced to leave my service!”

  “Nonsense!” Lady Brigham said. “He is quite devoted to you. Do not be so disobliging, Miles. Your father taught me, after all.”

  “Yes, but at Brigham, Mama,” he said. “And it was there that I tried and abjectly failed to teach Georgianna.”

  “The failing was mine and not yours,” Georgianna said ruefully. “Somerton says I am a hopeless case.”

  Lord Somerton raised her hand to his lips. “Completely cow-handed,” he agreed, smiling fondly at her.

  “That does not change the fact that it would not be safe to teach Miss Edgcott in any of the London parks.”

  “I have always found the avenues in Hyde Park to be remarkably quiet first thing in the morning,” Eleanor said, the mischievous smile again playing about her lips. “I suggest you pick me up at eight o’clock.”

  This reference to her early visit to the park that morning both surprised and pleased Miles. It suggested that he was completely forgiven and for some reason that he could not quite fathom, he did not wish her to think badly of him.

  “Very well,” he said, unable to withstand the amused intimacy of her expression, which spoke of their shared secret.

  “Come to breakfast in Berkeley Square after your drive, Miss Edgcott,” Lady Brigham said, smiling. “I shall be very interested to hear how your lesson went.”

  It was at this moment that Miles realised he had lost sight of his reason for being in Town, but his mother clearly had not. Although he was fairly certain that Miss Edgcott would not read anything into his invitation, he felt sure his mama would if he paid his attentions only to one lady. He looked across at Lady Selena. She had appeared like a tongue-tied, pretty ninnyhammer at the ball, but seemed a different girl in his cousin’s company.

  “If I survive my expedition to the park with Miss Edgcott, perhaps you will consent to drive out with me on the following day, Lady Selena?”

  Her gentle hazel eyes widened in alarm.

  “Do not be such a goose, Selena,” Charles said gently. “You will be quite safe in Allerdale’s company. He is almost like a brother to me, just as you are almost like a sister to me.”

  She smiled tremulously. “Thank you, Lord Allerdale. That would be very pleasant, I am sure.”

  As they rode back to Town, Lord Carteret said, “I am not sure it was the best of good manners to ask Lady Selena to drive out with you in the presence of the lady you had just proffered a similar invitation to.”

  Miles laughed. “Miss Edgcott will not care a jot.”

  “And how do you know that?” his friend asked.

  “I just do,” he said. “She is not throwing out any lures at me. I do not believe she has any great interest in me at all.”

  “It did not seem that way to me. I intercepted a look between you that suggested otherwise. It was just after she had mentioned that Hyde Park was always quiet in the morning. It occurred to me that it is not usual in my experience for ladies of fashion to frequent the park at such an early hour, yet only this morning I discovered Lady Haverham there.”

  “How fascinating,” Miles said.

  A sly grin crossed Lord Carteret’s face. “I begin to think it is. She was accompanied by a maid.”

  “I should hope so.”

  “I did not pay her much thought, at the time, for Diana had been taken ill and my only concern was to take her home. It was only later that I considered the maid’s strange appearance. She was very heavily veiled. This circumstance muffled her voice somewhat, but when I heard Miss Edgcott speak today, the tone of her voice if not the manner of her speech, struck a chord. And then, Miss Edgcott is unusually petite, and so as it chances, was the maid.”

  “Coincidence,” Miles suggested.

  “I think not. Of course, if you do not wish to explain it to me, I will respect your wishes. I shall simply ask Diana when next I see her.”

  Miles frowned. “Damn you, Carteret. It is not my secret to tell.”

  “And yet you are clearly aware of it, old fellow. I cannot help but also wonder how you came to be in possession of the facts.”

  “Why are you so interested, Carteret? Do not tell me you are still carrying a torch for Diana. I thought you had realised that you would never have suited.”

  “I have,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if you will understand this, Allerdale, but when a woman confides in you in such a trusting and innocent way as Diana did to me at the ball, one somehow feels a little responsible for her.”

  Miss Edgcott’s laughing countenance when he had revealed that he knew it was she behind the veil sprang to mind.

  “I do understand,” Miles said, with a wry smile. “I see I shall have to explain, after all.”

  Lord Carteret listened in silence, his brows gradually gathering in a frown.

  “Whilst Miss Edgcott’s actions were well-meant, and her intrepidity cannot be questioned, it was a foolish plan.”

  “I told her as much.”

  “And how did she take that?”

  “Not well,” Miles admitted.

  Lord Carteret smiled. “She is rather spirited. Are you really going to let her drive your horses?”

  “Yes.” Miles grinned. “But I shall be a very bad teacher and make her so uncomfortable she will soon be glad to relinquish the reins to me.”

  His friend laughed, but after a moment he sobered.

  “What are we going to do about Sandford? I cannot like him hounding Diana in such a way.”

 
; “I do not think we need do anything,” Miles said slowly. “I wondered why he did not keep his rendezvous, but I think we may safely assume that he has found easier game to pursue.”

  He nodded towards an approaching curricle. The beauty they had seen in the park sat beside Lord Sandford, her eyes were modestly downcast, and her hands clasped demurely in her lap.

  “Do you still wish to rescue her from his clutches?” Lord Carteret said.

  Miles shrugged. “No. Why should I? Sandford said she was still playing the pretty innocent. If she is what she appears, he will get nowhere with her, and if she is not, then she will learn a hard lesson.”

  Lord Sandford kept his eyes fixed firmly ahead as he passed the party.

  “Did you see that fine-looking girl Sandford had with him?” Charles said, coming up to them. “If she doesn’t put him in a better mood, nothing will!”

  “Just as Lady Selena put you in a good mood today?” Miles said, raising a brow.

  “I am almost always in a good mood, old fellow. I was pleased to see Selena, however, for she looked so unhappy at the ball that I was determined to make her laugh today.”

  “You certainly did that,” Miles said. “You reduced us all to schoolroom status with your idiotic game. But if you are not sweet on her, why did you ask her to write to you?”

  Charles laughed. “Sweet on her? Don’t be such a numbskull, Allerdale. I just felt sorry for her. Lady Sheringham makes her miserable, anyone can see that. You don’t fall in love with a girl you’ve known since she was in her cradle. Why, I’ve fished her out of the river, helped her down when she got stuck in a tree, and teased her about her freckles.”

  “I didn’t notice any freckles,” Lord Carteret said.

  “No, they’ve gone,” Charles said, a little regretfully. “It’s a pity; I rather liked them.”

  “And she doesn’t seem the sort of girl to fall in the river or climb trees,” Miles said.

  Charles grinned. “She wasn’t always the little mouse she is now. She didn’t have any sisters, so she used to trail around after me and her brothers. She fell in the river when we were fishing, and she climbed the tree because Gregory, her eldest brother, told her she might as well go back to her governess as she would never be able to do it.”

  “What made her turn into a little mouse?” Miles asked.

  Charles frowned. “I have no idea. It happened when she was about fifteen; I came home one year and discovered she had developed a painful shyness with strangers. Keep an eye on her whilst you are in Town will you, Allerdale? Don’t let her stepmother push her into marrying someone she doesn’t like.”

  “Now wait a minute, Charles,” Miles said. “What could I do about it?”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’d think of something,” he said.

  “Your faith in me, Charles, whilst touching, is quite misplaced,” he said dryly.

  After a family dinner, Miles bid his cousin goodbye and good fortune and returned to his rooms. He picked up a handful of letters from his desk, settled himself in front of the fire, and smiled his thanks at his man as he placed a brandy by his elbow.

  He quickly discarded the invitations, telling himself that he would dutifully look through them later and applied his attention to the letter Janes had written him about a few matters of interest at Murton.

  He carried a branch of candles to his desk and penned a reply before turning his attention to his last missive.

  Miles smiled. It was from Rebecca, an old friend. The vicar at Brigham was the proud father to six children, of whom Rebecca was the youngest. Having no siblings of his own, Miles had roamed the countryside with them as a child, and when Rebecca came to London to make her way in the world, he had promised the vicar that he would look in on her now and then. He felt a twinge of guilt as he realised that he had not visited her for some time. He shrugged. She would have written to him if she had wished to see him, as she had now.

  Chapter 16

  Eleanor wished her friends a fond goodbye as they pulled up in South Audley Street, promising to write to them with her news.

  “You are very welcome to visit me at Rushwick Park,” Georgianna said. “Indeed, I hope you will, for if the duke lets me out of his sight before I produce his first grandchild, I will be surprised.”

  “And you may also come to Cranbourne any time you feel the need to escape,” Marianne said, smiling.

  “Thank you,” Eleanor said, touched. “I would like that very much.” She suddenly laughed. “Now all I need do is develop several other close friendships, and I can spend my time house hopping with very little expense to myself!”

  Georgianna smiled but said, “I do not think you are suited to such a lifestyle, Eleanor. You grew up in many different places, but your father made every place you lived in feel like home. I know you wish to be independent, and I admire you for it, but it is not the bricks and mortar that make a home, but the people you share it with. I grew up in one house only, but Avondale never felt like my home. Rushwick Park does because Somerton is there.”

  Eleanor blinked as sudden tears started to her eyes. Georgianna had touched a wound that was mending but not yet completely healed.

  Marianne took her hand. “She is right, Eleanor. I know you wish for a house of your own, but you already have one, in Scotland, yet you were not happy there. You were lonely.”

  “You may be right,” Eleanor admitted. “But the house you speak of was far from anywhere; one cannot be lonely in London and that is where I mean chiefly to live.”

  She had barely time to change before it was the dinner hour. When she entered the drawing room, she found Diana and Frederick in an earnest discussion.

  “Eleanor,” Frederick said, “tell me please if you think Diana looks perfectly well.”

  “She is a little pale,” Eleanor said, but when Diana sent her a pleading look, she added, “I am sure that is only to be expected when she was so ill this morning.”

  “But Diana is regularly ill in the morning when she is expecting,” Frederick said. “I have been telling her that there is no point in her staying in Town. She will only tire herself out.”

  “But I do not wish to go back to Standon without you, Freddy,” Diana said, pouting.

  His rather belligerent expression softened. “And I am sure I do not wish to be parted from you, my dear. But neither do I wish you to put your health, or that of our unborn child at risk. I am firmly of the opinion that you should go back to Standon immediately. The journey is a long one I will admit, but Eleanor will take very good care of you.”

  “But it does not suit me to go back to Standon immediately,” Eleanor said. “Amongst other things, I have promised to go driving with Lord Allerdale the day after tomorrow.”

  Frederick frowned, his concern for his wife warring for a moment with his desire for his cousin to find herself a husband.

  “You have, eh?” he said. “I hear he is much improved this season. I was talking to his father only the other evening. He was very impressed with how well Allerdale has run his estate in Yorkshire over the last several months.”

  “Then might I suggest, Frederick, that we wait a few days and see how Diana fares before we make any plans?”

  “Thank you, Eleanor,” Diana said. “It is what I have been saying myself. And I do not need to go out every evening, you know. Didn’t I send a note to Mrs Wrangton earlier, excusing us from her musical evening?” She looked quickly at Eleanor. “I hope you do not mind.”

  “Not at all, Diana. My day has been quite busy enough.”

  “Very well,” Frederick said. “But if Diana is still suffering three days hence, she shall go back to Standon if I have to take her myself.”

  This pronouncement ensured that Eleanor visited her solicitor in the morning with a sense of urgency. If she was immured at Standon and reliant on the post for all her communications, the whole business might come to nought.

  Mr Layton, a very thin, tall man with a slight stoop, received his diminutive guest
with a condescending smile.

  “Miss Edgcott. You need not have troubled yourself to come in person. Please, sit down.”

  He rummaged amongst a pile of correspondence on his desk, plucked a letter from it, and held it up. “This would have been delivered later today.”

  “I believe, sir,” she said quietly. “That I marked my missive to you as of some urgency, yet it has been some days since I asked you to make a few simple enquiries on my behalf.”

  His smile faded a little, and a wariness entered his eyes.

  “Yes, yes, I am fully aware of that, Miss Edgcott. But as you see,” he said, gesturing at his desk, “I am extremely busy just at this moment.”

  “I am pleased to know it, Mr Layton,” she said, rising to her feet. “I need then, have no qualms about taking my business elsewhere.”

  The solicitor regarded his client with dawning respect.

  “Miss Edgcott, please, do not be so hasty. I served your father faithfully for years and he never found any fault with my service.”

  “Perhaps you were more prompt in dealing with his affairs,” she said gently, holding out her hand. “That letter, please. Perhaps I will find something in it that will make me change my mind.”

  Mr Layton suddenly looked at the missive he still clutched in his hand as if it were a burning coal. He ripped it up and dropped it in the bin by his desk.

  “Perhaps it is best, Miss Edgcott, that you have visited me in person, after all. There is much room for misunderstanding in the written word.”

  Eleanor raised a brow but sat down again. Mr Layton retreated behind his desk, opened a drawer, and withdrew a sheaf of papers. He perused them for a few moments, nodded, and looked up.

  “Miss Edgcott, as you know, your father was a younger son and forced to make his own way in the world. He was very proud, I am sure, to be awarded a baronetcy for his sterling work for his country.” Mr Layton looked thoughtful as if he was choosing his next words very carefully. “I know that he would expect me to look after his daughter’s affairs with great care. He made his own fortune through choosing his investments very wisely. I know that it was his wish that you would be well provided for, and I am certain that his aim was to ensure you would never have to trouble your head over monetary matters. I cannot think that he would wish you to sully your own fair hands by investing your money in the way you propose.”