Unsuitable Bride for a Viscount

by Elizabeth Beacon

  ‘And they are so happy I have no idea why I am crying,’ Marianne agreed as she watched Fliss walk down the aisle of the tiny church on Darius’s arm.

  ‘Nor do I,’ the lady said as she dabbed away at her eyes with a whisper of lawn and lace and sighed happily.

  ‘I seem to be your escort, Mrs Turner,’ Lord Stratford whispered as the best man followed Darius and Fliss out with his own wife on his arm. ‘I hope I will do?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said and took his offered arm and they emerged from the little church together as local children held hoops of flowers interwoven with corn over the bride and groom like a triumphal arch. The wedding party followed the bride and groom across the fields and around to the grand front of the house rather than the back door they normally used for more everyday occasions. ‘It is as well it is high summer,’ Marianne said as they approached the wide open front door. ‘Sunlight and warmth casts such a good light on the house.’

  ‘Indeed,’ he said as if his thoughts were elsewhere.

  ‘And Papa was so happy to marry Darius himself,’ she said with an anxious glance behind them to see if her father had exhausted himself getting here.

  ‘Marbeck has promised to stay with Reverend Yelverton until he is ready to make the return journey and as your sister is not here yet I expect all three are sitting in the shade waiting for the fuss to die down. Your father will have plenty of time to get his breath if he can walk at his own pace.’

  ‘And Sir Harry did not mind?’ The man had brought her sister all the way here in a curricle and four as well and Marianne was not quite sure she approved, even if it was an open carriage attended by a tiger and two outriders so nobody could accuse them of impropriety. She supposed the man had exerted himself to get Viola here to see Darius and Fliss marry after some domestic crisis made it doubtful Viola could have got here in time without his help.

  ‘Marbeck is not the yahoo some of the gossips like to believe,’ Lord Stratford said as if he actually liked the raffish baronet.

  ‘Yet I cannot help but wonder why he is trying so hard to prove his sooty reputation false today,’ she said with a frown.

  ‘Maybe he has turned over a new leaf. He has put himself out to drive your sister here and says he will drive himself back to Gloucestershire to spend a few days with his wards, so Miss Yelverton can stay and enjoy a small holiday.’

  ‘What a considerate employer he is,’ Marianne said blandly, still not sure she liked or trusted such a handsome rake with her little sister’s welfare and good name.

  ‘Whether he usually is so or not, he needs your sister a lot more than she needs him, so it is in his interests to be kind to her when he has three wards under the age of ten to cope with alone if she leaves her post. I can barely manage to look out for one eighteen-year-old with a retiring disposition myself.’

  Marianne loved her sister, though, and really did not want her to suffer the sort of insinuation and slights she faced when she came back from Spain a widow. ‘Maybe I am judging him on not even a whole day’s acquaintance and you are right to tell me so, but I am not inclined to be fair when my sister could be gossiped about if she does not keep Sir Harry and his bad-dog reputation firmly at arm’s length.’

  ‘Hmm, I wonder,’ he replied with a preoccupied frown as he turned to watch the Reverend Yelverton join the company at last, looking none the worse for his more direct walk past the farmyard while he continued to discuss some obscure piece of scholarship with his younger daughter and Sir Harry Marbeck.

  Marianne tried to see them through unbiased eyes and frowned because, never mind fairness, Viola seemed different today. She had not seen Viola since she left Bath to become governess to Sir Harry’s wards nearly a year ago, but her sister was more animated and less tightly in control of her thoughts and emotions than she was then. Viola even seemed to move more freely as she strolled along at her father’s slow pace. And what on earth had they found to talk about so intently with wild Sir Harry Marbeck that they hardly seemed to notice the rest of the company were even present?

  ‘Stop worrying, Marianne. Marbeck is too much the gentleman to take advantage of a lady employed to care for his wards and living under his roof.’

  ‘It is not his roof,’ Marianne replied absently. ‘And she is not your sister.’

  ‘Yet Miss Yelverton is clearly a lady of character and I expect she has her own share of stubborn Yelverton pride to add to it. Trust her to put him firmly in his place if he steps over the line and Marbeck will be so desperate for her to stay I am sure he will not risk it. As she used to teach at Miss Thibbett’s School Miss Yelverton can pick and choose who she works for and you can trust Harry Marbeck to know it and treat her accordingly.’

  ‘Is he a friend of yours?’

  ‘An acquaintance merely, but I do not think he is as black as he has been painted.’

  ‘But attractive rakes like him can cloud the most sensible lady’s judgement,’ Marianne objected because she did not want to be fair to the dangerously attractive young baronet.

  ‘Indeed?’ Alaric said with a glint of devilment in his eyes that contrarily made her want to laugh at his almost suggestion he might have to become a rake if she liked the idea.

  Perhaps laughter was the most dangerous quality a handsome employer could offer a governess or a young lady’s companion, she mused, and decided to concentrate on her sister’s vulnerabilities rather than her own this afternoon. ‘My sister has seen far less of the world than I have, Lord Stratford,’ she said primly.

  ‘Maybe she has just seen different bits of it, Mrs Turner,’ he replied almost seriously.

  ‘Maybe,’ she replied. Did he think she was being overprotective? Perhaps she was not giving her sister enough credit for being four and twenty and a lady of character. She shot a brooding glance at Viola, Sir Harry and her father and decided even if Alaric was wrong and she was right she had no cause to interfere. Viola would see it as her big sister thinking she knew best and the fragile bond between them might break for good this time. ‘And I have a wedding breakfast to supervise despite my mother’s best efforts to create chaos, so kindly let me get on with my last duty as housekeeper here, my lord.’

  ‘Heaven forbid you ever shirk one of those, Mrs Turner,’ he said rather wearily and she refused to meet his eyes. Hard work had been her salvation these last few months and it was very useful to hide behind at times like this. She would miss it, she decided as she glanced around the polished and immaculate hall and the wide open doors into the drawing room and the dining hall, where tables groaned with bright glass and gleaming porcelain ready for the feast. And without Alaric’s help and his servants’ effort she could not have achieved even half of it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘Have you decided to say yay or nay to me yet, Mrs Turner?’ Alaric asked her several hours later, when the last of the guests were standing about feeling awkward and Fliss and Darius had departed in a flower-decked gig for Miss Donne’s house in Broadley and a private wedding night.

  Miss Donne and the family were to stay here and welcome the happy couple back in the morning, then they would spend the rest of the week here before they finally left the newlyweds in peace. And all Marianne could think of was that Lord Stratford would shortly be leaving for Broadley as well. After an overnight stop at the Royal George he would come back for Juno tomorrow, then they would travel on to his grand Wiltshire home and she might never see him again if she said no.

  ‘I am willing to agree to a month’s trial. If I do not suit you or you prove to be a tyrannical employer, we can reconsider at the end of it,’ she said at last. She would be a fool not to at least give it a try, would she not?

  ‘There will be no need,’ he said confidently. ‘I am sure you and Juno will enjoy one another’s company so much you will hardly notice my tyranny.’

  ‘Only time will tell,’ she argued and was surprised when he
shook hands on their bargain and announced it to the company. Too late to go back on her word now and of course she did not want to return to Bath or stay here and play the third in Darius and Fliss’s honeymoon. Alaric was cunning to make it nigh impossible for her to go back on her word and she shot him a reproachful look over her surprised mother’s head even as she smiled and agreed, yes, she was very lucky and, no, she could not have told anyone sooner than this as it was Fliss and Darius’s day and they deserved to be at the centre of it.

  Juno was touchingly delighted with her decision and Mrs Yelverton was torn between delight her daughter was going to work for a noble family and dislike of her having to work at all.

  ‘Is this what you truly want, Marianne?’ her father asked quietly while Alaric was doing his best to reassure her mother that Mrs Turner would be valued and respected under his roof and an elderly cousin had recently come to live at Stratford Park so her good name was safe.

  ‘Yes, Papa, you know I prefer to be occupied and Miss Defford is a bright and interesting young woman under her diffident manner. I believe I can be useful to her and my life will not be an onerous one.’

  ‘No, but it has been so for too long. You deserve to live among good people who appreciate your fine mind and generous heart.’

  Marianne blinked back tears at the quiet understanding in the blue eyes all three of his children had inherited from him. ‘Thank you, Papa. I do love you and Mama dearly, but...’ She let her voice tail off as she ran out of tactful words to say why she could not go home with them and endure being a chastened widow again.

  ‘And we love you, my Marianne, but the house in Sydney Place is not big enough for us to get away from one another and I know you were not happy there.’

  ‘I would not have been happy anywhere after Daniel was killed.’

  ‘Maybe not, but Bath has its drawbacks as well as advantages. It is in a fine situation and we two go on very well there, but you young people need more life and freedom than a small town house can offer.’

  ‘You were there when I needed you,’ Marianne said and it was true. Never mind the less generous of her mother’s new friends, she had needed to be with her parents at the darkest time in her life so far. And now she wanted the life her father spoke of and space enough to breathe. Living at Owlet Manor these last few months had taught her to value that and maybe Alaric and Juno had taught her what she had and they did not—a loving family who would always value and look after one another despite their differences.

  * * *

  Marianne was glad when Sir Harry Marbeck left for Gloucestershire and Viola was free to whisper, ‘Congratulations’, under cover of their mother’s slightly drunken ramblings on the subject of undutiful daughters and their father’s gentle protests they were no such thing. ‘You will be much happier with them, Marianne, and Juno is such a gentle girl you should get on very well together.’

  ‘Darius might be hurt when he finds out I do not intend to live here and Fliss was Juno’s governess for several years. She might not think we are suited.’

  ‘She is wise enough to know the girl needs to be out in the world, not tucked away at the back of beyond with two lovebirds and as they should be man and wife in peace for a while she obviously cannot stay here.’

  ‘And when did you become so wise about love and marriage, Viola?’ Marianne asked with an intent look as if to say Don’t try and turn the subject because you know I can hang on to it like a dog with a bone.

  Oh, botheration, she was interfering and she had promised herself not to. Just as well Alaric was not here to hear her and raise his dark brows in surprise.

  ‘I watched you fall in love with Daniel and saw that same look in Fliss and Darius’s eyes today, so I have been able to observe the difference between an agreeable sort of a companion and the love of one’s life, Marianne. You will just have to trust me to know my own mind and take my own risks if the time ever comes for me to jump head first into love as my big brother and sister have done before me.’

  ‘Sometimes you find yourself landing in a mess of briars if you leap without looking,’ Marianne warned, not sure if she was referring to her own feelings for Alaric or those she thought Viola was developing for her careless employer.

  ‘Maybe if you look hard enough there is a way around the briars without getting scratched,’ Viola said, ‘and you know I always look before I leap, Marianne. So please stop worrying about me.’

  ‘I have to, I am your big sister.’ Marianne read her sister’s silent disagreement in her stubbornly firmed chin and the way her eyes went unreadable and chilly. ‘I cannot pretend it is better not to rake up the past when it stands between us, Viola. I know how much I hurt you when I left the vicarage to marry Daniel. I felt guilty about leaving you behind almost every step of the way.’

  ‘You still went.’

  ‘I did,’ she admitted starkly, ‘and I would do it again in the same situation, but somehow I would find a way to take you with me.’

  ‘And poor Daniel would have had the weight of the law and his commanding officer’s fury to contend with as well as you demanding he marry you and never mind what Mama and Papa said,’ Viola the woman reasoned.

  It was almost as if Viola had made herself forget the lonely child who pushed Marianne out of the door and shut it on her as if she truly hated her for leaving. She could still hear Viola’s sobs through the wood as she crept downstairs and out through the back door and into the night. And the sound of her little sister’s desolate sorrow at being the only Yelverton left at home haunted her all the way to Daniel’s latest posting.

  Even when he finally agreed to marry her at the drumhead, since she had no intention of going away until they could wed without her parents’ consent, it felt wrong to do it without her little sister playing bridesmaid as they always dreamed she would when they planned their ideal weddings as little girls. ‘Forgive me?’ she pleaded now as she had back then, her last words to her sister as she slipped out of their shared bedroom and stole away into the night.

  ‘Of course, I am quite grown up now, Sister. Real love and a chance of such happiness are rare and should be grasped with both hands. I did just tell you I learnt to recognise true love when I see it, so forget about whatever I said back then—I was a spoilt brat who only thought about my own wants and needs. You did what you had to do, Marianne. Mama and Papa would never have let you wed a mere sergeant and I would have been very happy for you if Daniel had not taken you away and left me to worry about both of you as well as Darius living in the midst of so much violence and unrest.’

  ‘I was not in any danger,’ Marianne argued rather lamely but of course she had been once Daniel was posted to Portugal and then Spain. She shivered at the memory of the terrifying retreat to Corunna and the running battles even as the boats took the ragtag remains of Sir John Moore’s army off the shore, then she recalled Daniel’s fury when the army had tried to leave his wife behind. He had refused to let them and tears threatened now at the memory of him refusing to take no for an answer as he had marched her on board one of them and defied any man to make him leave his wife behind. There were other times they had been surprised by the enemy or just got lost in a storm and it had taken days of stubborn effort to find Daniel again.

  ‘Don’t lie to me,’ Viola demanded sternly and suddenly Marianne could see what a formidable teacher she was with any pupils foolish enough to try to get the better of her. ‘I am truly a grown-up now and I know you must have been scared and in peril time and time again in Portugal and Spain, whatever colourful comedies about your life on the march you sent back to make Mama and Papa feel better about you being there. You must treat me like an adult if we are to truly be sisters in spirit as well as fact once again, Marianne.’

  ‘Very well, then, I will—anything to avoid more of your icy glares.’

  ‘I have been working on them lately,’ her sister admitted ruefully an
d Marianne’s attention snapped back to the very grown-up problem of Sir Harry Marbeck and her sister’s true feelings for the wretched man.

  ‘You have?’ she said cautiously.

  ‘I have and do not allow that vivid imagination of yours full rein because it is Sir Harry’s great-aunt who has been on the receiving end of my iciest ones lately and not Sir Harry himself. If I did not stand up to the old tartar, she would have me running around at her bidding all the time instead of looking after my charges and trying to drum a few facts into their reluctant heads.’

  ‘She sounds like a nightmare to live with.’

  ‘No, I like her. She adds spice to the mix.’

  ‘You really are enjoying this position, then?’

  ‘Yes, and imagine how it would be for me as Mama’s last chick if I had stayed in Bath, Marianne. Teacher or not, I was dragged off to soirées and card parties and made to play silver loo every night of the week except Sunday when I had to go and live with them before you came back.’

  ‘So you left me to endure it and went back to live at school with a sigh of relief, then you took this post to make doubly sure you would not have to do it again, I suppose.’

  ‘Perhaps, but you have no idea how hard I had to fight for that post at Miss Thibbett’s. If not for Papa putting his foot down for once and insisting I was allowed to leave home and accept it, I would be a Bath quiz right now.’

  ‘No, you definitely would not,’ Marianne argued. ‘Not with that face and blue eyes and all that lovely blonde hair. You always were the family beauty, Viola, so do not even try to tell me you did not have dozens of offers before and probably during your teaching career.’

  ‘And it is ridiculous of you not to accept how truly lovely you are, Marianne. Even after Daniel adored you every moment you had together, and I have no doubt told you how breathtaking you are time and time again, you still refuse to see your looks are out of the common way.’