Marriage Made In Shame(20)

‘God. I do not need this.’

‘Don’t you? I think you need to hear a new perspective. A perspective that includes a life of your own and a liberty unconstrained by the requirements of a country that will be wanting for ever. The army was like that for me in the end. I came out with a bullet in my leg and nightmares and if I didn’t know who I was on decommission, then no one else was ever going to have the chance to, either.’

‘A brutal ending?’

‘True. But my wife saved me.’

The words dropped across hope, flattening it. No woman would ever be able to save him. He was the most renowned lover in all of London town with a string of conquests to his name and yet he could no longer feel anything.

‘You have been dallying with the wrong sorts of women. Cressida Murray was always going to be trouble and so was Henrietta Clements.’

Gesturing to a passing waiter, Gabriel ordered a bottle of fine Scotch.

‘Get drunk with me, Daniel, as a friend, and tell me about your horses.’





Chapter Ten

‘Are we not besieged by men who are most...unsuitable, Imelda?’ Lord Penbury sighed. ‘Run over by them like a pack of rats on a sinking ship? Mr George Friar, whom one cannot quite manage the gist of despite his self-proclaimed fortune, and the Honourable Richard Williams, who is afflicted with a dire lack of gumption. This is not taking into account all of the others whom my niece dances with once and then never allows them to enjoy a second turn around the floor.’ He stopped, trying to find the words. ‘It is so much more exhausting than I had ever imagined it to be, I can tell you that. My daughters were easy to marry off, no fuss, no problems. They came, they found, they married.’

Imelda joined in the one-sided conversation now. ‘Your niece inspires strong reactions from men and yet she seems to return none.’

‘Well, Lord Berrick at least has offered for Adelaide’s hand in marriage.’

‘When?’

‘Yesterday. He came to see me in the afternoon and on speaking with him I can see Adelaide would have much to gain by looking favourably upon his suit.’

‘Have you spoken with her about this?’

‘No. I do not wish to have another argument and yet...he is a good man and more than wealthy. He loves her and made much of telling me exactly how he does. He is, I admit, very verbose, but he is more than genuine with it and he has promised to allow Adelaide the space and time to pursue the interests that she holds dear. Her clinic. Her tinctures.’

‘Then he sounds most reasonable, though your niece might not recognise it as such. The young have no idea of what their future might hold, in my opinion, Penbury, or of how hard the path of life can be. Perhaps we should help her to make the right choice.’

‘How?’

‘Oh, there are many ways, my dear, ways that have been used for years and years by the wise chaperons of the young and the foolish. A small push here, a larger one there and, voilà, the goal is reached easily.’

‘You think Lovelace is a fine choice, then?’

‘I do. The best Adelaide could hope for at her age and with her attributes. She is outspoken and her independent nature is not one that most men of the ton would find appealing. Besides, I knew Frederick Lovelace’s grandmother well and she always spoke highly of him.’

Alec breathed out. Subterfuge was a game he shied away from normally, but his niece had brought him to his wits’ end. Bertram would return home to Northbridge one of these days with a wife of his own and then children to follow and he worried that Adelaide would feel replaced somehow. Lost in the mêlée of a new generation. No. She needed her own life and house and husband, he was damn certain of it. His brother would have said the same had he still been in the land of the living. John would have encouraged his daughter to spread her wings and find what he had had in his own life, a happy, comfortable marriage. He would be far from pleased to see her grown so alone, and whilst Eloise and Jean had been company for each other in their old age, Adelaide would have no one.

‘Do what you need to, Imelda, but do it carefully. I should not want my niece to know that she has in any way been pushed into this.’

* * *

Lord Berrick was waiting in the drawing room when Adelaide came down that evening having dressed for the McWilliamses’ ball. He looked different tonight, happier, and his clothes were stamped with the impression of much thought and coinage. A good-looking man despite his rather dull character.

‘Miss Ashfield.’ She looked around for her uncle and for Imelda Harcourt, but they were nowhere at all in sight. She could not believe that this would be considered proper to be left alone together according to the strict tenets of the ton. Still, his smile was real and he was so very unthreatening she felt herself relax.

‘I am honoured to be asked to escort you to the ball tonight, Miss Ashfield.’

This was the first Adelaide had heard of the arrangement, but she stayed quiet.

‘I brought your uncle a book I enjoyed and he has just gone to find one that he recommends for me to take home.’

‘You read?’

‘Anything and everything. I have no taste, only appetite.’

Despite the situation she laughed. ‘My oldest cousin, Cynthia, always called me the family bookworm. When I was younger I used to imagine that literally and worry.’

‘Well, my dog almost took a bite out of the First Folio of William Shakespeare the other day and it is worth a small fortune.’

‘You have dogs?’

‘Three of them. All large and unfortunately rather stupid. But I like them.’

Tonight without the whirl of society trapping them she thought the earl seemed nicer and far easier to speak with.

When her uncle returned with Lady Imelda a few moments later, she was sitting next to Lovelace on the sofa, talking of the house that he had grown up in. Lady Harcourt quickly fastened on the topic.

‘Oh, Thornbury Manor is a very beautiful place. Your grandmother and I used to walk around the lake there and talk and plan all sorts of wonderful gardens that would enhance it.’

‘Did they eventuate?’ Adelaide was interested.

‘Yes, many of them did,’ Imelda replied with a smile, ‘and I hope you might one day have the opportunity to see them, too, my dear. There is a white garden down by the lake and pinks and reds and yellows at the front of the house. Are they still there, Lord Berrick?’

‘Mother did not have quite the green finger that my grandmama did, Lady Harcourt, but if one looks I am certain the ancestors of those plants might still be rearing their heads come the Season.’

‘Family,’ Imelda purred. ‘How important it is and how vital the connections. Do you not think so, Penbury?’

‘Indeed, I do. Without the traditions and the solidarity of kith and kin one would be adrift and alone for ever.’

Adelaide felt the pull of something strange. There were undercurrents she could not understand at play here and she struggled to interpret them.

Berrick smiled wistfully at her, but was all attentiveness. His conversation was not quite as dull as she might have once thought it either, and as the hour wore on she realised she was indeed enjoying herself. Oh, granted, the words were not wit-sharp as they had been at the Wyldes the other evening with Lord Wesley, and when Frederick Lovelace leaned over she was not bothered whether he inadvertently touched her or not. But it was easy and good humoured and for the first time in a while her uncle smiled as though he meant it and looked pleased with her, the genial uncle from Sherborne more apparent.

Family. For all it was and all it wasn’t, she enjoyed seeing Uncle Alec happy.

‘You have no other siblings, then, Lord Berrick, no cousins?’

He shook his head, the candelabra above catching the gold highlights there. ‘None, I am afraid, for my parents were only children in both families. You are lucky, Miss Ashfield, with all your cousins.’

‘Well, three of them are a lot older than me and Cynthia and Elizabeth live in the north now. Barbara married a man from Boston and we have not seen her in years. Bertram, at least, resides in London.’

‘I should want a large family myself. Sometimes when I was young it was lonely.’

The earl’s honesty made her smile. It was rare for a man to admit to such emotion and she lauded him for it, though catching the glance her uncle and chaperon gave each other across the table she stiffened. Knowing. Smug. The horrible thought came that this meeting had more to it than the enjoyment of a simple uncomplicated conversation.

The twelve weeks of the Season that she had promised her uncle were whittling away, yet he had become more and more desperate for her to find a suitor that she held some penchant for. Had he spoken to Lovelace about his hopes? Had he even encouraged the earl?

Berrick himself had no part in it, she was certain. He was a man without the agendas of the more complex males of the ton. She almost had to stop herself from leaning over to take his hand and reassure him when her uncle began to question him more blatantly.

‘If you were married, would you live in London or at Thornbury?’

‘I like the country, sir,’ he answered. ‘But I think it would depend on what my wife preferred.’

Her uncle’s eyes reflected his appreciation.

‘And what of travel? Do you have plans to go abroad?’