Sin With a Scoundrel: The Husband Hunters Club (13 page)

Chapter 17

L
ady Carol had taken to her bed, and the household crept about like mice. The doctor was called to attend her. “She needs complete rest,” he informed Sir Thomas. “No excitement of any kind, or I won’t answer for the consequences.”

Tina had a fair idea of the nature of the excitement that had sent her mother to her bed, and so did Sir Thomas. When the day’s mail arrived and was carried in on the silver tray, they both pounced upon it as a way of diverting their thoughts.

Sir Thomas sifted through the letters, setting aside the bills, of which there were a great many, looking for anything to give his thoughts another direction. “Ah, here’s an invitation for a weekend at Sir Henry and Lady Isabelle Arlington’s country estate! Lovely spot. Right on the river and acres of woodland. Good hunting, as I recall.”

“That should cheer Mama up. She loves the countryside.”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Hmm. You and Charles are invited, too.”

Tina waited a moment, and then said softly. “Can we go, Father? I mean, is it possible for us to go just now, with things as they are?”

“Probably not,” he muttered, throwing down the invitation. “I’ve arranged to sell the coach. How will we get there? And your mother will want new clothes, and how will we manage that?”

But when she heard of the invitation, Lady Carol had other ideas.

“You certainly will go! And Charles, too. Your father and I will make our excuses, but you and Charles
must
go.”

“Mama, we don’t need to, really, I understand that our circumstances have changed and—”

Lady Carol gave her a bleak look, and Tina’s voice faltered and stopped. “The wretched bailiffs will be coming next week. You and Charles don’t want to be here to see that, Tina.”

“Oh, Mama!”

With an effort her mother rallied. “Never mind,” she said, waving her hand as if to push the horror as far away as possible. “You must go, Tina. What if Horace chooses that weekend to propose to you? And I still have hopes for Charles and Anne although the Burgesses seem to have got wind of our dire circumstances and are warning her off him. Still if they aren’t thrown together, then how can we expect a happy ending?”

Inwardly Tina sighed. Horace was their last hope. She must persuade him, somehow, that he loved her and wanted to marry her. The conversation played out in her head:

“Please make me the happiest man in the world, Tina, and marry me. I realize I can’t live without you. How could I have been so blind all these years?”

“Yes, Horace, of course I will marry you.”

“That’s wonderful. Let’s not wait. We must marry immediately.”

“Yes, Horace, immediately. Uhm, by the way, my family are about to be turned out of their home onto the street. Can we borrow your fortune?”

Thankfully she never found out what Horace might have said in response, as her mother climbed from her bed with some of her old vigor.

“Ring for Maria, my dear! We must start planning your wardrobe. It was fortunate we had that new dress made for your visit to the theater, wasn’t it? And somehow we must manage one or two more. There will be a ball, the Arlingtons always have a ball. You need a ball dress, Tina, something truly striking. I think I have one or two pieces of jewelry I won’t miss too much, enough to pay the dressmaker at any rate.”

“Mama, please don’t—”

Lady Carol’s mouth firmed. “No arguments. Ring the bell, Tina.”

Tina went to ring the bell, trying not to let her mother see how her heart sank at the idea of wearing a dress that had been bought with her mother’s precious jewelry.

“You have your dark blue dress for traveling,” Lady Carol went on. “Does it still fit?”

“It is too short.”

“Never mind, we’ll manage. Perhaps a trim along the hem. At least we do not have to worry about your undergarments, even darned stockings will do at a pinch, no one will see them. Apart from the servants.”

“Servants gossip,” Tina reminded her wryly.

“Perhaps, but just remember that the next time they see you you will be Lady Tina Gilfoyle, and your underwear will be impeccable.”

Tina wished she was as positive of the outcome as her mother, but as there was little she could do but agree, she set about making the best of it. And the country weekend away would be nice if she could forget that her parents were selling family heirlooms to pay for it.

“Father says he’s arranged for the coach to be sold. How will we—?”

“We will hire one if necessary,” Lady Carol said resolutely. “Your father has some rather nice bottles of wine put down in the cellar. I think they will fetch a fair price.”

She gave a shudder as she said it, as if it was all too much to bear, then forced a ghastly smile. “Well, I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end, Tina. And I’m sure you will try your very best to secure Horace although I don’t want you to feel as if you have failed us if he doesn’t ask.”

Oh no,
Tina thought with miserable irony,
I mustn’t feel that.

“Should I tell him, Mama? About our troubles?”

Lady Carol eyes widened. “Good heavens, no! You must not say a word, not until he asks you and you say yes, and even then . . . No, leave all that to your father and me. We will broach it, very delicately, when the time is right. I’m sure Horace will be understanding. He is almost one of the family, after all, and Charles is his dearest friend. How could he not want to help?”

Tina could think of lots of reasons why Horace might be quite cross about the whole thing, but she wisely kept them to herself.

“I wonder who else will be there?” her mother was saying. “Lady Isabelle likes to play the gracious lady of the manor so there are sure to be lots of guests, some of them quite exotic, as well as more familiar faces. Mr. Little, perhaps? But I suppose it’s no use thinking of him, not now that Margaret has her hooks in him. I do wish you would choose your friends more wisely, Tina,” she added irritably.

“I don’t think Mr. Little and I would have suited, Mama,” Tina replied soothingly.

“A pity.” Her expression hardened. “I hope that dreadful scoundrel Richard Eversham won’t be there. Sir Henry has some very odd friends. I’m still not sure why he foisted him upon us, but I certainly don’t want you in his company without me there to keep an eye on him. You will take care, won’t you, Tina?”

Of course she would, she reassured her mother, and Mr. Eversham was unlikely to be there; surely he had better things to do? But in her heart she was hoping very much he would be there. At least that would give her one bright thing to look forward to among the shadows of worry and anxiety, and Horace.

Hunting Horace, capturing him, securing him. She’d already made one blunder. How was she to manage this time? And his proposing to her was only the beginning.

“You must take Maria, of course,” Lady Carol was saying. “I will manage very well without her. I will have to manage, won’t I? I doubt we will be able to afford more than one or two servants when we leave this-this house.”

Her lip wobbled, and she bit down on it hard.

“Where is Maria?” she went on querulously. “Go and find her, Tina. I have so much to do.”

Tina hesitated, but she could see that her mother didn’t want her there while she indulged in her misery, so she went out quietly and closed the door.

She found Maria on the stairs. Her dark eyes widened when Tina explained about the weekend at the Arlington’s country estate and Lady Carol’s sudden ascension from her sickbed.

“She’s asking for you,” Tina said, as she continued down the stairs, leaving Maria to hurry up them. “I wonder if Mr. Eversham and Archie will be there,” she added mischievously, over her shoulder.

“Hush, Miss Tina!” Maria whispered, glancing about her, but there was no one to overhear.

Maria wished Tina would understand the dangers of the game she was playing, or at least not pretend it was all a game. Did she really feel like that? Maria thought that she was probably playing a part, hiding her fears and doubts, while determined to do what was right for her family.

Miss Tina was like that, she always had been. If she wasn’t very careful, she was going to end up being a martyr, and as far as Maria could recall from her childhood church attendance, they weren’t a very happy lot. Marrying Horace might be her parents’ answer to their problems, but Maria thought it a very bad idea for Tina.

Lady Carol would ask Maria to keep a watch on her daughter, and Maria would promise to do so, but there were forces at work that Lady Carol knew nothing about.

Mr. Eversham worried her. Just what was he up to? There might come a time when she would have to tell Tina what Archie had said although she’d prefer to wait until she knew the whole story herself. Would Archie be at the Arlington’s country house with his master? If Maria was a woman who liked a wager, then she’d say yes.

O
ver the next week Tina found herself unable to do a thing without her mother by her side. There were fittings for the ball dress and such other items of clothing that Lady Carol deemed necessary, and as well as all that there was packing that needed to be done in preparation for the closing of the house. Although more was being sold than packed. There was a horrible incident when some burly looking bailiffs arrived and banged on the door and threatened them with eviction, but Sir Thomas went to speak to them and somehow managed to gain them another month.

“However did you do it?” Lady Carol demanded, trembling hands clasped to her bosom.

“I gave them your long case clock,” he said shortly.

“With the paintings of the moon and stars?” she wailed.

“Yes.”

“That belonged to my mother,” his wife’s eyes filled with tears.

“It was either the clock or us out on the street, my dear.”

Tina held her breath as her mother struggled between her emotional attachment to the clock and her common sense. The latter won. She gave a brisk nod, before climbing the stairs again to her room, slowly, like an old woman.

Preparations for the weekend were now well under way. Charles was taking a valet, which was a tremendous expense but one Lady Carol felt could not be forgone. Often gentlemen visiting away used each others’ valets or any available servants in the house they were staying in, but to do that seemed too penny-pinching and Lady Carol could not bear it.

“I don’t know how we are going to afford this,” she confided to Tina, as they sat in the parlor one morning, sipping tea from leaves which had been reused several times. It was barely tea now, more like hot water and milk.

The parlor looked quite bare. Most of the “good stuff,” as Sir Thomas called it, had gone. Lady Carol still preferred to sit in here however and take her morning tea, with the view through the sash windows of the kitchen garden, now sadly neglected.

“Who will care for everything when we’re gone?” she worried.

Charles blundering into the room was almost a relief. “Morning Mama, Tina.” He blinked and looked about, as if suddenly realizing how many things were missing. “Had a clean out, Mama?”

“Yes, Charles.” Lady Carol rallied at the sight of her son. She still persisted on keeping their true situation a secret from him, which Tina found ludicrous, but if it made her mother a little happier then it was best to go along with it. Although what Charles would think when he came home and home was no longer here, Tina couldn’t imagine.

“Just popped in to say that Horace has offered me the use of his valet, so I won’t need to worry on that front. And he’s offered to take us in his coach, Tina. Nicely sprung, very comfortable, and his horse flesh are top notch.” He beamed at them both, then closed the door behind him.

Lady Carol clapped her hands together. “That’s marvelous!” she gasped. “You will be traveling with Horace and Charles. How many days’ journey is that, Tina?”

“Three, Mama. So three days in the coach and then the weekend—although it is actually three or four days at the estate—and then three days back.”

Lady Carol looked ecstatic. “Marvelous,” she said again. Then her face fell. “Oh dear, we’d decided on the dark blue traveling dress, hadn’t we? Because we thought no one would see you. I think we must find something a bit more flattering, Tina. Ring for Maria. We need to send for the seamstress.”

Wearily Tina got to her feet. By the time Lady Carol was done she’d have more dresses than the queen, and certainly as many slippers and gloves and shawls. Not that she was ungrateful, she reminded herself. In fact she was very grateful, it was just that the reason for all this splendor was so daunting—the prospect of persuading Horace to marry her.

And as far as she could tell Horace seemed as little interested in her as he’d always been.

H
orace’s coach crept through the busy streets out of London. With Charles and Horace sprawled on the seat on one side, and Tina and Maria seated primly on the other, there was no room for Horace’s valet, and he rode outside, with the coachman and the luggage. And Tina was self-consciously aware that most of the luggage belonged to her.

Horace was in a jolly mood, telling stories and making Charles laugh uproariously. Tina’s head was aching already, and they’d hardly begun.

“I do hope there’ll be people we know there,” Charles said. “And at least someone under sixty!”

“Lady Isabelle is under sixty,” was Horace’s prompt reply.

“The delectable Lady Isabelle.”

“Charles!” Tina reprimanded him.

He laughed a little wildly. “It’s all right, Tina, I’m not about to seduce our hostess. I can’t answer for Horace, though,” he added with a sly sideways glance to their companion.

“Horace is a gentleman,” Tina retorted, also looking to Horace, expecting him to say that seducing Lady Isabelle was a ridiculous idea.

Horace merely smiled benevolently upon them both. “Now, now, children, let’s not argue. Tell me, Charles, did you stop by at our club the other night? I was otherwise engaged. Tell me, was—”

Tina was no longer listening. In truth she was disappointed. She didn’t expect any better from her brother, but she’d hoped Horace might behave like a gentleman. Or perhaps she just wanted reassurance that even if she didn’t love Horace, she wasn’t making a terrible mistake about his character.