She made the turn into St James’s Street without mishap, and breathed a sigh of relief to find it comparatively deserted. The horse had settled down and she brought it more under control, slowing down in order to stare about her.
So this was where all the gentlemen’s clubs were, she thought, looking eagerly for the famous bow window.
She saw it at the very moment she heard someone calling her name, and with a startled jerk on the reins brought the carriage to a halt.
‘Miss Trahearne, are you lost? You shouldn’t be here, really you shouldn’t!’
‘Major Ross!’ Bella exclaimed. ‘Oh, I - that is - ‘
‘Did the horse run away with you? He seems far too spirited for you to control. Would you allow me to drive you back home?’
‘I can control him perfectly well, thank you!’ Bella replied indignantly, and suddenly became aware of several men who had stopped and were observing her with considerable interest. She coloured, for in their eyes she read either a speculative interest or outright condemnation.
Tossing her head she made to move on, but before she could someone sprang into the seat beside her. Bella gasped in alarm, and then began to protest as the reins were taken ruthlessly out of her hands and the newcomer shook the horse into motion.
‘Be silent! You may explain this deplorable behaviour when I’ve driven you home!’ Lord Dorney snapped, and Bella, aware that most of the spectators had heard him, subsided against the seat and stared stonily ahead of her.
* * * *
Lord Dorney walked swiftly through the August portals of Whites, ignoring the jocular comments of two of his friends about the correct way to treat disobedient chits, and made his way to the library, where he found Alexander slouching in a chair, his head in his hands.
‘Alex, I’m sorry to be late. An unavoidable delay, I’m afraid.’
Alexander glanced up. ‘So I heard. A pretty woman’s always going to be an excuse. Sorry! I’m out of sorts, Richard.’
Lord Dorney sat beside him. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Felicity! She and Lady Andrews have come to London to choose her bride clothes, so I came up too. She’s accused me of not trusting her. How can she? I only want to be near her.’
‘Nerves, my dear fellow. She’s very young, and almost all brides have occasional doubts.’
For a moment Alexander looked hopeful, then he shook his head. ‘That doesn’t explain why she’s been riding in the Park very early for three days running with that fop, Frederick Ross.’
‘Has she, by Jove?’ Lord Dorney looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t know her very well, but is she the sort of girl to be flattered by poets swearing devotion to her eyebrows or similar nonsense?’
‘I didn’t think so. She’s always seemed very sensible in Bath.’
‘Is this her first visit to London? Surely, if she hadn’t accepted you, this would have been her come out?’
Alexander looked startled. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. She’s been out in Bath society for a year.’
‘Then perhaps her head has been a little turned by all the attention. She’s a very pretty girl.’
‘That could be it.’ Alexander was looking more cheerful.
‘Give her time, and be patient,’ Lord Dorney advised. ‘Have you fixed a date for the wedding?’
‘The end of July, we thought. We didn’t see any point in waiting, we know our own minds. At least, I thought we did.’
‘It’s to be in Bath?’
‘Yes. Most of our friends live there. Richard, will you support me? I’d rather have you than anyone else.’
‘Of course I will. Now forget your poet and don’t quarrel with Felicity, and all will be well.’
Chapter 11
‘Miss Bella, they’re too lively for you,’ Jackson protested.
‘Nonsense.’ Bella patted the nose of the dappled grey Welsh cob as he looked out from the stable door. ‘They’re beautiful, perfectly matched, and I’m told they belonged to a man who was a capital whip.’
‘Why has he sold them?’
‘I believe he had a reverse at cards, and has gone abroad for a while.’
‘They’ll need expert handling if he was as good as you’ve heard.’
‘Do you imply I can’t? That I’m not expert enough?’
‘No, no, Miss Bella - ‘
‘I’ve driven myself for years in Lancashire. Just one pony, I’ll admit, and driving in town traffic, or even a pair in the Park, needs extra skills, to be sure, but I’ve had lessons for weeks now, I’ve driven a few pairs, and I’m tired of always having to be escorted!’
‘Yes, Miss Bella,’ Jackson said, but in a tone that clearly implied he didn’t agree.
‘It’s just that they haven’t had much exercise the past few days. But if it makes you any easier, you shall drive out with me when the curricle arrives. I bought it yesterday and it should be here this morning.’
‘Curricle? But - yes, miss,’ Jackson said again.
Bella smiled to herself as she wandered back into the house and sat musing in her room. He’d clearly understood she meant it, and had given up protesting. After a few drives, she would be competent enough to cut a dash in the Park. So many men had offered to teach her, but she was bored with all of them.
Lord Dorney had not offered after their last encounter, when he’d driven her home from St James’s Street. He spent most of his time with friends or at his clubs, and though she tried to be in the breakfast room at the same time as he was, on most days he either rose very early, or came downstairs long after she felt unable to remain, toying with a roll, and the servants eyeing her with ill-concealed curiosity or amusement.
There was a limit to how much she could pursue him, she told herself, after enduring a sleepless night during which she had rejected several notions of how to attract his attention as either impracticable or just silly. So she would forget him. As she had no desire to marry any of her other suitors, who were all, she was convinced, as attracted to her fortune as her person, she would behave as she wished.
She scorned the conventions of Society, listened to Jane’s advice politely, but ignored it. As Lady Fulwood’s guest politeness dictated she must conform to her hostess’s notion of proper behaviour, but that would soon end. She would rent for herself a house in London and move there as soon as possible. In fact she was already negotiating for a small one in Dover Street. If Jane refused to come with her, and since Philip was expected home at any time this was a real possibility, she would hire a companion. Even Bella recognized the impossibility of living totally on her own. She did not wish to be ostracized by all but the fastest set. And a compliant companion could write notes and run errands for her.
Bella shivered slightly. It wasn’t what she really wanted, but she could not impose on Lady Fulwood if she did things that lady disapproved of. Jane, and Philip when he came, would soon be going home to Lancashire. What would Lord Dorney do? He seemed to lodge with friends when in London, but there would be a limit to how long he could do that. Would he go to Dorney Court when the Season ended? What would she do then?
There was a tap on the door and Mary appeared.
‘Miss Bella, there’s a visitor for you. Are you in?’
Bella looked up. ‘Who is it?’
‘He says he’s your cousin, Mr Gareth Carey.’
* * * *
‘Dan, the whole situation is impossible!’
Sir Daniel looked at Lord Dorney with sympathy in his eyes. ‘Only in your eyes, Richard. You’re being too stubborn. You love the girl, so why don’t you admit it?’
‘I don’t know what I feel for her! I thought I loved her, but when I discovered she’d lied to me, I began to question what I felt.’
‘Shock, I imagine. Richard, no woman’s perfect, and she lied, assumed a different name, for what seemed to her a very good reason. Can’t you see it from her point of view? If you had a fortune, would you want to be pursued by girls and their mamas who were interested only in your money and not yourself?’
‘Of course not, and I understand that.’
‘It’s rather different for a girl. A man with a fortune can choose the girl he wants to wed, and ask her. Girls have not the same freedom. They can’t offer for the man they want.’
Lord Dorney laughed ruefully. ‘But she did, in effect.’
‘Then why the devil can’t you see that she wants you, and accept? Give away all her money if that would make you feel better!’
‘I think she might have something to say about that!’
‘Well, arrange the settlements so that she has total control over the money. But consider, would you want her to live at Dorney Court in its present state, with workmen all over the place? Doing small jobs as and when you decide you can afford them? She could pay for your renovations and have the place fit for her within weeks, a month or so. You wouldn’t need to let your London house, but if you did would you refuse to bring her to London because you couldn’t afford a suitable house for the Season?’
Lord Dorney sighed. ‘I’m too confused, and at the moment she’s behaving in the most outrageous ways, encouraging all the fribbles in town to dangle after her. If she’s not careful, the high sticklers will lose patience with her and she’ll find herself excluded from all decent society. She’ll become intimate with rogues like Lambert and Mrs Williams, people who aren’t invited even to the biggest routs.’
‘And you could prevent all this.’
‘Could I? Dan, I need to get away, free of the risk of meeting her every time I step out of my room at Lady Fulwood’s. I’m going to Leicestershire.’
‘Not at this time of year, surely! What on earth would you do there? Hack about the country on your own, not knowing how you feel? That might, or more likely might not, resolve your doubts, but in the meantime, what will happen to her? I suspect, if you leave, and she doesn’t have even a hope of seeing you, she’ll do even more shocking things than driving down St James’s Street!’
Lord Dorney clutched his already disarranged hair. ‘Dan, you’re my best friend, and usually I’d listen to your advice, but this time I simply don’t know what to do!’
‘Come back to stay with me. I’m fixed here for the next month or so, and then, you tell me, you’ll have to go to Bath for young Alex’s wedding. Lord, it doesn’t seem long since he was a schoolboy, following you around at Dorney Court demanding to be allowed to shoot rabbits.’
* * * *
‘Gareth. I didn’t know you were in town.’
Bella’s tone was coldly polite. She had never liked her cousin, who was several years her senior, and had, as a boy, made her life a misery whenever he and his parents had visited Trahearne House. He either teased her, broke her toys, and as he grew older and became a pupil at a minor public school, spoke to her in Latin and scoffed when she failed to understand him. His worst crime, one she still recalled with impotent fury, had been to throw a new and much-loved doll into the nearby river and crow with laughter as it was carried away, bouncing against rocks and finally disappearing into a muddy pool.
Growing up had not improved him, in her opinion. He was pompous and stuffy, convinced of his own superiority and free with unwanted advice to whoever he could persuade to listen to him.
He smiled with an irritating condescension. ‘Neither did I know you were here until a fellow at the club mentioned the dashing Miss Trahearne and her exploits which were scandalizing the ton. You’ll have to take care, cousin, or the best drawing rooms will be closed to you.’
Bella fumed. The fact that what he said was true didn’t improve her temper. ‘If I ever want your advice, I’ll ask! But it’s most unlikely. You’re hardly a pattern card of propriety. Has Helen dropped her cub yet? How long have you been wed? Seven months, I think, and that was done in a very hasty and secretive manner. I believe she had a respectable portion, and you could get hold of it only by seducing the poor girl! Papa didn’t even receive an invitation to the wedding.’
He winced, and she knew she had touched on a sore point. ‘I’ll thank you not to slander my wife! Helen preferred a quiet wedding.’
Did she, Bella wondered. Most girls wanted the full ceremonial and all the fuss that attended weddings.
Gareth’s face was red and he paced angrily about the room. ‘I’ll have you know the child was premature, and if you imply differently you’ll be sorry!’
‘I doubt it. But don’t worry, I’ve no interest in your morals. Other people can count too.’
He pursed his lips but clearly decided to ignore this. ‘Premature,’ he repeated. ‘But he’s strong. He’ll survive. I have an heir, Bella. Which is more than you have, and more than you’re likely to have the way you are behaving! No decent man would consider an alliance with you!’
‘Not even with my grand fortune? You can’t know how many offers I’ve had, both here and in Harrogate.’ Bella grinned, recalling some of the latter. She had no intention of marrying any of them, but it did no harm to give Gareth a fright. She could get her own back for the many annoyances he’d caused her in the past. ‘I may well surprise you and upset your hopes. I’d rather give all my fortune away than let you and your family get your hands on a penny of it! But that’s enough. Why did you come to see me?’
‘I thought it time to mend fences. I’ll ignore what you’ve said today. I quite understand that you must be feeling out of sorts when Society is so critical of you. But with my help, if they see your family support you, your good name could be reinstated. We want you to come to the christening. To be a godmother to little Henry.’
Bella was speechless with astonished fury. To have Gareth, her despicable cousin, holding himself out as a means of restoring a good name she had not - yet - lost, was beyond enough. It certainly wasn’t because he wanted to help her make a good match. Indeed, the longer she remained single the better he’d like it, for it increased his chances of inheriting Trahearne House.
‘I’ll send Henry a suitable christening gift,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve no doubt that was your main reason for seeking me out. You don’t care a rap for my good name, just my money! And thank you for the honour of asking me to sponsor your son, but I’m afraid I have to refuse. I’m surprised you’re not worried I’d either drop him or drown him in the font!’
Without waiting for his reply she swept from the room, saw Lady Fulwood’s butler hovering, and briskly told him to show the visitor out, and if he called again to say she was not at home.