‘Oh, this is monstrous! I can’t stay here to be so insulted! I’m going to pack my bags and leave at once! And you can be sure I will inform the registry of your accusation, and warn them not to send anyone else here! It is no doubt your maid who has stolen them! If indeed any have been stolen and you are not simply making this up!’
‘Mary has been with me for some time, with ample opportunity for theft if she was so inclined. And she was out last night.’
‘Then the other servants here. You don’t know them. I think the parlourmaid has a very sly look about her.’
‘They were all together last night. They had no opportunity.’
There was a knock at the door and Mary, followed by Jackson, came into the room. Silently Mary held out one hand, and Bella saw the missing jewels. Mary then held out her other hand in which were a couple of pairs of kid gloves and an ornate ivory fan.
‘Those too?’ Bella asked. ‘Where were they?’
‘The fan was in a drawer underneath some shifts, and the jewels in a hollowed-out Bible,’ Mary said, her voice full of disgust.
Jackson held out the book, and as Bella made to take it Miss Perkins lunged forward and attempted to seize it.
‘That’s mine! I use it to keep my own jewelry safe! How dare you search my belongings!’
Bella waved her to be silent. ‘You clearly came prepared for anything you could find to steal. I wonder how many other of your employers you have robbed? Jackson, fetch the magistrate, please.’
Miss Perkins broke down then, throwing herself on the floor and grasping Bella’s ankles, moaning and wailing. ‘I’ve three children to provide for,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m a widow, and my husband left a mountain of debts! I’m trying to pay them off, to clear his name.’
‘By risking your own? You go about it in an odd way,’ Bella commented.
‘Oh, please, what will become of my little ones if I’m hanged or transported?’
‘Perhaps you should have thought of that first. Very well, pack your bags and leave this house within the hour. Mary, you and Jackson go with her and make sure she doesn’t have anything else which doesn’t belong to her.’
Bella saw that neither Mary nor Jackson approved of her leniency, but if it were true that three children depended on the woman, she could not bear to be the cause of their losing their mother. She would do without a companion, she decided. Let the polite world condemn her, she cared nothing for their opinion.
* * * *
On the following evening Bella went to a small concert at the home of a lady she had met only a week before. She knew several of the people there, but as soon as she walked into the room her attention was taken by the sight of Alexander Yates and Frederick Ross sitting either side of Felicity. Frederick was leaning back in his chair, his head flung back, and looking from half-closed eyes at Alexander, a smile playing over his lips. Felicity was clutching to her bosom a rolled sheet of paper, and casting worried glances from one man to the other. Alexander was talking urgently to her.
The trio of musicians began to tune their instruments, and Alexander, with a sigh of frustration, sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, closing his eyes and pursing his lips.
Felicity glanced at him, stretched out her hand as if to touch his arm, and then drew it back hurriedly as Frederick murmured something to her.
‘Hush!’ a woman sitting behind them said, just as the opening phrases of the music began.
Bella was sitting on a chair against one of the walls, and a moment after the music began a young man slid into the chair beside her, giving those round about an apologetic smile. When there was a break for refreshment he turned to Bella.
‘My apologies for my late arrival, ma’am. I trust I did not disturb your concentration?’
Bella had found the musicians less than perfect, their playing somewhat uninspired and she had detected several wrong notes. ‘It was of no importance,’ she replied.
He looked round. ‘May I escort you into the supper room? That is, if you are not engaged with anyone else.’
None of the men Bella knew had approached her, all of them apparently with ladies, so she smiled at the young man and nodded.
‘My name’s Lambert, ma’am. William Lambert, at your service.’
‘Bella Trahearne,’ she responded, and they moved towards the aisle between the rows of chairs.
Opposite them she saw Alexander hold out his arm to Felicity. Frederick Ross on her other side did the same, and the girl blushed, looking from one to the other in dismay.
‘Oh, please!’
Bella caught the whisper. Why does she not take both and make a joke of it, Bella thought, irritated with Felicity’s gaucheness. But she could hardly leave them in such a state of indecision. They were almost the last to leave the room apart from the musicians, who were stowing their instruments, and Alexander was looking as though he’d like to murder the older man. She halted, murmuring an excuse to her escort.
‘Felicity! Why don’t you join us? Alexander, Mr Ross, how good to see you. Do you know Mr Lambert?’
In a flurry of introductions she got them out of the room. Mr Lambert bustled away to find them a table, and Bella briskly sent off the other two men to fetch food and drink from the buffet.
‘Where is your sister?’ she asked. How did it happen that Felicity was here unchaperoned?
‘She couldn’t come. I came with Lady Shaw, but she developed a headache and she asked Alex to escort me home. She knew I was particularly anxious to hear the concert.’
Then she had as little discrimination in music as she did in men, Bella thought in disgust.
Should she say anything to Felicity? Yet what could she say apart from scold the girl about the way she was treating Alexander? She had no right to tell the child to behave herself, to stop being so taken in by a long-haired pseudo poet. Then she laughed softly. She had no idea whether Frederick’s poetry was good or bad. Not all men who scribbled verse were bad poets.
‘Something amuses you, Miss Trahearne?’
She looked at Mr Lambert and shook her head. ‘I have a feeling we have met somewhere,’ she said, wrinkling her brow. ‘Your voice, there is something familiar about it.’
‘Not my face or my figure?’ he asked in mock dismay. ‘I am sure I have not had the pleasure of meeting you. I could not have forgotten.’
Smooth, Bella thought, amused. She turned to direct the conversation with the others so that Alexander and Mr Ross did not come to blows, which, judging from Alexander’s expression, was what he would dearly love.
At the end of the concert she bade farewell to the attentive Mr Lambert, and saw with relief that Lady Andrews’ footman was waiting for Felicity. As she waited for Jackson and her own carriage, she watched Felicity being handed into hers, and Mr Ross walking away. Alexander stood watching him, then turned and strode off in the opposite direction. Bella breathed a sigh of relief. For the moment, there would be no bloodshed. And surely Alexander would cool down when he could think rationally.
* * * *
‘Lady Belstead and Mrs Ford,’ the butler announced the following morning.
Bella had been writing letters, but she laid down her pen and went to welcome her visitors.
‘Do come in. Will you take tea, or would something cold be more welcome? It’s a very hot day.’
‘Tea will be refreshing,’ Lady Belstead replied, and until the tray had been brought and the tea made and poured, they spoke of trivialities.
Lady Belstead sipped the tea, and then put down the cup.
‘My dear Miss Trahearne, I’m fully aware that you will consider I take an unwarranted liberty in speaking to you, but I have a great regard for Lady Fulwood, and I know she would be saying the same if she were here. It will not do.’
Bella looked at her in astonishment. ‘What will not do?’ she asked, her voice harsh. She had a suspicion of what was coming.
‘Your living here alone. Young ladies of good family cannot set themselves up in their own houses, without an older lady to give them countenance. It looks most peculiar.’
‘Lady Belstead, I appreciate your concern, but I did have a companion.’
‘A hired woman you did not know, and for whom I doubt you had a character. And you dismissed her within a day or so when she stole from you. That will merely convince people that you did not properly consider what you were doing.’
‘I’m not sure how my business comes to be common knowledge,’ Bella said curtly, reining in her temper with an immense effort. How dare these women come and chastise her as though she were a schoolgirl? The fact that she had been taken in by Miss Perkins simply added to her sense of outrage.
Lady Belstead smiled, and shook her head. ‘Not common knowledge, yet,’ she said. ‘But I can assure you it soon will be.’
‘Your groom patronizes the same drinking tavern as my footman,’ Mrs Ford said gently. ‘Knowing you had been staying with Lady Fulwood, he was interested He told my maid and she told me.’
‘Servants’ gossip! It’s none of their business to criticize me,’ Bella exclaimed. Nor is it yours, was the unspoken thought, and she knew the ladies had recognized it.
‘I can understand your desire to remain in London for the rest of the Season,’ Mrs Ford said. ‘And you are an independent young lady who can afford to do whatever you wish. However, you will be ostracized by most people if you continue in this way.’
‘Pray reconsider, and come to stay with us,’ Lady Belstead added. ‘We can put it about that your chaperone had to leave suddenly for family reasons, and you were suddenly left unsupported. If you move to my house today or tomorrow your reputation will not suffer.’
‘Thank you, Lady Belstead, for your kind offer, but I cannot put you to that inconvenience. I may be leaving London in a few days, and the upheaval of packing twice would be too great an inconvenience.’
And I will look after my own reputation, she thought silently. She knew that people of great wealth, as she was, could be forgiven much that would be condemned in lesser mortals. She would be the eccentric Miss Trahearne.
‘You go to join Lady Fulwood in Brighton?’ Lady Belstead asked, relief plain in her voice.
‘Or perhaps to my home in Lancashire,’ Bella said.
She had not before considered it, the words had come to her lips without thought, but suddenly she felt tired of struggling, convinced that she had not the slightest chance of regaining Lord Dorney’s regard, and also that she did not in the least wish to be married to Major Ross.
Chapter 14
It had been a late night. Some old army friends had come to London on leave, and Lord Dorney had been talking to them until after dawn. So why was someone hammering on the door knocker at this hour? He glanced at the clock on the mantlepiece and groaned. Not yet nine o’clock.
A few minutes later his valet came softly into the room.
‘It’s all right, I’m awake. Come in. Was that infernal racket anything to do with me?’
‘Master Alexander, my lord,’ the valet said apologetically. ‘He says he must see you and won’t stir from the house until he does.’
Lord Dorney groaned. ‘Blast the boy! Show him up here, and bring us a pot of coffee. A large pot.’
When Alexander burst into the room a few minutes later Lord Dorney was attired in a red silk dressing gown, lounging in a chair beside the unlit fire.
‘Now what’s amiss?’ he demanded. ‘What has happened to cause you to wake me up when I’ve had only a couple of hours of sleep?’
Alexander paced about the room. ‘Felicity! She sent me a letter. I had it barely an hour ago. She’s called off the wedding!’
Lord Dorney groaned and held his head in his hands. He’d half expected this, and had known his young cousin would be devastated, but he had no notion of how to deal with the distraught lad.
‘Have you brought the letter?’ he asked.
Alexander dragged a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket. ‘Here. Do you think she means it, Richard?’
Lord Dorney read it swiftly, noting that the ink was running where tears - he presumed they were tears - had splattered onto the paper. How remarkably childish and ill-spelt it was, he thought. But the emotions were clear, stark and unambiguous. Felicity felt that her actions were being criticized unfairly, and she would not care to think that Alex would so misjudge her during the rest of her life, if they were to be married, which she would much prefer not to be, on more mature reflection. She thanked Alex for his past kindnesses, and enclosed the betrothal ring he had given her. She hoped he would understand and agree that she could keep the other trifles he had given her, the little pearl fan and the gold neck chain. The fan in fact had been damaged. She remained his devoted servant.
He almost laughed. The chit needed some lessons on how to write such letters, if she were to make a habit of breaking off her engagements, but seeing Alexander’s distraught face he kept such reflections to himself.
‘Do you know what brought this on?’ he asked.
‘Two nights ago, that oaf Ross was ogling her and reading her some of his insipid verse. I objected. Yesterday I told her that when we were married I would make sure she never met him again.’
‘Unwise, Alex. Never challenge a woman. They’re impulsive creatures and may accept your challenge!’
‘I mean to challenge Ross! Will you be my second?’
All trace of amusement vanished. ‘Don’t be a fool! What good would that do? It won’t bring Felicity back, and whether you killed him or not you’d have to flee abroad. Go home, and wait. The girl will have to return to Bath soon, and you will have opportunities of meeting her there. You can try to mend fences.’
‘But if in the meantime she becomes engaged to Ross, even married to him, it will be too late!’
‘I doubt you need worry on that score. Ross is not the sort to want to marry a chit just out of the schoolroom, if he wants to marry at all. Go home, Alex, and if you can be reconciled in the future, you will have a better marriage for it.’
And who am I to be giving out advice on matrimonial matters, he asked himself wryly, when I am making such a mull of my own concerns?
Alexander argued while Lord Dorney dressed. He argued throughout a substantial breakfast. Lord Dorney was amused to see that his agony did not extend to depriving himself of the good things Sir Daniel’s cook thought suitable for young men. He argued when Lord Dorney insisted on driving him in the Park to, as he explained, blow away the remaining cobwebs of sleep. And he was still arguing when Lord Dorney delivered him to the hotel where he was staying.