Intrigue (Daughters of Mannerling 2) (13 page)

Whistling blithely, he made his way out and up the back stairs and so along to Maria’s room.

Maria had changed into a loose flowing gown. Her maid was brushing her hair. She saw Harry’s reflection in the mirror and said to her maid, ‘Leave us.’

Harry grinned as he went up to her. He barely heard the closing of the door behind him as the maid left. He took out the diamonds and fastened the gleaming strands about her neck.

She smiled and then said, ‘Come to bed.’

And for the first time in his life, Harry Devers met a lust that matched his own. The sun was high in the sky when he left her and went silently to his own room and descended into an exhausted sleep. He had not thought of Jessica once.

For, as our different ages moue,
’Tis so ordained (would Fate but mend it!)
That I shall be past making love,
When she begins to comprehend it.

MATTHEW PRIOR

Robert Sommerville was fascinated only by the charms of Maria Lanni’s voice when he found her still in residence by the following evening. She for her part was content to converse amiably at the dinner table with a gentleman who knew all about opera, although she was cunningly aware the whole time of Harry’s hot and jealous eyes fastened on her face.

When the ladies retired to leave the gentlemen to their wine, Mrs Devers said to Maria, ‘Will you be staying with us for very long?’

‘Does it inconvenience you, ma’am?’

‘No,’ lied Mrs Devers, who was finding the opera singer’s presence not only inconvenient but a great worry as well. She had noticed the way Harry had been staring at the wretched woman. She had suggested to him that he might like to call on Jessica and invite her to come and stay, but Harry had said hurriedly that he would see enough of the girl once they were married – hardly the remark of a lover. ‘We do plan to go to London in a few days’ time,’ she went on smoothly. ‘I do not want to send you so hurriedly on your way, but . . .’ She pointedly let the sentence trail away.

‘Thank you so very much for inviting me to stay until your departure,’ said Maria, and Mrs Devers, who had no intention of travelling to London, began to think she would have to go in order to get rid of this dangerous and unwelcome guest.

Robert, on his way to his own room that night along the dimness of the corridor lit only by one oil-lamp, saw Harry’s tall figure disappearing into Maria’s bedchamber. He thought of Jessica. He tried not to. If Harry was as infatuated with Maria as he appeared to be, there was a hope the engagement could be broken.

He hesitated outside his own room, his hand on the handle of the door. Then, against his will, against every voice that was screaming in his head that he was not behaving like a gentleman, he went along the corridor and listened outside Maria’s door.

He heard Harry’s voice, loud with anger. ‘You’ve already had Mama’s diamond necklace; you can’t have her tiara as well. Don’t you realize the servants will be blamed when it is found they are missing?’

And then came Maria’s mocking voice. ‘I think then I shall take my leave tomorrow and sleep alone tonight.’

Harry’s voice dropped to a pleading mumble. Then Maria said quite clearly, ‘No tiara, no favours, my young buck.’ And then came Harry’s voice, aggrieved and petulant, ‘Oh, all right!’

Robert moved quickly back to his room. He felt grubby for having listened. What had happened to him? He had stooped to reading his sister’s private correspondence, and now he was listening at doors. Harry had obviously given the opera singer his mother’s diamond necklace, and now he was planning to give her the tiara as well. The minute Mrs Devers missed them, there would be an outcry. The servants would be accused of theft. Something had to be done. Not so long ago, he would have talked it over with Honoria, but he had had another angry scene with his sister after the ball, and she had left the next morning for Tarrant Hall. He decided to sleep on it.

The following day, Mrs Devers’s maid approached her mistress, tears running down her face. ‘What is it, Justine?’ asked Mrs Devers. The maid’s name was Peggy, but Mrs Devers always gave her lady’s-maids French names in the hope of making them look fashionable. She had employed a succession of lady’s-maids, and ‘Justine’ had lasted the longest, that period of employment being now five months.

‘Your diamonds have gone,’ wailed the maid. ‘I did not like to tell you, but the paste diamond necklace was missing after the ball, but I thought it might have fallen down somewhere, but now the tiara has gone as well!’

And so the butler and housekeeper were summoned, Mr Devers was told of the theft, and soon the great house was in an uproar. Robert, coming back from a morning’s ride, quickly learned that the theft had been discovered. He felt a distaste for the whole sorry business and longed to keep quiet about it. He wondered whether Maria knew the jewels were fake. Just before dinner, he took Justine aside and said quietly, ‘This is a difficult affair; I regret to tell you that you will probably find your mistress’s jewels in the opera singer’s bedroom. Reclaim them when she is at dinner, tell your mistress quietly about it, and we can hush up the scandal that way.’

And so, had it worked out that way, Maria would have been taken aside and told to leave for London immediately. But before that could happen, Mrs Devers said at the dinner table, ‘I know the wretched jewels were only paste, but nonetheless, they were excellent copies and I do not like to lose them. If they are not found soon, then we shall need to tell the authorities.’

Maria’s eyes widened. ‘Paste?’ she demanded.

‘Yes, paste,’ said Mr Devers. ‘My wife’s paste diamond necklace and tiara have gone missing.’

Maria got to her feet, her magnificent bosom heaving. Harry tugged at the sleeve of her velvet gown. ‘Sit down,’ he hissed, ‘and keep quiet.’

The opera singer rounded on him. ‘Paste!’ she shouted. ‘You gain my favours and this is how you repay me! Paste!’

‘What is this, Harry? What is she talking about?’ asked Mrs Devers.

‘Nothing, nothing,’ said Harry.

Maria sat down slowly. She realized she could hardly tell her hosts how she had come by the jewels, although she had practically already done so. And then the butler, who had been called out of the room, came in and stooped low over Mrs Devers and whispered something that made that lady’s face go rigid with shock and disgust.

Mrs Devers looked straight at Maria. ‘I shall tell the servants you will be leaving in the morning, Miss Lanni.’

Maria threw Harry a look fit to kill, but said nothing. The meal progressed in grim silence. Then Maria rose to her feet. ‘I am fatigued,’ she announced, ‘and will retire.’

Mr and Mrs Devers waited until she had gone and the double doors were closed behind her.

‘Harry,’ began Mrs Devers, ‘this is the outside of enough. You plague us and threaten us until you not only get permission to wed Jessica Beverley but to get Mannerling as well, and now, shortly after your engagement is announced, you shame this family by stealing my jewels and giving them to a trollop.’

Robert got to his feet. ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ he said. ‘I’m going out for a walk.’

‘I will come with you,’ said Harry.

‘Sit down!’ barked his father.

Harry sat down and stared sulkily at his plate. ‘I knew they were only paste,’ he said. ‘I did it for a lark.’

‘We have gone along with all your disgraceful plans,’ said Mrs Devers. ‘We have allowed you to sell out, we have allowed you to propose to a girl of no means to speak of and one who has made her ambitions to live here again very blatant, and you have made us promise to move out of this house, and this is how you repay us! But perhaps marriage will save you. We will summon Lady Beverley here tomorrow, you will get a special licence, and you will marry Jessica Beverley in six weeks’ time or we will cut off your allowance.’

Harry began to bluster as Robert swiftly left the room. ‘I’m not such a bad chap. Got to have a bit of fun. I mean, I’m going to settle down and be a staid married man any day now.’ He thought of the voluptuous charms of Maria. Just give him one more night with her, and surely this aching lust would be assuaged. His mind searched this way and that for a way out.

He sighed. ‘You have the right of it. You are loving parents and I have treated you damnably. Damme, I love you both. Go ahead and see Lady Beverley. I will go to my regiment tomorrow and make all well with my colonel, for we left on bad terms and I would like him to attend the wedding.’ He stretched out his hand to his mother. ‘Forgive me, Mama.’

A weak smile fluttered on her lips. ‘You are such a rogue, Harry.’

Mr Devers, who had been taken aback by his son’s first declaration of love for them, began, as he had done in the past, to make excuses for Harry in his mind. The singer had obviously corrupted and seduced his boy. She was an evil woman. The jewels had only been paste. Harry had known that. He brushed aside an uneasy thought that Harry had never been able to tell paste diamonds from the real thing.

‘You may go and see your colonel,’ he said. ‘But I think you should get that special licence. Children is what you need, a nursery full of children, fine sons. Marriage will settle you.’

‘You are very good to me,’ said Harry in a broken voice, and had the private satisfaction of seeing his parents smile mistily at each other. All Harry wanted to do was to follow Maria to London. He had no intention of going near his colonel.

Robert walked for a long time across country, barely noticing where he was going until he found his footsteps were leading him to Brookfield House. He knew he should forget Jessica. She had behaved disgracefully.

The night was bright with stars, and the moonlight sent his shadow moving across the grass in front of him. He stopped at the end of the short drive that led to Brookfield House. And then he saw Jessica walking in the garden. Her hair was down her back, and she was wrapped in a warm cloak. Up and down she paced under the moon. He longed to call out to her and tell her of Harry’s perfidy, but she would not believe him, and he would despise her the more. He turned away.

‘Who’s there?’ he heard her call.

He turned back. ‘It is I, Robert Sommerville.’ He opened the gate and went into the garden to join her.

‘What brings you here?’ asked Jessica. ‘Have you come to call on us?’

‘No, I went out for a long walk and found myself here. I shall not disturb you any longer.’

‘Stay. We have not really talked much since my visit to your home.’

‘There is nothing to talk about. You soon will have Harry to talk to.’

About what? thought Jessica miserably. But she said, ‘How are things at Mannerling?’

‘There has been some unpleasantness in the family, and so I quit the dinner table and left them to their arguments.’

‘About me?’

‘No, not about you. But I may as well tell you that you and your mama are to be summoned to Mannerling tomorrow. Mr and Mrs Devers have decided that you and Harry should be married by special licence in six weeks’ time.’

‘So soon?’ Jessica’s voice was a wail of dismay. ‘That is not enough time to get a wedding gown made.’

‘I thought you would be delighted. You will be back in Mannerling in no time at all.’

‘Mannerling.’ Her voice was a sigh.

‘And you will be happy?’

‘My sisters will be happy. Where is Harry?’

‘At Mannerling. How you must be counting the minutes until you see him again.’

Jessica turned her head away. He put a strong hand under her chin and raised her face up to his. Her eyes were wide and dark in the moon-light.

‘Are . . . are you going to kiss me?’ asked Jessica in a trembling voice.

‘No, you are engaged to Harry, and so I will never kiss you again. In fact, I should not be here alone with you. Good night, Miss Jessica.’ He released her. She stood sadly and watched him walk away, longing to call him back, but unable to think of any reason for doing so.

That night Lizzie could not sleep. She decided to go down to the kitchen and get herself a glass of milk. As she passed Jessica’s door she heard the sounds of weeping. She gently opened the door and went in.

‘Jessica,’ whispered Lizzie. ‘What is wrong? What is the matter?’

‘A bad dream, Lizzie,’ said Jessica. ‘Go away. I will be all right now.’

Lizzie left and went down to the kitchen. She did not think Jessica had experienced a bad dream. Her conviction that Jessica was marrying Harry only to please her family was weighing down on her. She felt if she did not talk about it to someone, she would be plagued with guilt.

Miss Trumble was a light sleeper. She awoke as soon as Lizzie entered the room and, struggling up against the pillows, saw the little form of Lizzie in the dim light from the pierced canister of the nightlight beside the bed.

‘Why, Lizzie!’ she exclaimed. ‘Are you ill?’

Lizzie nervously approached the bed. ‘I wanted to talk. I am worried – but if you are tired . . .’

‘No, no, come and sit on the bed, child, and tell me what ails you. People of my age do not need much sleep.’

Lizzie sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘It’s about Jessica. She’s crying. She says she had a bad dream. But I do not believe her.’

‘And why is that?’

‘Oh, I must tell you. I fear I have been badly gulled. When Miss Palfrey told me, I thought it was because she was jealous.’

‘Who is Miss Palfrey?’

‘A young lady I met at the ball.’

‘And what did she tell you?’

In a halting voice, Lizzie told Miss Trumble everything she had learned, repeating over and over, between each sentence, that it could not be true.

‘I think it
is
true,’ said Miss Trumble when Lizzie had finished. ‘I wondered why such a woman as Honoria Sommerville sought your company. I would have judged it not to be in her nature. And I am sure you told her all about Mannerling and how you hoped to win the place back. She tricked you and your family into leaving, although,’ added Miss Trumble, ‘as far as Harry Devers being a lecher is concerned, I fear that is the case.’

‘What have I done?’ wailed Lizzie.

‘My child, you have done nothing. Had Jessica not been so blindly ambitious, nothing you could have told her would have made her cut short her visit to Mr Sommerville. I think you must be strong and leave things as they are. Only Jessica can break the engagement, and when she is ready to do that, you must tell me and I will do all in my power to support her. She may be miserable now, but not miserable enough to give up Mannerling. And you, too, must give up any thoughts of Mannerling, Lizzie. It is ruining your young life, a life, I believe, you nearly took?’