Sally James (8 page)

‘Odious man! Julian, he is detestable. How can you be friends?’

‘He’s a good fellow,’ Julian said uncomfortably.

‘But what happened?

‘The pesky horse I hired went lame and it was hours before I could get another, so it was dark before I got to Monkswood. They were in a frightful stew, for all they knew was that Everard had appeared with a wench in tow and then had gone rushing off without a word of explanation. The girl was missing and also his favourite black horse, and later the horse he had taken himself came back in a terrible lather.’

‘I took the black and he was chasing me,’ Susannah explained.

‘What happened? Why are you here now? Where did you spend the night?’ he demanded anxiously and she giggled.

‘I shot Lord Chalford in the arm and he hit his head - ‘

‘You shot Everard?’

‘Yes, why not?’

‘Why not? I should think it would be perfectly obvious why not! You might have killed him and then we’d have been in a pretty pickle.’

‘Would you have preferred him to rape me?’ Susannah asked quietly and Julian flushed angrily.

‘Of course he would not have done that,’ he replied stiffly. ‘He is a gentleman.’

‘That is far from the impression he gave me. I did not think his behaviour gentlemanly when he abducted me and tried to imprison me. No doubt he behaves differently towards girls he thinks are ladies, and well protected, compared with the manner he adopts to servant girls who cannot object for fear of losing their posts.’

‘You are mistaken. Is he badly hurt? His arm, you said?’

‘Yes, it was only a graze, but it startled him and his horse threw him. He hit his head and was unconscious for some time, but a farmer helped me take him to an inn, and I have been nursing him, because he was delirious.’

Julian looked at her in horror.

‘You spent the night with him, at an inn?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘Oh, my God! The scandal!’

Susannah laughed suddenly.

‘You need not despair. I did not reveal my name, nor his, though no doubt that will become known when his people are sent to the inn. However, I have no doubt he can survive any scandal! Not that he was in any state to be a threat to me,’ she added soothingly.

‘People will not consider that,’ he pointed out. ‘The fact you were with him is enough.’

‘Would it have been better for me to have spent the night at Monkswood?’ she demanded.

‘No, of course not, and that is why I followed you there.’

‘And found the bird flown. What happened?’

‘His people have been out searching for him all night. I have been helping and came back here to change my horse for a fresh one.’

‘Did you manage to send any messages to Aunt Sarah to tell them what had happened?’

‘No, of course not. I’m not so much of a gaby. I sent to tell grandmother we had been delayed, so she will not worry and go sending off to discover why we did not come. I hoped to bring us out of this coil without anyone else being any the wiser.’

‘Good, and we still can. We will send a message to Monkswood and then post back to find the carriage. Poor Jane must be hysterical. I wonder if Lord Chalford took her for me?’ she asked with a laugh.

‘She will not give us away?’ he asked anxiously. ‘I can trust all the others if I say it was a bet that went wrong and I don’t want my grandmother worried.’

‘Jane will keep her tongue between her teeth,’ Susannah reassured him. ‘Now I am starving, for I had almost no dinner last night and only bread and butter this morning, so do let us eat.’

She refused to discuss the matter further and after their meal Julian hired a chaise to convey them back to where he had left the coach.

He looked horrified when she produced the gold coins and explained she had taken them from Lord Chalford, and suggested using them to pay for the hire of the chaise.

‘I could not use his money!’ he exclaimed. ‘You should not have taken it.’

‘Would you have had me walk to London?’ Susannah asked tartly and, when she threatened to leave them in the parlour of the inn if he did not intend to use them, for she had no intention of taking them to Lord Chalford himself, Julian said despairingly she did not understand the niceties of behaviour amongst friends.

Susannah almost snorted with disgust.

‘You condone abduction, and the rape of servants, but refuse to spend his money on things we would not have had to purchase if he had not behaved so abominably!’ she declared and added she could not for the life of her see why Amanda wanted to marry such a nincompoop.

It was, consequently, with rather strained courtesy towards one another that they eventually departed from the inn and Susannah, tired from her night’s vigil, but unable to sleep in the chaise, was glad to be left in peace to consider the amazing events of the last twenty-four hours. Lord Chalford, she told herself firmly, was despicable and she would much prefer never to have to meet him again. Yet it was very likely that she would, an insistent small inner voice told her, and despite herself she smiled at the thought of his reaction to the discovery of her true identity. The journey passed remarkably quickly as she dreamily contemplated their first meeting and made plans for adding to the discomfort he would no doubt feel when he realized the mistake he had made. She would enjoy seeing him embarrassed, she thought, and dismissed the suspicion that he might not behave in quite the way she anticipated. She refused to admit to herself she was looking forward to their next encounter and the battle that might ensue, only maintaining she wished to punish him for

his presumption and then never see the odious man again.

Chapter Five

The days spent with their maternal grandmother in Kensington passed with aching slowness to Susannah, restless as she had never before been. Then Great-aunt Elizabeth set out for Bath and Julian went to the Horder mansion in Grosvenor Square where his other grandmother, Lady Horder, was due to arrive, and Susannah had two more seemingly endless days to wait until Amanda and her family came to London and she could go to them.

‘I thought we might be lonely tonight and so I have asked a few friends to join us this evening,’ Lady Carmichael said after Julian had departed. ‘Nothing elaborate, just cards and perhaps some music for you young people.’

‘Thank you, that will be pleasant,’ Susannah replied, smiling at her affectionately.

‘Will you wear your new green dress? The colour is just right for you.’

‘I thought to save it for one of Aunt Sarah’s parties.’

‘You will not be able to wear it too often once you go to Brook Street, for that would make people think you could not afford a new gown. And it becomes you so well, it is a shame not to make the most of it. After all, you are not very likely to meet my friends at Aunt Sarah’s parties, for we live quite retired out here.’

Susannah agreed and donned the pale green dress that evening. Jane was brushing her hair when her grandmother’s maid came to ask her to go to her grandmother’s room before she went downstairs. She found Lady Carmichael sitting at her dressing table examining her extensive collection of rings, but as she entered the room her grandmother selected a massive ruby, then shut the box and pushed it away from her as she turned to welcome Susannah.

‘Come in, my dear,’ she invited and picked up a slender case, handing it to Susannah. ‘These belonged to your mother and it occurred to me they would set off that dress to perfection.’

Susannah opened the case to reveal a delicately wrought necklace, a slender golden chain which widened to form two clusters of ferns meeting at the front, glistening with tiny emeralds. Earrings similarly shaped as sprays of green fronds nestled in the white velvet of the box and Susannah gasped in admiration.

‘They are beautiful! But are they not too grand for a simple party, too rich for a girl in her first season? I thought I should wear only pearls, or coral?’

‘Rubbish,’ her grandmother retorted. ‘Your pearls look insipid with that dress and corals wouldn’t do either. Girls these days don’t make the best of themselves, they dress far too plainly. You know I have been keeping all your mother’s jewels for you, for when you need them, and I think you should have these now. They were almost the last things Peter gave to her,’ she added reflectively.

‘Peter? Julian’s father? Were they part of that Indian legacy?’ Susannah asked excitedly.

‘I believe they were. Here, take off those pearls and put them on. Yes, I thought so, they are just right with that dress. Now you remind me of it, they must have come from India, for I remember there was a comb to match, but your mother never liked hair ornaments and she would never wear it. It was not with the set when her jewels were brought to me and I suppose it must have disappeared when the rest of them did.’

‘Yes, it was!’ Susannah exclaimed. ‘I remember now, I copied out the list. Did we not tell you of the old list Julian found? There was an emerald hair comb mentioned, it must have been the one to match these.’

‘What list?’

‘Julian found a secret drawer in his father’s old desk at Horder Grange and a list of jewels was in it. It was the list of what he had taken from the bank before he died. I copied it out and Julian brought it up to London. Oh, what did happen to those jewels? They mean so much to Julian. Does no one know?’

‘Someone does, to be sure. I never believed Peter had not mentioned them to a single one of his guests. He was a gabster, he could not have kept quiet. That was part of his trouble with the cards,’ she added. ‘He could never resist looking pleased when he had a good hand.’

‘Then you do not think they were merely hidden away in some secret place and lost, like the list?’ Susannah asked.

‘I doubt it, my dear. Nor do I believe Peter accidentally shot himself. But there seemed no other explanation and one could not accuse the other people there without proof, they were all so very respectable or well born, it would have been unthinkable. Not that I ever approved of your mother marrying him,’ she said quietly. ‘In some ways she was very stubborn and, when she made it plain that she wanted him, we did not thwart her. Yet she was better off when he died. She loved him and found no fault, but she was far happier with your father, my love, and David had waited for her since she was seventeen. Pity it was she did not realize his worth sooner! I’m eternally thankful she did not marry Sir William Andrews, as I had once feared.’

Susannah gasped.

‘Sir William Andrews! No, he is dreadful.’

Her grandmother laughed, amused.

‘He has deteriorated, it is true, but he was quite a handsome man when he was young. He was very friendly with Peter, but I suspected even then it was your mother he really wanted to see, when he was for ever at their house. But she had eyes for no one else while Peter was alive, and fortunately married your father soon after he died. William almost immediately married Maria Chalford - in pique, I am convinced, although it was rumoured he was in dire need of money, and she had a very respectable portion. All the Chalfords are rich.’

There was time for no more, for dinner was ready. Afterwards half a dozen of Lady Carmichael’s friends arrived, one neighbour accompanied by two young granddaughters who, like Susannah, were looking forward to their first season, and another bringing a nephew who was visiting her. He was the only young man in the party, being five and twenty, and was attired in a plain but exceedingly well cut coat and neatly arranged cravat. His manners were excellent, Susannah noted with some amusement, for it was only after he had paid attention to every older lady that he approached the corner of the room where Susannah and the other girls had drawn slightly apart, as Susannah did her utmost to follow her grandmother’s instructions and entertain them. Since one of them was nervously garrulous while her sister was painfully shy, Susannah was having a difficult time of it and greeted his arrival with some relief.

‘Mr Grainger was at Waterloo, Susannah,’ the garrulous sister informed her importantly. ‘He has often told us of the dreadful events there.’

‘Oh, not too often, I hope?’ Mr Grainger said, laughing. ‘Miss Rendlesham will consider me a dead bore to be for ever talking of what is past.’

He took over the conversation skillfully, contriving to induce the shy girl to utter several remarks and paying her as much attention as her more lively sister, but he was unable to prevent his glance from straying rather more frequently than politeness demanded to Susannah’s enchanting face. When Lady Carmichael suggested the sisters entertained the company with a duet, he seized the opportunity to change his seat to one beside Susannah and under cover of general conversation as the sisters made their preparations he begged permission to drive Susannah out in his curricle on the following morning.

She accepted and when the singing was over he moved away to talk with some of the older guests. Susannah looked across the room to see Lady Carmichael eyeing her approvingly and felt a sudden spurt of annoyance as she wondered whether her grandmother was indulging in match making.

Her suspicion was confirmed after the guests had departed, for Lady Carmichael demanded to know what she had thought of Mr Grainger.

‘Pleasant enough,’ Susannah replied coolly. ‘His manners were excellent, but I could not help feeling he was a trifle too smooth, too eager to please.’

Her grandmother laughed.

‘Richard Grainger has the making of a diplomat, my dear. There is no harm and much value in a man who knows so well how to please.’

Susannah privately thought it might prove tedious to be for ever in the company of such a man, but instead informed her grandmother that she had accepted an invitation to drive with Mr Grainger.

‘I hope you approve? I thought that you would and that I need not ask your permission first?’

‘You were right, my dear, I do approve, but as it happens Richard asked my permission, saying how remiss he felt that he had spoken to you first.’

‘Oh, indeed?’ was all Susannah could think of to this, as she wondered whether all the young men she would meet would be so tediously correct in their behaviour. But her grandmother was continuing, in a musing voice.