Beauty and the Beast of Thornleigh

by Kate Westwood

  Georgiana shook her head. ‘Pray, Lilly, do not speak of Captain Brandt in that way! He is very amiable…perhaps a little curt, but that is because he has not been in society much these past years. But he is a gentleman of good breeding and fine manners. He is as deserving of respect as any other man here in this room; all the more so for his service to his country. I liked him very well.’

  ‘Then since you like him so well, I must tell you something about the Captain, which I have just heard from Charles Hailsham. Charles— Mr Hailsham that is — came to pay his respects to Esme and me, you know, for we are quite familiar acquaintances. If you had come but fifteen minutes earlier, I should have been able to introduce you properly. But never mind that, you will not guess what news I have just heard!’

  Intrigued despite herself, Georgiana waited expectantly.

  ‘Charles Hailsham told me that Captain Brandt has come into town with the sole object of procuring for himself a wife!’

  Georgiana was startled. ‘Oh, Lilly, forgive me for saying so, but I do not think it proper to be making known the private affairs of the Captain, if it is true. He has a right to dignity as much as the next gentleman! It is wrong of Mr Hailsham to speak of his friend’s affairs, I think.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ interjected Lilly impatiently, ‘but there is more. He has a niece, the child of his brother, whom he has raised since his brother died. The child’s grandmother is now threatening to take the girl away from her uncle, unless he finds a wife within the next six months. Char— Mr Hailsham says Captain Brandt has offered to three ladies since March! And they have all refused him – on account of his face!’

  ‘If it is true, then I am prodigiously sorry for Captain Brandt,’ replied Georgiana soberly. ‘But it is still his private business and we ought not to be discussing it. I am sure Captain Brandt would be humiliated if he knew his friend had been indiscreet.’

  ‘Oh, yes, Georgiana, but do not you see? Captain Brandt paid such a marked attention to you tonight; he did not even ask any of the other ladies to dance! He made little conversation with anyone else, except of course Sir Thomas, his friends, and your aunt. Georgiana, I believe that he may well have picked you out as the object of his next attempt to propose!’

  Georgiana was silent a moment. ‘I do not think he paid particular attention to me, or rather, no other young lady would look him in the eye! How could he ask someone to dance, if they would not even look at him? You yourself fled when he approached us. Nay, do not make yourself anxious over it, Lilly, for I do not judge you! But if he danced only with me, it was because I was the only young woman in the room who would accept!’

  ‘But that is my point, Georgie.’

  Georgiana was quiet, and her friend did not press her further. Tom Laidlaw had now approached and was sitting with Esme, who looked at him shyly now and again, with great admiration. The conversation turned to general matters when the young man politely enquired after Georgiana’s mother and younger sister, and Mrs Osbourne echoed the civilities. Soon, the conversation was interrupted by the chiming of Lady Young’s clock which signalled the calling around of carriages, and Georgiana took her leave to find her own party.

  She longed for the privacy of her bedroom, in order to contemplate the meaning of the information she had been given. She planned to plead tiredness to her mama, rather than stay up for the customary glass of negus with their aunt, and so when a rather ill-tempered Elizabeth declined a late supper also, she quickly added her own apologies and went upstairs too, stopping only to retrieve her cane from where Gibby had left it hours ago, and then to look in on Julia. Finding her fast asleep, she quietly left the little package of cake on her bedside table, and went thankfully to her own chamber. It was however, some time before sleep overcame her.

  Five

  She did not sleep well, and the suspicions which had prevented her rest lay heavy on her mind the next morning when she came to breakfast. Her aunt was in attendance, having established a daily habit of a short walk and breakfast with her nieces. Georgiana slid into the cool, shady room, greeted her aunt and Elizabeth, and kissed Julia who had finished her breakfast and was playing about on the carpet with Lumley.

  ‘Good morning, Mama,’ she added to Mrs Hall, who was deep in conversation with her sister, and barely raised her head. Both women looked well pleased with themselves.

  Aunt Fanny waved an arm for tea, which the maid immediately dispensed, and helped herself to toast and preserves. ‘And how did you find Lady Young’s assembly, my dears? Is it not a fine house? And so many young people! Such a lovely time for you both!’

  Julia looked up from the floor. ‘I wish I had been allowed to come, Aunt Fanny. It is so unfair! I would have danced and danced! Did you dance, Georgie?’

  Georgiana smiled at her sister. ‘Perhaps the floor is not the most decorous place for a young lady who wishes to be of genteel parties? But yes,’ she added, as Julia scrambled up into a chair, ‘I was fortunate enough to find a partner, and danced the first. But you would not have danced and danced, even if you had come, dearest, for there were only six or seven dances. And not enough young men to go around!’

  ‘I think dancing a very dull and stupid past time,’ said Elizabeth, through a mouthful of pound cake.

  ‘You always say that,’ remarked Julia astutely, ‘but then if you dance, you come back from an assembly very gay, and declare how enjoyable it was! I think you are in a sulk because no one asked you to dance last night!’

  Elizabeth reddened and put her tea cup down with a sharp clink. ‘I will thank you not to speak until you are spoken to, Miss. Mama, Julia is becoming quite pert, I declare!’

  Mrs Hall frowned. ‘Mind your sister, Julia, and watch your manners. Now, girls, we shall remain at home this afternoon, for calls, and you may both walk in Hyde park at five o’clock. Julia, you may attend with your sisters, if you wish. But be sure and wear your bonnet at all times! You must remember you are a young lady now!’

  Georgiana, not attending very much to these instructions, absently served herself from the sideboard and began to cut up her eggs.

  ‘You made quite a conquest I think, my dear, in Captain Brandt,’ began her mother again, in an insinuating tone.

  Georgiana put down her fork. ‘I don’t know what you mean, Mama. I danced with the Captain once. That is all. I barely spoke to him for the rest of the evening. Pray do not suppose things which may be embarrassing to the Captain, for you know he is to dine with Aunt Fanny and us soon.’ She took up her fork again, intent on regaining her peace of mind.

  ‘Well, I only know what I saw with my own eyes, my dear. I may have been mistaken. But,’ her mama added slyly, ‘what did you think of the Captain? Why to be sure, he is not so very handsome as once he was, but he is very rich, they say, and quite eligible too, I believe.’

  ‘Mama!’

  ‘I am only being practical, Georgiana. You must get used to the idea that you, even you, with your most unfortunate indisposition, might attract a husband who does not mind such a fault, and you know you are very pretty, my dear. That can suffice for many men!’

  ‘Thank you for the compliment, Mama’ she replied drily, ‘but I would as soon not accept an offer from someone who thought me a walking fault!’ She preferred not to quarrel with her parent, and she met her aunt’s eyes with a pleading look. This time, however, her aunt would not meet her eyes, and Georgiana, looking for support and finding none, could only finish her breakfast in silence.

  Mrs Hall, perhaps emboldened by her daughter’s silence, observed after a minute or two, ‘And as for the gentleman himself, why, there is no personal attribute that cannot be reconciled to, no unsightly feature that cannot fail of being acceptable if that is the only thing to discourage one. If a young lady can be assured of security, of material security, for herself and her family, why, those things can render an ill-favoured face quite acceptable indeed!’

  ‘And I collect there are no other considerations, Mama?’ Georgiana rejoined
with alacrity. ‘A woman cannot think of marrying for love, and must put her family before her own happiness from a sense of duty? You infer that I must give up the thought that someone might want me for myself! Forgive me, but I cannot enter into your feelings at all, Mama! It would be humiliation indeed to enter into a union with someone who would take me, despite my infirmity! And I would think it contemptible to marry a man whose wealth alone is the prime attractor.’

  ‘Ah, you use me very ill, Georgiana, when you speak like that! Cannot you have some compassion for your sisters, and your poor aunt, whose generosity alone provides the breakfast on this very table?’

  Georgiana endured this appeal to her feelings with a pang of guilt. ‘I know how generous our aunt is, Mama.’ She cast a loving glance toward her aunt. ‘But I would sooner be poor than marry merely to please others! Not even though we are now as poor as church mice! I’ll take my fifty pounds per year and be partnerless at many more assemblies, gladly, so long as I do not have to sacrifice my pride. I am content.’

  ‘Your pride!’ Mrs Hall’s voice was shrill. ‘So, you are content to treat us all with contempt, and to give up any opportunity to marry well, for your pride? Captain Brandt is a very wealthy man, and he paid particular attention to you last night, and now you say you shall not look at him because of pride? What is this but missishness and unchristian behaviour!’

  Georgiana barely held her countenance. ‘Mama! For once and for all, I will not have any more talk of myself and the Captain. There are decidedly no wishes in that direction on my part, and I believe his attention to me last night was entirely disinterested. If it was not, then I shall be sorry to disappoint him, but nonetheless, disappointed he shall be. And if and when I marry, Mama, it shall be to someone who does not tolerate my limp, purely for the sake of my looks!’

  ‘Oh! You vex me to death, you ungrateful child! Here have your aunt and myself gone to great trouble— I mean to say, that your aunt and I wish it—’ Prevented entirely from saying anything more, by the intercepting sharp look from her sister, Mrs Hall stumbled and fell silent.

  However, the import of this exchange had not gone misunderstood by Georgiana. She stood in shock, from the table, and gaped. ‘Mama? Aunt Fanny? You manufactured a meeting with Captain Brandt? Is it true then? You are trying to sell me off to a man whom no one else will consider? Oh yes, I know it all! Lilly Osbourne warned me already to be on my guard. Do you think that because I have a limp, I have not the same chances on the Marriage Mart as other girls? I know we are reduced in circumstances, but this, this is too much!’

  Mrs Hall flushed. ‘I need not remind you, Miss,’ she said coldly, ‘that your circumstances in life, your indisposition, make you excessively ineligible for marriage. If you are so fortunate as to receive an offer from any gentleman with money, it is your duty to me, as your mother, to accept it! You need not consider yourself so eligible that you can have the liberty of niceness, when it comes to the choice of a husband! You should be lucky to get any at all!’

  Georgiana was stung. ‘This is cruelty indeed,’ she cried, her eyes glistening, ‘from one to whom I have done no wrong, and have performed my duty as a daughter every day! I will not endure to be told I must be sold off to the only man that would have me! I would rather die an old maid!’

  ‘And well you might, Miss,’ cried her mother after her as Georgiana left the room. ‘For I cannot, and will not support you, if you decline an offer, from Captain Brandt or any man of fortune, for I will consider it a gross negligence of your duty as my daughter!’

  But Georgiana did not hear the final parting words of her mother, for she had rushed up stairs, as fast as her gait would allow, and sought the refuge of her room where she struggled for some time to calm her emotions.

  Six

  It was several hours before Georgiana was able to return to the parlour for the afternoon’s calls. Even now, as she sat silently on the sofa with Julia, she could hardly attend her needlework and after a few moments let it drop into her sprigged-muslin lap. Her mother sat opposite, calmly reading French verbs to Julia and having her repeat them back, while Elizabeth worked a screen she was embroidering. Every now and again, Julia cast first her sister, then her mother, a curious glance, but she ventured none of the questions that Georgiana knew she probably longed to ask.

  The peaceful picture this family setting presented was much at odds with Georgiana’s emotions. She had begun to piece together her mother’s strange fixation with her looks the previous evening, and her instructions not to dance. Her eyes glinted with passionate resistance. How could Mama sell her off to the highest, nay, the only bidder! It was humiliating at the very least; it was insupportable! And Aunt Fanny seemed somehow involved in the secret, too!

  She knew her family depended now upon the kindness of her aunt, to live anything near the life that her mother had forced her quiet, dear Papa to live, who was so good and kind that he would have done anything to ensure the happiness of her mother. If they were to increase their fortunes now, by their own power, then one of them must marry well, and it seemed as likely as not that this would fall to Julia or herself.

  No such offer had yet made its way into the drawing room of Loweston, for any of them. At seven and twenty, Eliza was almost past the age she might reasonably hope for marriage, and even should Colonel Walker offer, Georgiana was convinced Eliza would decline. As for Georgiana herself, she had failed, at the age of three and twenty, with a marked limp, to attract any suitor since entering society six years ago. And she refused to consider that raising the family from poverty and dependence was her duty! To submit to such a situation, to enter the state of marriage for the sake of duty, and out of obligation to others, and where there was no love and no mutual respect, would ease her family, but make a sacrifice of her pride, of her very soul. She would not submit to such a scheme!

  She fumed inwardly, her eyes excited almost to tears. She could not believe that the noble gentleman, a decorated hero of the navy, whom she had conversed with last night, and danced with, had been conspiring all along to make her an offer, before he had even met her! It was humiliating to think that he had already marked her out as someone whose lowered circumstances make it likely she would not refuse him. She wondered how he had even heard of her, then recollected her aunt’s connections to that family. If even her very own aunt was willing to throw her to the “beast”, for the sake of— but here was the first caller! She sat up straight, determined not to show her distress.

  The caller was in fact, Mrs Osbourne and her daughters, and Mrs Hall received them cordially. Lilly came immediately to sit with Georgiana on the sofa, but they managed little conversation of importance, since there was no chance that they could not be overheard. Lilly departed with promises to meet her friend in Hyde Park at five o’clock to walk together, and they left.

  Minutes later, the second caller was announced, and Captain Asher Brandt was shown into the room. Georgiana was not entirely unprepared for this event, and she had taken precautions to inure herself to the possibility of his calling. So, when he was shown in by Gibby, and Mrs Hall had bobbed and simpered and ingratiated herself entirely to him, and he was seated comfortably on a chair facing the three girls, she was able to meet his eye with cold civility, if nothing more.

  He looked just as he had the previous evening, tall, muscular under his coat, his sandy hair swept low over his forehead, as if to conceal some of the scarring which mottled his face.

  After the initial general civilities, Georgiana kept her eyes averted, hoping he would not address her personally, and indeed, if it were not for the studious manner in which she avoided his gaze, she thought he might have ventured a comment. She thought she felt his eye on her once or twice but took great pains with her stitching and offered no comment in the general course of the conversation. As a result, it would seem to an observer that he had merely paid a general call to the family, with no particular object in mind other than to obey the duties of society with civility an
d politeness. His enquiries were all made to Mrs Hall. Was she enjoying the season, had they attended the new play he had heard about, in what manner were they to travel home to Derbyshire? After several minutes, the room fell silent, and as suddenly as he had arrived, he took his leave, without meeting Georgiana’s eyes more than once the whole visit.

  After he had left, she excused herself from the room abruptly, her mother too wise, or perhaps too much subdued by the possibility of her scheme’s failing after all, to remark upon her daughter’s departure. Georgiana stayed in her room until Elizabeth called her at a half past four for their walk.

  Cane in hand, she said very little as they strolled in Hyde Park, and even when they were joined by the Osbourne sisters, who exclaimed their delight in meeting, she was unable to return her friends’ conviviality as her mind was much preoccupied with how to stave off an unwanted offer. She affected her usual gaiety, but so poorly that Elizabeth chastised her aloud for being mournful and dull, and Julia, who always held her hand when there was no one about to see her not being a “great lady”, relinquished this habit in favour of her older sister’s instead.

  Lilly, who had taken her position by Georgiana’s elbow, as she did often as a service to her friend under the guise of intimacy, waited for a chance to enquire after Georgiana’s health, somewhat concerned seeing her in such low spirits.

  ‘You are very kind; I am much obliged, but I am quite well,’ Georgiana assured her friend, pressing her hand.

  Lilly looked doubtful, but was too polite to force a confidence from her friend, and turned the conversation to more general matters. Georgiana was grateful for this since she did not wish to share intelligence that Captain Brandt had called on them, nor that they were to dine together in the next day or two. She instead struggled to recover her spirits, having some small success by diligence and stern self-admonition, and by the time they met with Miss Anne Young, her brother Frederick, and a young man unknown to them, she was able to greet them all with a sincere smile, and to exchange polite solicitations before parting again.