Mr Chawleigh, to Adam’s intense but rigorously suppressed annoyance, had visited the stables and the coach-house attached to Lynton House while the bridal pair were in Hampshire, and had condemned out of hand the landaulette which had previously served the ladies of the house. He thought it a very dowdy turn-out; and he replaced it with a glossy barouche, on whose shallow doors he insisted on having the Lynton arms blazoned. The carriage was drawn by a pair of showy chestnuts. Mr Chawleigh had paid a large price for them, but he was not a judge of horseflesh, and when Adam first saw them he ejaculated involuntarily: ‘Oh, my God!’
However, Jenny was not a judge of horseflesh either, so she was quite satisfied with her peacocky pair. They might have been bishoped, as John Coachman told Adam he was willing to swear they had been, but they were quite capable of conveying her about the town in dashing style.
She found Lady Oversley at home, and was taken upstairs to the drawing-room, where her ladyship welcomed her with affection but rather nervously. She was looking harassed, and when Jenny disclosed that she had called to enquire how Julia did she answered in a flurry: ‘Oh – ! So very kind of you! My dear, I’m afraid I didn’t thank you – in the agitation of the moment, you know! But Emily Castlereagh told me how good you were, and indeed I am very much obliged to you! Poor Julia! The rooms were hot, weren’t they? I was conscious of it myself, and, of course, Julia’s constitution is not strong. She is not in very high health – in fact, quite out of sorts! – so I have kept her in bed today, and Dr Baillie has given me a composer for her.’
Jenny nodded. ‘I was afraid she would fall into one of her hysterical fits,’ she remarked. ‘I thought about it a great deal, after we had gone home, and it seemed to me as though the best thing would be for me to come to see you, ma’am, because I don’t doubt you’re in quite a worry. Well, I don’t know much about tonnish people yet, but I expect they don’t differ greatly from anyone else, and Julia’s going off as she did, the instant she clapped eyes on Adam, is bound to set tongues wagging.’
Thankfully abandoning pretence, Lady Oversley said tragically: ‘Oh, Jenny, I declare I am worn to a bone! What with Julia, and then Oversley – But she did not faint on purpose!’
‘No, of course she didn’t. I don’t understand how people can faint away as she does, but there’s no denying that it never needed more than a harsh word to send her off. She used to suffer dreadfully from the vapours, too.’
‘Yes,’ sighed Lady Oversley. ‘And all the doctors could find amiss was that she was too excitable! But she doesn’t have the vapours now – at least, not if she is gently treated, and not scolded when she is already so much distressed! I don’t mean to say that I didn’t sympathize with Oversley – heaven knows I could have murdered her! In that house of all others, and with Emily Cowper in the very room! But what, I ask you, Jenny, is the use of ringing a peal over the poor child, and driving her into hysterics?’
‘Well, it isn’t any use at all, and never was,’ said Jenny. ‘Not that one can wonder at his lordship’s ripping up at her, for gentlemen don’t like scenes, except when they create ’em themselves, like Papa, when the meat’s not dressed right. The thing is, what’s to be done now?’
‘I can’t think!’ said Lady Oversley. ‘I am being driven distracted! Oversley is saying that if Julia can’t conduct herself with propriety she had best retire to a convent, which is quite absurd, for if she retired anywhere it would be to old Lady Oversley, but I don’t wish her to! Here she is, in her second season, and how, I ask you, is she to be creditably married, when her father talks such nonsense, and she will do nothing but – Oh, dear, how awkward this is! I shouldn’t be talking about it to you at all, which just shows how much my nerves are overset!’
‘There’s no need for anyone to be in a worry over me,’ replied Jenny stolidly. ‘No need for any flummery between us either, ma’am. No one thinks Adam married me for love. Only it’s a pity that everyone should know it was Julia he wanted, and she him.’ She paused, frowning. ‘There’s plenty of people who fall in love, and then fall out of it again, so I daresay it doesn’t signify, however many of her friends Julia took into her confidence. But it won’t do, will it, for her to be showing everyone that she’s wearing the willow for him?’
‘No, it will not do!’ agreed her ladyship, with feeling. ‘And so disagreeable to you, too, which, I assure you, I perfectly understand!’
‘That don’t signify. It’s Adam I’m thinking about – and you too, ma’am, for you’ve been very kind to me.’
‘I shall have to keep Julia out of his way. And how I am to do it, unless I send her back to Tunbridge Wells –’
‘Well, you can’t, of course, and to my way of thinking it wouldn’t answer. Sooner or later they’ll be bound to meet, and ten to one we’d be regularly in for it again, because the sight of him would be bound to bring it all back to her. And it won’t do to avoid us, because you’ve always been very friendly with the Deverils, by what Lydia’s told me, and so that would set people talking. So what I came to say to you, ma’am, was that the best thing is to let the quizzes see that we’re all very good friends. There’s no sense in putting Julia in Adam’s way more than’s needful, but if she visits me, and goes out with me now and then, she will meet him, and – and grow accustomed to it.’
Lady Oversley, who was regarding her in a good deal of astonishment, said: ‘But Jenny, surely you cannot wish – I mean, is it wise?’
Jenny was silent for a moment. ‘Well, I’ve been wondering that myself. Of course, the best would be if they were never to meet at all, but since that can’t be it seems to me better they should meet often enough for it to get to be an ordinary thing than to meet only by accident.’
‘If only I had known!’ exclaimed Lady Oversley, dissolving into tears. ‘I ought never to have allowed it, but it seemed so suitable! Oh dear, who could have guessed it would end in my cherished Julia breaking her heart? Though of course I should have guessed she would, because she always said he was like Sir Galahad, which I’m sure he is – if Sir Galahad was the one I think he was – Or don’t you think so?’ she asked, perceiving that Jenny’s eyes had narrowed in sudden laughter.
‘Well, I don’t know, but I shouldn’t have thought so. But I was never one for reading those old romances and legends that Julia dotes on,’ said Jenny apologetically. ‘I do know that he likes his eggs boiled for four minutes exactly, and won’t touch muffins.’
‘Won’t touch muffins?’ faltered Lady Oversley.
‘Can’t abide them! And there’s nothing frets him more than having his things out of order. He says it comes from living in tents, when there’s no bearing it if you don’t keep everything just so. I’ve been obliged to tell my housekeeper that if she can’t keep the maids from rearranging the things on his dressing-table she’ll have to leave at the term. Mind, for anything I know Sir Galahad may have been pernickety too – though I’d wager you an egg at Easter, as Papa says, that that’s not what Julia thinks!’
‘No,’ said Lady Oversley faintly. ‘No, indeed!’
‘So, if you’re agreeable, ma’am, I’ll try if I can’t coax Julia to drive with me in the Park tomorrow. And if you and my lord would bring her to dine with us next week, when Adam’s mother and Lydia will be with us, we should be very happy. It would be a natural thing for you to do, wouldn’t it, with Lady Lynton going off to Bath, as she is, and spending a couple of nights in Grosvenor Street? It won’t be a regular party, though I mean to invite Lord Brough as well.’
‘Oh, but Julia would never – Oh, dear, I don’t know what to say! Of course it would make an excellent impression, if it were known that we had all dined informally with you, but I’m afraid Julia would shrink from such a scheme!’
‘I don’t doubt she will, but there’s no saying but what I may be able to bring her round my thumb. I’ll go up to her, if I may.’
Startled, Lady Oversley said: ‘No, no! I mean, she is so much overpowered – She won’t wish to see yo
u, Jenny!’
‘Very likely not, but she won’t have any choice. Now, don’t be in the fidgets, ma’am! There’ll be no harm done, I promise you!’
With these words she got up, and walked briskly out of the room, leaving Lady Oversley feeling helpless and extremely apprehensive.
Eleven
The light in Julia’s room was dim, the blinds having been drawn across the windows. Shutting the door, Jenny said cheerfully: ‘May I come in? Though that’s a silly thing to say when I’m in already!’
She could just perceive Julia, lost in the middle of the large bed. The fair head turned on the pillow. ‘You!’ Julia uttered.
‘That’s right,’ said Jenny. ‘I came to see how you did. You won’t mind if I draw the blinds back: I shall be blundering into the furniture if we don’t have a bit more light.’
‘Have you come to reproach me?’ Julia demanded. ‘You need not!’
The sunlight flooded the room; Jenny trod over to the bed, saying: ‘Now, when did I ever do so, goose?’ She bent over Julia, and kissed her cheek. ‘Stop fretting yourself to flinders, love!’
Julia shrank, turning her face away. ‘I wish you hadn’t come! You mean to be kind, I collect, but you don’t understand! If you had sensibility –’
‘Well, I haven’t, so there’s no sense expecting me to behave as if I had. And just as well for Adam I haven’t,’ Jenny added, ‘for if I were to carry on as you do, Julia, he’d be driven demented between the pair of us!’
Julia pulled herself up. ‘I would not have spoken his name to you, or have uttered a word of what lies between us, if you had but refrained!’
‘No, I daresay you wouldn’t,’ agreed Jenny, shaking up her pillows. ‘So I haven’t refrained. Not that it’s an easy thing to talk about, but it makes for awkwardness if we must never mention it. I don’t know how to hide my teeth either, so you say what you wish, and don’t fear to offend me, because you won’t do it.’
The huge eyes gazed wonderingly at her. ‘How strange you are!’ Julia said. ‘I suppose I never understood you. But I thought I did! When they told me – showed me the notice in the Gazette – I wouldn’t believe it! You were my friend! You knew, but you stole Adam from me! How could you?’
‘That’s more than I can tell you, for I didn’t steal him, and wouldn’t have done so, even if I’d thought I could. What, set myself up as a rival to you? Don’t talk such nonsense, Julia! Papa made the match, unbeknownst to me.’
‘Oh, that’s contemptible!’ Julia interrupted, flinging up her hand. ‘Next you will tell me it was not in your power to refuse!’
‘No, I shan’t. I did refuse, when he first broached it to me – before I knew how things stood – that things had been put an end to between you and Adam. He couldn’t have married you, Julia! He was all to pieces! I daresay you don’t know what his father’s debts were, for it’s not likely he’d tell you, but Papa knew, and he told me. Adam was selling everything – even Fontley!’
‘That at least I knew! And he knew it didn’t weigh with me! I would have lived in a hovel, and counted myself happy! You may smile, but it’s true!’
Jenny begged pardon, but said: ‘It weighed with him – I think, more than anything. I don’t understand that myself, but I can see what’s under my nose. He wouldn’t have been happy, not if he’d lost Fontley.’
‘I would have made him so! Do you think you will? You won’t! It’s me he loves, not you!’ She caught her breath, and said quickly: ‘Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean to say that! Hateful, hateful – ! Go, Jenny! pray go now!’
Jenny paid no heed to this, but answered: ‘I know that. There’s no pretence of love between him and me: that wasn’t part of the bargain.’
‘The bargain!’ Julia exclaimed, shuddering. ‘No, I can never have understood you!’
‘Or him,’ interpolated Jenny dryly.
Julia stared at her, repeating slowly: ‘Or him! No – or him! Ah, but yes, I do understand what forced him to do it! But you? For a title? But you never cared for such things! You can’t have sold yourself for mere position!’
‘Why not? I’m not the first, and I shan’t be the last to do so. Easy to despise what you’ve always had!’ replied Jenny, returning the stare doggedly.
‘I don’t believe it! I couldn’t have liked you if you had been so mercenary!’
‘Well, it doesn’t make any odds what you think of me, and the lord knows I’ve felt badly enough about it. I wouldn’t have consented to it if there had been the least chance of his being able to marry you, but there wasn’t. He didn’t choose between me and you, Julia: it was between me and ruin. You say he won’t be happy, but at least he’ll be comfortable! What’s more, he’s got Fontley, and for all you may not think it that matters to him.’ She paused. ‘Well, there’s no more to be said on that head. What brought me here was what happened last night.’
Julia winced. ‘Don’t! I can’t endure any more! Papa – even Mama – ! Good God, do they think – do you think – that I meant to betray myself?’
‘Well, your mama and I don’t think it. I can’t answer for his lordship, but I don’t suppose he does either – not but what you can’t blame him, if he cut up stiff, because there’s no denying you did make us all look no-how!’
‘Oh, is that all you can think of?’ Julia cried bitterly. ‘What of my mortification? The agony of regaining my senses – seeing all those faces – !’ She broke off, covering her eyes with her hand.
‘Now, don’t get into a taking, love! It’s not so bad that it can’t be mended,’ said Jenny soothingly.
Julia’s hand fell. ‘Jenny, I didn’t mean to! I thought I could meet him again just as I ought! I could have done so, had he been there at the outset! But he wasn’t! I thought – oh, I was so relieved it made me stupid beyond belief! It didn’t occur to me that he might come later. But he did, and when I turned, and suddenly saw him, so close to me – Jenny, it was the shock that made me faint!’
‘You don’t have to tell me that. If it isn’t just like you to fret and fume yourself into such a state that you’d swoon off if a mouse ran across the floor! That’s pretty well what I told them all – though it wasn’t a mouse I set it down to, but the heat.’
‘Mama told me how good you were,’ Julia said listlessly. ‘Thank you! But they won’t believe it. They’ll watch me, and whisper about me. Perhaps they’ll pity me. Poor girl! He cried off, you know!’
‘Not if I have anything to say in the matter!’ interrupted Jenny. ‘That’s precisely what I mean to nip in the bud, so I’ll thank you not to fall into a lethargy when what’s wanted is a bit of rumgumption!’
‘Why should you care?’ said Julia, sighing.
‘Have a little sense, Julia, do!’ begged Jenny. ‘Very agreeable it would be to have people saying that about my husband!’
Julia looked startled. ‘But they wouldn’t! They know the circumstances – that he couldn’t help himself!’
‘That won’t stop them thinking he must have treated you pretty shabbily, if they see you looking as if you was sunk in affliction! He won’t look so, whatever he feels, because he’s too much the gentleman to let anyone think he don’t like being married to me, so the end of it will be that we’ll have people saying he’s downright heartless, not caring a straw for anything but a fortune, and happy as long as he’s rich!’
‘You need not be afraid!’ Julia said tragically. ‘I am going to return to my grandmother, and live retired. I daresay my very existence will be forgotten within a year!’
‘More likely they’d have to build another hotel in Tunbridge Wells to take in your admirers,’ said Jenny, keeping her temper.
Julia gave a gasp, and a quiver of laughter. ‘Oh, how can you be so – so odiously unfeeling?’
‘Well, you know I’ve got no sensibility. But I haven’t wind-mills in my head either, so I’ll tell you what you will do, and that’s to confound all the spiteful toads who’d be only too ready to crow over you.’ She caught the
flash in Julia’s eyes, and continued: ‘Yes, I can just hear them! Pretending to pity you, like you said, but fairly licking their lips, and saying they’d known all along the Sylph would have a downfall. For you can’t knock all the other girls into flinders without stirring up a lot of spite and jealousy: that I do know!’
Julia sat up. ‘But how?’ she demanded. ‘Papa wouldn’t consent to a betrothal, but people knew!’
‘What if they did? They won’t think it wonderful that a girl that has as many beaux dangling after her as you have fell out of love as easily as she fell into it! Why, you were barely out of the schoolroom! Then you didn’t see Adam for months, so what’s more natural than that you should find you’d made a mistake?’ She ignored a deep sigh from Julia, and began to draw on her gloves. ‘So I’ll call for you tomorrow, at about four o’clock, and you’ll drive in the Park with me, like the good friends we’ve always been.’
‘Oh, no!’ Julia exclaimed imploringly. ‘No, I can’t!’
‘Yes, you can. And I don’t mind owning that I’ll be very much obliged to you if you will, because I don’t care to drive alone, and I’m not yet acquainted with people. Two or three bows are the most I’ll get, if I go by myself, but if you’re sitting beside me the carriage will be mobbed, I daresay.’ She got up, as a reluctant laugh escaped Julia. ‘And if you could manage to faint the next time you go to a party – but not at Lady Bridgewater’s assembly, mind, because she said last night she should send us a card, and it won’t answer if you do it when Adam’s present – !’
‘Jenny, you are too detestable!’ protested Julia, between tears and laughter. ‘As though I could!’
‘You could, if you set your mind to it,’ said Jenny, with a tight little smile. ‘You’ve only to think you’re stifling from the heat, and stifle you will!’
A Civil Contract Page 16
