“You need say no more,” Prudence said and looked at him with a certain resignation; no doubt she had already decided for herself the insult he had made, and no doubt she had thought as little of its merit as Lady Pennington.
“Please know that I regret it.” Heath looked down.
“And have you apologized?”
“In truth, I tried.” Heath spread his hands wide and looked at his sister earnestly. “But the lady would not hear it. She would not stay in my company a moment longer.”
“Oh, Heath.” Prudence sighed, and Heath was assured of her kindness. It was clear she could see how deeply he regretted the argument.
Heath, who had been pacing the wide oak floorboards of the library for some minutes, finally sat down in a hard mahogany chair and leaned his elbows on an enormous reading desk.
The room was comforting and dark, not only in terms of decoration but light also. Every wall was lined with dark oak shelves from floor to ceiling, and every shelf was filled with books. The ceiling was dark, its plaster scrollwork painted in cream and a deep burgundy colour, and there were drapes of the very same colour at each of the windows.
As large as the windows were, they faced out northwards and enjoyed only the weakest of light, even in the height of summer. Of course, apart from the sheer number of books, the dark and somewhat masculine decoration was something that had firmly kept their mother out of that room for many years.
“Heath, why did you want Lady Imogen to see you making so great a fuss of Miss Ravenswood? It does not make sense.”
“I had hoped, I suppose, to let the lady know that I had moved away from her and firmly turned my attentions towards Miss Ravenswood.”
“But you have not. I mean, if you continue on this path, you will find yourself inexorably drawn into a union you do not wish for. Heath, you really must be careful. Did you not see how favourably our mother looked upon the two of you? Not to mention Lord Ravenswood; he was most pleased to see you finally take so great an interest in his daughter. He sees the great title of Countess within sight now; I am sure of it.”
“But I do not seek to win Lady Pennington; I seek to make it clear I am not attempting to court her.”
“But why? Why do you not seek to court her?”
“I have never sought to court Lady Pennington.” Heath knew that he was defending himself.
“But you hold her in high regard.” Prudence held her hand up when Heath tried to object. “Heath, there is little point in us talking about this if you choose to hide yourself behind a lie. I have seen your regard for her. I knew it when you approached her in Vauxhall Gardens all those weeks ago. You were immediately drawn, despite your lack of faith in her own plans and wishes and your immediate derision of her attempts to help others. Still, I knew. When you interfered in our bridge game, only to tease and goad her, I was quite convinced of your regard.”
“Prudence.” Heath tried to object again, but his sister would not relent.
“Unfortunately, most young ladies do not see teasing and goading as an appropriate form of courtship. In truth, they do not see it as courtship at all.”
“Prudence, I do not seek to …”
“As you say, you do not seek to court Lady Pennington. And yet I feel I must speak frankly if I am to have any hope of seeing you happy, my dear brother.” Prudence spoke with such feeling that Heath was suddenly assailed by a flash of deep emotion.
“Oh,” he said inadequately.
“I speak in truth. If you continue to deny your feelings, you shall be led along the path our mother sets for you, and the price for following such a path shall be your happiness.”
“And if I express my thought? My feelings?” Heath said somewhat hopelessly. “Only to have my worst fears confirmed.”
“You mean if Lady Imogen’s interests really do lay with the Duke?” Prudence spoke cautiously.
“She has not denied it. Even when I suggested that she was intent and driven in her own mission, but likely only until she made a union with the Duke, she refused to deny it.”
“Heath, I am not surprised. I daresay she was utterly furious with you.”
“But why not tell me so? Why not make it clear that I was wrong and put me right?”
“Perhaps she did not think she should have to.” Prudence shrugged expansively and widened her bright blue eyes as she raised her brows.
“Or perhaps I was right; perhaps she is simply filling her time until she is assured of a good marriage.”
“I cannot tell you how deeply I disagree. I realize I have known the lady but a short while, but I can clearly see her true commitment. In truth, I can feel it.”
“Perhaps,” Heath said, thinking of Imogen’s heartbreak at Rotten Row so many weeks before. Surely she had felt the sadness very deeply.
“Heath, you are talking about a young lady brought up with great care and gentility by a member of the aristocracy. A lady of such breeding does not walk around the inside of a workhouse simply to fill the hours whilst she awaits her prince. It is not possible.”
“I think you are likely to be quite right.” Heath knew it to be true. But he was still not at all certain that Imogen did not have some affection for the Duke of Dalton.
“I think you have much to work out for yourself, Heath. But I would beg you do not wait long. If the Duke is interested in such a lady, one who visits workhouses and talks in London coffee houses, then he will not be the only one; not for long, at least. You see, Brother, a woman of such substance and tenacity is appealing to many more gentlemen than might admit it in the beginning.”
“Perhaps you are right. Even Lord Marchmount found himself inordinately impressed. I daresay that must count for something. It must add assurance to your own theories, Prudence.”
“I have no doubt.”
“London coffee houses?” Heath said when Prudence’s words had fully settled upon him. “What do you mean she talks in coffee houses?”
“Not yet, but Lady Pennington is talking in Lamont’s Coffee House in Kensington next week. It is an informative talk about the workhouse system and the plans of Lady Pennington and Lady Redmond. And she really is garnering a lot of support amongst many of London’s caring ladies, and the learned ones also, they are most keen.”
“But surely Lamont’s Coffee House is a dreadful place? A political sort of a place with Liberal leanings?” Heath knew he sounded horrified.
“Yes, Heath.” Prudence laughed in a most unguarded manner once more. “You talk as if it is a bear pit! It is a very respectable establishment frequented by some of the finest thinkers. And surely that is the very best place to speak about matters affecting the poor? A fine gentlemen’s club or a tea room full of the most conservative of ladies would not do at all.”
“I suppose not.” Heath sounded dubious but felt suddenly intrigued. And surely if he was intrigued by such determined and unusual behaviour, then Prudence was likely to be right in that other gentlemen would soon have their interest piqued. “Are you going, Prudence? I mean, to hear Lady Pennington speak?”
“Yes, and Lady Redmond. She is marvellous herself also.” Prudence smiled. “But Mother thinks that I am having tea with Lady Rossington.” She reddened. “And I hope you shall not inform her otherwise. Or indeed refuse me such an outing myself.”
“You are going alone?” Heath narrowed his eyes.
“Goodness no.” Prudence laughed. “I am going with Lady Rossington.”
“So, you shall be having coffee rather than tea. I shall not spoil things for you.”
“Perhaps you ought to go to the coffee house yourself? Perhaps you would enjoy it.” Prudence looked at him hopefully.
“I do not think I would be the most welcome of guests, Prudence, but I thank you.” Heath smiled sadly.
“Well, perhaps you are right,” Prudence said. “For the time being, at any rate. But you could find a way to change it all if you really wanted to.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Ye
s. But first, you must know what it is that you truly want. You must not decide on a whim, or because you think yourself thwarted in love and determined to redress the balance. You must mean exactly what you say, and act only in accordance with the truth of your own heart. You have no need to make false displays of affection to another to win or make a point. You shall end by tying yourself in a knot until even you do not know what the truth is. But if you act from your heart, if you listen to it and learn to think with it for a while, you cannot go very wrong.”
Chapter 20
Lamont’s Coffee House was packed; Heath could see that most clearly even from the other side of the wide street. Lamont’s occupied the first floor of an immense stone fronted building in Kensington. It was a fashionable street, and it seemed to be filled with the young. People with a purpose and some sense of direction in the world; people just like Lady Imogen Pennington.
A great rectangular window overtook most of the front of the coffee house making it seem, at first glance, more like a shopfront than anything else. However, a closer inspection revealed table upon table of patrons, and the smell of coffee was discernible from many yards away.
For a moment, Heath almost determined to cross the street and make his way in. The smell of coffee filled his nostrils and, if nothing else, he would have quite liked a cup at that moment. But, of course, he knew that it would be more than simple coffee which would draw him to cross over and enter Lamont’s.
Even as he stood and watched, a small group of ladies, arm in arm as they walked along the street, made their way into the coffee shop. He felt sure that they had gone there with the intention of listening to the Hertfordshire ladies who had decided to make a difference. Otherwise, he felt sure that they would have been intimidated by the sheer number of people inside if coffee was all that they wanted.
The day was blissfully warm, and he could feel the sun growing hot on his dark head, almost as if drawn to it. Heath had taken a seat on an iron bench and looked for all the world like a man simply enjoying the day, taking a rest before he moved on elsewhere. He knew that he could sit there and observe the coffee house without the fear of discovery. But from where he sat, Heath knew that he had little or no chance of getting a glimpse of the young lady he had come to see. And he certainly would not hear what it was she had to say.
Perhaps Prudence really had been right; he found himself almost obsessed with the idea of what it was that she might say to so large a gathering of people. He had never spoken to large groups before, except perhaps to perform a toast here and there over the years. But it was hardly the same thing, was it?
It was not the same as speaking on a most controversial subject and preparing oneself for a barrage of questions and the backlash of differing social opinions. That took real courage, he felt sure.
When he heard a vague round of applause drift across the street as if carried on the lightest summer breeze, he realized that the speaking must be underway. Heath knew that he could keep to his bench no longer and must do whatever it took to at least hear a few sentences.
Heath crossed the street and approached the coffee house. Before he was even yards away, he could see her in the middle of the room, her back to him as she spoke. Knowing that she could not see him, Heath approached the door, left open to allow the breeze of a warm summer day, and leaned against its frame. At that moment, he did not care who else could see him.
The coffee house was full, and there was not a vacant seat anywhere. Not only that, but there were several gentlemen standing, clearly having made their own seats available to the ladies.
He found himself surprised to see so many gentlemen in the room. In truth, he had assumed that the coffee shop would have been full of well-meaning ladies, many of the type he had always associated with charitable works.
But that was not the case at all, and the men present did not seem to wear the looks of cynicism that he might ordinarily have expected. Heath would have imagined that they would look upon her with skepticism as they made themselves ready to attack her verbally at the end of her speech. He knew he could not have borne that.
And yet, all present seemed to look upon her with interest. Scanning the room, he found himself eye to eye with Lady Adeline Redmond. She gave him a smile and an almost imperceptible nod; it was the sort of nod that said to him I know.
He smiled and nodded back, knowing that to leave now just because he had been seen by Lady Redmond would not make any difference. She had seen him, and that was that. And unless she had a particular reason not to, Lady Redmond would undoubtedly inform her dear friend at some point that her adversary had been standing in the doorway listening in; the most public of eavesdroppers.
“And I am sure that you can imagine well, ladies and gentlemen, that I did not expect to be pleased or cheered or comforted or reassured by any conditions Lady Redmond and I found in the Lambeth workhouse. But I can assure you all that what I thought of as a realistic state of mind did not in any way prepare me for the truth of things once I was in there. I have never been so affected by anything in my entire life, and I do not say that lightly. I have described the conditions to you, the true lack of hope, and the ripping away of humanity. And I am not embarrassed for one moment to tell you that it took every scrap of resolve I had not to weep there and then in the face of it all. But, you see, I had my dear friend beside me. Lady Redmond, a woman who has worked tirelessly for the poor for more than thirty years. And when she told me that I ought not to cry in front of people who already did not have one ounce of hope, I knew that she had said it with good reason.”
Heath looked about again and could see that all eyes were fixed upon Imogen and all seemed mesmerized by the tale she was telling. In truth, he felt a little mesmerized himself and could do nothing more than think of the day he had found her sitting alone on a bench staring out at the privileged ladies and gentlemen parading themselves on Rotten Row; himself included.
How could he ever have thought that a woman who felt things so deeply as to sit tearstained and desolate in a most public place was not wholeheartedly behind the cause she fought for? How could he have accused her of filling her time before a Duke came along to offer marriage? And how on earth was he ever going to be able to apologize enough that she might forgive him? Surely the thing could not be achieved.
“But Lady Redmond and I cannot do this alone.” Heath turned his attention back to the room and realized he had missed a great deal of what she had said as he wallowed in self-pity in the doorway. “A scheme such as this will require great fundraising, not just to provide the building that we shall need as the shelter, but ongoing funding which shall help us maintain good standards and enable us to help people to help themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, we are looking for genuine patrons. We are looking for people with the financial means and the will to help us in the long term. But we are also looking for people who are prepared to help us in any way possible. Even if you are unable to be patrons, we would welcome your support in any way, shape, or form. We would welcome your support even if it is but a morning a week to provide help and advice to a poor person suffering the worst of times. We would welcome your support even if it is but an hour spent preparing vegetables to help make a nutritious meal for a poor person who has not eaten properly in days. We would welcome your support even if it is but an afternoon spent discussing it all with your bridge partner in a bid to raise awareness.” When Imogen paused, there came a great and impassioned round of applause. Not only did the people like what she was saying, but it was clear to Heath that they liked the way she was saying it. And who would not? He was so impressed himself that he felt emotional.
When he had first heard her speaking at Lady Rossington’s ball in the early days of the London Season, Heath would never have imagined that young lady to have so many layers, all of which would be interesting to him. He would never have pictured her for one moment standing in the middle of a crowded coffee house in London displaying the skills of the great orator, not to ment
ion a burgeoning social reformer.
As he looked at the back of her shining red hair, her arms spread wide as she spoke with passion, turning to look about the room and make eye contact with as many people as possible, Heath thought it little wonder that he had found nothing of interest in Miss Jemima Ravenswood with which to compare the two women. In truth, there really was no comparison.
“See something you like?” A sharp and braying tone from behind him caused Heath to spin round on his heel.
There behind him stood none other than Nathaniel Carswell, the Duke of Dalton. He regarded Heath coolly, his small hazel eyes like those of a hunting dog, flicking back and forth. The Duke was dressed somewhat ostentatiously to be out on foot in the Kensington street. Beneath his black tailcoat, he wore a heavily embroidered waistcoat in a beautiful golden fabric. It was thick and almost ornate in appearance, and Heath could not help thinking that the man must be appallingly hot. Heath himself was warm enough in the lightest of tailcoats, but the man before him was dressed thickly; not just thickly, but richly, and Heath wondered if that was not the point entirely. The Duke dressed as he did to display his wealth and status at all times.
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