Byron's marriage, separation, and recent departure to the continent were by far the most discussed topics that evening, though much of the talk was of the capricious daughter of the Prince Regent, who had spurned her first fiancé and was now marrying a penniless foreign Prince. There was no room for other scandals.
It was the first time Sophia had attended a large gathering since the baby had been born, and she found many friends who congratulated her on having a daughter, and hoped to see her frequently during this Season.
'Have you seen enough,' Matthew asked her when they had been an hour at the rout.
'I saw enough after ten minutes, but where is Alex?'
'Shall I find him for you and tell him you want to go home?'
'Please. I cannot imagine why he wanted to come, but it has been instructive to see the sort of people Celilia O'Keef can entice to her party. It's no wonder Mrs O'Neill is friendly towards her.'
*
From that day Sophia and Brigid met the O'Neills frequently. They were making the most of the introductions they had been given at the rout. They were not invited to intimate dinner parties, it seemed, but they appeared at every large event, balls and routs, and, now the weather had improved after the unusual snow in April, picnics and breakfasts.
'At least Sinead is sharing her attentions with men other than Matthew,' Sophia said with some satisfaction.
'Do you think he minds?' Brigid asked. She told herself she was concerned only that Sophia's brother should not be entangled with a girl she considered to be a heartless flirt.
'I think he is relieved. Haven't you noticed he has been flirting with half a dozen debutantes?'
'I thought that might be to deflect attention from Sinead. Does he favour any one above the others?'
'He has not confided in me, but I think it unlikely. He is worried about Colum's behaviour, though.'
Brigid stared at Sophia in surprise.
'Colum? Why should Matthew care what happens to Colum, what he may be doing?'
'I think he is worried about the effect on the rest of his family, but also, if there was a scandal, on you, since you are known to be his cousin. He saw him with a man who has an unsavoury reputation for fleecing young men, encouraging them to gamble and lose all they have. He mentioned it to Mr O'Neill and was told in no uncertain terms to mind his own business. He does not know whether Colum's father believed him or not, or whether he has taken any action to curb Colum's activities.'
Brigid frowned. 'Don't all young men have wild oats to sow?'
'Matthew suspects it is more than that. Charles Twyford, the man in question, ruined one of Matthew's friends some years ago.'
'He should leave it to my uncle. He is very quiet, speaks barely a word when we meet, but I think he is very shrewd. He will hardly permit Colum to get into deep trouble.'
Despite these words, Brigid did worry, but she felt she was in no position to demand an explanation from either Matthew or Colum. She had mentioned, several times during the past few weeks, that she felt she ought to be looking for a position, as she could not live on Sophia's charity for much longer.
'It is not charity!' Sophia protested.
'I do not feel you need me now. You are much better - '
'Not really! Brigid, you do not see how weary I get, but you must be aware that I leave balls and routs as early as I can? I cannot dance all night as I could before I was pregnant. Alex is worried about me, talking of taking me to Bath or Brighton to recuperate. If he does, I will certainly need you with me!'
Brigid had to accept this, but she resolved, once they came back from one of these resorts, to insist on looking for a new position.
*
A few days later Matthew appeared in South Audley Street to invite Brigid to drive with him. He had purchased the bays she had seen before, and said he was very pleased with them.
'But I have something new, a high perch phaeton. Will you trust me not to overturn you in it?'
Brigid was tempted. She had never ridden in such a dashing vehicle, and this might be her only opportunity. If she became a governess again, or a companion to anyone else, it would be considered unsuitable, even if anyone should invite her.
She wore her best gown and the new pelisse, and a new poke bonnet she had been tempted by a few days earlier when Sophia had been shopping for clothes to wear at her niece Charlotte's wedding. The sun that day was, for once in this miserably wet summer, strong, and Sophia insisted on lending her a parasol.
'You get freckles on your nose when you are out in the sun,' she said, 'and no amount of horseradish in sour milk will get rid of them.'
Brigid laughed and wrinkled her nose.
'I prefer freckles to the smell of horseradish. But I will gratefully accept your parasol.'
Seated high above the ground she felt a few qualms, then told herself firmly Matthew was an excellent whip, and she could trust him. She had seen other high-perch phaetons being tooled round the Park when she rode with Sophia in a sedate barouche, or walked there in the afternoon, and had never seen one turn over.
Matthew dismissed his groom, saying the man had to take one of his riding horses to the farrier to have a loose shoe dealt with.
'Besides, I didn't want Josh to overhear what I mean to say,' he added. 'It concerns your cousin.'
'Oh?' was all Brigid could manage. Was he about to confide that, whatever Sophia's opinion, he meant to offer for Sinead?
'It's Colum. He is being drawn into a gambling set who will ruin him. I spoke to your uncle, but he dismissed my fears as groundless. Nonetheless, I am sure they are not. Could you, perhaps, speak to your aunt? She might be able to persuade Mr O'Neill to intervene.'
Brigid found her heart was pounding rapidly. Was it fear for her cousin, when she really did not greatly care what problems he had, or, and she refused to think why this should be so, relief that he was not going to offer for Sinead?
'I will if I can,' she promised.
'Thank you. You know I do not like Colum, but I hate to see anyone in Twyford's toils. Now, what do you think of this carriage?'
*
The opportunity to speak to her aunt came earlier than Brigid had expected. She had rejected the notion of going to Wimpole Street, fearing to meet others in the family and being unable to speak privately with her aunt. Sophia had sent her to Bond Street to change a library book and match some ribbons, and she saw her aunt as she emerged from Hookham's. Mrs O'Neill was walking past, followed by her maid, and she smiled benevolently at Brigid.
'Why, my dear, how nice to see you. It seems so long since you honoured us in Wimpole Street.'
'We have seen you several times, Aunt Mary. We were all at the play last night, but there was no opportunity for speaking. Are you enjoying London?'
'It is different to Dublin, but I enjoy both. And Sinead is having a wonderful time with all the attention she is receiving. Tell that brother of your employer that if he wants to attach her he must do it soon! She has had two offers already, but from totally unsuitable young men.'
Brigid gritted her teeth. First Aunt Mary had to emphasise her status as little more than that of a servant, by referring to her employer, then she had to boast of Sinead's successes.
'I am sure she will receive a suitable offer soon,' she managed. 'She is so pretty and lively.' And silly, and false, she added to herself.
'I am going for a drive in the Park. Can I offer you a lift back to South Audley Street?'
Brigid accepted. The coachman might overhear, but she would speak quietly. She climbed up into the barouche, a hired one, she was sure, for the squabs were somewhat tattered and the wheels could have done with washing.
'Aunt Mary,' she began.
'Speak up, dear.'
Brigid indicated the coachman.
'Oh, I never bother with what the servants hear.'
Very well, Brigid thought, if she wanted all her family business tattled about in whatever taverns coachmen patronised.
'I've been
told Colum is making friends with an unsavoury man who preys on young men and inveigles them into dubious gambling clubs,' she said bluntly. 'They are allowed to win at first, and then they lose all.'
Aunt Mary, to her astonishment, laughed.
'Oh, my dear, does that worry you? It must mean you care for my boy, which is what I would like. But there is no need to be concerned. It won't hurt Colum to lose a few hundred pounds. We have plenty, and how else is a young man to discover whom to trust?'
'You don't care?'
'Well, if it became an addiction, I would care, naturally, but Colum is a sensible young man, he will not permit this fellow to entangle him for more than he can afford to lose. And if he runs through his allowance, we can increase it. After all, a man is only young and carefree once, he will soon have the cares of a wife and family to concern him.'
She had done her best, but was amazed at her aunt's attitude.
'Will we see you at the Tempests' ball tonight?'
'Of course, and do pray grant Colum two dances. He is so fond of you, you know, and keeps asking me when you are going to keep your promise and come to live with us.'
'I - I cannot leave Sophia yet, Aunt. And I did not promise to live with you, just to come for a visit. A short visit. I must soon be looking for another position as a governess.'
Her aunt patted her on the knee.
'Now, there is no need for that, you can always have a home with us.'
'Here we are, I can walk home if your coachman can let me down here.'
So far as Colum was concerned, that conversation had been utterly useless. And Aunt Mary was beginning to exert more pressure on her to go and stay with them. Brigid was even more reluctant. Then she laughed at herself. It was no Bluebeard's cave, to trap her against her will. She would be able to leave at any time. Perhaps, when Sophia could release her, she ought to go just for a few weeks, to satisfy her aunt and get it over with, rather than have the very thought of it depressing her all the time.
*
Despite her status as Sophia's companion, Brigid was welcomed at large events, and even permitted to dance at balls. That evening Colum was the first man to approach her and request two dances. She managed to satisfy him with two country dances. She had seen him attempting the cotillion, with disastrous effects on the rest of the dancers as he moved the wrong way, and generally exhibited a complete lack of knowledge of the steps.
The first dance came all too soon for Brigid. Colum led her into the set, and began to talk loudly, so that the couple next to them eyed him in amusement.
'I hear you have been complaining about me to my mother,' he said. 'About the companions I keep.'
'I only wanted to pass on a warning,' she replied, but the dance had started, and the movement drew them apart. She was addressing her remark to a stranger, who raised his eyebrows and then winked at her.
'I'll thank you to mind your own business,' Colum said as the dance brought them together again. 'I will make what friends I choose, and even after - '
The rest of his words were lost as once more they had to separate, but Brigid thought she heard the word married. Surely not. Why should he think she had any desire to meddle in his affairs, whether he was married or not? She had heard no hint that he was pursuing any young girl.
'And another thing,' he said as they processed up the set, 'it is not proper for you to go driving with Matthew Childe, without even a groom to give you chaperonage.'
She couldn't respond as the set again separated them, but when they did come together her anger at his impertinence was boiling over.
'In the first place, what right have you to tell me what I can and cannot do? And after I drove with you, unchaperoned! Though that was less of a drive than a foretaste of hell!'
She found she was addressing her remark to the same man as before, and this time he grinned openly at her.
'Attagirl!' he murmured, and squeezed her hand rather more tightly than necessary as the movement of the dance caused them to start a chain.
Colum was back, facing her.
'I am your cousin, for my sins, and that is quite different!' he snarled.
Brigid was tempted to walk off the floor, but she knew it would be unpardonable to create such a disturbance, so she endured the rest of the dance in grim-faced silence.
'Don't come for the second dance,' she said as the music stopped and the dancers moved away.
He looked at her angrily, muttered something about termagants, and swung round to stride from the ballroom, leaving her to find her own way back to where Sophia was sitting.
*
Chapter 7
Sophia's niece Charlotte was married at St George's Hanover Square. She was the eldest daughter of Sophia's older sister Elizabeth and the Earl of Sheldon. Brigid insisted on sitting at the back of the church rather than joining the family, and from there had a good view of everyone.
Charlotte wore a dress of pale pink, with deeper pink embroidered roses in swathes down the skirt. She wore a coronet of deep pink and white roses, and carried a bouquet of the same. Her two sisters, her bridesmaids, wore gowns of the deeper pink. It was a charming picture.
The bridegroom looked nervous, constantly peering towards the back of the church, and kept loosening his cravat, but when Charlotte arrived he smiled in relief, and turned back towards the altar. By then Brigid had been able to look at all the guests, many of whom she knew. Her aunt, she was glad to see, had not managed to penetrate this assembly. Brigid had decided she was going to avoid the entire family as much as possible. If Aunt Mary did not wish to know about Colum's gambling, and considered it a normal part of a man's growing up that he should lose money to a card sharp, there was nothing she could do. As for Colum presuming to chide her for driving with Matthew, it was none of his business. Brigid found herself wishing she had never met her family. They had brought nothing but problems and embarrassment.
Soon, though, she must look for another position. Sophia had been a wonderful friend, and she really did think she had helped her through a difficult pregnancy, but she was no longer needed. True, Sophia still became tired quickly, but she visited friends and had begun to entertain herself in a small way.
The following day she was giving a dinner party for her family. Elizabeth had declared she was exhausted from organising the wedding, and she and the Earl wished to retreat to their country estate for a few weeks to recuperate. Sir Kenelm and Joanna would be returning to Yorkshire, and Henry, the middle Childe brother who, with his wife Albinia had made one of their rare visits to London, would be travelling back with them.
Brigid had hoped to avoid this party, but Sophia had protested that she was needed to make the table balance. Brigid had, however, resisted Sophia's attempt to give her a new evening dress. She had reluctantly accepted a gauze stole instead, telling Sophia she was far too generous.
By the time Charlotte and her new husband had left for their journey to his house in Surrey, most of the family were exhausted.
'Thank goodness Henry is staying with Kenelm,' Sophia said as they drove home to South Audley Street. 'I really could not have dealt with Albinia's megrims tonight. She was muttering all through the ceremony, criticising the gowns, which I thought were charming, and all the arrangements. I was hard put to it not to slap her!'
Brigid laughed. 'I simply cannot imagine you slapping anyone.'
'But you must know what she is like.'
'Fortunately I had little to do with her when I lived in Yorkshire.'
'Then you have a pleasant evening in store tomorrow!'
*
Brigid was in the morning room the following day, embroidering a gown for Sophia's baby, when to her surprise her cousin Sinead was announced.
The girl came in, looking nervous.
'Sinead? Is anything wrong?'
'Wrong? No. Why should you think that?'
'It's the first time you have been to visit me, and without your mama. Is she well?'
'Mama? Of course sh
e is. Why should she not be?'
'Is your maid waiting in the hall?'
'No. I didn't bring her. Of course not. Besides, I don't have a maid of my own. Mama is old-fashioned, she says I am too young, and I have to share old Kathleen, who looks after Mama.'
Brigid felt ancient. 'You ought not to be walking about on your own,' she said.
'But I didn't want anyone to know I was coming to see you. Kathleen would have told Mama, and she would have wanted to know what it was about.'
'Well, what is it all about?'
'Can I have some Madeira wine? Papa won't let me have anything stronger than ratafia, and it's an opportunity for me to try it.'
'No.' Brigid was uncompromising. 'I am not even going to offer you ratafia. It isn't my house, and you are too young. Now, what is it that's so important you have to come here secretly to tell me?'
She sighed. 'It's Colum. He says someone he met has cheated him at cards.'
Brigid was not surprised, but she could not imagine what it had to do with her.
'He has been enticed into some gambling hell, and has been warned, so what can he expect?' she asked.
'He thinks you can help him. He asked me to come and tell you, and ask for your help.'
'I don't know what he thinks I can do for him,' Brigid said, 'and if he wants my help he can avoid being impertinent, and rude, and uncivil to me!'
'What do you mean?'
'He has no authority over me, to tell me what I can and can't do.'
'But when you - I mean, he is your cousin, he's older than you, and your only male relative.'
'Apart from your father, and I don't give even him the right to control my actions.'
Sinead was looking rather shocked at this plain speaking.
'I'm sure he doesn't mean to be rude, like you said.'
The Irish Bride Page 7
