The Irish Bride

by Marina Oliver

  Matthew had just returned home when Colum again appeared on his doorstep.

  'Bring him in,' Matthew said with a sigh. His man had told him Colum had already been asking for him twice that morning, so the sooner he discovered what the wretched man wanted the sooner he would be rid of him.

  Colum came into the room carrying a riding crop. Matthew looked at it in astonishment, for Colum was not wearing riding breeches.

  'You want to see me. Sit down. Care for some Madeira?' he asked, pouring himself a glass.

  'I want nothing from you. You know why I have come. You are a scoundrel, and you have to offer for my sister!'

  'What the devil are you talking about?'

  Colum sighed exaggeratedly.

  'My sister came home in a very distressed condition last night. You assaulted her when you took her to Vauxhall, to some tawdry masquerade. You have to pay for that, and offer for her to save her reputation.'

  Matthew was staring at him an amazement.

  'Let me get this straight? Is this what she told you? You believe I assaulted your sister, abused her, yet you wish me to offer to marry her? It's a complete lie! And if it were true, wouldn't you fear that if I did marry her I might treat her even worse when she was my wife? Don't be a fool!'

  'A fool, is it? You don't escape by talking to me like that. You'll marry her, or your name will be so reviled you'll have to flee England.'

  'You have been to see some bad melodramas. It was not I that took your unprincipled sister to Vauxhall, nor I that tore her gown. It was Gregory Linwood, a notorious seducer of innocent - or not so innocent - damsels like your sister. I rescued her and escorted her home.'

  Colum sneered. 'So you say, but I believe my sister. It was you.'

  'Then perhaps I should bring Peter Salcombe, the friend who was with me when we interrupted Linwood and your sister in their tryst, which she was not by then enjoying, I might add, and rescued her. We escorted her to Wimpole Street, and if she is telling you anything different, she is a lying - '

  He stopped. It would not do to tell Colum what he really thought of his sister.

  Colum was looking dubious.

  'No doubt your friend would support your story,' he attempted.

  'Then to satisfy you I will take you immediately to his rooms and we can ask him.'

  Colum turned to the door and opened it.

  'I - I'll have to talk to Sinead,' he said, and escaped.

  Matthew breathed a sigh of relief. What an unprincipled chit his sister was. Or had Colum made it all up in an attempt to trap him? Why? He wasn't rich enough for Sinead, surely? She was aiming for higher game.

  *

  The next time Brigid saw Colum was at the theatre, when he came to Sophia's box during the first interval.

  Sophia and Alex had walked out, saying it was so hot they needed some air. Brigid was on her own, and she looked, unsmiling, at her cousin.

  'Well, what do you want?'

  'I came to apologise.'

  This was so unexpected Brigid found her jaw dropping, and swiftly shut her mouth.

  'Apologise? This is a surprise. For what do you have to apologise? Accusing Matthew Childe of trying to rape your sister?'

  He sank down into a chair beside her.

  'It wasn't true. Matthew told me he'd rescued her, and I forced her to admit the truth. She was too afraid to say she had gone out on her own with a man none of us knew, and when she said Matthew had escorted her home I jumped to the wrong conclusion, and she lied to me. My own sister, lying to me!'

  Brigid was unsympathetic.

  'You should know your own sister better by now.'

  'She's no more than a child,' he said. 'But I'm sorry I accused Childe. I mean to send him an apology. Do you think I ought to go and see him, offer it in person, or send a letter?'

  'I think you had best send a letter. If I were Matthew I'd feel like punching you, whether you apologised or not. You had best keep out of his way for a while.'

  He was uncharacteristically humble. 'Yes, I will. And thank you for giving me your advice. Brigid, we seem to have found ourselves at odds too many times. I want to show you I can be friends. I won't ask you to drive with me,' he went on, with a deprecating smile, 'for I know your opinion of my driving skills, but can we walk together one day, in the Park? With Sinead. She can chaperone us. Besides, she wants to get to know you better too. Perhaps we could visit Bullock's museum, or go and see those cows I'm told are in Green Park? Whatever you wish.'

  'Perhaps,' was all Brigid could say. She did not in the least wish to get to know either Colum, who was a young cub, or the deceitful, manipulative Sinead any better.

  'Then tomorrow? We will call for you.'

  'I'm afraid tomorrow is impossible,' Brigid said hurriedly. 'We are going to visit a friend of Sophia's, who lives in Chelsea, and I must go with her.'

  'The next day, then.'

  He would clearly go on suggesting days until she agreed, so Brigid nodded assent.

  'If the weather is fine, we will go to the Green Park, and if it is wet, Bullock's,' Colum said happily. 'I am so pleased we are better friends. It will be so pleasant when you come to make your home with us.'

  Brigid shook her head.

  'No, Colum, I haven't agreed to do that.'

  'But - we have all assumed that when Mrs Langston had no further need of you, you would come to live with us.'

  'I said only that I would come for a short visit, that is all. I really cannot expect your parents to provide me with a home when I am fully capable of earning my own living.'

  'But we wish to help you,' he said slowly, a frown darkening his face. 'You must allow us to care for you, we are your only relatives.'

  'It is very kind of you, Colum, but no. I prefer to be independent.'

  He pouted, and seemed to shrink in age, back to the undisciplined cub she had previously found him.

  'We will see what Mama and my father say,' he muttered as he rose to leave the box, nodding briefly to Sophia as she and Alex returned.

  'What did he want?' Sophia asked.

  Brigid explained. 'He is still urging me to make my home with them, and I don't want to. In fact, I won't.'

  'Well, I still need you, and will do while we are in Brighton. Let us hope they go back to Dublin when the Season ends, and you can forget all about them.'

  *

  Alex had been too busy to accompany them the following day, so Matthew was riding with them. They drove in the barouche to Chelsea, where Sophia's friend owned a large house near the river. The gardens were extensive, and as the day was fine they strolled about, admiring the rose garden in particular. Then Sophia and her friend went back to the house and Matthew drew Brigid through an archway in the yew hedge surrounding the rose garden, and led her to sit on a rustic bench beside a lily pond.

  'Brigid,' he began hesitantly, 'I believe your cousin made some accusations about me?'

  She laughed. 'It was totally ridiculous. That baggage Sinead had made it all up. He came to apologise. She will soon be in serious trouble if she goes on behaving in such a way. The sooner they all go back to Ireland the better.'

  'I understand they want you to make your home with them?'

  Brigid shuddered. 'They want it, they think, and I cannot imagine why. I dislike both my cousins, we could never be friends, and somehow I find my aunt too wheedling to be genuine. As for my uncle, he says so little I really do not know what to think of him.'

  'Then you will not be going?'

  'No. There was some suggestion I spent a short time with them, but Sophia is going to Brighton and wishes me to remain with her for a while longer, so thankfully there will be no opportunity before they return to Dublin.'

  'And afterwards?'

  'I will find a new position, as a companion, I think, with a lady who wishes to travel. I do envy Joanna, visiting all those cities on the continent.'

  'You could have a similar wedding journey. Brigid, I meant to wait, but it's useless. I want t
o marry you. Will you marry me?'

  She stared at him in shock. She had never imagined this. She liked Matthew, and knew he liked her, but just as friends. His earlier casual proposal she had taken as a joke.

  'I - but Matthew, it's impossible! Your family will want you to make a good match, with someone in Society, someone who can bring you a fortune, connections, not a nobody like me, who has no money and whose only connections she despises!'

  He laughed and caught her hands in his. She realised they were trembling and struggled to control them.

  'Your family, though Irish, is an old and much respected one. At least it was until this uncle became its head. I have enough to give you a comfortable life, though not a grand one. You see, I am being honest! Most of all, my love, I don't want to spend the rest of my life without you. Can't you return at least some of my love, and give me the right to try and increase it?'

  'But I'm a nobody! You can't marry a governess!'

  'Kenelm did. He married Joanna, and she was penniless. Why can't I do the same as my big brother?'

  Brigid looked round for inspiration.

  'Isn't it enough one of you married a penniless girl?'

  'Henry married a girl with money and important relatives. Which of my brothers, do you think, has the happier marriage?'

  'But Joanna is special,' she managed.

  'And so are you. Brigid, if you can honestly tell me you do not and never could love me, I will not offend you by asking you again. Can you tell me that?'

  She was dearly tempted to tell him that, but her innate honesty prevented her. She had been attracted to him from the moment they met, but had firmly suppressed that attraction, telling herself nothing could ever come of it, he was far above her and would never be permitted to marry a mere governess. Over the months she had lived with his sister, though, she had come to realise that the Childes did what they wished, and Matthew most of all.

  'I don't know,' she finally whispered. 'Matthew, I don't know! But I do know it would be impossible.'

  He pulled her to her feet and she was dreadfully afraid he was going to kiss her, to try and persuade her by actions where words would not suffice. If he did, she was sure, she would lose all sense of what was proper, and give way. All he did, however, was link her arm through his and begin to lead her back to the house. She was sure he could feel her trembling, but he did not remark on it, and began to talk of the roses and other flowers in the garden, and how he was hoping the Yorkshire climate would be mild enough for him to establish a rose garden, and an orchard, at his house there.

  As they drove and rode back to London he seemed as cheerful as normal, and chatted to them. Her own silence went unremarked, and when they reached South Audley Street she escaped, thankfully, to her own bedchamber.

  *

  Chapter 10

  On the following day Brigid resigned herself to spending some time with her cousins. Though it was cloudy, they decided to go first to Green Park and see the small herd of cows kept there. Sinead had recovered from her fright at Vauxhall, and was bubbling over with plans for the final few weeks of the Season. She insisted on drinking some of the milk freshly drawn from the cows, but when it began to spit with rain, and she looked up at the black clouds overhead, she demanded to go to the Piccadilly Egyptian Hall, where Mr Bullock had established his museum with thousands of exhibits.

  Brigid was only too happy to go with her. She suspected the girl, whose intelligence she did not rate highly, would soon grow tired of inspecting preserved animals and birds, as well as weapons, shells, and Napoleon's travelling carriage, which had been captured after Waterloo. Then, she hoped, she would be able to go home and feel she had done her duty to her cousins.

  They were seated on a bench viewing some of the larger exhibits when Sinead asked when Brigid was coming to live with them.

  'I'm not!' Brigid replied, with rather more emphasis than she later thought was tactful.

  'But Mama says you must,' Sinead said, sounding puzzled. 'It's the only way, she says, that - '

  'Be quiet, Sinead,' Colum said, and Brigid was surprised at the venom in his voice.

  'Why must I?'

  'Because you don't know what you are talking about. Brigid naturally has reservations about committing herself to living with relatives she scarcely knows. But we hope,' he added, turning to Brigid with a smile on his lips, a smile she instinctively mistrusted, 'that you will pay us a short visit.'

  'But Mama says - '

  'I said be quiet!'

  'I'm afraid even a short visit won't be possible this year,' Brigid said. 'We are going to Brighton at the end of June, and Sophia needs me to go with her. She is still far from well, and her doctors believe the sea bathing will be beneficial.'

  'Brighton? So soon?'

  'We must have been leaving London in a few weeks,' Brigid said. 'Some people have left already. When do you return to Dublin?'

  'I don't know,' Colum said slowly. 'My father has not fixed a date yet.'

  'He said we wouldn't go until - '

  'Sinead, will you be quiet! You know Papa, he is always changing his mind. What he said last week is not what he thinks this one.'

  She flounced up from the bench and began to walk away.

  'I'm bored with this tedious old museum! Let's go home!'

  Brigid was only too ready to comply, though she had found the museum fascinating. She must return one day, when there would not be the distracting presence of her cousins.

  They left, Brigid said she must hurry back to see whether Sophia needed her, and declined their escort.

  'I will be perfectly safe, it's the middle of the day, and only a short walk. It's out of your way, so thank you for your company, it's been most interesting.'

  She escaped before they could protest. As she walked home she pondered on what Sinead had several times started to say, when Colum had, most rudely, cut her off. He was a boorish, unmannerly youth, far too old to still be behaving in such a fashion. Having seen how her uncle had stopped his uncouth behaviour at their dinner party, she was amazed he had not made more effort to teach Colum better manners. It was not, however, her problem, and soon, she hoped, she would be rid of them when she went to Brighton and they went back to Dublin.

  *

  Matthew, wearing an exotic damask dressing gown, was eating breakfast when Peter Salcombe was announced. He shielded his eyes from the vivid picture Matthew presented, and promptly poured himself some ale and helped himself to some slices of cold beef.

  'You are about very early,' Matthew said.

  'Too early to endure such sartorial excesses. Why can't you dress more soberly?'

  'Is this the man who startles us all with his garish waistcoats?'

  'What I wear later in the day is different from what you inflict on us at the crack of dawn.'

  'Then don't visit me at the crack of dawn. What brings you here so early?'

  'You clearly haven't heard the news.'

  'What news? Has Napoleon escaped again? Or Prinny given up wine and women?'

  'Nearer to home. Charles Twyford's body has been discovered in St James's Park. In the lake.'

  Matthew's gaze became steady and his voice lost all its teasing.

  'Say that again! Charles Twyford? Murdered? Or was he so drunk he fell in?'

  Salcombe nodded. 'It must be murder. He was stabbed in the back, they say, then thrown into the canal.'

  'Why was he there? In the park? It's not near his lodgings.'

  'It's believed it was a short cut that many of his friends knew he used, when he visited a certain little ladybird who lives in Tothill Fields. He'd been at that hell he patronises in St James's Square earlier in the evening.'

  Matthew took a gulp of ale.

  'Are you suspecting what I am?'

  'Of course. Twyford was notorious for enticing rich young men into that hell and fleecing them. There has been at least one suicide he was responsible for.'

  'Not only rich young men. Any fool willing to g
amble with him was fair game. It would appear one of them resented it and took his own revenge. It would have been easy enough to wait outside and follow him on the chance of catching him unaware.'

  'I understand the club has been visited by the constables, and a list made of all the men known to have visited it during the past three months. Especially those who lost a great deal.'

  Matthew pushed away his plate. 'Do we do anything, or let the incompetent constables flounder?'

  'Let them flounder. It may not be what you think.'

  Suddenly Matthew laughed.

  'No, I doubt he has the courage. Let it go, we know nothing, suspect nothing, and will watch events unrolling as mildly interested spectators. At least Twyford will not be missed, unless he has an adoring mother.'

  'He has a wife, who is kept firmly in the country. She lives in Sussex, I believe. Whether she will mourn him I cannot tell.'

  'Let's go to White's. We may hear more news there.'

  *

  The murder was the main topic of conversation at the ball that evening. Brigid, knowing Colum's connection with the man, looked to see how he was taking the news, but the O'Neills were not present. Matthew danced with her, and to her relief did not speak of his proposal. After the first few minutes she felt as comfortable with him as ever, and was grateful to him for behaving normally.

  'When do you go to Brighton?' he asked at the end of his first dance with her.

  'In a week, when the house Alex has hired is ready for us. It's on the Steine, very central, though Sophia is afraid it may be rather noisy.'

  'But you will be able to watch the world go by without moving from your drawing room.'

  'Will you be there?'

  'Sometimes. Alex has invited me to make my quarters with you when I am in Brighton, though I won't be there all the time. I understand Sophia has been prescribed sea bathing. Will you indulge too?'

  Brigid shook her head, then laughed.

  'I don't intend to, but Sophia has a way of gently insisting so that one feels a brute for refusing her, so I have no doubt I shall be keeping her company.'

  They were silent for a while, then Brigid turned impulsively towards Matthew. This was something which had been concerning her ever since she heard the news, but she could not speak of her suspicions to anyone but Matthew.