Netherby Halls

by Claudy Conn

She went in search of Sophy, who she found coming in from the garden doors and looking as miserable as Mr. Lutterel had appeared. Ah, they must have had a tiff, she thought and touched Sophy’s shoulder.

  “Oh, Sassy, how grateful I am for you, but I can not speak now, for if I do, I think I shall bawl.”

  * * *

  “Devil take you!” the marquis said to his dearest friend. “What the bloody hell is wrong with you, interrupting me at such a time.”

  “Damnation, Justin.” Percy moved restlessly. “I never would have done so had I realized in time, but there I was, and it was too late. Just wanted to tell you that I am leaving.”

  “What? Leaving? Now? Why?” The marquis was furious. He had just managed to make some headway with Sassy.

  “It is Sophy—I can’t … won’t stay here to watch her and Grey. She says she will have him, so if that is what she wants, then so be it. I have made up my mind in the matter,” Percy said, looking miserable of mind and heart. He waved his hands about before putting a fist to his forehead. He then looked intently at the marquis. “Must see that I cannot stay.”

  The marquis pulled out the small gold watch that rested in his waistcoat pocket. It was nearing ten o’clock, and he had received word earlier that day advising him he would have a visit at midnight from a certain Mr. Wheeler. It was business, and he was anxious to conclude it. Better early than late, he thought. “All right, Percy, and there is something you and I must discuss. I can go over it with you on our way back to the lodgings, but I want your mind to concentrate not on the lovely Sophy but on what I will be discussing with you.”

  “What can you possibly have to discuss with—”

  “Come on. We’ll take leave of our hostess.” The marquis cut him off and patted him encouragingly on the shoulder.

  Sassy and Sophy were standing shoulder to shoulder at the moment, and after watching these two gentlemen’s departure they exchanged glances. Much of the party’s lure had lost its enchantment for Sassy when she’d watched the marquis leave without even glancing her way. From what she could see, and because she had already begun to know Sophy’s many moods, her friend’s had darkened. Sophy, like she, was putting on a brave face for the crowd.

  They each went through the motions, but only just barely, until the guests left and Sassy retired to the room the Delleson’s had provided for her overnight stay.

  She pulled the covers over her head, but this didn’t help her banish his face from her mind. His handsome face, his luscious lips, were right there, and she wished they had not been interrupted by Percy.

  And then she felt a sharp twinge pinch her heart when she thought of how he had left without even one backward glance for her.

  * * *

  The marquis sipped his brandy slowly, eyeing the tall, darkly clad man who sat before him. “You look uncomfortable,” the marquis remarked languidly.

  The swarthy man removed his tri-cornered hat and opened his frieze coat before placing it in his lap. “Eh now, m’lord, shall we get right to the point of it?” His eyes roved about the elegantly furnished room.

  “Just as you wish, but first, Mr. Wheeler, would you like a glass of brandy?” The marquis, still on his feet, poured a bit more in his own glass as he spoke.

  “Aye, now, a ball of fire be jest the thing,” replied the dark man, smiling to display missing teeth. He reached out, eagerly received his glass, and threw it down.

  The marquis’s brow went up, and he smiled as he poured the man another. He moved to take up a chair opposite Wheeler, enjoying a sip while he watched Wheeler smack his lips.

  “Eh now, this be prime stuff, and I take it that jest be in your style—all things prime?” The leer in the man’s eyes made the marquis stiffen in spite of himself.

  “Yes, you are correct in that assumption,” the marquis steeled himself to reply.

  “And you be having need of such merchandise in the very near future?” Wheeler pursued.

  “Indeed, but that would depend on the sort of merchandise you are offering. I prefer the charms of youth, although inexperience is not what I seek. To be blunt, I should like a genteel young miss, the emphasis being on young, and not afflicted with an ungenteel disease.”

  “Aye, then she needn’t be virginal? Cos we can supply you with that too if ye wish it.”

  “She needn’t be, but as I said, I don’t wish her to be too well used.”

  “Aye, aye.” Wheeler nodded. “That’s just what I sized you up for.”

  “Sized me up?” The marquis’s brow rose, as did the corner of his lip when he sneered.

  “Aye, ye don’t think I came here cold, do ye? No, lord bless ye, I haven’t kept out of the Runner’s path by being such a fool. Not Tom Wheeler! I had my peepers on ye for days now. Noticed you had an eye for the ladies and what sort interested ye most.”

  “I see,” said the marquis, who had known Wheeler had been following him about.

  “Well now, m’lord, ye don’t like it, I can see, but needn’t be hipped over it. Fer yer safety I be careful, as well as m’own.”

  “Of course, Mr. Wheeler. Now that we understand one another, when may I expect the fair charmer?”

  “Friday next, m’lord, Friday next.”

  “No sooner?”

  “Don’t be impatient. She will be worth the wait. I’ll be bringing her meself, prompt like at seven thirty.”

  The marquis got to his feet and moved towards his parlor door. Mr. Wheeler followed suit, and the marquis led him down the hallway to the front door of the small house he had leased for their stay in Bristol. Mr. Wheeler nodded a good night and walked out silently into the night.

  The marquis turned and found Mr. Percival Lutterel had entered the room from a connecting door and stood in place looking shocked.

  “By God, Justin!” Percy exclaimed.

  ~ Seventeen ~

  SUNDAY MORNING FOUND Sassy smiling a welcome to the middle-aged maid who arrived with a tray of hot coffee and biscuits. She helped the older woman light a fire, though the woman protested that ‘Miss mustn’t bother’, and then sipped at the delicious brew.

  While she was nibbling at the biscuits, the woman reappeared with a pitcher of hot water, which she poured into the basin for Sassy. She then bobbed a curtsey and asked if there was anything else Miss might like.

  “Oh, no. You have been too kind already. Thank you.” Sassy smiled and then went about the business of brushing out her long hair in front of the vanity mirror. Her thoughts, like her dreams last evening, had been all about the marquis.

  Nothing erotic, and nothing from him, but dreams of him all the same. She sighed and said to the young woman looking back at her in the mirror, “You are in trouble—love is not in the cards for you.”

  At the sound of a knock at her door, she turned and called out, “Come in.”

  Sophy’s somewhat haggard smile preceded her as she stepped woefully inside the room and went to Sassy to take her hands. “Sassy,” she wailed, “I have done something dreadful.”

  Sassy led her to a pair of chairs near the long window overlooking the back gardens and said, “Calm yourself. I am certain it can’t be as awful as you think.”

  “It is! My life is over,” cried Sophy, wringing her hands.

  Sophia’s distress appeared genuine, not theatrics. Sassy squeezed her hand and said soothingly, “Why don’t you tell me what it is, and we will see what we can do.”

  “I have told my dear, my wonderful Percy that I …” She gulped and then said on a sob, “that I intend to marry Grey.”

  “What?” Sassy exclaimed, dropping her hand and putting it to her mouth. This was not good, she thought. “But do you intend to marry Grey?”

  “No, of course not. I have in fact told Grey that I would not marry him. He does not make love properly, Sassy … he kissed me again last night, and it made me quite sick. But what was worse, Percy saw him, and although I was quite upset with Grey—for you must know he kissed me against my will—I could not let Pe
rcy kill him, and he declared that was what he was going to do, and then what would Mama say? Well, so I threw myself between them, and Percy pushed me aside. Can you imagine, he even took his glove out, and I knew … I knew he was going to challenge Grey, so I said that I had given my hand to Grey!”

  “Oh … oh no, Sophy. Well, now what does Grey think? Does he think you will marry him?”

  “Well, how could he when he has not yet applied for my hand? But when Percy …” She waved her hand about. “Oh Sassy, he went white, so white and turned on his heel and left, and when he did, Grey began to mumble, and I told him to go to the devil—I did … I did! I was never so ashamed of myself, but I told him that and that I would never, ever marry him!”

  “I must think,” Sassy said as this all played out in her mind. Would magic work in this instance? She had been turning to magic more than she should. Was this one of those times when she must rely on magic? Repercussions … there were always repercussions when magic was used too often.

  “Percy looked stricken, and then he went off I suppose to find the marquis, and the two of them left together.” Sophy wrung her hands. “What shall we do?”

  “Ah … so that was it,” Sassy said, as this explained much.

  “All is lost! I am doomed to be without my one true love.” Sophy got to her feet and began pacing.

  “Nothing is lost. It is done, now we shall undo it. You can explain matters to Percy at church this morning.”

  “He won’t listen.”

  “Yes, he will. He loves you, Sophy, and he wants you. He will listen.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “Yes, I do. He has had a fitful night, I am sure, and is calmer now. He will listen,” Sassy said, hoping she was right.

  “We are taking the curricle, you and I. I promised Mama you are an expert with the reins,” Sophy said and then giggled in spite of her mood. “Do you drive? For I do not—Papa says I am ham-handed and won’t let me near his driving horses.”

  Sassy laughed. “Then it is a good thing, that, yes, I drive quite well, but why are we going alone?”

  “You don’t want to be squooshed in with my sisters in the family coach, do you? I do not.”

  “Quite foresighted of you.” Sassy chuckled.

  “Just so,” agreed Sophy, brightening. “Things may turn out after all! Oh, Sassy, you have turned out to be my one true friend.”

  “Now, just go and put on your prettiest ensemble,” Sassy said, ignoring this but feeling quite happy about the friendship herself.

  “Yes, yes! He must not be able to resist me!” declared Miss Delleson, jumping in place and clapping her hands.

  * * *

  “Sophia!” Mrs. Delleson snapped in a hushed voice as she glanced around in the church and frowned. “Do stop casting your eyes around the room as though Prinny himself were about to enter. It is most hoydenish of you.” She fretted with the lace cuffs of her velvet spencer. “I do wonder where Lord Grey is this morning?”

  “He does not like church, Mama. In fact, he advises me that he rarely attends, unless he must,” lied Sophy expertly.

  “Really?” Mrs. Delleson said, sounding surprised. “Well—that is something I cannot approve of. But no doubt he shall change such thinking when he has a good wife to guide him.”

  Sassy adjusted the pale yellow silk scarf around the collar of her blue redingote and avoided Sophia’s eyes. However, this seemed impossible, and when their glances did in fact meet, both girls nearly gave over and laughed. They checked this and sat perfectly ladylike on the hard wooden pew, though Sassy felt a gurgle lodge in her throat.

  Sophy was looking around though, and it was obvious to Sassy that Mr. Lutterel and the marquis were not attending church this morning. It was most depressing and did not bode well. Apparently Mr. Lutterel had still not forgiven Sophia’s betrayal.

  “Oh, dear, Sassy,” Sophy cried after the doors closed, “he is not coming.”

  “Hush, love. Your mama will hear you,” Sassy warned.

  “He will leave Bristol, and he will never look at me again.” Sophy seemed to be already working herself into a state; the thought that the marquis would leave with Mr. Lutterel swept through Sassy and made her own heart ache.

  When Mrs. Delleson’s attention was diverted by her younger daughters, Sophy leaned into Sassy and said, “We must think of a plan.”

  The minister began his sermon, casting Sophia a disapproving eye as he noted she was busy whispering to her companion instead of listening to him.

  “Hush, Sophy—you are drawing attention to yourself.” Sassy eyed her friend meaningfully.

  Unhappily, Miss Delleson obeyed, but as the sermon dragged on, she began fidgeting in her seat, much like a child. When at last the sermon was over and people began filing out of the church, Sophy turned to her mother and announced enthusiastically, “Mama, I have just had the most marvelous notion. Instead of returning Miss Winthrop to Delleson and then having Dibbs drive her home, why don’t I just drive her to Netherby now? As it happens, Dibbs put Sassy’s portmanteau in the boot, I suppose thinking we would be taking her directly back to Netherby, so we are quite set.”

  “Sophia, you are perfectly aware that your father does not allow you to drive his horses.”

  “Sassy will drive us there, and Lord Grey, who has business at the school this morning, can drive me home. He always has a driver, and he can send the driver on ahead to Delleson. What fun, don’t you think?”

  “With Lord Grey?” Mrs. Delleson smiled brightly. “Yes, yes, that is a very good notion, my dear.”

  Excitedly Sophia took the lead, allowing Sassy barely a moment in which to thank Mrs. Delleson for her gracious hospitality.

  They took up seats, and Sassy sighed heavily. She did not like openly deceiving Sophia’s mama. “Sophia, that was a wicked lie, and I don’t like being a party to such things.”

  “Oh pooh.” Sophy pouted. “You had naught to do with it. Don’t be a prude, Sassy—she will never know the whole. Oh, do not look at me like that. Things have gone awry, and I must make a push to save the day, must I not?”

  “That depends. Just what are you planning?”

  “I am persuaded that your parents would never have put your happiness aside simply because they wished you to be rich, would they?”

  “No, no. They would not …” Sassy said with a frown, trying to follow Sophy’s reasoning.

  “And to be fair, Papa has told me not to let Mama bully me into a marriage I might not like. He thinks the world of Percy, you see. So Papa is on my side.”

  “What are you planning, Sophia Delleson?” Sassy felt a trickle of concern.

  “This is my mother’s fault. If she had just allowed Percy to court me openly, none of this would have happened. He is not a man without means after all, and he travels in the first circles.”

  “I do agree. I do not understand the objection,” Sassy said, frowning again.

  “I knew you would understand,” Sophy declared joyously.

  It was at this moment that Sassy slowed the horses and said, “Sophy … the direction you gave me can not be correct. This is not a shortcut to Netherby.”

  “You are quite correct. This takes us to Bristol.”

  “Sophia, just what are we doing on the road to Bristol?”

  “He is leaving—I am sure of it. I must stop him. You do see, don’t you?” cried Miss Delleson, waving her gloved hands forward. “Drive—hurry! We must hurry.”

  “See? No, I do not see,” said Sassy, nearly slowing to a stop.

  “I must go to him and explain, for he will never approach me again. You do not know Percy. He is hurt and angry and must think me the worst flirt—if he leaves, all will be lost.”

  “Sophy—you cannot go to his lodgings! Is that what you mean to do? ’Tis not done and will ruin you.”

  “Not if you come with me,” Sophy said on a plea.

  “Sophy, think of my position. I can’t go with you,” Sassy exclaimed in shocked accent
s. “Are you mad?”

  Sophy’s blurry eyes, wet with tears, pulled on Sassy’s heartstrings. “Please, Sassy. I will go, and I know you won’t let me do so alone. It will be seemly enough if we are together.”

  “Nothing will make it seemly. It will call down disgrace on us both if we are seen going into their lodgings.”

  “Perhaps,” Sophy said hopefully, “Percy will come outside?”

  “That would still entail standing at his front door for all the world to see. Send him round a note. That should do,” Sassy suggested.

  “Please, Sassy, you must take me to Percy, and if you do not, I shall jump off this carriage this very instant and walk there!” Miss Delleson threatened with spirit.

  Sassy was pleased to find that Sophy’s feelings were so engaged but firmly shook her head with a smile. “No.”

  “Sassy! How cruel! …”

  “No,” said Sassy staunchly.

  * * *

  Sassy had meant to stand firm, truly she did, but three things destroyed her resolve.

  The first was her kind heart. Sophy’s distress was genuine, and Sassy had no doubt her friend certainly meant to go to Percy’s lodgings even if she had to walk. She could see Sophy’s threat to do just that was completely genuine.

  The second thing that moved her was Sophy’s argument that the two of them visiting together, if they were even seen, would be quite above board.

  The third thing that added to Sassy’s downfall in the argument was her own youth. She was young enough still to believe that perhaps, in the end, it would all work out. What harm could come of it if they were very discreet? And if there was a problem, perhaps her magic could extricate them.

  Thus, Sassy found herself driving her friend in the general direction of Percy’s lodgings, though all the while her better self, her respectable self, told her she was in the wrong of it.

  As it happened, Miss Delleson was not exactly sure where Mr. Lutterel’s lodgings were situated. He had told her they had leased a charming cottage on the Northfield Road, but she wasn’t sure just where on the Northfield Road.

  At long last, they came upon a cottage whose name, Hastings, Sophy said she was sure Percy had mentioned. It was greatly removed from other homes and town, and this gave Sassy some relief, for at least they might not be seen.