Eugenie and the Earl

by Marina Oliver

  Eugenie did her best to concentrate, but she found herself watching the Earl and his lovely partner, who seemed to be on good terms. Luckily, the movements of the dance meant there could be no sustained conversation, so her lack of attention was, she hoped, not obvious to her own partner. Would the Earl offer for Natalie? How could any man resist her, so lovely and so charming?

  When the Earl danced with Eugenie, which she told herself he was bound to do, she was equally distracted. Natalie had been surrounded by would-be partners, but she granted the Earl a second dance, while Alexander, clearly not put off by Eugenie's distraction, asked her for a second, and when he was escorting her back to where Arabella was sitting, astonished her by asking if she would drive out with him on the following day.

  *

  Eugenie found it difficult to sleep that night. Would the Earl offer for the lovely Natalie? From what Arabella had said earlier, she had already refused several very eligible offers including one from the heir to a dukedom. Was she waiting for one from the Earl? He had certainly appeared attracted to her. Why, she demanded of herself, sitting up and punching the pillows, did it matter to her? If she had ever imagined the Earl would offer for her, she was deluding herself. He was friendly, but then he was to most people. He had never given the slightest indication that he favoured her above the many beautiful girls he met. She was not beautiful. Not like Natalie or Lady Emily. She supposed she was average, not a fright, but not in any way as beautiful as someone like the Earl could expect in a wife. She was sure he had the pick of all the debutantes each year. He had an old title, he was wealthy, and above all he was good looking and amiable. Except, she reminded herself, when angry about anything that threatened his country.

  Finally she slept, but her rest was uneasy, and when Jenny brought her chocolate she found it difficult to wake up. At breakfast Arabella chatted about the Assembly, the old friends she had met there, and the new betrothals of girls she knew. Eugenie kept a smile on her face, but for most of the time she was not attending, until Arabella mentioned Alexander Hamilton.

  'When are you driving out with him?' she asked.

  'I, oh, later today,' Eugenie said, and felt herself blushing as she glanced at the Earl.

  'It's a pity he's going back to the Peninsula,' Arabella went on. 'He has a good fortune from a godfather, and is an amiable fellow.'

  The Duke laughed. 'Do stop trying to match make, my dear,' he said. 'Eugenie has had far too little time, and met far too few eligible young men, to be thinking of betrothals.'

  Arabella smiled at him. 'But Jerome, I knew about you within an hour of meeting you,' she said. 'It might be the same with Eugenie when she meets the right man.'

  'Baggage! Let her enjoy just being in England, after the bad time she had while she was trying to reach us.'

  Eugenie tried to smile, and admonished herself that she had to try and forget the Earl. He had helped her, rescued her in France, but he would have done that for anyone. Just think, she reminded herself, of the way he had rushed to help the agents he thought might be in danger after George's treachery.

  Two hours later she was sitting in Alexander's curricle, drawn by a pair of bay horses, being driven towards the downs. A solemn-faced groom sat primly on the rumble seat. Alexander spoke mainly about the countryside they were passing through, and mentioned that his family home was only a few miles away.

  'It is a very old house,' he said. 'Perhaps, one day before I have to go back to Spain, you will visit it and I can tell you its history. It is supposed to be on the site of a monastery, one destroyed by Henry the eighth, and some of the house is reputed to have been the abbot's lodgings.'

  'Then it is not a ruin, like Castle Tempus?'

  'The remains of that old castle? I don't know why the Duke does not pull it all down. It would improve the prospect of his house.'

  'But don't you think it's romantic, to have the remains of a Norman castle in your own estate? I wish I had something like it at Beechcotes.'

  'Are you one of these girls, like my sister, who think everything old is enchanting?'

  Eugenie laughed. 'Certainly not. I like modern things, if they make life more comfortable, like better carriages, and the sort of new close stove Arabella has installed. But I still enjoy knowing about history, and imagining what life must have been like in past centuries.'

  He smiled. 'Perhaps you would not enjoy actually living in those conditions. I imagine they would have been much like the lives of the peasants in Portugal and Spain. They are far worse off than our own people.'

  'Tell me about the Peninsula.'

  He did, for the rest of the drive. It seemed to Eugenie that the peasants in the Peninsula lived a similar life to many of the country folk she had seen on her journey through France.

  As they returned to Winchester Alexander said how much he had enjoyed the drive, and talking with her, and as he had so little time left in England would she drive out with him again tomorrow.

  *

  When Eugenie reached home it was to find that they had all been invited for dinner at the Hamilton house, so she would get to see this long before she had expected it. The Earl was not present, and she learned he had been away on some private business all day. Had he perhaps been to Lymington, something to do with the captured Frenchmen? He did not return until late that evening, and said nothing about his business. He looked pleased, though, and nodded as if he knew about the invitation to dinner. Had he been with Natalie? Was that why he was looking so satisfied?

  On the following day Alexander arrived, to apologise that he would not now be able to drive Eugenie out, and ask her for the day following. Arabella insisted he stayed with them until it was time for them to change ready for the visit. The Earl excused himself and spent his time in the small library, writing. Eugenie was restless. Had he been with Natalie? Had he, even, made her an offer, and if she had accepted, was that the reason for his behaviour? Was he, today, perhaps making plans for a wedding, or a life once he was married? Well, that afternoon she would discover the truth.

  When Jenny came to help her dress, she pushed away the gown the maid suggested, and chose instead one of her oldest. What did it matter how she looked? She waved aside Jenny's efforts at arranging her hair in elaborate rolls, took the brush from her and said she wanted it au naturel. Jenny sniffed, and muttered that this was no way to treat a beau.

  'A beau? What on earth do you mean? I have no beau!'

  Jenny simply smiled, and Eugenie shrugged and went on brushing her hair. What beau did Jenny mean? Why were the servants discussing her affairs? They were impertinent, but she supposed they had little else to amuse them apart from the affairs of the family.

  Though she was watching carefully, Eugenie could detect nothing from the manner in which the Earl greeted Natalie. She was even more gushing than she had been at the Assembly, but her manner was the same to everyone. The house, which was in an attractive setting, was larger than Eugenie had expected. It showed no traces of its monastic beginnings, so far as she could see, but Natalie insisted on showing her a particular wall that had a niche which had once held a statue of the Virgin Mary.

  'We thought of blocking it,' she said, laughing, 'but it serves as a place to put flowers, and being in a passageway they look very well here. The colours make what could be a dark passage a little more friendly.'

  Eugenie admired the arrangement, and Natalie admitted she had done it herself.

  'Mama says she has not the patience, and passed the task to me many years ago. I cannot think what she will do when I marry and leave here.'

  Eugenie bit back the question. How soon was Natalie expecting to marry? It would not, she decided, be proper to ask, since no announcement had been made.

  There were other neighbours at dinner, and Eugenie found herself relegated to a place in the centre of the long side of the table, between two young men, sons of the Rector of the parish, while the Earl partnered Natalie and Alexander took in a widow who lived near by. The talk was
of the war, and the prospects of Wellington defeating Napoleon, and of local affairs, primarily the scandal of a runaway match between a Winchester heiress and a master from the school who had, Eugenie learned, no fortune and only his salary.

  'They didn't have to go to Gretna,' one of the Rector's sons explained. 'She is of age and her own mistress, so they were wed in London by special licence. But it was a very bad alliance on her part, and he is at least fifteen years older than she is.'

  'Oh. Will he be able to continue teaching?' Eugenie asked, not really interested.

  'No, but with her fortune why ever should he wish to? I'm looking out for an heiress myself,' he added, and brayed with laughter. 'Then I may not have to take orders, which I do not at all wish to do, but my Papa insists it is the only way to prosper. I would prefer to join the army.'

  The army would probably suit him better, Eugenie thought, and wondered what he would be like preaching to a congregation. Fortunately, she was unlikely ever to have to find out.

  The moon was full, so they did not have to leave early. Eugenie found herself having to play cards with a quiet girl called Prudence and the brothers she had been seated with at dinner. The Earl, she noted, was sitting on a sofa with Natalie, having declined to join a card table. Almost everyone else was playing, apart from the hostess, who hovered anxiously around the card tables until tea was brought in. Soon afterwards, to Eugenie's relief, it was time to leave. Alexander came to the door with them, reminding Eugenie that she was to drive with him on the following day. She nodded and smiled, but would really have preferred another day to explore Winchester. She had not, she felt, seen nearly enough yet of the Cathedral, and it might be months or years before she was again in the city. They were to go to Castle Tempus on the day following.

  *

  Alexander had brought the same curricle, but this time it was drawn by a pair of greys. He had, Alexander told her, bred them himself. He intended to breed and sell horses once he had finished with the army.

  They drove in a different direction this time, to the north, and Eugenie commented on how Winchester seemed to be in a bowl, with hills all around.

  'It is lovely countryside,' he agreed. 'Would you like to live here? Of course, I suppose Somerset is pleasant too, but I have never been there. Mama once went to Bath and found it a rather faded place, where most of the inhabitants were elderly and infirm.'

  'I don't recall ever going there before we went to live in Switzerland.'

  'Is Switzerland as mountainous and cold as we have been told?'

  Were they going to spend the entire drive talking geography? 'It is beautiful in summer.'

  'I intend to go there as soon as possible, when we have defeated this monster. France too. But Mama tells me you came through France on your way home. Was it a difficult journey? Were the coaches running as normal?'

  'It was tedious.' She did not wish to have to explain to this rather superior young man how she had worked in taverns in order to earn money to pay for her journey, and had walked for most of the way. She wondered whether he had heard of Hugues' part, but decided it was unlikely, as the Earl did not talk of his work there.

  They had reached a small village, and Alexander stopped and said he wanted to show Eugenie something. He handed the reins to the groom and then helped her alight.

  'There is a house here I am thinking of purchasing,' he said, leading her to the end of the village street. The house he indicated was an exquisite Queen Anne building, set in a small, well-kept park. 'When I marry I do not wish to remain in my family home. It never serves, I hear, for two generations to live together.'

  Eugenie muttered some reply. He took her arm and opened the gate into the park.

  'The owners are away, so I cannot show you the house, but we have permission to walk in the gardens. Look, here is a magnificent rose garden. Such a shame they are not in bloom, but I hope you will see them soon. Eugenie,' he added, his voice thickening, 'I realise it is far too soon, but you are leaving tomorrow, perhaps to go to your own home in Somerset, and I will be going back to Spain in a few days. It could be months before we meet again. Could you consider marrying me? I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you. I can't expect you to have done the same, but I can give you a pleasant life, and you will come to love me. We could enjoy this house, and go often to London if that is your wish. And spend time at your house if you did not wish to sell it. I could resign from the army, we could be married this summer. Eugenie,' he said as he clasped her hand and tried to draw her closer to him, 'give me hope!'

  Why didn't he go down on his knees, she wondered, irritated at the theatricality, then decided he would not wish to soil the pantaloons he was wearing. She smiled at the thought, and he took it as encouragement and pulled her into his arms, trying to kiss her.

  'Alexander,' she gasped, her lungs unable to draw in air because of his tight embrace, 'I – oh, do let me go! I can't breathe!'

  'Oh, my dear! My adorable Eugenie! I can't help it!'

  'You can help it perfectly well,' she said as she pulled away. 'I'm flattered, Alexander, but I do not love you, and never can.'

  'Why not?' he asked, and she struggled not to laugh at his mortified expression. She did not believe he really cared for her. It was impossible to fall in love at sight. Wasn't it? What could she say to make this infatuated creature believe he had no hope of ever changing her mind?

  'I – I love another,' she said, and thought she sounded like one of the heroines in the farces she'd seen at London theatres. It was ridiculous. Alexander was several years older than she was, but he seemed like a frustrated boy. 'I'm sorry, Alexander, that I cannot return your regard.' Where was the book on etiquette when she needed it? 'Please, can we forget it, and now I think we should go home.'

  *

  Chapter 13

  A week later Eugenie was preparing to go home to Beechcotes. The Duke had found a distant cousin who was willing to be Eugenie's companion, and Miss Everard would be at Castle Tempus ready to travel with her in a few days.

  The Earl had left them at the same time as they left Winchester. He had been at the house when Eugenie returned from her drive with Alexander, and had looked somewhat surprised at Alexander's abrupt acknowledgement of him, and swift departure.

  'It's going to rain,' he said, 'and I must get home as quickly as possible. Goodbye, Miss Daubney. I hope you have a pleasant journey home.'

  The Earl glanced through the window at a bright blue sky, then at Alexander's somewhat flushed countenance.

  'What have you done to the poor boy?' he asked.

  Eugenie shook her head. 'I think he is not relishing going back to the army,' she prevaricated.

  'Really? He looked to me more like a spurned lover.'

  'I'm not in the least concerned over what he looked like to you! Now, if you will excuse me, I need to change.'

  She noticed the Earl suppressing a smile, and her temper, already fragile after a silent drive back into Winchester, during which Alexander had refused to respond to her attempts to initiate a civilised conversation, now threatened to erupt. She pursed her lips, told herself firmly that the Earl had done nothing to offend her apart from being there, and seeing Alexander's surliness, and managed not to add more angry words.

  'Yes, your shoes do look rather wet and grass-stained,' he said. 'I trust you had a pleasant stroll.'

  Eugenie glanced down at her shoes. She had not noticed the very small patch of wet and green on one of them. Suddenly the ridiculous scene with Alexander struck her as funny, and her temper cooled. She laughed.

  'He wanted to show me a moribund rose garden,' she admitted. 'Why is it always too early or too late to see flowers at their best?'

  'Perhaps they are never at their best. Like some people. I will be leaving early in the morning, before you do. I may not see you tomorrow, in which case I hope you have a good journey back to your home and find everything well there. Have you met Miss Everard?'

  'No. What is she like?'
>
  'I only saw her once. She will not drive you to distraction with inane remarks, or restrict your activities. You will deal well with her.'

  He had smiled and left the room before she could ask what he meant, and they had no further private conversation. It was Arabella's questions Eugenie had to deflect. She had not seen Alexander when he came back with Eugenie, but she wanted to know all about the drive, asking innumerable questions and looking disappointed at Eugenie's answers. At last, suspecting she had been aware of Alexander's intention of making her an offer, Eugenie tackled her directly.

  'Well, yes,' Arabella admitted. 'Of course he applied to Jerome for permission to address you.'

  'But my uncle is not my guardian!' Eugenie, much as she loved the Duke and appreciated all the help he had given her, felt affronted. She was independent. Then she paused. She was not quite one and twenty, not of age, so perhaps he was her guardian but had never made an issue of it, never feeling the need to mention it.

  'Well, did he make you an offer?'

  'Yes, and I refused.'

  'He would have been a good match.'

  'But he's only a boy!' Eugenie couldn't help saying.

  'He's five years older than you, and has been in the army. He's no boy.'

  'He seems so to me.'

  'His mother will be pleased. That is, if she knew of his intention. She is possessive of both her children, despite her complaints that Natalie is getting old!' She giggled. 'I wonder if I'll be the same with my girls?'

  'But I don't, and never could, love him!'

  'Not all marriages are love matches.'

  'You love my uncle, don't you?'

  Arabella grinned at her. 'Is it so obvious? Yes, of course I do, and did the first time I ever met him.'

  'Is it possible? To fall in love at a first meeting? Alexander believed he had, but I didn't believe it was possible.'

  'You'll know, perhaps, when it happens to you. However, you won't meet many suitable men at Beechcotes, so you must promise to go to London for the Season. Jerome will have to be there for a good deal of the time while Parliament is sitting, so you must use our house. It will be better for you than having one of your own.'