The Penniless Bride

by Nicola Cornick

  ‘I will come and see you when I return from Oxfordshire,’ he said abruptly, making a spur of the moment plan to return to London. ‘I shall be up in Town in a month or two.’

  Jemima looked startled. ‘I do not believe that that would be a good idea, my lord. If you were seen calling on me it would give rise to speculation, which is precisely what we wish to avoid. I shall not be using my married name and of course our association remains secret. It will be better if we conduct all our business through Mr Churchward.’

  Rob nodded. He could not fault her logic even if the arrangement seemed a little cold. It was precisely the sort of agreement he should be seeking himself. A marriage in name only, severed as quickly as it had been contracted. The fact that this was no longer exactly what he wanted was a problem that he would have to deal with. He felt irritable and frustrated, and was not sure why. If only he did not feel this damnable responsibility for her! And an even more inconvenient urge to seek her company…

  He suddenly remembered that he had one other thing to give to her. He groped in his pocket and retrieved a small parcel wrapped in brown paper.

  ‘Here. I have a wedding gift for you. It is only a small thing…’

  Jemima took it and unwrapped the paper. She was silent for so long that Rob hurried into speech again, afraid that she did not like it.

  ‘It is nothing special. I merely saw the book in the grate and thought you might have lost your copy to the fire.’

  ‘I did.’ There was a strange, wondering tone in Jemima’s voice. ‘Castle Rackrent. How kind of you.’

  Rob felt a rush of relief. ‘You like it?’

  ‘Of course. Thank you, my lord.’ Jemima looked up at him. Her brilliant smile made Rob feel slightly dizzy. He blinked as she touched his arm lightly. ‘It is no small thing at all, and I am extremely grateful.’

  They stood looking at one another until Jemima seemed to wake up of a sudden.

  ‘Should we not be going? If we are to see Mr Churchward this afternoon—’

  ‘Of course,’ Rob said. He offered her his arm. ‘My carriage is round the back.’

  ‘Then let us hope it still has its wheels,’ Jemima murmured. ‘Excuse me, my lord. I must speak with my brother. I should be glad for him to accompany us to Mr Churchward’s office.’

  Rob watched as she went over to Jack Jewell. Jack straightened up from where he had been propping up one of the pews, and came across to join her, wrapping the black cloak about her and steering her towards the door. She looked very small. Rob felt a mingled pang of envy and possessiveness. It was he who should be escorting Jemima from the church, not her brother. He saw that she was tugging the wedding ring off her finger as she walked and stuffing it in her reticule. The sight made him feel angry, although he understood her reasons. This was not a neighbourhood in which one walked around displaying jewellery made of gold.

  Rob turned to find Ferdie at his elbow. His cousin was also watching Jemima’s small figure and he was smiling wolfishly.

  ‘Damned fine filly, Rob, you lucky so-and-so. Wouldn’t mind consoling her on your behalf—’

  Rob swung round on him so violently that Ferdie flinched back, a look compounded of amazement and fear on his face. ‘I say, old fellow, wouldn’t hit a man in a house of God, would you?’

  ‘That depends on the provocation,’ Rob said icily. ‘You’re speaking of my wife, Ferdie.’

  ‘But she’s a sweep’s girl,’ Ferdie pointed out. ‘Fair game. Suppose I should have got in before the wedding, though.’

  Rob took his cousin’s neckcloth in his hand and pulled tight. To hear Ferdie speak slightingly of Jemima and make assumptions about her virtue was intolerable.

  Ferdie wheezed, ‘Steady on, Robert!’

  ‘Never speak about Jemima in that way again,’ Rob said, through his teeth. He let Ferdie go and stood back.

  ‘I’ll take that as a no to consoling Lady Selborne, then,’ Ferdie said, unoffended. He adjusted the set of his coat. ‘No idea you were so possessive, Rob.’

  ‘Well, you know now.’ Rob’s mouth set in a hard line. He had not known either. He remembered that when he had started his bride hunt he had nonchalantly assumed that he and his wife would go their own way. At the time he had thought that he would not expect fidelity from a woman who was bound to him in name only. Yet the thought of Jemima indulging in amorous dalliance with Ferdie or, indeed, anyone made him feel a white-hot anger and a flaring jealousy.

  He hurried to catch up with Jemima and Jack. They were chatting together and he envied them their easy intimacy together. It was he who was the uncomfortable third in this trio. He seemed to be learning a great deal about himself on his wedding day, and none of it was easy to stomach.

  Ferdie plucked at his arm. ‘I say, Rob, could you give me a lift back to the West End? Can’t be wandering around this neighbourhood on my own. I’ll be robbed before I take ten steps…’

  Rob sighed. He supposed that it might make the journey into town slightly less uncomfortable for Ferdie to be with them. He had no wish to sit opposite Jemima and Jack, glowering in silence at the sight of their comfortable friendship.

  Rob was not sure how it had happened, but already his ambitions for his wife had changed. He wanted her to come to Delaval with him. He wanted to get to know her better. But he also knew that they had made an agreement and he could not break the terms now. He knew it was impossible.

  Jemima liked Mr Churchward on sight. The lawyer toasted them discreetly with a glass of warm champagne, pulled out the deeds to the house in Twickenham and ran over all the arrangements, and made no observations on the rather unusual circumstance of a gentleman renting a separate residence for his brand-new wife. It seemed that Mr Churchward was entirely conversant with the unusual situation in which Rob found himself under the terms of his father’s will. Indeed, Jemima suspected that there was something the lawyer knew that Rob had not told her, for on one occasion reference was made to the will of the Dowager Countess of Selborne, Rob’s grandmother, which was something that Rob had not mentioned to Jemima at all.

  Nevertheless, matters were proceeding smoothly until the very end of the meeting, when there were voices upraised in the office outside and a considerable commotion. Mr Churchward’s clerk stuck his head around the door.

  ‘I beg your pardon for interrupting, sir, but Lady Marguerite Exton and Miss Exton are outside. Hearing that you were occupied with the Earl and Countess of Selborne, they requested that they might be permitted to join you—’

  Glancing at Rob, Jemima saw that he had turned quite pale. She grabbed his arm.

  ‘Who—?’ she began, but before she had time to get any further the door burst open. A tall, patrician-looking lady swept in, followed by a small blonde girl of about Jemima’s age with the sweetest face that Jemima had ever seen. The girl gave Jemima a look of lively curiosity, then uttered a squeak and hurled herself into Rob’s arms.

  ‘Robert! What a splendid surprise to see you here! When the clerk told us that the Earl and Countess of Selborne were within we could scarce believe it! We thought there must be some mistake!’ She turned to Jemima and beamed all the more. ‘Hello! I am Rob’s cousin, Letty Exton. And you must be Rob’s new Countess! How wonderful to meet you!’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘Cousin?’ Jemima’s lips formed the words as she looked at Rob accusingly. She raised her voice a little. ‘I thought that you said that you had no relatives, Robert?’

  Rob was still trying to disentangle himself from Miss Exton, who was hugging him hard and telling him how wonderful it was that he was home again. He looked part pleased and part harassed, and Jemima almost laughed to see his expression. He freed himself and turned to the older lady, whose somewhat haughty demeanour had slipped now into a smile of genuine affection as she viewed the reunion.

  ‘Robert, my dear,’ she said. ‘Not only home, but married as well! When you wrote to me last week you made no mention of a wife. A poor show when your own grandmother
has to find out by accident!’

  Jemima winced. This patrician lady was Rob’s grandmother? She began to see that her new husband’s definition of close relatives and her own might be considerably divergent. She also began to see that they were in a very tight corner indeed.

  Miss Exton gave a little shriek. ‘Yes, Rob, you beast! I wanted to dance at your wedding. Are we not good enough for you to acknowledge us now that you are the Earl of Selborne?’

  ‘Letty!’ Lady Marguerite said in gentle reproof. She leaned forward and coolly extended a cheek for Rob to kiss, before turning to Churchward. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Churchward. Pray excuse this interruption. When I heard that Lord Selborne was with you—’

  ‘And Lady Selborne!’ Letty said, bouncing with excitement.

  ‘And Lady Selborne,’ Lady Marguerite said, with a glacial smile in Jemima’s direction, ‘I thought that we should pay our respects.’

  Jemima suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. She would have liked to have had longer to prepare to meet Rob’s family and she was suddenly conscious that Lady Marguerite might view her as an adventuress at worst and as a jumped-up nobody at best. She glanced instinctively at Rob for support. They had no story prepared of how they had met—or married. They had not thought that it would not be necessary. And now Rob’s grandmother and his cousin were standing in front of them; they clearly expected an explanation.

  Rob came forward to stand next to her. His presence at her elbow was comforting and he took her hand in his.

  ‘Grandmama,’ he said, suddenly very formal, ‘may I present my wife, Jemima? Jemima, this is my maternal grandmother, Lady Marguerite Exton.’

  Jemima dropped Lady Marguerite a curtsy. ‘How do you do, ma’am? I am delighted to meet you.’ She cast Rob a fleeting glance. ‘Robert quite assured me that he had no family, but I could not believe him.’

  ‘How horrid of you, Rob!’ Letty Exton looked reproving. ‘And to keep your new wife hidden from us as well! If we had not been passing today we should never have known.’ She turned to Jemima. ‘Grandmama and I reside in Oxfordshire, you know, and seldom come up to Town. We are only here now to see dear Mr Churchward because I am one and twenty next month and we needed to consult him about my inheritance.’

  ‘I sent a note around to your lodgings as soon as we arrived, Robert,’ Lady Marguerite said. ‘I assume that you did not receive it?’

  ‘No, Grandmama,’ Rob said, and Jemima could hear the amused resignation in his voice. ‘I was not aware that you were in Town.’

  There was a rather awkward silence.

  ‘Never mind!’ Miss Exton said, smiling gamely. ‘We are very happy to meet you now!’

  Jemima smiled back gratefully. She rather liked Miss Exton, who seemed the polar opposite of her grandmother, warm where Lady Marguerite was chilly, friendly where her ladyship was decidedly aloof. But then, Jemima thought fairly, Rob’s grandmother would necessarily think the marriage a strange, havey-cavey affair and so could hardly be blamed for not welcoming Jemima with open arms. They had definitely got off on the wrong foot.

  Jemima suddenly caught sight of Jack, who was also eyeing Miss Exton with interest.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I have been most remiss. Lady Marguerite, Miss Exton, may I introduce my brother, Mr Jack Jewell?’

  Jack bowed to the ladies with immaculate politeness, then spoiled the effect by giving Letty a comprehensively admiring look that was not in the least gentlemanly. Jemima could feel Lady Marguerite positively radiating grand-maternal disapproval. Letty blushed and laughed.

  ‘How do you do, Mr Jewell?’

  ‘How do you do, Miss Exton?’ Jack said, smiling warmly into her eyes. Letty blushed harder and lowered her gaze.

  Jemima could feel Rob’s eyes on her and looked at him a little quizzically. He was trying to convey some message. He looked pointedly at her hand, then at her reticule. With a little jump of her heart, Jemima remembered that she had removed her wedding ring immediately after the marriage service and hidden it away in her bag. It was precisely the sort of detail that Lady Marguerite would notice at fifty paces. She furtively undid the clasp of her reticule and burrowed about inside.

  Letty, who was leaning over Mr Churchward’s desk, gave a little squeak. ‘Oh! Are you purchasing a house in Twickenham, Rob? Whatever do you need that for when you have Delaval and a house in Town?’

  Jemima’s heart missed a beat. With superb aplomb, Mr Churchward swept the deeds to the Twickenham house and all of Jemima’s other paperwork underneath a large sheet of blotting paper. ‘Those papers appertain to another client, Miss Exton,’ he said. ‘Very reprehensible of me to leave them lying about. Very reprehensible indeed.’ He took off his glasses and polished them furiously on his pocket handkerchief, as though taking the blame for something that was not actually his fault was almost too much for him.

  There was another pause.

  ‘Would you care for some champagne, Grandmama?’ Rob asked.

  ‘I would love some!’ Letty piped up. ‘Are we celebrating?’

  She gave Jack a luscious smile as he poured a glass for her.

  ‘Yes, we are celebrating indeed.’ Rob smiled. ‘Jemima and I were married this morning. A quiet affair—’ He turned to spike Lady Marguerite’s guns in a pre-emptive strike that Jemima could not but admire ‘—as I am still in mourning.’

  ‘A shame you could not control your ardour until you were out of mourning.’ Lady Marguerite sniffed. ‘Or at least long enough to introduce Jemima to the rest of your family. Most improper! This whole marriage seems a very hasty business. Have you known each other long?’

  ‘No,’ Rob said. It was clear that he was intent on offering as little information as possible and equally obvious that Lady Marguerite was intent on extracting as much as she could. He smiled at Jemima and she felt a strange, warm prickle of sensation. ‘That is immaterial, however. I knew as soon as I saw Jemima that I wished to marry her.’

  Letty sighed soulfully. ‘Oh, Rob, how sweet and romantic.’

  Lady Marguerite made a snort like a disapproving camel. ‘How impulsive.’

  Rob drew Jemima closer still to his side. His touch was warm and reassuring and the look he bent on her seemed full of affection. Despite the difficulties of their situation, Jemima found herself relaxing a little.

  ‘I do not believe that I know your family, Lady Selborne,’ Lady Marguerite continued, fixing Jemima with a gimlet eye.

  Jemima felt Rob’s hand tighten on hers. ‘No, ma’am,’ she said politely. ‘It is unlikely that you would know them.’

  ‘In what sense is it unlikely?’ Lady Marguerite’s tone was arctic. It was clear that she thought Jemima the veriest fortune hunter.

  ‘Grandmama!’ Letty said, embarrassed.

  Jemima smiled. She knew it was important to tell the truth as far as she was able. On the other hand, she had no intention of revealing her antecedents to this aristocratic lady. Lady Marguerite would probably require the smelling salts if she knew her grandson had married a sweep.

  ‘You would not have met my family because we do not go in to society, ma’am,’ she said sweetly. ‘My mother is much occupied in the home and my father…’ she hesitated ‘…is involved in property.’

  She heard Jack smother a laugh.

  ‘I suppose you did not invite the rest of the family to attend the wedding?’ Lady Marguerite continued.

  Rob shifted. ‘Ferdie acted as my groomsman,’ he said unwillingly.

  ‘Ferdie Selborne!’ Lady Marguerite’s perfectly plucked brows rose an inch. ‘Ramshackle! Very ramshackle indeed.’ Her gaze swung back to Jemima, itemising the mauve silk dress, the bonnet and the reticule, noting the lack of jewellery and dwelling thoughtfully on the wedding ring. Jemima suspected that she had been found seriously wanting.

  ‘And where did the two of you meet?’ Lady Marguerite pursued.

  ‘Outside a church,’ Rob said. He released Jemima’s hand, but only so that he could slide an arm a
bout her waist. His lips brushed her hair tenderly. Jemima found the effect disconcerting rather than helpful. His proximity disturbed her. She tried to move a little away and found herself held very firmly.

  ‘I see,’ Lady Marguerite murmured. Jemima could tell that she was still very suspicious. ‘Engaging in conversation in a public place is a very dangerous occupation for a lady. One never knows whom one might accidentally acknowledge that way.’

  ‘But it was in front of a church, Grandmama,’ Letty pointed out, eyes dancing. ‘One can be sure of meeting a good quality of person in such a location.’

  ‘Rather like a lawyer’s office,’ Jack put in.

  Letty looked at him under her lashes. Jack smiled at her. Lady Marguerite gave him a glare that could have iced the Thames over, but Jack appeared impervious.

  ‘Are you up in Town for long, Lady Marguerite?’ Jemima enquired hastily.

  ‘No.’ Lady Marguerite took a tiny sip from her champagne flute. ‘Merely to settle Letty’s inheritance and to visit our acquaintance. We hope to travel back to Oxfordshire in a few weeks.’ Her cool gaze slid back to Rob. ‘Are you travelling to Delaval shortly, Robert, or do you remain in Town? If so, we must all have dinner together soon.’

  Jemima shot Rob a quick, agonised look. He could hardly tell his grandmother that he was intending to travel to Oxfordshire immediately, but that she would be staying in London. That would look most odd. On the other hand, if he said that Jemima was accompanying him to Delaval, sooner or later Lady Marguerite would return home to find the new Countess missing and that would appear odder still.