Letters to a Lady

by Joan Smith

  “Oh, I’ll help with the cards,” Ronald said, and pulled a chair close to Selena’s. “That is the first thing that needs doing. There is no point in arranging a party without guests. Why, Di, you haven’t put RSVP on the bottom.”

  Mrs. Dunaway poked her head in the doorway and said, “The musicians are all booked up for tomorrow evening. I don’t know what his lordship was about, thinking to throw together a scrambling do on such short notice. How can we have a rout without music?”

  Ronald perked up his ears. “I might be able to round up a couple of fellows. Cuthbert’s sister knows some chaps that fiddle for her parties. They’re a new group just turning professional. They know all the new tunes, and I know where they practice.”

  “You’d best go after them,” Diana decided.

  Lady Selena bounced up from her chair. “I’ll go with you, Ronald.” She smiled.

  “No, no! I need your help here, Selena,” Diana said firmly.

  Lady Selena looked abashed, but soon recovered. “I have the megrim, Miss Beecham. When I have the megrim, Mama always sends me out for a drive in the fresh air. I shall be back to help you very soon.”

  Diana stared helplessly while Ronald and Selena went off together, unchaperoned. She couldn’t abandon her job, and even Peabody couldn’t be spared to go with them. Someone had to help her write the cards.

  “I am so annoyed with Harrup I could happily wring his neck,” she complained to Peabody. “First giving Ronald the post as his special assistant, then sending him here to be underfoot with Selena all day.”

  Peabody stared. “You never mean he made our Ronald his special assistant, and you not telling me! Why, that is excellent news, Di. Aren’t you happy for him?”

  “Of course I am, but—oh, Peabody, it is too complicated. Here, you take this stack of cards. And don’t forget to put RSVP on the bottom.”

  An hour passed, ninety minutes, and still Ronald and Selena did not return. What could possibly be taking them so long? Between worry and the rapid writing of the cards, Diana’s head began to ache. As she finished the last card and added it to the stack, the front door opened and Ronald and Selena came in, laughing and talking happily.

  Diana stormed into the hall, ready to rip at them. She looked at their smiling faces and felt like a jailer. They looked so right together, so happy—so much in love. “Did you manage to hire the musicians?” she asked in a tolerably patient voice.

  “Yes, by Jove, and at an excellent price, too,” Ronald assured her. “We had them play a few jigs for us so Selena could judge whether their music was suitable. It’s very easy to dance to. Of course Selena is so light-footed...”

  Diana fixed him with a sapient eye. “Is that how you construe your new duties, Ronald?” she asked coldly. “I didn’t know you counted caper merchanting amongst your skills. Perhaps you would be kind enough to have these cards delivered.” She handed him the stack. “And I don’t mean for you to deliver them yourself. Give them to a footman.”

  The cards were just being piled into Ronald’s arms when the door opened and Harrup entered. His eyes flew first to Diana’s glowering face, from where they quickly flitted to Ronald and Selena. “All my helpers are hard at work, I see,” be said heartily. Then he turned to Lady Selena and said, “Good morning, Selena. You are looking charming. as usual.”

  “Thank you,” she said, but her face and expression were like thunder.

  “May I see you for a moment in my office, Selena?” Harrup said. “There are a few things I wish to discuss about this evening.”

  Selena cast an imploring look to Ronald, who looked back helplessly as Harrup held the door for his fiancée. Selena entered with drooping shoulders and sullen lips. Diana was aware of a strong wish to put her ear to the keyhole and thought Ronald felt the same. Harrup obviously intended to try his hand at a spot of lovemaking. She had urged him to be kind to Selena and wondered why she should feel so incensed that he was taking her advice.

  “You’d best get those cards delivered,” she said to her brother. “In fact, you can deliver them yourself. Use Harrup’s carriage.” There was no danger of Selena accompanying him now.

  “But Selena—” he said, looking to the closed door.

  “Immediately,” Diana added, and stared till Ronald walked away with the cards.

  It was a quarter of an hour later when Selena came out of Harrup’s office. She looked extremely unhappy. “Where is Ronald?” she asked Diana.

  “He’s gone. Is there something I can do for you?”

  “No,” the girl said sullenly.

  Diana sought for words to discover what had passed in the office without sounding too encroaching. Obviously Harrup had used too heavy a hand in his lovemaking. “Is everything all right about this evening?” she ventured.

  It was enough to set Selena off on a series of complaints. “He says I must stand in the welcome line with him and greet his guests. There will be cabinet ministers and possibly even the prime minister, Miss Beecham,” she lamented. “And he has written this list with the title of each one, which I am supposed to memorize, and ask them questions or compliment them on their accomplishments.”

  Diana felt her head whirl. Was this his notion of conciliation? “Harrup and your parents will be with you, Selena,” she pointed out. “You will not be expected to carry the whole burden yourself. You must be familiar with these gentlemen. I’m sure they have visited your house any number of times.”

  “They’re all horrid.” The girl pouted. “And I never can remember whether Castlereagh is the dandy little gentleman who flirts or the great fat one who looks like a hippopotamus. Harrup says it is very important that I not make any mistakes. It could jeopardize his career,” she added, tears brimming in her eyes.

  “You have the whole afternoon to learn the list,” Diana said.

  “I am going home, Miss Beecham. Pray tell Lord Harrup I have the megrim.”

  Lady Selena demanded her pelisse, and as her skirts whisked angrily out the door, Diana’s whisked into Harrup’s office. She cast a withering stare at Harrup, who looked back uneasily.

  “I cannot believe you are such a flat,” she began angrily. “Selena has just flounced off home with that list you gave her to memorize. Are you trying to frighten the life out of her?”

  Harrup mounted his high horse and stared Diana down.

  “Not at all. My wife will have duties to perform. This is an excellent time for her to begin learning them.”

  “You can’t expect her to learn the workings of government in one day, Harrup! And furthermore, what do you mean by making Ronald your special assistant, then sending him here when you knew I was asking Selena to help me?”

  “I wanted to give you every assistance. It happens my office is in confusion at the moment, and I had no work for Ronald. I hope he proved useful to you?”

  “Remarkably useful! He took Selena off to dance the morning away.”

  Harrup stared in bewilderment. “What?”

  “Ronald undertook to hire musicians when Mrs. Dunaway could not engage your regular group. Selena went with him.”

  “I made sure the redoubtable Miss Beecham would keep a tight rein on the children for me,” he mocked.

  “I have no authority over the girl. I asked her to stay and help me. She said she had the megrim, and I might add she has it again. You may count yourself fortunate if she doesn’t take to her bed with another this evening. I, for one, would scarcely blame her.”

  “Evils do come in threes, folks say,” he agreed.

  Diana felt better after venting her spleen and asked more mildly, “Speaking of evils, was there any mention from York about last night?”

  “The on-dit at Whitehall is that the royal duke is at home with a bad cold, which had the curious effect of darkening his daylights.”

  “Then he’s keeping mum,” she interpreted. “Have you heard from Mrs. Whitby?”

  No.” There was a sound of wheels on the street. Harrup strolled to the window
. “Perhaps this is her note coming now.”

  Diana joined him, looking through the sheer curtain. “That’s your own carriage. It must be Ronald delivering the cards.” But she knew Ronald would be blocks away by now if he hadn’t been hanging around, waiting for Selena. Even as she spoke, Lady Selena flew into the street and hurled herself into the carriage.

  “Ronald will see her home safely,” Harrup said.

  “The devil he will. She’ll be jaunting all over London with him, delivering those cards. You’ll have to stop her.”

  Harrup looked serenely indifferent to this. “Did Ronald not assure you he meant to behave as a gentleman in this matter?”

  “Yes, and to be fair, I think he will try, but that girl has no more notion of propriety than one of her own kittens. Ronald is not forceful enough to deny her anything.”

  He turned a black, accusing eye on her. “I can feel with Ronald in that predicament. How I ever let you talk me into going to Mrs. Whitby’s!” Then he crossed his arms and considered the matter a moment. “I see no impropriety in my fiancée and my special assistant delivering invitations to my little rout. Even Groden would be hard pressed to discover any mischief there. The only person who might reasonably object is myself, and I have complete confidence in them both. Now shall we have some luncheon, Diana? I must return to work for a few hours this afternoon.”

  Her nostrils flared in indignation. “I am not at liberty, Harrup. Someone must arrange this demmed rout of yours, and it is clear that no one else will do it.”

  She stalked from the office and went to the ballroom to oversee the placement of vases for the flowers. The afternoon was taken up in discussions with Mrs. Dunaway and the servants regarding refreshments and other arrangements for the party.

  Lady Selena did not return with Ronald, who arrived several hours later. “Is Harrup here?” were Ronald’s first words, uttered with a telltale unsteadiness of the eyes that spoke of guilt.

  “No. Where’s Selena?”

  “I left her at home. It is unconscionable the way that man treats her, Di.”

  “Standing at the door and welcoming his guests is hardly a punishment,” she defended.

  “No, but the way he spoke to her—so harshly. Telling her she must read up on politics and not make a cake of herself by appearing ignorant of what passes in the world. She said he reminded her of her papa, talking nothing but politics. He told her the attorney general’s wife must circulate and play the hostess, putting his guests at their ease. His lady, he said, was not expected to sit on the sofa like a cushion, as she did the other night at Groden’s dinner party. You know how shy Selena is, Di. It will be torture for her. If I didn’t know better, I would think Harrup was trying to give her a disgust of him.”

  “Nonsense, he is only showing her how she must behave after they are married.”

  Ronald stood irresolute a moment; then he straightened his narrow shoulders and spoke firmly. “There is such a thing as pushing people too far. ‘My foe may provide me with arms.’ That is all I have to say.”

  “Might I suggest you say it to Harrup?” she replied. “There is no point in complaining to me, Ronald. I don’t rule the roost here.”

  Ronald’s courage did not go quite that far. He was going to Whitehall to see if his office was ready yet, but Diana knew he wouldn’t speak to his patron on personal matters. It wasn’t Ronald’s style.

  The newspapers had several stories on Harrup’s appointment, some of them giving a detailed history of the family. Peabody brought the papers to Diana, as proud as though Chuggie were her own son. “I always knew Chuggie would amount to something.” She smiled dotingly. “Such a clever boy as he was. We will see him prime minister yet, Di. Mark my words. And he’ll carry our Ronald along with him to the top. You may have your wish of lording it over them all in London yet.”

  “I never wanted to lord it over anyone. Only to be allowed to hang on the fringes and watch the great at work and play. I begin to feel even that is overestimated.”

  Harrup was out that evening. He didn’t dine at home or tell Diana where he was going, but she learned from Mrs. Dunaway that some of his colleagues were having a party at one of the clubs to celebrate his promotion, which meant that Lady Selena would not be with him. Perhaps the young lady would spend her free time memorizing her list. Diana felt sorry for the girl and for Ronald, but mostly she was angry with Harrup.

  He had promised he would ingratiate Selena. She felt he could do it, too, if only he would put himself to the bother. Why did he not? It looked as though he meant to continue his libertine ways after marriage and didn’t want a wife who clung too closely to him. Perhaps he had even hired Ronald to give Selena a convenient young cicisebeo, someone to amuse her while he amused himself with the muslin company?

  This interpretation explained a series of otherwise inexplicable decisions on Harrup’s part—hiring Ronald, encouraging proximity between him and Selena, and doing nothing to make his future bride like him. It was a disgusting, cynical way to behave, especially with such innocents as Selena and Ron, but no other explanation could she find.

  Diana had some intention of accosting him when he came in and taking him to task, but his party lasted very late. She was sound asleep when Harrup returned, slightly bosky, and looked hopefully into his office to see if she was there.

  Chapter Nine

  After his late night, Harrup did not reach the breakfast table till nine the next morning. Diana was already in hand with the rout arrangements. It was in the ballroom that he found her later, overseeing the placement of some bentwood chairs to hold the dowagers while the younger members of the party danced. Purple smudges shadowed the area beneath Harrup’s eyes. The eyes themselves showed signs of ravage from his late-night revels. With these traces of dissipation on him, Diana found it easy to believe him capable of her worst imaginings.

  She regarded him with distaste. “Good morning, Harrup. No need to ask if you slept well. You look like a roué.”

  Harrup sensed that he was in poor aroma and answered carefully. “It’s not every evening a man celebrates a major triumph. I confess, the wine flowed freely. Did anything interesting happen here?”

  She glared at him mutinously. “Nothing that would interest you,” she said curtly.

  “What happens under my roof always interests me. I sense this discussion requires privacy,” he added, when a few servants began listening in. “Shall we go to my office?”

  Diana was undecided whether to oblige him or not, but her anger was choking her, and she went. Harrup carefully closed the door before turning to her. “Let’s hear it,” he said. “Your eyes aren’t burning like flame for no reason. What has my new assistant been up to?”

  “Your assistant, unfortunately, hasn’t the backbone to rake your hair with a stool as he ought to. I, being Ronald’s elder sister, shall undertake to do it for him. I am not at all happy with the situation you’ve created here, Harrup, and I don’t mean to return home without rectifying it.”

  “Situation?” he asked, blinking.

  She stared scornfully at his face, which was pale from drinking and from his late night. “The situation of your making Ronald your assistant, whose major chore appears to be entertaining your bride-to-be. I have warned you before of the attachment between them. Unlike Peabody, I don’t believe it was any desire to oblige old neighbors that led you to honor Ronald. I thought at first it was only mischief, but I begin to see a more sinister plan.”

  “Indeed? Perhaps you would care to enlighten me as to the nature of this sinister design?” he asked stiffly.

  “I cannot think it necessary, but I will tell you what I think, because if I don’t tell someone, I shall scream. I think you hired Ronald to provide a convenient escort for your bride, thus leaving you free to continue your wanton ways with such females as Mrs. Whitby. If that is how you intend to proceed as a married man, I must insist you choose another dupe than my innocent young brother. How your conscious can allow you to
play off such a stunt on Selena passes my comprehension, but then, I have not had the advantage of a career in the asylum of politics, where apparently anything goes. Fifteen years now you’ve been on the town. I should think that would be enough to give even you your fill of debauchery.”

  Harrup listened in rigid silence. She expected every moment that he would attack. He looked tense, ready to spring at her throat, but he said nothing till she had finished.

  “Thank you for that edifying reading of my character,” he said coldly. “I am sorry to have caused you concern. You will be pleased to know that even I, steeped in lechery as I am, do not enter into marriage with any intention of offering my bride’s favors to the first pup who comes sniffing around. Fifteen years of dissipation has indeed proven sufficient for me. Like most ladies, you overrate the attraction of your sex. My career is more important to me now, and after the Whitby affair, I see the two do not mix.”

  “Then why do you not forbid Ronald to dangle after Selena?” she demanded.

  “Forbidden fruit is always sweeter. My long experience in ruining women has taught me that much at least. Let ‘em have their fill of rolling their eyes at each other. It won’t go further than that, I promise you.”

  Diana listened but was still not satisfied. “You’re doing everything in your power to turn Selena against you. Writing her that list, and telling her she must suddenly be an accomplished political hostess, when she doesn’t even know the prime minister’s name.”

  “High time she learned,” he snapped. “My wife will have strenuous social duties. If Lady Selena is incapable of fulfilling them, then the time to learn it is before the wedding, not after.”

  “No, Harrup, the time to learn was before the betrothal. The fact of the matter is, you snatched at Groden’s offer because Selena is pretty, wellborn, and well dowered, and you thought you’d have a better chance at the coveted promotion if you had a wife. That she is a peagoose who holds you in the greatest aversion didn’t matter a groat. Now that you realize the inconvenience of a child bride, you have decided to turn her into something she is not and never will be. I wish you luck of your bargain, but pray leave Ronald out of it.”