‘You think she might refuse?’
It was entirely possible. Stephen had repeatedly warned him that she did not like him. His heart felt as though an iron fist were squeezing it as he recalled the number of times she had shouted at him, glared at him, called him names, or even simply avoided his company altogether by flouncing out of the room.
‘Oh, aye. She has these plans, you see. On her twenty-fifth birthday she will gain control of her own funds. I will be powerless to stop her from opening up Vosbey House—that is her London residence, which I have leased out at the moment, just like Lady’s Bower—and running it as some kind of an orphanage. Em Dean will go with her to lend her countenance, she says, though I cannot say that makes me any easier. She’s worse than Hester. If Em had her way, they would sell all Hester’s property and live among the labouring poor of some mill town.’
He sighed dramatically. ‘I would much rather she married someone strong enough to check her wild starts, someone who would care for her. Someone she could respect. A man who can be firm, but won’t bully her.’
‘Sir Thomas…’ He edged forward in his chair, his mouth suddenly bone dry ‘…I would never do anything to hurt her.’
‘I knew it.’ Sir Thomas looked very smug. ‘You have developed a tendre for her, in spite of what you perceive to be a long list of failings on her part.’
Lord Lensborough pulled a wry face. Every new fact he learned about Hester turned all his previous assumptions about her upside down. The only constant factor was his total fascination with her.
‘I cannot seem to help myself,’ he admitted.
‘Excellent. Now, the next stage will need very careful handling.’ Sir Thomas reached for the decanter to fill his own glass. ‘We’re going to have to box clever. It is my belief you slipped under her guard because she always thought of you as halfway betrothed to one of my girls. You didn’t lay on the flattery with a trowel—well, you saw yourself how she reacted to that dandified friend of yours when he tried it on.’
‘You may be sure I will propose in a most rational, businesslike manner, then, pointing out all the advantages of such a match.’
‘You will do nothing of the sort!’ He pounded the table top so hard the stopper rattled in the neck of the decanter. ‘What advantages can there be in marrying you, or any other man? I’ve told you, she is independently wealthy. She can do exactly as she pleases in another couple of years and has been looking forward to it.’
No, he mused, she had never been impressed by his wealth or rank. If she ever did agree to marry him, it would have to be because she cared for him. Enough to give up her independence.
His heart began to beat erratically. He would have to conquer her. Not the obscenely wealthy Marquis of Lensborough. That cipher, who caused so many female bosoms to heave with avaricious longing, could never win a woman like Hester. But could the man, Jasper Challinor?
With a start, he realised Sir Thomas was still speaking. ‘…so you must not speak to her about this until I have sounded her out.’
‘I will wait.’ He looked at his host with unseeing eyes. ‘But I cannot promise I can do so with any degree of patience.’
‘Used to getting your own way, ain’t you?’
‘Not,’ he replied drily, ‘since I came into Beckforth.’
‘Need to square it with Lady Susan, too.’ Sir Thomas’s face fell. ‘I don’t think she will be pleased to have all her aspirations for our girls dashed like this, but you wouldn’t have made either of ’em happy in the long run.’ He forced a smile. ‘They’re not up to your weight, and so I shall tell her.’
Downing the last of the port, he got to his feet, and, pot valiant, went to inform his wife.
* * *
‘Oh. Oh,’ she cried when, much later, in the privacy of their own bedchamber, he finally broke the news. She clasped her hands to her bosom and tears sprang to her eyes. Sir Thomas backed towards the bedroom door, deciding he would wait till she had cried out her initial disappointment before pointing out that such warm-hearted girls as theirs needed a great deal of affection if they were to flourish, and his lordship was not the man to give it.
‘Oh,’ she cried again, flinging her arm out towards him, ‘but this is wonderful, my love. Wonderful!’
‘Eh?’ His retreat ground to a halt. ‘You are not displeased? After all that money and effort you expended getting our girls kitted out to attract him?’
‘Oh, how can you be so absurd? None of it will be wasted. They will be able to show off their new gowns when we go to London for Hester’s wedding, or, if she is not to be married in London, she will surely invite them to stay with her for the Season. She will introduce them into the best circles, they will meet the most eligible men.’
‘You run ahead of yourself, my dear. He has not spoken to Hester yet.…’
‘Oh.’ Her plump white hand flew to her throat. ‘She would not be silly enough to refuse him, surely?’
He sat on the edge of the bed. ‘You never can tell with Hester.’ He frowned. ‘It would be just like her to turn him down so as not to dash our girls’ hopes in his direction.’
Lady Susan’s tears dried up at once. ‘I will speak to them, Thomas. And I will explain to Hester how delighted we shall all be for her to find happiness in the matrimonial state.’
‘Thank you, my love.’ Sir Thomas sighed with relief that yet another obstacle to the match had been so neatly removed. Still, he thought it best to sound Hester out before permitting his lordship to approach her. She had long professed a deep-seated aversion to the very thought of marriage, and it would not do to expose a man of his lordship’s influence to the embarrassment of the tactless sort of rejection she was bound to mete out should he have misjudged her feelings towards him.
* * *
So, first thing next morning, before the family set off for church, he made his way to the sick room.
‘You don’t look half so bad as I’ve been led to expect,’ he observed, pulling a chair up to her bedside. ‘The way Lord Lensborough goes on, anyone would think you had been at death’s door.’
At the very mention of his name, his niece blushed and lowered her head.
‘And as for the way he manhandled you down here…’ he scowled, deciding to play devil’s advocate to sound out her feelings ‘…shocking behaviour! You aunt was most upset. I can assure you, there will be no repeat of that performance. Who does he think he is, carrying on like that?’
‘Oh, no.’ Hester turned imploring eyes upon her uncle. ‘Please do not quarrel with him over that. He only meant to help me.’
‘Throw his weight about, more like.’
‘He cannot help himself. Don’t you see? He is so used to people jumping to do his bidding that he believes he can behave exactly as he likes without risk of censure. He may have acted in a very offensive manner, but his motive was kindness.’
‘Kindness! That man has not a kind bone in his body. The more I see of him, the less I like the idea of one of my girls marrying such a disagreeable man.’
‘Oh, no. No.’ She seized her uncle’s coat sleeve. ‘His manner may be brusque, he may have a bit of a temper, but I am sure he would never ill treat a lady.’
‘Not intentionally, perhaps, but…’ he sighed heavily, patting her hand ‘…I have to admit that you may have been right about him all along. It may have been a mistake letting him come here.’
‘You surely cannot mean to refuse to give your consent to the match at this stage?’ She looked appalled. ‘Just because he is a little autocratic—surely you must have seen that beneath that gruff exterior he is every inch a gentleman. What better husband could a girl wish for? He is wealthy enough to indulge Julia’s every whim, strong enough to smooth Phoebe’s path through anything life may throw in her way. Oh, I know he does not cut a very romantic figure, but who would really want a husband who was for ever sighing and languishing at your feet? No, a sensible, rational man would make a much more competent husband.’
&nb
sp; ‘Sensible and rational is all very well and good, but that temper of his. He can be very harsh.’
‘Yes.’ She plucked a stray thread from his sleeve. ‘He does have a short fuse. But they could soon learn how to avoid setting his back up if they don’t want him to shout at them. And he would repay them by doing his utmost to take care of them.’
Sir Thomas nodded, as if considering her declaration of his merits dispassionately. ‘In effect, you think with a bit of work he might make a tolerable husband in the end?’
How could she make him see what a truly wonderful man he was about to get for a son-in-law? ‘Much better than tolerable. I think that once she had got used to his ways, his wife could consider herself the most fortunate woman in the world.’
‘My word, Hester, that is warm praise indeed. I did not know you had come to regard him so highly.’
Hester’s cheeks flamed. ‘I formed a very silly prejudice against him before I ever met him. Now that I have got to know him…’ She looked away, her whole body hot with sudden self-awareness. Though she could not admit to anybody how much she owed to him, her feelings for the man who had rescued her from Lionel Snelgrove’s clutches were tantamount, at that precise moment, to hero-worship.
Her uncle was wreathed in smiles when he left, so she supposed she must have reassured him that Lord Lensborough would not be unkind to his precious daughters. She slumped back against the mound of pillows, suddenly exhausted, and inexplicably wretched. Her spirits sank even lower once the stillness of the house told her that everyone had gone to church, and she was entirely alone. As she always would be.
Then, out of nowhere, came the memory of Lord Lensborough’s scathing voice, asking if she were really going to sink into a decline over Lionel’s attempt to break her.
She sat up straight. She most certainly would not. All anybody knew, thanks to Lord Lensborough’s discretion, was that she’d had a head cold. She had to get up and get back to normal life sometime. It might as well be now.
* * *
She felt much better for having a thorough wash and getting out of her nightgown and into clean clothes. She grimaced when she sat before the dressing table and caught sight of her hair. It bore silent testimony to every minute of what she had endured over the past couple of days. She really ought to wash it, but since it was Sunday there was nobody in the house to heat the water for her. The thought of standing over the fire, and then lugging buckets upstairs without help was too daunting. Laying aside her silver-backed hairbrush with resignation, she dipped her comb into the ewer, teased out a single section of hair, and patiently set to work on the knots.
* * *
She was still sitting there, plying her comb, when Julia bounced into the room.
‘Hester,’ she squealed, flinging her arms round her shoulders, and planting a kiss on her cheek. ‘I am so happy. I had to come straight here to tell you I was never so glad of anything in my life.’
Lord Lensborough must have spoken to her at last. It was strange, but she found that she did not know quite what she wanted to say. She winced as her comb snagged on a particularly stubborn tangle.
‘The Reverend Dean’s sermon was that inspiring?’ she quipped.
Julia collapsed on to the bedside chair in a heap of giggles. ‘Don’t be silly. I’m talking about your engagement to Lord Lensborough.’
‘My what?’ The comb slipped through Hester’s suddenly nerveless fingers.
‘Now, I know you have been thinking of refusing him because you are worried one of us might still be hankering after him. Mama told me. That is why I just had to come and tell you how pleased we will be not to have to go through with it.’
‘But you—’she met Julia’s eyes in the mirror ‘—you have been, you have to admit it, positively drooling over him ever since he got here.’
Julia met her gaze boldly. ‘I admit I have been encouraging his advances. And at first, yes, all I could think about was how splendid it would be to have a rich husband. Even when I found out how bad-tempered he is, I still wanted to prove to Mama and Papa that I could be a dutiful daughter and settle down no matter how I felt about him. Mama really wanted this connection and I…’ Her great blue eyes filled with tears. ‘Well, she has never really forgiven me for not being able to make up my mind between Captain Fitzpatrick and Lysander Wells. I could easily have married either of them. Whenever I read one of the poems Mr Wells composed for me, I just melted inside, but the moment I glimpsed Captain Fitzpatrick in his regimentals, all other thoughts went out of my head.’
Hester suffered a pang of sympathy for Julia, remembering the scenes there had been when she came home from her Season without a husband. She should have known all along Julia would never marry for money alone. Julia needed affection and approval. Her dogged pursuit of Lord Lensborough had been prompted by a sense of family duty.
‘But what about Phoebe? The way she looks at him.’
‘Yes. As if he is some sort of god. I thought at first she would like to marry him, but once she confided in me how she could not sleep for fear he might choose her, I had to try to save her from him. She could never have plucked up the courage to refuse him anything, you see? And then what would her life have been like?’
‘You are talking about him as if he is some sort of ogre.’ Hester snatched up her comb and tugged it through one of the remaining tangles. Couldn’t Julia see she was turning her nose up at the opportunity of a lifetime?
Julia giggled again. ‘Well, we all know now that you, at least, don’t think so. When I overheard Papa whispering to Mama in church that you had fallen for him, it was as if all our prayers had been answered.’
Hester sighed with relief. It was all just a misunderstanding. She could soon straighten it out. ‘Julia, I said some things to reassure your father this morning, but it was all to do with one of you marrying him. He has not even considered me.’
‘Of course he has, silly. He asked Papa for your hand last night.’
He couldn’t have done. ‘But your father did not agree…’
‘Of course he did.’
No! How could he have done such a thing without consulting her? It was the worst form of betrayal, knowing how she felt about marriage.
‘He could not…’ Or could he? To spare his own daughters from a distasteful marriage, of course he could sacrifice his niece. He would not even feel guilty now, not after what she had said to him before church.
‘It is absurd.’ What on earth could have possessed Lord Lensborough? He had made no secret of the extent of his dislike for her. Even after rescuing her from Lionel, he had roundly abused her all the way home.
A cold hand seemed to clutch at her heart. It was because of what she had said at the inn. She had warned him what gossips could make of the escapade. So he had decided to put paid to any potential for gossip by marrying her.
‘Not at all.’ Julia got up and hugged her. ‘And the best of it is, Mama says once you are married, she will permit me to go back to London, so that you can put me in the way of finding a really good husband. One that I can love. A kind, gentle, handsome man who will not look down his nose at me.’
Julia performed a pirouette in the doorway before, presumably, dancing away to her own room, leaving Hester feeling as if all the air had been knocked from her lungs. She gripped the edge of the dressing table, shutting her eyes as the room spun crazily about her.
Marriage. She gulped. To think she had inhaled his scent from the pillows of his bed, imagining she could trust him. That she had found a champion to protect her from all that. When all along he had decided…
She opened her eyes and turned to glare at the bed they had both slept in. Not at the same time, not yet, but once he got that ring on her finger…
Sweat broke out on her brow. A shiver ran down her spine. Their naked limbs would tangle together. There would be sweating, and grunting, and pain, and humiliation. All that Lionel had threatened would become reality. Falling to her knees, she scrabbled under t
he bed, yanking out the chamberpot only just in the nick of time.
Once her stomach was well and truly empty, she dragged the quilt from the bed and crawled with it to the sitting-room hearth. Her very bones felt chilled, though sweat was pouring from every pore in her skin.
‘Oh.’ Hester had not heard the knock on the door. ‘I thought you were better?’
Hester turned dull eyes to where her aunt hovered nervously on the threshold.
‘I tried to get up,’ she murmured, wondering where all the optimism, the energy she had felt earlier, had gone. ‘I was sick.’
Her aunt sidled into the room and perched on the edge of a chair by the door. ‘Well, my dear, I only came to congratulate you on securing such a wonderful match. I do hope—that is, I know you have said a great many things against marriage in the past, but it is the natural state for a woman, having a man look after her, and bearing his children.’
Hester clenched her teeth against another wave of nausea. Most women, yes. But not her. She could not bear the idea of what she would have to endure, at the hands of a man who did not like her, in order to become a mother.
‘Now, Hester, I hope you are going to be a good girl. You won’t do anything silly like turning him down, will you? This connection would be so beneficial. Only think what his patronage would mean to Harry and George.’
A sense of utter defeat washed over her. Every single one of her family was ranged against her.
‘I know this is not a love match, but is that not all to the good? For you, I mean. I know how you dislike it when men go all romantical over you.’ She inched her chair a little closer to where Hester slumped on the hearth rug.
‘I have noticed that you are not as shy with him as you are with other men. Why, you danced with him quite competently. And you talk to him in a way my girls cannot. About reform, and issues, and all those things they are not the least bit interested in. And horses. That is why he prefers you, I expect. That, and the fact that you are better connected, and have a substantial dowry.’
His Cinderella Bride Page 17
