The Rake's Redemption

by Anne Millar

  So among the social crimes her jaunt was racking up was arriving at a meal time. She’d have sneered at the Horsleys if they’d made that particular faux pas. Maybe it went with the hypocrisy of this new life she was embarking on. Duplicity and deceit included as given. But Judith forget about the jarring falseness of her visit when she stepped onto the terrace.

  Charles rose to greet her with a smile, but Jane made no attempt to conceal her dismay at the identity of the newcomer. She scowled and made no attempt at conversation beyond replying to direct questions with as few words as possible. The food went virtually untouched as three out of four people tried to pretend that Jane’s rudeness wasn’t really happening.

  In the end though it worked to Judith’s advantage. She’d been racking her brain for an excuse to appropriate Charles, thinking she was a fool for coming there, descending to the pathetic pretext that they take a walk to see how the gardens had grown since the days when they both visited the Milburs. Using such an implausible ploy was bound to antagonise Theodore, so Judith was thankful when Jane unexpectedly solved her problem for her.

  “Theodore tells me Oakenhill is in need of repair.”

  She said it with such disdain that Oakenhill seemed a mighty small affair and its custodians unaccountably lax in the discharge of their duties to reach such a state of affairs. Nothing could have been calculated to infuriate Judith more, and she saw even the imperturbable Mrs Rogers raise an eyebrow from her seat on the verge of the group.

  “Jane, I said no such thing.” Theodore Horsley certainly wasn’t imperturbable. He looked to be on the verge of panic, glancing from Charles to Judith as though to secure support for his denial. He wasn’t getting it. Charles looked as though his wife’s utterance had nothing to do with him and Judith wasn’t going to miss the chance to stir this pot.

  “Theodore, you wouldn’t say such a thing about my father’s estate? No gentleman would.” Never mind that Theodore’s money was the only hope for rescuing Oakenhill for the Hamptons and that her brother was congenitally incapable of running the estate. She would play this with a high hand and dare him to call her bluff. “Jane, surely Theodore meant something else? Perhaps asking about your father’s estate?”

  Unlikely, Jane’s father owed any wealth in his family to his political career and his ability to ingratiate himself with the powerful men in government. Land wasn’t a factor. So Judith wasn’t surprised to see a flash of anger in Jane’s eyes. She didn’t regret it either.

  “No, I’m sure that wasn’t what Theodore meant. It was Oakenhill.” Jane might be flushed with anger but she was determined. Judith could see Theodore casting around for some way to defuse the situation and she couldn’t resist pushing matters along.

  “I’m sure Theodore wouldn’t be injudicious enough to comment on another gentleman’s estate. Would you Theodore?” Whatever had or had not been said really was incidental and Judith couldn’t care if Sir Theodore Horsley had breached every boundary of good manners. She certainly wouldn’t have been surprised.

  “I am quite certain of what was said. And I am correct, am I not Theodore?” Jane’s robust defence of her position left Theodore Horsley nonplussed. Judith couldn’t help the glee she felt at his obvious discomfiture, but underneath that trivial delight she was realising there was a deeper mystery. It didn’t make a lot of sense that Charles and Jane were here with Theodore Horsley, and it made even less sense that Jane was baiting Theodore so relentlessly.

  “Jane, surely that is enough. Let us drop the matter now.” Charles Stainford might have intended to play the peacemaker, but his intervention only served to heighten the antagonism Jane was so transparently displaying.

  “You think so Charles? Would it be too much to expect you to stand up for your wife?” Judith saw Charles wince at the utter contempt in her tone, and for a second she thought he would respond as any man would, but instead he turned his face away and sat silent. It was Theodore was collected his wits sufficiently to end the awkwardness.

  “There is no need for any further disputation.” Judith cringed at the pretentiousness in his voice before she twigged that he was asking Jane to stop, almost pleading with her. He pointed at the parterre below the terrace. “Shall we discuss the misunderstanding and smell the scent of the flowers at the same time?”

  The Milburs had planted extensive gardens and let them grow to become pretty playgrounds for their children and their children’s friends. Now the shrubs had been hacked back or removed and box hedging planted to provide neat delineation. Judith suspected it was only a matter of time till extensive and extravagant topiary made its appearance. Not that she would allow that. Except that the thought brought back into relief what her fate was to be.

  For now the gardens afforded a space for Jane and Theodore to pursue whatever private conversation they needed to have without outraging convention by moving out of eyesight. It left Charles and Judith equally able to converse, especially once Mrs Rogers discreetly moved herself out of earshot, after loading her plate from the spurned platters.

  “You must wonder at how Jane and I have ended up.” At least Charles wasn’t going to rely on good manners to sweep the extraordinary scene under the carpet.

  “I remember how excited she was when she first came to Trefoyle. So young and so entranced by you.” She didn’t need to lie to be polite, Jane had been fresh and charming, delighted with her luck in snaring Charles even if he were the younger son.

  “Now my wife is pleased at every chance to dispense with my company.” He could so easily have sounded self pitying, but for all the pathos of his words Charles sounded factual, and Judith took that as her cue to be bold and ask what she wanted to know.

  “I don’t understand why Charles. Jane was so vivacious. What happened to her?” That was bold, far outside the bounds of what society would consider allowable, and she didn’t really know Charles that well for all the empathy that seemed to have sprung up between them. Back then all her attention had been devoted to Thomas and his brother had been only an adjunct.

  “I disappointed her, Judith. We never should have married and gone to Spain. It was a mistake and I should have known better.” He seemed determined to make what had happened into his fault when no one thought it was. Judith hesitated to probe further, but this wasn’t the time for reticence.

  “Was it the hardship of following the army?”

  This time there was no missing the bitterness of his snorted laugh. “No, Judith. Perhaps for some it might have been, but not for Jane.”

  “The danger?” Judith knew she was struggling, sounding pathetic as she grasped for some excuse Charles could use to explain his wife’s behaviour.

  “Not even that. There really is little enough for an English lady if she is sensible. The French for all their barbarity to the Spanish behaved as civilised adversaries to us.” Charles seemed lost in his thoughts and Judith could think of nothing further to say to prompt him. “I was a good officer, Judith. Not as brave as Thomas maybe, but I knew my duty and the men liked me. I could have made father proud.”

  His air of distraction left a disquieting sense of unease, and Judith couldn’t help but cast her mind back to the dreamy young man who had been so much in his brother’s shadow. A less natural soldier was hard to imagine. “Charles, I’m sure you were a good officer. Any father would have been proud of both his sons.”

  “I always thought Thomas was the lucky one with you. Then I met Jane.” Charles was certainly incoherent and rambling, but his decision to pause at that point left Judith hanging. Did he mean he was jealous of Thomas over her? Surely not.

  “Charles, Thomas and I were so young, foolish.” That almost sounded as if she were as excusing herself for preferring Charles to his brother. Which was the last thing she needed right now. “Too young to know sense. Now I have Theodore” However unpleasant that might be in reality, naming her betrothed left no room for Charles to imagine any future for Judith and him. If that was what he meant.

&
nbsp; “I really thought you and Thomas would be happy. If we hadn’t gone to Spain you might have been.” Judith wasn’t sure what to say in this very uncomfortable conversation. Charles seemed determined to focus on her and Thomas, confusing that with his own private regrets.

  “What happened to you and Jane?” Much better, more definite, Aunt Matilde and Amara would be proud of her. After all she’d come here to delve into the odd way things were between Charles and Jane, not to listen to his hopes for her and Thomas. “I thought Jane wanted to go to Spain, wanted the adventure?”

  “She did.”

  Judith waited but Charles showed no sign of expanding his answer. If she were to get to the bottom of this she’d have to press him. Whether or not that was quite fair to Charles Judith put from her mind, she needed to know, and besides Theodore and Jane could return at any time.

  “Why aren’t you angry at Thomas, Charles?” Maybe a change of tack would elicit more of a response. She didn’t sense any resistance from Charles, oddly enough he seemed to want to talk, just not in any way that made sense or answered the questions she had lodged in her mind.

  “There’s no reason why I should be, Judith, it wasn’t his fault. Jane should not have been there. But I was busy with my duties and I’d asked him to look after her. He did his best. It must have been terrifying for her to be chased like that by those dragoons. They make the Spanish women run for fun you know. At least Thomas saved her from that.”

  “He betrayed you. Your own brother. How can you not be angry with him?” She couldn’t believe the detachment he was showing. What was the matter with Charles?

  “No, Judith. You have it wrong.”

  “But you challenged him. Shot him.” Judith couldn’t help herself but to argue. It was impossible to credit anyone with the ability to forgive such an affront.

  “I could do nothing else. The scandal ran round the army and I was ashamed and humiliated. If I could take that shot back I would, Judith.” He was so clearly sincere Judith couldn’t doubt the truth of what he said, but that didn’t bring her any closer to an understanding. How could Charles find it in himself to forgive his brother and his wife?

  “Do you blame Jane?”

  He hesitated and Judith knew that he did. He wasn’t going to say it though. “I should never have married her, that was my fault. Thomas questioned whether I was wise in that. He said Jane was too young and too wilful, and he was right. We quarrelled over it, I thought he was interfering. playing the big brother too strong. Then when my father told him to exchange into my regiment he made no difficulty. I feel guilty for that.”

  “Your father told him to exchange?” This she had not known. It was one of the things she hated Thomas for, that he had swapped his militia commission for service overseas with a line regiment while she was away at Aunt Chloe’s. All without a word to her.

  “He thought Thomas would look after me. None of my family have much faith in me you see.”

  She nearly laughed out loud at the irony of that. Charles still hadn’t the least trace of self pity about him. He might not be telling her all of it but she believed implicitly what he had told her. And he didn’t blame Thomas. So did that mean she might have misjudged the man?

  “Jane and you.” Charles turned his head to the side at the question implicit in her words. Judith knew she was asking far too much, even Matilde and Amara might well have drawn the line at this question.

  “She was like a butterfly in Lisbon. Revelling in the society that headquarters drew around it. As we moved through Spain there were balls and routs to celebrate our victories. The Spanish needed to celebrate their liberation. Even if they wanted to pretend they’d done it themselves. Jane loved it all, loved it too much. So no, there will not be a happy ending for Jane and myself.”

  Yet he was here with his wife, and Judith could feel the strength of the urge to ask him why. The obvious course would have been to make straight for Penwick to take up his position as heir. There was too, for the first time a sense that Charles had dissembled in his answer. Not that she doubted his conclusion, but there was something unsaid.

  “Did Theodore bring you here to unsettle Thomas?” She’d gone so far beyond the bounds of what was socially acceptable to discuss there could be no harm in one more question, even if it revealed her own distrust for the man she had accepted as her future husband.

  “I would not plot against him, Judith. That was not why I came. I had hoped we might find some way to reconcile, but there seems little prospect of that. Jane wanted to come. She hoped provincial society might be more forgiving, she was terribly hurt by our reception in London.”

  That didn’t answer why Charles had allowed Jane to come to Horsley Hall or why Theodore thought it worthwhile, but Judith lost her train of thought at his next announcement. “I hope to persuade father to rescind his decision. Thomas will make a far finer Earl of Penwick than I.”

  Judith was uncomfortably aware she was staring, and she had a nasty suspicion her mouth might have dropped open.

  “You have paid me the complement of being honest Judith, and asked what was on your mind. You will not gainsay me the same privilege surely?”

  She could only shake her head.

  “Then help me with this where you can. Persuade Thomas that I am sincere in this and that if he joins his voice to mine father has to listen. I can and will refuse the title so he has little choice.”

  Judith’s first thought was to protest the practicality of what he asked of her. “I do not meet Thomas. He has withdrawn from society to avoid...” She stopped, helpless to complete her protest with the unpalatable truth.

  “To avoid meeting me and perhaps being forced to another duel. That is why I need your help Judith. Thomas will trust you, he cares deeply for you. Since we are being painfully honest with each other I will transgress further with the expectation of your forgiveness if I offend. It is for the sake of the family that I must succeed with this. Thomas will breed far better heirs than ever I could.”

  His demeanour as he said it bordered on the conspiratorial and Judith found herself with no idea what he meant or how to reply. “Thomas intends to take the militia to Spain, he could be killed, anything.”

  Charles couldn’t be blamed in the least if he drew the inescapable conclusion that she was weak minded. She deliberately sought him out, surpassed every boundary of society and then concluded with an objection of mind numbing banality.

  “True, Judith. It is a great pity that you do not go to Spain with him. With such an incentive Thomas would be far less foolhardy in risking his life. I have no doubts of your ability to cope with such an adventure. Unlike Jane you have both the courage and the sense that a lady needs.”

  The breathtaking assumptions he was prepared to make left her speechless and let Charles have the last word. “Sir Theodore and Jane appear to have finished their discussions, Judith. Please think hard on what I have said. You have the opportunity to help my family greatly. You cannot imagine how much I regret that duel.”

  Jane Stainford didn’t appear to regret anything, she had the air of one who has succeeded in her aims and is pleased for it. Theodore Horsley looked worsted and out of sorts for it. Neither made for convivial companionship and Judith found herself making her excuses without thinking how fleeting her visit must look to her host and future spouse.

  “So soon Judith, when we have hardly spoken.”

  “I am sorry, my intent in coming here was only to be sure that there was no rift between us after last night. Now that I am reassured on that there is much to attend to at Oakenhill.” He had insisted on seeing her to her carriage, and Mrs Rogers was scurrying ahead to make sure there was no delay in getting away. She always had had the knack of reading her mistress’s intentions.

  “I had thought Tomkin would take much of that burden from your shoulders, Judith.”

  “He is not satisfactory, Theodore. Lazy.”

  “I have always found him quite reliable.” There was a warning
note to his remark that was quite out of place between a happy couple. “Surely there is little need to bring your chaperone with you to Horsley Hall, Judith?”

  “I should have thought there was every need, Theodore.” Judith knew she sounded prim, but her only concern was that she sounded prim enough in response to what was an improper suggestion.

  “We are to be married, Judith. What harm in a little anticipation?” The stroke of his hand on her arm, light as it was, left no doubt of his meaning, and left Judith repulsed by the very thought of physical contact with him. Theodore waited long enough to realise he wouldn’t be receiving her assent before he produced his justification. “After all I haven’t held back from providing John with financial support. He’d be scuppered without my purse.”

  As a threat it was crude and quite unanswerable. Judith fought down the desire to pick up her skirts and run to the Hampton coach, cranky windows and all it represented safety at this moment in time. But she knew she had to answer him. “I’ll remind John of your largesse, Theodore. But I will continue with my present arrangements every time I come here.” She could see Mrs Rogers standing by the coach waiting for her and watching with interest, and the temptation to scuttle away to her was overwhelming.

  “Which I hope will be more often from now on, Judith. Your housekeeper doubles as chaperone does she? Perhaps her services might be fully dispensed with once we are married.”

  She knew instinctively that he wouldn’t hesitate to throw poor Mrs Rogers out of her position for spite. It made his threat the more menacing, as he doubtless intended. “That is not for you to say, Theodore. But l will visit more often from now on. With my chaperone.” It took every effort of will she had not to break into a run as he left her to walk the last twenty or so yards alone.

  Mrs Rogers chattered all the way back to Oakenhill, which served very well to fill the void left by Judith’s melancholy. She caught herself starting to rub her face on the worn leather squab of the coach seat, something she used to do as a girl in frustration when she didn’t get her own way. Not that Charles hadn’t been helpful, just that talking with him only left her more puzzled, and there was only one way now to find the answers she needed. But she didn’t want to see Thomas, it was so much more comfortable to avoid him.