Mesalliance

by Riley, Stella

  ‘It’s already tomorrow,’ she thought. ‘Tracy may be home and it should have been the happiest day of my life. But I – God help me – I have got to send for Richard.’

  ~ * * * ~

  SIXTEEN

  Nell slept badly and arose with a headache. Adeline had not slept at all and it showed. The result, not surprisingly, was the nearest thing they’d ever had to a quarrel.

  It began over breakfast when, tired of the silence, Nell said pettishly, ‘The coffee’s cold. Shall I ring for some more?’

  ‘By all means – if you want it.’

  ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘No. No, thank you.’

  ‘Oh. Then I won’t bother.’ Nell toyed aimlessly with her knife for a moment and then tried again. ‘I imagine Thea’s going to find herself being scolded this morning – if that horrid uncle of hers told tales to Lady Miriam, that is.’

  For the first time, the aquamarine gaze focused slowly on her face. Having already despatched a message to Mr Horton, Adeline’s mind was busy with the problem of how to receive him without Nell being aware of it. She said, ‘I think it unlikely that he’ll trouble himself. Are you and Cassie going for your fittings at Phanie’s today?’

  ‘No,’ replied Nell tersely. And then, with a creditable attempt at nonchalance, ‘Do you suppose Ha– Lord Harry’s really taken with Cassie? He … he certainly appeared so last night.’

  Adeline repressed a sigh and prepared, dutifully, to do her best for his lordship.

  ‘Why not? They’re both good-natured and fun-loving. I imagine they could deal very well together. And, of course, Harry’s extremely eligible – not to mention, attractive.’

  ‘Oh – extremely,’ said Nell, past the pain in her chest. ‘It’s just a pity he’s so rude, that’s all.’

  ‘Is he rude? I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it.’

  ‘No. I daresay you wouldn’t. But last night he virtually ignored me for the entire evening. He didn’t even ask me to dance.’

  Adeline suddenly discovered that she had neither the energy nor the inclination to be tactful. She said flatly, ‘Well, you can’t be surprised by that, can you? As far as I can see, he’s merely giving you your own again.’

  Nell flushed and her eyes grew rather bright.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious? You’ve made it plain to the world at large that you want nothing to do with him so I expect he’s decided to leave you to stew in your own ill-temper and look elsewhere.’

  ‘I’m not ill-tempered!’

  ‘No. But I doubt if Harry knows that.’

  ‘He’s known me since I was ten!’

  ‘So? Is that any reason for treating him with contempt?’

  Nell surged impetuously to her feet.

  ‘I don’t! I haven’t! Oh – you don’t understand!’

  ‘No,’ agreed Adeline. ‘I don’t. But I do know one thing. If you’re going to play dog-in-the-manger and allow it to come between you and Cassie, you’ll soon find yourself with no friends left to you.’

  ‘Oh!’ Nell quivered with indignation. ‘How can you suggest such a thing? It’s not like that at all.’

  ‘Isn’t it?’ Setting down her cup, Adeline prepared to leave the table. ‘Good.’

  ‘Good? Is that all you can say?’

  ‘No. I could ask you why you dislike Harry when he’s done nothing to deserve it – or tell you that it’s high time you stopped encouraging the dubious attentions of Jasper Brierley. But I don’t somehow think you’re in the mood to listen.’

  ‘I’m not in the mood to be lectured, if that’s what you mean!’

  ‘It isn’t. But let it pass.’ Adeline rose and shook out her blue taffeta skirts. ‘I’m sorry, Nell. I can’t sympathise with you because I don’t blame Harry in the least. And now you’ll have to excuse me. I’ve a lot to do today.’

  For a moment after she had gone, Nell continued to stare at the closed door out of eyes stinging with tears. Then, brushing them angrily aside, she sped off to order the carriage. Half an hour later, she was up to her ears in an orgy of spending.

  *

  At much the same time, Adeline was informed of the arrival of Mr Horton. She had him shown to the library and then kept him waiting for ten tactical minutes before joining him.

  ‘Good morning, Uncle. I won’t say it’s a pleasure to see you because we both know it isn’t, don’t we?’

  Richard Horton turned slightly from the large portrait he had been studying. ‘Your predecessor, I believe … chosen, they say, from amongst the best blood in England. You do well to stand in her shoes, Adeline. But can you keep them?’

  Her face remained completely expressionless.

  ‘If you have a tale to tell, tell it. If not, leave.’

  ‘All in good time, my dear. All in good time.’ He settled himself in a chair and smiled cordially at her. ‘First I should like to be assured that you have the means to ensure my co-operation.’

  ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune,’ she observed contemptuously. ‘If you want your money, you’ll first have to earn it.’

  There was a pause. Then, ‘I want five hundred guineas.’

  She stared at him. ‘What?’

  ‘And do not, I beg of you, waste time trying to barter with me. Five hundred or I go to Rockliffe. Take it or leave it.’

  The size of his demand brought fright several steps nearer. She had placed four hundred in the drawer of the escritoire and it was all the money she had - for though Tracy was more than generous, she had already settled several accounts and would have to leave others unpaid until after quarter-day. She swallowed, pulled the purse from the drawer and threw it on the table beside him.

  ‘I can’t give you what I don’t have. Four hundred – and be damned to you.’

  The seconds ticked by in silence while he looked at her and debated the wisdom of pushing her at this stage. The cards had been unlucky of late and the remaining hundred would undoubtedly have been very useful. On the other hand, it would be a pity to kill the goose which he intended should lay him quite a number of golden eggs … and if he frightened her too much, too soon, she might do the very last thing he wanted and tell Rockliffe.

  With a faint sigh, he stretched out a languid hand for the purse and said, ‘It’s probably very foolish of me … but I suppose I must give you the benefit of the doubt.’

  ‘How kind of you!’ said Adeline acidly. ‘Your generosity will be your undoing, one of these days.’

  ‘And your sharp tongue will be yours. If you wish to hear what I have to say, I suggest you sit down and listen.’

  She sat, simultaneously thankful that he had not pressed her over the money and dreading what was to come. She said, ‘Very well. I’m listening – and I’d be glad if you were brief.’

  He inclined his head and smiled maliciously. Then, in silky tones and with his own particular interpretation, he embarked on the history of his sister, Joanna.

  It did not take very long but, by the time he ceased speaking, Adeline discovered that every muscle and bone in her body was aching. For a long time she remained silent and then, in a voice that seemed to come from a long way off, she said, ‘You … you are saying that it – it’s possible my mother is still alive.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have you any proof?’

  ‘Again – yes.’ He drew a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. ‘This came into my possession on the death of my father. I always suspected I might find a use for it one day.’

  Very slowly, Adeline opened out the page and stared at the few faded lines inscribed on it.

  I am going with Michel. I’m sorry for Tom and the baby – but I have to go. I love him. This time you cannot stop me. Perhaps God will forgive you your lies. I never shall.

  Joanna.

  The blood seemed to congeal in her veins. Whatever else she had expected, it was not this. She said carefully, ‘Did you never hear from her again?’
>
  ‘No. But that was scarcely surprising. I was five years younger and scarcely knew her. Miriam was only a year younger but resented the fact that everyone – especially men – always preferred Joanna. Our parents, of course – as you can see from the letter – had already sunk themselves below reproach.’ He smiled. ‘So she may be alive – or she may not. We have no way of knowing.’

  ‘I – I see.’ Adeline swallowed and kept her hands pressed tightly together. ‘Why was I never told?’

  ‘Because Miriam did not trust your discretion,’ he shrugged. ‘And what purpose would it have served?’

  ‘But I had a right to know! She was my mother!’

  The cry was wrenched from her with a force that left her shaking. Her brain was racing round in circles and it took time to control her breathing. Richard waited with an air of gentle satisfaction until she said, ‘My grandfather – did he know?’

  ‘Old man Kendrick? No. Tom went back alone, positively swathed in black and said that Joanna had succumbed to a fever. As far as we were all aware, his father believed him.’ He paused and then added sweetly, ‘As for the gentleman in question being your grandfather … that is, as I have already explained, open to doubt.’

  As far as it was possible, Adeline completed the process of pulling herself together. There was an obvious flaw in what he’d said and it was important to expose it.

  ‘Is it? I don’t see why. This letter was written after my birth and before my mother disappeared. There is no reason to assume that my father wasn’t Tom Kendrick.’

  ‘None, dear heart – save that Joanna was besotted by du Plessis before her marriage and ran off with him not so long after it. Also, if she was clever enough to vanish without a trace, she was certainly clever enough to conduct a discreet liaison, don’t you think?’

  Sick with confusion and paper-white, Adeline forced herself to cling tenaciously to her point. ‘It is – it may be a possibility – though I don’t think so. If … if I was not her husband’s child, surely she would have taken me with her?’

  He shrugged again. ‘Who can say? Perhaps she wasn’t sure herself; perhaps she wasn’t cruel enough to deprive poor Tom of you as well; perhaps it wasn’t so easy to disappear with a babe in arms. Sadly, we shall never know.’

  ‘But it’s all supposition. It is not – as you said last night – a fact.’

  ‘Perhaps not. But the melancholy truth is that, given a shred of doubt, people are apt to believe the worst. That no-one can prove you illegitimate will be immaterial. All that will count, should this story become common knowledge, is that your birth is …questionable. And birth, dearest Adeline, matters.’ He eyed her consideringly. ‘Doors will be closed to you – and that will naturally affect Rockliffe. I would so enjoy watching him cope with that.’

  Unaware that she did so, Adeline came to her feet and let the letter fall unheeded to the floor. She said, ‘You are threatening to tell the world? Is that what all this is about?’

  ‘Not quite, my dear. Not quite.’ Still entirely at his ease, Richard bent to retrieve the letter and then rose to face her. ‘I don’t need to tell the world. Or not yet. For the moment, all I need do is tell Rockliffe. Think about it. I’m sure you’ll soon work it out. And when you have, we can speak again.’

  And without troubling to take his leave, he sauntered blithely from the room.

  For a long time after he had gone, Adeline remained where she was, standing alone amidst the wreckage of her emotions. It seemed that her brief taste of security was over and her hopes of happiness no more than dust. In the space of twelve hours, Richard Horton had turned light into dark and sweet anticipation into dread. All she could think of now was that Tracy was coming home … and she did not know how she was going to face him.

  *

  Sir Jasper Brierley was just on the point of entering his favourite coffee-house when he espied Lady Elinor Wynstanton, accompanied only by her maid, emerging from Madame Tissot’s exclusive hat-shop. It was, he decided, too fortuitous a chance to be missed; and when he observed the distinctly wistful droop to her ladyship’s mouth, his eye brightened still further. So the child was feeling hard-done-by, was she? Better and better. She was all the more likely to soak up his blandishments.

  For years, Sir Jasper had lived without visible means of support and on the brink of insolvency. He was actually quite good at it and even derived a certain satisfaction from fooling his creditors. Unfortunately, however, his debts were accumulating to the point where he might find himself forced to flee the country rather than face Newgate … which was not a pretty prospect and one which, for some weeks now, had been spoiling his ability to sleep at night. The result was that he was reluctantly contemplating matrimony; and, with his customary sense of self-preservation, he had taken the precaution of making sure he had two strings to his bow.

  One was the widow of a wealthy cloth merchant from Bermondsey; a cosy enough armful and already in possession of a fortune – but undeniably vulgar. The other was Lady Nell – with whom he had always known he would have to play a very far-sighted game indeed if he were not to spend the next seven years living on her expectations. It was a delicate situation all round … and Sir Jasper found it stimulating.

  Nell greeted him with unconcealed pleasure and said impulsively, ‘Oh – you can’t imagine how glad I am to see you! I’ve had a perfectly horrid morning and now, to cap it all, Madame has trimmed my new hat with quite the wrong shade of pink so I shan’t be able to wear it this afternoon after all.’

  ‘How provoking,’ murmured Sir Jasper soothingly. He drew her hand through his arm and, leaving her maid to follow, began to stroll down Bond Street. ‘But I suspect, you know, that it is something more than a mere hat that has dimmed those incomparable eyes.’

  Nell looked up at him, coloured and then looked away again, once more on the verge of tears.

  ‘You – you are very perceptive, sir,’ she whispered. ‘It’s simply that I … I passed a very uncomfortable evening last night at Ranelagh.’

  ‘That is most understandable. Ranelagh is grown very tedious these days. Quite passé. Indeed, in my humble opinion, it is only fit for children and the bourgeoisie … though I imagine it is still possible to enjoy it if one has the good fortune to be in the right company. But somehow, I sense that you were not.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Nell, a fraction more cheerfully. ‘I wasn’t.’

  ‘Just so.’ Sir Jasper gazed down at her with just a hint of regret in his smile. ‘Do you know … it is no doubt reprehensible of me and certainly out of the question … but I should so much like to escort you to a Covent Garden masquerade. I think you would enjoy it very much.’

  Nell’s eyes grew round. ‘But aren’t they vastly improper affairs?’

  ‘My dear Lady Elinor!’ He laughed softly. ‘They are all the rage amongst the … how shall I put it? … amongst the less staid persons of fashion. For naturally one retains one’s mask at all times and so, even if the proceedings are a trifle less decorous than one would find in the Pantheon, what possible harm can come of it?’

  ‘None,’ said Nell thoughtfully. ‘It sounds rather entertaining.’

  ‘It is.’ He allowed just the right degree of ruefulness to inform his voice. ‘But it was wrong of me to mention it.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you would not, I fear, be permitted to attend such a function.’

  Nell tilted her chin to a militant angle.

  ‘I don’t see why not. I’m not a child, after all. When Rock comes home, I’ll speak to him about it. And I hope – when we do go – that I shall see you there.’

  Sir Jasper – who knew it would be a cold day in hell before Rockliffe let his sister attend a Covent Garden romp – stopped walking and raised her hand to his lips.

  ‘You must know by now that your slightest wish is my command. And, in this case, I wouldn’t miss it for worlds.’

  *

  Adeline had not intended to attend Lady Linton’s drum th
at evening and still had not the least wish to do so. However, since the idea of waiting at home for Tracy sent her nerves into spasm and it also seemed unwise, just at present, to send Nell under the chaperonage of Lady Delahaye, she was moved to change her mind. She therefore allowed Jeanne to dress her in her new lilac silk and, for the first time in her life, sought a remedy for her pallor in the rouge-pot. Then, in a mood of mutually observed civility, she and Nell set off for Clarges Street.

  Under normal circumstances, Adeline would merely have considered the party a little dull. As it was, the strain of making light conversation over the turmoil in her mind rendered it one of the worst evenings of her life. She was still no closer to deciding what – if anything – to say to Tracy; and that, plus the shock of learning that her mother might not be dead after all and that her father might be a Frenchman called Michel du Plessis, seemed a load too heavy to bear. The only bright spot was that neither the Franklins nor Mr Horton were present.

  Nell, for different reasons, was glad of that too and, throwing her heart and soul into appearing cheerful, she wasted no time in apologising to Cassie for her lacklustre behaviour of the previous evening.

  ‘It’s just that I didn’t feel terribly well,’ she lied breezily. ‘I don’t think the crab patties agreed with me.’

  Cassie’s brow cleared as if by magic.

  ‘Oh – I’m so glad! I mean, I’m sorry you felt ill, of course … but I was rather afraid that I’d annoyed you in some way.’

  ‘Annoyed me? Goodness, no! How could you possibly have done so?’

  ‘Well … I wasn’t sure, but I thought that perhaps it had something to do with Lord Harry,’ confided Cassie truthfully. And then, laughing, ‘I really should have known better, shouldn’t I?’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Nell brightly. ‘Indeed you should.’

  The evening was well-advanced by the time Harry Caversham arrived and caused Nell’s heart to perform the hitherto unknown feat of leaping into her mouth. Her fingers tightened painfully on her fan and she stared across the room as though seeing him for the first time. Then he met her gaze and, quirking one mobile brow, continued to hold it. Nell smiled, blushed and found she had completely lost track of what Lady Linton was saying to her.