From North Audley Street they went on to the Tauntons' Mayfair residence. Rhyle and Captain Finglas in Finglas's curricle and Hugh Taunton in his phaeton awaited Aurora's descent from the house. Finally she was deposited, in a flurry of muslin, beside her brother. All the ladies admired her band-box new Oldenburg bonnet. At last the cavalcade directed its movement to the western edge of the metropolis.
Protected from intimacy by the presence of others, and armoured against her own emotions, Delia could jest with the earl about her unenviable task for the day. "I am regarded as chaperone," she complained in a laughing undertone. "A spinster. Responsible, sober, and genteel."
The earl regarded the pretty, innocent faces of the young ladies opposite, and shook his head. His finely drawn features were lightened by humour. "Do you think yourself hardly done by?" He spoke close to Delia's ear. "Consider me. How can my life have changed so much? I have gone in two or three months, from debauched outcast to honoured hero. Now I attend at nursery parties on gentle outings."
She smiled to hear his exaggeration. "You are not a hero. You only did your country a little service. You were not an outcast, but merely disapproved of. This is a pleasant outing and you are not so much older than anyone here. You only feel it to be so. I do also. We must be tempered by trouble." She grimaced. "Besides you put the wheels of your change in motion. One cannot always dictate what will occur once they begin to turn."
"Your commonsense as always is impeccable," he said.
Delia felt his gaze on her. She experienced again the pleasure and the pain of the knowledge that she had brought love into his life. He had had little enough experience of love. She had changed his life, but she could not know if it was for the better.
To her relief, Torgreave redirected his attention. "My presence is not perhaps remarkable, but I find Egon's and Rhyle's laughable. Look at them back there." He gestured at the curricle following.
"I confess I thought the Foreign Office would have need of them." Delia did not look back. "Perhaps the fine day lured them, as well as the company. Hugh and Aurora look to be arguing." She motioned at the phaeton ahead of them.
Rupert laughed. "No doubt they are. For Egon came to be near Miss Taunton, and Hugh did not wish to come. As for Rhyle, he will do anything to be out of the city. And besides he enjoys your company."
"And I his. He has divined a good deal...."
"Yes, he does always," he said. He turned the subject. "Charles tells me he will see Sir Thomas tomorrow, to ask for Susannah's hand."
"Does he feel confident of success? I should be glad if his future was settled before my departure."
"I believe Sir Thomas is reconciled to the connection. Especially as I show no more predilection for his company, than he does for mine. And I have not disgraced my name for the past six months. You have added family respectability to us, so Charles has become an eligible parti."
Delia permitted herself a tender smile at him then put up her sunshade. She directed her attention and her conversation across the carriage, to Charles and the young ladies.
From the moment she set eyes on it, Delia found Strawberry Hill fascinating. Equally alluring were its Gothic pretensions and its eclectic collections. She toured it in company with Rupert and Gideon Rhyle. She marveled at the chimney-piece and the ceiling of the Holbein Chamber. But when they entered the Cabinet, she could not contain her astonishment.
"This is beyond fantastic," she gasped, staring at the traceried arches of the ceiling. Artifacts crowded the walls and shelves. "Look at the miniatures, and those cameos."
They had spent an hour in the chamber before Torgreave said, "We cannot consider it all. Come I think I know of something less extravagant."
He led them to a chapel, beyond the asymmetrical pile of the house, in the picturesque wood. They sat in its peaceful silence for nearly a quarter of an hour. Afterward they strolled the wood, while the gentlemen entertained Delia with stories of their early adventures.
"He was the only sober one in the whole chamber," Rupert described the scene at Watier's at which he had met Rhyle. "How could I not be drawn to him?"
"How indeed?" Delia smiled, and shook her head.
Rhyle was grinning in a rueful way. "Worst night of my life. I lost money and met Torgreave," he said.
"I was more fortunate," Torgreave retorted. "I won and met you. We were very young then, and later the work you offered me saved my life."
"Nearly ended it a couple of times," Rhyle said.
"At least those ends would have been honourable. Nothing else in my life was."
Delia stared from one to the other of the tall men. "It is all past," she said. "Let us enjoy this day."
At the end of the afternoon, the party gathered near the garden gate that was supported by pinnacled pillars. Delia guiltily realized that while she had enjoyed Rupert and Major Rhyle's companionship she had quite neglected the younger members of the party. The Major strolled off, in search of Hugh Taunton.
"You may be easy," Rupert reassured her in an undertone. "Charles and Susannah have wandered about supremely happy and irreproachably proper with Maria in tow. Miss Taunton and Finglas have alternately argued and reconciled. I wish him joy of her; he must be mad."
"She is charming, and has a strong streak of common sense beneath the flighty exterior," Delia countered.
Aurora stepped to her at that moment and drew her aside. The young lady's brown eyes were bright and sparkling. Delia sensed a puzzling determination about her. Her request however was prosaic. "Have you a scissors about you? I have the most appalling knot in the string of my slipper, and within the slipper the most appalling pebble."
Delia was all sympathy. She opened her reticule, and withdrew her little knife. "This will help." She met Aurora's surprise with a laugh. "'Tis called a skean dhu, a Highland dagger for men, but I find it most useful. Shall you need help?"
"No." Delia thought Aurora's response over-vehement. "No I am certain I shall not." And she hurried off quite alone.
The young lady was gone an unreasonable amount of time. Captain Finglas was particularly restless in her absence. Delia was on the point of searching her out, when breathless and pink-cheeked, Aurora returned. She slipped the little knife to Delia and announced, "The housekeeper wishes to supply us with tea and cakes, on the lawn. If Delia permits, I will show you where she suggests we be served."
"It is growing late," protested Delia.
"Oh but how lovely," Susannah said. "Please, Miss Tyninghame, do say we may stay."
Chaffing in the role of chaperone, Delia allowed her judgment to be overruled. And in truth she enjoyed the impromptu pic-nic immensely. Rugs were spread in the early spring sun, and the ladies settled like flowers upon them, attended by a scattering of servants. Gideon Rhyle rested his massive shoulders against the equally massive trunk of an ancient oak. Hugh Taunton, who had been discovered by Rhyle in the kitchen garden, strolled up to advise the gentlemen that the housekeeper brewed a tolerable beer. Rhyle agreed to join him in a tankard, though none of the other gentlemen appeared interested. Charles hovered at his Susannah's side, and Finglas remained steadfast by Miss Taunton. The earl reclined, refusing food and drink, near Delia.
Taunton eventually sought companionship of Miss Maria Slimbridge. She was giggling over something he had said, when she chanced to look up, and emitted a little shriek.
"Gracious, look at the clouds. It will surely rain and we are in open carriages."
Delia, in the act of offering the last sweetmeat to Rupert, surveyed the sky anxiously. All faces turned skyward. Certainly a bank of slowly advancing clouds threatened inclement weather. A stiff chill breeze reminded them all of the earliness of the season.
The earl leapt up, and beckoned a hovering footman. He ordered the carriages, and then strode up to the great Gothic pile that was Strawberry Hill. The servants began to gather the detritus of the refreshment.
"He will have gone to pay the housekeeper," Delia advised the company. S
he rose to her feet and gathered her sunshade and reticule. "Ladies, bestir yourselves. Ensure that you have your belongings."
"I am ready," Aurora assured Delia. "There is Egon's curricle. I will go with him."
He bowed, his delight unconcealed. They hurried off before Delia could speak.
When she turned to Hugh for support he only shrugged laconically, and said, "Gideon, you will join me?" The Major nodded his agreement.
It remained for Charles to assist Delia and the Misses Slimbridge into the barouche, while they waited for Torgreave's return. He was not detained long, and they set off on their hurried journey, harried by a rising wind. The curricle, barouche and phaeton became separated on the return to London. It concerned no one for the streets were crowded, and the sky threatening. The first fat drops of rain fell as Miss Slimbridge and Miss Maria Slimbridge were returned to their home. By the time the barouche reached Grillon's, Delia was decidedly damp. Charles fussed over her, but Rupert only smiled with disconcerting intimacy. He held her slender gloved hand, as he took her within.
"Aurora and Finglas?" she asked as they mounted Grillon's fine staircase.
"They left before us. Egon will have delivered Miss Taunton to her home by now. Hugh and Gideon will be tucked in some snug coffeehouse, and the Misses Slimbridge will be recounting the day to their Mama," he said with a laugh. When they entered their suite he gave Delia reluctantly into Morag Lochmaddy's care. Her damp hair curled luxuriantly as she removed her dripping hat. With a ferocious frown Rupert stepped away from her. She smiled sadly and understandingly at him.
Charles strode into the parlour. "I am sharp set despite the pic-nic. Shall we order supper?"
"I believe I will take mine in my chamber," Delia said. Accompanied by Mrs. Lochmaddy, she retired.
The candles had been lit, and so too had the fires to counteract the damp chill of the fading day, when Delia returned to the parlour more than two hours later. The sound of voices raised in concern drew her. Clad in a pearl grey merino round gown, she entered to discover Hugh Taunton had joined Charles and Rupert. Trouble was writ on all their faces.
"What is amiss?" she asked. Unconsciously she moved immediately to Rupert's side, and placed her hand on his coatless arm.
"It is Aurora...and Egon," Hugh explained. His irritation was evident. "They've not returned."
"Good gracious!" Her gaze went to the window, where rain streamed down over a deepening dusk. "Whatever can have happened?"
"My mother will have it that they have suffered an accident, and are lying dead in a ditch," Aurora's brother said sourly. "My own opinion is that Aurora has run off with the poor beggar."
Delia's gasped.
Rupert choked on a laugh, but said nothing.
"Well, Egon is too much the gentleman to instigate such a thing, but Aurora is hoyden enough to do so," Hugh said.
Charles was frowning. "They must be found."
"M'mother said the same. And I said, I'm damned if I know where to look, and there's no sense to it in the pouring rain."
The gentlemen all nodded gloomy agreement.
Delia was overwhelmed by guilt. She ought to have kept better account of the young ladies during the day. She ought never to have allowed Aurora to join Egon in the curricle.
"Oh no," Rupert said suddenly. He had apparently caught sight of her stricken expression. "'Tis not your fault. You were not appointed duenna of the younger ladies. If anyone is at fault, which I doubt, it is Hugh. He is her brother."
"I will accept no blame," Taunton snapped, "but certainly Miss Tyninghame bears none either."
"Have you had supper, my dear?" Rupert asked of Delia in an undertone.
"Morag brought a tray," she said.
"My mother says if they are not dead, they will have to marry. Which, if I know my sister, is what she intended. I shall be curious to hear her story."
Taunton's disinterest seemed to Delia heartless, and she opened her mouth to descry it.
But Rupert said, "She will come to no harm in Egon's company. He is a disciplined man and a resourceful one, whatever happens." He directed a quick glance at Delia. "Hugh knows it, hence his unconcern. If the lady was in my company he would worry. For he knows me to be resourceful, but undisciplined." The raffish smile that accompanied his remark relaxed the company.
Taunton departed to return to his worried parent.
"You are not undisciplined." Charles countered his brother's statement once they were alone.
Delia gathered up her needlework and a book that she had left in the parlour earlier in the day, and moved to retire once more. "You had to imbibe excessively to overcome your innate control," she said. She pauded to consider Torgreave from her chamber doorway across the hall. He lounged against the mantel, a wickedly attractive figure, with a satirical grin curving his beautifully shaped mouth.
"You may both retire then, comfortable in your knowledge of my exemplary character and behaviour," Rupert said. He bowed with a flourish and they all laughed.
***
Desirous of information, Charles and Delia called upon the Slimbridges' the next morning. It seemed inappropriate to descend upon the Taunton household. Lady Slimbridge appeared most likely to have news of the disappearance.
Torgreave declined to accompany them. "I have no interest in what that silly chit might have done, though it does impinge on the future of my friend Finglas. I am off to see Rhyle for news of Augustus," he said as they all met in the entry hall of their suite.
"I hope that success attends you," Delia said. She meant it, with all her heart.
"And I," Charles echoed sensing something of her urgency. "Manningford awaits us all."
"Ah, that reminds me." Delia said. "We must stop at Mr. Bullock's on our way to North Audley Street. There is some question of when the furnishings may be delivered."
"You must take the carriage then. I shall be content to walk." The earl accepted his tall beaver from Bowland. With a smile and a brief salute he was gone.
Charles and Delia prepared to depart in a more leisurely manner. Charles returned to his chamber for his walking stick.
While she waited, Delia donned a spring green redingote, and a Huntley bonnet she had brought back from Edinburgh. "When will you press your suit?" she asked as they stepped into the dampness of an overcast morning.
"I spoke to Rupert about it last night. I had thought to ask for an audience with Sir Thomas this morning, or at the least this week but with Miss Taunton and Finglas gone...I do not know," Charles said.
"There will be news of them," Delia said. She did not herself quite believe the comfortable certainty she instilled in her words.
"This elopement may alter my prospects."
"Perhaps Sir Thomas may decide to see Susannah safely wed before such a silly start occurs to her," Delia said.
Their carriage drew up before Bullock's. Charles brightened, and accompanied her within. Their business at the cabinet maker's took only minutes, and as traffic was light, they were shortly deposited in North Audley Street.
They were ushered into the drawing room, and were welcomed by Lady Slimbridge and her second daughter.
"Good morning," she said. Maria greeted them with her bright eyes full of mischief. "You are come hoping for news, I expect." She waved them to a seat. "The miscreants are home."
Delia breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"In fact, a simple accident kept them. A trace broke, and coupled with the storm, it led to their sheltering at a public house for some hours. They reached home only in the early hours of the morning," Lady Slimbridge said.
Delia was silent, remembering Aurora's look of determination and her borrowing of the skean dhu. It occurred to her to wonder if the trace had been cut but she held her tongue.
"Lady Taunton vows they will wed, though no one knows of the mishap save these few of us. She arrived here while I was still at breakfast to ask my advice, but I believe her mind was already decided. She has taken Susannah to bear Aurora c
ompany, and Viscount Taunton has been sent for. Until he arrives, Hugh is to be in discussions with Captain Finglas all the morning. Maria, please to see how things go on in the schoolroom, dear. I wish to be private with our visitors."
The younger girl obediently trotted out. Charles held the paneled door for her, and closed it on her departure.
"I could wish that Aurora Taunton had not chosen to involve all of you in her machinations."
Lady Slimbridge's clever gaze examined Delia. "For I do believe that she must have engineered this accident. Or do you think I wrong her?"
"You may well be right," Delia admitted with a sigh.
"Mr. Manningford, am I correct in thinking you wish to address Sir Thomas on a delicate issue of some importance?" Lady Slimbridge said.
Charles, who had been assimilating the possibility of Miss Taunton's deception with some dismay, nodded in startled surprise.
"Then I think you should do it now...at this moment. Sir Thomas is at home. He knows nothing of the Tauntons' dilemma, and I believe him favourably disposed toward you. I should seize the moment if I were you."
Charles flushed, then paled alarmingly. He swallowed hard, his throat working.
Delia chuckled. "Off you go Charles," she urged him. "You will be the better for not having prepared a speech."
Lady Slimbridge nodded and rang for a servant. "Hastings will show you to Sir Thomas," she said when the butler entered.
Charles ran his finger about his collar, cleared his throat and followed the butler out.
"Really, I could wring Aurora Taunton's neck," her ladyship said to Delia. "She has jeopardized Susannah's future with her recklessness, though I believe it may be kept from Sir Thomas' ears."
"I feel in some degree responsible," Delia said. She explained about the skean dhu. "I shall feel most guilty if the episode does reflect on Charles' future."
"Nonsense. You are no whit to blame. The frowardness of our English misses is likely outside your experience, being from Scotland."
The Rake's Reflection Page 18
