by Jenny Brown
When she could speak again, Lady Hartwood clenched her teeth. “How you must enjoy having me at your mercy,” she said. But even as she spoke these last words her voice faltered, and a look of confusion filled her hardened features. “And yet,” she said, “you must have known the truth when you came to beg for Eliza’s freedom. You had already been to see that Atwater creature when you came to see me—after she wrote me that disturbing note.”
“I did.”
“But if you’d discovered my shame, why didn’t you use it against me? When you came to beg me to secure Eliza’s freedom, you gave me no hint of what you’d learned from that terrible woman. I thought you had nothing left to bargain with. Yet if you knew, you could have threatened me with exposure. You could have set your own terms instead of letting me impose mine. How could you have known about my shame and not used it against me?”
Edward dropped Eliza’s hand and took a step toward his mother. “I didn’t wish to, Mother. You’ve suffered enough for the one mistake you made in your youth. And as I am not Black Neville’s son, I have not inherited his heartlessness. So I can forgive you as he could not. You sacrificed so much to keep your place in society, and as it is all he left you with, I would not take it from you.”
“Truly? You won’t expose me?” Lady Hartwood’s eyes were blinking rapidly.
“I won’t. There’s no way of changing the past, and I have no more desire than you do to see the Hartwood name shamed.”
“Well, I must be grateful for that.” His mother fought to recover her composure. “I suppose you are delighted now to think that your real father was a better man than Black Neville.”
“No, that would be foolish, Mother. I am, as you have often pointed out, a cynical man of the world. Though I cannot know what kind of man my real father was, I can well understand what led him to seduce you. You were a young and passionate woman who had been slighted by her husband. That’s an opportunity few men could ignore.”
Lady Hartwood remained motionless except for her left hand which she was clenching convulsively. “He didn’t seduce me,” she said quietly. “I went to him willingly. He had such a beautiful voice. Your voice is so like his, just as you look like him. You always have, ever since you stared up at me from your cradle with those deep brown eyes of his and that pale, pale hair. I couldn’t bear it.”
And to the amazement of them both, a single glistening tear coursed down Lady Hartwood’s granite cheek.
“Was he a man who could not love?” Eliza demanded. “Did you learn that too late? Is that why you have been so vehement in your warnings to me?”
“I don’t know what he was,” Lady Hartwood replied. Her voice held a wistful tone. “Our connection was so brief. He was all sweet words, such sweet, sweet words. He spoke of love, but I didn’t know if I could believe him. He begged me to leave Hartwood and come along with him and join the troupe. He said he could teach me to be an actress, that I had a gift for it. But how could I do a thing like that? I was Lady Hartwood. I couldn’t give that up to become an actor’s mistress, not when he might abandon me at the next town.”
“So it was you who left him, not the other way around?” Eliza asked.
“Of course. What choice had I? For months after the troupe moved on he sent me letters. But I burned them unopened, every one—except the one that the stupid servant girl handed to your father. Black Neville gave it to his solicitor to hold hostage, knowing it was all he needed to divorce me. I never read that one, either, but I fear it must have been quite indiscreet.”
“So my real father might have loved you, Mother,” Edward said softly. “And he might have been a good and loving man.”
“Or he might have been an arrant rogue worse even than my husband. I shall never know. But I have to believe I made the correct choice and that I would not have been happy had I been foolish enough to forget myself and follow him who knows where.”
“Which is why you couldn’t bear any sign you saw in me, who was so like him, that suggested I, too, might be a good man,” her son said softly.
She shook her head. “Sin begets sin. How could you be a good man? Your birth had ruined my life.” Another tear dripped from her bleary eye.
He crossed the room and embraced her heaving form. “Mother,” he said, “I’m glad I was born, whatever it might have cost you. I am glad, too, that I am not the son of the cold, implacable man who punished you so cruelly for doing once what he had done with impunity all his life. How much fear you must have lived with, knowing that if you displeased him you could be dismissed like a servant.”
She nodded fervently. “It was worse than that. Had I shown any partiality to you, I think he might have harmed you. So I schooled myself to show none, and after a while, it became second nature to me.”
As his mother dabbed ineffectually at her eyes, Edward walked over to the mantelpiece. “Perhaps James wasn’t wandering in his wits when he was on his deathbed as Mr. Hoskins thought,” he said quietly. “By forcing me to come back to Brighton, James removed a great burden from my heart, and I must be grateful to him for that. I must thank you, too, Mother, for your candor. I do not expect you to love me, not after so long. But I no longer need to hate you, and that is gift enough. I hope James found some comfort at the end in knowing that he might reach out from beyond the grave to undo some of the damage his father did.”
“James knew the truth, you know,” his mother said as if to herself. “He overheard your father reproaching me. It wasn’t something a young child should have heard. But he did, and I fear that learning what he did about his mother, so young, did not help him grow into the man I would have wished him to be.”
Lady Hartwood sat sunk in her thoughts for a moment longer. Then her expression hardened and she turned back to Eliza. “Young woman, what will I have to pay to buy your silence? Edward trusts you far too much if he believes you will hide my secret from the world. You can have no reason to forgive me, even if he has found one.”
Eliza could barely reply, her heart was so full. Though she shared Edward’s relief that he need no longer believe himself condemned by a toxic heritage, it was nothing compared to the happiness that had welled up within her at seeing him forgive his mother. That he could show such selfless love to the person who had hurt him so badly meant far more to her than the generous sacrifice he had made to free her. That could have been explained by his partiality for her. But his mother had done nothing to earn the loving sacrifice he had made for her and likely never would. What a transformation he’d undergone!
But she forced herself away from her selfish rejoicing and addressed the concern she saw in his mother’s teary eyes. “You need have no fear, Lady Hartwood. I care too much for your son to spread a story that could only cause him pain.”
“You care too much for my son, period,” Lady Hartwood said tartly. “But he is a charming devil, and you may have no choice about it. I would have liked him to marry a girl of good birth, but perhaps it takes a woman of your kind to sort out a rake like him. The lord knows I could not sort out his father.”
Edward laughed. “Mother, Eliza is of gentle birth. Better birth than you or I.”
“What?”
“She is Pythagoras Farrell’s daughter.”
Lady Hartwood’s eyes widened. “Evesbury’s boy? Well, that explains the Greek! But the man is as mad as a hatter. Not a speck of common sense. No wonder she fell into such disreputable society as you run in. Still, it is a relief to know that my grandchildren will have noble blood running in their veins after all.”
“But that can only happen if Eliza will have me,” Edward corrected her. “She has already refused me once and I haven’t the courage to ask her again. Whoever her father might be, I’m not sure she is mad enough to accept my offer.”
“She’d be a fool not to,” Lady Hartwood snapped. “But I shall hold my tongue. Whatever I say, she is sure to do the opposite. The girl has spirit. I will give her that. And there is no denying she has made a change
in you.”
When they had made their adieux and resumed their places in the carriage, Edward said, “Now that my mother has given us our blessing, I expect there is no hope you will ever have me.”
Eliza felt herself smile. “It does add a new twist to a subject already twisted beyond untangling. But after observing you over this past hour, I must tell you I am truly proud of you, Edward. I know what it must have cost you to forgive your mother, and yet you did it.”
“I take no credit for it.”
“Oh yes. I know you wish to take no credit for any good deed and I’ve promised never to see good in you where you assure me there is none, but your grant of forgiveness to your mother was an act of love, disinterested love, which must be the highest kind, since you could expect to receive nothing in return for extending that forgiveness to her but the knowledge that you did the right thing.”
“How could I have done otherwise? Her husband’s treatment of her was truly monstrous.”
“How indeed?” Eliza said. “With the good heart that hides beneath your breast, you had no choice.”
“I will not argue. You are making me resigned to owning a loving heart.” He grinned, for only a moment, then a troubled look swept over his handsome features. “Still, I must be honest with you, Eliza. I have given much thought to your reproaches, for they were well deserved. And as much as I would wish to change myself to better deserve your love, I cannot woo you under false pretenses.”
For a moment Eliza’s heart stood still. What would he confess to her now? Terrible possibilities flooded into her mind, replacing the joy that had filled it only a moment before. She sat bolt upright, trying to be brave. As she awaited his explanation, it struck her with renewed force how much she loved him and how hard it would be to give him up.
He sensed her dismay and his voice softened. “I have nothing that terrible to confess,” he reassured her. “No wife tucked away in the country or anything like that. It is only that I don’t think I shall ever be able to give up playing, even if it would win your heart for me. My true father was an actor, after all.”
He had reassumed that nonchalant look and now lounged against the rich upholstery of the carriage, but she was not deceived about the depth of the emotion with which he awaited her answer. She met his eyes and let her smile convey the love she felt in her heart. “I’d much rather learn that your father was an actor—not a rake and a reprobate. But you’re probably right. Your life remains dramatic even when you attempt to give up playing. Consider, in just this single day I’ve been made captive and you have rescued me quite cleverly, to say nothing of making a stunning discovery about your birth and engaging in a scene of reconciliation that must bring a tear to every eye. All that remains, I should think, is for some god to ride down from the heavens on a piece of stage machinery and give us our happy ending.”
“Would that I could bring that about, too,” Edward said with a faint smile. “Then a chorus of maidens would accompany us to our marriage bower as the curtain slowly dropped to great applause. But it is a serious thing to join our lives together. I’m not the easiest man to live with, no matter who my father might have been.”
“Of course. Uranus rules your life, so it will always be filled with unpredictability. But if I’m to be honest, I must admit your playfulness and unpredictability are a large part of your appeal to me. I delighted in Lord Lightning long before I learned to know and trust Edward Neville. Indeed, I should be hard-pressed to say which of the two I love better.”
The smile of relief that filled his face was so genuine, she had to pause for a moment before continuing, “I also have a confession to make. I know myself now to be too firmly under the sway of the planet Uranus to love a man who did not embody its energies as you do. I should not love you half as much if you behaved as you ought to. That’s why my aunt was so afraid I would grow up to repeat my mother’s imprudence—and why I let her fears become my own.”
She gave up speaking, to better enjoy the way his deep brown eyes glowed with unconcealed delight that seemed to grow greater with each passing moment.
“And do you still fear to repeat her pattern?” His question was dead serious.
“How could I not?” she replied, in a tone as sober as his own. She saw his face fall and, seeing that, had not the heart to torment him any longer. “When your mother shared her painful story with us, Edward, it made me consider something quite unexpected. For she did the prudent thing in staying with her husband, and look at what a mistake that turned out to be. Her prudence ruined her life.”
“Then you must take warning from her example, and avoid prudence lest it ruin yours,” Edward said, dropping to his knee awkwardly and looking up at her from under his long pale lashes with eyes empty of every emotion but love. “You know, Eliza, you really would make me the happiest of men if you would have me. I’ll lead you a merry dance, no question about it, but I’ve come to think you rather like dancing. And I cannot bear to give you up.”
Eliza sighed. “I can’t bear to give you up, either. And as terrifying as I find the idea of marriage, I don’t think you’d let me stay on as your mistress anymore.”
“No, I certainly wouldn’t,” he said with a grin. “It would be far too exhausting. Indeed, if you’ll have me, I vow I’ll never have a mistress again.” His face had suddenly grown serious. “I mean it, Eliza. I love you.”
She reached out for his hand and lifted it to her lips. “I love you, too, Edward. As I probably have from the moment you first abducted me. So I suppose there’s no help for it. I shall have to marry you and take the consequences.”
“You will? You’ll really have me?”
When she nodded, he enfolded her in his embrace and pressed her to his heart. Then he released her and with his mahogany eyes full of mischief added, “There is nothing to keep us from driving all the way to Gretna. I’m capable of doing it, you know.”
“You’re capable of anything, Edward. Don’t think I don’t know it! But London will do just as well for marrying, and it’s a great deal closer.”
“To London then, to get a special license, for it’s long past time you became my Lady Lightning.”
“Lady Lightning, indeed! Though with my imprudence so well rewarded, I am afraid that together we shall set a terrible example to the world.”
“I warned you from the start that I love to set a bad example.”
“I cannot deny it.” She laughed, remembering the first time he had said that, the first night they had spent together at his town house. But the time for banter was over and now she wished only to give herself up to the happiness of his embrace. As she leaned toward him, he met her lips with his, and together they luxuriated in the contentment that engulfed them as they kissed. It was only after a very long time had passed that Edward relaxed his hold on her and Eliza recovered the ability to speak.
“Such a very bad example we will set,” she said, breathing a sigh of pure happiness. “It will be a puzzle to know what to tell our children when they ask how we first met.”
“Not at all, my dearest.” He grinned, fixing her with Lord Lightning’s most impudent smile. “Only this: That you read my horoscope and saw the love that lay hidden in my heart, while I discerned your wisdom in the glorious constellations of your freckles.”
A Few Last Words from the Author
I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing the adventure as Eliza’s astrological charts came alive—at times a bit more than she bargained for. You can be sure that even though she’s found the lord of her House of Love, she’ll still be peering at her charts, especially the one that answers the question, “Is it a boy or a girl?”
If you’ve read this far you might be interested to know a bit about the actual way astrology was used in Eliza’s time. Most history books report that astrology fell out of favor in the West during the Age of Reason because it was unable to recover from the blow to medieval cosmology delivered by the discovery of Mr. Herschel’s new planet. But this is not true.
Though astrology did almost vanish on the continent, it continued to be practiced in England throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Moore’s popular astrological almanac, Vox Stellarum, had a print run of 393,750 copies in 1803, and the number published almost doubled in the succeeding decade. Several astrological magazines were also published during this period, as well as textbooks by astrological authors like Ebenezer Sibley and John Worsdale.
The first known English woman astrologer was a Mrs. Williams, who in the 1780s advertised her practice in London and at the fashionable watering places of Bath and Bristol Hot Wells.
Many astrologers in this period practiced the kind of astrology described in William Lilly’s book, Christian Astrology, published in 1647 and still in print today. Because accurate birth data was hard to come by, these astrologers often relied on horary charts which were cast for the moment when a question was asked, though the kind of character delineation that Eliza uses here was also popular.
For readers who are curious, Eliza’s birth information is 11/29/1788 01:42 P.M., London. Edward Neville’s is 7/29/1785 10:30 A.M., Brighton. Astrologers who review these charts will see that I have played fair with my interpretations, though I have also taken hints from the placements of Neptune and Pluto to get deeper insight into Eliza and Edward’s personalities.
Neptune was only discovered in 1846. One hopes Eliza would have lived long enough to have learned how helpful it is in understanding why both she and Edward had such a penchant for self-delusion, as well as why the circumstances of Edward’s birth were shrouded in such secrecy and caused him so much pain. But Neptune also gives the capacity for selfless love which both Eliza and Edward would need to build the kind of life together that would truly satisfy them. Pluto of course was not discovered until 1930.
