‘Flora, my dear girl!’ Aunt Charlotte appeared in front of them and Flora stood up, attempting to give her aunt a quick bob of respect, but handicapped by her newly trussed-up state.
‘Aunt Charlotte, are you well?’
‘Exhausted from the Season, of course. But you, my dear niece, look utterly divine. London must suit you.’
‘I am only beginning to learn how it all goes here, Aunt.’
‘It really is quite a miracle that Mrs Keppel has decided to sweep you up. But then again, I suppose one can understand why. You must come to call on us at Grosvenor Square very soon. Dear Aurelia has been such a delight to have about the house. I will be very sorry when she leaves us to go home to your dear mama and papa. Now then, do excuse me, but I must go and talk with Lady Alington about our little orphan charity.’
‘You’re going back to Scotland?’ Flora turned to her sister.
‘Yes.’ Aurelia’s eyes clouded suddenly.
‘But surely there are dozens of young men desperate to take your hand in marriage?’
‘There were, yes, but I’m afraid I turned their attentions down and they have since moved their affections elsewhere. My Berkshire viscount is engaged to a friend of mine. It was announced in The Times earlier this week.’
‘There really was no one who captured your heart?’
‘Oh yes, but that was the problem. And should I say, still is.’
‘What do you mean?’ With a sinking heart, Flora already knew.
‘Well, when the invitation came to stay with the Vaughans at High Weald, I rather thought that . . . that Archie would propose. He’d been up shooting with Papa in July and I was aware that . . . things had been discussed between them. So I refused the other proposals I’d received, presuming that I’d been invited to Kent so Archie could ask me. But even though I was with him under the same roof for a month, it felt rather as if he was doing his best to avoid me. In fact, I rarely saw him, other than at mealtimes. And oh . . .’ Aurelia bit her lip as tears came to her eyes, ‘Flora, I love him so.’
Flora listened, her treacherous heart full of spontaneous relief, but also a gnawing guilt that she might have played a part in her sister’s misery.
‘I . . . maybe he’s simply been waiting for the right moment.’
‘Darling Flora, it’s sweet of you to try and comfort me, but there could not have been more opportunities, had he wished to take them. His mother constantly encouraged him to take me for a walk around the gardens, which really are quite the most exquisite I’ve ever seen. And all he talked about was his plans to restock them with all sorts of exotic plants I’d never even heard of! Then we’d walk back to the house and he’d disappear to his precious greenhouse and . . .’ Aurelia bit her lip again. ‘In the end I decided I had to return to London.’
‘Maybe he will realise he misses you and follow you here,’ Flora suggested flatly. Archie’s letter to her was finally beginning to make the most awful sense.
‘No. I can no longer live on Aunt Charlotte’s generosity, so I must go home.’
‘Oh Aurelia, I am so very sorry. Perhaps Archie is just not the marrying kind.’
‘That is hardly the point. One of the reasons Papa decided to sell Esthwaite Hall was to provide me with a suitable dowry so it could help the Vaughans maintain High Weald, as it would become my family home. You know how Lady Vaughan and Mama were such close childhood friends.’ Aurelia lowered her voice further, seeing Elizabeth standing only a few yards away. ‘They planned it between the two of them and that is what Papa was discussing with Archie up in Scotland.’
‘I see.’ And Flora did, all too clearly.
‘I have no choice other than to be packed off to Scotland. It’s rather ironic, isn’t it?’ Aurelia gave her sister a ghost of a smile. ‘Me returning home as a failure, and you here in London under the patronage of Mrs Keppel. Not that I begrudge you one bit, of course, darling.’
‘Aurelia, believe me, I was heartbroken when Mama told me we had to leave Esthwaite. You know how much I loved it. I miss it with every bone in my body. I’d give anything to be back there.’
‘I know, sister dear,’ said Aurelia, taking Flora’s hand. ‘Forgive me for my miserable countenance, but if I can’t talk to you about this, who can I talk to?’
‘Surely, if there was an agreement between him and Papa, Archie must honour it?’ Flora frowned.
‘And I am quite sure that even if he did, I would no longer wish to marry him. After his quite considerable attentions at the beginning of the Season, he seemed completely distracted when I arrived in Kent. My feeling is that there is someone else who has stolen his heart. But for the life of me, I have no idea who it is.’ Aurelia gave a deep sigh and Flora wished the floor could swallow her and her duplicitous heart up and take Archie Vaughan with them.
‘Now, darling, let us not talk of my problems any longer. Tell me all about life in the Keppel household.’
Flora did her best to tell Aurelia of Violet and Sonia and her daily routine, but the betrayal she had been an innocent yet willing party to had reduced her thoughts to sludge. She was all too grateful when Mrs Keppel came over, wishing to introduce Flora to her friends.
‘They are all quite desperate to meet the newest and most beautiful young member of our household.’ Mrs Keppel smiled as she took Flora’s elbow and proceeded to lead her around the room, showing her off as if she was a personal trophy. And indeed, many of the ladies seemed genuinely agog to meet her. From time to time, she stole a glance at Aurelia, who sat dejectedly on the chaise longue, trying to make conversation with an old woman dressed all in black, who seemed to be as friendless as she.
Eventually, as the guests began to take their leave, Flora excused herself from Countess Torby, who issued her an invitation to the soirée she was holding soon.
‘Dame Nellie Melba will be performing for us. She has only just returned from her tour in Australia, my darling, and she is coming straight to Kenwood House,’ the Countess said in front of the admiring circle around Flora.
Aurelia came over to kiss her goodbye.
‘When do you leave for Scotland?’
‘At the end of this week. The sooner the better, I believe,’ Aurelia breathed. ‘London doesn’t take kindly to failure.’
‘Will you come to visit me here before you go?’
‘Of course, and please don’t worry about me. Perhaps I will meet a laird up in the Highlands and become mistress of a beautiful estate there.’ Aurelia gave a weak smile. ‘It’s time for me to forget all about Archie Vaughan. Goodbye, dearest sister.’
Once everyone had left and Mabel and the footman had removed the discarded teacups and plates of untouched dainties, Mrs Keppel ushered Flora to sit in the chair opposite her by the fire.
‘Well, Flora, your first foray into London society seems to have been an unqualified success! I think you will find yourself well occupied in the weeks to come. There have been so many invitations issued. Everyone told me how charming they found you.’
‘Thank you. However, I must not neglect my duties to your daughters.’
‘My dear girl, can’t you see that was a pretext I gave to you and your mother to enable you to come and live under my roof? Of course, having never met you, I wasn’t sure how you would . . . present . . . so I wished to have a fall-back position in place. And then you arrived, so elegant, cultured and utterly delightful! After this afternoon, a rather splendid dinner later this week, and a far more . . . intimate tea party very soon after that, there won’t be a household in London who will not wish you to grace it with your presence. You’re the talk of the town!’
Flora gazed in complete confusion at this extraordinary woman. ‘Mrs Keppel, for the life of me, I do not understand why anyone in London would wish to invite me to their homes. After all, I was not even presented at court.’
‘Don’t you see, that is what makes you even more fascinating?’
‘To be frank, I do not,’ Flora confessed. ‘Please don�
�t think me ungrateful, but having accepted my lot in life, to have all suddenly changed about me for no reason I can think of is a little . . . strange.’
‘My dear, I do understand. One day, all will be explained, but I feel it is not my place to do so. All I ask for now is that you trust me. I shall not steer you wrong. And even though you cannot know it, there are many similarities between us. While I am able to, I wish to help you.’
Flora, still none the wiser, could only agree.
That night, she lay down gingerly, relieved to have had the whalebone corset removed. Looking down at her ribs, she counted the tiny purple bruises that had appeared and wondered how the women in Mrs Keppel’s drawing room could suffer the pain every day of their lives.
Removing Panther as he attempted to climb onto her chest, she stroked him.
‘I feel I deserve this pain for what I’ve done. Unless Archie has lied to both of us sisters, and is simply the cad I once thought him. I can only hope I was correct when I told Aurelia he is not the marrying kind,’ she told him, scratching his velvety ears. ‘And as for today, I confess I feel rather like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, so I suppose that makes you the Cheshire cat. The question is, Panther darling, why on earth are we here in this house?’
Panther just purred contentedly in response.
17
‘Miss Flora, you are to come downstairs immediately to Mrs Keppel’s parlour.’
‘Why?’
‘You have a visitor.’
‘Really? Is it my sister?’
‘No, it is a gentleman.’
‘What is his name?’
‘Forgive me, Miss Flora, I don’t know.’
Flora followed Peggie down the stairs, holding up her heavy woollen skirts so she did not trip over them. She found Mrs Keppel standing by the fire with Archie Vaughan.
‘Flora dear, isn’t it sweet of Lord Vaughan to call on us to enquire whether you are well and happy in your new home? I have tried to assure him that I have not been keeping you in the cellar, feeding you water and dead mice, but he insisted on me proving it to him. And here she is, Lord Vaughan.’
Flora could think of many adjectives to describe the reason for Archie’s presence here, but the last one she would have used was ‘sweet’.
‘Hello, Miss MacNichol.’
‘Hello, Lord Vaughan.’
‘You look awfully . . . well.’
‘I am in good health, thank you. And you?’
‘I have recovered from my chill, yes.’
Flora evaded his stare, and Mrs Keppel, like the fairy godmother she was, intervened in the ensuing silence. ‘Will you take a little sherry, Flora? It will ward off any chill, I’m sure.’
‘Thank you.’ Flora accepted the glass and the three of them toasted – to what, she wasn’t sure.
‘Mrs Keppel, I see you have expanded your collection of Fabergé ornaments. That is a fine piece,’ Archie said politely, as he nodded towards a small jewelled egg on the table.
‘How kind of you to notice, Lord Vaughan,’ Mrs Keppel said. ‘Now, do please forgive me, but I have to see Mrs Stacey about the menu for tomorrow evening’s dinner and the florist is due at any moment. Please send my best regards to your mama.’
‘I will, of course.’
Mrs Keppel left the room, but not before she had shot a knowing glance at Flora.
The two of them stood in silence, Flora looking anywhere but at him, yet aware of his gaze resting upon her. In the end, in an agony of whalebone and new shoes, she surrendered.
‘Shall we sit down?’ Almost collapsing into a chair by the fire, she indicated Archie should take the one opposite her. Taking a sip of the warming sherry, she waited for him to speak.
‘Forgive me, Miss MacNichol . . . may I call you Flora?’
‘No. You may not.’
Archie swallowed hard. ‘No . . . I must explain . . . you don’t understand.’
‘You are wrong, I saw my sister only yesterday. I understand everything.’
‘I see. May I ask what she told you?’
‘That you and my father had agreed Esthwaite Hall should be sold to provide Aurelia with a dowry and High Weald with a much-needed injection of funds on your marriage to her.’
Archie removed his gaze from her. ‘Yes, that is an accurate appraisal of the situation.’
‘Except, Lord Vaughan, my sister tells me that even though you had ample opportunity at High Weald, you are yet to propose. And Aurelia, having turned down a number of attractive proposals, now finds herself without any alternative other than to retreat to our parents’ house in the Scottish Highlands. Their recent move was engendered purely by the fact that our Lakeland home was sold to fund the continuation of your own – and my sister’s – future.’
‘Yes,’ he replied after a long pause.
‘So, Lord Vaughan, please tell me exactly what you are doing sitting in Mrs Keppel’s parlour with me when you should be rushing to prevent my sister from returning home to the solitary, isolated future which you have condemned her to?’
‘My God, Flora! Your words could kill a man at twenty paces. Have you ever considered putting them onto paper?’
‘I am in no mood for quips, Lord Vaughan. And please desist from calling me Flora.’
‘I can see that, just as I can see how finely you are dressed and how exquisite you look—’
‘Enough!’ Flora stood up, trembling with rage. ‘Will you not tell me why you have played, as Panther would with a mouse, with both of us sisters? And on top of that why you swindled my father into selling the home that has been in our family for five generations?’
‘Can you not guess?’
‘I am struggling to do so, Lord Vaughan.’
‘Well then, let me tell you something that you don’t know.’ Archie stood up and started to pace the room, pausing only to refill his glass from the sherry decanter. ‘When I first met your sister at Esthwaite, I had decided that it didn’t much matter whom I married after all the prospective brides that were marched past me by my mother. I know you are well aware of my reputation and I don’t deny it. I have romanced a number of women over the years. In my defence, I should say that it wasn’t out of ego, merely out of a desperate need to try to find a partner who might capture my heart. You may think, Miss MacNichol, as many women seem to, that men don’t have romantic notions about love the way you do. But I assure you that, in my case at least, you are wrong. I too read Dickens, Austen and Flaubert . . . and wished to find love.’
Flora, who was staring into the fire, took the last gulp of her sherry and remained silent.
‘By the time I met your sister, I had, in all honesty, given up hope of finding such a woman. And Mama, as you can imagine, was terribly keen on the idea of Aurelia – her oldest friend’s daughter – becoming my intended. She and your own mother had already discussed the possibility and your mother had agreed to talk to your father about selling Esthwaite. You might be aware that she has always loathed the house, seeing it as her punishment for . . . past misdemeanours. The thought of having an excuse to visit her daughter and her oldest friend in Kent any time she pleased, and staying for as long as she wished, I believe more than made up for the inconvenience of moving to the Highlands, a place she knew only too well your papa loves.’
‘What “misdemeanours”?’ Flora shot back. ‘You choose to insult my mother’s character too?’
‘Forgive me, Flora, I am simply trying to explain what has brought us to today. Pray, let me continue.’
Flora stared into the fire once more, and gave a slight shrug of acceptance.
‘To be blunt, I liked your sister when I saw her in London, found her sweet-tempered and pretty, and felt she was someone I could at least live with. So, I agreed with your father on the shooting holiday that I should propose to her and that Esthwaite Hall would be sold.’
‘Then why on earth did you come and visit me on your way back?’
‘The truth is, I just . . . don’t know.�
� Archie stared at her. ‘All I can say – and I know it isn’t good enough – is that something inside me urged me to. Flora: the little girl I’d pelted with crab apples and then almost killed as I raced on my horse to Esthwaite Hall. Yet who never “told”, like any other girl would have. And now, all grown up, and so clever and fearless and proud, with the kind of strength in her soul that I have never perceived in a woman before. And yes, beautiful too. Forgive me, Flora, I am a man, after all.’
‘You are right. That is not a good enough answer,’ she said eventually.
‘You fascinated me,’ Archie continued. ‘So much so that I came to see you, despite what I had agreed with your father only a day previously. And all that I had imagined when I thought of the woman I wanted to be my wife appeared before me in those days we spent together. And I realised that what I’d always been searching for had been right under my nose all along.’
Flora didn’t dare breathe; she simply continued to concentrate on the flames that danced so lightly in the fire, in contrast to the weight of his heavy gaze upon her.
‘So, I left Esthwaite, and told you that there was a situation which I must address. But by this time, the wheels were already set in motion and Aurelia arrived a few days later at High Weald. I did my best to avoid her, but I could see that both she and my family were becoming frustrated. Nevertheless, I stuck to my guns, and managed not to propose, and eventually she left. I saw her distress, but my resolve and my heart cannot be moved. Because it is you that I love.’
Archie sat down heavily on the chaise longue. Silence hung over the parlour.
‘Will you not respond to my heartfelt declaration, Miss MacNichol?’ Archie pleaded.
Flora finally raised her eyes to him and stood up. ‘Yes, I will. And it is this: you say that everything you have done has been for me. This is not true. Everything you have done has been for you. For some misguided reason, you believe that I hold the key to your happiness. And, in your quest for it, you have caused the sale of our family home, which I must remind you I loved, forcing my parents to live in exile in Scotland. But more importantly, you have also humiliated my sister in front of London society and broken her heart. I ask you, Lord Vaughan, how could any of this possibly have been for me?’
The Shadow Sister Page 19
