The Regency Romances of Mira Stables: Part One

by Mira Stables

  That had checked the first onslaught. Now for a little soothing balm to lay the ruffled feathers. “I came to apologise to you. And actually I did knock, but no doubt you were too engrossed to hear me. I am truly sorry that I did not treat your request more seriously yesterday morning. I did not understand the full extent of your difficulties. You looked so very prosperous and fashionable, you see, and not in the least like a young lady seeking work. And I was not aware of my deep obligation to your father until my aunt explained it to me. Since it appears that I was only two at the time, perhaps you will consent to overlook this fault in me, for had I perfectly understood all the circumstances my answer must have been very different. I came here tonight for no other purpose than to explain this, and to beg the privilege of serving you. I had no intention of intruding on you privacy.”

  That last bit threw the blame for his disastrous intrusion wholly on poor Betsy, but since she was nodding approval at him from her stance on the hearth he didn’t suppose she minded. The ruffled plumage seemed to be subsiding. Faith caused a slight setback by suddenly exclaiming.

  “Well I think you’re perfectly sweet, and I can’t imagine why Clemency said you were a surl —” and then clapped a hand to her lips in comical dismay.

  Piers smiled at her. “A surly old curmudgeon?” he enquired amusedly. “I’m afraid your sister was in the right of it, Miss Faith. My behaviour was very bad. There can be nothing more painful than being treated as a foolish child when your trouble is real and serious. Stand my friend with her, and beg her to forgive me and permit me to help you in any way I can.”

  Faith’s worshipping eyes were answer enough. Clemency said coldly, “I accept your explanation, Captain Kennedy and will absolve you of any intention of prying on us tonight. I cannot, however, bring myself to accept help which is clearly dictated by charitable motives, so I will bid you good night once more.”

  She should feel better now, after such a masterly set-down, decided Piers cheerfully. It was time to return to the attack.

  “Certainly I will leave you, if you insist, Miss Longden,” he said politely. “It seems only fair, however to warn you that if I do, I shall go straight to your father and tell him the whole truth.”

  Colour flared in the icy little face. “You would not!” she exclaimed. “Not even you could be so mean, so base!”

  “Oh, yes I could! You are already aware that I do not subscribe to the gentlemanly code. I am a rough colonial, and when I fight I use any weapons to hand. And in this particular contest I am wholly set on emerging the victor.”

  He certainly looked it, though a close observer might have thought the determined mouth belied by a certain twinkle in the blue eyes. Clemency was too aghast to notice such details, but there was an answering gleam in Betsy’s eye. So Mistress Clemency had met her master at last. She smoothed a gnarled hand over twitching lips to conceal her amusement.

  He did not want the spunky little thing to have to admit defeat, so how to contrive an opening that would allow her to concede gracefully?

  “You will not deny me the right to serve your father? Why, when he shot that rabid brute he gave me my life deliberately, so that in a sense he is my father too. You would not refuse me the privileges of a son?”

  There came a shade of doubt into the fierce little face. He was clearly on the right tack. Now for a shattering broadside.

  “I will solemnly promise you that there shall be no question of charity. Any arrangements that we are able to contrive shall be on a business footing. It may be necessary, as a temporary measure, for you to accept a trifling loan, since it is scarcely possible to find the sort of work that you require at a moment’s notice. But you shall repay every penny, and a proper legal agreement to that effect shall be drawn up by your own man of business if you so prefer it.”

  That ought to hold her. Surely it sounded pompous enough to convince such an innocent. He had a sudden qualm. Ought he to have mentioned interest? Surely she would never have heard of anything so sordid? He must take care to rehearse that lawyer thoroughly in his part of the business.

  “Very well,” she said at last, reluctantly. “It shall be as you wish.” And then, having swallowed the bitter pill, added with a change of front so complete that it left him speechless, “And I will even allow it to be a comfort to have someone else to do the worrying and contriving for a change. And you won’t tell Papa, will you?” This last in so confiding and coaxing a tone that he could scarcely believe his ears.

  “Not about the way you have all been deceiving him about the food,” he promised gravely. “But we must consult him before we make any other arrangements. And that business of half starving yourselves is to stop at once,” he added firmly. “I rely on you, Mistress Love, to see to that for me,” and looking Betsy straight in the eye, explained solemnly, “You must not permit your young ladies to play such tricks with their health. No one would wish to employ sickly girls, so you must see that they keep well and strong.”

  “Yes, Sir,” agreed Betsy with enthusiasm. “And my name is Betsy, Sir, since seemingly you’re by way of being one of the family now.”

  Piers gravely thanked her for the privilege.

  “There is just one other matter that should be put in hand at once. It is of some delicacy, and as a more man I would not presume to mention it, had its importance not already been proved to me.” He cast down his eyes modestly. It helped, so new to lying as he was. “It will not do, I fear, to wear your fashionable silks when seeking employment. Your dress should be becoming — to be dowdy is quite as bad as being too smart — but it must be sensible and warm, evidence of your practical good taste. I beg your pardon for my plain speaking on this head, but it is my duty as your — er — adopted brother,” — he avoided Betsy’s eye — “to advise you to the best of my ability.”

  The idea was received better than he had dared to hope, and a further suggestion that Aunt Eleanor might help them choose suitable gowns was received with enthusiasm. He did not think it wise to press further help on them at the moment. Moreover, not being practised in the arts of the dissimulator, he felt that his ingenuity was giving out. However he reckoned that both Betsy and Aunt Eleanor would cheerfully conspire with him to keep prices low and commodities plentiful, so that the burden of debt should not sound too frightening. And the girls were only coming by their just deserts if he deceived them a little for their own good. After all, they had served the same trick on their father.

  He bade them good night, reminding his ‘sisters’ that they were coming to dine with him on Saturday when they would be able to make further plans, whereupon Faith flung her arms round him and hugged him vigorously, vowing that he was a positive lamb and just the kind of brother that she would have chosen, had she been asked, unladylike behaviour which later called down upon her heedless head a severe lecture from her sister.

  “For he is not really your brother, and it is most improper in you to treat him with such familiarity. Such conduct will scarcely recommend you as a responsible young lady seeking respectable employment,” scolded Clemency, resolutely banishing from her mind certain vagaries in her own conduct where Captain Kennedy was concerned. After which a wholly unrepentant Faith danced off to see if the game of chess had come to an end, and whether there was any chance of imparting the exciting news to Prudence.

  Chapter Five

  THERE was a note from Lady Eleanor on the breakfast table next morning. One of the grooms had brought it over very early, said Betsy. She made no mention of a small package delivered to her by the same messenger, along with a verbal message that Captain Kennedy hoped that she would be able to make good use of the Australian seasoning that they had spoken of the previous evening. Betsy had glared at the groom with deep suspicion but it was clear that he knew nothing of the real nature of the package since he enquired with innocent interest as to whether she would use the herbs for dressing meat. She snubbed him smartly, declaring that she was not one for giving away her secrets to any chance
enquirer, and bestowed the package carefully in the wooden spice box that held her cloves and coriander seeds.

  When the abashed groom had taken his departure she bolted the door behind him and investigated the package. It held a sum of money in gold and bank notes that would keep them all in comfort for a considerable time. The spice box seemed as good a hiding place as any. She unscrewed the bottom section and by folding the notes into a tight wad fitted the precious hoard into its new resting place and put the box back on its high shelf.

  “Australian seasoning indeed! Australian sauce-box, more likely! Though to be sure gold has been known to season many an unpalatable dish, so maybe he’s in the right of it at that.”

  Lady Eleanor’s note was an offer to take the girls shopping that very afternoon. Her nephew, she said, had told her of their wish to seek employment, and while she felt bound to deprecate such a course he had managed to convince her of its necessity. He had also suggested that they might do him a service by looking first at the cloth manufactured by a Mr. Otterley, with whom he had extensive business dealings. If they should chance to find anything suitable among Mr. Otterley’s goods, Piers would be grateful to have personal reports on their wearing qualities. She did not add that she and Piers had racked their brains for an age before devising this scheme which would, they hoped, leave all details of price and payment in their hands.

  Prudence was quite amenable. A new gown, whatever its source, was not to be sneezed at. Faith was puzzled as to how an officer in the navy came to have dealings with a woollen manufacturer, and Clemency was grimly determined that they would oblige the man who had overborne her natural independence. They would find something suitable among Mr. Otterley’s fabrics however hideous their colours or coarse their quality.

  Fortunately feminine instinct was not subjected to so severe a trial. After a brief interval of gloating irresistible after such long deprivation, they settled to the serious business of choice. Shopping at a warehouse was strange and new. The young man who had met them at the gate and escorted them to the pattern room was delighted to explain everything, telling them that the huge rolls of cloth held as much as sixty or seventy yards apiece, and giving them small samples to handle so that they might get the ‘feel’ of the goods, but an enquiry about price from the eldest Miss Longden seemed to nonplus him, and he rubbed his chin reflectively.

  “Well, now,” he began, his careful speech lapsing into a more natural dialect, “we don’t sell short lengths, and you’ll not be wanting a whole roll — less it’s to fit out an orphanage or such — but there’s short sample lengths, ’bout five or six yards that the boss thought might suit your needs. They come a bit cheaper, ’cos they’re last year’s designs,” he ended glibly, remembering his instructions.

  They ended by selecting a kerseymere, light but warm and soft enough to drape well. Prudence chose a deep rose colour, while Faith, who vowed she didn’t want to wear pink ever again, chose green. Clemency was hesitating between the green, which she preferred, and a snuff brown which she thought would make her look older and more staid, when Lady Eleanor held up one of the small clippings and said, “How about this, my dear? It picks up the lighter tones in your hair quite beautifully.”

  It was a deep rich amber, and Clemency had already seen and coveted it, but there did not seem to be any more of it in the room. Upon enquiry the young man reflected judicially for several minutes before finally pronouncing, “Yes. I remember that piece, ma’am. Not a good seller. Difficult colour to wear for most ladies. Bound to be plenty of it left. I’ll just see,” and excused himself thankfully, mopping his brow in relief once he was out of the room and thanking heaven that his duties did not normally call for such equivocation.

  Reporting to her nephew that night, Lady Eleanor assured him that the plan had worked splendidly; that the girls had not a notion of the way in which they had been tricked, and had accepted without a blink both the absurdly low price which had been quoted and the notion that five yard sample pieces were a commonplace in the wool trade. Clemency had turned awkward over the suggestion that they should get a seamstress to make up the dresses, “though it would cost only three or four shilling apiece,” and had said that was an unnecessary expense when she and Faith were quite capable of doing the work themselves.

  Piers laughed. “Good luck to the pair of them. Keep them out of mischief for a while. But I’d give a crown to have seen young Otterley’s face. He’s their prize salesman and it must have gone dead against the pluck to have to decry his goods.”

  “At least it cost him nothing — either in hard cash or goodwill,” said his aunt dryly. “Piers — are you sure you can stand all this nonsense? What with wishing to make over a perfectly good estate to Giles, and now taking the Longdens under your protection, you are like to find yourself without a feather to fly with. I fell in with your plan today for those poor girls really needed warm dresses and I would willingly have paid for them myself. But I cannot for the life of me see why you did not explain the position to John, as was your intention, and why there has to be all this conspiracy. Felicity Longden had jewellery that would keep the family in comfort until the girls marry. Her emeralds, I know for a fact, were extremely valuable, and there were a number of other costly pieces. I really do not see why you should shoulder the responsibility.”

  “My dear aunt, I may not be a Croesus yet, but I assure you I shall not outrun the constable. Besides —” he grinned — “my trifling outlay is only a loan, to be repaid by Mistress Clemency out of her salary when she finds employment. I regard it as a very sound investment!”

  His eyes were crinkled in mischievous enjoyment. Lady Eleanor said severely, “Now, Piers, you’re not to tease the child. She’s a wilful little piece, but she has been very awkwardly placed, and she is pluck to the backbone, as Giles would say.”

  “Giles has an interest there?” her nephew asked lazily.

  “Goodness, no! He has a pronounced tendre for the other one — Prudence. They will suit very well. She is a sweet dispositioned girl and will make a good wife, besides inheriting a comfortable fortune some day under the terms of her grandfather’s deed of trust. But Giles is in no position to marry at present.”

  “All the more reason why he should make up his mind to taking over here,” Piers pointed out, unaccountably pleased to discover that it was not Clemency who was the object of Giles’s affections. “I am perfectly serious, you know, when I say that I shall never reside here permanently. I’m fond enough of the place, but it has never held me as it does you and Giles. My longing was all for the sea. And in some way that I find difficult to put into words my vast unknown country has taken the place of the sea. It holds the same kind of charm for me — wild, free, challenging. And richly rewarding.” He laughed at his aunt’s serious expression, a little shamefaced at having opened his heart so far and seeking to return to a more prosaic plane. “Very richly rewarding, dear aunt. I promise you, Giles need have no scruples about stepping into my shoes, and I have sufficient affection for the place and its people to wish to see them well served. Giles will do that to admiration.”

  His aunt shook her head, but she did not break into instant remonstrance as she had done when first he broached the idea. Satisfied, he turned the subject by asking if she would play hostess for him on Saturday evening as he had invited the Longdens to dinner. “And Giles, too, of course. I shall then have the opportunity of studying him vis-à-vis his Prudence. For once in my life I shall really feel like the head of the family.”

  She agreed to it willingly, only hoping that those poor girls had something fit to wear on such an occasion. “And you had better prepare yourself for being very relentlessly quizzed by the youngest Miss Longden,” she informed him. “She’s deep in the throes of hero worship and absolutely consumed with curiosity about you. No need to tell you that she is very young for her age and quite unaware of any impropriety in saying exactly what comes into her head.”

  “Young Faith?” grinned Piers i
ndulgently. “She’s a nice little soul. And about as fit to be thrown on the world as a new born lamb. What she really needs is to spend a year with a family who move in good circles. One with girls of her own age, where she could learn how to conduct herself in society. She’s a pretty child and might well find herself a creditable husband. Now how could we arrange that, Aunt Eleanor?”

  Fortunately for his aunt, who felt that, fond as she was of the Longdens, she had really heard enough of them for one day, dinner was announced and the problem was temporarily shelved.

  The girls who had just been so thoroughly discussed were hard at work. The new dress lengths having been duly fondled and held up to three eager faces to see how well the colours suited had been laid aside, though an animated discussion was still in progress as to the styles in which they should be made up. Meanwhile three pairs of hands were busily furbishing up their dresses for Saturday night. Clemency had decreed that they should wear their muslins, countering Pru’s shiver and mutter of, “Muslins — in October!” with an assurance that the Dower House was beautifully warm, and adding that nothing would persuade her to wear Mama’s clothes again after her first disastrous essay. Carefully starched and ironed, the muslins would do well enough. Pru could wear Mama’s Norwich shawl. She and Faith would wear spencers cut from the skirts of grandma’s poplins. It was upon this task that they were engaged, while Prue painstakingly hemmed a ruffle designed to lengthen Faith’s muslin which showed her ankles.

  Sewing did not silence Faith’s chatter. “I can’t think why you took Captain Kennedy in such dislike, Clee. He’s so handsome — so tall, and being tanned makes his eyes look bluer. And that white lock in his hair is positively romantic. I’m sure there’s a story behind that. Perhaps he was wounded at Trafalgar.” Her eyes shone, and her sewing dropped forgotten in her lap.

  “Since he must have been about twelve years old when Trafalgar was fought, it seems improbable,” said Clemency dryly, “unless he was serving as a powder monkey or a cabin boy, which seems equally unlikely. As for my taking him in dislike, it is no such thing. You heard him apologise for treating me as though I was a silly child. You could not expect me to like that. And if you neglect your sewing to talk about him, you will present a very odd appearance on Saturday night.”