The American Earl (7 page)

“She’s certainly different from the American girls I know,” Evan said with a grin. 

“She’s different from other English girls too,” Flora said. “If I might make a suggestion, I think should you speak to your aunt, Lady Barbara Lewis. She is bringing out her youngest daughter this year and hopefully you can persuade her to bring Julia out along with Elizabeth.”

Evan brightened at the idea of having someone else take charge. “I’ve never met my aunt. In fact, I never knew I had an aunt until Mr. Shields told me. How should I go about contacting her?”

“She doesn’t live far from here.  You can easily drive over to Mereton.”

“I’ll do that.”  Evan frowned slightly. “Do you know, Cousin Flora, I’m finding it more and more strange that my father never mentioned his family in England.  Did something happen to estrange him from them?”

Flora’s eyes widened in surprise. “You don’t know why he emigrated to America?”

Evan shrugged, his big shoulders moving easily under his too-loose coat. “He always said that England was stifling, that there wasn’t room to grow there. He said that the English judged people by their class, not by their character or abilities. He loved America because it wasn’t like that.”

“Did you know that your mother was also English?”

“Of course. She and my father came to America together when they were very young. My grandmother came with them. My father always said it was the money she inherited from her father that enabled him to start his business.”

“How very interesting.”  Flora tilted her head and regarded him.  “You deserve to know the truth.  Your mother is the reason why Tommy emigrated.  She was the daughter of Stoverton’s housekeeper, your grandmother.  Emma and Tommy grew up together, but of course there was a huge class gap between them.  When Tommy told your grandfather that he wanted to marry Emma, your grandfather threw Emma and Emma’s mother out of the house.  Tommy followed them, married Emma, and took ship for America.  The estrangement between his father and Tommy was permanent, and it seems to have extended to his brother and sister as well.”

Evan was dumbfounded. He shook his head as if to clear it. “I never knew anything about my parents’ life in England. I never knew my father was the son of an earl. It was as if life started for them when they landed in Boston. Both of them were staunch Americans.”

“They had reason to be. Apparently America was very good to them.”

“Yes, it was.”

“How did your father die, Evan? I was fond of Tommy and I would like to know what happened to him.”

A scene flashed through Evan’s mind, himself standing in front of a roaring fire in the house on Chestnut Street, and Frank Hickey coming into the parlor to speak to him. 

“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, lad, but your mother ran out on Lacy’s Pond to catch a dog the Webster children had let get loose, and she fell through the ice.  Your Pa tried to save her and he went under too.  We can’t even get to the place where it happened; the ice is too thin.”

For a brief moment pain knifed through him. His parents had been in their forties and in excellent health. The news had been devastating for him and Frances. He had been eighteen and Frances two years older and all of a sudden they were orphans and the owners of a large business.

He said in an expressionless voice, “Both my parents fell through the ice on one of our ponds and were drowned.”

“Oh dear.” Flora reached out to put a hand on his arm. “I am so sorry. That must have been very painful for you, Evan.”

“Yes.” 

She patted his arm and sat back. 

He said, “So you think I should pay a visit to my Aunt Barbara?”

“Yes. As I said, she is bringing out her own daughter this season, so she is perfectly placed to bring Julia out as well.” Flora sighed. “However, you will have your work cut out in order to convince your aunt to do that for Julia.”

He raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

“Lady Barbara does not like Julia.  Nor does Julia like her aunt.  That is the biggest problem.  Another one is that the Lewis’ will not wish to pay for Julia’s expenses.  They are well off, but the cost of presenting Elizabeth will be high.  They will have to rent a house for the season, which is expensive.”  Flora leaned forward. “I think this will be your most potent bargaining point, Evan.  Offer to let Lady Barbara use the Picadilly mansion in London to present both Elizabeth and Julia.  She’ll jump at the chance.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve been told I have a London townhouse. Is it enormous and filled with priceless art, which I can’t sell?”

Flora smiled at him. “You’re a good man, Evan. The girls are very lucky that you are their father’s heir.”

Chapter Nine

The following morning Evan left Stoverton to pay a visit to his father’s sister.  He drove an old curricle from Stoverton hitched to two of the old carriage horses. Toby’s nephew Sammy went along as his groom.

The roads in England were markedly better than the roads in America, and Evan accomplished the two-hour drive with little difficulty. He turned in through iron gates and drove up the winding drive. When the house came into view the midday sun was reflecting off its lovely old mellow stone and high windows. To complete the picture, the house was surrounded by a wide sweep of perfectly tended lawn.

Evan left Sammy holding the reins, advanced up the walkway to the front door, and rapped the knocker.

It was a disorienting feeling, this business of meeting a whole new family he had not known existed.  Evan was beginning to feel as if his parents’ life had been an iceberg, with a great portion of it kept hidden from their children. 

A butler garbed in formal attire answered the door. Evan introduced himself and the butler took his hat and coat and escorted him to a formal drawing room. “Her ladyship will be with you shortly, my lord,” the servant said.

Evan inquired about his groom and horse and was told they would be taken care of. The butler departed, leaving Evan alone in the coldly formal room. He looked around automatically for the paintings; the few that hung upon the walls were mostly landscapes. He wondered what Julia would say about them – were they good or were they mediocre? He himself had no idea.

Evan took a seat on one of the spectacularly uncomfortable French chairs that were placed in front of the marble fireplace and prepared to wait.

In a remarkably short time, a tall, handsome, blonde-haired woman came in the door. “Evan, my dear,” Lady Barbara said as she crossed the pale ivory and blue rug to greet him. “How lovely to meet you.”

He blinked as he stood up to greet her. She looked just like his father. “I am happy to meet you as well, Aunt,” he replied, and bestowed a chaste kiss on the cheek she presented to him.

Lady Barbara looked up. “Goodness,” she said. “You wear your lineage on your face, Nephew. You are all Marshall.”

Evan thought of the portrait hanging in the drawing room at Stoverton and of his shock when he had first beheld it.   “So it seems,” he said mildly.

Lady Barbara bade him be seated and once again Evan took one of the uncomfortable silk-covered chairs. 

She sat beside him. “I’m sorry my husband isn’t here to greet you, but he has gone to visit his brother. If he had known you were coming, he most certainly would have remained at home. The family has been eagerly awaiting your arrival.” She looked at him piercingly. “I imagine you have learned by now of the disaster Philip left behind when he shot himself.”

She didn’t even wince when she mentioned her brother’s suicide.

“Yes,” Evan said, looking into the familiar yet strange face next to him.   He decided to be honest and added wryly,  “I must confess I’m finding it a bit disconcerting to meet relatives I didn’t know I possessed.   My parents brought me up to be one hundred percent American, you see.   My father maintained no connection to his English family - it was as if they didn’t exist.  So you can imagine how stunned I was to receive a letter informing me that I was the new Earl of Althorpe – with all the attendant obligations.” 

He couldn’t quite keep the bitterness out of his voice as he pronounced the last words.

Lady Barbara sighed. “I’m afraid that my father and yours quarreled badly, my dear. Do you know the reason why your father emigrated to America in the first place?”

“I recently learned the history of my parents from Cousin Flora,” he replied steadily.

“Then you will know that my father was outraged when Tommy eloped with Emma. I was only a schoolgirl, but I can still remember his anger. He said that Tommy was no longer his son and that he had made his bed and he could lie in it.”

“Nice of him,” Evan commented dryly.

“Tommy was Papa’s favorite,” Lady Barbara said. “He felt that Tommy had betrayed him and his family by marrying so far beneath his station.”

I’m glad I never knew the old bastard. Evan thought.  Maybe it’s poetic justice that my mother’s son is the one to inherit his precious earldom.

Lady Barbara was going on, “Apparently Tommy did quite well for himself in America.”

“Let us just say that my father was wiser with his money than my uncle was with his,” Evan said.

At this point, the butler came in with a tea tray. A table was set up in front of the chairs and Lady Barbara asked Evan polite questions about his journey from America while she poured. When the butler closed the door again, she got down to business. “I know my brother was deeply in debt. How bad is it?”

Evan told her. Then he told her about the condition of the cottages and the unpaid retirees. She was not surprised. Then he brought up the subject of Julia and Maria. “I am very concerned about their futures,” he said.

“They still have their dowries, of course.”

“No, they don’t. My uncle went through the funds that were supposed to be set aside for their dowries. They have been left with nothing.”

“Damn Philip!” Lady Barbara exclaimed. She glared at Evan as if he were the one at fault. “How could he be so irresponsible?”

“I have no idea,” Evan replied. “But he was, and now I’m stuck with the consequences. I’ll deal with the debt somehow, but the most pressing need is to make some arrangement for my cousins. They cannot continue on as they are.”

There was a brief, charged silence. Then Lady Barbara said, “You have met Julia, of course.”

“Yes.”

“After Philip died I offered to bring her and Maria here to Mereton, and she refused to come. She is as stubborn as a mule, that girl.”

“I’ve noticed,” Evan said with a flicker of humor. “Nevertheless, I am responsible for her and plans must be made for her future. I’ve been advised that my best course of action is to give her what Flora calls a ‘season’ so she can meet some eligible men and find a husband. I’ve also been told that you are giving a season to your own daughter, Aunt, and I have come to ask you to chaperone Julia as well.”

Lady Barbara stared at him as if he was mad. “A London Season costs a fortune. I can’t possibly undertake to sponsor her as well as Lizzie.”

“I’ll pay all of Julia’s expenses.  And I’ll engage to give her a dowry as well.  I’m going to have to mortgage Stoverton to raise cash and few thousand more pounds won’t make much difference.”

The expression on Lady Barbara’s face hadn’t changed. “Will Julia agree to go to London for the season?”

“I don’t plan to give her a choice in the matter.”

“You don’t understand,” Lady Barbara said, her hands fluttering in agitation. “If we drag Julia to London against her will, she will ruin everything for Lizzie. Do you know what she told me when I went to collect her and Maria to bring them here after Helen died?”

“No.” Evan waited with real curiosity for her reply.

“She told me that if I forced her to come to my home she would make my life miserable. ‘You don’t want me in your house, Aunt Barbara, if I don’t want to be there.’ That’s what she said, Evan! And the look on her face – she meant it. She’s ruthless, Evan. I can’t take a chance with my daughter’s future.”

Evan felt an unwilling surge of admiration for Julia. He said, “What if I can convince her to cooperate willingly with this Season business? Would you take her then?”

Just then the door opened and a young girl came in. “Grantly told me that my cousin is here, Mama, and I have come to be introduced.”

Evan stood and turned to face this new cousin. She was another Marshall, and a beautiful one. Her hair was more gold than silver and her eyes a lighter blue than his, but she could have been his sister, they looked so alike. “I’m your cousin Lizzie, my lord,” she said, crossing to him and holding out her hand.

Evan took her hand into his. “I am delighted to meet you,” he said. “And please, call me Evan.”

Her smile was dazzling.

“Sit down, Lizzie,” Lady Barbara said briskly. “What your cousin and I are discussing concerns you too. He wants me to bring out Julia along with you this Season.”

Evan watched closely but no expression of alarm crossed Lizzie’s classically beautiful face.  “That seems sensible,” she said sunnily as she took one of the crimson velvet chairs. 

“I am afraid that Julia might not wish to join us,” Lady Barbara said ominously.

Evan said, “Your mother is afraid that Julia might sabotage your own season if she is forced to do something she doesn’t want to do.”

Lizzie looked puzzled. “How could she do such a thing?”

“I can think of a whole list of things she could do if she chose to,” Lady Barbara said grimly.

“But why wouldn’t she want a season?” Lizzie asked. “How does she expect to find someone to wed if she doesn’t go to London?”

“Don’t ask me how Julia’s mind works,” Lady Barbara snapped. “It’s unfathomable to me.”

Evan brought up the offer Flora had recommended. “If you agree, Aunt, I should be pleased if you used the Piccadilly mansion as your base. I understand it’s large and well-located.”

Lady Barbara’s expression changed. “Indeed. It is the perfect house from which to launch a young girl’s come-out. The ballroom is fabulous.”

Encouraged by this comment, Evan said, “If I can get Julia to promise to behave herself and cooperate with you, will you include her in Lizzie’s season?”