A Sister's Secret (43 page)

‘Is that a shot fired in the dark, or a question emanating from acute perception?’ he asked. ‘I was indeed engaged, and still am, Your Ladyship, in—’

‘Caroline, you wretch.’

‘I am attempting, Caroline, to wind up the affair concerning Cumberland,’ he said. ‘It’s one thing to have taken the edge off Annabelle’s infatuation, it’s another to put an end to Cumberland’s pursuit of both of you. Although Annabelle may no longer wish to be drawn into his bed, nor you—’

‘I have never wished that,’ protested Caroline.

‘But who can tell how Cumberland may contrive seduction of the unwilling? I intend to ensure he leaves both of you permanently alone.’

‘You are jesting,’ said Caroline. ‘We are not going to have another conversation full of absurdities, are we?’

‘No, much too dull,’ he said.

‘But they aren’t.’ Caroline shook her head at him. ‘I am addicted to absurdities. They are very engaging. But were you serious about Cumberland?’

‘Indeed I was, and am.’ Captain Burnside looked sober. ‘After supper, you’ll permit me to go out again?’

‘Again? You are going to desert us again?’

‘Only to continue my campaign to take Cumberland out of your private lives.’

‘You can do that? To Cumberland?’ Caroline was disbelieving. ‘He in his devious majesty will give you best?’

‘Oh, a devious professional, Caroline, ain’t always less than devious majesty.’

‘You surely do hold your accomplishments in—’ Caroline checked. ‘Wait, you are not going to put yourself in danger, are you? I beg you won’t. Cumberland is wickedly omnipotent, and Annabelle and I will quarrel bitterly with you if you intend to run recklessly at him. You are quite up to forcing a duel on him, I know, whether he is the King’s son or not. I won’t have it, nor permit it.’

‘I ain’t going to be reckless,’ said the captain, ‘I’ve all the virtues of a coward and never place myself in danger.’

‘I do not believe you,’ said Caroline. ‘The virtues you do have are those that most appeal to Annabelle and me.’

‘Saints and angels, what virtues are these?’

‘The virtues of never being boring,’ said Caroline, wishing he would sit with her, close to her. ‘I shall let you go, but please take care. When you return, I shall have a promissory note ready for you. It will be drawn in your
favour on my bank, and for the agreed amount in respect of your accomplishments.’

Captain Burnside looked distinctly unhappy. He grimaced. ‘Perhaps, under the circumstances, we should agree it was all accomplished in the name of friendship,’ he said, ‘and it was really very little.’

Caroline stared at him. He had haggled at the beginning, he had bargained, and he had made it very clear he was short of funds. ‘You are asking for nothing?’

‘I am happy to have been of service, and am glad you agree no payment is necessary. I should now like to have a bath, if I may.’

‘Not yet, sir. I do not agree. You have proved an invaluable help and a protective friend. You must not put me down unfairly by refusing to accept what you have earned so well. Your purse is threadbare. You have said so, and I won’t have it.’

‘Your Ladyship—’

‘And I won’t have that, either.’

‘Caroline, allow me to say that in coming to know you and Annabelle, I’ve been adequately rewarded for my insignificant endeavours.’

Caroline said softly, ‘That is very sweet of you, dear Captain Burnside, but how can I not pay you? It was an honourable contract. Why do you look so uncomfortable about it?’

‘I ain’t too keen on discussing money with friends,’ he said.

‘Very well, I shall say no more. I shall simply pay you.’

‘I’ll take my bath,’ he said. ‘Ah, I must return to my lodgings tomorrow, of course.’

‘Lodgings?’ Caroline felt shock. ‘That is ridiculous. Annabelle will tell you so at supper. You are our friend and our guest. Why, we need you here, to stand between
us and Cumberland. And we – we hold you in affection. How could we not when you have been so caring in our behalf? And you have a little affection for us, don’t you?’

He moved to the door, looking as if he found it difficult to respond. Then he said, ‘Why, of course.’

His swift exit gave her no time to say more.

After supper, when he had gone out again, Caroline was quiet, Annabelle fidgety.

‘Annabelle, what is the matter with you?’ asked Caroline eventually.

‘I am bored. Nothing is happening.’

‘What should be happening, pray?’

‘Oh, something, anything,’ said Annabelle, getting up and swishing about. ‘Charles isn’t here, no one is here. It is all dreadfully dull and quiet.’

‘Well, there is Lady Repton’s reception tomorrow, and your visit to Almanack’s with Lily de Vere the day after.’

‘But there is nothing this evening, not one gentleman in sight,’ sighed Annabelle. ‘Oh, I surely do wish for company.’

Caroline wished for Captain Burnside to return, and unscathed. ‘I wonder if I should have asked Mr Jonathan Carter to stay on?’ she murmured.

‘Merciful heaven,’ breathed Annabelle, ‘that low, trashy creature? I don’t wish his kind of company.’

‘I think he thought you quite sweet and amusing,’ said Caroline.

‘He is bumptious, conceited, patronizing and boring,’ said Annabelle. ‘He is also a brute.’

‘All that? Dear me. Annabelle, shouldn’t you think about returning home? Mamma is anxious you should marry and settle down.’

‘Oh, I declare,’ said Annabelle fretfully. ‘Mamma is
just as anxious about you. She said in her last letter she hopes you won’t remain a widow for ever. She would just as much like you to return home. Oh dear, I am sure she has found husbands for both of us.’

‘Annabelle, my roots are here now,’ said Caroline. ‘I will pay a visit home next year, perhaps, in the spring, but only a visit. I have come to love England.’

‘But to live alone, Caroline, that is so dull. Don’t you wish to marry again?’

Caroline hesitated, then quietly said, ‘Yes.’

‘Oh.’ Annabelle quickened with interest. ‘Caroline, are you in love?’

Again Caroline hesitated, then again said, ‘Yes.’

‘Mr Wingrove?’

‘Such an agreeable gentleman,’ said Caroline with a faint smile.

Thomas, the footman, knocked and entered. He announced that a young person had called and was asking to see Mr Burnside.

‘I think he must mean Captain Burnside,’ said Caroline. Young person, she thought. That suggested Thomas did not consider him a gentleman. An ill-visaged gambling associate of Captain Burnside, perhaps? ‘He is not a gentleman, Thomas?’

‘Not as I can make out, Your Ladyship,’ said Thomas. ‘It’s a young woman.’

Caroline had a sudden, dreadful suspicion the caller was either a trollop or the latest in the long line of Captain Burnside’s infatuated young victims. And in some way or another, she had discovered he was living here.

Suppressing the wretchedness of suspicion and jealousy, she said calmly, ‘Show her in, Thomas, and I will see if I can help her.’

Thomas brought the young woman in. She was quite
prettily gowned, even if the muslin material was cheap, and her equally cheap bonnet sat not unattractively on her brown hair. Her bosom had a buxom fullness, and she was as pretty as Annabelle.

Normally, Betsy’s eyes were pert and inquisitive. Now they bore a perceptible look of anxiety. She stared at the elegant splendour of Caroline’s drawing room, her mouth agape. ‘Oh,’ she said, then hastily dropped a curtsey, for the haughty footman had told her to.

‘Good evening,’ said Caroline, and rose, while Annabelle looked on in curiosity.

‘Oh, good evening, madam,’ said Betsy, and because Caroline was all of a queenly vision, she dropped another curtsey. She stared around again. ‘Oh, be this the Lord Chancellor’s house? Be you the Lady Chancellor, madam?’

‘I was advised that you were enquiring after a Mr Burnside, not the Lord Chancellor.’ Caroline was distant, having quickly made up her mind that the wench was pretty enough and bosomy enough to be a trollop. ‘This is my house.’

‘Oh, yes, it be Mr Burnside I wish to see,’ said Betsy, and glanced at Annabelle. At once her eyes fluttered into innocence. ‘Only to ask his advice, madam.’

‘Come with me,’ said Caroline, who realized she did not want Annabelle to hear anything that might point to the fact that the captain was not quite the gentleman her sister thought he was. She took Betsy to a semicircular room with glass-panelled doors that opened on to a small conservatory, which in turn led to the garden. ‘You may sit down.’

‘Thank you, ma’am – Your Ladyship—?’

‘I am Lady Clarence Percival. Who, pray, are you?’ Caroline’s tall magnificence intimidated Betsy.

‘Oh, I be Betsy Walker, Your Ladyship.’

‘What is Mr Burnside to do with you?’

Betsy, seated, looked at her peeping slippers. The situation was not one she favoured. Gentlemen were easy to deal with. Ladies were shrewder, and didn’t give a fig for the way a girl could use her eyelashes. Also, they were terrible hard on their own sex. ‘Mr Burnside, Your Ladyship?’

‘Yes. Does he bed you?’

Betsy lifted her face and showed the genuine blush of shock. She didn’t mind kissing, cuddling and petting, but she was keeping herself for a nice gentleman who would set her up. She would willingly give herself to Mr Burnside if he would do so. ‘Oh, Your Ladyship, I be a respectable serving girl, and never would let Mr Burnside—’

‘Wait.’ Caroline remembered. ‘Did you say your name was Betsy?’

‘Yes, Your Ladyship.’

‘And do you have a position on the household staff of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland?’

‘Yes, except His Royal Highness—’

‘So you know Captain Burnside very well.’

Betsy’s brown eyes opened wide. ‘Captain Burnside? He be a captain, Your Ladyship?’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, and wondered if she really knew precisely what he was. ‘You have been intimate with him?’ The accusing question was compulsive.

‘Oh, Your Ladyship,’ protested Betsy.

‘Has he seduced you? Is that why you have called to see him? Answer me.’

Betsy quivered. Oh, what a fierce lady this Ladyship was, green eyes on fire, body vibrating, hands clenched. ‘Oh, I daresn’t hardly know what I’m at, I’m that upset,’ she gasped. ‘Your Ladyship, I never would, and there be his wife and all.’

‘His wife?’ Caroline became rigid. ‘His wife?’

‘The lady in the other room, is she his wife?’ asked Betsy. ‘She be so like her, the lady he pointed out to me one day. Only she were on the other side of the street, and I never did see her close.’

Caroline stood in torment. Oh, to have done this to her. To make her love him out of all reason, and then utterly to destroy her. Such anguish was not to be borne. She spoke mechanically. ‘No, the lady in the other room is not his wife, but my sister. What is it you wanted of Captain Burnside?’

‘Oh, just to see him, thinking he be kind enough to give me advice on a matter, Your Ladyship. I be in a little trouble, and him being as kind as he is, I thought it be best to come and see him.’

Through her pain, Caroline said, ‘I will tell him you called.’

‘Thank you, Your Ladyship,’ said Betsy, wondering at the strange paleness of this beautiful woman. ‘Could you ask him to meet me tomorrow morning, if he could? I’ll wait outside Collins Coffee House from ten o’clock. It be important, and he’ll know I wouldn’t say it was if it wasn’t.’

‘I will give him your message.’

‘I be that grateful, Your Ladyship.’

It took Captain Burnside and Jonathan some time to secure the services of a Guards sergeant and corporal, to take them to Aldgate South and into Mr Joseph Maguire’s lodgings under cover of darkness. At this stage, Mr Maguire was thankful to see them. Jonathan procured a huge jar of ale from the tavern for the benefit of the soldiers and the Ulsterman. Captain Burnside took upon himself the responsibility of putting the fear of God into the man who lodged opposite, the man who had been
keeping an eye on Mr Maguire. He left him shaken and palsied. Should Erzburger arrive to check on both men the following day, it was certain neither would say the wrong thing, while the soldiers would hide themselves.

It was close to midnight when Captain Burnside arrived back at Caroline’s house. A sleepy Thomas let him in.

Caroline and Annabelle had both retired, but Caroline had left a sealed note for the captain.

Dear Captain Burnside,

Your friend Miss Betsy Walker called, saying it was important for you to meet her outside Collins Coffee House tomorrow morning. She will be there from ten o’clock onwards. She advised me, while she was here, that you had a wife. I understand now why you were never in a position to marry one of your middle-class young ladies.

As you once said, when all was over and done, you would prefer to go your own way. I cannot think now why you should not, and as I am sure you would not favour a tedious goodbye any more than I would, perhaps you would be so kind as to leave before I am up. I shall not rise before nine. I write my goodbye now, and enclose the remittance that is a settlement of what I owe you. C.P.

Captain Burnside read the note twice, and a deep sigh escaped him. Then he made use of a quill and paper at the desk in Caroline’s library, where they had first met, and where her peerless looks had created for him an un-equalled image of beauty and pride.

Helene did not wake Her Ladyship until nine thirty, as requested. Caroline, actually, was already awake. And there were faint but perceptible shadows around her eyes, as if she had not enjoyed too much sleep. Helene expressed concern.

‘I am quite all right, Helene, thank you.’ Caroline hesitated a while before asking if Captain Burnside had left.

‘Yes, milady. Thomas said he left last night. He addressed a letter to you. There’s also another one, by delivery.’ Helene handed both letters to Caroline, who sat up and spoke casually.

‘Helene, would you bring me some tea, please?’

She tore open Captain Burnside’s letter the moment Helene had gone.

My dear Lady Caroline,

Your note has been read. I quite understand, and shall depart as soon as I have finished this letter and packed my bags. It’s to my regret that I feel I have hurt you in some way. I am not the most perfect of men, but of all things affecting my life, the one I would have most wished to avoid would have been
that of causing you any hurt whatsoever. Sincerely, I beg your forgiveness.