Courting Lord Dorney (21 page)

‘Major?’ she asked.

‘My dear, I’m making a terrible mull of it. I’m not used - of course I’m not! Miss Trahearne, Bella, if I may be so bold, I have come to esteem you above all other ladies of my acquaintance. I do not think you have a tendre for any other man, and so I am hoping you might be prepared to listen to me. I have a pleasant house in the country, near Cambridge, and a competence. I could afford to rent a house in the best part of town for the Season, and perhaps in Bath or Brighton for a few months each year. I have no previous attachments, nothing to be ashamed of in my past career.  But it is time I settled down. I would, if you were so kind as to accept my suit, immediately sell out of the army, and devote myself to making your life as comfortable and pleasant as possible. In short, my dear, I lay myself at your feet.’

Bella suppressed an urge to laugh. She had read innumerable novels from the circulating libraries, but in none of them had proposals been made with such stiff formality. Perhaps, she thought, stifling a giggle, driving in a curricle with a lively pair to control, did not make for ideal conditions when a prospective bridegroom could press his suit.

‘Are you asking me to marry you, Major?’ she managed.

‘But of course! Bella, you cannot imagine I would be asking you for anything less?’

‘Do you love me?’ she asked bluntly.

‘Naturally!’ He sounded surprised. ‘I would not have made my offer if I did not!’

Others would, and had, she thought. What about Mrs Ford, she longed to ask, but prudence kept her silent.

‘Major, I am flattered, but I never imagined - that is, I thought we were friends, but I have never contemplated a closer relationship.’

‘Of course, I have rather sprung it on you. Rushed my fences. Attacked without due preparation. Very bad tactics.’

She stifled another giggle. ‘Forgive me, Major, but this is so sudden.’ Lord, she thought, I sound like a bad actress in a third rate theatre. ‘May - may I have time to consider?’

‘My dear girl, you may have all the time in the world!’ he exclaimed.

By which time we will all be dead, Bella thought.

‘If only I can hope.’

Bella felt a twinge of remorse. She could never love the Major. She liked him, respected him, and was utterly certain he would treat her well, but could she ever marry him? Ought she to allow him to hope? Could she ever forget Lord Dorney? Was there the slightest possibility that he might change his opinion of her, renew the offer he had so nearly made? That would be heaven, she considered. Could she be happy with anything so far inferior?

‘I will give it serious consideration,’ she promised. Perhaps this was all that was left for her.

‘I will await your decision,’ the Major said happily. ‘Now, perhaps, you had best set me down, or tongues will begin to wag.’

* * * *

Bella ignored the music, which was rather inferior, she’d decided after the first few songs. Why had this woman gained a reputation as an accomplished entertainer? She had to think about the Major’s unexpected proposal. She liked him, but could she live with him? Could she endure the intimacies between husband and wife? She shivered.

‘My dear, are you cold?’ Lady Fulwood asked.

‘No, ma’am.’

‘Good, I find it rather hot and oppressive myself. Would you mind dreadfully if we left at the interval? I can’t say I’m enjoying this.’

‘Nor I. I’d be happy to go home.’

‘We’ll have some supper first. I can’t deprive you of that, and they do serve superior champagne!’

When they went into the supper room Lady Fulwood was drawn aside by one of her cronies, and Bella joined Mrs Ford and her sister. She might have some opportunity of finding out what had gone wrong between her and the Major. Had he, she suddenly wondered, been rejected by Mrs Ford and proposed to her in the hopes of restoring his self-esteem? Or perhaps to demonstrate that he was capable of attaching a younger and richer girl?

Somehow Bella did not think he was so shallow, but then, she told herself, she was beginning to believe she did not at all understand men. She could understand those like her cousin and Mr Salway, for their motives were clear and despicable. It was the good men, those with strong principles, who perplexed her. They seemed to have such odd notions of what was correct. They followed incomprehensible rules of conduct rather than doing what they might wish.

‘When do you return to your home?’ she asked Mrs Ford. ‘The Season seems to be coming to an end, so many people are leaving to go to the seaside.’

‘I don’t plan to go just yet,’ Mrs Ford replied. ‘It’s my first year in London for a long time, and I mean to make the most of it. What of yourself?’

‘I’ve no firm plans,’ Bella replied. ‘I too, am enjoying it far too much to want to cut short my visit.’

Mrs Ford turned to reply to a question from another woman Bella did not know, and she was free to wonder whether Mrs Ford’s continued presence would affect her in any way. Had she rejected the Major? Did she have hopes of Lord Dorney? Could that be the reason she had, if indeed she had, rejected the Major?

Her musings were cut short as a man she did not know approached her.

‘Miss Trahearne? It is Miss Trahearne, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, I’m Bella Trahearne. What can I do for you?’

‘Lady Fulwood sent me. She swooned, but she is now better. Her coach has been summoned, and she wishes to go home.’

Bella jumped to her feet. ‘Pray excuse me,’ she said to the others, who were exclaiming in dismay. Ignoring them she hurried with the man to the front hall, where Lady Fulwood was being assisted into her cloak.

‘I shall be perfectly all right when I get into the open air,’ she was saying. ‘It was the heat, I’m afraid. Bella, there you are. Come, child, we’ll go home and spend the evening quietly. Not a word to anyone about this,’ she added after they had been helped into the carriage. ‘I can’t abide people fussing around me. Particularly not Richard. Promise you won’t say anything to him?’

* * * *

On the following day Lord Dorney found Lady Fulwood reclining on a sopha in the drawing room, half asleep.

‘Ma’am, are you unwell?’ he demanded. He’d never before seen his godmother flag, even at the height of the Season.

‘Tired, Richard.’

‘It’s not noon yet. You weren’t out late last night. Have you seen a doctor?’

‘I’m getting old, my dear boy. That’s all.’

‘It’s been too much for you, having us all here, gallivanting around with Lady Hodder and Miss Trahearne. I’ll remove myself at once, and I’m sure that when she realizes the situation, Miss Trahearne will go home.’

‘Richard, no! I won’t spoil the poor child’s pleasure. There are plenty of my friends who will chaperone her to parties if I don’t feel able to. Mrs Ford and her sister have offered more than once.’

‘Why don’t you go to Brighton for a while? The sea air would do you good. And if you insist on keeping Miss Trahearne by you, take her as well.’

And if she were out of his orbit, he might be able to forget her.

He went at once to see Sir Daniel, and within the day was moving his belongings to his friend’s house. That evening he made sure he attended the same concert which Lady Fulwood and Bella intended to go to, and in the interval steered Bella into a discreet alcove.

‘My godmother is unwell,’ he said without preamble. ‘I have moved to Sir Daniel’s house, and I want her to go to Brighton for the benefit of the sea air. Can you persuade her that you would like to visit there too? She will not suggest it while she has you to consider.’

‘What you mean is you’d prefer me to go home,’ Bella said. ‘I’m sorry she is ill.’ She considered her promise to Lady Fulwood, but if Lord Dorney had discovered for himself that Lady Fulwood was ill, and it seemed as though this was more than an isolated swoon due to the heat, ought she not to tell him? ‘She swooned the other night,’ she told him. ‘She made me promise not to tell anyone, so please don’t betray me. I thought she looked tired the past few days, but she assured me she was just a little out of sorts, missing Jane. Don’t concern yourself, I’ll go as soon as I can make suitable arrangements.’

He breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I knew you would be sensible, and thank you. She means a great deal to me, has done ever since my mother died. Is there any way I can assist you? You’ll travel post, I assume? And your maid will no doubt go with you.’

‘Please don’t concern yourself with my arrangements. I think the concert is starting again. We had better go back to our seats.’

* * * *

On the following morning Bella ordered Jackson to find and hire some stables for her horses. ‘We will be moving from Lady Fulwood’s in a few days,’ she told him, ‘and I cannot leave them for her man to look after. Indeed, as she is going to Brighton, she may well take Masters with her.’

She hired a hackney and went to see the agent letting the house in Dover Street. ‘I mean to take it, and want to be able to move in within two days. Please make the necessary arrangements. I know the servants come with the house, but I will have my own maid and a companion, so please ensure proper accommodation for them.’

Reassured that all would be done as she ordered, she then went to the registry to ask if they had a suitable person they could recommend as a companion. ‘Not too old, but old enough to give me respectability,’ she instructed.

‘I have two or three ladies on the books who are available, and who might suit, Miss Trahearne,’ the manageress said.

Bella looked at the details provided. ‘Excellent I would like to interview them tomorrow if possible. I would need them to come to me the following day if they can.’

‘I’m sure that can be arranged, Miss Trahearne.’

Only then did Bella inform Lady Fulwood that she intended to leave in two days.

‘Then you can be rid of me, and go to Brighton to recover your strength. I am so very grateful for all you have done, and would hate to feel you forced yourself to entertain me when you are unwell.’

‘Do you go home, then?’ Lady Fulwood asked. ‘I have so enjoyed having you and dear Jane here, but I confess I am feeling old! I would never have asked you to go.’

‘But you are relieved that I am going! Dear Lady Fulwood, we can be honest with one another! I’ve enjoyed being your guest immensely. It has been so unlike my previous Season in London, when I was too young and green to make the most of it. I was terrified of upsetting the dowagers, who all looked so disapproving if I so much as fluttered my fan inappropriately!’

Lady Fulwood chuckled. ‘Somehow I can never imagine you afraid of anyone. Would you mind if we dined quietly tonight? Richard has gone already, and we have never had the opportunity to talk about these houses Jane tells me you are setting up. It’s an excellent idea, and when I come back to London I shall ask my friends to contribute towards the maintenance, which I think is your plan, once you have purchased the properties?’

They spent a quiet evening, and Bella went to bed feeling guilty that she had allowed Lady Fulwood to believe she was going home. She had not told any untruths, she consoled herself, but she suspected Lady Fulwood would not have approved of the idea of a young unmarried lady setting up home on her own, however many respectable companions she had around her.

Chapter 13

The first two ladies Bella interviewed at the registry on the following morning were quite unsuitable. The first was in her sixties, complained of rheumatism, and said she preferred not to stay out late in the evening air. The second was the widow of a clergyman, and larded her comments with biblical texts, complete with chapter and verse reference. Bella was not particularly religious, but she had as a child been made to learn her collects, and she spotted at least one incorrect reference. When she gently queried it, the widow gave her a lecture on the inadvisability of contradicting an older lady who had been brought up in a cathedral close, and had always lived in vicarages, and might be expected to know better than a young lady whose occupations were frivolous, and who appeared to exist on the fringes of the polite world.

Bella began to despair, but when the third lady was shown in her spirits lifted. Miss Perkins was, she said, in her late thirties, and still pretty in a delicate way. She was a younger daughter of a clergyman who had died when she was sixteen, and she had been a governess for years, but thought she needed to change her position.

‘I find that after fifteen or more years I have less and less sympathy with childish minds,’ she said, laughing. ‘I’m not a natural teacher, and I have found it hard. Besides, I cannot offer Italian or painting in watercolours, nor the harp, so I am confined to very young children.’

Miss Perkins would have to do, and Bella suggested a month’s employment.

‘I realize such a short time might not appeal to you, but I may be returning home to Lancashire after that,’ she explained, ‘and would have no further need of your services.’

‘Even a month without small children for ever clamouring at my heels would be a holiday!’

‘I am moving into my house tomorrow. Are you free to come at once?’

‘Yes. I have been staying with my sister, who is married to a clergyman residing in the City, and though they have made me most welcome they have very little room, and will be thankful to see me settled, if only for a short time.’

‘Good. I will expect you in Dover Street tomorrow morning.’

Bella returned to Mount Street and told Lady Fulwood what she had done.

‘My dear! You can’t! I will delay going to Brighton, until I can find a respectable family for you to live with if you don’t mean to leave London. Or you could come with me to Brighton, be my companion and write my notes and run errands for me.’

‘Dear Lady Fulwood, I couldn’t dream of delaying you. And I shall be perfectly well served. Miss Perkins is a very respectable lady.’

Eventually, after remarking that she didn’t know what Richard would say, she accepted Bella’s decision. Mary had been busy packing Bella’s clothes, Jackson had already transferred the horses to their new stables, and all that remained was to send the luggage to Dover Street. Bella sighed with relief when she went to bed that night. All would be well. She was still in London, and so was Lord Dorney.