Courting Lord Dorney (8 page)

However much he told himself that not all women were as rapacious, or as immoral as Selina, doubts remained. He did not wish to risk it, even if he were attracted to a woman. When he’d first met Selina, just before he’d enlisted and gone out to join Wellington in Spain, he’d thought her a pretty, and sensible young woman, whose behaviour had been unaffected, despite the fortune she would inherit from her wealthy father. That this fortune came from trade might be sneered at by some of the high sticklers in Society, but Robert had not cared, saying that Selina had been educated at a very good school for the daughters of gentlemen, and was prettily behaved. She would know how to go on as his wife.

‘Besides,’ Robert had said with a laugh, ‘the money will restore Dorney Court. And it needs it.’

It certainly had. Their father had cared little for his ancestral home, and under his stewardship the land had been neglected and the house had fallen, if not into outright ruin, into the beginnings of it. The roof had leaked, some of the windows were broken, many of the rooms had been shut up, the curtains were falling into rags, and the place had been run with far too few servants. The estate cottages and farms were in even worse condition.

The moment he and Selina had married, Robert had set about bringing the house back to its former state. On his one visit home, on leave, Richard had been astonished and pleased to see his beloved home looking once more as he remembered it when he’d been a small child, before his mother had died and his father had set out on the road which eventually ruined him.

This had, however, been illusory. The exterior fabric was as he remembered it, but inside Selina had, in his opinion, ruined it. Much of the old oak panelling had been stripped out, and the small rooms decorated in the newly fashionable Chinese style. To his eye the clawed legs and elaborate carvings and exuberant decoration might be all very well in the spacious rooms of the Prince Regent’s monstrosity of a palace at Brighton, but here they were oppressive, overwhelming.

If he ever married, would his wife turn out to be like Selina, wanting to change his home? The home he was only gradually restoring to what he wanted it to be? Would Bella be like Selina?

He shook himself. Why was he thinking like this? He didn’t intend to marry, so the actions of a mythical wife could be of no concern to him. He must tear himself away and go to London. Dan would be there now. Then he frowned. He had committed himself to several engagements for the coming few days, and he might as well stay and attend them. Making his excuses and departing in haste might make people talk even more than they were already doing, and that might harm Bella. He could not do that to her, even if he had no intention of marrying her. He must casually announce his intention of leaving, and draw back from too much contact with Bella.

* * * *

Bella was feeling guilty. She had been so preoccupied with her own affairs she had thought very little about the proposed house in Bristol. She borrowed Jane’s coach, took Mary with her for the sake of propriety, and Jackson drove her to Bristol. When they reached the Tomkins’ house she dismissed Mary and Jackson, telling him to rest the horses and Mary to amuse herself shopping, and call for her in three hours.

She was welcomed so enthusiastically that her guilt intensified. She’d let these people down.

‘Of course not, my dear Miss Trahearne,’ Mrs Tomkins assured her. ‘We’ve only just found a suitable house. Would you care to inspect it?’

It was a tall house in a terrace near the docks.

‘It needs some repairs,’ Mr Tomkins said, ‘but that will help us to purchase it at a good price.’

‘I’ll pay for the necessary repairs,’ Bella assured them. ‘Surely these are not major defects, more a general shabbiness, and we could install one of the new ranges in the kitchen, which would make life much easier for the children and the maids.’

‘Oh, yes, there’s nothing else too expensive for us to do,’ Mr Tomkins hastened to reassure her. ‘We have already found people to promise contributions for the maintenance of the children, and wages for the couple who will look after them. We can accommodate the first of the children in, let us say, a month from now.’

Bella nodded. ‘So I will purchase the house, and pay for the essential repairs, and you will afterwards find the money to run it?’

‘Of course, that is what Mr Jenkins told us was to be the arrangement.’

‘I’ll have Mr Jenkins draw up an agreement to that effect. Thank you, this seems eminently suitable.’

She drove back to Bath satisfied with her day. Her scheme for helping orphans by installing them in small, homelike houses, was looking both practical and worthwhile. Other people like the Tomkins were eager to help, and if she supplied the initial capital to purchase suitable houses, there were local people who could do their bit in raising the money to run them.

* * * *

On the way home, Mary had been very quiet, and Bella assumed she was tired. But when they reached the house Mary asked to speak with her.

‘What is it? What’s happened?’ Bella asked, when they had reached her bedroom.

‘Oh, Miss Bella, I saw those men again. One of them.’

‘Which men?’

‘Those who tried to - to make me go with them, when you threatened to shoot them,’ Mary said, her voice shaking.

‘In Bristol?’

‘Yes, in the town.’

‘Did he recognize you?’

‘I - I think so. He leered at me in a nasty sort of way.’

‘Did he speak?’

‘He warned me to take care. He said there wouldn’t always be someone to protect me.’

Bella tried to reassure her. ‘He can’t know you live in Bath. He won’t find you here.’

‘But he followed us to where Tom - I mean Jackson, had stabled the horses, and I saw him talking to the ostler as we left to meet you.’

‘Had Jackson told him we came from Bath?’

‘Yes, when we first got there. He knew the man, you see, and was telling him about his new job.’

‘Well, you’ll just have to take extra care, and not go anywhere lonely by yourself. They can hardly abduct you from the middle of Bath!’

‘No, Miss Bella,’ Mary said, but doubtfully.

Bella sighed. She supposed she would now have to order Jackson to accompany Mary on her errands into the town. She suspected they would neither of them object, and wondered whether she was assisting in a budding romance.

* * * *.

A select riding party gathered outside Lord Dorney’s rooms in the Royal Crescent on the following day. His cousin Alexander was there on a showy black, in attendance as usual on the lovely Miss Hollings, mounted on a beautiful but frisky little roan mare. A young matron was introduced as her married sister, Lady Andrews, and an older man as Sir John Andrews. A recently married couple, Mr and Mrs Dudley, completed the party.

Soon they were riding up Lansdowne Road, Lord Dorney on his magnificent grey hunter close beside Bella.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘First to see the old battlefield, then eastwards across the hills to where my servants will meet us with food for an alfresco nuncheon. If everyone has the energy we can go a little further until we come to the Avon and return along the river bank. Are you happy with your mount?’

Bella patted the neck of her chestnut gelding.

‘He’s not like my own beautiful Lady, but a good enough ride,’ she replied.

‘I hoped you might be taking us to visit Dorney Court,’ Lady Andrews, who had been riding behind, interrupted.

‘That’s rather too far away for a single day,’ Lord Dorney replied easily.

‘Dear Felicity is so eager to see it,’ her sister went on, edging her horse forward so that she rode on Lord Dorney’s other side. ‘Alexander has told her so much about it, you know.’

‘It’s not very splendid, just a couple of hundred years old, built in the local stone, and with what these days are considered small rooms,’ he said dismissively. ‘My brother built on an extra wing with a ballroom, but that was really for his wife. I cannot imagine what I shall use it for. I may even pull it down.’

‘That would be a great pity. Does your brother’s widow live there?’

‘Selina lives in London, with a cousin,’ he replied shortly.

He seemed unwilling to talk either of his home or his widowed sister-in-law, and Bella observed him curiously. She had heard the occasional comment about his family from people in Bath. Unusually reticent, she had not liked to question him herself. There was some mystery, she was sure, and it seemed connected with his brother’s widow.

As Lord Dorney spurred forward to ride with the Dudleys Lady Andrews moved closer to Bella.

‘Such a pity Dorney Court is so far away, and no hostess there so that Felicity might visit for a while. But he seems to dislike it. She’s naturally anxious to see the place, you know,’ she confided. ‘Alexander is such a pleasant boy, don’t you think?’

‘Is he? I mean, yes of course, but I don’t know him very well,’ Bella answered, and contrived to drop back to ride with Jane.

‘She’s hinting her sister and Alexander are betrothed, or likely to be,’ she told Jane. ‘Clearly she sees Felicity as the future mistress of Dorney Court. I suppose Alexander’s his heir?’

‘So I believe. They are cousins.’

‘But Lord Dorney isn’t much older - it could be years before he dies and Alexander could inherit. And he might marry. Or Alexander die.’

Jane glanced back. ‘Felicity would do better to set her cap at Lord Dorney if Dorney Court is her main objective. Though it would not serve, I’m sure. She’s far too young for him, not at all the sort of girl he seems to admire.’

Bella nodded. ‘But Lady Andrews said he, Lord Dorney, dislikes the place. I wonder why? Do you know what happened to Lord Dorney’s brother? How did he die? Was he in the army?’

‘No one ever says,’ Jane replied slowly. ‘It’s odd, but they always change the subject.’

‘And Lord Dorney seems ill at ease whenever he’s mentioned, or his widow. I wonder what can have happened? I’ve no doubt Mrs Eversley knows.’

‘Don’t ask questions,’ Jane warned.

‘I’ll ask Lord Dorney some time,’ Bella promised, and laughed at the look of horror on Jane’s face. ‘Don’t be concerned, not yet,’ she added.

Her resolve was severely tried during the rest of that day. It was clear that Lady Andrews knew the story, for she took several opportunities to drop hints and what could have been construed as warnings in Bella’s ear. They were mainly concerned with Lord Dorney’s reluctance to marry, and Felicity’s prospective future as chatelaine of Dorney Court.

‘For Lord Dorney spends remarkably little time there,’ she told Bella. ‘Alexander hasn’t more than a small house in Bath, and he has to let his mother and sisters live there. I suppose he could buy a house in London, but he’d need somewhere in the country too. I’m sure Lord Dorney would let him live there if he married. He never seems to live there himself. I understand he lives mainly in to London now, or at one of the properties his mother left him. She was quite wealthy, you know. Has he told you whether he intends to remove to London?’

Bella tried not to reveal how shatteringly unwelcome this possibility was. She could not, in her current identity, follow him to London. Somehow the possibility that his stay in Bath was only a short one had never crossed her mind. Her plans would have to be changed if he left but, numb with shock, her brain refused to provide any solutions.

* * * *

They halted at midday for the alfresco meal Lord Dorney had arranged. Afterwards they strolled about the clearing in the woods, admiring the primroses which covered the ground. Alexander and Felicity Hollings disappeared along a winding path, and Bella caught Lady Andrews looking after them with a complacent smile on her face.

Lord Dorney guided Bella along another path, explaining that it led to a slight hill from which they could look over the surrounding countryside. Bella was inattentive, wondering whether she dare ask him if he meant to move to London, and castigating herself for such uncharacteristic timidity.

‘Do you like this country as well as your native Lancashire?’ he asked, tucking her hand under his arm.

‘I like it very much, especially the hills,’ Bella forced herself to answer enthusiastically, ‘but I’ll never completely desert Tra - ‘ she stopped in confusion. She’d almost done it again.

‘Your home?’ he asked easily, and Bella nodded, thinking furiously.

‘But presumably your father will always be living there?’ he said. ‘You’ll be able to visit, when, that is, you have a home of your own. Do you have brothers or sisters?’

‘Oh, no, there’s only me.’ What unexpected traps her deception led to, she thought with a rueful sigh.

She moved away, ostensibly to admire the view, and they soon turned to retrace their steps.

The rest of the party, with the exception of Alexander and Felicity, were preparing to set off. The young people came hurriedly into the clearing after Sir John had called loudly for them, Felicity flushed and with her hair ruffled. She allowed Alexander to throw her up into the saddle without a word, just a shy smile of thanks, and then moved to ride with her sister.

Bella was silent as they rode towards Bath in the early evening, and took little heed of the delightful countryside, fresh and green as spring advanced. Her mind was too full of questions. Had she given anything away with her unpremeditated references to Trahearne House? Had her brief explanation been sufficient? Why had Lord Dorney started that conversation? Had he been intending to say more? And most important of all, did he intend to leave Bath?

Expecting the worst, she found herself devising wild schemes which she knew were impracticable, and was paying little attention to anything else as they rode towards the village of Colerne. When the commotion began she was totally unprepared.

They were passing a small farmhouse, Alexander and Felicity in the lead, when a pair of dogs, wild mangy creatures, came tearing out from behind a barn and began barking furiously at the party.

Felicity screamed, jerked on the reins, and her mare bolted. She clung desperately to the pommel, and her startled companions saw with horror that she had dropped the reins, which were in danger of tangling with the mare’s legs and bringing her down.