Jane Austen Mysteries 08 Jane and His Lordship's Legacy (16 page)

saying, "but I do not think you are as yet acquainted with Lady Imogen Vansittart."

The handsome young woman inclined her head with a re-gal air, but uttered not a syllable. She was tall, slender, dark-eyed, and eloquent of feature; her gown was white muslin; she wore a circlet of emeralds in her dark hair. Tho' I should judge her to be several years younger than Miss Catherine Prowting, who stood a little distance apart from the elegant Lady Imogen, she was so far beyond Catherine in countenance and assurance that
she
seemed the woman, and Catherine the girl.

"And Major Charles Spence," my host continued, "who comes to us, in company with Mr. Thrace and Lady Imogen, from Stonings--the Earl of Holbrook's seat near Sherborne St.

John."

If my own heart quickened at the name of that man and that estate, Henry was before me. My brother's keen grey gaze was immediately fixed upon Major Spence.

"Sherborne St. John!" he cried, with unforced delight. "But then you must be acquainted with the Chute family, our friends these two decades at least. As a boy, my brother James and I hunted with the Vyne."2

"--As it was my privilege to do only last winter," Major Spence returned amiably. "Mr. Chute is a very respectable, gentleman-like man, and a most welcome neighbour."

"I cannot perfectly recall Stonings, however."

"My father caused it to be let to a family from the North for 2 The Vyne, or Vine--ancestral home of the Chute family at Sherborne St.

John a few miles beyond Basingstoke just north of Chawton--was the site of one of the more famous hunting groups in southern England. William Chute (1757-1824), the patriarch in Jane Austen's time, was both Master of the Vyne Hunt and a Member of Parliament for his borough.
--Editor's
note.

Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 123

much of the past two decades," Lady Imogen supplied. "But the Rices have lately given the house up--and I took a fancy to see it. It is possible the estate may fall to my lot in time--and I have never been the sort of woman to buy a mount without first hav-ing a look at its teeth."

She threw a look of challenge at Julian Thrace. There were several meanings implicit in such a speech, and I thought I had missed none of them. Lady Imogen was the Earl of Holbrook's daughter--the legitimate issue about to be supplanted in the bulk of her inheritance by a man sprung from exactly nowhere.

Her looks said plainly that she was fiercely determined to rout her rival, and expose him to the world's censure as an imposter; but she should never fail in politeness while she did so. I guessed her to have courage and wit enough to meet any trick the Bond Street Beau might serve her.

Henry smiled at the lady, his face alight with all the interest of the party before him. There was a fortune to be made among the betting books of the St. James clubs, and if truth was to be drawn from present company, my brother was poised to reap the whirlwind. The Viscount St. Eustace was as naught; the wise money should be entirely on the Earl of Holbrook. I wondered Henry did not post immediately to London.

"I should not wish you to put the horse through its paces at present," Charles Spence observed. "Stonings has been sadly in want of refurbishment for many years. I am presently employed by the Earl of Holbrook as his steward, Mr. Austen--and am charged with the duty of bringing order where neglect has been the rule."

"The place is in such a degree of decay," Mr. Middleton added, "that I pressed Spence most earnestly to make a stay of some duration here at the Great House. It cannot be a pleasant thing, to sleep amidst dust and plaster, with the sound of Dyer's 124 ~ Stephanie Barron

joiners toiling away in the lower parts of the house; but our Stonings party comes to us for this evening only, and will depart on the morrow--depriving Chawton of its most lovely flower."

He bowed in Lady Imogen's direction.

Dyer's joiners,
I thought. Had any of the present labourers discovered Shafto French's secret? And did the handsome party assembled before me share his guilty knowledge--or that of his sad end?

As Mr. Middleton quitted us to greet another of his guests, Major Spence said, "Am I to understand, Miss Austen, that you are but two days arrived in Chawton?"

"That is true, sir. We are hardly strangers to Hampshire, however, having lived in this county the better part of our lives.

My father was once rector of Steventon, where presently my brother James is incumbent."

"A clergyman's daughter," he observed with a smile, "and I am a clergyman's son."

"Are you, indeed? From what part of the country do you hail?"

"The North. I was raised in Yorkshire. Do you know that part of the world, ma'am?"

"I regret to say that I do not. But how are you come to be in this part of the world? It is a great change of scene, surely?"

"It does not follow that such a change must be unwelcome.

Unlike your brother, I had no inclination for the Church, Miss Austen, and broke my father's heart at the age of seventeen by running away to the Army. I am recently sold out from the Eigh-teenth Light Dragoons, having suffered a trifling wound at Vimeiro."

A military man just back from Spain, and limping with it.
I had not yet observed the game leg in action--but should have dearly liked to examine the Major's footwear more closely. The notion of this particular gentleman riding some twelve miles at Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 125

night in order to drown a man and hide his body in my cellar seemed, however, fantastic. "You were with Sir Arthur Wellesley, then, last September?"

"I was--altho' the injury to my leg required me to be taken off the coast of Maceira immediately following our engagement with the French. I was not required to endure the privations later visited upon my fellows during Sir John Moore's cata-strophic retreat--to my enduring shame."

"My brother, Captain Frank Austen of the
Canopus,
carried away the remnant of Sir John's men this past January," I said in a subdued accent. "From his account I must suppose the losses to have been frightful."

"But no worse than we shall serve Buonaparte in future,"

Spence replied stoutly.

We were both silent an instant, our thoughts far removed from the frivolity of a summer evening; mine were travelling in memory to Southampton the previous autumn, and the low-voiced communication of a government spy in the hold of a Navy ship. Where Major Spence's thoughts might be wander-ing, I could not hazard a guess; but from his expression, it was no Elysian Field.

"And so I threw myself upon the mercy of my relations," he resumed with forced lightness, "and accepted employment as the Earl of Holbrook's steward. I may say that I am entirely un-fitted to the task--being a soldier is no recommendation for business--but his lordship was prevailed upon to accept me. I am a second cousin to the Earl, once removed, on the distaff side."

"I am sure he has every reason to be grateful for your stew-ardship of Stonings," I observed. "Mr. Dyer's men have been very busy about the place, I collect?"

"It is a noble estate," he said thoughtfully. "But the degree of neglect is much to be deplored. The Earl, being an intimate 126 ~ Stephanie Barron

of the Carlton House Set, formed the early habit of repairing to Brighton in the summer months. He spends the winters at his hunting box in Leicestershire. The remainder of the year is passed in Town. I do not think the Earl has descended into Hampshire above three times since his accession to the title."

He glanced about the panelled hall, gaze roving among the leaded windows. "Your brother, I believe, is the owner of this house! It is a very fine old place--Elizabethan, I should judge?"

"Exactly so. But like your Earl, my brother does not deign to live in Hampshire."

"Middleton informed me that he is an excellent landlord; so very liberal, in fact, that Middleton cannot keep away from Chawton. He has leased this estate twice in recent years."

"And is a most agreeable tenant in every respect. Are you very much acquainted with Mr. Middleton?"

"A sporting acquaintance, one might call it," Spence said diffidently, "formed on the hunting field. He is all affability, however, and does not disgrace your brother's good opinion. I hope to see more of him."

"And was it you who introduced Mr. Thrace to Mr.

Middleton's acquaintance?"

"Not at all. Thrace fell in with the Middleton family while travelling on the Continent, I believe. But Thrace will have to tell you how it was himself; I am not perfectly in command of the history."

Henry had referred to Thrace's past as being obscured by war and curious incident--a childhood in France, or a French mother, perhaps. It was impossible not to speculate at what point he had first sought the Earl of Holbrook's notice, and claimed the relation of son to father--impossible not to won-der how the Earl had received this news. Or broken it to Lady Imogen.

Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 127

I found my eyes lingering on the Beau's face, attempting to trace some likeness between himself and Lady Imogen; but I confess I could find none. One so dark, the other so light, they appeared to excellent effect--but hardly as brother and sister.

But then I recollected: they were related in half-blood only.

Much might be attributed to the influence of different mothers.

Thrace, I noticed, was exerting himself to engage Catherine Prowting in conversation--despite the jealous attempts of her sister to divert the gentleman's attention. Catherine's colour was high, her eyes brilliant; and tho' she remained the picture of elegant self-possession, I thought she did not meet Mr.

Thrace's attentions with indifference.

"I hope I do not intrude--but I could not forbear to offer my sympathy for the trials you have so lately undergone," Major Spence continued in a lower tone. "Thrace told me of the shocking affair only this morning, as I was arrived with Lady Imogen from Sherborne St. John. I trust you have suffered no ill-effects from the anxiety?"

"None at all, I assure you."

"And your home . . . it was not unduly disturbed? There were no losses of a personal nature?"

His concern was so earnest, his expression so truly amiable, that I could not be unmoved. "You are very good, sir--but the losses were not ours to tally. That has been poor Mrs. French's office."

"You will wish to take greater care in future, I am sure, Miss Austen, to secure your valuables against a similar invasion. The coroner, I understand, could arrive at no solution to the mys-tery of the labourer's death? --Or at least, how he came to be in your cellar?"

"You must question Mr. Prowting on that score. He is our magistrate, and must be in command of more particulars than 128 ~ Stephanie Barron

I." With more courage than tact I added, "The poor man was of-ten at Stonings, I understand, in recent weeks. Did you never notice him there?"

An instant's confusion clouded the Major's countenance, but any reply he might have made was forestalled by the ap-proach of Miss Maria Beckford.

"Miss Austen," she said in her brisk, decisive way, as tho'

commanding a parade ground, "allow me to introduce Miss Jane Hinton to your acquaintance."

Major Spence stepped aside, and bowed; I curtseyed to the woman at Miss Beckford's right hand, and regarded with amusement this new trial.

Jane Hinton was some years older than her brother--a woman nearly forty whose bloom had long since gone off. She appeared correct and unremarkable in a prim white cap and a pair of spectacles, behind which her flat brown eyes were in-tently appraising. Her dress was of a most unbecoming yellow hue, her skin coarse; and when she spoke, it was with a pro-nounced lisp that made her speech singularly unpleasing.

"I have heard your name everywhere, Mith Authten," she said without warmth. "You are quite the talk of the village--in-deed, of every habitation for mileth around. We are not accuth-tomed, in our retired country way, to ladieth condethending to vithit a coroner'th inquetht; but I thuppothe, when the lady in quethtion hath actually thtumbled over the body, that we mutht be prepared for anything."

"My brother
did say
that he met with you in Alton yesterday,"

Miss Beckford observed, "and I thought it most courageous of you to attend, my dear. The notice of a member of the Squire's family must be a great comfort in a death of this kind, and shall be felt as it ought, among the lower orders. May I present Mr.

John-Knight Hinton, also of Chawton Lodge?"

Jane and His Lordship's Legacy ~ 129

My slight poet of the cut indirect was arrayed this evening in primrose knee breeches, a white satin waistcoat, and a black evening coat with stiffly-padded shoulders. His snowy cravat was of so intricate a construction that it bewildered the eye, and a quizzing glass dangled from a fine gold chain about his neck.

Mr. Hinton clearly prided himself on his ability to ape the most current London fashion, and his magnificence might have turned the head of many a green girl; but to my more practised gaze, Julian Thrace's neat elegance--or even Major Spence's quiet rectitude--more clearly proclaimed the gentleman.

He raised his quizzing glass, surveyed me impudently, and scraped a bow.

"I have already had a glimpse of Mr. Hinton," I told Miss Beckford with a smile, "at yesterday's inquest, and again today in Alton. What was your opinion of the tragic business, sir?"

"I thought it very singular that such grievous trouble should arise in so peaceful and respectable a place," Mr. Hinton re-turned. "Indeed, I may say that I was
ashamed
the shades of Chawton must be so polluted."

"And yet you could not keep away from the coroner's panel," Miss Beckford observed astringently. "I suppose it is of a piece with your usual sporting amusements. Mr. Hinton is quite a slave to the Corinthian Set, Miss Austen. There is not a prize-fight or a cock pit within thirty miles that is unknown to him."3

"Indeed?" I murmured with an air of surprise. "From your appearance, Mr. Hinton--so much the Sprig of Fashion!--I should have thought you aspired to the Dandy Set."