Sally James (11 page)

There was nothing she could do, no escape. For a few more days she would have to endure being in the same house, receiving, with her aunt and Mrs Rhydd, and sometimes Adam, when he deigned to be present, the calls of acquaintances who came to express their condolences to the bereaved family.

She fumed angrily when she and Chloe rode out in the Park. By now Kate had progressed to an old hack Mrs Rhydd occasionally rode, and the girls tried to ride together every day, sometimes accompanied by Mr Shore, sometimes by Adam. If neither gentleman came, as on this day, the elderly groom rode behind. Kate had been relieved she had not again met Martin. After the incident at Vauxhall she knew she would be unable to confront him without showing her anger.

'Chloe, what can I do?' she asked after telling Chloe at great length how detestable Adam was being.

Chloe did not reply, and glancing at her friend Kate was astonished to see tears rolling down her cheeks.

'Chloe, what is it? Oh, here I am prosing on about my own concerns, and clearly you are in great distress. What is it? Can I help?'

Chloe gulped. 'I'm sorry. Mama is so distressed. She wants to go home.'

'Go home? Is she still unwell?'

'No, it's not that, but she is afraid to stay in London. You see, we have been robbed.'

'Robbed? Oh, but how? When?'

'Papa thinks it was when we were at the ball last night. He believes one of the servants must have let in a thief. There was such a scene this morning when it was discovered, and he dismissed all but the few servants we brought with us from home.'

'But what has been stolen?'

'All Mama's jewels, apart from the ones she and I were wearing last night. But it wasn't a very important ball, and we were not wearing the best ones. Her diamonds, and Great Aunt Matilda's pearls, and - oh, everything else, have gone!'

'That beautiful ruby set your mother showed me too? The one that came from India?'

 Chloe nodded. 'Everything. They were all taken, but the dreadful thing is that the thieves must have known where to look. Nothing was disturbed. That's why Papa suspects the servants. And none of the windows were broken, the only way someone could have got into the house was if a servant unlocked a door for them.'

There was little consolation Kate could offer except to suggest that the Bow Street Runners might be able to discover the culprit. She didn't even feel like discussing her own predicament any more.

Kate's only moments of lightness were when she realised that the majority of the callers were mothers of nubile daughters, who invariably brought these daughters with them. It was clear that no hint of the late Earl's machinations had reached Society. Adam was more sought after than ever, according to Mrs Rhydd, who made no secret of the fact that she deplored his determination to honour his promise and marry Kate.

'Although the money her grandfather left her would then come to him, there would be nothing to stop him resettling it on her,' she explained to Miss Byford. 'He does not want or need it, and he could surely quiet his conscience in such a fashion.'

Kate made great efforts to be pleasant to callers, even the simpering girls she would normally have called dead bores and pointedly avoided. She drew pretty young girls aside and engaged them in long serious conversations and did all she could to throw the prettiest and wealthiest of these damsels in Adam's path. If only, she thought longingly, he would be attracted to one of them he might forget his plans for her. But she had a horrid suspicion that Adam seemed fully aware of her intentions. On certain occasions when Kate had manoeuvred him into talking with some pretty visitor, he would glance across at her with his sardonic smile, his scarred eyebrow uplifted as if in enquiry.

Kate found hope once more one morning when, unusually, she was alone, and a caller was announced.

'Lady Byford, Miss.'

Kate rose to her feet as the visitor entered. The lady came straight to her and clasped her hands tightly.

'I had to call the moment we got back to Town. You must be Miss Kate Byford? You are my husband's cousin, of course,' Lady Byford said.

She was a plump, pale woman, in her early thirties, Kate guessed, but looking older with faint lines about her eyes and dark shadows beneath them. Even her extremely modish gown of pale green shot silk and string of beautifully matched pearls could not disguise the haggard look.

'Yes, but I am not exactly sure how,' Kate replied. 'It is so good of you to call, Lady Byford. Is your husband in Town?'

'He would have come with me, but he had some business to attend to in the City. You must come to us and meet him.'

'Will you take some refreshment?' Kate asked, but as she spoke the butler entered with a tray, and soon they were sipping glasses of ratafia and nibbling small sweet cakes.

'I came mainly to condole with you about your loss, Kate, but also to make your acquaintance,' Lady Byford said as soon as the butler had gone out of the room. 'I did not know you were reconciled with your maternal grandfather?'

'Only at the last moment, when he sent for me,' Kate explained.

'I know Sir William has felt some remorse he was unable to do anything for you, but the house and the farms he inherited, you know, were in a dreadful condition. They needed thousands spent on them to put them right. He in fact inherited very little of substance. It has taken him a long time to come about. Then there is the expense of the children. And he knew your aunt was a very trustworthy woman, fully capable of looking after you. In fact he was saying to me only a few weeks ago that you must be old enough now to be presented, and wondering whether I would be well enough to have you to stay for a visit next season. I do not enjoy very good health, I am afraid, especially when - that is, at certain times, and we don't go out into Society a great deal.'

'I quite understand,' Kate said quickly, banishing the unworthy thought that judging by the jewels his wife wore William did not seem to be seriously embarrassed financially, and could have spared her a few pounds. It was no part of her plan to antagonize these cousins.

'Adam Rhydd will be an even bigger catch as the Earl of Malvern,' Lady Byford went on. 'He will presumably marry now, to provide himself with an heir. That will put Annabelle Wilson's nose out of joint.'

'Annabelle Wilson?' Kate echoed. She could think of nothing else to say.

'His
chère-amie.
They've been close ever since he left the army. But her husband is only in his forties, and he's hale and hearty. There's no hope for her unless he breaks his neck in the hunting field. I wonder who he will choose? You are living here, Kate. Do you have any idea of who might be the new countess?'

Kate made a swift decision. 'Cousin, may I speak to you in confidence?'

'Of course, child.'

'I need your help!' she announced dramatically. 'I am being forced against my will into a distasteful marriage! I implore you to give me aid. I can pay you for your trouble,' she added in a more prosaic tone, but Lady Byford, open mouthed, did not quibble at the incongruity of this descent into practical details.

'What do you mean?' she asked in a whisper, affected by the intensity of Kate's declaration.

Abandoning her theatrical pose Kate swiftly explained the situation. Lady Byford exclaimed over the sudden change in her fortunes, the remorse of a dying man, the amazing promise he had forced on Adam, and her incredible - to Lady Byford - rejection of the Earl's proposal.

'You are mad!' she said frankly. 'Every other girl in Town would jump at the chance to marry Adam Rhydd.'

'Then every other girl in Town is welcome to him!' Kate retorted spiritedly. 'I am not every other girl, and I utterly refuse to marry him.'

'Is he your legal guardian?'

'No, Aunt Sophie is, but she doesn't seem able to withstand him.'

'Yet you say the income from this inheritance will be yours quite freely until you are twenty-one. There are no conditions the Earl and the other Trustee can make, they have to pay you?'

'That is how Mr Hulme, the lawyer, explained it to me.'

'Then why does not your aunt take you away? You would have more than enough to live on. Did you say ten thousand a year?' Lady Byford repeated in awe.

'I wanted her to do that, but she refused, she said Adam's abominable plan to send me to school would be in my best interests. I think she is wondering what would happen when I am twenty-one and have the power to reject him.'

'If you lived on a thousand a year, which is ample, you could reinvest the rest of it for four years until you are of age, and then you would continue to have enough to live on from the interest,' Lady Byford calculated slowly. 'But that is not a final solution. Why should you throw away a fortune just because of a senile old man's totally unreasonable demands? No, my dear Kate, I really do think that what you need is a home where you cannot be forced into complying. The idea of a school is ridiculous, too, at your age. Would you consider coming to live with us, and we will help you to fight for what is after all only your due?'

'May I really? Would you indeed permit me to come and live with you until the whole matter could be settled?' Kate asked breathlessly. Even though this was one of the possibilities she had considered, she could hardly believe that the chance had come to her so easily, and without her having had to do more than hint gently rather than ask directly herself.

'Of course you must come to me. I shall be your refuge in your need,' Lady Byford said sententiously.

'Oh, Lady Byford, you are so kind.'

'I am your cousin by marriage, my dear. If you cannot depend on relatives, who can be expected to help you? And pray do call me Amelia. Even though I have three children we are not so very distant in age.'

'Thank you, Amelia,' Kate said demurely, thrusting away from her the unworthy thought that Amelia, at one and thirty, was exactly the same age as Adam. Somehow, with her haggard looks, which must have been caused by her ill health, she looked far older.

'I can see we are going to get on famously, dear Kate. You will be very pleasant company for me, and William will be delighted to meet you.'

'And will you both help me to persuade that beastly, horrid Adam Rhydd and the awful lawyer that he can't dictate to me and force me into marrying him when I thoroughly detest him?' she demanded eagerly.

'Of course, my dear. Don't be concerned. William has gone to the City to see his man of business, but the moment he comes home I will suggest it to him, and we can begin to make plans.'

'Will he object?' Kate asked in sudden alarm. It sounded as though Lady Byford would have to ask his permission, and he'd never before shown the slightest wish even to meet her. That reflection made her wonder if Lady Byford - she couldn’t yet think of her as Amelia - had any ulterior motive in visiting her. From something Chloe had said she had gathered that the Byfords did not move in the first circles, though Darcy was, like most presentable bachelors, welcomed by most hostesses. Had she been attempting, through Kate, to gain entry into the Earl of Malvern's circle? Taking Kate to live with her and opposing him would destroy that hope, if it existed. She dismissed the thought.

'William will be delighted to help you, I'm sure,' Lady Byford said, and Kate decided to suppress her doubts. She would soon know.

'Today is Friday, and he means to send me to school on Monday.'

'I don't understand that,' Lady Byford said fretfully. 'Why does he wish to send you to school at your age? Whatever for?'

'To teach me how to behave as future countess,' Kate said bitterly. 'It's insulting to Aunt Sophie, she taught me how to behave in Society even if we rarely had the opportunity to practise it!'

'That's abominable!'

'So if you think Cousin William will agree to our plan, I will have to come before Monday,' Kate urged. 'If I don't, it might be too late.'

'I'll send a note as soon as I have seen him.'

Kate knew it was unlikely she would hear that day, but she hovered near the drawing room window until later in the afternoon, when she saw Adam riding up to the door. She seized a piece of embroidery which, for weeks, she had been struggling with, ready for when, several minutes after he had been admitted to the house, Adam strode into the room.

He was still in riding boots and breeches, which was unknown. Normally he was meticulous in changing from riding clothes before he entered the drawing room. And he looked so angry that Kate felt a tremor of dismay flood through her.

'So you have other plans, I hear?' he said scathingly.

'What do you mean?' Kate replied, doing her best to appear unconcerned, bored even.

'You appear to have appealed to that encroaching woman who calls herself your cousin for help,' he stated bluntly.

'How - I mean, what do you mean?'

'Don't try to play the innocent! You arrange for that woman, who is hardly in the first stare, to come here when my mother is out. Otherwise she knows she would not be admitted. Then you plot for her to send secret messages to you.'

'How - what on earth gave you that notion?'

'When she gives the footman a vail and begs him to pass any messages to you secretly, and hold himself ready to escort you to an unknown destination it's obvious some plot is being concocted, and not difficult to discern what it is. Go and get your bonnet and cloak.'

'I beg your pardon?' was all that Kate could manage. How stupid of Amelia to have given it all away. If her cousin had been there she would have shaken her till the teeth in her head rattled.

'You heard what I said. I'm taking you to Kensington now, before you can do anything that will ruin your reputation.'

'But - but why are you so high in the instep about my cousins?' Kate demanded angrily. 'They are both well-born, as well-born as my father!' she recalled, becoming indignant. 'Darcy, Mr Limmering, is accepted everywhere. What's the matter with his sister?'

Adam looked at her consideringly. 'He may be accepted, quite a few rogues are, in a general sort of way. Hostesses are sometimes desperate to have unattached men who are willing to dance and do the pretty to plain girls at balls, but none of the fathers I know would accept an offer of marriage from him.'