The Companion of Lady Holmeshire (9 page)

“
Perhaps, then, we should change the subject of our conversation,” the dear lady duplicitously announced. “Lord Holmeshire, are you looking forward to some time alone with Lady Genevieve tomorrow, perhaps on your knee in the garden?” The room fell silent with the ultimate in painful toleration. It was left for the portraits, the statues and the stately columns to demonstrate nobility—and hope that the occupants would perhaps learn the art of it.

Mr. Hughes made a particular effort to spend time talking with Emma, later in the evening, making sure she was quite comfortable at all times and uninjured by Lady Embry’s attacks. He gave her a rosebud from the table for her “beautiful black and shining hair.”

~
Chapter 5~

A Visit to Handerton House

Elizabeth and Anne were comfortable, spending much of the day in the nursery suite with Gwyndolyn and a warm and friendly woman, Miss Adelina Darivela, who had stepped in to greet them. She spoke pleasantly with an appealing foreign accent. Outside the house, Miss Darivela kept to herself. She wore lacy brown veils and could not be recognized from any distance. But she seemed to have Helena’s confidence and was invited to have tea alone with the Duchess upon occasion. Adelina was a servant, of sorts, the creator of floral bouquets in huge crystal vases that beautified the great house from one end to the other. Although she lived in her own home elsewhere, supported by the Duke and Duchess, she was often to be seen in the mansion with baskets full of long-stemmed roses and irises.

Though five and twenty years of age spread between the four women in the nursery, they enjoyed each other’s company greatly. They helped to entertain Nicky and then talked quietly of books they had read while he napped. They tried a new hair style on Gwyn for the evening at Handerton, as she would be accompanying the boy. They helped her dress in a beautiful, pale yellow gown loaned to her by Helena for the occasion, and she acted out being a lady, ordering them around.

Along with Adelina had come a housemaid, Hattie, who did not have nearly the same friendly attitude. Assigned to be under Gwyn as the nursery maid for The Season, she was required to be present and to take orders. Because of her continual scowl, she was much ignored after an attempt by the three to earn her friendship. It was just as Adelina had signaled; she could not be won over.

Hattie was angered that she would have to eat upstairs with Gwyn and Nicky for the summer. It would ruin her life, she said, and she will have only one life, as far as she knows. Anne and her sister were happy to leave Hattie behind to dress the ladies for the evening.

***

Emma descended richly carpeted stairs to meet the waiting Winnie and Helena on a vast landing. A silk settee of floral embroidery had been placed for those who cared to watch Belgravia through a red-velvet-draped window; the ladies were very much enjoying the show, while awaiting the others for their outing to dinner at Handerton. Outside the window, carriages bore gentlemen toward home for the evening and couples to their engagements. Nannies led children home from late outings and greeted others who were likewise pushing perambulators across the streets. Hearing Emma approach, Helena rose and turned away from London’s happy proceedings.

Winnie had chosen for Emma the most angelic dress that she had ever worn; it was a sheer, white gown with faceted golden beads across the top, off the shoulders and with billowing sleeves. She looked heavenly, standing before the sun, as she rested against the dark wood newel that was struck by its golden beams. Sadly, she felt all the worse for the distinguishing gown. “Shall I go, Milady, truly, is it worth the fray?”

Winifred looked up from admiring the embroidery on her newly made gloves, and turned. “I am sorry, my dear, that you have so much to endure on this foray into The Season. Wills and I do wish to make it clear how life will be in Holmeshire Hall for anyone who should care to perch themselves there. Better that it is understood and agreed upon now than trying to change it later with no prior understanding.” She paused and acknowledged Emma’s position. “How can I make it more bearable for you?” It seemed to Emma that her avoiding the visit was going to be out of the question, but she thought she would attempt it just once more.

“
Ma’am, are you sure that we need to press the matter? It is not regular for a servant to come to be a dinner guest at a noble’s home dressed perhaps too beautifully. I fear that my gown may be more exquisite than that of the lady there who should wish to enchant her gentleman! I am most honored to keep you company when you would be lonely in your home, but in society you have others to converse with, and I could be content to wait at home for you and spare you ever so many comments and complaints.”

“
Emma, it is you that needs to be spared. But I have my reasons. Please trust me,” Winnie entreated.

Helena felt the need to content Emma with some of those reasons. “There are numerous things to be dealt with in this society. I have had to watch frivolous, ostentatious, blaring waste of resources under the Regency and ever since. The peers and peeresses under George IV followed his lead, and to this day they pour out money on gambling tables and all sorts of debauchery. While I love all the lovely things that our parents and His Grace have provided for me, I cannot bear to watch wasteful, callous increasing of debts on useless vices! In the meantime, the streets are full of scourings, and the living conditions of the poor are wretched. Some of them work day and night and then are taxed for the air they breathe in their miserable houses. Which air, I am led to believe, smells of sewage and dead animals! If Parliament will not, then someone must begin to stand up for the lower classes. Her Majesty, the Queen herself wishes it! We must set the example for the wealthy to invest their riches into improving the deplorable conditions. I implore you to do your part by introducing yourself into the homes of the peers alongside your Mistress. They must be introduced to someone of a lower class, to have to be seen with and made to talk to someone to become conscious of them all, to come to recognize them as worthy humans in need. You are an excelling example of lower class goodness to them, at least when we can get you in their doors! We do have some great standing and in most homes, our persuasion prevails. Few will create trouble. And when someone does, we will fight for you if you will just endure their malevolence.”

Emma became thoughtful, staring off into the high spaces of the entry below. “I see,” she mused. “I see. So it is for dear Mr. Seely that I am here. And little Robin and Kate in the orphanage, and Polly Kensby, who went into debtor’s prison with her father. I see. Indeed…indeed, I can bear it. I can. I will.” A determined smile appeared on her pretty face, and she became proud of displaying the ruby on her neck.

Handsome Wills made his way down the stairs to meet the women.

“
Good evening, Wills,” greeted the Duchess. Wills bowed.

“
A very good evening, Your Grace, Mama. And this astonishing creature here, Miss Emma Carrington, whose curtsies are an absolute work of art! Look at her, Mama; see what you have created? Off we must go; the time has come for me to face the loyal opposition.” Wills made a sweeping gesture toward the lower flight of stairs. “Is the nursery division ready? Have we heard?”

They went down the final flight of stairs to investigate and found the nanny and her charge waiting quietly on a divan near the entry, with Master Nicholas practicing his Visiting Manners. He was to be brought along to confront the future Mistress of Holmeshire Hall. Nanny Bowen would spend the evening walking Nicky through a visit, in a most civil and gentlemanly way. They would remain with the boy’s family and their hosts for some time until dinner. At that time they would separate from them, dine alone in Handerton’s garden and enjoy the evening in its spectacular game rooms.

Nicky had been thoroughly briefed and trained on behavior at a great house and had been given an extra long nap, whether he liked it or not. There in the entry, with all parties ready to go, Wills elicited horrified gasps when he taught the lad to hop from one of the checkered tiles to another. “Black tiles, only!” he commanded.

***

John Brown, Solicitor
. The sign hung smartly over the doorway of the nicest brick building on the street. Uncombed, Mr. Scott pushed his way through the bell-rigged entrance into the orderly front room. The scent of the building’s freshly wooded walls was replaced with the stink of ale and tobacco. The clerk looked up.

“
Benedict Scott, here, to see Mr. Brown.”

“
Do you have an appointment, sir?” The youth knew of none, and scrambled to find Mr. Scott’s name on a tidy page. He looked up, puzzled and flustered.

“
No, I don’t need no appointment! Where is the man?” Benedict looked impatiently at a clock and dropped some coins on the desk, keeping others hopefully stored in his pocket for buying rounds later.

“
I’ll see if he can meet with you now, sir, but I cannot guarantee it.” The clerk’s chair screeched against the hardwood floor as he stood. He turned and left for a back room, and Benedict retrieved his coins. The youth returned momentarily with a bald, businesslike man, wearing a dark gray summer coat. He looked sternly over the top of his spectacles.

“
I’m John Brown. What can I do for you?”

“
You can help me solve a huge problem, sir. Let’s take it up in your office.” And off they went, with Mr. Scott demanding the utmost confidence in the matter, and possibly a scotch.

***

“
And here we have appearing before us the grand Handerton House.” Wills waved his upturned palm toward the mansion on the outskirts of London. “At one time it belonged to the Royal Family. It was used to house visiting diplomats and royals from elsewhere in the world. I can imagine there were many royal teas served over there, at the tables near the rose gardens. The house was awarded to the Lord Breyton, along with the title, just five and twenty years past. He has no brother or cousin to inherit the house, and he will never have a son; doctors forbade it at Genny’s birth. Thus, the house is for my eldest son to claim when Breyton dies, or it will be mine should he die young. He is terribly angry that he had no son to take it all; he meant to build for himself a dynasty, as you know. He once warned my father that I was to be sure to have a son, for the
house
, if you please, and to give the child
his name
. I suppose I shall try very hard to please someday, but I am in no hurry to fill the nursery with his children presently.”

The scenery astonished Emma, and she gasped as they rounded the long, oak-lined drive; the trees alternated with baskets of purple and white petunias hanging on wrought iron poles over ivy-covered grounds. Their wonderful fragrance drifted through the carriage.

“You shall have this and Chenbury House?”

“Chenbury will be her settlement—ours to use as we wish and hers for life should she someday be widowed. Along with enough stacks of money to burn to heat it in the winter!”

“
And suppose you are widowed?”

“
Chenbury would probably go to our second son. To someone of Genny’s choosing.”

“
And your heir will also have Holmeshire Hall?”

“
That along with
my
father’s houses, likely, as I have no brother,” added Winnie.

“
Nor do I,” laughed Helena, nudging her sister.

“
I had far too many!” asserted the Duke. “And adequate houses, but no son. Your heir might just as well have some of
my
trinkets, too. It sounds like he will be in need. Or perhaps you shall have a third son more in need of a house than your firstborn, as mine will not be entailed to your heir. That is how I shall have it. A country house for your third son.” He and the Duchess exchanged a resigned glance.

As the horses finished clopping round the brick drive, Emma looked with nervous anticipation at the mansion. She longed to see the interior, and yet she dreaded it. This life would be wonderful, she thought, if only she could be accepted by the people. How she looked forward to being back at Holmeshire Hall again, fluffing up downy divan cushions for Winnie’s comfort. But the time had passed for any hope of deliverance from the evening’s ordeal. Footmen were coming to open the phaeton door and to assist the passengers to alight. Winnie and Helena were stepping out of the carriage, laughing and smoothing their skirts. Wills was eagerly motioning for her to come along. A stack of gifts, strapped together, was being pulled from the back end of the carriage to be carried in; she must enter with the people and not the packages! She gathered up her courage and put one foot in front of the other as the guests were admitted and announced by the butler.

Introductions and pleasantries abounded for a time, Emma receiving polite nods from the women, but some uncomfortable stares from Lord Breyton. She was relieved at her uneventful reception, with no one making rude comments, though she could not help feeling perhaps a bit slighted. She wished that Breyton would just turn away, and she was relieved when, in a moment, the attention turned to the decor.

Emma followed behind as the arrogant Marquess bragged to his guests about each and every trinket. He had brought his love of India home, splashing it everywhere, leaving behind only the elephants. His wife, Grace, had few opinions of her own, but for having been raised to strictly abide the etiquette books, and was always ready to please. Breyton would have India in England, and she had hastened to add to his collections whenever traders brought more into Town. There was no changing the architecture of the ancient house, but the trappings were altogether Eastern. Genevieve despised it.