The Conquest of Lady Cassandra (6 page)

Wishing Aunt Sophie had primped more, Cassandra led the way down the stairs. A hired coach waited on the street. She helped Sophie in and settled across from her. She handed the coachman a piece of paper through the window.

“You are sure this is where Ambury has his chambers?” she asked Sophie. Her aunt had ruminated for four hours before revealing her advice and her plan. Cassandra was not convinced it was a good one.

They were to call on Ambury while he was still out of town, but pretend they believed him to be in residence. While insisting on an audience, Cassandra would broach the matter of the letter with a servant or whoever served as caretaker of the building. The hope was that a small bribe would be accepted and the letter produced merely to be rid of their presence.

“I do not make calls or accept invitations, but I am not
without friends,” Sophie said. “I obtained the address with one short letter.”

The coach started to bump and roll on the lanes.

“Do you remember that time in Saint Petersburg when we called on the Countess Petrovnik and you so impressed her?” Sophie asked.

“Her brother was in attendance, as I remember.”

“You captivated them both with your beauty and vivacity. They completely forgot I was in the chamber.”

“You exaggerate.”

“Not at all. I am not speaking with any resentment. I am reminding you that my days of dazzling anyone are over, and it will be up to you to impress whomever we confront today. I am only accompanying you because it might be seen as odd if I do not. We cannot have you entering Ambury’s chambers all alone, in broad daylight.”

Cassandra wanted to say that a simple explanation would solve that problem, except it almost never did. There had been a perfectly logical explanation when she had been compromised by Lakewood. Everyone could see that her absence with Lakewood had been unavoidable, and not some assignation. All the same, they were both expected to snuff any flames of scandal by marrying.

What a stupid world it was. Yet it was the world in which they lived, and Aunt Sophie was correct. Ambury was not in town, but if someone saw her visit his chambers alone today, there would be hell to pay.

“Why are you smiling?” Aunt Sophie asked. “Something has put you in a merry mood.”

“Just imagining what you alluded to makes me laugh. It would be a fine thing to end up compromised when the man isn’t even in the same town as I am.”

“Odd for you, but odder for him. Picture him returning to learn he stands accused of something he never even had the pleasure of consummating.” Sophie’s expression mimicked
Ambury’s confusion, then shocked surprise. They both laughed.

“Maybe Gerald would call him out if he did not do the right thing,” Cassandra said. “I say, Ambury! I demand satisfaction!”

“Damnation, sir, I was not even in the same county!” Sophie responded gruffly. “I know there may be celebratory rumors regarding my seductive powers, but even I can’t bed a woman in London when I am in Essex.”

“Your excuses will not restore my family’s honor. Name your second, or be known as a coward!”

“I’ll be damned if I will fight over her without having had her!”

“Then have her, sir, and we will meet the following morning!”

Cassandra wiped her eyes of tears brought on by her laughter. She found the exchange all the more hilarious because it was not entirely far-fetched.

Aunt Sophie’s clever repartee also raised her spirits. This was the Aunt Sophie she knew and loved, the one who had given her a home after she had refused to marry Lakewood, the celebrated beauty who had taken her on a lengthy tour of the Continent’s capitals. There was nothing distracted or vague to her right now. She was still the vivacious and somewhat bawdy sophisticate who had entertained princes and their courts for decades.

The coach stopped, and so did their fun. Sophie looked out at the house. “His chambers are said to be on the second level, carved out of the house’s public rooms when it was made into gentlemen’s apartments.”

It appeared a nice enough building on a nice enough street, but one could tell that Ambury’s living situation was modest. “Not what one would expect for an earl’s heir.”

“That is just Highburton’s pride punishing a son who will not fit the family mold, I expect,” Sophie said. “He will get
it all in the end, so he probably has lengthy tallies all over town awaiting that day.”

No doubt Ambury’s expectations would allow a great deal of credit to accumulate. Perhaps he had assumed she would await that day, too, like all those tradesmen.

The coachmen handed them out, and they approached the door. Aunt Sophie stayed two steps behind, assuming the role of a shadow.

“M
y business with Lord Ambury cannot be delayed.” Cassandra spoke haughtily, hoping to awe the balding, tall, thin man peering at her through spectacles.

He was having none of it. “As I explained, he is not at home.”

“I have had reports of him being seen about town, so I know he is in residence here.”

“I am his valet, and I think I know better where he is than whoever has given false reports.”

“More likely he told you he wants to avoid me, and instructed you to help him do so. Go to him and explain that I will not be put off. It is time for him to give me satisfaction regarding his debt to me.”

The word
debt
made him flush. “I cannot go to a man who is not in the building.”

“Then I will wait for him to return.” She looked past him, to the doors that would lead to the apartment’s chambers. She felt Sophie at her back. A direct poke hit her spine. Taking the cue, she walked forward.

“My dear lady, I fear that you will wait in vain,” the valet said as he scurried alongside her. “If you would leave your card—”

“He will never return the call if he is avoiding me now. I will wait. He is in town even if it has not been noted in the papers, and I expect he must return here at some time today.”

Aunt Sophie moved into sight on her other side.
Dazzle
, she mouthed while the servant looked to heaven for patience.

Cassandra stopped before she reached the doors. She gazed in the valet’s eyes and tried to appear in need of sympathy. The valet flushed a deep red.

“Might I know whom I am addressing, sir, since you have been kind enough to allow me to wait for Lord Ambury?”

“Robert Higgins, at your service.” A half smile formed before the entirety of her statement penetrated. “As for your waiting, I did not—”

“The drawing room, I think you said. That would be these large doors here, I assume.”

“Did I say that?” He truly did not seem to know. “Hardly fit to be called a drawing room in the normal way. More of a sitting room, if you will, but comfortable for my lord, I believe.”

“I am sure it will be comfortable for me as well.” Cassandra opened the doors. “Oh, most comfortable. Is this appealing arrangement of the chairs your doing, Mr. Higgins? Or does Lord Ambury have other servants?”

Higgins bowed his head modestly. “I do for my lord alone. Even a bit of cooking, if I may say so.”

Cassandra sat on a nice bench near the fireplace. Aunt Sophie sat on a chair even closer to it, and her gray self seemed to blend into the gray stones of the hearth.

“I do not intend to be a burden. I will wait here and be quiet as a mouse,” Cassandra said.

“I hate to think that you will waste a whole afternoon waiting for an arrival that will never occur.”

“I doubt it will be wasted. I have much to think about, and this chamber is pleasant enough to encourage serious contemplation. In fact, you are so helpful and kind, perhaps you would consider giving me some advice on a matter that concerns me deeply.”

He coughed and composed himself. “If I can be of service to you, then of course I must be.”

“I had a little argument with a friend on a question of etiquette. Or maybe it was a question of morals. My friend faced a peculiar dilemma—” A tap on her arm distracted her. Sophie leaned toward her and whispered in her ear.

“Mr. Higgins, my servant sees the library through those doors. She is something of a bluestocking. Indeed, that is how she came to be a paid companion—all that reading made her unfit for marriage. Would you mind if she perused the volumes on the shelves? She promises not to touch any.”

“Of course she may. Nor do I think my lord would mind if she removed one or two to look more closely. The best bindery is used, as she will soon see.”

Without a word, the gray ghost rose and drifted across the chamber to the library door. Mr. Higgins watched. A puzzled frown formed on his face.

Cassandra claimed his attention again. “As I was saying, my friend had a dilemma. She wrote a letter to her mother, and posted it, but soon regretted its contents. She told me that she planned to intercept the letter prior to her mother reading it. Well, I said that was stealing. She insisted it was not. She claimed that until her mother opened it, the letter was still in transit. Which of us was correct, do you think?”

“I suppose, once posted, it belongs to the postal service, until it is delivered and paid for by the recipient, at which time it belongs to the recipient.”

“So you agree that if intercepted, it is not stealing?”

“Not from her mother, if it is done before delivery. Of course, that would not be possible. The postal service does not hand over the mail.”

“No. I suppose not.” Behind Mr. Higgins, a gray form floated this way and that in the library. “Here was the situation that my friend faced. If she intercepted that letter, she would be doing a kindness. If her mother read it, the contents would only bring grief. You can see the moral quandary, I am sure.”

Mr. Higgins nodded and looked sympathetic. “I do not envy her the choice. How did she resolve it?”

“She had her mother’s maid remove it from the delivered mail and return it before her mother saw it.”

Higgins frowned on hearing that a servant had stolen the letter.

“Now she wants to give the maid a gift. A token of her appreciation in sparing her mother all that sorrow. What so you think, Mr. Higgins? Can she do this without it tainting the maid’s good intentions?”

“I suppose, since the maid risked her mistress’s displeasure, a small gift might be in order.”

“How small? If it were you, for example, what would you think was in order, but not so much as to smell of payment for services rendered?”

“
Me?
I would never do such a thing, so no amount would be in order.”

“Not even to spare your master great anguish?”

“I can’t imagine a letter would ever cause Lord Ambury
anguish
.”

“Perhaps a letter would lead him to challenge a man, and end up dead. Would it not be worth a slight deception to avoid that?”

“Dead! Goodness, what was in that letter your friend wrote to her mother? Something very shocking, I am beginning to suspect, if you equate it with an insult so severe as to require a duel.”

Cassandra looked from one side to the other, as if checking to be sure no one would hear. The only other person in the chambers had disappeared in the library. Mr. Higgins leaned forward, more interested in the answer than he would probably want to admit.

“She had confessed to a liaison with a man,” Cassandra whispered.

“No!”

“A most illustrious man. I dare not say his name, but I
assure you that this man is very well-known to
everyone
in the realm.”

“You mean…Surely not…Goodness, she put this in writing? How indiscreet, even if it was to a mother.”

“Exactly. So you can see the dilemma. For her, it was a matter of life and death in a way, and the prospect of a huge scandal loomed that would affect her whole family and even the reputation of—but I must not say! Surely it was as significant as an insult that would cause a duel, I think you will agree.”

“Oh, my,
yes
.”

“That servant did a good turn not only to my friend, but to England itself, I think.”

“By, Zeus, it was a most noble deception.”

“How well you put it. So, how much of a gift would be appropriate? If it were you who performed such a noble deception, for example?”

Higgins debated the matter. “Hard to say. One risks being sacked, doesn’t one? There would be no recommendation either. Indeed, one’s livelihood might be over for good. Noble or not, such a deception has huge risks, and the gift might reflect that.”

Cassandra worried that Higgins increased the size of the “gift” with each mutter. “But it should not be so large as to appear to be a bribe, I think.”

“Of course. Of course. Still—”

“I think we must go now, my lady.” The frail declaration interrupted. The old woman who uttered it stood right behind Mr. Higgins.

He turned, startled by the reminder that he and Cassandra were not alone.

“In a few minutes, we shall,” Cassandra said. She had Higgins close to naming a figure.

“I do not feel well, my lady. I am quite faint.”

Higgins was at her side at once. “You should sit. I have salts here somewhere. I will—”

“Fresh air is all I require, thank you.” Aunt Sophie sent a glare Cassandra’s way.

“Of course,” Cassandra said. “How unkind of me not to understand that if you spoke up at all, it was most necessary.” She walked over to Sophie and slid an arm around her back. “Thank you, Mr. Higgins. For all your kind advice. I am rather glad that Lord Ambury was not at home. You have helped me enormously, and my business with him can be concluded another day.”

With much fussing and worry on Higgins’s part, they helped Aunt Sophie down to the waiting coach. As soon as Mr. Higgins returned to the chambers, Cassandra expressed her displeasure.

“I had him three-quarters there. He was about to name a sum, and I would then broach my situation and—”

“As it happened, that was not necessary.” Aunt Sophie opened her reticule. She removed a letter and set it on Cassandra’s lap.

It was her letter to Ambury.

“You stole it!”

“By your own explanation, and that of Mr. Higgins, it was not Ambury’s until he read it.”

“Until it was
delivered
.”