The Gilded Web (7 page)

And this was the man he must face after having had his daughter abducted the night before and tied to a bedpost in the bedchamber of a bachelor establishment for the remainder of the night!

Lord Eden was thankful to arrive at his mother's house and have his thoughts distracted.

“Dom!” Madeline jumped to her feet when her brother was announced. “I was quite determined not to speak to you at all today and perhaps even for the rest of my life. But, you poor dear. We have just heard! I could have devised quite devilish punishment for you last night, but I would not have wished this particular one on you.” She had crossed the room and taken his arm.

“Good afternoon, Mama,” Lord Eden said, crossing the room to Lady Amberley's chair and bending to kiss her cheek. He patted his sister's hand amiably as he did so. “Edmund has been here before me, has he? Yes, it is something of an embarrassment, is it not? But it is the poor girl we must feel most sorry for. Do you know her, Mad?”

“I don't believe so,” she said, “though I have been searching my mind. She is tall and dark, Hatty Temple said. But that description fits any number of girls, does it not? You have not been challenged to a duel, have you, Dom? Mama and I have been living in mortal fear that you might. Miss Purnell's brother was looking like thunder when he came for her, we heard.”

Lord Eden disengaged his sister's hand from his arm. He had turned rather pale. “Edmund
has
been here, Mama, has he not?” he said. “It
is
from him you have heard all this?”

“No,” she said. “Madeline went walking in the park with Miss Wickhill and her maid before luncheon. They met Miss Temple and she told them. It is a shocking thing, Dominic. I had hoped that there was no truth in it, but I see that there is after all. How can you possibly have done such a thing? The poor girl. I feel for her from the bottom of my heart.”

Lord Eden sat down. He swallowed convulsively. “How did Miss Temple know?” he asked.

“She had heard it from her mother's dresser, who had heard it from the cook, who had heard it from the milkman, who had heard it…Do I need to say more, Dom?” Madeline asked. “Poor dear. Did you imagine that you could hush it all up? I suppose you have been busy silencing everyone abovestairs that could possibly have known, forgetting that scandal spreads faster than fire belowstairs. I am afraid the whole affair is probably the talk of the town by now.”

Lord Eden rested his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands. “Oh, God,” he said. “It couldn't possibly be worse, could it? Poor Miss Purnell. The innocent Christian in the lion's den. I shall have to get over to Curzon Street even faster than I had planned.”

“You are going to offer for her, Dominic?” his mother asked. “I knew my son would do the right thing. I do feel for you, dear, though I must confess one is inclined to think you have brought it all on yourself. I suppose Miss Purnell was the innocent victim of what you had planned for Madeline? She told me about that. I really cannot approve of such high-handed treatment of your sister, even if your motive was a noble one. Sometimes, Dominic, I wonder if you will ever grow up.”

“He is grown up,” Madeline said, rushing to the defense of her twin as soon as someone else became critical of him. She came and sat on the arm of the chair beside him and took one of his hands in hers.

“He is willing to marry Miss Purnell. And you are willing to renounce Miss Carstairs, Dom. And you have such a
tendre
for her. I am sorry. What is Miss Purnell like? Will I like her as a sister-in-law?”

“I don't know,” Lord Eden said. “I have had only the merest glimpse of her. Edmund says she is lovely. He is the one who found her, you know. And he has already rushed over there to make his offer. I don't think Lord Beckworth will pay much attention to his visit, though. Edmund is in no way responsible.”

“But it is just like him to bear the burden,” Lady Amberley said. “I do hope the father says no to him. Edmund will not like a forced marriage. I have hoped he will marry someone quite special.”

“But she is all right for me, Mama?” Lord Eden asked.

“I consider the question quite irrelevant, Dominic,” she said, fixing him with a steady eye. “You have very badly compromised the girl. You must marry her. Anyone with an ounce of sense in his head must see that. We will just have to hope that Miss Purnell is someone special too.”

“Dom.” Madeline raised his hand to her cheek and looked into his pale face. “I am so very sorry, dear. I feel dreadfully guilty, you know, because I am largely responsible for what has happened. If I had not teased you with Sir Hedley Fairhaven, you would not have made the mistake you made, and Miss Purnell would not have been abducted. I wish there were something I could do.”

“You could go and marry Miss Purnell,” he said sourly and ungraciously.

She bit her lip. “I wish I could, Dom,” she said.

He squeezed her hand and jumped to his feet. “I know you do, Mad,” he said. “But this is not your fault. You are not to think that. Cheer up now and smile at me. I don't want to leave here with the added burden of knowing I have made you miserable. Come on, you goose. It is not the end of the world. I am going to arrange for a marriage if I can, not an execution.”

Madeline smiled bleakly at him. “I wish it had been me,” she said, “tied to that bed, I mean. I could have had a good fight with you, Dom, with both feet and both fists and perhaps even my teeth. I would have left you with bruises and cuts to wince over for a month. And I would have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I cannot enjoy seeing you in such disgrace.”

“Hm,” Lord Eden said, turning to leave. “Good day to you, Mama. I am sorry to be such a constant source of disappointment to you. Perhaps one day I will be able to do something you can be proud of. Take it easy, Mad, and take off that tragic expression this minute. This is not the end of the world. It only seems to be.”

“What a self-pitying little speech,” Lady Amberley said as he reached the door. “You are my son, Dominic, and as such a source of enormous pride to me. You do not have to earn my love, you know. There is nothing you could possibly do to forfeit it. That is not to say that you do not do the most unbelievably stupid things on occasion. Go now and see what you can do to put this one right.”

She smiled at his retreating back as Madeline withdrew a handkerchief from a pocket and blew her nose loudly.

A
LEXANDRA SAT VERY STILL, HER HANDS HELD in her lap, as Nanny Rey finished pinning her hair into its smooth chignon. She had thought her punishment would be over this morning. But it seemed not. Papa had summoned her to the salon again. He must have more to say to her. Perhaps he had decided that, after all, one afternoon and evening of solitary confinement with her Bible were just not enough. Indeed, she had rarely before known fewer than three days of such punishment. She had assumed that his awareness of her social commitments had influenced his leniency.

“There,” Nanny Rey said, patting her on both shoulders from behind, “you had better not keep his lordship waiting, lovey. Not after yesterday. And why did you not drink the chocolate I had smuggled up to you last night?”

Alexandra met her old nurse's eyes in the mirror and smiled. “You knew I would not, Nanny,” she said. “Indeed, you would have been shocked had I done so. You sent it only as a token of love, and for that I thank you. But you know that I will not knowingly disobey Papa.”

“On your way, then,” the nurse said, clapping her hands. “You don't want another day on bread and water, lovey.”

Alexandra had a confused feeling of going back in time as a footman opened the doors into the salon and she stepped inside. Her father stood before the fireplace as he had the day before, the visitor before the windows, his hands behind his back. Only it was not the same visitor. This man was younger, taller, more slender in build, fairer of hair. But he was quite as fashionable as his brother. And his face looked as good-humored. He must be the Earl of Amberley's brother. There was a very definite family resemblance.

Alexandra folded her hands in front of her and lifted her chin. She looked at her father.

“May I present Lord Eden to you, Alexandra?” Lord Beckworth said.

She turned her eyes on the baron and inclined her head. He bowed.

“Miss Purnell,” he said.

“Lord Eden has requested a private word with you, Alexandra,” her father continued. “I have granted him ten minutes. I trust you will listen carefully and do what is right. You will retire to your mother's sitting room at the end of the ten minutes.”

“Yes, Papa,” she said.

But this was not to be an exact repetition of the day before, Alexandra found after her father had closed the doors behind him. Lord Eden did not stay by the windows, his hands behind his back, as his brother had done. He came hurrying across the room to her, his handsome face alive with concern.

“Miss Purnell,” he said, “how you must hate me. How you must wish you could put a bullet between my eyes. I am most dreadfully sorry, you know. But I do not know even how to begin to beg your pardon. To say I am sorry is quite insufficient, but I can think of no words that are adequate.”

She looked at him, at his eager, boyish face. He could not be any older than she, this ogre of sin and vice she had pictured to herself through one night of terror and another of tedious punishment. “You need not trouble yourself any further, my lord,” she said. “I have already forgiven you. Did Lord Amberley not tell you that?”

“He did say that you were remarkably decent about the whole matter,” he said. “But I find it hard to believe that you can have forgiven me, Miss Purnell. I can scarce think of anything more unpardonable that I might have done.”

“We are all in need of forgiveness,” she said. “How can we expect to receive it if we are not also prepared to give it?”

He looked somewhat taken aback. “You are more kind than I deserve,” he said. “I have come to make things right if I can. I know that you cannot possibly wish to marry me. You must wish me at the bottom of the deepest ocean. I have heard that you have had an understanding with the Duke of Peterleigh. I cannot begin to compete with him in consequence. And you must have rather a poor opinion of the stability of my character. But you may be assured that as your husband I would spend the rest of my life trying to make up to you what I have taken from you.”

Alexandra's eyes had widened. “Oh,” she said, “you have come to offer for me too? It is quite unnecessary, my lord, as I told Lord Amberley yesterday. I am grateful that you have come to apologize, even though I had already forgiven you. But really you need do no more.”

He looked with boyish earnestness into her eyes. “But you must marry me, Miss Purnell,” he said. “I have severely compromised you. I am sorry from my heart that you have no choice, but really I do not think you have.”

“No one need even know what happened,” she said. “It was all rather silly nonsense anyway. I believe you refine altogether too much on it, my lord.”

He reached for her hand and held it in a firm grip. Alexandra looked down at their clasped hands, embarrassed and not knowing if she should snatch her own away. He seemed not to be conscious of what he had done.

“The whole thing is already common knowledge,” he said. “Did you not know? I did not think you could have escaped doing so. Servants, it seems, are not quite as discreet as we might hope. Amberley has already dismissed the footman responsible, but it is too late to repair the damage. I am afraid your reputation has been badly compromised.”

“Oh, nonsense!” Alexandra turned away from him, using the movement as an excuse to withdraw her hand from his. “I was not in any way to blame for what happened. Everyone will realize that. And you made a mistake. Everyone will know that too. The whole matter will doubtless become a joke over which everyone will laugh heartily. I shall be horribly embarrassed to be seen in public for the next two or three days. But a little laughter never hurt anyone. I will be none the worse for it.”

Lord Eden passed his fingers through his hair, leaving it considerably more disheveled than even the current fashion would allow. “Far be it from me to contradict a lady,” he said, “but do you know much about the ways of society, ma'am?”

“I have lived my whole life on my father's estate,” she said, “but I do assure you, Lord Eden, that I was brought up to know the difference between right and wrong. And I expect everyone who can lay claim to the name of lady or gentleman to know the same. I expect the same people to have a good deal of sense.”

“Oh, Lord!” he said.

“So you see,” she continued, folding her hands before her again and injecting a note of finality into her voice, “your concern is not really necessary, my lord. But I thank you for your visit and your offer. I will wish you good day. My father said ten minutes, and he does not take kindly to disobedience.”

“Miss Purnell!” He strode impulsively toward her again and reached out both hands for hers. He did not wait for her to respond. He took her clasped hands and separated them with his own. “I beg you to reconsider. You do not know what is facing you when you leave this house. I cannot bear the thought that I have brought that on you. Marry me. I will not be a hard master, I promise you. I will treat you with the utmost respect and affection. I owe you that, though I do believe that I would offer the same to any wife. Please marry me. Allow me to protect you.”

Alexandra was touched despite her embarrassment over his proximity and his hands clasping hers. She only just stopped herself from returning the pressure of his hands.

“Thank you,” she said. “I truly thank you. But I am to marry His Grace of Peterleigh. There has been an understanding between us since I was in my infancy. I must leave now, my lord. My father will be very angry if I do not.”

Then she did return the pressure of his hands before she realized what she was doing, pulled her own away, and made her way from the room before he had a chance to detain her further. She ran up the stairs to her mother's sitting room, thankful that at last the whole ridiculous and humiliating episode was at an end.

L
ORD
A
MBERLEY SAT IN
Mrs. Eunice Borden's drawing room listening to her talk. Or rather not listening. She was telling him about a book of poems her latest protégé had presented her with the previous evening. He was smiling and watching her, not deliberately inattentive, but not listening even so.

“It is unusual for you to visit during the afternoon, Amberley,” she said finally, breaking off quite abruptly what she was saying.

“What?” he said. “Oh, yes, I suppose it is. Do you mind, Eunice? Am I keeping you from something more important?”

“Not at all,” she said. “I had planned to spend the afternoon reading, but I would just as soon spend it conversing with you. Something is the matter?”

He shook his head and smiled at her. “No, no,” he said. “I merely felt the need of your good sense.”

She looked at him closely for a few moments. “If you wish,” she said, “we may remove to my bedchamber. Daylight does not seem quite appropriate to such activity, but that is no matter if it will content you.”

He continued to smile at her. “Would it embarrass you, Eunice,” he asked, “to be made love to during the daytime?”

“I believe it would,” she said frankly. “Though it is quite absurd to feel so when the same thing happens, after all, whether the room is light or dark. Come along, Amberley, I can see it is what you wish.”

He rose to his feet and looked down at her apologetically. “You are good to me, Eunice,” he said. “You can read me like a book, can you not?”

“I can see that something is troubling you,” she said, “and that somehow you are in need of me. Perhaps afterwards you will feel like talking about it. But only if you wish. I shall not pry into your affairs.”

And she was as good as her word, Lord Amberley found. If she was embarrassed, she did not show it, but allowed him to take his pleasure beneath the bedsheets rather more lingeringly than was his habit with her and to sink into blissful unconsciousness beside her afterward. When he awoke, she was lying as usual on her back, her legs neatly side by side, her hands clasped loosely over the blanket, her eyes open. He felt a momentary regret that he had never been able to give her pleasure in their couplings. She seemed not to want it and had told him quite matter-of-factly on the only occasion when his hands had strayed that it was quite unnecessary for him to caress her.

He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek with one knuckle. “Thank you, Eunice,” he said.

“I am always happy to give you pleasure,” she said.

“Have you heard of the scandal?” he asked.

“I very much doubt it,” she said. “I do not meet a great number of people outside my salon, Amberley, and quite frankly, I do not derive any pleasure from listening to gossip. Most of it is untrue anyway.”

“This is all too real, I am afraid,” he said. “Dominic took it into his head two evenings ago to kidnap Madeline in order to save her from an elopement that she had teased him into believing possible. He had some corkbrained friends of his take her to my house, tie her to the bedpost so that she would not run away, and gag her so that she would not disturb the servants' sleep. The scheme worked beautifully well except that the girl was not Madeline.”

“And I can guess the rest of the story,” she said. “The girl has been compromised and must be married. Lord Eden is too young to be faced with such a responsibility, so you are to wed her. It is quite what I would expect of you, Amberley. You have some misgivings about the girl?”

“She will not have me,” he said, “or Dominic.”

“She must be very new to London and society, then,” Mrs. Borden said, “or of very firm character. Has she not yet found out what will happen to her?”

“I am afraid she must soon,” he said. “The scandal broke yesterday when a new footman of mine gossiped.”

“Then you must go back to her and renew your offer,” she said.

Lord Amberley turned onto his side and raised himself on his elbow. “Yes, I am afraid I must, Eunice,” he said.

She turned her head and looked at him. “It is making a decision that is hard, Amberley,” she said. “Once the decision is made, then there is nothing more to worry about. You have decided to do what is right. Did you wish me to reassure you? Is that why you came? You are right. Of course you are.”