The Mysterious Maid-Servant (7 page)

“I thought you would be none too pleased, but I ought to warn you that he is coming to Cheltenham. In fact I believe has already arrived.”

“Coming here? What the hell for?” the Earl enquired.

“He is chasing a Miss Clutterbuck. I think she is his last hope. She is as plain as a pikestaff and the wrong side of thirty-five, but her father, Ebenezer Clutterbuck, is an exceedingly rich tradesman.”

He paused to say slowly and impressively,

“Usurers or should I say
money lenders
usually are!”

The Earl made a sound of sheer rage.

“Dammit all! I will not have a usurer’s daughter in the family! The Lynds, for the last hundred years at any rate, have been respectable.”

“From all I hear, Miss Clutterbuck is likely to accept him. Despite her money she has not had many offers and Julius, for all his faults, is a gentleman.”

“By birth, if not behaviour!” the Earl added bitterly.

He was thinking to himself that here was another problem and one that would also have to be solved immediately.

“If I give Julius money,” he said aloud, as if he was voicing his thoughts, “there is nothing to ensure he will not use it to pay off his debts and at the same time marry this Clutterbuck woman, if she is really rich.”

“It is infuriating for you, I know,” Henry Somercote said sympathetically. “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I thought you ought to know what is going on.”

“I would rather know the worst,” the Earl conceded.

“If you ask me, someone ought to teach young Julius a sharp lesson,” Captain Somercote proposed.

“I agree,” the Earl replied, “but it does not sound as if Ebenezer Clutterbuck is likely to do so.”

“Not he! He will jump at the chance of having an aristocratic son-in-law!”

Then suddenly Henry Somercote laughed.

“The whole thing is like one of those nonsensical dramas in which the Colonel likes to act. The reprobate nephew – Julius, an incensed Guardian – you, the old usurer licking his lips at the thought of moving into Society and the ugly, doubtless pock-marked bride, who is really the unfortunate dupe.”

Henry Somercote laughed again, but there was a scowl on the Earl’s face.

“All we need now,” he went on, “is a heroine, a beautiful Princess in disguise, who reforms the reprobate, so that all ends happily with wedding bells!”

The Earl sat upright.

“Henry, you have given me an idea.” he exclaimed. “What is more, it will not only solve the problem of putting Julius in his place and saving the family from Miss Clutterbuck, it will also answer another problem – and an even more difficult one!”

.

“Ring the bell, Henry,” the Earl ordered

“Why?”

“I will tell you about the idea you have given me,” the Earl replied, “and I want Giselda to be here.”

Captain Somercote obliged by rising to his feet to tug at the embroidered bell pull, which hung beside the mantelshelf.

Batley opened the door almost immediately.

“You rang, my Lord?”

“Fetch Miss Chart here at once!”

“Very good, my Lord.”

“You are arousing my curiosity,” Henry Somercote said. “You have that look about you as though something important is pending. I always knew in Portugal when you were anticipating a battle.”

The Earl laughed.

“I don’t believe a word you are saying,” he replied. “At the same time I have to admit to having an engagement in mind.”

“And the enemy is Julius?”

“One of them!” the Earl remarked enigmatically.

Giselda came hurrying into the room.

“You asked for me?”

There was still that look of anxiety in her big eyes and a tautness in the lines of her mouth the Earl had not seen since the first day they met.

“I want you to sit down, Giselda,” he said quietly, “and listen to what I have to tell you. First of all, let me introduce an old friend, Captain Henry Somercote – Miss Giselda Chart.”

Giselda curtsied and Henry Somercote bowed.

Only when he saw the expression in her face did the Earl realise that she thought perhaps Henry Somercote was the man he had chosen to pay her the fifty pounds she required.

Hastily, because the idea embarrassed him, he added,

“Captain Somercote, Giselda, has brought me news of a first cousin of mine, Julius Lynd, who is behaving in an extremely reprehensible manner.”

Giselda looked surprised, but she did not speak and the Earl went on,

“He is in fact, if I do not marry, heir to my title and as such I have certain responsibilities towards him.”

“No one could have treated him more generously than you have,” Captain Somercote interposed.

“Julius Lynd has already run through what would seem to you and most ordinary people a fortune,” the Earl continued, as if Henry Somercote had not spoken. “I have paid up for him again and again, and now, quite frankly, I realise it is quite hopeless to go on pandering to his extravagances.”

“The point is, Talbot,” Henry Somercote interposed again, “Julius thinks you are an inexhaustible cornucopia or shall we say a bank whose reserves are completely at his disposal.”

“I agree it cannot go on,” the Earl stipulated firmly.

Giselda’s eyes were on his and he knew that she was puzzled as to how this should concern her.

“Henry has told me,” the Earl continued, “that Julius, in order to make good his financial deficiencies, has pursued every heiress in London and has now followed one here to Cheltenham.”

“You should see what she looks like,” Henry Somercote interrupted. “I have seen many plain women in my life, but I have no doubt that, if there was a competition for sheer ugliness Emily Clutterbuck would win it.”

For the first time, Giselda seemed to relax a little and there was a faint smile on her lips.

“Clutterbuck?” she queried. “What a surprising name!”

“She is the daughter of Ebenezer Clutterbuck, who is a moneylender,” the Earl said in a harsh tone.

He suddenly struck the bedclothes with his clenched fist.

“Dammit!” he swore. “I have said it before and I will say it again – I will not have anyone called Clutterbuck in the family, nor will I countenance a cursed bloodsucking usurer sitting at my table.”

“What can you do to prevent it?” Giselda asked quietly.

She rose from the chair as she spoke and tidied the lace-edged sheet the Earl had crumpled.

Then she patted up the pillows behind him whilst Henry Somercote watched her with amused eyes.

“Do not fuss!” the Earl commanded. “I am trying to explain to you your part in this drama.”

“Mine?” Giselda enquired.

“Yes, yours,” the Earl replied. “I presume you can act?”

Giselda looked bewildered and even Henry Somercote turned enquiring eyes towards the Earl.

“I intend to teach Julius a lesson he will not forget,” the Earl said grimly, “and at the same time, Giselda, solve the problem with which you presented me a short time ago.”

She stared at him wide-eyed and the Earl went on,

“The only way to save Julius from the clutches of Miss Clutterbuck is to divert his attention to another heiress, who of course, must be equally rich, besides being attractive.”

There was silence for a moment in the bedroom.

Then Giselda said in a hesitating tone,

“I-I do not – think I understand what you are – suggesting.”

“I am telling you that you will be the heiress whom we will hold out as bait under Julius’s nose to stop him pursuing this Clutterbuck woman.”

The Earl turned to look at Captain Somercote.

“You, Henry, will inform Julius how rich and important this alleged heiress is, and now I think of it, she had best come from the north – Yorkshire is a big county and as far as I know Julius has never been there.”

“But such an – idea is – impossible – ” Giselda stammered.

“There is no such word as ‘impossible’ in my vocabulary,” the Earl said loftily. “Half the visitors to Cheltenham come from outlying parts of the country. Newell said so only yesterday in your presence. Therefore a rich heiress from Yorkshire will be merely one of the hundreds of people who wish to consult the doctors and drink the medicinal waters of the Spa.”

Henry Somercote rose to his feet.

“By Jove, Talbot, you are a genius at improvisation! I have always thought so and so did the Duke! Do you remember how you turned the tide of that battle near Vittoria, when I was quite certain we were completely cut off by the French?”

“If we could beat the French, we can beat Julius at his own game!” the Earl reflected.

“But – how can we make him think – ” Giselda began helplessly.

“Leave everything to me,” the Earl said. “You will be dressed as befits the part and all you will have to do is to make yourself pleasant to Julius and let him think, in a very discreet way of course, that you are not averse to his paying court to you.”

“Oh – I am sure I could not do it.”

“You will do it and you will do it well!” the Earl asserted positively.

“It certainly is a most intriguing idea,” Henry Somercote said. “Where is she to stay?”

There was a moment’s pause as if the Earl was thinking.

“Here! I am damned if I am going to lose my nurse – and I am not going to miss all the fun and excitement.”

He laughed before he added,

“In which case I suppose we should ask the permission of Mine Host.”

“I am quite certain that Colonel Berkeley will enjoy every moment of the drama,” Henry Somercote remarked.

“What will I enjoy?” a voice asked from the door and all three people in the bedroom turned their heads as Colonel Berkeley appeared.

“Talk of the devil!” he said, “or am I cast in the part of the Demon King?”

His words were obviously addressed to Henry Somercote, but his eyes were on Giselda who rose to her feet as he advanced slowly into the room.

“You are just the man we want, Fitz.” the Earl callecout. “We need your approval and your assistance in a proposition which is very much up your street.”

Colonel Berkeley had stopped beside Giselda.

“Will somebody introduce me?” he asked.

“Giselda, this is your host, Colonel Berkeley. Fitz – Miss Giselda Chart!”

Giselda curtsied.

“You are even more attractive than I thought when I had a quick glimpse of you,” Colonel Berkeley said.

The colour rose in Giselda’s cheeks.

He looked at her for a long moment and her eyes fell before his. He seated himself astride an upright chair, his arms crossed on the back of it.

“Now, tell me what is going on,” he enquired, “for it is obvious that all three of you are conspiring.”

“That is exactly what we
are
doing,” the Earl replied.

Briefly he repeated what he had already said to Giselda and Colonel Berkeley laughed.

“Talk about the Cheltenham theatricals!” he said. “My dear Talbot, I shall have you writing plays for me before I have finished!”

“There is no lead for you in this play,” the Earl retorted. “Everything centres around Giselda. She has to convince Julius that she is the heiress he will be told she is and thus make him stop pursuing Miss Clutterbuck and concentrate on the Yorkshire millions which he thinks might fall into his pocket.”

“Forsaking the substance for the shadow,” the Colonel remarked. “Well, it certainly, my dear Talbot, has the making of a good first act. More important, though, is what will happen in the other two.”

“The most important thing is for the play to be staged before Julius commits himself,” the Earl corrected.

“I agree with you there,” Henry came in. “When I left London everyone was expecting the engagement to be announced at any moment.”

“There is just a chance that Julius is shrewd enough to think that, if he can frighten you, Talbot, by proposing such an alliance, you will pay his debts. He has done this before,” Colonel Berkeley remarked.

“That is something I have no intention of doing!” the Earl countered sharply.

“Then Giselda will have to be very convincing,” Colonel Berkeley replied.

He looked at her again in a manner that made her feel shy.

It had not escaped her notice that he had referred to her by her Christian name. Then she thought humbly she was only in the position of a servant and she could hardly expect these gentlemen to address her in any other way.

“Come on, Fitz,” the Earl prompted, “this is where we need your expert advice!”

“Very well,” Colonel Berkeley said in a more serious tone. “If Giselda is to be an heiress, she had best be a widow. That will dispense with relatives, who would undoubtedly try to keep Julius away from her and also with the chaperonage she would otherwise require if she is to stay in this house.”

“Better make her a distant relative,” Henry Somercote suggested. “Otherwise you know the inference that might be put on her being a guest at German Cottage.”

The three men looked knowingly at each other, but the Earl was well aware that Giselda did not understand.

“If I am to be a widow,” she said, “he might ask questions about my – husband.”

“You can be too affected by the thought of his death to wish to talk about him,” the Colonel said. “And for God’s sake, don’t forget that you will need a wedding ring.”

There was a sharpness in his voice which both the Earl and Henry Somercote knew came from the bitterness he felt at being illegitimate.

The case that had been heard in the House of Lords four years previously in 1812 had caused a tremendous sensation. Every possible piece of evidence was brought by his mother to prove that Fitz had been born in wedlock.

But the House of Lords still ruled that the Colonel’s younger brother, Moreton, was in fact the sixth Earl of Berkeley.

The judgement had made the Colonel behave in a wilder and more flamboyant manner than he had done before. The publicity, the agonising ordeal suffered by his mother and the details of the sensational hearing that had dragged on for nearly four months had left him resentful and at the same time defiant.

He would not admit that he had been humiliated, but the scars were to remain with him all through his life.