The Reckoning (96 page)

The new King, however, survived; and as soon as he was
out of bed, the awareness of how close the nation had come to
having one of the hated Kent blood on the throne prompted him to ask his ministers to start divorce proceedings on his behalf. His estranged wife, now calling herself Queen Caro
line, had been living in voluntary exile in Italy for some years;
if he were rid of her, he might marry again and possibly beget
an heir.

Rosamund had a letter from her mother, delivered to her
via Mr Hoare's bank, mentioning the subject.

‘
We met Princess Caroline lately – I hesitate to call her
Queen yet. She has been in constant correspondence with
Brougham, who, I dare say, hoped to ride to power on Princess Charlotte's back – once the Regent died – by reuniting mother and daughter. Now, of course, all that has changed.
Caroline has become an embarrassment, and I half-wonder
whether Brougham might be tempted to use her to blackmail Liverpool into giving him an office. These lawyers are up to all the tricks! She, of course, supposes that he will negotiate
for her to return in time for the Coronation. We shall see.

‘
As far as a divorce goes, the investigation into her behav
iour back in the year six was inconclusive, and I doubt very
much whether the evidence will stand up any better now. You are in for some lively times if she is
not
persuaded to stay out
of England, for the mob, for some reason, always liked her
and considered her deeply wronged.

‘
I suppose the Coronation will be some time in 1821. As
soon as I know the date of it, I shall make our plans for
coming home. I had meant, as you know, to come back this
spring, but Theakston has a great desire to shew me Portugal
and Spain, and the scenes of his military triumphs, and the
boys are wild for it. I must say I should like to see the Spanish
horses, and perhaps buy a new team to bring back with me, if
they are as good as they're supposed to be.

‘
If I do buy horses, you may be sure I shall not repeat the
experience of crossing the Channel by steam-packet! It may
be very quick, and the convenience of not having to rely on
the wind I suppose is considerable, but you cannot conceive of
the noise, to say nothing of the smell and the smuts and
sparks! It would throw a sensitive horse into convulsions.

‘
By the way, we met Harvey Sale — or I suppose I should
call him Penrith, now — in Venice during the Carnival. He did
not seem to be enjoying himself very much, so we took him
back to our palazzo where he spent almost the entire time
playing cards and Speculation with the boys and refusing all
invitations. I told him he had no talent for enjoying himself
and ought to go back to England, but I'm afraid he took it as
serious advice, and asked me if I thought the scandal would
have died down by now. If he'd been of our generation, I'd
have said yes, but you younger people are so much more
censorious than we were. I wonder why that is? At any rate, I
told him he had nothing to lose by going and finding out, and
he seemed to take that to heart, so I dare say you'll have him
amongst you again before long.’

Lord Penrith arrived in London in April 1820, secured
himself a modest room at Limmers, and immediately sent his
card round to Chelmsford House, where its arrival precipi
tated a new quarrel between Rosamund and Lady Barbara.

Lady Barbara's dissatisfaction with her daughter-in-law
had increased year by year as she proved herself to be
wanting in respect, gratitude, and frequently the merest
common courtesy towards her elders. Rosamund's sins were
many. She had been married almost three years now, and
shewed no sign of producing the heir Marcus was entitled to
expect. She seemed to delight in leading an independent —
and expensive — life with her own circle of quite unsuitable
friends, entertained them lavishly, and appeared to regard
her husband's company as essential only at official or Court
functions. Despite this, she seemed to have what Lady
Barbara considered an undue — and unhealthy — influence
over him. She had even somehow persuaded him last year not
to buy the estate near Dorchester which Lady Barbara had
gone to so much trouble to find for them.

Not only that, but she had failed to do anything for
Barbarina, where any other young woman in Rosamund's
situation, out of sheer gratitude and proper feeling, would
long ago have found her a husband and relieved Lady
Barbara of the expense of keeping her. Not only the expense, but the embarrassment: Barbarina was heading towards her
twenty-fourth birthday, and was now plainly regarded as
being upon the shelf.

Lady Barbara was inclined to believe that, far from helping
to get Barbarina off, Rosamund had probably hampered her
chances of making an eligible match. And if she had not
actively hindered, she had certainly done so passively, by
having a sister who had the bad taste to get herself murdered,
and a brother-in-law with so little sense of propriety that he
needs must get himself tried for the murder in the most public
fashion.

The scandal of the trial rankled deeply in Lady Barbara's mind. She was sure no-one had forgotten it, and that Looks
and Whispers followed her wherever she went. Of
course all
her efforts to shove Barbarina's boat off had met with failure:
who in their right mind would want to ally themselves with a
murderer's family? Thus when the Murderer himself reap
peared on the scene, and had the audacity to send round his
card, Lady Barbara was naturally incensed.

‘
You will, of course, ignore it,' she pronounced at once.
‘No, wait, that is not emphatic enough! He should know
exactly how much we deplore his lack of taste in returning to this country. I think you had best return the card to him, torn
in two. That should be unmistakable, even to a man of no
sensitivity.'

‘I should think it would be unmistakable,' Rosamund said,
half-amused, half-angry, 'if I were to do anything of the sort.
But I am not so infatuated. I shall send him a civil note,
asking him to call tomorrow.'

‘
Asking him to call?' Lady Barbara mottled alarmingly.
‘Have you taken leave of your senses, child? You will do no
such thing!'

‘
I beg your pardon, ma'am,' Rosamund said lazily, though
her eyes were dangerous beneath her half-lowered lids, 'but I
shall not expose myself to the charge of incivility towards my
own brother-in-law — who is bearing, moreover, as you see
from his message, a letter from my mother.'

‘
That's just his ruse, and if you haven't the wit to know it,
it shews you still have need of my guidance, however much
you flatter yourself that you are up to every rig.'

‘
I wouldn't care if it were a ruse,' Rosamund snapped. 'I
should still invite him to call.'

‘
Then it is as I feared – you are utterly lacking in conduct!
But however much you may wish to ruin your own life, I shall
not allow you to ruin those of my children. I forbid you to
invite that man into this house, or to correspond with him in
any way.’

Barbarina had already shrunk back into her chair, and
now looked utterly miserable at being thus invoked. Marcus –
fortunately or otherwise – was not present to hear his wife
round on his mother.

‘
You
forbid? You forget yourself, ma'am. You do not
command in this house – I do. And as to ruining lives, I have
no intention of allowing you to expose us all by your lack of
judgement, your narrow-mindedness, and your petty malice.’

Barbarina made a soft sound like a moan, but it was
instantly drowned by her mother's fury.

‘
How dare you speak to me like that? You call it lack of
judgement to try to protect my maiden daughter from the
corrupting influence of a known murderer –?'

‘
Known only to you, of course,' Rosamund blazed back.
‘Everyone else in the world knows that he is innocent of any
crime but misfortune – though I suppose that is a grave
enough sin in your book!'

‘
So innocent that he stood public trial for his hideous
crime –'

‘
The law of this land, ma'am, is that a man is innocent
until proved guilty. Lord Penrith was innocent and proven
innocent to the satisfaction of everyone but you!'

‘Innocent? When he stood condemned by his own admitted
behaviour with
that woman?
Or is adultery no crime in your
book? Perhaps not – you are, after all, your mother's
daughter!’

Rosamund's face tightened. 'And what does that mean?'

‘
You may interpret it as you please,' Lady Barbara said,
scenting victory. 'But it seems to me that when a married
woman goes off alone as you do, and refuses to say where she
has been, she must have something to hide. Perhaps you
should examine your conscience – and ask yourself why your
husband prefers to dine at his club three days a week, rather
than at his own table.’

Rosamund rose to her feet and drew herself up to her full
impressive height, like a goddess of Ancient Greece preparing
to strike down a mortal with some kind of heavenly fire.

‘
You want to know where I go, do you, you impertinent
woman?' she hissed. 'Well, I'll tell you –!’

But at that moment Barbarina stood up too – thin, pale
and colourless, like grey rain against Rosamund's fire. 'Don't,
Ros,' she said.

Her voice was light, always disregarded by her mother, but
not, this time, by her sister-in-law. Rosamund looked round
at her in surprise, and enquiringly, and Barbarina met her
gaze steadily, albeit with an embarassed blush. Rosamund's
anger subsided as quickly as it had risen.

‘
You're right,' she said to Barbarina; and turning to Lady
Barbara said calmly, 'I shall invite Lord Penrith to call. If you
do not choose to meet him, you may absent yourself from the
house. And there's an end.’

It was not the end, however. Rosamund sent a note asking
Harvey to call; but Lady Barbara got to Marcus first. That
evening he came to Rosamund before dinner, while she was
still in her dressing-gown – a circumstance that made her feel
vulnerable. He did not, nowadays, trouble her very often, but
he had a wistful way of looking at her which made his not
troubling her almost as troublesome.

Today, however, he had wound himself up to being stern.
‘Ros, I wish you will not quarrel with Mama.'

‘I, quarrel with her?'

‘
It behoves you to be respectful to your mother-in-law. She
is, after all, your elder –'