Frederica Page 17

  Twelve

  It was not long before Frederica began to realise that society had formed an exaggerated idea of her father’s inheritance. One or two casual remarks showed that if she and Charis were not regarded as heiresses they were at least credited with large portions; and when Mrs Parracombe, to whom she had taken an instant dislike, asked her in what part of the country Graynard was situated, adding that she had heard it was a most beautiful seat, she suspected that Alverstoke must be the originator of these rumours. She was indebted to Miss Jane Buxted, who seemed to be unpleasantly addicted to backstairs gossip, for the information that Mrs Parracombe was one of Alverstoke’s chères amies; and though she gave Jane a set-down she saw no reason to doubt the story. His lordship’s way of life was no concern of hers; but she was vexed to find herself thrust into what she felt to be almost an imposture, and she determined to demand whether it was indeed he who was responsible for it.

  No opportunity to do so offered immediately, and when it did it was under circumstances which set her at a disadvantage and made her pose her question in a perfectly civil way. His lordship had not forgotten his promise to take Jessamy with him, when he drove his new team of grays to Richmond – or, rather, it had been recalled to his mind by Curry, his head-groom, who had formed a very good opinion of Jessamy – and he had called in Upper Wimpole Street one morning to pick the boy up: thus subjecting him to a severe struggle with his conscience. He told Frederica, who had encountered Owen on his way upstairs to deliver his lordship’s invitation, that having made up his mind to devote his mornings to study he must not yield to temptation; but Frederica very sensibly suggested that he could resume his studies later in the day, upon which his face brightened, and he hurried away to scrub his hands, telling Owen to assure his lordship that he would be with him in a pig’s whisper.

  It was Frederica, however, who conveyed the message to Alverstoke, asking him, at the same time, if he would spare her a few minutes upon his return.

  He looked down at her, as she stood on the flagway, his eyes, for all their laziness, curiously penetrating. ‘Certainly,’ he responded. ‘Something of grave importance?’

  She hesitated. ‘It seems so to me, but perhaps you will not think so.’

  ‘You intrigue me, Frederica. Do I detect a note of censure in your voice?’

  She was not obliged to answer this, for at that moment Jessamy arrived on the scene, and ran down the steps, breathlessly expressing the hope that he had not kept his lordship waiting. Bidding his sister a cursory farewell, he climbed up into the phaeton, looking so happy and excited that feelings of gratitude to Alverstoke for having granted him this treat overcame other, and less charitable, emotions in her breast.

  When he returned, several hours later, it was in a mood of deep content. He ushered Alverstoke into the drawing-room, saying: ‘Frederica? Oh, you are here! Come in, sir! Oh, Frederica, I have had such a time! I haven’t enjoyed anything so much since we came to London! We have been to Richmond Park – Cousin Alverstoke has tickets of admission, you know – and he let me handle the reins, and – Sir, I don’t know how to thank you enough! – Sh-showing me just how to turn a corner in style, too, and how to point the leaders, and –’

  ‘My dear boy, you have already thanked me enough – too much, in fact!’ replied Alverstoke, rather amused. ‘If you do so any more, you’ll become a bore!’

  Jessamy laughed, blushed, and said, a little shyly: ‘I think I must have been, sir! Such – such dull work for you, teaching a mere whipster! And so very kind of you to let me drive those grays, when, for anything you knew, I might have been a regular spoon!’

  ‘If I had had any such apprehension,’ said Alverstoke gravely, ‘I should not have let you drive them. You are not yet a top-sawyer, but you’ve light hands, considerable precision of eye, and you know how to stick to your leaders.’

  Coming from a Nonpareil, these words reduced Jessamy to stammering incoherence. He managed to thank his lordship yet again, and then effaced himself, to spend an unprofitable hour with his books open before him but his thoughts very far away from them.

  ‘I should like to thank you, too,’ Frederica said, with a warm smile, ‘but I don’t dare! Was it a bore?’

  ‘Oddly enough, no. A new experience! I’ve never before attempted to impart my skill to another, and I’ve discovered that either I’m an excellent teacher, or that I had a remarkably apt pupil. But I didn’t come to talk about driving. What have I done to vex you, Frederica?’

  ‘I don’t know. I mean, I am vexed, but I’m not perfectly sure that it was your doing,’ she said frankly. ‘The thing is that people seem to think that we are possessed of a handsome fortune. Cousin, did you set that rumour about?’

  ‘Certainly not,’ he replied, his eyebrows slightly raised. ‘Why should I?’

  ‘Well, you might have done so to be helpful, perhaps.’

  ‘I can think of few things less helpful.’

  ‘No, nor can I! Besides, it is so odiously vulgar! I detest shams! It makes it seem as though I had been cutting a wheedle, to achieve a brilliant marriage for Charis. As though such shifts could succeed!’

  He smiled. ‘Oho! Would you employ them if they could?’

  The smile was faintly reflected in her eyes, but she shook her head. ‘No – contemptible! Don’t you think so?’

  ‘I do, but you appear to have suspected me of selling just such a contemptible bargain.’

  ‘Yes, but I knew it must have been with the best of intentions,’ she assured him.

  ‘Worse! You believe me to be a flat!’

  She laughed. ‘Indeed I don’t! I beg your pardon – but if you didn’t set the story about, who can have done so? And – and why? I promise you, I’ve never tried to make people think we are wealthy, and nor, I’m very sure, has Charis. In fact, when Mrs Parracombe talked of Graynard, saying how much she would like to see it, and speaking as if it were a ducal mansion, I told her it was no such thing.’

  ‘Now I know why I fell under suspicion!’ he murmured provocatively.

  It was so unexpected that it surprised a tiny gasp out of her.

  ‘I am continually shocked by the on-dits people don’t scruple to repeat to innocent maidens,’ pursued his lordship, in a saddened voice.

  ‘If it comes to that,’ retorted Frederica, with spirit. ‘I am continually shocked by the things you don’t scruple to say to me, cousin! You are quite abominable!’

  He sighed. ‘Alas, I know it! The reflection gives me sleepless nights.’

  ‘Coming it rather too strong, my lord!’ she said, before she could stop herself. She added hastily, as he put up his brows in exaggerated incredulity: ‘As Harry would say!’

  ‘No doubt! But such cant expressions on the lips of delicately nurtured females are extremely unbecoming.’

  Well aware of this, she was just about to apologise for the lapse when she caught the gleam in his eye, and said, instead: ‘Odious creature! I wish you will be serious!’

  He laughed. ‘Very well, let us be serious! You want to know who is responsible for the rumour that you are very wealthy –’

  ‘Yes, and what’s to be done about it!’

  ‘Nothing. As to who may have started the rumour, I know no more than you do, and can perceive no reason why you should be thrown into high fidgets over it. If we are to be serious, let me advise you to discourage Ollerton’s advances to your sister!’

  She looked quickly up at him. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because, my innocent, he is what we call a man of the town.’

  She nodded. ‘I’m glad to know that, for it’s what I thought myself. Though I must own he has been very civil and obliging, and has a well-bred ease of manner – except that now and then he goes a little beyond the line of what is pleasing. However, there are others, who are even better-bred, who go a long way beyond it!’

  ‘So there are!’ he agreed. ‘Who introduced him to you?’

  ‘Mrs Dauntry, at Lady Jersey’s party. Which
is why I concluded that I must have been mistaken in him.’

  ‘Did she indeed?’ he said. ‘Well, well!’ There was a gleam of amusement in his eyes, which she tried in vain to interpret. He flicked open his snuff-box, and took a meditative pinch, and suddenly laughed. Meeting her enquiring look, he said: ‘Who would have thought that your adoption of me would have provided me with so much entertainment?’

  ‘You did!’ responded Frederica unhesitatingly. ‘I didn’t know it at the outset, but I am very sure now that you adopted us merely to infuriate Lady Buxted!’

  ‘And can you blame me?’

  An involuntary chuckle escaped her. ‘Well, perhaps not as much as I ought! But you did think it might amuse you!’

  ‘True – and so it did! What I did not foresee was that I should find myself taking so much interest in the fortunes of the Merrivilles!’ He paused, but before she could retort in kind, demanded abruptly: ‘Who was the rum touch I saw escorting your sister yesterday? A counter-coxcomb in a striped waistcoat?’

  ‘Mr Nutley!’ she uttered, in despairing accents.

  ‘Who the devil is Mr Nutley?’

  ‘Our neighbour! A very worthy young man, but quite ineligible, and nutty upon Charis! He – he languishes! Besides sending her flowers, and lying in wait for her to step out of the house with only Owen to escort her!’ replied Frederica bitterly.

  ‘Good God! Has she a tendre for him?’

  ‘No, of course she has not! The thing is that she cannot bring herself to repulse him! And if you think you can convince her that it would be kinder by far to do so now than later I can only say, cousin, that you don’t know her! She has a great deal of sensibility, you see, and –’

  ‘A great deal of folly!’ he interrupted impatiently.

  ‘Yes, that too,’ she agreed, sighing. ‘I wish she wasn’t such a goosecap, for I daresay anyone might impose upon her. I own it has me in a worry very often.’

  He nodded, but said: ‘It will do her no good to be seen in Ollerton’s company, but he won’t go beyond flirtation: I’ll see to that!’

  ‘Thank you – but he has done nothing to warrant – I mean, I don’t at all wish you to say anything to him! It would be refining too much upon too little.’

  ‘Oh, it won’t be necessary for me to say anything!’ he replied, with one of his sardonic smiles. ‘In common with the rest of the world, he believes her to be under my protection. It is possible, however, that he may also believe me to be an indifferent guardian. That can be remedied. Do you go to the Crewes’ assembly? I’ll escort you – exercising a benevolent surveillance! I might take you both to the play, or even drive you round the park, at the hour of the Grand Strut.’

  ‘You are very obliging! We are indeed honoured!’

  ‘Yes, I rarely drive females.’

  ‘You will find it another dead bore, I daresay!’

  ‘Possibly, but I shall be upheld by a feeling of virtue.’

  ‘Ah, but the novelty of that will soon wear off!’ she pointed out.

  The sardonic expression vanished. ‘Very good, Frederica!’ he said approvingly. ‘I don’t think it will bore me to drive you round the park.’

  ‘Well, that’s a comfort, to be sure! But there’s not the least need for you to include me in your benevolence! Take Charis up beside you now and then, and I shall be excessively grateful!’ She tried, unsuccessfully, to repress a mischievous chuckle, and added, with disarming candour: ‘You can’t think how much against the pluck it goes with me to administer to your vanity, cousin, but I haven’t spent all these weeks in London without realising that your consequence is enormous!’

  ‘Viper!’ said his lordship appreciatively. ‘I will endure the company of your beautiful but bird-witted sister, but on the condition that the tedium of these sessions will be relieved occasionally by your astringent quality. By-the-by, does rumour lie, or is my equally bird-witted young cousin growing extremely particular in his attentions?’

  ‘No – though in some ways I wish it did!’ replied Frederica. ‘But as for growing extremely particular – ! He seems to have conceived a violent passion for Charis the instant he laid eyes on her. I must say, I wish he were not so very handsome! I am afraid he is the only one of her admirers for whom Charis does cherish a tendre, and I can conceive of nothing more unsuitable! Nor, I fancy, would Mrs Dauntry welcome such an alliance.’

  ‘Certainly not. One of the tightish clever sort, my saintly Cousin Lucretia!’

  ‘Well, you can’t blame her for wishing her son to contract an advantageous marriage,’ said Frederica reasonably. ‘It is precisely what I want Charis to do, after all! I don’t desire to offend you, my lord, but I cannot think Endymion an eligible parti! It is all very well for his mama to talk of his being your heir, but who is to say that it will ever come to that? You are not in your dotage!’

  ‘Thank you!’ said his lordship, in failing accents.

  Her eyes twinkled responsively, but she said politely: ‘Not at all! The thing is, however, that when Endymion is Charis’s escort I can be easy in my mind. He treats her with the greatest respect – almost with reverence!’

  ‘Yes, he always was a slow-top,’ he commented. ‘Poor girl! Is Buxted also dangling after her?’

  ‘Oh, dear me, no!’ she replied, casting down her eyes, and folding her hands primly in her lap. ‘Lord Buxted, cousin, has a decided preference for me!’

  He burst out laughing. ‘No, has he indeed? I pity you, then, but think the better of him! What do you find to talk about, I wonder?’

  ‘Why, I am not obliged to find anything! He is never at a loss. When we have commented on the political situation, and he has been so kind as to draw my attention to some article in one of the newspapers which I might not have read, he has always plenty to tell me about himself, and his estates, and his reflections upon various subjects.’ She broke off, chuckling, but said penitently: ‘But I ought not to make game of him! He is very kind, and has a great deal of sense, even if he is a trifle prosy!’

  ‘Dull and respectable. But not, I fancy, your only admirer. My heart positively bled for poor Aldridge when I saw Darcy Moreton cut him out at that very tedious soirée last Wednesday.’

  ‘Oh, fiddle!’ she said. ‘I wish you won’t be so nonsensical! Next you will be calling Mr Moreton my flirt, and nothing, I can assure you, is farther from his thoughts, or mine!’

  ‘Wait until the crow is hatched before you pull it with me!’

  She smiled. ‘I will – but pray believe that I don’t flirt, and I am not on the catch for a husband!’

  ‘Except one for Charis. Tell me! Are you enjoying your first London season?’

  She answered impulsively: ‘Oh, beyond calculation! In fact, I enjoy it all so much that I fear I must resemble poor Papa more than I knew!’

  He was able, by the exercise of strong self-control, to reply, with only the smallest quiver in his voice: ‘What a very alarming thought! Surely you wrong yourself!’

  ‘Well, I hope I do,’ she said seriously. ‘I don’t care much for cards, at all events. None of us do, except, perhaps, Jessamy, and he, you know, has such deep principles that I’ve no fears for him. I expect it is too soon to know what Felix may do, but I don’t think he will be a gamester.’

  He laughed. ‘Good God, no! He will be far too busy inventing a steam-shuffler, or a mechanical-dealer, to take any interest in mere gaming! How does he go on? Where is he? Don’t tell me he has set forth on another steamboat expedition!’

  ‘No – though I collect he is much interested in some project to build ocean-going steamboats! I think he learned about it on his trip to Ramsgate, but I fancy the inventor is an American, for which I am truly thankful! Even Felix couldn’t go all that way!’

  ‘I wouldn’t risk a groat against the chance! Very likely he will sign on as cabin-boy in a sailing-vessel bound for America, and we shall next hear of him in New York!’

  ‘For heaven’s sake, don’t put such a notion into his head!’ she b
egged, between alarm and amusement. ‘It is precisely the sort of thing he might do! But at the moment he is upstairs, in one of the attics, which we gave him for his experiments!’

  ‘Good God!’ Alverstoke ejaculated. ‘We had as well sit on a keg of gunpowder! I’ll take my leave of you before he blows the house up!’

  ‘No, no, he won’t do that!’ she replied, gurgling with merriment. ‘He promised me he would remember this is not our own house!’

  He regarded her with appreciation. ‘You’d have no objection to his blowing it up if it were your own house? Accept my compliments on the fortitude of your mind!’

  ‘How can you be so absurd? Of course I should object to it! I meant only that at home he has a workshop, and may do as he pleases in it.’

  ‘I see! Does he often blow it up?’

  She smiled. ‘He never blows it up! He did set fire to it once, but that was when he was trying to make a new kind of match, which would light without a tinder-box, and there was very little damage done, except that he singed his eyebrows off.’

  ‘You are a very good sister, Frederica!’ he commented.

  ‘Well, I do try to be,’ she said, colouring faintly. ‘My aunt, and our old nurse, were too anxious – or so it seemed to me – and for ever flying into high fidgets over the things the boys did, which didn’t answer at all, because it made them fall into the sullens, and pay not the least heed to anything they said.’

  ‘It is a pity that your aunt did not save her anxiety for her nieces! I shall take leave to tell you, Frederica, that I think her a very poor chaperon!’

  ‘Yes, but one must be just to her! She never wished to come to London, and only consented to do so on the understanding that she shouldn’t be dragged to fashionable parties. Recollect that I am quite old enough to chaperon Charis! Indeed, I’ve done so ever since she came out!’

  ‘That,’ said his lordship roundly, ‘is a greater absurdity than any I have uttered!’

  ‘It isn’t – but I won’t argue with you on that head! In any event, she is not to be blamed for having more important things to think about at this present. My Uncle Scrabster is very unwell and poor Aunt Amelia is quite distracted with worry, and depends wholly on my Aunt Seraphina.’