Grand Sophy Page 8

  He bowed, and stepped back. The grays, to whom Mr Rivenhall’s impatience had communicated itself, bounded forward. Mr Rivenhall said: ‘How charming for you to have met an old friend so soon after your arrival!’

  ‘Yes, was it not?’ agreed Sophy.

  ‘I hope he will have contrived to recall your name before he avails himself of your invitation to visit you.’

  Her lips twitched, but she replied with perfect composure: ‘Depend upon it, if he does not he will find someone to tell him what it is.’

  ‘You are shameless!’ he said angrily.

  ‘Nonsense! You only say so because I drove your horses,’ she answered. ‘Never mind! I will engage not to do so again.’

  ‘I’ll take care of that!’ he retorted. ‘Let me tell you, my dear cousin, that I should be better pleased if you would refrain from meddling in the affairs of my family!’

  ‘Now, that,’ said Sophy, ‘I am very glad to know, because if ever I should desire to please you I shall know just how to set about it. I daresay I shan’t, but one likes to be prepared for any event, however unlikely.’

  He turned his head to look at her, his eyes narrowed, and their expression by no means pleasant. ‘Are you thinking of being so unwise as to cross swords with me?’ he demanded. ‘I shan’t pretend to misunderstand you, cousin, and I will leave you in no doubt of my own meaning! If you imagine that I will ever permit that puppy to marry my sister, you have yet something to learn of me!’

  ‘Pooh!’ said Sophy. ‘Mind your horses, Charles, and don’t talk fustian to me!’

  Five

  P retty well, for one morning’s work!’ said Sophy.

  Mr Rivenhall was less satisfied. His mother was dismayed to discover that so far from having taken a liking to his cousin he was appalled to think that they might be obliged to house her for months. ‘I tell you frankly, ma’am, it will not do!’ he said. ‘God knows how long my uncle may be away! I only wish you may not live to regret the day when you consented to take charge of his daughter! The sooner you can fulfil the rest of his expectations, and marry her off to some poor wretch, the better it will be for the rest of us!’

  ‘Good gracious, Charles!’ said Lady Ombersley. ‘What in the world has she done to put you out?’

  He declined to answer this, merely saying that Sophy was pert, headstrong, and so badly brought up that he doubted whether any man would be fool enough to offer for her. His mother refrained from enquiring further into Sophy’s iniquities, but instead seized the moment to suggest that as a prelude to finding a husband for her she should be allowed to give an evening party, with dancing. ‘I do not mean a large affair,’ she hastened to add. ‘Perhaps ten couples, or so – in the drawing-room!’

  ‘By all means!’ he said. ‘That will make it quite unnecessary for you to invite young Fawnhope!’

  ‘Oh, quite!’ she agreed.

  ‘I should warn you, Mama,’ he said, ‘that we encountered him this morning! My cousin greeted him as an old and valued acquaintance, and begged him to call on her here!’

  ‘Oh, dear!’ sighed Lady Ombersley. ‘How very unfortunate, to be sure! But I daresay she does know him, Charles, for she was with your uncle in Brussels last year.’

  ‘She!’ said Charles witheringly. ‘He had no more notion who she was than the Emperor of China! But he will certainly call! I must leave you to deal with that, ma’am!’

  With these very unfair words he strode out of his mother’s room, leaving her to wonder in what way he supposed her to be able to deal with a morning-call paid by a young man of unexceptionable birth, who was the son of one of her oldest friends. She came to the conclusions that he had no more idea than she, and banished the matter from her mind, bending it instead to the far more pleasant problem of whom to invite to the first party she had held in two months.

  She was presently interrupted by the entrance of her niece. Remembering Charles’s dark words, she asked Sophy, with an assumption of severity, what she had done to vex him. Sophy laughed, and almost stunned her by replying that she had done nothing but steal his curricle, and tool it round the City for half an hour.

  ‘Sophy!’ gasped her ladyship. ‘Charles’s grays? You could never hold them!’

  ‘To own the truth,’ admitted Sophy, ‘I had the devil’s own work to do so! Oh, I beg your pardon! I did not mean to say that, dearest Aunt Lizzie! Don’t scold! It comes of living with Sir Horace: I know I say the most shocking things, but I do try to mind my wretched tongue! No, and do not give Charles’s pets another thought! He will come about presently. I daresay if he had not engaged himself to marry that tedious girl he would not be so stuffy!’

  ‘Oh, Sophy!’ said Lady Ombersley involuntarily. ‘I own I cannot like Miss Wraxton, try as I will!’

  ‘Like her! I should think not indeed!’ exclaimed Sophy.

  ‘Yes, but one should,’ said Lady Ombersley unhappily. ‘She is so very good, and I am sure she wishes to be a most dutiful daughter to me, and it is so ill-natured of me not to wish for a dutiful daughter! But when I think that in quite a short time now I shall have her living in the house – But I should not be talking in this style! It is most improper, and you must forget it, if you please, Sophy!’

  Sophy paid no heed to this, but echoed: ‘Living in the house! You are not serious, ma’am?’

  Lady Ombersley nodded. ‘There is nothing at all out of the way in such an arrangement, you know, my love. They will have their own apartments, of course, but…’ She broke off, and sighed.

  Sophy looked at her fixedly for a few moments, but, rather to her surprise, said nothing. Lady Ombersley tried to put these melancholy reflections out of her mind, and began to talk about the party she meant to give. Into these plans her niece entered with enthusiasm, and an efficiency that swept Lady Ombersley quite off her feet. By what stages she arrived at agreement with Sophy on all points she was never afterwards able to explain, either to Charles or to herself, but at the end of an interview which left her feeling bemused but convinced that no one could boast of having a sweeter-natured or more thoughtful niece than Sophy, she had certainly consented not only to allow Sophy and Cecilia to undertake all the necessary arrangements, but also to permit Sir Horace (through his daughter) to defray the cost of the entertainment.

  ‘And now,’ Sophy said buoyantly to Cecilia, ‘you shall tell me where we must order the cards of invitation, and where you in general go for refreshments. I don’t think we should leave that to my aunt’s cook, for he would be busy for so many days he would have very little time for anything else, and that would make everything uncomfortable, which I don’t at all wish.’

  Cecilia regarded her in round-eyed astonishment. ‘But Sophy, Mama said it should only be a quiet small party!’

  ‘No, Cecy, it was your brother who said that,’ replied Sophy. ‘It is going to be a very large party.’

  Selina, who was present at this conference, asked shrewdly: ‘Does Mama know that?’

  Sophy laughed. ‘Not yet!’ she admitted. ‘Do you think she does not care for large parties?’

  ‘Oh, no! Why, there were more than four hundred people invited to the ball she gave for Maria, were there not, Cecilia? Mama enjoyed it excessively, because it was such a capital success, and everyone complimented her on it. Cousin Mathilda told me so.’

  ‘Yes, but the cost of it!’ Cecilia said. ‘She will not dare! Charles would be so angry!’

  ‘Don’t give him a thought!’ recommended Sophy. ‘It is Sir Horace who will bear the cost, not Charles. Make a list of all your acquaintances, Cecy, and I will make one of those of my friends who are in England, and then we will go out to order the cards. I imagine we shall not need more than five hundred.’

  ‘Sophy,’ said Cecilia, in a faint voice, ‘are we going to send out five hundred invitations without even asking Mama?’

  Imps of mischief danced in her cousin’s eyes. ‘Of course we are, dear goose! For once we have despatched them even your horrid brother cannot recall
them!’

  ‘Oh, famous, famous!’ cried Selina, beginning to skip round the room. ‘What a rage he will be in!’

  ‘Dare I?’ breathed Cecilia, at once scared and dazzled.

  Her sister begged her not to be poor-spirited, but it was Sophy who clinched the matter, by pointing out to her that she would not have to bear the responsibility, and was unlikely to incur much recrimination from her brother, who would have no hesitation in laying the blame at the right door.

  Mr Rivenhall, meanwhile, had gone off to visit his betrothed. He arrived at the Brinklows’ somewhat cheerless house in Brook Street still seething with indignation, but so thankless and perverse was his disposition that no sooner did he find his sentiments shared and his strictures on his cousin endorsed than he took an abrupt turn in quite another direction, and said much must be forgiven a girl who could handle his grays as Sophy had. From being a female sunk below reproach Sophy became rapidly an unconventional girl whose unaffected manners were refreshing in an age of simpers and high flights.

  This was not just to Miss Wraxton’s taste. To be driving about the City unattended did not suit her sense of propriety, and she said so. Mr Rivenhall grinned. ‘No, very true, but I suppose it was in some sort my fault: I did put up her back. There’s no harm done: if she could control my grays, as fresh as they were, she’s a capital whip. All the same, if I have anything to say to it she is not going to set up her own carriage while she remains in my mother’s charge. Good God, we should never know from one moment to the next where she was, for, if I know anything of my abominable cousin Sophy, to drive decorously round the Park would not do for her at all!’

  ‘You take it with a composure that does you the greatest credit, my dear Charles.’

  ‘I didn’t!’ he interrupted, with a rueful laugh. ‘She put me in a thundering rage!’

  ‘I am sure that it is not wonderful that she should have. To drive a gentleman’s horses without his leave shows a want of conduct that is above the line of being pleasing. Why, even I have never even requested you to let me take the reins!’

  He looked amused. ‘My dear Eugenia, I hope you never will, for I shall certainly refuse such a request! You could never hold my horses.’

  If Miss Wraxton had not been so very well-bred she would at this tactless remark have returned a pretty hot rejoinder, for she prided herself a little on her handling of the ribbons; and, although she did not drive herself in London, owned an elegant phaeton which she used when staying at her home in Hampshire. As it was, she was obliged to pause for a moment before saying anything. During this brief period she swiftly formed the resolve of demonstrating to Charles, and his objectionable cousin, that a lady reared on the strictest principles of propriety could be quite as notable a horsewoman as any hoyden who had spent her girlhood junketing about the Continent. She had several times been complimented on her seat on a horse, and knew her style to be excellent. She said: ‘If Miss Stanton-Lacy cares for such things, perhaps she would like to ride with me one afternoon in the park. That will give her thoughts another direction, diverting them from such foolish notions as setting up her own carriage. Let us make up a party, Charles! Dear Cecilia is not fond of the exercise, I know, or I should solicit her to join us. But Alfred will be pleased to go with me, and you may bring your cousin. Tomorrow? Pray beg her to go with us!’

  Mr Rivenhall, an intolerant man, had no affection for his Eugenia’s younger brother, and generally made it his business to avoid him, but he was struck by Miss Wraxton’s nobility in promoting an engagement which (he guessed) would afford her little pleasure, and at once agreed to it, expressing at the same time his sense of obligation to her. She smiled at him, and said that it must be an object with her to exert herself in his interests. He was a man not much given to the making of graceful gestures, but at this he kissed her hand, and said that he knew well how utterly he could rely upon her in every predicament. Miss Wraxton then repeated the remark she had previously made to Lady Ombersley, that she was particularly sorry that, at this crisis in the Ombersley fortunes, circumstance had intervened to postpone her union with him. She rather thought that the indifferent state of dear Lady Ombersley’s health made it impossible for her to manage her household just as Charles could wish. Her kind heart made her perhaps over-tolerant, and the languor induced by an ailing constitution rendered her blind to certain defects that could speedily be remedied by a helpful daughter-in-law. Miss Wraxton owned that she had been surprised to learn that Lady Ombersley had allowed herself to be persuaded by her brother – a very odd kind of man, her papa had told her – to assume the charge of his daughter for an unspecified length of time. She passed from this, in the smoothest fashion, to a gently worded criticism of Miss Adderbury, no doubt an excellent woman, but sadly lacking in accomplishments, or in control over her spirited charges. But this was a mistake: Mr Rivenhall would permit no criticism of Addy, who had guided his own first steps; and as for his uncle, Lord Brinklow’s slighting comment made him instantly bristle in defence of his relative. Sir Horace, he informed Miss Wraxton, was a highly distinguished man, with a genius for diplomacy.

  ‘But not, you will own, a genius for rearing a daughter!’ said Miss Wraxton archly.

  He laughed at that, but said: ‘Oh, well! I don’t know that there is any real harm in Sophy, after all!’

  When Miss Wraxton’s invitation was conveyed to Sophy she professed herself happy to accept it, and at once desired Miss Jane Storridge to press out her riding-dress. This garment, when she appeared in it on the following afternoon, filled Cecilia with envy, but slightly staggered her brother, who could not feel that a habit made of pale blue cloth, with epaulettes and frogs, à la Hussar, and sleeves braided half-way up the arm, would win approval from Miss Wraxton. Blue kid gloves and half-boots, a high-standing collar trimmed with lace, a muslin cravat, narrow lace ruffles at the wrists, and a tall-crowned hat, like a shako, with a peak over the eyes, and a plume of curled ostrich feathers completed this dashing toilette. The tightly fitting habit set off Sophy’s magnificent figure to admiration; and from under the brim of her hat her brown locks curled quite charmingly; but Mr Rivenhall, appealed to by his sister to subscribe to her conviction that Sophy looked beautiful, merely bowed, and said that he was no judge of such matters.

  However that might be, he was no mean judge of a horse, and when he set eyes on Salamanca, being walked up and down the road by John Potton, he did not withhold his praise, but said that he no longer wondered at Hubert’s ecstasies. John Potton threw his mistress up into the saddle, and after allowing Salamanca to indulge his playfulness for a few moments Sophy brought him mincing up alongside Mr Rivenhall’s bay hack, and they set off at a sedate pace in the direction of Hyde Park. Salamanca was inclined to resent the existence of sedan-chairs, dogs, crossing-sweepers, and took instant exception to a postman’s horn, but Mr Rivenhall, accustomed to be on the alert to prevent misadventure when riding with Cecilia through London streets, knew better than to offer advice or assistance to his cousin. She was very well able to control her mount for herself, which, reflected Mr Rivenhall, was just as well, since Salamanca could scarcely have been described as an ideal horse for a lady.

  This comment was made by Miss Wraxton, whom they found awaiting them, with her brother, within the gates of the Park. Miss Wraxton, after one glance at Sophy’s habit, transferred her gaze to Salamanca, and said: ‘Oh, what a beautiful creature! But surely he is a little too strong for you, Miss Stanton-Lacy? You should commission Charles to find a well-mannered lady’s horse for you to ride.’

  ‘I daresay he would be only too delighted, but I have discovered that his notions and mine on that subject are widely separated,’ replied Sophy. ‘Moreover, though he is a trifle spirited, there is not an ounce of vice in Salamanca, and he has what the Duke calls excellent bottom – has carried me for league upon dreary league without a sign of flagging!’ She leaned forward to pat Salamanca’s gleaming black neck. ‘To be sure, he has not yet lashed out a
t the end of a long day, which the Duke vows and declares Copenhagen did, when he dismounted from his back after Waterloo, but I hold that to be a virtue in him!’

  ‘Indeed, yes!’ said Miss Wraxton, ignoring the unbecoming pretension shown by this careless reference to England’s Hero. ‘You will let me introduce my brother to you, Miss Stanton-Lady. Alfred!’

  Mr Wraxton, a pallid young gentleman with a receding chin, a loose, wet mouth, and a knowing look in his eyes, bowed, and said he was happy to make Miss Stanton-Lacy’s acquaintance. He then asked her if she had been in Brussels at the time of the great battle, and added that he had some idea of joining as a Volunteer at the height of the scare. ‘But from one cause and another nothing came of it,’ he said. ‘Do you know the Duke well? Quite the great man, ain’t he? But perfectly affable, they tell me. I daresay you are on famous terms with him, for you knew him in Spain, didn’t you?’

  ‘My dear Alfred,’ interposed his sister, ‘Miss Stanton-Lacy will think you have less than common-sense if you talk such nonsense. She will tell you that the Duke has more important things to think of than all of us poor females who hold him in such admiration.’

  Sophy looked rather amused. ‘Well, no, I don’t think I should say that,’ she replied. ‘But I was never one of his flirts, if that is what you mean, Mr Wraxton. I am not at all in his style, I assure you.’

  ‘Shall we ride on?’ suggested Miss Wraxton. ‘You must tell me about your horse. Is he Spanish? Very handsome, but a little too nervous for my taste. But I am spoilt: my own dear Dorcas here is so very well-mannered.’

  ‘Salamanca is not really nervous: he is merely funning,’ said Sophy. ‘As for manners, I hold him to be unequalled. Would you like to see me put him through his paces? Watch! He was Mameluke-trained, you know!’

  ‘For heaven’s sake, Sophy, not in the Park!’ said Charles sharply.