Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] (35 page)

She opened her mouth to tell him that she could manage her affairs by herself, thank you, but the words would not come. Her throat ached, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. Determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry, she glared at him in silence until he brushed past her and strode away.

For a long moment, feeling terribly alone, she stared at the wall in front of her, unwilling to turn, certain that at least a dozen pairs of eyes were watching, waiting to see what she would do. Then the normal noises of numerous persons engaged in social conversation swelled around her, reminding her that most people paid heed only to their private concerns, that to assume they watched her was simple conceit. Drawing a breath to steady herself, she turned.

As if drawn by a magnet, her gaze fell instantly upon her father. He was looking at her with narrowed eyes, and he seemed about to walk toward her when her mother touched his arm and began to speak to him. Experience informed Letty that she had won a respite. She would not have to face Jervaulx until later.

Catherine approached, looking as if she, too, suffered from fraying nerves. “Letty, Her Majesty is ready to depart.”

Glad of an opportunity to put aside her own troubles, Letty said, “Are you feeling quite the thing, Catherine? You look as if you are ill.”

“I can’t talk now,” Catherine said, flushing, “but I’ve learned something quite horrid, Letty.”

“Tell me,” Letty urged. “Perhaps I can help.”

“No one can help. I’ve brought it on myself, and I must deal with it myself.” Abruptly Catherine turned and walked away.

Wondering if she had discovered Witherspoon’s infidelity, Letty felt tempted to follow and urge her to say more. However, recalled to her duty by a glance from Lady Tavistock, she hurried to join the others instead.

At Buckingham Palace, the chief lady of the bedchamber told Letty that the queen had invited her to join the royal dinner party again that evening, so once more it was late when she returned to Jervaulx House. Finding a message from her mother on the hall table with her candle, she told Jenifry to wait for her in her bedchamber and went to the marchioness’s sitting room.

Daintry was sitting at her writing desk. When Letty entered, she put down her pen and sprinkled silver sand over what she had written, saying, “You’re very late again, my love, but at least I have nearly finished a long and chatty letter to James. He will be astonished at how much I have written, for I am persuaded that when we visited him he must have thought we told him everything that had happened in our lives since he last left us in Paris.” With a smile, she added, “Your duties at court seem to keep you very busy.”

“Yes, ma’am, and there will be no rest tomorrow, either. Her Majesty is holding court to welcome the hereditary grand duke of Russia. She has planned numerous activities for him through the weekend, too.”

“Yes, I know,” Daintry said. “Your father decided that we should pay our respects to the grand duke, and then go right on to Oxford. He is certain that the present government cannot last much longer, and Wellington and Sir Robert have asked him to stand ready to help form a new one at a moment’s notice. Nothing can happen before Monday, of course, but he has decided that if he is to indulge my wish to visit Gideon, we must go at once.”

“I wish I could go with you,” Letty said, “but …” She spread her hands.

“I know, darling.” Daintry regarded her silently for a long moment, and Letty’s lips and mouth suddenly felt parched. It was all she could do not to fidget. Then her mother said gently, “Your father wanted to speak to you earlier, you know, but I prevailed upon him to wait.”

“I … I know,” Letty said. “I know he is displeased with me. Both of you must wonder …”

When she paused, uncertain how to put her chaotic thoughts into words, Daintry said, “He was a little shocked by the way you spoke to him. But he can be patient when he believes it wise to be, and I persuaded him that he must trust you to deal with that very handsome young man in your own way. Nevertheless, darling, you were disrespectful, and you must apologize to him before you leave for the palace in the morning.”

“Yes, ma’am, I will,” Letty said, thankful to have got off so lightly.

Bidding her mother good night, she went to her room and prepared for bed, certain that she would fall asleep at once. Instead, her thoughts continued to dwell for some time on the events at the Upper Brook Street house, and the scene with Raventhorpe at the palace.

She slept at last, though, and when she awoke, Jenifry was opening the curtains. Sunlight streamed through the windows. A tray with Letty’s morning chocolate sat on the table near the door, steam rising from the little pot’s spout.

“Good morning, miss; ’tis a fine bright day today,” Jenifry said.

“Is his lordship up and about?”

“He’s in the breakfast parlor,” Jenifry said.

“Then I will dress. I don’t want my chocolate, Jen.”

Twenty minutes later, she entered the sunny breakfast parlor to find the marquess alone, reading one of the morning newspapers. He set it down and rose to greet her with a hug and a kiss.

“I like that dress,” he said.

“Thank you, sir. I came to apologize for speaking to you as I did yesterday.”

“You’re lucky I was in a mellow humor, ducky. Your mother says that I am not to ask you any questions about that scene I interrupted, but I must tell you, I did not like seeing that young man frown at you like he did. Had you given him cause?”

“Yes, sir.” Letty said no more, but she watched him warily. Experience warned her that her father was not one to let matters rest so easily.

To her surprise, he smiled again, saying only, “You had better get some breakfast, you know. I expect you have to get to the palace soon.”

“Are you going out, sir?” she asked as she turned with relief to examine the dishes set out on the sideboard.

“I have a meeting with Wellington and Peel this morning. I suppose your mother has told you that we mean to visit young Gideon at Oxford. We’ll leave tonight and return late Sunday.”

His casual attitude tempted her to tell him everything. Only the knowledge that he would instantly take the management of the Upper Brook Street house into his own hands stopped her. She had not yet proved her ability to deal with her affairs, and while she might need his help in the end, she was not ready to give up.

Helping herself to some toast, and an orange from the Jervaulx Abbey succession houses, she sat down and turned the subject to politics. Since he wanted to hear what others were saying about the Jamaican crisis, that topic occupied them satisfactorily until they had to go.

As they left the breakfast parlor together, he said, “If the Whigs suspend the Jamaican constitution on Monday, as they seem determined to do, Melbourne’s government is bound to fall. In that event, Her Majesty’s state ball on Friday will serve as a splendid celebration of the Tories’ return to power.”

Letty grimaced. “You may greet that notion with delight, sir, but I can assure you Her Majesty will not. The royal household has been on the fidget now for weeks. I cannot imagine what it will be like if Melbourne’s government falls.”

“Don’t fret about it, ducky. There will be changes in the royal household, as well. It won’t do, you know, for the queen to continue surrounding herself with Whigs once their party is out of power. Her constitutional duty demands that she present at least the appearance of impartiality.”

“She hasn’t done so yet,” Letty pointed out.

He smiled. “She will.”

Letty left soon afterward for the palace, and throughout the weekend, the activities in honor of Russia’s hereditary grand duke kept her busy. She saw Raventhorpe frequently, but if he noticed her he gave no sign of it. She might as well have been invisible.

Knowing she had only herself to blame for his attitude depressed her, but she could think of no way to change it, so she turned her mind to solving the problems in Upper Brook Street. Her duties kept her far too busy to do anything more than think about them, but the glimmerings of an idea began to form.

Her parents returned to London late Sunday night, and on Monday, as Jervaulx had predicted, Parliament suspended the Jamaican constitution. On Tuesday, also as predicted, the prime minister offered his resignation.

Letty was with Victoria when the news reached Buckingham Palace, and to her dismay, the queen dissolved into tears. “All,
all
my happiness gone,” Victoria exclaimed. “Dearest, kind Lord Melbourne no more to be my minister!”

Lady Tavistock instantly ordered the other ladies from the room, but word quickly spread through the palace that the queen remained inconsolable.

Melbourne visited her at noon, and she sent for her ladies afterward, apparently determined to put a good face on things. “Lord Melbourne insists I must send for Wellington,” she said. “He does not believe the duke will agree to form a government, but I hope he does, for if he won’t, I must send for Sir Robert Peel.”

The ladies closest to her exclaimed sympathetically. Letty said nothing, nor did anyone ask for her opinion.

“Melbourne says I must strive to conquer my dislike of Sir Robert,” Victoria added sadly. “It is very hard to have people forced upon you whom you dislike.”

Wellington visited her the following morning, but as expected, the elderly duke declined her offer to take over as prime minister. That afternoon Sir Robert Peel, in full court dress, presented himself at the palace, ready to receive his sovereign’s commands to form a new government.

Letty felt no more surprise than anyone else when the interview did not go well. She had met Peel, and had heard much about him. Her father thought him more intelligent than Melbourne and a far more skilled politician, but Sir Robert possessed few social graces and was apt to conceal shyness beneath a reserved, off-putting manner. In any event, as everyone knew, the Tory leader could not hope to compete with his charming predecessor for the queen’s favor.

Victoria emerged from their twenty-minute meeting with her eyes still tear-swollen and her demeanor resentful, but she announced to her ladies that she had remained collected, though she thought Sir Robert had seemed embarrassed and put out. Having said that, the queen added that Peel would return next day to report on his progress in forming a government, and then gave way again to her tears.

In the meantime, Letty spent nearly all her time at the palace, and saw little of her parents. Jervaulx spent less time than she did at home, and her mother was busy as well.

Thursday began with more royal tears and recriminations, but during the morning, a letter from Melbourne cheered Victoria, and led some of her anxious household to think the worst of the storm had passed. An exchange of notes followed, the queen evidently seeking and receiving advice from Melbourne about how she should deal with Sir Robert. Her spirits began to rise.

Peel arrived as promised early in the afternoon, and this time Victoria did not dismiss her ladies. It was, Letty thought, more like a state occasion of the sort that frequently prompted the young queen to display the splendor of her entourage than a normal meeting between sovereign and prime minister.

The audience began smoothly enough. Peel informed her of several of his appointments, including that of Wellington as his secretary for foreign affairs, and she deigned to accept them all. Several more points of business ensued before Sir Robert said quite audibly enough for all to hear, “Now, ma’am, about the ladies.”

Victoria said instantly, “We have no intention of giving up any of our ladies, sir. Indeed, we never imagined that you would ask such a thing of us.”

“Do you mean to keep them all, ma’am, even your mistress of robes and the ladies of the bedchamber?”

“All,” Victoria said flatly.

“But they are Whigs, ma’am, wives of the opposition party. Certainly,
some
change is necessary to show your confidence in the new administration.”

“We never talk politics with our ladies, sir,” the queen snapped. “Such a notion is absurd. We know that when governments change, a king must change members of his household who are members of Parliament, but unless you mean to give seats in that august body to our ladies, we have nothing more to discuss.”

Although Sir Robert continued to try to make his point, he failed, for Victoria remained unimpressed. When he left, his mood was somber.

He returned later with Wellington to try again, but although Victoria heard them out, they made no progress. The following morning, determined to prevent further demands that she remove at least certain ladies of her bedchamber, she sent Peel a flat refusal. She would not dismiss a single one of her dear friends.

Later in the day, Sir Robert, believing that he faced an impossible task, resigned without forming a government.

Victoria joyfully recalled Melbourne; and the state ball, which many in the palace had feared they would have to cancel or hold without the queen’s presence, suddenly loomed as a jubilant celebration, albeit not for the party that had hoped to be celebrating.

The queen retired with her bedchamber ladies to dress for the evening, and before following her, Lady Tavistock took Letty aside. “I daresay you intend to return home to dress for the ball, Letitia.”

“Yes, ma’am, with your permission.”

“Certainly, for Her Majesty will not require your presence at her little dinner for the hereditary grand duke and her ministers, so perhaps you will want to spend the time with your parents instead, and drive to the ball with them afterward.”

“Thank you, ma’am, I’d like that.” Though she thought it an odd suggestion, she had little time to think about it, and summoned her carriage at once. She had been home less than an hour, however, when a footman rapped at her dressing-room door and handed Jenifry a message for her.

Unfolding the note, Letty stared at it in dismay. The queen had dismissed her. Worse than that, Victoria had banished her from court.

J
ENIFRY SAID ANXIOUSLY, “WHAT
is it, Miss Letty?”

“They’ve dismissed me,” Letty told her grimly, “banished me from court.”