Scandal at the Dower House (24 page)

‘We could not have managed without them.’

‘Of course not, and of course the Earl will be going back there now, to make sure everything is in order for Mr Brooke’s return.’

Catarina began to have an inkling of what was coming.

‘The servants at the Grange are mostly the ones I and my husband employed, and I can assure you they are to be trusted to do whatever is necessary there, Mrs Eade.’

Mrs Eade gave her an impatient look.

‘That is understood, my lady. But surely there is no necessity for his lordship to remain here now. He could visit his brother at any time.’

‘He is welcome to remain just so long as he believes it necessary or wishes to be close to Jeremy. That is for him to decide.’

‘My lady! Of course you were married at a very young age, and have lived here quietly ever since. You cannot be fully aware of how it looks to the rest of the world, for you to be entertaining two bachelors in your home, with no older woman to give you countenance.’

‘You mean someone to chaperone me, I collect?’

‘Well, if you wish to call it that.’

‘I have no need of a chaperone,’ Catarina said, her voice quiet, but anger simmering under the surface of her calm. How dared the old busybody come and try to tell her how to behave!

She stood up and began to pace round the room, striving to keep her temper under control. Mrs Eade sniffed

‘There is no need to take me up in such a fashion, my lady. I am considerably older than you, my dear, and even though I say it myself, much more aware of the world and its censoriousness. Naturally no one believes anything wrong is taking place — ‘

‘I think anyone with common sense would understand that Jeremy has been far too ill to try and seduce me, and the Earl has been fully occupied looking after him, which has meant he has had little sleep, and is presumably too worried, if not too tired, for amorousness! If the world’s gossips choose to disregard facts like those then I don’t think their nasty suspicious suggestions are worth a single farthing!’

Mrs Eade was stuttering with indignation. ‘If you refuse to listen to my advice I shall have to ask the Reverend Eade himself to call on you and try to bring you to a sense of what behaviour is proper! Now I will bid you good day!’

‘I ask you not to trouble your husband, for I will tell him exactly what I have told you, Ma’am. Good day to you.’

Mrs Eade heaved herself out of the chair, her face red. Catarina, after ringing for Staines to show her out, went to stand by the window and looked out of it, breathing deeply, desperately trying to keep back the angry tears which threatened to overwhelm her.

* * * *

Nicholas found two of the lads who were suspected of attacking Jeremy working on a narrow strip of land at the edge of one great field. They were brothers, he guessed around sixteen and eighteen years of age. As he rode towards them he saw how skinny they were, dressed in thin rags even on a cold day like today, and the younger was marked with the pits left by smallpox. He felt a moment of unexpected compassion. If he were in such a sorry state, might he not think as they did?

They looked up as he neared them, and fright was clear in their eyes. They glanced round as if to judge their chances of running, but he was mounted, two grooms rode behind him, and Nicholas held a pistol in one hand. Their shoulders sagging, they waited.

‘I believe you assaulted my brother some days past,’ he said quietly. ‘He nearly died. If he had you would have been hanged for murder. What had he done to you to make you think you had the right to try and kill him?’

‘We dain’t wanna kill ‘im, ‘onest,’ the older one whined. ‘We just wanned ter ask ‘im fer money. We’ve no food in ‘ouse, an all ‘e wants ter do is tek the land from us.’

‘What would you do with the money if you had it?’ he asked, again quietly and with a suspicious calm.

‘What d’yer think we’d do?’ the younger one snarled. ‘We’m starvin’, we wanted food.’

‘Or ale, perhaps. I ought to send you to the assizes, but I’ll make a bargain with you. If you tell me the names of your companions, I’ll give you each a guinea, provided you promise to get out of Somerset by tomorrow night. You can waste it on ale and then starve if you choose, but I recommend you use it to get to Bristol or Southampton or some other sea port where they are in need of seamen. Perhaps, if you can get to America, or even New South Wales as free men, not convicts, you can begin to make something of your lives. Well?’

They looked at him suspiciously, and he was not at all certain they had understood what he wanted, or his conditions.

‘Yer’ll gi’ us money? A guinea each?’

‘If you give me the names of the others who attacked my brother. And promise to be away from Somerset by dusk tomorrow.’

They looked briefly at each other, then the older one nodded, and held out his hand.

Nicholas smiled. ‘Not yet. I want all the names, and I also want you to fetch Dan from wherever he is hiding. Then I want you to bring them here so that I can speak to you all. One of my grooms will accompany each of you, and don’t think you can escape them. They both have pistols and orders to shoot anyone who tries to escape.’

It took an hour to round up the other four, none of them apart from Dan over the age of twenty. They were sullen, and clearly did not believe Nicholas’s offer of a guinea each to get out of the county.

‘If you can decide amongst you where you prefer to go, I will organize a wagon to take you.’

‘Wi’ us in chains?’ one sneered. ‘Yer must think we’m daft! Tek us straight ter jail, rather.’

‘I don’t expect you to understand me when I offer my word as a gentleman. But if you do not believe me enough to accept my offer you will certainly be in jail within days, accused of attempted murder. If any of you have families, you have tonight to make your farewells. If any of your relatives wish to go with you, I can send them on the wagon too. Now, what do you say?’

‘We’ve no choice,’ Dan said at last. ‘I’m fed up wi’ livin’ rough, I’ve been wet an’ cold an’ ‘ungry all summer, an’ now winter’s ‘ere an’ it’ll be worse. And I’d rather work me passage ter that there New South Wales an’ my Annie than be sent there in chains by a judge. I votes fer Bristol.’

He seemed to be something of a leader, and after some argument the others reluctantly agreed with him.

‘Be by the Bear at eight in the morning then, and you’ll receive your guineas after you’ve been driven to Bristol.’

As he and his grooms rode home he could sense they did not agree with his actions. One, the older, a man of forty, asked if he thought they would all turn up after they’d had a night to think it over.

‘They might go into ‘iding, like Dan.’

‘You heard what he said, it’s cold and winter’s coming. Somehow I think they were scared of what damage they’d caused, and will be thankful to get away, especially as I now know who they are.’

‘Who’s to go with them?’

‘I shall go myself, I’ll ride guard, and take as many men as can be spared. I have no intention of allowing this scheme to fail.’

Mrs Eade was just passing through the gates of the Rectory when Nicholas rode through the village. He bowed to her, calling out a greeting, and was rather surprised when she lifted her chin, glared at him, and turned away without speaking.

What had offended her, he wondered. Normally she would have been full of irrelevant chatter, asking how Jeremy was, and mentioning her own plans as well as making endless suggestions for things she had decided were the responsibility of the squire.

As he walked up to the Dower House from the stables he found Catarina pacing along the garden paths. She did not hear him, and was muttering to herself, her hands clenched into fists. Something had clearly upset her.

He paused at the junction of two paths, and as she swung round the corner, not looking where she was going, she collided with him. He instinctively clutched her to him. She gasped and began to struggle, then realizing who it was she uttered a sharp laugh and tried to push away.

‘It’s all right, Catarina. What has happened to upset you?’

She was breathing rapidly, but she ceased struggling, and he found he did not wish to let her go. She felt so right in his arms, but she was holding herself rigidly, and he did not know if that was out of fury or because of being within his embrace. Suddenly she began to laugh.

‘If only that odious, wretched woman could see me now she would believe me past redemption.’

‘What woman?’

‘The Reverend Mrs Eade, guardian of everyone’s reputations, and mine in particular. She has had the impertinence to tell me it is causing scandal for you and Jeremy to be living here, without an older woman to chaperone me. How dare she impute such things!’

Nicholas tried not to laugh.

‘It has been said that women who go around imagining every other woman is behaving scandalously would, deep in their hearts, like to be doing the same themselves.’

Catarina chuckled, and Nicholas felt the tenseness in her body relax.

‘Can you imagine Mrs Eade conducting a liaison?’

‘Can you think of any man who would be willing to, with her?’

‘Oh dear, we ought not to be abusing the poor woman in this fashion. My lord, please release me.’

He tightened his grip, and as she looked up at him he dropped a kiss on her forehead. She opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her by covering her mouth with his own. He felt her stiffen, and suddenly, with a strangled sob, she relaxed against him. For a moment she returned his kisses, then she began to tremble, and he released her.

‘We have to provide some positive grounds for the gossips, do we not, my love?’ he asked lightly, tucking her hand through his arm, and turning towards the house.

She nodded, but seemed incapable of speech, and he wondered whether his impulsive actions had frightened her.

‘Would you like me to move to the Grange?’ he asked. ‘Jeremy will be fit to move in a few days, but I could relieve you of my presence at once.’

‘I am not prepared to let that woman believe her censure has had any effect on me. She has no right to dictate to me, to judge my actions. If you feel compromised, of course, you must leave, but I am tempted to ask you and Jeremy to remain here until he is fit to walk all the way to his own home.’

He chuckled. ‘Then, given such a gracious invitation, my lady, we will do just that.’

* * * *

Catarina was sitting in the drawing room after dinner that evening. Nicholas was with Jeremy, and this was the first quiet moment she had had since that devastating kiss in the garden. It had felt so right, so natural.

She knew now without any doubt she loved Nicholas, but she would have to avoid any further such occasions. They were too disturbing. Soon Jeremy would be able to go back to his own house and Nicholas would go home. There must be matters which needed his attention. He had been in London, then Brighton and Paris, and could not have spent more than a few weeks at Brooke Court since the spring. Then, perhaps, she might be able to forget him.

She did not know how she would be able to look Mrs Eade in the face when next they met. This time she would not be able to deny any accusations of scandalous behaviour, unless once more she resorted to telling lies. But now they would not help her. Recalling that kiss she knew she would blush and the woman’s suspicions would be confirmed.

When Nicholas walked into the room she wanted to escape, but her legs refused to obey her, and she remained sitting in her chair. At dinner the conversation had been mainly about the scheme of taking the lads who had attacked Jeremy away from the village. With Staines there they could not discuss personal matters.

Catarina had approved the scheme.

‘I would not want them to be charged, and turned into convicts. This way, if they can find their way to New South Wales it will be as free men. I understand there are many land grants, and it is possible to live well, now the initial difficulties have been overcome.’

‘At first Jeremy was not in favour, but I persuaded him there would be less resentment in the village if we simply sent them away rather than taking them to court.’

Now, however, they were alone, and she felt embarrassed. She ought not to have responded to his kisses, but they had been so sweet, she had not been able to help herself.

He sat down facing her, close enough to reach out and touch her. She shrank back into her chair.

‘Catarina, my dear, you cannot fail to know now how I feel about you. I made a dreadful mistake when I first tried to ask you to marry me, and hurt you badly.’

She tried to interrupt, to tell him she understood, but he did not allow her to speak. Leaning forward he managed to capture her hands. His were warm, and so comforting Catarina longed above all else to forget her scruples and follow her heart. But she dared not. She had told too many lies, and when he discovered it, as he must, he would despise her. Besides, she suspected he had spoken to protect her. Mrs Eade had suggested she was ruining her reputation, and he may have felt the justice of this and was endeavouring to preserve it by offering her marriage. She could never permit him to sacrifice himself like this.

He went on. ‘I cannot apologize enough, but I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I understood your refusal in London, you must have been hurt still. But after today, you cannot, I think, deny your feelings for me. Will you not reconsider, and accept me? I know now I love you, and I believe you love me. Catarina, my dear, I want you as my wife, more than I have ever before wanted anything.’

She had to be firm, she had to withstand the appeal, but it was the hardest thing she had ever done.

‘My lord, I am honoured, but I cannot! There are reasons, insuperable reasons, why I cannot marry you. My reputation does not need protecting. Mrs Eade is a foolish woman.’

‘Catarina, that has nothing to do with it. I love you, and I want you to be my wife. What are these insuperable reasons? Can you not tell me, and we will see whether we can overcome them? I can think of nothing to stop us unless you are already married!’