April Lady - Georgette Heyer

Upon hearing this pleasing programme, Nell expressed the fervent hope that providence might see fit to strike her down with influenza during the night, so that she would be obliged to keep her room for several days, and went off to bed, a prey to what her sister-in-law was uncivil enough to call the blue devils.

There was no intervention by providence, but Nell very prudently put in no appearance at the breakfast-table. Since it was Sunday, and she liked to breakfast before attending Morning Service, this was served earlier than on weekdays: early enough to afford Letty ample time to launch her preliminary skirmish.

That she availed herself of the opportunity Nell soon knew. She was seated before her dressing table while Sutton arranged her shining ringlets in a fashionable mode known as the Sappho, when Letty erupted into the room, out of breath from having rushed upstairs in pelting haste, and with her eyes and cheeks blazing. "Nell!" she uttered explosively.

Well aware that she would not be deterred from pouring forth the tale of her wrongs by Sutton's presence, Nell at once dismissed her stately dresser. She would probably learn the whole from Martha presently, since that devoted and uncritical abigail was deeply in her mistress's confidence, but that couldn't be helped, and at least Nell would be spared the embarrassment of her presence while Letty gave rein to her first fury of indignation.

Hardly had the door closed behind Miss Sutton than the storm broke. Pacing about the room in a fine rage Letty favoured her sister-in-law with a graphic and embittered account of what had taken place in the breakfast-parlour. The preliminary skirmish had clearly developed rapidly into a full-scale attack. Equally clearly Letty had been beaten at all points. Her recital was freely interspersed with animadversions on Cardross's character, cruel, callous, tyrannical, and odious being the mildest epithets she used to describe it. After one quite unavailing attempt to check her, Nell resigned herself, listening with half an ear to the various measures (most of them, happily, impossible) Letty was prepared to resort to if Cardross should persist in his uncompromising attitude; and wondering whether either of them would be in time for Morning Service. Not surprisingly, considering the overwrought state of her nerves, Letty's diatribe ended in a flood of tears, violent enough to make Nell entertain serious fears that she was about to fly into a hysterical fit. This danger was averted by a mixture of hartshorn and common sense, and the sufferer from fraternal persecution presently subsided into milder weeping. Nell had just succeeded in soothing her, and was bathing her temples with Hungary water, when Cardross, after the curtest of knocks on the door, walked into the room. At sight of Letty, languishing upon the sofa, he stopped short on the threshold, and said cuttingly: "An affecting spectacle!"

"Oh, Giles, pray hush!" begged Nell.

The stricken maiden on the sofa bounced up, and in a husky voice of loathing promised to go into strong convulsions if Cardross did not instantly leave the room.

"By all means do so if you have a fancy to be well slapped!" retorted Cardross, looking as though it would give him considerable satisfaction to carry out his threat. "If you have not, stop enacting Cheltenham tragedies, and go to your own room!"

"Do you imagine," gasped Letty, "that you can order me to my room, as though I were a child?"

"Yes, and carry you there, if you don't instantly obey me!" he said, pulling the door open again. "Out!"

"For heaven's sake, Cardross!" expostulated Nell, in the liveliest dread that Letty would relapse into hysterics. "Do, pray, go away, and leave her to me! This is my room, and really you have no right to order Letty out of it!"

"You have an odd notion of my rights," he said grimly. "I don't question that she is more welcome in your room than I am, but you will own that I at least have the right to be private with you when I choose!"

She whitened, but said quietly: "Most certainly, and if it is the case that you wish to speak to me, shall we go into my dressing-room?"

"You need not put yourself to so much trouble!" declared Letty, trembling with anger. "I would not for the world, love, expose you to the sort of ill-usage I am compelled to suffer, and to spare you I will go!"

This very noble speech wiped the thunderous look from Cardross's face, and made him burst out laughing: an unlooked-for event which exacerbated Letty, but considerably relieved Nell. Letty, pausing only to inform her brother that his manners were as disgusting as his disposition was malevolent, swept out of the room, sped on her way by a recommendation to go and take a damper. Cardross then shut the door, saying: "Little termagant! I shall be sorry for Allandale, if ever she does marry him."

"She is very much overset by this news that he must leave England so soon," Nell replied excusingly. "One cannot but feel for her, and for my part— But I don't wish to tease you any more."

"Thank God for that! I have had as much as I can support in one day, I assure you. At breakfast, too!"

"I must say, I think that was a very foolish time to choose," admitted Nell.

"Very! But she would not have found me more persuadable at any other hour." He added, as she sighed: "Yes, I am aware of what your sentiments are, but I didn't come to enter into argument with you over this lamentable affair. What I did come for was to discuss with you what will be the wisest course to pursue now. We may be sure of one thing: until that regrettable young man is out of the country there will be no peace for either of us. I shall no doubt be subjected to endless repetitions of today's scene; and you, I suppose, will be obliged to sustain the exhausting role of confidante. Well, I know of no reason why you should be called upon to endure Letty's tantrums, so tell me frankly, if you please, if you would wish me to pack her off to Bath?"

"Upon no account in the world!" she said quickly. "Surely you were only funning when you made that threat?"

"I was, but I didn't then know that Allandale was to leave England so soon."

"No, no, don't think of it! It would be so dreadfully unkind to send her out of town when she has so little time left before Mr. Allandale sails! I am persuaded, too, that she would run away—perhaps to Mrs. Thorne, and you would very much dislike that. Only think how it would look!"

"If I know my Aunt Honoria, she would be given no chance to run away," he said, with a wry smile. "Don't imagine, however, that I wish to send her there! She's a tiresome little wretch, and when she starts brangling and brawling I could willingly wring her neck, but so much must be laid at the door of her upbringing that I can't feel she deserves quite such a fate as to be delivered up to that dragon of a female. But I don't wish you to be worn to a bone by her nonsense."

"Indeed I shan't be, and I beg you won't dream of sending her to Lady Honoria! One thing you may be sure of: you have no need to fear an elopement."

"No, very true!" he agreed. "Allandale's inability to support a wife must put that disaster beyond the range of possibility!"

"Yes, but that is not quite just, Cardross!" she said reproachfully. "He may be an ineligible match for poor Letty, but you cannot doubt that his principles are high, and his sense of propriety too great to allow of his entertaining the thought of an elopement, whatever might be his fortune!"

"His principles and his propriety may be as high as the moon, but I have no great opinion of his resolution!" Cardross replied. "Had that been on the same level he would never, as his affairs stand, have allowed his fancy for Letty to carry him to the length of applying to me for her hand! She can be an engaging little devil when she chooses, and I will own myself astonished if he is not being led about with a ring through his nose, like a performing bear. My dependence is all upon his straitened circumstances. We will keep Letty in London, then—and you won't blame me if she drives you to distraction!"