Джорджетт Хейер - A Civil Contract

“Who put this nonsense into your head?” interrupted Adam.

She looked surprised. “It isn’t nonsense! Why, don’t you know how hopeful Mama was that Charlotte would contract a Brilliant Alliance? She very nearly did, too, but she wouldn’t accept the offer, on account of Lambert Ryde. And I must say that that put me quite out of charity with her! Anyone but a wet-goose would have known what would come of it, and it did! For weeks Mama talked of nothing but Maria, and how she would never have been so unmindful of her duty as poor Charlotte!”

“Ryde?” said Adam, ignoring the latter, and very improper, part of this speech.

“Yes, don’t you remember him?”

“Of course I do, but I haven’t seen him since I came home, and — ”

“Oh, no, he’s away. He had to go off to Edinburgh, because one of his Scotch aunts died, and he was a trustee, or some such thing. Adam, you won’t forbid Charlotte to marry him, will you?”

“Good God, I’ve nothing to say in the matter! Do they still wish it?”

“Yes, and you have got something to say! Charlotte isn’t of age yet, and I know you are our guardian.”

“Yes, but — ”

“If you are thinking it wouldn’t be proper to permit anything Papa disliked I can tell you that it wasn’t he, but Mama,” disclosed Lydia helpfully. “He said that she must settle as she liked, but for his part he didn’t care a rush.” She added, after a thoughtful moment: “I shouldn’t wonder at it if you are able to bring Mama round to the notion, now that we are ruined. She won’t like it above half, of course — and I must own that it does seem shockingly wasteful of Charlotte to be squandering herself on Lambert Ryde! However, there’s no need to despair! I’m not acquainted with many young gentlemen, but I do know that I take very well with the old ones, because whenever Papa entertained any of his friends here I went along with them famously! And, from all I can discover, it is the old gentlemen who have the largest fortunes. And I do not see what I have said to make you laugh!”

“No, of course you don’t — pray forgive me!” begged Adam. “I think you must have been talking to Wimmering?”

“No! Why?” she asked, surprised.

“It is precisely the advice he gave me: to contract a Brilliant Alliance!”

“Oh!” she said, subjecting this to profound thought. She shook her head. “No, not you. Charlotte says that when one has formed a connection the very thought of marriage to Another is repugnant.”

Adam, making the discovery that his young sister could be as embarrassing as she was amusing, replied with creditable coolness: “Does she? Well, I expect she must know better than I do, so I shan’t dispute the matter.”

“Did you see Julia when you were in London?” enquired Lydia, impervious to snubs. “The Oversleys removed from Beckenhurst at the beginning of the month, you know.” She observed the slight stiffening of his countenance, and said anxiously: “Ought I not to have mentioned it? But she told me about it herself !”

Realizing that only frankness would serve him, he said: “I don’t know what she may have told you, Lydia, but you’ll oblige me by forgetting it. We did form an attachment, but we were never betrothed. I haven’t yet called in Mount Street, but I must of course do so, when I return to town, and — well, that’s all there is to be said!”

“Do you mean that Lord Oversley won’t let Julia marry you now that you’re ruined?” she demanded.

“He would be a very bad father if he did,” he answered, as cheerfully as he could.

“Well, I think it is wickedly unjust!” she declared. “First you are obliged to settle Papa’s debts, which are no concern of yours, and now you must abandon Julia! Everything falls on you, and you are less to blame than any of us! Mama thinks she is the one to be pitied, but that’s fudge — and you may look as disapproving as you choose, Adam, but it is fudge! In fact, you are the only one of us to be pitied in the least! Mama will have her jointure, Charlotte will marry Lambert, and I have now quite made up my mind to marry a man of fortune!” She smiled warmly at him. “Naturally it would be most disagreeable for you or Charlotte to be obliged to do it, but I shan’t object to it, I assure you! You must know that I am a — a stranger to the tenderer emotions. Except,” she added, in a less elevated strain, “for falling in love with one of the footmen when I was twelve, and that was not a lasting passion, besides being quite ineligible, so we need not consider it. Are you acquainted with any wealthy old gentlemen, Adam?”

“I’m afraid not. And if I were I should conceal them from you! I had liefer by far let Fontley go than see you sacrificed to save it, and though you haven’t yet been in love there’s no saying but what you might be one day, and then what a bore it would be for you to be tied to a wealthy old gentleman!”

“Yes,” she agreed, “but one ought to be ready to make sacrifices for one’s family, I think. And, after all, he might be dead by then!”

“Very true! And if he had survived — though I don’t think it at all likely that he would! — we could always finish him off with a phial of some subtle poison.”

This appealed so strongly to Lydia that she went into a peal of laughter, at which inopportune moment the door opened to admit Lady Lynton, trailing yards of crape, mobled with ‘black lace, and leaning on the arm of her elder daughter. She paused on the threshold, saying in a faint, incredulous voice: “ Laughing, my dear ones?”

Charlotte, who was as kind as she was beautiful, said: “It was so delightful to hear! Lydia was always able to make dear Adam laugh, even when he was in pain, wasn’t she, Mama?”

“I am glad to know that there is anyone at Fontley who is able to laugh at this moment,” said Lady Lynton.

There was nothing in her voice or mien to lend colour to this statement, but none of her dear ones ventured to cavil at it. Having completed the discomfiture of the guilty parties by heaving a mournful sigh she allowed Charlotte to support her to a sofa, and sank down upon it Charlotte arranged a cushion behind her head, placed a stool under her feet, and retired to a chair on the other side of the wide hearth, directing a look of anxious enquiry at her brother as she sat down. There was a strong resemblance between them. Both favoured their mama, unlike the larger and darker Lydia, who took after her father. Lady Lynton’s oft-repeated assertion that Charlotte was the image of what she herself had been strained no one’s credulity, for although time had faded the widow’s fair beauty, and domestic trials had implanted a peevish expression on her classic countenance, she was still a remarkably handsome woman.

“I collect,” she said, “that That Man has departed. I might have expected, perhaps, that he would have thought it proper to have taken leave of me. No doubt I must accustom myself to being treated as a person of no account.”

“I’m afraid I must take the blame of that omission on myself, Mama,” said Adam. “Wimmering was anxious to pay his parting respects to you, but I wouldn’t permit it, knowing you to be laid down upon your bed. He charged me with the task of making his apologies.”

“I am only too thankful to have been spared the necessity of seeing him again,” stated her ladyship, somewhat irrationally. “I never liked him, never! And nothing will convince me that our misfortunes are not due to his management of your poor father’s affairs!”

Once again Charlotte intervened. “May we know how matters stand, Adam? We feel they can’t be worse than our conjectures, don’t we, Mama? It can scarcely come as a shock to us, even if we are quite ruined.”