Lara Temple - Lord Ravenscar's Inconvenient Betrothal

‘You could always stay here with us if you don’t wish to marry. I know my grandmother isn’t an easy person, but she is not quite as bad as she seems. When Nicola returns to school, it is just the two of us and it can be rather...lonely. I am certain she will agree.’

They stopped at the top of the stairs.

‘That is very generous of you, but I already feel I have encroached too much on our very distant relation. It is only because Mr Marston’s home is in Bristol...’

She touched the little gold pendant at her throat. She knew this feeling. The same one that would catch at her breath every time her father sailed away, leaving her and her mother on tiny Isla Padrones. The world closing on her, shutting her in, but also a sense of safety, of the world reduced to the familiar once more. The move to Jamaica when she had been fourteen had taken away that safety without really opening the world any wider. Her school and then Kingston society had been even more oppressive than the isolation of the island where she had run wild. She had not known how rare the freedom of being alone was until she had lost it.

‘Perhaps I should remove to Hollywell House...’

Catherine’s blue eyes widened.

‘But, Lily, you could not live there on your own!’

‘I could find someone to lend me countenance. My pin money is still generous enough to support a companion. Surely there must be an impecunious relative somewhere on the family tree who would be willing to...’ She pulled herself to a halt at her selfishness. She might be scared of her future, but there were many women whose fates were indescribably worse than hers, or even than Catherine’s.

She had seen that only too clearly the day she had walked into the brothel near the Kingston docks that her lawyers had tried to prevent her from visiting after her father’s death. Any one of those eight women would have traded places with her at the bat of an eyelid. The worst was that the lawyers had made it clear that though she could evict the women from the structure her father had bought, under the trust she could not sign over the house to them. She had done the only thing she could think of—at least her mother’s jewellery was hers outright and she had sold the most expensive necklace and given an equal share to each of the women, much to the lawyers’ shock and dismay.

‘You would do better to marry him, you know,’ Catherine said in her quiet voice. ‘He is handsome and intelligent and I can see you are fond of him and he is very fond of you and he respects you, which is just as important. Otherwise he would not be so very patient and accommodating. Believe me, waiting for a...for a perfect solution usually means waiting for ever.’

‘I know. I probably shall. You should go to Nanny Brisbane before it begins raining again.

Catherine smiled. ‘Grandmama was right, you know. I do want to take a basket to Nanny, but it is true I received a note from my brother. He is coming to visit Nanny and I would like to see him, but I didn’t want to tell Grandmama.’

‘Well, since she is the one who mentioned Mrs Brisbane’s ill health to him at Hollywell House in the first place, she wouldn’t be surprised.’

‘Did she? Still, talking about him makes her so crotchety I really would rather not.’

‘I am not surprised. The way he called her Lady Jezebel sounded like he hated her.’

‘That is what Grandfather called her, never Jezebel or Lady Ravenscar. She was an earl’s daughter, so Lady Jezebel was her courtesy title and my great-grandmama, the Dowager Marchioness, insisted Grandfather continue to call her that when they wed because she didn’t want two Lady Ravenscars at the Hall. Then when we returned from Edinburgh, Alan refused to call her Grandmama and would call her Lady Jezebel just like Grandfather.’ She sighed. ‘They will never forgive each other. Nicky and I don’t see him often enough, situated as we are. He did visit Nicky up at her school last month, but I wish...’

There was such weariness and pain in Catherine’s voice Lily wished she could do something for her, at least say something reassuring, but she had never been good at polite lies. Then the moment passed and Catherine opened the door.

* * *

No twelve-year-old of any spirit enjoyed being confined to bed and Nicky was a very spirited twelve-year-old. The fact that she was leaning back against her pillows and allowing a maid to brush her hair was a testament to how weak she was. But when they entered, she sat up, frowning.

‘Sue said Uncle Alan is staying at the Ship in Keynsham! Is it true, Mama?’

The maid blushed under Catherine’s accusing eyes, curtsied and hurried away.

‘Do lie down, Nicky. Lily has been kind enough to offer to sit with you while I take a basket to Nanny Brisbane.’

Lily picked up the book lying by Nicky’s side and smiled.

‘The Mysteries of Udolpho. I haven’t read this in years.’

‘I am halfway through, but my head hurts too much to read.’ Nicky was distracted only for a moment. ‘But, Mama...is Uncle Alan really in Keynsham? Will he come see me?’

‘Nicky, you know your uncle doesn’t come to the Hall.’

‘Then I want to go to Keynsham.’

‘My dear, you aren’t well enough...perhaps when you are better...’

‘No! By then he’ll be gone and I shall return to school and I won’t see him for months! It’s not fair that Grandmama is so evil and has cut him off and is going to leave everything to some doddering, preachy old cousin of Grandpapa’s we haven’t even heard of and doesn’t care a straw for the Hall! It’s not fair!’

‘Nicola!’ Catherine scrubbed her palm over her forehead and then with a gesture of defeat she headed towards the door. ‘We will discuss this later, but right now I must go. I will return very soon.’

Nicky watched the door close, her hands still fisted by her sides and her eyes red from unshed tears. Lily could feel the frustration and confused pain in her own bones. It was around this age that she had begun to actively resent her father’s frequent disappearances. Her poor mother had borne the brunt of her temper as well.

She kicked off her kid slippers and curled up on the bed by the girl, picking up the discarded book.

‘Where were you? Here? “‘Surely, Annette,’ said Emily, starting, ‘I heard a noise: listen.’ After a long pause... ‘No, ma’mselle,’ said Annette, ‘it was only the wind in the gallery; I often hear it when it shakes the old doors.’”’ Lily added a rattling groan for good measure and was rewarded by a faint smile. She kept going, investing as much melodramatic nonsense into the story as she could, rising to a distressed falsetto when Emily hurried to greet the man she thought was Valancourt and promptly fainted when it was not.

‘What a great deal of fainting they do engage in!’ she interjected. ‘I haven’t fainted once in my life, have you?’

Nicky giggled again. ‘No, but perhaps that’s because we haven’t yet been in love.’

‘What do you mean, “we”? How do you know I haven’t?’

‘Have you?’

Lily sighed.

‘No, never. It’s very disheartening, though I still doubt I will faint if ever I am foolish enough to fall in love.’

‘Don’t you want to be in love? I do!’

Lily considered Nicky’s flushed cheeks and the dark eyes glistening with hope. She is merely a girl, Lily. She has time enough to discover the futility of dreams.

‘Well, yes, but I don’t think I shall be very good at it. I am not very suited to adore anyone, certainly not someone like Valancourt. Never mind, let’s discover what horrors and creaking and groanings next lie in store for our intrepid and oft-faint Emily, shall we?’

‘You’re funny, Lily. I wish I had a sister like you.’